Royal Caribbean delays return to sailing due to COVID-19 cases
MIAMI – Royal Caribbean International has postponed the inaugural sailing of its Odyssey of the Seas cruise ship “out of an abundance of caution” after eight crew members tested positive for COVID-19, the company’s CEO said.
Odyssey of the Seas, one of the world’s biggest cruise ships, was scheduled to cruise from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on July 3 and make stops in the Caribbean after conducting a test cruise with volunteers in late June. Its first cruise is now postponed until July 31.
Its test cruise, required for ships that don’t have 95% of passengers vaccinated — a threshold set by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — before revenue cruises can begin, will also be rescheduled.
Royal Caribbean International President and CEO Michael Bayley announced the changes late Tuesday in a statement posted on Facebook.
“During routine testing, eight crew members received a positive test result for COVID-19. All 1,400 crew onboard Odyssey of the Seas were vaccinated on June 4th and will be considered fully vaccinated on June 18. The positive cases were identified after the vaccination was given and before they were fully effective,” Bayley said.
Of the eight crew members who tested positive, six are asymptomatic, he said. Two have mild symptoms. They are all quarantined and are being monitored by the cruise line’s medical team.
—Miami Herald
Mendota Dakota tribal members to seek sovereign nation status
MINNEAPOLIS — Members of the Mendota Mdewakanton Dakota Tribal Community plan to apply for recognition by the federal government as a sovereign nation, a designation that could give them a seat on the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council and possibly help them obtain land.
The move also would earn the Mendota Dakota community respect from other tribes, tribal chairwoman Sharon Lennartson said.
"We are still here and we always will be," said Lennartson, also known as Good Thunder Woman. "We will fight for our rights."
The tribe, which formed a nonprofit about 25 years ago and has 125 members, intends to submit a petition for recognition this summer. Tribal members consider the Mendota area, near the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi rivers, as their homeland.
Tribal officials said they feel hopeful about their chances because of President Joe Biden's statements about reaffirming relationships with tribal groups.
A petition filed 25 years ago by the Mendota Dakota community is still in federal hands, said Greg Strandmark, the community's tribal council historian. He said obtaining federal status can take generations, but the community already believes it is sovereign and has the right to self-govern.
—Star Tribune
Texas to mix ‘down payment’ with crowdsourcing to build border wall
AUSTIN, Texas — Gov. Greg Abbott on Wednesday fleshed out his plan to erect a barrier along the state’s border with Mexico and begin arresting migrants, a proposal that’s already drawn threats of legal action.
Abbott and top GOP legislative leaders signed a letter the governor said allocates $250 million as a “down payment to begin the border wall.” Top budget writers Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound, and Rep. Greg Bonnen, R-Friendswood, said they consider the $250 million to be spending lawmakers already approved. Speaker Dade Phelan said it would come out of the state prison system’s budget.
A project manager for the state’s barrier construction will be hired, Abbott said.
As he foreshadowed in an appearance on a conservative podcast on Tuesday, Abbott directed people to a website, www.borderwall.texas.gov, to make contributions. They also can mail in checks, he said.
“We are committed to adding more resources as needed going forward,” he said.
Abbott signed a letter to President Joe Biden that demands that the federal government return land taken from Texans to build a wall. The state will approach those property owners for its wall, Abbott said.
The barrier, he said, will slow migrants down and also provide a way for state troopers to arrest and jail them for trespassing, though immigration experts question the plan’s legality. Federal authorities are responsible for enforcing immigration laws.
Abbott said ranchers’ fences are being cut, farmers’ crops are being trampled and border area neighborhoods are becoming unsafe.
—The Dallas Morning News
Moscow orders mandatory vaccinations after COVID-19 cases spike
Moscow ordered service-sector and municipal workers to get vaccinated amid a spike in COVID-19 infections, as the Kremlin denied any reversal in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s opposition to compulsory inoculation.
At least 60% of workers at consumer-facing businesses and city employees, including health professionals and teachers, must receive a dose of one of Russia’s domestically-developed vaccines by July 15, according to an order from Moscow’s public-health office published Wednesday.
“If you work in an organization that serves an indefinite circle of people, during an epidemic it is definitely not only your own business,” Mayor Sergei Sobyanin wrote on his blog announcing the measures. “We are simply obliged to do everything to carry out mass vaccinations in the shortest possible time.”
The order, and a similar one in the Moscow region, covers Russia’s biggest metropolitan area that is home about 20 million. Putin told investors earlier this month at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum that Russia had coped with the pandemic better than many other countries and “we will not force anyone” to get vaccinated.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said no compulsory vaccinations are planned, the state-run RIA Novosti news service reported Wednesday.
The number of COVID-19 cases in the Russian capital has soared this month as the highly-contagious delta variant first identified in India spreads, with daily infections nearing December highs.
Sobyanin, who called the vaccination decision “difficult but necessary,” restored sweeping restrictions in the capital this week after announcing that city hospitals were re-converting thousands of beds to deal with the surge in infections.
—Bloomberg News
