LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned on Monday that the country’s health system will remain under strain for weeks amid the current surge in coronavirus infections, but suggested there would be no tightening of measures soon to slow the spread. The highly transmissible omicron variant has sent Britain’s daily new caseload soaring over Christmas and the New Year, with 137,583 infections and 73 deaths reported for England and Wales only on Sunday, with numbers for Scotland and Northern Ireland to be announced after the holiday weekend. “I think we’ve got to recognize that the pressure on our NHS, on our hospitals, is going to be considerable in the course the next couple of weeks, and maybe more,” Johnson said during a visit to a vaccination center in Aylesbury, 85 kilometers (53 miles) northwest of London. Johnson was speaking after The Sunday Times newspaper reported that a group of hospitals in the eastern county of Lincolnshire had declared a “critical incident” due to “extreme and unprecedented” staff shortages.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said he has tested positive for COVID-19 and was experiencing mild symptoms while quarantining at home. In a statement Sunday night, Austin said he plans to attend key meetings and discussions virtually in the coming week “to the degree possible.” He said Deputy Secretary Kathleen Hicks would represent him in appropriate matters. Austin said he last met with President Joe Biden on Dec. 21, more than a week before he began to experience symptoms, and had tested negative the morning of that day. Austin, 68, said he was fully vaccinated and received a booster in October. He said he requested a test Sunday morning after experiencing symptoms while at home on leave and, given the result, planned to remain in quarantine for five days, per guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In October, another member of Biden’s Cabinet, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, tested positive for COVID-19.

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TUNIS (AFP) – Tunisia’s detained former justice minister Noureddine Bhiri is refusing food or medication after his transfer to hospital, a member of a delegation that visited him said on Monday. Bhiri, deputy president of the Islamist-inspired Ennahdha party, which President Kais Saied views as an enemy, was arrested by plainclothes officers Friday and his whereabouts were initially unknown. Ennahdha had played a central role in Tunisia politics until a power grab by President Kais Saied last year. Tunisia was the only democracy to emerge from the Arab Spring revolts of a decade ago, but civil society groups and Saied’s opponents have expressed fear of a slide back to authoritarianism a decade after the revolution that toppled longtime dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. On Sunday activists and a former Ennahda legislator said Bhiri was in a critical condition and facing death.

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BRASILIA (AFP) -- Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was rushed to hospital early Monday after feeling “abdominal discomfort” that doctors found was caused by an intestinal blockage, his office and medical team said. Bolsonaro, 66, was on vacation at the beach in the southern state of Santa Catarina when the pain started, leading to a rushed evacuation to Sao Paulo in the presidential plane. The far-right leader has had a series of health problems since being stabbed in the abdomen during the 2018 presidential campaign that brought him to power. Bolsonaro’s medical team said he was suffering from an “intestinal subocclusion,” a partial blockage of the intestinal tract. In July, Bolsonaro spent four days receiving treatment for an intestinal obstruction. Since the knife attack, Bolsonaro has undergone abdominal surgery at least four times.

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NAIROBI (AFP) -- Six people have been killed and homes torched in an attack Monday by suspected Al-Shabaab militants in Kenya’s coastal Lamu region that borders Somalia, a local government official said. Al-Shabaab fighters have staged several large-scale attacks inside Kenya in retaliation for Nairobi sending troops into Somalia in 2011 as part of an African Union force to degrade the jihadists. The Al-Qaeda-linked group is seeking to overthrow the internationally-backed government in Mogadishu, and controls swathes of southern Somalia from where it regularly launches attacks in the capital and elsewhere. The Lamu region, which includes popular tourist beach destination Lamu Island, lies close to the Somali frontier and has suffered frequent attacks, often carried out with roadside bombs.

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PARIS (Reuters) -- Dozens of French lawmakers have reported receiving death threats from suspected anti-vaccination protesters, as parliament starts to debate legislation that would require people to show proof of vaccination to go to a restaurant or cinema or take the train. The new law, which would do away with the option to show a negative test instead of having the jabs, has the backing of most parties and is almost certain to be passed by the lower house in a vote late on Monday or early on Tuesday. France has traditionally had more vaccine skeptics than many of its EU neighbors, but has one of the bloc’s highest COVID-19 vaccination rates, with nearly 90% of those aged 12 and over now fully vaccinated.