INTL Europe: Politics, Economics, and Military- March 2020

[Plain Jane]

February 2020's thread is here:

INTL - Europe: Politics, Economics, and Military- February 2020

January's thread is here: http://xf.timebomb2000.com/xf/index.php?threads/europe-politics-economics-and-military-january-2020.566036/ https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-eu-reaction/joy-and-sadness-how-the-world-is-reacting-on-brexit-day-idUSKBN1ZU0YZ NEWS JANUARY 31, 2020 / 4:11 AM /...

xf.timebomb2000.com

Conflict in the Eastern and Southern Mediterranean impact several European countries. Ongoing thread about that is here:

WAR - REGIONAL CONFLICT BREWING IN THE Mediterranean

View: https://twitter.com/EndGameWW3/status/1206980485685092354

xf.timebomb2000.com

Greek PM calls national security council meeting over migrant crisis

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis called a meeting of the country's national security council for early Sunday evening as migrants headed to the Greek borders after Turkey relaxed restrictions.

www.reuters.com

NEWS
MARCH 1, 2020 / 5:24 AM / UPDATED AN HOUR AGO
Greek PM calls national security council meeting over migrant crisis

ATHENS (Reuters) - Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis called a meeting of the country’s national security council for early Sunday evening as migrants headed to the Greek borders after Turkey relaxed restrictions.

Reporting By Michele Kambas
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Migrants clash with Greek police at border after Turkey opens floodgates

Greek police fired tear gas to repel hundreds of stone-throwing migrants who tried to force their way across the border from Turkey on Sunday, with thousands more behind them after Ankara relaxed curbs on their movement.

www.reuters.com

NEWS
MARCH 1, 2020 / 2:22 AM / UPDATED AN HOUR AGO
Migrants flock to Greece as Turkey opens floodgates

Lefteris Papadimas, Alkis Konstantinidis
5 MIN READ

KASTANIES/LESBOS, Greece (Reuters) - Hundreds of migrants headed through permeable borders to Greece from Turkey on Sunday as thousands more gathered on the Turkish side seeking entry after Ankara relaxed curbs on their movement.

At least 500 people had arrived by sea on three Greek islands close to the Turkish coast within a few hours on Sunday morning. Seven boatloads reached Lesbos with more than 300 on board, four arrived on Samos with 150 and two on Chios with a combined total of 70-80 people, a police official said.

On the mainland further north, groups waded across a river to the Greek side at Kastanies. Reuters reporters saw groups of up to 30 people, including an Afghan mother with a five-day old infant, on the side of a road, having crossed the river hours earlier.

Turkey said on Thursday it would no longer restrain hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers in its territory from reaching Europe despite an agreement to do so reached with the EU in 2016. Its announcement triggered an almost instant rush to the borders it shares with European Union member Greece.

Turkey’s turnabout came after an air strike killed 33 Turkish soldiers in neighboring northwest Syria where Ankara has deployed forces to help secure its border against a new influx of refugees from the Syrian civil war.

Turkey has said funds promised by the EU to help it deal with 3.7 million Syrian refugees already in the country has been slow to arrive; Ankara had threatened several times in the past to open the floodgates if it did not receive more support.

Tensions rose at Kastanies, on northeast Greece’s mainland border with Turkey, on Saturday after riot police used tear gas to repel hundreds of migrants on the Turkish side seeking entry.

A Greek government source put the number of people gathered on the border on Sunday at 3,000, while the International Organization for Migration estimated the number at 13,000.

STONE-THROWING ALONG TENSE BORDER

Some migrants threw stones and metal bars toward the Greek side as well as hand-held tear gas canisters, the Greek government source said. Journalists were kept one kilometer (mile) back from the Greek border crossing.

“Yesterday there were 9,600 attempts to violate our borders, and all were dealt with successfully,” deputy defense minister Alkiviadis Stefanis told Greece’s Skai TV.

Greece has said there was an orchestrated attempt on its borders, and has accused Turkey of actively guiding migrants.

“Not only are they not stopping them, but they are helping them,” Stefanis told Skai.

The European Union said it was supporting Greece and its neighbor Bulgaria, which also has a border with Turkey - in protecting the 27-nation bloc’s outer frontiers.

It also gave condolences to Turkey over the deadly air strike and said it was ready to step up humanitarian support.

No migrants had so far tried to cross into Bulgaria from Turkey, but tensions were escalating at Turkish-Greek crossing points “very close” to Bulgarian territory, therefore Sofia had bolstered its own frontier patrols against any illegal entry, Defense Minister Krasimir Karakachanov told national radio.

Greece was the main gateway for hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers into Europe in 2015 and 2016. There are already more than 40,000 migrants on the Aegean islands, living in severely overcrowded camps and filthy conditions.

Last week, clashes broke out on Lesbos between riot police and locals protesting over a plan to create closed detention centers to house the migrant population. Locals say the islands are suffering a disproportionate burden.

Greece has vowed to prevent another mass influx of migrants. “This country is not a free-for-all,” Migration Minister Notis Mittarachi told Greece’s Ant1 TV.

Reuters witnesses saw small groups of people making their way across fields outside the Greek town of Orestiada, close to the mainland frontier, over the weekend. Four young Afghans, looking exhausted, sat around a small campfire.

Further along, Najibe Rezayi, 26, also from Afghanistan, cradled her seven-month daughter in her arms. “We want a place to stay, food, warmth,” she said through an interpreter as they walked through mist in frost-covered fields.

Greek police and the army have been arresting people who attempt to cross into the country. “They are all Afghans, no Syrians,” one army officer said. “Are these the Syrians (Turkish President Tayyip) Erdogan was talking about?”

Reporting by Alkis Konstantinidis on Lesbos, Lefteris Papadimas in Kastanies, Renee Maltezou in Athens; Ali Kucukgocmen in Turkey and Tsvetelia Tsolova in Bulgaria; Writing by Michele Kambas; Editing by Mark Heinrich
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

[northern watch]

Turkey, Syria fighting escalates; refugees mass at EU border
Thousands of migrants and refugees have massed at Turkey's western frontier

By COSTAS KANTOURIS and ANDREW WILKS Associated Press
1 March 2020

KASTANIES, Greece -- Thousands of migrants and refugees massed at Turkey's western frontier Sunday, trying to enter Greece by land and sea after Turkey said its borders were open to those hoping to head to Europe. In Syria, Turkish troops shot down two Syrian warplanes after the Syrian military downed a Turkish drone, a major escalation in the direct conflict between Syrian and Turkish forces.

Turkey's decision to ease border restrictions came amid a Russia-backed Syrian government offensive into Syria's northwestern Idlib province. That offensive has killed dozens of Turkish troops and led to a surge of nearly a million Syrian civilians fleeing the fighting toward Turkey's sealed border.

Turkey backs the Syrian rebels fighting in Idlib province, and has sent thousands of troops into the area. Idlib is the last opposition-held stronghold in Syria, and is dominated by al-Qaida linked fighters.

A Turkish official said the fighting in Idlib was directly linked to Turkey's decision to open the gates for refugees to Europe. He said Ankara had changed its focus to preparing for the possibility of new arrivals from Syria “instead of preventing refugees who intend to migrate to Europe.”

“Europe and others must take robust action to address this monumental challenge,” said Fahrettin Altun, the communications director for Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. “We can’t be expected to do this on our own.”

Erdogan's decision open his country’s borders with Europe made good on a longstanding threat to let refugees into the continent. His announcement marked a dramatic departure from a previous policy of containment, an apparent attempt to pressure Europe into offering Turkey more support in dealing with the fallout from the Syrian war to its south.

Under a 6 billion euro deal in 2016, Turkey agreed to stem the tide of refugees to Europe in return for financial aid, after more than a million people entered Europe in 2015. Turkey has since accused the EU of failing to honor the agreement, and Erdogan has frequently threatened to allow refugees into Europe unless more international support was provided.

Turkey already hosts 3.6 million Syrian refugees, as well as many others from Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Turkey borders Greece and Bulgaria, both European Union members.

On the Greek-Turkish land border, Greek army and police patrols using tear gas and stun grenades to thwart attempts by thousands to push into the country overnight.

Officials said the situation was much calmer Sunday morning. But in the afternoon, authorities used tear gas and water cannons to push back another crowd attempting to cross. Migrants threw rocks and other objects, and one policeman was injured. Greek authorities said they stopped about 10,000 crossing attempts Saturday, and another 5,500 on Sunday.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis convened the defense and foreign affairs committee Sunday evening. Afterward, a government spokesman said Greece was starting a one-month freeze on accepting asylum applications from migrants who enter illegally.

Europe's border agency Frontex said it was “redeploying equipment and additional officers to Greece.”

A Greek government official said the Turkish authorities also fired teargas at the Greek border, using drones flying close to the border. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to discuss the matter with the media.

Stavros Zamalides, the president of the Greek border community of Kastanies, said Turkish soldiers used wire cutters to actively help people cross.

The United Nations migration organization reported at least 13,000 people had massed on Turkey’s land border by Saturday night, the vast majority apparently from Afghanistan.

In Istanbul, a steady stream of buses, taxis, cars and minibuses were ferrying hundreds more throughout Sunday to Edirne, a town near the border with Greece. The vehicles weren’t part of any regular bus route.

Those boarding the buses — the vast majority Afghans — said they were heading to Greece and eventually hoped to get to Germany.

On the Greek islands, more than 500 people had arrived from the nearby Turkish coast by Sunday evening, a clear increase in the usual number of people who arrive on eastern Aegean islands from Turkey.

Existing migrant camps on the islands are already dramatically overcrowded, and tensions there have mounted.

In a small harbor on Lesbos, angry local residents refused to allow migrants — including families with young children and babies — to disembark from a dinghy that had just arrived. Groups who arrived on other parts of the island remained there for hours because locals prevented buses from reaching them to transport them to the main camp.

On Sunday night, a former staging area used for new arrivals on Lesbos was set on fire.

More than 19,300 people already live in and around island’s migrant camp, which has a capacity of 2,840. Protests by island residents last week over the situation degenerated into clashes with riot police on Lesbos and Chios.

Greece said it was using “all available means” to tell migrants that the country’s borders were closed, including text messages to foreign mobile phones in the border area.

In Syria, fighting escalated on the ground and in the skies between Turkish and Syrian troops. Russia, a key ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad's government, remained largely on the sidelines through the weekend even as a Turkish-led counter offensive blunted and in some cases reversed Syrian government advances.

But the head of the Russian military’s Reconciliation Center in Syria, Rear Adm. Oleg Zhuravlev,, warned Turkey that its aircraft could be in danger if they fly over Syria.

“In view of the sharp exacerbation of tensions in the air space over Idlib, the Syrian government was forced to declare it closed,” Zhuravlev said in a statement released late Sunday. “In this situation, the Russian troops’ command can’t guarantee security of flights of Turkish aircraft in the skies over Syria.”

Syria’s official news agency SANA said the four pilots in the two jets shot down Sunday had ejected and landed safely.

Turkey's Defense Ministry said it had hit the two SU-24 aircraft as well as Syrian air defense systems after one of its aerial drones was downed.

Earlier Sunday, Syria said northwestern airspace was closed and any aircraft or drone that entered “will be treated as hostile and shot down.”

The Syrian announcement followed two days of Turkish drone strikes in Idlib province. Syrian activists said the strikes killed more than 50 Syrian government forces and allied fighters. Turkey has lost 54 soldiers in February, including 33 killed Thursday in a single airstrike. Outraged, Erdogan announced his country's European borders were open Saturday.

The crisis in Idlib stems from a Syrian government offensive with Russian military support, which began December 1. Turkey is worried it might come under renewed international pressure to open its now-sealed border with Syria and offer refuge to hundreds of thousands more Syrian civilians.

Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar, speaking from a military headquarters near the Syrian border, said Turkey aimed to confront Syrian government forces rather than Russian troops. He called on Moscow to persuade Assad to withdraw to 2018 cease-fire lines on the edges of Idlib.

Referring to losses inflicted on Syria, he said Turkey had “neutralized” more than 2,200 Syrian troops, 103 tanks and eight helicopters. The operation is Turkey's fourth in the war-torn country since 2016.

Altun, the Turkish communications director, claimed 80,888 migrants had left Turkey for Europe “in the past several days." There was no evidence to support his claim. Greece’s Foreign Ministry tweeted that these numbers were “false and misleading."


———

Wilks reported from Ankara, Turkey. Robert Badendieck in Istanbul, Albert Aji in Damascus, Syria, Elena Becatoros in Athens and Zeina Karam in Beirut contributed to this report.


Turkey, Syria fighting escalates; refugees mass at EU border

 

[northern watch]

Reuters‏Verified account @Reuters 21m21 minutes ago

Greece will protect is borders, migrants will be turned back, PM says https://reut.rs/32E8zq6

 

[northern watch]

NATO urges Syria Russia to halt airstrikes as migrants move westward
By Voice of Europe
29 February 2020

BRUSSELS (AP) — NATO on Friday called on Syria and Russia to halt their airstrikes following the killing of 33 Turkish soldiers in northeastern Syria, as scores of migrants seeking entry into Europe gathered at Turkey’s border with Greece.

With Turkey signaling that it would let migrants leave, Greece and neighboring Bulgaria bolstered border security. The European Union warned that the fighting in northern Syria could degenerate into open war and that it stood ready to protect its security interests.

After chairing emergency talks between NATO ambassadors, Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg called on Syria and Russia “to stop their offensive, to respect international law and to back U.N efforts for a peaceful solution.”

“This dangerous situation must be de-escalated and we urge an immediate return to the 2018 cease-fire to avoid the worsening of the horrendous humanitarian situation in the region,” Stoltenberg said.

Turkey’s allies also expressed their condolences over the deaths, but no additional NATO support was offered during the meeting.

Apart from providing some aerial surveillance over Syria, NATO plays no direct role in the conflict-torn country, but its members are deeply divided over Turkey’s actions there, and European allies are worried about the arrival of any new waves of refugees.

The air strike by Syrian government forces marks the largest death toll for Turkey in a single day since it first intervened in Syria in 2016. It’s a major escalation in a conflict between Turkish and Russia-backed Syrian forces that has raged since early February.

Omer Celik, spokesman for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling party, said Turkey was “no longer able to hold refugees” following the Syrian attack — reiterating Erdogan’s longstanding warning that his country cannot cope with more people fleeing the conflict.

Turkey hosts some 3.6 million Syrians and under a 2016 deal with the EU agreed to step up efforts to halt the flow of refugees to Europe. Since then, Erdogan has repeatedly threatened to “open the gates,” playing on European nervousness about a new surge.

The Turkish DHA news agency reported that some 300 Syrians, Iranians, Iraqis, Moroccans and Pakistanis were gathering at the border with Greece, while others massed at beaches facing Greek islands off Turkey’s western coast.

Early Friday, Turkish broadcaster NTV showed images of dozens of people — carrying rucksacks, suitcases and plastic bags — crossing fields towards the Greek frontier.

NATO urges Syria, Russia to halt airstrikes as migrants move westward - Voice of Europe

 

[northern watch]

Report: Greece Sends 50 Naval Vessels To Guard Border After Turkey Opens Gates

Chris Tomlinson Breitbart.com / Europe
28 February 2020

Greece has completely shut down its borders Friday, sending dozens of naval vessels to patrol the Greek islands after Turkey announced it would allow all Syrian migrants to head to Europe.

A government representative, who wished to remain anonymous, told German media that Greece has closed its entire land and sea border with Turkey and will allow no one to cross the border at all, German tabloid Bild reports. Citing sources, the newspaper claimed 50 naval ships — likely predominantly patrol vessels — of the Hellenic Navy supported by helicopters were being sent to the European Union’s external border.

The newspaper also cited accounts of Greek authorities setting off tear gas at land border crossing points as migrants attempted to move into Europe.

The Turkish government has not made an official government announcement that the border is open but a source informed news agency Reuters that all border guards, police and Turkish coastguard officers were ordered to stand down.

Turkish journalist Ragip Solyu added that the border would be open for all Syrians wanting to head to Europe for the next 72 hours.

Ömer Celik, the spokesman for the Islamist AKP party, the party of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, alluded to the fact that the borders could be opened stating, “Our refugee policy remains the same, but here we have a situation. We can no longer keep the refugees.”

Can Dündar, a Turkish journalist who fled from the Erdogan regime to Germany, made a post on social media platform Twitter claiming to show a video of released Syrian prisoners heading for the Greek border.

Other news agencies have shown similar videos and photographs and claimed that hundreds of migrants have begun attempting to cross into Greece.

Greek government sources have said Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has greatly increased overall security on the border and Lieutenant General Konstantinos Floros, head of the Hellenic Armed Forces also travelled to the region of Evros to prepare for an expected surge in migrants.

The new wave of migrants comes as tensions on the Greek islands of Lesbos and Chios remain high following riots involving locals who injured dozens of police officers while protesting against the building of new migrant centres.

A total of 52 officers and 10 local residents were injured during the riots and Greek police have announced they will be launching a probe into the incidents.

Report: Greece Sends 50 Naval Vessels To Secure Turkish Border

 

[northern watch]

Voice of Europe ‏ @V_of_Europe 3h3 hours ago

﹡Turkish minister: 76,358 migrants headed to Greek border[/URL][/URL][/URL]

 

[northern watch]

Yannis Koutsomitis‏Verified account @YanniKouts 12h12 hours ago

#BREAKING -- #Greece announces emergency measures for migrant crisis: • suspends all refugee applications for one month • begins refoulements of migrants entering its borders • to ask for deployment of EUROFOR Rapid Force in the Aegean Sea • to invoke #EU Treaty Article 78.3

 

[Plain Jane]

German Court Rejects Attempt To Enshrine Sharia Law

"...in today's society, where people from many countries around the world live with different cultural biographies and also with different religions, the state order must place more value than ever on its ideological neutrality..."

www.zerohedge.com

German Court Rejects Attempt To Enshrine Sharia Law

by Tyler Durden
Mon, 03/02/2020 - 02:00
TwitterFacebookRedditEmailPrint


Authored by Soeren Kern via The Gatestone Institute,
Germany's Federal Constitutional Court has ruled that the constitutionally guaranteed religious freedoms of Muslims can be curtailed if public displays of religiosity - in this case wearing Islamic headscarves in German courtrooms - endanger the ideological and religious neutrality of the state.

The court's landmark ruling effectively smashes a backdoor effort to enshrine Sharia law into the German legal system.




The case involves a 38-year-old German-Moroccan law student who was born in Frankfurt and customarily wears a headscarf in public. In January 2017, she began legal training in the German state of Hesse, where the law bans any expression of religion in its courtrooms for judges, lawyers and legal trainees.

According to the law, legal trainees (rechtsreferendar) are allowed to wear a headscarf — except when they are performing certain official tasks in which they serve as representatives of the judiciary or the state. This means, for instance, that trainee lawyers are not allowed to wear a headscarf when presiding over a hearing, taking evidence or representing the public prosecution office.

The complainant filed a lawsuit claiming that the headscarf ban interfered with her right to freedom of religion. She argued that she was being forced to choose between performing the intended tasks or fulfilling a religious clothing requirement that she considers imperative.

The Higher Regional Court (Oberlandesgericht) ruled that, according to the law in Hesse, legal trainees have a duty to conduct themselves neutrally with respect to religion and that, when wearing a headscarf, the complainant was therefore barred from performing any tasks in the course of which she might be perceived as being a representative of the justice system or the state.


The complainant filed an appeal, which was rejected by the Hesse Higher Administrative Court (Verwaltungsgerichtshof). She then filed an appeal with the Federal Constitutional Court, which affirmed the lower court rulings. In a statement published on February 27, 2020, the high court explained:

"The principle of the state's religious and ideological neutrality can be considered a constitutional interest that may justify an interference with freedom of religion in this case. The state's duty to be neutral necessarily also entails a duty for public officials to be neutral since the state can only act through individuals. However, when public officials exercise their fundamental rights as private individuals in the performance of their duties, this cannot be attributed to the state in every case. Yet it can potentially be attributed to the state in cases where the state has specific influence on the visible character of an official act — as is the case in the justice system.
"Freedom of religion can be subject to a further constitutional limitation inherent in the Basic Law (Grundgesetz): the proper functioning of the justice system in general, which is one of the essential elements underpinning the rule of law and is firmly rooted in the values enshrined in the Basic Law, given that every court decision ultimately serves to safeguard fundamental rights.
"The proper functioning of the justice system requires that society not only place trust in individual judges, but also in the justice system in general. It is true that it will not be possible to achieve absolute trust among the entire population. However, it falls to the state to improve levels of trust. In the present case, the negative freedom of religion afforded parties to legal proceedings is also an argument in favor of the ban on wearing a headscarf.
"In the justice system, the state exercises public authority vis-à-vis the individual in the classic hierarchical sense, which gives rise to more serious impairments than public authority exercised in interdenominational state schools, which are meant to reflect society's pluralism in religious matters....
"From a constitutional-law perspective, the legislature's decision to establish a duty of neutral conduct with respect to ideological and religious matters for legal trainees must therefore be respected....
"In support of the complainant's position, it must be taken into consideration that to her, the headscarf is not only a sign of affiliation with a certain religious group that could be taken off at any time — like, for example, the cross worn on a necklace. Rather, wearing the headscarf to her means fulfilling a requirement that she considers imperative. As there is no similarly widespread equivalent requirement in the Christian faith, a general ban on manifestations of religious belief has a stronger impact on the complainant than on other religious public officials....
"In support of the constitutionality of the ban, it must be taken into consideration that it is limited to a few individual tasks. The ban applies where legal trainees perform judicial tasks, represent the public prosecution office in trial hearings and take on quasi-judicial roles. In doing so, legal trainees — like civil servants — must represent the values that the Basic Law lays down for the justice system."

Hesse's Minister of Justice Eva Kühne-Hörmann (CDU) described the ruling as "groundbreaking" (wegweisend):

"With this groundbreaking decision, the court sent an important signal in favor of the ideological neutrality of state institutions. Especially in today's society, in which people from many countries around the world live with different cultural biographies and also with different religions, the state order must place more value than ever on its ideological neutrality. This is only possible if the state parties to judicial proceedings are not allowed to show religious insignia."

Islamic head coverings have been a recurring issue in Germany, where the Muslim population has surpassed six million to become approximately 7.2% of the overall population of 83 million, according to calculations by Gatestone Institute.


On February 3, 2020, the Hamburg Higher Administrative Court (Oberverwaltungsgericht) ruled that a 16-year-old German-Egyptian student was allowed to wear a niqab, a garment that covers the face, at a vocational school in Hammerbrook.

Hamburg education officials had ordered the girl not wear the veil at school. In a statement, the court explained that according to the Hamburg School Act as it is currently written:

"Education officials cannot require the student to refrain from covering her face while at school. The student can claim the right to an unconditionally protected freedom of religion. Interferences with this fundamental right require a sufficiently defined legal basis."

Hamburg politicians from across the political spectrum have vowed to change the law to ensure that full-face veils are banned in classrooms. Hamburg's Senator for Education Ties Rabe, who belongs to the center-left Social Democrats, said:

In a

, it is a matter of course that the teachers and the pupils have an open, free face. This is the only way that school and teaching can function. That is why we are going to change the school law quickly so that this is guaranteed in the future too."

Hamburg Deputy Mayor Katharina Fegebank from the Greens party also called for the law to be changed:

"The burqa and the niqab are, for me, symbols of oppression. Successful school lessons need good communication at eye level. For this, it is important to see the face of the other. This is not possible with a full veil. That is why we reject them."

The opposition parties in Hamburg's parliament, the Christian Democrats (CDU), the Free Democrats (FDP) and the conservative AfD, also support banning niqabs and burqas from classrooms.


The student's lawyer, Alexander Heyers, said that while his client "does not see herself as the Greta Thunberg of Islam," a ban would be tantamount to a declaration of war. He has threatened to take the case to the Federal Constitutional Court: "Political questions that have a deep impact on fundamental rights should be clarified before the Federal Constitutional Court."

In the southwestern state of Baden-Württemberg, which is governed by a coalition of Greens and Christian Democrats, Culture Minister Susanne Eisenmann (CDU) also announced a ban on veils through adjustments to school legislation:

"Religious freedom has its limits — specifically at our schools, when teachers can literally no longer look at each other's faces. We do not tolerate full veiling at our schools."

Other headscarf-related bans in Germany include:

January 29, 2020. The University of Kiel (Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, CAU) banned students from wearing face-covering veils while in class:

"The Presidium of the CAU has to ensure that the minimum requirements for communication in research, teaching and administration necessary for the fulfillment of university tasks are ensured. Open communication, which is based not only on the spoken word, but also on facial expressions and gestures, is one of these minimum requirements. Since a face veil hinders this open communication, it must not be worn in courses, exams and discussions relating to study, teaching and advice in the broadest sense."

December 2019. Officials in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) abandoned plans to ban girls under the age of 14 from wearing headscarves or hijabs in NRW schools. Secretary of State for Integration Serap Güler said that after lengthy legal review, she determined that such a ban had no chance of being upheld by the Federal Constitutional Court.

September 2018. The Federal Council of the State of Lower Saxony approved an amendment that prohibits persons involved in court hearing — in particular parties, witnesses and legal representatives — from covering their faces in whole or in part ban on face coverings in courts. Justice Minister Barbara Havliza explained:

"Checking statements for their truthfulness is often of crucial importance in court proceedings. The judges must be able to look those involved in the face because the facial expressions sometimes say more than words. In addition, a face covering can make it difficult or impossible to identify people."

August 2018. The justice ministers of Bavaria and North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) presented a draft amendment to the Court Constitution Act (Gerichtsverfassungsgesetz) that would ban face-covering veils in all German courts. NRW Justice Minister Peter Biesenbach (CDU) said:

"Without facial expressions and gestures, a statement is hardly worth anything. If a witness's sweat is on his forehead or his facial features slip away, judges must be able to take this into account when evaluating a statement."

October 2017. The Federal Highway Code (Straßenverkehrsordnung) banned motorists wearing face coverings while driving.

June 2017. The Bundestag banned civil servants and military personnel from covering their faces in public.

 

[Plain Jane]

Slovakia's populists win vote with anti-corruption stance

Slovakia's center-right populist opposition has claimed victory in its parliamentary election. The win ends the reign of the country's long-dominant but scandal-tainted leftist party.

apnews.com

Slovakia’s populists win vote with anti-corruption stance
yesterday

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia (AP) — Slovakia’s center-right populist opposition claimed victory Sunday in the country’s parliamentary election, ending the reign of the long-dominant but scandal-tainted leftist party in a move that analysts said showed a strong desire by voters to end corruption.

According to final results released Sunday by the Statistics Office, the Ordinary People group captured 25% of Saturday’s vote and 53 seats in the 150-seat parliament. The senior ruling leftist Smer-Social Democracy party led by former populist Prime Minister Robert Fico came in second with 18.3% or 38 seats.

The results steered the country to the right and could eventually make a local ally of France’s far-right National Rally party led by Marine Le Pen a part of Slovakia’s governing coalition.

“We will try to form the best government Slovakia’s ever had,” Ordinary People chairman Igor Matovic told 2,000 cheering supporters in a sports hall in his hometown of Trnava, northeast of the capital, Bratislava.

The pro-western Matovic, 46, has made fighting corruption and attacking Fico the central tenet of his campaign. He is likely to become the country’s next prime minister.

Officials measured the temperature of every person coming into the hall due to fears about the new coronavirus. Slovakia hasn’t a single confirmed case yet.

The ruling Smer party has been in power for most of the past 14 years, winning big in every election since 2006 in Slovakia, a European Union nation of almost 5.5 million people in central Europe. The party won 28.3% in 2016 after campaigning on an anti-migrant ticket but it was damaged by political turmoil following the 2018 slayings of an investigative journalist and his fiancee.

The killings of journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancee, Martina Kusnirova, triggered major street protests and a political crisis that led to the collapse of Fico’s three-party coalition government. Kuciak had been writing about alleged ties between the Italian mafia and people close to Fico when he was killed and also wrote about corruption scandals linked to Fico’s party.

A new cabinet was made up of ministers from the same three parties.

“This was a clear vote against corruption practices of the ruling party, against the links between politicians and semi-mafia in this country and the quest for rule of law,” said Olga Gyarfasova, an analyst from Comenius University in Bratislava.

In a further blow to Smer, its two current coalition partners, the ultra-nationalist Slovak National Party and a party of ethnic Hungarians, didn’t win any seats in Parliament.


Matovic is expected to govern with the pro-business Freedom and Solidarity party, which captured 6.2% support and 13 seats and the conservative For People established by former President Andrej Kiska that finished with 5.8% of the vote and 12 seats.

Although the three parties would have a majority with 78 seats, Matovic said he also wanted to rule with Le Pen’s ally, We Are Family, a populist right-wing group that placed third in Saturday’s vote with 8.2% support and 17 seats.

“I’d like to assure everybody that there’s nothing to worry about,” he said. “We’re not here to fight cultural wars.”

Matovic is a skilled politician who knows how to make news.

In January, he traveled to an upscale neighborhood in Cannes, France, where he placed a poster that read “the property of Slovakia” in front of a luxurious villa that belongs to Jan Pociatek, Fico’s former finance minister. Matovic accused Pociatek of corruption, saying he could never earn so much money to afford the villa. Pociatek denied wrongdoing. A video of the event went viral on social media.

The extreme far-right People’s Party Our Slovakia, whose members use Nazi salutes and want Slovakia out of the EU and NATO, became the fourth-most popular party in the country with 8% support and 17 seats. But all other parties have ruled out cooperating with it, for the party backs the legacy of the Slovak Nazi puppet World War II state.

___

Associated Press video journalist Jan Gebert in Bratislava contributed.

 

[Plain Jane]

AfD: Björn Höcke to run for Thuringia state premier – DW – 03/02/2020

The AfD in Thuringia has nominated its firebrand leader, Björn Höcke, to run for state premier. The vote comes after the election of an FDP candidate with right-wing support sent shockwaves through domestic politics.

www.dw.com

AfD taps Björn Höcke to run for Thuringia state premier
The AfD in Thuringia has nominated its firebrand leader, Björn Höcke, to run for state premier. The vote comes after the election of an FDP candidate with right-wing support sent shockwaves through domestic politics.





The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) in the eastern state of Thuringia announced Monday that leader Björn Höcke would compete in the race for state premier in a vote on March 4.
Höcke, a highly divisive and controversial figure within the AfD, will run against the incumbent, Bodo Ramelow of the socialist Left party.

Torben Braga

✔@torben_braga
https://twitter.com/torben_braga/status/1234447282843586560

In Umsetzung eines einstimmigen Beschlusses der @AfD_ThL habe ich soeben den Wahlvorschlag unserer Fraktion für die am kommenden Mittwoch stattfindende MP-Wahl in #Thüringen eingereicht.

Unser Kandidat ist @BjoernHoecke.


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Ramelow is expected to win the vote, as was the case one month ago, but with a plurality not a majority. He can likely count on support from the Social Democrats and the Greens, which won't suffice for a majority. The CDU in Thuringia has agreed to abstain in the vote in exchange for an arrangement for early elections next year.
CDU abstention after February debacle
Wednesday's vote comes after an election in Thuringia last month caused an uproar across Germany. In that poll, Thomas Kemmerich of the business-friendly Free Democrats was elected premier with votes from the AfD and Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU). The AfD also withdrew its own candidate at the last minute.
Read more: Why is everyone in Germany talking about Thuringia and AfD?



Watch video26:05
Fiasco in Thuringia: Will the AfD Destroy Merkel's Legacy?

It
was the first time a state premier had been elected with support from the AfD, and saw mainstream parties break their pact not to work with far-right lawmakers.

Kemmerich resigned the next day and said he would call another election, after Chancellor Angela Merkel called the vote inexcusable.

nm/stb (AFP, dpa)

 

[Plain Jane]

Montenegro Resort Says Coronavirus Quarantine Centre Would Wreck Economy

Leaders in the coastal town of Ulcinj, which largely lives off tourism, have voiced dismay over plans to set up a quarantine centre in a nearby former army base if an outbreak occurs in the country. Leaders in the coastal town of Ulcinj, which largely lives off tourism, have voiced dismay over...

balkaninsight.com

Montenegro Resort Says Coronavirus Quarantine Centre Would Wreck Economy

Samir Kajosevic
Podgorica
BIRN
March 2, 2020
Leaders in the coastal town of Ulcinj, which largely lives off tourism, have voiced dismay over plans to set up a quarantine centre in a nearby former army base if an outbreak occurs in the country.

Ulcinj. Photo: Municipality of Ulcinj
Leaders in the tourist resort of Ulcinj, which is mainly inhabited by ethnic Albanians, have protested over plans to open a quarantine centre in a nearby former military base if the coronavirus spreads to the country.

All political parties in the local assembly in Ulcinj have demanded an urgent meeting with the government after the Health Minister Kenan Hrapovic said that if cases start to occur, quarantine facilities will be opened at the former military base in Zoganje near Ulcinj and in the Danilovgrad and Niksic municipalities.

“Such a decision would have a negative impact on the lives of citizens in Ulcinj because we live off tourism. People call me every day, but no one from the government informed us about their decision,” Ulcinj co-Mayor Hatixha Gjonaj told BIRN.

After media reported about the possible opening of a quarantine centre in Zoganje, ethnic Albanian parties in town urged the government to change its mind, warning that this would have major effects on the local economy. Most of the 20,000 inhabitants of the coastal town near the border with Albania live either off tourism or agriculture.

Some residents of Zoganje have warned they will not allow a quarantine centre to be opened near their homes. “A quarantine centre should be built in an isolated place, not here where people have lived for centuries. We will stop them with all legal and democratic methods,” Dano Perovic, a member of the local community, told the daily Vijesti.

There are no confirmed cases yet of the coronavirus in Montenegro, while 34 persons are under surveillance. On February 28, Montenegrin airports temporarily suspended flights to Bologna and Milan because of the outbreaks in northern Italy. Border police are checking passengers from China and Italy, and, if necessary, they are then examined by the Health and Sanitary Inspectorate.

The director of the Infectious Clinic in Podgorica, Dobrila Nikcevic, said that cases would likely occur in Montenegro. “The virus can be expected to appear, as many people are travelling,” Nikcevic told Vijesti TV on Monday.

The Ministry of Health said that workers for the Chinese company CRBC, which is building a highway stretch in Montenegro, are being monitored. According to CRBC, 393 Chinese citizens are working on the highway. The ministry said workers are under surveillance and they get information about their health every 12 hours.

• CORONAVIRUS
• HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT
• MONTENEGRO

 

[Plain Jane]

Minister: Estonia prepared to reinstate border control in case of new migration crisis

TALLINN - According to Estonian Minister of the Interior Mart Helme, migratory flows from Turkey and the increasingly spreading novel coronaviru...

www.baltictimes.com

Minister: Estonia prepared to reinstate border control in case of new migration crisis

• 2020-03-02
• BNS/TBT Staff

TALLINN - According to Estonian Minister of the Interior Mart Helme, migratory flows from Turkey and the increasingly spreading novel coronavirus pose a threat to people's health and safety, and Estonia is prepared to establish full border control on its external borders.
"Europe is facing two rapidly developing crises, which are mutually aggravating one another. Even larger immigrant masses are headed to Europe from Turkey than in 2015, which is why Europe needs to be prepared for a new migration crisis in addition to curbing the spread of the coronavirus," Helme said.
The minister noted that steps by the governments of Greece and other border states facing migratory pressure aimed at protecting their territories and populations must be fully supported and recognized.
"Frontex as the collective border control agency of the European Union must in the present situation provide maximum aid for Greece and Bulgaria, the two states at the front, in order to prevent a new uncontrolled wave of migration into Europe. In order to demonstrate its solidarity, Estonia is prepared to deploy additional forces, if needed, to protect the European external borders."
Helme added that Estonia is closely monitoring both the migration crisis as well as the coronavirus outbreak.
"We are prepared to establish full documentary checks at our border inspection points and external border, if needed, as well as to return or isolate undesirable people or those dangerous to the state," he said.
The minister restated that Estonia is not willing to accept immigrants who have already arrived or may arrive in Europe.

 

[Plain Jane]

Baltic states sign joint declaration with five other countries demanding equal direct payments to farmers

TALLINN - The three Baltic states and five other European countries signed a joint declaration on the financing of direct payments to farmers at...

www.baltictimes.com

Baltic states sign joint declaration with five other countries demanding equal direct payments to farmers

• 2020-02-26
• LETA/BNS/TBT Staff

TALLINN - The three Baltic states and five other European countries signed a joint declaration on the financing of direct payments to farmers at a meeting in Warsaw on Monday.
"EU farmers are operating in the single market; new ambitious climate and environmental goals have been imposed on us and we must stand up for the equalization of direct payments and a fair EU agricultural budget," Estonian Minister of Rural Affairs Arvo Aller said in a press release.
Direct payments to farmers vary by state to up to five times per hectare, Aller noted. Payments to 14 EU member states are at present lower than the EU average, and those to Estonia are the lowest in the Union.

"We need to make a joint effort to change this situation. Additional requirements stemming from the Green Deal proposals will be imposed on farmers during the next budget period, and this is something that needs to be taken into account in relation to direct payments," Aller said.
"Agriculture is an important part of Europe's policy, which is why the discussion must be steered towards strengthening the budget of the common agricultural policy," European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development Janusz Wojciechowsk said.

State delegations were hosted in Warsaw by Polish President Andrzej Duda, who underscored at the meeting that farmers have the crucial responsibility of feeding the people, and expressed hope that this is something the European Commission will take into account when drawing up the financial framework of the common agricultural policy for the next seven-year budget period.

Signatories to the joint declaration included the agriculture ministers of Estonia, Poland, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania and Romania. The document will be submitted to the EU Agriculture and Fisheries Council for further discussion.

 

[Plain Jane]

Italy may set up new quarantine zone as coronavirus death toll jumps

Italy's health authorities said on Tuesday they may set up a new quarantine red zone to try to contain the coronavirus outbreak in Europe's worst-hit country, after the death toll and the number of cases jumped.

www.reuters.com

WORLD NEWS
MARCH 3, 2020 / 12:17 PM / UPDATED 13 MINUTES AGO
Italy considers new red zone as coronavirus deaths toll jumps


2 MIN READ



A woman wearing a protective face mask to prevent contracting the coronavirus exits from a subway station in Milan, Italy, March 3, 2020. REUTERS/Guglielmo Mangiapane
ROME (Reuters) - Italian health authorities said on Tuesday they may set up a new quarantine red zone to try to contain the country’s coronavirus outbreak after the death toll and the number of cases jumped.
Twenty seven people died in Italy of the highly contagious illness over the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of dead to 79, the Civil Protection Agency said.
The increase in deaths was the largest since the outbreak surfaced 12 days ago in the wealthy northern regions of Lombardy and Veneto.

It remains centered in the north, with Lombardy by far the worst affected, but it has since spread south and infections have now been confirmed in all but one of Italy’s 20 regions.
The total number of cases in Europe’s worst-hit country rose to 2,502 from 2,036 on Monday.
One of the dead was aged 55, the youngest patient so far to have succumbed to the illness in Italy. Another was a 61-year-old doctor who was not known to have underlying health problems, unlike the vast majority of previous victims.

None of us can be sure about the future evolution of the disease, this is an important week to understand what will happen,” Angelo Borrelli, head of the Civil Protection Agency, told a news conference.

A high concentration of new cases has emerged around the Lombardy city of Bergamo, north-east of the financial capital Milan, and the head of the national health institute told reporters a new red zone may be imposed to try to stem the rise.

When the contagion first came to light on Feb. 20, the government imposed a quarantine on two areas — one centered on 10 towns in Lombardy, southeast of Milan, and another, smaller red zone in the neighboring region of Veneto.

Reporting by Giulia Segreti, writing by Gavin Jones; Editing by Crispian Balmer
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

[Plain Jane]

Italy may close schools all over country due to coronavirus: government source

The Italian government is considering closing schools all over the country due to its coronavirus outbreak, but no decision has been taken yet, a government source said on Wednesday.

www.reuters.com

NEWS
MARCH 4, 2020 / 6:25 AM / UPDATED AN HOUR AGO
Italy may close schools all over country due to coronavirus: government source

ROME (Reuters) - The Italian government is considering closing schools all over the country due to its coronavirus outbreak, but no decision has been taken yet, a government source said on Wednesday.

At the moment only schools in the northern regions most affected by the epidemic are closed.

Seventy-nine people had died of the highly contagious illness in Italy up to Tuesday, with more than 2,500 confirmed cases.

Reporting by Giuseppe Fonte, writing by Francesca Piscioneri, editing by Gavin Jones
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

[Plain Jane]

Hungary will defend EU against migrant wave, Orban says

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Wednesday a new wave of migrants trying to cross the border from Turkey into the European Union must be stopped as far south as possible and his government was ready to help frontline Greece.

www.reuters.com

NEWS
MARCH 4, 2020 / 5:36 AM / UPDATED 2 HOURS AGO
Hungarian PM Orban: 130,000 migrants already in Balkans must be stopped

BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Wednesday that 130,000 migrants had already passed the Turkish-Greek border in the Balkans, and that they must be stopped as far south as possible.

“It won’t be enough to defend the Greek-Turkish border,” Orban told a news conference of the leaders of the Visegrad Four countries of Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and the Czech Republic. “As a last resort ... we will defend Europe’s external border.”

Reporting by Marton Dunai; Editing by Kevin Liffey
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

[Plain Jane]

A thread dedicated to Europe's immigration crisis has been started here:

ILL IMM - Greece DEFENDS the Borders of EUROPE!!! - from illegal aliens from Turkey

Dr. Steve Truley reports Greece holds back illegal aliens invading from Turkey. News you will not see on the legacy media. Some EU leaders are praising Greece for their border security efforts to shield Europe. The UN is whining about it. Dr. Steve Truley also sites a Polish Twitter site for...

xf.timebomb2000.com

In addition, I think that the COVID19 situation in Italy is worse than is currently understood. In India's latest confirmed cases, 16 of the 28 confirmed are Italian. The single cases in Brazil and Nigeria are also from Italy. I do not see how Europe deals with this illness and the onslaught of migrants that it is facing! But here is the Soros-funded crowd protesting for more migrants!

Protesters in Berlin demand EU open borders – DW – 03/04/2020

Thousands have gathered in Berlin to demand that German Chancellor Angela Merkel change her stance and support the opening of the EU borders to migrants. Migrants are attempting to cross into Greece from Turkey.

www.dw.com

Germany: Thousands of protesters demand EU open borders
Thousands have gathered in Berlin to demand that German Chancellor Angela Merkel change her stance and support the opening of the EU borders to migrants. Migrants are attempting to cross into Greece from Turkey.





Thousands of protesters gathered in Berlin on Tuesday in front of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's official residence to demand the opening of the border between Turkey and the European Union.
At least three thousand people gathered in Berlin while similar protests were held in Hamburg and Potsdam, according to German media.
The group "Seebrücke" ("Sea Bridge"), which led the protests, wrote online that it stands "against the policy of sealing off the EU and for the opening of the borders." Seebrücke says it wants "safe passages and an end to the criminalization of civil sea rescue."
Read more: Migrants at Turkish-Greek border: 'We want another life'

Oritesters at the iconic Federal Chancellery in Berlin
'Toxic' EU-Turkey deal
The protests were organized as thousands of refugees gathered at the Greek border after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced last week that his country would no longer stop migrants crossing into the EU.
Under the so-called refugee deal between the EU and Turkey, both sides cooperated in stopping migrants from crossing into the EU from Turkey.
Protesters on Tuesday described the deal as "toxic” and chanted "We have space!” Police put the number of participants at 3,500, while organizers say more than 8,000 came.

Seebrücke Berlin@SeebrueckeB
https://twitter.com/SeebrueckeB/status/1234961003072425985

"Stop the toxic EU-Turkey deal" #WirHabenPlatz #buildbridgesnotwalls


13
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See Seebrücke Berlin's other Tweets



'Europe's borders are not open'
The protests come as German politicians are put under increased pressure to deal with the situation at the Greek border.
Merkel has expressed solidarity with Greece's attempt to hold people back after Greek security forces used tear gas to stop migrants crossing the border. The German chancellor has so far remained firm that the EU's borders are closed.
Read more: Migrants stuck on EU doorstep: What is Germany doing?
German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer also tweeted on Tuesday evening in Arabic, discouraging migrants from attempting to cross the border.

Bundesministerium des Innern, für Bau und Heimat

✔@BMI_Bund
https://twitter.com/BMI_Bund/status/1234911949915381767

وزير الداخلية الألماني هورست زيهوفر:
نحتاج إلى النظام على الحدود الخارجية للاتحاد الأوروبي. سوف ندعم اليونان بكل ما أوتينا من قوة في هذا الصدد. إن حدود أوروبا ليست مفتوحة أمام اللاجئين من تركيا، وينطبق هذا على حدودنا الألمانية أيضًا.

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"We will support Greece with all our might,” he wrote. "Europe's borders are not open to refugees from Turkey, and this applies to our German borders as well.”
More protests are planned for later in the week.


Watch video01:59
EU vows to help Greece as migrant crisis deepens
Each evening at 1830 UTC, DW's editors send out a selection of the day's hard news and quality feature journalism. You can sign up to receive it directly here.
dpa contributed to this report

 

[Plain Jane]

This situation could heat up more.

Greece says Turkish police firing tear gas to help migrants cross border

Greece released a video clip on Wednesday it said showed Turkish riot police firing tear gas canisters at the Kastanies border crossing, where thousands of migrants are trying to cross into the European Union.

www.reuters.com

NEWS
MARCH 4, 2020 / 8:26 AM / UPDATED AN HOUR AGO
Greece says Turkish police firing tear gas to help migrants cross border


2 MIN READ

ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece released a video clip on Wednesday it said showed Turkish riot police firing tear gas canisters at the Kastanies border crossing, where thousands of migrants are trying to cross into the European Union.

Athens, backed by the EU, accuses Ankara of deliberately goading the migrants to cross into Greece. Turkey said last week it would no longer abide by a 2016 deal with the EU to keep the migrants on its territory in return for aid from the bloc.

The video clip showed a row of Turkish riot police behind shields with four taking turns to fire tear gas toward Greek territory. The authenticity of the video could not be independently verified.

A Greek security official told Reuters the Turkish riot police were firing the canisters in an effort to push back the Greek forces on the other side to allow the migrants a better chance of breaching the border. “The second reason is to provoke (us),” the official said.

Asked about the Greek claim, a Turkish security official said: “The Turkish police were responding with tear gas to Greek police firing bullets at the migrants. Turkish police never targeted the migrants, they aimed to protect the migrants from Greek fire.”

Greece has repeatedly denied suggestions that it is shooting at migrants. It has also rejected Turkish claims that its forces have killed as many as four migrants in the past few days, branding them “fake news”.

Relations between the two countries are often tense.

Greek riot police used tear gas and water cannon on Wednesday in an effort to disperse the migrants.

Reporting By Michele Kambas in Athens and Yesim Dikmen in Istanbul; Editing by Gareth Jones
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

[northern watch]

CTV News‏Verified account @CTVNews 2h2 hours ago

Turkey vows justice for migrant killed at border with Greece http://bit.ly/3cAEmwH

 

[northern watch]

Turkey deploying special forces to border amid migrant surge
Turkey say it will deploy special forces along its land border with Greece to prevent Greek authorities from pushing back migrants trying to cross into Europe, after Turkey declared its previously guarded gateways to Europe open
By SUZAN FRASER Associated Press
5 March 2020

Migrants walk across a bridge in Edirne near the Turkish-Greek border on Thursday, March 5, 2020. Greece countered accusations from Turkey Wednesday that it was responsible for the death of a migrant, as its border authorities strove for a sixth day to keep thousands of migrants out by using tear gas, stun grenades and water cannons. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)The Associated Press

ANKARA, Turkey -- Turkey said Thursday it would deploy special forces along its land border with Greece to prevent Greek authorities from pushing back migrants trying to cross into Europe, after Turkey declared its previously guarded gateways to Europe open.

Thousands of migrants and refugees have tried to cross into Greece from the Turkish land and sea border in the past week. Clashes have been frequent, with Greek police firing tear gas, stun grenades and water cannon to repel thousands of people trying to breach the border. Greek authorities say Turkish police have also fired tear gas at them in an effort to disperse border guards.

Turkey says Greek authorities were also firing live ammunition at the migrants, and Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said Wednesday Turkey would make a case in the European Court of Human Rights for a migrant it says was shot dead by Greek authorities on the border. The Greek government has denied any such incident occurred, calling it “fake news.”

Soylu, who visited the border area Thursday, said Turkey would deploy 1,000 special forces along its land border to prevent Greek authorities from pushing back those attempting to cross.

“As of this morning ... we are bringing 1,000 fully equipped special forces police (along) the Meric river system to prevent the push backs,” Soylu said. “With the help of Zodiac boats they will (prevent) those who mistreat people.”

Soylu said Greece had tried to push back around 4,900 migrants in violation of international conventions, and accused the European Union and Europe's border protection agency Frontex of remaining silent.

An estimated 4,000-5,000 people were near the Pazarkule border crossing, opposite the Greek village of Kastanies, and were being prevented from crossing, Soylu said.

“It is a border gate, they are obliged to take them in. They are obliged to take in asylum-seekers,” the minister said.
But he added the migrants were not obliged to use the official border crossing and could cross anywhere along the roughly 200 kilometers (125-mile) long border. Much of the border is demarcated by a river, and many migrants have tried wading, rowing or swimming across it.

“I want to say that there is no rule that says they have to cross from Pazarkule,” Soylu said.

The minister asserted that more than 130,000 migrants had crossed into Greece since Feb. 27, when Turkey made good on a threat to open its borders and allow migrants and refugees to head for Europe. He said around 20-25% of those who reached Greece were Syrians.

There was no evidence to support the claim. Although hundreds of people have managed to cross, most appear to have been caught by Greek authorities. Many have said they have been summarily pushed back into Turkey after being detained.

Greek authorities said that from Saturday morning until Thursday morning, they had thwarted 34,778 attempts to cross the border, and 244 people had been arrested. That includes 6,955 attempts to cross the border in the 24 hours between Wednesday morning and Thursday morning.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's decision to open its gateways to Europe has raised concerns within the European Union, which was holding a foreign ministers' meeting in Zagreb, Croatia.

His move to open the border to Europe came amid a Russia-backed Syrian government offensive into Syria’s northwestern Idlib province, where Turkish troops are fighting.

The offensive has killed dozens of Turkish troops and sent nearly a million Syrian civilians toward Turkey’s sealed border.
Erdogan, whose country currently houses more than 3.5 million Syrian refugees, had frequently threatened to open Turkey's borders and send migrants and refugees into Europe. He maintains the EU has not upheld its end of a more than 6 billion euro deal designed to stem the flow of migrants into Europe, after more than a million people crossed into the EU in 2015.

“We are no longer preventing crossings into Greece and Europe,” Soylu said. “Those who come can come, those who can cross can cross.”

“For some nine years, Turkey has shouldered a humanitarian tragedy that the world has ignored," the minister said. “I am sad to say that it has shouldered this despite the fact that countries that consider themselves to be civilized have turned their backs.”

Greece's government has called the situation a direct threat to the country's national security and has imposed emergency measures to carry out swift deportations and freeze asylum applications for one month — moves which have come under criticism from human rights groups and refugee aid agencies.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said in a statement before heading to the foreign ministers' meeting it was important that Greece not be left alone and that a "united European answer" be found for the situation on the Turkish-Greek border.

"As always, the weakest always pay the highest price for the current condition. Therefore, we must use our possibilities to quickly help especially unprotected children," Maas said.

He added: "For us it's clear: the EU must continue to financially and increasingly support the efforts of Turkey when it comes to the admission of refugees and migrants."

Greece has also come under migration pressure from the sea, with hundreds heading to Greek islands from the nearby Turkish coast. A child died when the dinghy he was in capsized off the coast of the Greek island of Lesbos earlier this week.

Soylu, the interior minister, said he had received instructions from Erdogan for Turkish authorities to prevent migrants from crossing by sea to avert drownings.

In past days, Greek authorities have said coast guard notifications to the Turkish coast guard about boats crossing have been met with no reaction, while they say in some cases migrants boats have been escorted to the edge of Turkish territorial waters by Turkish patrol boats. There were no crossings to Greek islands on Wednesday. The weather was particularly bad in the area, with high winds and rough seas.

———

Elena Becatoros in Athens and Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin, contributed to this report.

Turkey deploying special forces to border amid migrant surge

 

[northern watch]

Putin's new amendments revere God, ban same sex marriages
Russian President Vladimir Putin has submitted a slew of proposed amendments to the country's constitution that include a mention of God and describe marriage as a heterosexual union
By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV Associated Press
2 March 2020

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a meeting with members of a working group created to discuss constitutional amendments in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2020. The working group proposed holding a nationwide vote on the changes on April 22. (Alexei Druzhinin, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)The Associated Press

MOSCOW -- Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday submitted a slew of new proposed amendments to the country's Constitution that include a mention of God and describe marriage as a heterosexual union.

Putin first proposed amending the constitution in January's state-of-the-nation speech, saying it is necessary to broaden the powers of parliament and bolster democracy. Kremlin foes have described the proposed changes as part of Putin's efforts to remain in charge after his current six-year term ends in 2024.

The Kremlin-controlled parliament quickly endorsed Putin's draft in the first of three required readings last month, and is set to give it the final approval next week, setting the stage for a nationwide vote on April 22.

Following up on proposals from a Kremlin working group that worked in parallel with lawmakers, Putin on Monday presented 24 pages of additional amendments for the second reading set for March 10.

Lawmakers say they include an article that points to a millennium-long Russian history and pledges homage to “ancestors who bequeathed to us their ideals and a belief in God."

The amendment follows a proposal by the Russian Orthodox Church to add a reference to God to the Constitution.

Another amendment describes marriage as a "union of a man and a woman," a wording in sync with Putin's long-stated opposition to same-sex marriages.

The president also responded to a working group member's suggestion to add wording that would prevent any future Russian ruler from giving away Ukraine's Crimea — annexed from Ukraine in 2014 — or any other territory. He added an amendment that prohibits surrendering any part of Russian territory and outlaws making calls for that.

Another proposal underlines a special status of Russians as a “state-forming” ethnic group while pledging to protect the nation's other ethnic groups.

And in sync with proposals to outlaw disparaging the Soviet role in WW II victory, Putin added an article pledging to protect “historic truth” and forbid "belittling the people's heroic protection of the Motherland."
The amendment comes as Russia prepares to celebrate the 75th anniversary of victory in World War II — the nation's most important holiday.

The new set of amendments doesn't offer any clue, however, what position Putin may take to continue calling the shots after his term ends. The 67-year-old Russian leader has been in power for more than 20 years, making him the nation's longest-serving leader since Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.

Putin's new amendments revere God, ban same sex marriages

 

[Plain Jane]

EU fails to persuade France, Germany to lift coronavirus health gear controls

EU officials sought in vain on Friday to persuade France, Germany and other European countries to lift controls on the export of protective medical gear, which officials said could hurt the bloc's collective effort to fight the coronavirus.

www.reuters.com

NEWS
MARCH 6, 2020 / 4:53 AM / UPDATED 15 MINUTES AGO
EU to seek to boost local drugs production as coronavirus strains supplies


1 MIN READ

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union health ministers are discussing ways to boost local production of drugs and protective gear amid shortages due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Arriving to the meeting, ministers said Europe needed to look into making sure it could supply itself with medicines and protective equipment.
“This is not something that will be solved tomorrow but we must start this discussion today so that we have a solution after tomorrow,” Austria’s Health Minister Rudolf Anschober told reporters.
Reporting by Francesco Guarascio @fraguarascio, Philip Blenkinsop and Jakub Riha
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

[Plain Jane]

Zerohedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

Turkey Sends 1,000 Special Forces To EU Border To Prevent Migrant Return

by Tyler Durden
Fri, 03/06/2020 - 04:15
TwitterFacebookRedditEmailPrint


Starting last week multiple journalists published proof that Turkish authorities were actively facilitating refugee and migrant movement toward EU borders after Erdogan began making good on his prior threat to 'open the gates' — angry over the unfolding Idlib crisis. This included footage of buses staged in Istanbul and other cities to take thousands to the land border with Greece.
And now Ankara is now openly saying it's implemented a policy of not only pushing migrants to the border, but ensuring they won't come back — even after Greece shut its border and has been seen using harsh tactics to keep people from entering in a heightened militarized response.
Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu announced Thursday the deployment of 1,000 special operations police officers to ensure migrants can't return.
Greek riot police stand guard as migrants try to enter Greece from Turkey, via AP.

Turkey will deploy 1,000 special operations police officers to prevent migrant pushback at the border,” the minister said, according to Turkey's Daily Sabah.

The newspaper reported further: “Soylu told reporters that the European Union's border protection agency Frontex and Greece have pushed 4,900 migrants back to Turkey since March 1.” He also claimed 164 migrants had been injured by Greek border security and Frontex.

The interior minister also estimated that almost 140,000 migrants are in the first wave headed toward Europe, which began departing Turkey last Friday.

This provocative Turkish move is sure to heighten charges out of Europe that Erdogan is weaponizing the vulnerable refugee and migrant population to blackmail the EU.

Kathimerini English Edition@ekathimerini
https://twitter.com/ekathimerini/status/1234443848471830533

Footage shows Turkish boat escorting migrant dinghy http://dlvr.it/RR4mNW


108
6:42 AM - Mar 2, 2020
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EU ministers met Wednesday in Brussels and issued a statement saying the bloc "strongly rejects" the "use" of migrants by Turkey's government, saying that the "situation at the EU's external borders is not acceptable."

"The EU and its member states remain determined to effectively protect EU’s external borders," the statement affirmed.

Aurelia BAILLY

✔@AureliaBAILLY
https://twitter.com/AureliaBAILLY/status/1235565731871420418

Migrants try to remove fences during the clashes with Greek police, after they tried to pass on Greek side, on the buffer zone Turkey-Greece border in Edirne.
A picture by #AFP photographer @Kilicbil


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French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian unleashed the most direct accusation of "blackmail." He said in Paris Wednesday: "This migratory pressure is organized," adding that, "It is organized by President Erdogan's regime as a form of blackmail against the European Union."

This latest move by Ankara to ensure migrants "can't return" once pushed across the border is sure to only spark more chaos at border points already looking like war zones.


"Greek authorities fired tear gas and stun grenades to drive away a crowd of migrants making a push to cross the border from Turkey on Wednesday, as pressure on Greece continued after Turkey declared its previously guarded gateways to Europe open," the AP reported earlier.

Oh boy what a shot@ohboywhatashot
https://twitter.com/ohboywhatashot/status/1234752990004809728

Greece blocks thousands of migrants trying to enter from Turkey



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Injuries and possible deaths have been reported, however, the Greek government has rejected initial reports of its border guards firing on and killing migrants as “fake news.”

 

[Plain Jane]

Austria introducing 'spot' health checks at Italian border

Austria is introducing "spot" health checks at its border with Italy for two weeks as of next week in response to the coronavirus outbreak, in which Italy is the hardest-hit country in Europe, Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said on Friday.

www.reuters.com

NEWS
MARCH 6, 2020 / 3:38 PM / UPDATED 12 HOURS AGO
Austria introducing 'spot' health checks at Italian border

VIENNA (Reuters) - Austria is introducing “spot” health checks at its border with Italy for two weeks as of next week in response to the coronavirus outbreak, in which Italy is the hardest-hit country in Europe, Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said on Friday.

Austria, the western segment of which is wedged between Italy and Germany, is a vital transport corridor between those two countries. More than half the freight crossing the Alps passes through the small Alpine republic.


It has so far avoided introducing checks at its border but on Friday it said it would now act to try and slow the spread of the virus from northern Italy, the worst-affected part of Europe. Austria has 63 confirmed cases so far, Kurz said, compared to 4,636 in Italy, where 197 people have died.

“On the issue of checks, health checks at the border, you can picture it this way - of course the police is in charge of deciding which cars it makes sense for and for which it does not, particularly on the basis of license plates,” Kurz told a news conference with his interior and health ministers.

He added that an indirect effect would be that “of course it leads to greater awareness, to a certain reduction in border crossings and perhaps to a greater reluctance to undertake unnecessary journeys to at-risk areas”.

Kurz also announced that because of the spread of the virus his country was banning direct flights to Iran, South Korea and the Italian cities of Milan and Bologna. There are already no direct connections to China.

Reporting by Francois Murphy; Editing by Sandra Maler and Chris Reese
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

[Plain Jane]

Greek villagers enlisted to catch migrants at Turkey border

AMORIO, Greece (AP) — Over the years, villagers who live near Greece's border with Turkey got used to seeing small groups of people enter their country illegally.

apnews.com

Greek villagers enlisted to catch migrants at Turkey border
By COSTAS KANTOURIS15 minutes ago


AMORIO, Greece (AP) — Over the years, villagers who live near Greece’s border with Turkey got used to seeing small groups of people enter their country illegally. The Greek residents often offered the just-arrived newcomers a bite to eat and directed them to the nearest police or railway station.

But the warm welcomes wore off. When Turkey started channeling thousands of people to Greece, insisting that its ancient regional rival and NATO ally receive them as refugees, the Greek government sealed the border and rushed police and military reinforcements to help hold back the flood.

Greeks in the border region rallied behind the expanding border force, collecting provisions and offering any possible contribution to what is seen as a national effort to stop a Turkish-spurred incursion.

In several cases, authorities asked villagers familiar with the local terrain to help locate migrants who managed to slip through holes cut in a border fence or to cross the River Evros — Meric in Turkish — that demarcates most of the 212-kilometer (132-mile) border.

“We were born here, we live here, we work here, we know the crossings better than anyone,” Panayiotis Ageladarakis, a community leader in Amorio, a village that lies some 300 meters (yards) from the river banks.

Other villages also responded to the call for volunteer trackers. Small groups of unarmed men monitor known crossing points after dark.

“We sit at the crossings, and they come,” Ageladarakis told The Associated Press as he drove a pickup truck with a fellow Greek border village resident along a rough track at night. “We keep them there most of the time, call police and they come and arrest them. Then, it’s a matter for the police. We aren’t interested in where they take them. We just try to help this effort taking place by the army and the police.”

Help for the border units also came from Evros businesses and store owners. Nikos Georgiadis, head of the local restaurant owners’ association, said his colleagues delivered food and water to units stationed at four points on the border.

“They also asked us for masks and gloves, and we’ll try to find some,” he said.

Ageladarakis said all the migrants he encountered over the past few days were cooperative.

“These people are frightened. Nobody has caused any trouble,” he said.

But the village community leader said that in his view, the people he encountered did not look like they were fleeing wars in their own countries.

“There’s nobody coming from a war,” he said. “None of them are refugees. They’re all illegal migrants and that’s why they’re trying to get into Europe (this way).”

Greek authorities said that out of a the 252 people arrested for illegal entry over the past week as of Friday, 64% were Afghans, 19% Pakistanis, 5% Turks and 4% Syrians, while the others were from Iraq, Iran, Morocco, Ethiopia, Bangladesh and Egypt.

___

Nicholas Paphitis contributed from Athens.

 

[Plain Jane]

Protesters, police scuffle at Cyprus checkpoint closed over coronavirus

Greek Cypriot police fired pepper spray on Saturday when skirmishes broke out with protesters angry that a checkpoint on the ethnically split island was closed in what authorities have said was a precaution against coronavirus, witnesses said.

www.reuters.com

NEWS
MARCH 7, 2020 / 10:07 AM / UPDATED 4 HOURS AGO
Protesters, police scuffle at Cyprus checkpoint closed over coronavirus


2 MIN READ

NICOSIA (Reuters) - Greek Cypriot police fired pepper spray on Saturday when skirmishes broke out with protesters angry that a checkpoint on the ethnically split island was closed in what authorities have said was a precaution against coronavirus, witnesses said.

Cyprus announced the temporary closure of four checkpoints on the divided island on Feb. 28, the first closure since crossings between the two sides were eased in 2003 after decades of estrangement.

Witnesses said a group of people on the Turkish Cypriot side turned out in support of peace activists on the other side of the barricade calling for the checkpoint, on Nicosia’s Ledra Street, to open.

The Ledra Street checkpoint is a narrow pedestrian alley traversing a U.N.-controlled buffer zone. When open, it is used by hundreds of people on a daily basis.


“People were holding olive branches, and at some stage it appears someone started pushing,” a witness at the gathering on the Turkish Cypriot side told Reuters. “Greek Cypriot police pushed back and at that moment it appeared they used pepper spray.”

In a statement, Cyprus police said they made limited use of teargas to prevent demonstrators breaking a police cordon. Stones were also thrown at police, the statement said.

The decision to close the checkpoint is politically sensitive because of the territorial split between its Greek and Turkish Cypriot populations since 1974, when Turkish forces invaded after a brief Greek inspired coup.

Authorities insisted there was no other motive other than protection of public health and better use of medical resources at checkpoints remaining open. Cyprus has no reported cases of coronavirus.

UNFICYP, the U.N. peacekeeping force on the island, has said it is concerned at the disruption caused by the checkpoints’ closure. The decision whether to keep them shut will be reviewed next week.

There were skirmishes at the checkpoint also on Feb. 29, the day the closure took effect.

Writing by Michele Kambas; Editing by Alison Williams
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

[Plain Jane]

Don't come back, Italy's south tells emigres in virus-hit north

Italy's southern regions warned hundreds of thousands of its people who emigrated to the wealthy north of the country not to return home, amid fears of an exodus from a no-go zone set up to halt an outbreak of coronavirus.

www.reuters.com

NEWS
MARCH 8, 2020 / 8:02 AM / UPDATED 11 MINUTES AGO
Don't come back, Italy's south tells emigres in virus-hit north


3 MIN READ

ROME (Reuters) - Italy’s southern regions warned hundreds of thousands of its people who emigrated to the wealthy north of the country not to return home, amid fears of an exodus from a no-go zone set up to halt an outbreak of coronavirus.
The unprecedented lockdown was announced by the government overnight and will affect some 16 million inhabitants in the region of Lombardy, which is centered on the financial capital Milan, and 14 prosperous provinces also in the north.

An estimated two million people have left the underdeveloped south in the past 15 years in search of work and hundreds of thousands of them have settled in the north. With a four-week shutdown looming, many of them are expected to try to return to their old family homes to sit out the contagion.

However, the governor of Puglia, the heel of Italy’s boot, made an impassioned plea on Facebook for them to remain in the north, the epicenter of Europe’s worst coronavirus outbreak.
“I speak to you as if you were my children, my brothers, my nephews and nieces: stop and go back,” said Michele Emiliano. “Get off at the first train station, do not catch planes ... turn your cars around, get off your buses. Do not bring the Lombard, Veneto and Emilia epidemic to Puglia.”

The northern regions of Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna and Veneto represent 85% of all the 5,883 confirmed cases to date and 92% of the 233 recorded deaths. By contrast, the southern regions of Puglia, Basilicata, Calabria, Campania and Molise have between them had barely 100 cases and just two deaths.

Looking to deter a mass influx, all five regions issued decrees on Sunday saying people arriving from the northern red zones had to go into self-imposed quarantine for two weeks.
“The government must block an exodus to Calabria, which risks triggering a disastrous bomb,” said Jole Santelli, the president of Calabria, the impoverished toe of Italy.
“Calabria is not in a position to manage a serious health emergency .... Returning from the north in an uncontrolled manner endangers our land and our loved ones. Don’t do it. Stop.”

The government appears to be giving people a day before formally enacting the lockdown and television showed hundreds of travelers flowing into Milan’s central station overnight to catch trains out of the city.
Airports and roads were also all open.
Reporting by Crispian Balmer; Editing by Mark Potter
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

[Plain Jane]

Zerohedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

EU Chaos: Watch As Turkish Armored Vehicle Pulls Down Border Fence For Migrants

by Tyler Durden
Sun, 03/08/2020 - 18:01
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Submitted by SouthFront
On Friday a video was shared on social media showing that Turkish security forces used an armored vehicle with a rope to pull down the fence at the Greek border and allow migrants to pass.
The vehicle, according to Greek media is one of the “HIZIR/ATES” type vehicles with daytime and nighttime border surveillance vehicles, which Turkey received from May to August 2019, financed by a program - ironically enough - mostly paid for by the EU.

CNW@ConflictsW
https://twitter.com/ConflictsW/status/1236366789841469440

A Turkish armoured vehicle with a rope attached to it was reportedly trying to pull down the Greek border fence this evening #Turkey #Greece



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Furthermore, Turkish special police operations units were shown pointing their high-powered rifles at the Greek border patrol cars.

Nektaria Stamouli@nstamouli
https://twitter.com/nstamouli/status/1236363444007374849

Another video provided by #Greek authorities where acc to #Greek officials a Turkish army vehicle is trying to tear down the Greek #border fence



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Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu over the weekend stated that that the migrants who cross to Europe would go above one million, which would cause the fall of European governments and destabilization of their economies.

Meanwhile, Turkey continues with its claims of rescuing migrants in distress.

A total of 60 asylum seekers, most of them children were rescued off Turkey’s Aegean coast, security sources said on Sunday.

Abdullah Bozkurt@abdbozkurt
https://twitter.com/abdbozkurt/status/1236588651389255680

Dangerous escalation on #Turkey-#Greece border. :

Turkish special police operation units point their high-powered rifles at #Greek border patrol cars along Evros (Meric) river line.



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Turkish Coast Guard teams said in a statement that a group of Afghans in a rubber boat, including 33 children, were rescued while attempting to cross to Greek islands.

It is also accusing Greek soldiers of opening fire on migrants, with a video purportedly showing specifically that.

RT

✔@RT_com
https://twitter.com/RT_com/status/1236388428679467013

Shots fired? | #Turkey says #Greek soldier ‘fired’ at migrants

A footage handed out by the Turkey’s govt on Saturday allegedly shows a #Greece's soldier firing shots toward a barbed-wire fence at the border.



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On March 6th, Turkey’s Communications Directorate Fahrettin Altun slammed Greek authorities over the “ill-treatment of refugees.”
In a statement to the CNN International network, Altun responded to claims by Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis that Ankara is “assisting” thousands of migrants on its border to get into Europe.

Abdullah Bozkurt@abdbozkurt
https://twitter.com/abdbozkurt/status/1236305722767532035

Refugees who cross to Europe will soon top to a million, European governments will fall, their economies will be destabilized and their stock exchanges will tumble and they can't do anything about it, says #Turkey's Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu.



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“We categorically reject Prime Minister Mitsotakis’ allegations and we are deeply concerned about the ill-treatment of, and the use of lethal force against refugees by this country’s law enforcement and border security agents,” Altun said.

 

[Plain Jane]

Zerohedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

6 Killed, Dozens Wounded During Coronavirus-Inspired Prison Riot In Italy

by Tyler Durden
Mon, 03/09/2020 - 08:13
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A prison riot reportedly broke out Sunday afternoon at an Italian prison in the city of Modena that has left six dead, according to the Italian newspaper Corriere di Bologna.
The riot, which started at around 2 pm local time, started when about 60 inmates decided to set the prison on fire in an attempted mass escape reportedly inspired by the coronavirus quarantine crackdown. Inmates were reportedly told that family members wouldn't be allowed to visit during the quarantine (remember what happened in those Chinese prisons?). This left dozens furious and, in an overcrowded prison, that type of rage can spread quickly.

Inmates demands for more information about policies being put in place to suppress the virus certainly helped spark the riot, but local officials were careful to characterize the riot as something that happened "in addition" to the outbreak, not because of it, while critics noted longstanding issues like overcrowding contributed to the unrest.



Shortly after prisoners overwhelmed the guards, a contingent of police arrived, sparking a confrontation that led to an hours-long faceoff.

While six have been killed so far, more fatalities are expected, as dozens were badly wounded in the fighting, while others reportedly overdosed on medications like methadone and benzodiazepines as prisons apparently raided the prison hospital and stole all the methadone and Xanax they could find. Authorities insist that half of the six deaths so far could be attributed to overdoses, though that sounds...somewhat suspicious to us.


According to Corriere, the police intervention stopped 500 prisoners from escaping. On Italian twitter, reports that the 500 prisoners hadescaped were being reported as fact.



We hope to learn more about the riots later in the day. But will this uprising inspire others across the locked-down north?

 

[Plain Jane]

Prince Andrew 'shut the door' on Epstein probe cooperation - U.S. prosecutor

Britain's Prince Andrew has declined to cooperate with a U.S. investigation into possible co-conspirators of deceased financier and accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, a U.S. prosecutor said on Monday.

www.reuters.com

NEWS
MARCH 9, 2020 / 1:58 PM / UPDATED 7 HOURS AGO
Prince Andrew 'shut the door' on Epstein probe cooperation: U.S. prosecutor

Brendan Pierson, Mark Hosenball
3 MIN READ

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Britain’s Prince Andrew has declined to cooperate with a U.S. investigation into possible co-conspirators of deceased financier and accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, a U.S. prosecutor said on Monday.

Contrary to Prince Andrew’s very public offer to cooperate with our investigation into Epstein’s co-conspirators, an offer that was conveyed via press release, Prince Andrew has now completely shut the door on voluntary cooperation and our office is considering its options,” U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman said when asked about Epstein at a news conference about an unrelated case.

Berman’s spokesman James Margolin declined comment on the options being considered. He said the prince’s lawyers had said Andrew would not submit voluntarily to an interview. He said this was after Jan. 27, when Berman told a news conference Andrew had not offered any cooperation.

Andrew, 60, had said in a public statement in November that he was stepping down from public duties and would be willing to help “any appropriate law enforcement agency with their investigations, if required.”


A friend of Epstein’s, the prince has not been accused of criminal wrongdoing. He has described his association with the financier as “ill-judged.” A spokeswoman for the royal family declined comment.

Clare Montgomery, a senior London barrister who British news reports say represents Andrew on matters related to Epstein, also declined to comment, citing professional rules limiting her ability to speak publicly about legal issues.

Andrew, Queen Elizabeth’s second son, has denied an accusation by a woman who said she was trafficked by Epstein and forced to have sex with his friends, including the prince, when she was 17.

A U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation probe is focusing on British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, a longtime associate of Epstein’s, and others who facilitated the wealthy financier’s alleged trafficking of underage girls, law enforcement sources told Reuters in December.

Epstein had socialized with the prince and other high-profile figures including U.S. President Donald Trump and former president Bill Clinton.

Epstein’s suicide in Manhattan’s Metropolitan Correctional Center in August, at age 66, occurred little over a month after he was arrested and charged with trafficking dozens of underage girls as young as 14 from at least 2002 to 2005. Prosecutors said he recruited girls to give him massages, which became sexual in nature. Epstein had pleaded not guilty.

Reporting By Brendan Pierson in New York and Mark Hosenball in Washington; Editing by Noeleen Walder and Howard Goller
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

[Plain Jane]

Over beer and herrings, CDU's eastern faithful spurn Merkel 2.0

In a beer hall in eastern Germany, locals are toasting the man they are counting on to see out Chancellor Angela Merkel and her brand of liberal conservatism.

www.reuters.com

NEWS
MARCH 10, 2020 / 3:08 AM / UPDATED 2 HOURS AGO
Over beer and herrings, CDU's eastern faithful spurn Merkel 2.0

Joseph Nasr
5 MIN READ

APOLDA, Germany (Reuters) - In a beer hall in eastern Germany, locals are toasting the man they are counting on to see out Chancellor Angela Merkel and her brand of liberal conservatism.

Friedrich Merz, whose line on Syrian asylum-seekers is “we can’t accept you here”, goes down well with his audience as he campaigns to succeed Merkel as leader of the Christian Democrats (CDU) and possibly the country.

Merz’s promise to shift the CDU to the right is as popular as the beer and herrings laid on to accompany his pitch to a party rally in the town of Apolda.

The CDU veteran is locked in a battle for the party’s soul with Armin Laschet, a centrist offering continuity after Merkel steps down in time for the next election, due by October 2021.

The CDU plans to pick a new leader at a special congress on April 25, with Merz currently leading Laschet in the polls by 35% to 24%.

At stake is Germany’s reputation - personified by Merkel - as Europe’s champion of the post-war liberal order, an issue now being blurred by the CDU’s domestic preoccupation with the rise of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD).

Whoever wins the CDU leadership faces the daunting challenge of uniting the party.

“Laschet is Merkel 2.0,” said Axel Zimmermann, 51, a bank clerk and one of 1,500 supporters who gave Merz a standing ovation at the beer hall rally in Apolda, a small, left-behind town in the eastern German state of Thuringia.

“Laschet will win elections and compromise to build coalitions, but he won’t be able to unite the CDU,” Zimmermann said. “Merz will take the CDU to the right. This will unite the CDU and weaken the AfD. What’s the point of winning elections if your party is falling apart?”

Straight-talking Merz, a 64-year-old lawyer, offers a socially conservative, pro-business pitch that appeals to the CDU’s core of mainly western, Catholic men who see Merkel - a Protestant from the east - as an anomaly.

Earlier this month Merz had a simple message for Syrian refugees who may be hoping to leave Turkey: “There is no point in coming to Germany.”

That strikes a chord in Thuringia, where Merkel’s decision in 2015 to open Germany’s borders to a million refugees fleeing war in the Middle East fueled the rise of the nationalist AfD.

By contrast, Laschet, 59, is making a more inclusive offer and last month won the support of Health Minister Jens Spahn, who appeals to some on the CDU’s more conservative wing, as a running mate.

“The CDU is bigger than either one of us, this is about the future of our country and the CDU,” said Spahn, adding it was time to build bridges within the party.

‘PARTY IN CRISIS’
Germany’s most successful political party since the end of World War Two is now struggling to find a way forward after many of its voters have fled to the far-right AfD and the leftist Greens.

Merkel’s supporters, who back Laschet, premier of Germany’s most populous state of North Rhine-Westphalia, fear that any shift to the right will cost the CDU dearly at the ballot box.

They point to the Greens, now the second most popular party in opinion polls, as the main threat to the CDU, and say the conservatives should stick to the middle-ground strategy that has handed Merkel’s party four straight election victories.

But Merz’s supporters say Germany desperately needs a distinctively conservative party to counter the AfD, to which the CDU has lost most voters.

“We have a crisis and this is that we don’t know what we stand for anymore,” said Christian Sitter of the Werte Union, or Values Union, an ultra-conservative grouping in Merkel’s conservative bloc, which has ruled with the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) during 11 of the chancellor’s 15 years in power.

“Merkel has been more interested in surviving as chancellor than in uniting the party,” added Sitter. “To survive she cut wishy-washy deals with the SPD and silenced the conservative wing. Now we are saying we want to be heard again.”

The debate over what the CDU stands for and its position vis-à-vis the AfD came to a head in Thuringia last month, when CDU lawmakers sided with the AfD to elect a new state premier, shattering the post-war consensus among established parties of shunning the far right.


So great was the resulting controversy that the newly elected premier quit after a few days and Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, who defeated Merz to win the CDU leadership in December 2018, abandoned her ambitions to run for chancellor.

Her authority crushed, Kramp-Karrenbauer decided to step down - opening the way for Merz and Laschet to duke it out.

“We have two choices: more of the same or a new start,” Merz said to loud applause in Apolda. “And we choose a new start.”

Editing by Paul Carrel and Giles Elgood
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

[Plain Jane]

Sixteen more years? Russian parliament backs move to keep Putin in power

Constitutional changes allowing Vladimir Putin to run for president again in 2024 sailed through both houses of Russia's parliament on Wednesday, raising the prospect he could clock up over three decades in the Kremlin.

www.reuters.com

NEWS
MARCH 11, 2020 / 4:03 AM / UPDATED 8 MINUTES AGO
Russian parliament backs changes allowing Putin to run again for president

Andrew Osborn, Polina Ivanova
4 MIN READ

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Constitutional changes allowing Vladimir Putin to run for president again in 2024 sailed through Russia’s lower house of parliament on Wednesday, opening the way for him to potentially stay in power until 2036.

Putin, 67, who has dominated the Russian political landscape for two decades as either president or prime minister, made a dramatic appearance in the chamber a day earlier to argue that term limits were less important in times of crisis.

Putin, a former KGB officer, is currently required by the constitution to step down in 2024 when his second sequential and fourth presidential term ends. But the amendment which he backed would formally reset his presidential term tally to zero.

The 450-seat State Duma, the lower house of parliament, on Wednesday voted in favor of the change, along with other amendments to the constitution, by 383 votes, in a third and final reading. Nobody voted against, but 43 lawmakers abstained. Twenty-four lawmakers were absent.

If, as Putin critics expect, the constitutional court now gives its blessing to the amendment and it is backed in a nationwide vote in April, Putin would have the option to run again for president in 2024.

Were he to do that, and his health and electoral fortunes allowed, he could potentially stay in office for another two back-to-back six-year terms until 2036 at which point he would be 83 and have spent 36 years at the top of Russian politics.

Kremlin critic and opposition politician Alexei Navalny has said he believes Putin will now try to become president for life.


Putin has not spelled out what his plans for the future are after 2024, but has said he does not favor the Soviet-era practice of having leaders for life who die in office.

PROTEST PICKETS
Putin in January unveiled a major shake-up of Russian politics and a constitutional overhaul, which the Kremlin billed as a redistribution of power from the presidency to parliament.

But Putin’s critics say the reform was merely a smoke screen to give the country’s ruling elite a way to keep Putin in power after 2024.

Opposition activists have said they plan to organize protests as early as Friday against the move to allow Putin to stay on. Their plans are complicated however by an order from Moscow’s government which has banned public gatherings of more than 5,000 people until April 10 due to coronavirus-related risks.

Two people staged lone pickets outside the State Duma on Wednesday. One of them Gleb Tumanov, 31, said he was a member of the Yabloko party, and held a banner calling the move “an usurpation of power.”

“I’m here because of Vladimir Putin’s desire to stay for a fifth term or even maybe a sixth,” said Tumanov.

It just feels sad. And reminiscent of the Soviet Union. I didn’t spend very much time living in the Soviet Union obviously but neither do I have any desire to do so.”

The changes backed by the State Duma on Wednesday will now be reviewed by other parts of the Russian legislative branch, including by Russia’s upper house of parliament later on Wednesday. No significant opposition is expected.

Additional reporting by Andrey Kuzmin, Alexander Marrow and Anton Zverev; editing by Philippa Fletcher
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

[Plain Jane]

Coronavirus: WHO declares coronavirus a pandemic – DW – 03/11/2020

WHO has said COVID-19 "can be characterized as a pandemic," while experts have said the coronavirus is likely to be 10 times more lethal than the seasonal flu. Follow DW for the latest coronavirus updates.

www.dw.com

Coronavirus latest: Germany rules out border closures
German Health Minister Jens Spahn says closing all of the country's borders "won't work." Follow DW for the latest coronavirus updates.

• Employees in key sectors in China's Hubei province have been allowed to return to work
• Italy, the worst-hit country after China, has over 10,000 confirmed cases
• Austria and Slovenia have closed their borders with Italy to prevent the spread of the disease

Read more: What you need to know about the coronavirus
Updates in Universal Coordinated Time (UTC/GMT)
10:57 Measures to counter the effects of coronavirus must be exempt from fiscal targets, Greece's government spokesman Steliod Petsas has said.

Stelios Petsas@SteliosPetsas
https://twitter.com/SteliosPetsas/status/1237689770811293696

#briefing_petsas https://twitter.com/govgr/status/1237689582222815232 …
Ελληνική Κυβέρνηση

✔@govgr

Live | Eνημέρωση των πολιτικών συντακτών από τον Κυβερνητικό Εκπρόσωπo @SteliosPetsas. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIZRp8Nuaro …

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10:46 Authorities have reported a second death from coronavirus in Germany, local media reported.
The death was recorded in the Heinsberg district where some of the first German cases were reported, in the most populous state of North Rhine-Westphalia.
There are over 1,500 cases reported throughout Germany.
10:43 Ahead of the UK budget, to be announced later on Wednesday, British Chancellor Rishi Sunak told minister that his new measures would make Britain "one of the best placed economies to tackle the impact of coronavirus.
10:30 German Chancellor Angela Merkel is giving a press conference on the German government's response to the outbreak.
"We must all understand that coronavirus has arrived in Europe," she said. This is the first time she has directly spoken to the media over the outbreak.
"When the virus is out there, the population has no immunity and no therapy exists, then 60 to 70% of the population will be infected," she told a news conference in Berlin. "The process has to be focused on not overburdening the health system by slowing the virus's spread."

DW News

✔@dwnews
https://twitter.com/dwnews/status/1237687926818922496

German Chancellor Angela Merkel makes first #coronavirus comments to the media. Join us LIVE from Berlin: https://www.pscp.tv/w/cTdkUzk3MTc4OTN8MUJSSmpRbFFPZ1JHd-cHWC8JhXDnmW4-aglt_1Uy_0q-xCYFJ2ov0OINJmRh …

dwnews @dwnews
German Chancellor Angela Merkel makes first #coronavirus comments to the media. Join us LIVE from Berlin:
pscp.tv

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10:29 Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said Wednesday that Rome is allocating an additional €25 billion ($28.3 billion) to tackle COVOD-19.
At least 631 Italians have died.

Giuseppe Conte

✔@GiuseppeConteIT
https://twitter.com/GiuseppeConteIT/status/1237679467482529792

In diretta da Palazzo Chigi: https://www.facebook.com/GiuseppeConte64/videos/2258718387764072/ …
Facebook Watch ‎@FacebookWatch



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5:59 AM - Mar 11, 2020
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10:21 Poland will close down schools, universities and cultural institutions, introducing an "effective quarantine," ministers have announced.
Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki urged parents to keep their children at home and refrain from giving handshakes.
10:05 Italy is setting aside €25 billion ($28.3 billion) to help its economy through the coronavirus outbreak.
09:46 Ukraine's capital Kiev is closing all schools and universities until the end of March, said city mayor Vitali Klitschko. The city also plans to restrict mass events, including conferences and concerts.
09:36 Anyone traveling to Beijing from outside of China will be quarantined for 14 days, reported Chinese state media People's Daily. People on short-term business trips will be required to stay at designated hotels and take a virus test.

People's Daily, China

✔@PDChina
https://twitter.com/PDChina/status/1237672155342499841

Those from non #COVID19-stricken countries and regions who come to #Beijing need to undertake 14-day mandatory quarantine. Those on short-term business trips need to stay at designated hotels and take nucleic acid tests: Beijing authority


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5:30 AM - Mar 11, 2020
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09:10 Austrian train company ÖBB said it is no longer running a passenger service to Italy. After consultation with authorities, international freight train traffic will be maintained. A total of 206 people have tested positive for the virus in Austria.
08:57 Belgium confirmed its first fatality from coronavirus. Health Minister Maggie De Block said the victim was 90 years old.
08:02 The Bank of England cut its interest rates from 0.75% to 0.25% to bolster Britain's economy in response to COVID-19. The Bank of England said the measures were to "help to support business and consumer confidence at a difficult time."

The Bank of England slashed its interest rates to help the economy through the slump caused by coronavirus
07:30 "Saying we will close all the borders and then the virus will pass us by won't work," German Health Minister Jens Spahn told German broadcaster Deutschlandfunk. "The virus is here in Germany, this is the reality we must get used to."
07:19 Thailand's Interior Ministry announced its is canceling its grant of visa on arrival for 18 countries.
On the list are: Bulgaria, Bhutan, China (including Taiwan), Cyprus, Ethiopia, Fiji, Georgia, India, Kazakhstan, Malta, Mexico, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan, and the Pacific island Republic of Vanuatu.
Thailand is also canceling its visa exemptions for South Korea, Italy and Hong Kong.
05:46 The provincial government of Hubei province, the epicenter of the virus, said people employed in key sectors such as public transport, medical supply, and daily necessities can return to work. People employed in industries that impact national or global supply chains can also return to work with permission from relevant authorities.
05:30 The Italian government placed the entire country on lockdown on Tuesday. The measures have had dire consequences for the tourism industry in some regions.
05:15 The UK parliament confirmed its first case of the COVID-19 virus after Health Minister Nadine Dorries said she tested positive for the virus.

Nadine Dorries

✔@NadineDorries
https://twitter.com/NadineDorries/status/1237517539883634688

Thanks for so many good wishes. It’s been pretty rubbish but I hope I’m over the worst of it now. More worried about my 84yo mum who is staying with me and began with the cough today. She is being tested tomorrow. Keep safe and keep washing those hands, everyone.

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7:15 PM - Mar 10, 2020
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04:55 A man has been pulled alive from the rubble of a collapsed coronavirus quarantine hotel after being trapped there for 69 hours. A 10-year-old boy and his mother were pulled alive from the wreckage a few hours earlier.
A hotel in southeastern China was being used to quarantine people exposed to coronavirus when it collapsed, killing at least 27 people. Two people are still unaccounted for.
04:35 Coronavirus cases in the US topped 1,000 on Tuesday, nearly twice the number of cases from the day before. At least 28 people have died.
The surge in the number of cases can be explained by a shift in testing from federal labs to state ones.
Health experts have criticized the government for a diagnostic strategy that targeted too few people initially, allowing the disease to spread undetected.
US Vice President Mike Pence defended the government's response. He said that "a million tests are in the field."
04:20 Confused about coronavirus conspiracy theories? This isn't the first time diseases and disinformation have crossed paths. Read about other examples from history here.

04:00 Several events commemorating the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan 9 years ago were canceled on Wednesday over fears of worsening the coronavirus outbreak.

Around 18,500 people in Japan were killed when on March 11, 2011 a severe earthquake hit the Tohoku region in the southeast. A deadly tidal wave followed shortly after.

In place of the annual memorial service, Japan's prime minister Shinzo Abe said his office would observe a minute of silence today.

03:35 Two charter planes evacuated 361 Taiwan nationals from Wuhan, the epicenter of the coronavirus, late Tuesday night and early Wednesday. After arriving in Taipei, the passengers were sent to three different quarantine centers, where they will spend the next 14 days under observation, Taiwan's health and welfare minister said.

Taiwan has thus far reported 48 cases of COVID-19, including 1 death.

03:15 According to the Associated Press, the governor of the state of Washington is planning to ban events of more than 250 people in the state capital, Seattle.


02:20 In Italy, the coronavirus death toll rose by 168 on Tuesday to a total of 631 fatalities nationwide. It was the country's largest spike in absolute numbers since the Italian outbreak was reported on February 21.

01:45 The Olympic Flame lighting ceremony will be held without spectators after dozens of people in southern Greece tested positive for coronavirus.

The Greek Olympic Committee said that only 100 accredited guests from the International Olympic Committee will attend the ceremonial lighting of the flame that will burn at the 2020 Olympic games in Tokyo. Originally, 700 people had been expected to attend the event to be held in Olympia, Greece on Thursday.

Traditionally, the Olympic flame is carried on a torch relay through Greece prior to being handed over to the organizers of that year's games.

01:25 South Korea reported 242 new cases of coronavirus on Tuesday, for a total of 7,755 infections nationwide. It was the country's first rise in new cases in five days.

South Korea is among the countries most affected by the outbreak, following behind China, Iran, and Italy in terms of total cases.

01:11 The Premier League has announced that Wednesday's soccer match between Manchester City and Arsenal has been postponed "as a cautionary measure" and squad members also went into self-isolation. This is the first match in the top competition to be called off due to coronavirus.

The decision was taken after Arsenal players came into contact with a rival team owner who announced Tuesday that he had contracted COVID-19.

01:05 Mainland China confirmed 24 new cases of coronavirus on Tuesday, up from 19 the day before. Twenty-two deaths were reported, all in the central province of Hubei, where the COVID-19 outbreak originated.

00:52 The health ministry in Panama has reported the country's first death linked to coronavirus, one day after reporting the first confirmed case of the virus in the country. The government is suspending mass gatherings like concerts and sporting events to slow the outbreak.

00:40 Beijing has reported 6 new coronavirus infections in the city, all of them imported from Italy.

00:16 Japan on Tuesday reported its biggest one-day rise in new infections, with 59 new cases confirmed. The country now has 1,278 diagnoses of COVID-19. Nearly 700 of them were passengers on the Diamond Princess cruise ship that was quarantined for two weeks last month.

00:12 Australia will implement a travel ban for Italy starting Wednesday evening Australian time. Entry to Australia will be barred to all non-residents traveling from Italy. Resident arrivals will be required to undergo 14 days in quarantine.

The move came a day after Rome put severe restrictions on mass gatherings and domestic travel in Italy. The country has reported over 460 deaths due to coronavirus.

00:10 Here's a recap of the global figures:

• 118,903 global cases (80,761 within mainland China)
• 4,269 global deaths (3,136 within mainland China)
• 65,110 recovered

00:05 The US government plans to meet with the heads of global technology companies like Google, Apple, Facebook, Twitter, and Microsoft to discuss the coronavirus epidemic, the Washington Post reports.

00:01 Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has promised A$2.4 billion (US$1.6 billion, €1.4 billion) to combat the spread of coronavirus.


kmm, kp/rc (AP, AFP, dpa, Reuters)

Every evening, DW sends out a selection of the day's news and features. Sign up here.

*********

DW has been doing a daily recap for COVID-19. I won't post it every day but it gives an all around look at what is happening.

 

[Plain Jane]

EU-UK face-to-face Brexit trade talks cancelled due to coronavirus

Britain and the European Union agreed to cancel face-to-face trade negotiations planned for next week in London due to the coronavirus outbreak, the UK government said on Thursday, adding however that alternatives were being explored.

www.reuters.com

NEWS
MARCH 12, 2020 / 2:10 PM / UPDATED 17 HOURS AGO
EU-UK face-to-face Brexit trade talks canceled due to coronavirus


2 MIN READ

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain and the European Union agreed to cancel face-to-face trade negotiations planned for next week in London due to the coronavirus outbreak, the UK government said on Thursday, adding however that alternatives were being explored.
The move threatens a timeline which many in the EU thought was already optimistic, with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson seeking a new deal by the end of the year.
The COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic has hit financial markets hard and forced governments to take unprecedented measures to restrict citizens’ movements and limit the spread of the disease.

Given the latest COVID-19 developments, UK and EU negotiators have today jointly decided not to hold next week’s round of negotiations in London, in the form originally scheduled,” a British statement said.

“Both sides are currently exploring alternative ways to continue discussions, including if possible the use of video conferences.”

Speaking before Thursday’s announcement, British ministers had been adamant that there would be no extension to a one-year transition period - during which EU rules still apply to Britain - which is due to end on Dec. 31.

Reporting by William James and Kylie MacLellan; editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Stephen Addison
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

[Plain Jane]

Teargas, clashes in Paris as Yellow Vests' protesters defy coronavirus ban

French security forces fired teargas and clashed with anti-government "Yellow Vest" protesters who were demonstrating in Paris on Saturday in defiance of a ban on mass gatherings that aims to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

www.reuters.com

NEWS
MARCH 14, 2020 / 7:18 AM / UPDATED AN HOUR AGO
Teargas, clashes in Paris as Yellow Vests' protesters defy coronavirus ban

John Irish, Marine Pennetier
4 MIN READ

PARIS (Reuters) - French security forces fired teargas and clashed with anti-government “Yellow Vest” protesters who were demonstrating in Paris on Saturday in defiance of a ban on mass gatherings that aims to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

In a televised address to the nation on Thursday, President Emmanuel Macron announced school closures and urged people to avoid close contact for fear of propagating the virus that has killed 79 people in France and infected more than 3,600.

The government on Friday banned all gatherings of more than 100 people. Paris police had already turned down requests for protesters to convene at sensitive sites, including the Champs Elysees where there were violent clashes between security forces and protesters almost a year ago to the day.

“It’s Saturday, demonstration day. Some people think that the coronavirus won’t touch them and refuse to respect the advice,” said a riot police officer in front of a heavily armed vehicle blocking the road that leads to the presidential palace.

Central Paris had earlier been in lockdown, with police searching bags over concerns the protesters would seek to return to the Champs Elysees. The police cordon had been eased by lunchtime.
Hundreds of protesters, some wearing protective medical masks, had marched early on Saturday from Montparnasse train station, chanting anti-Macron slogans. By mid-afternoon, tension had grown.

A police source put the numbers at about 400.

Riot police used teargas and stun grenades in attempts to disperse the crowds and clashed with individuals as about 2,000 security forces were deployed across the city to manage the situation.

The security forces are currently pushing back a portion of the cortege composed of determined individuals, who are trying to continue in a direction that has not been declared,” the Paris police said on Twitter, adding that 25 people had been arrested.

The protesters, named after the high-visibility jackets they wear, were holding a 70th consecutive Saturday of action. The movement emerged late in 2018, triggered by fuel tax rises, and swelled into a revolt against Macron’s government.

While protests are now much smaller, anger at Macron’s government remains and Saturday’s demonstration served as a remainder to the president a day before local elections.

Sunday’s vote is an important test for Macron, with opponents now particularly angered by his plans to reform the French pensions system. His party is not expected to do well.

“We had to come and mark the day to tell Macron that we’re still here and that we won’t accept his pension reform,” said one pensioner.

Voters will begin choosing mayors for 35,000 town halls and almost half a million councillors on Sunday in elections overshadowed by the coronavirus outbreak, which is expected to hit turnout.

Macron decided to go ahead with the elections despite concerns over the spread of the illness, which have led the government to shut schools and universities, suspend major sporting events, curtail public transport and close tourism attractions.

Reporting by John Irish; Editing by Kirsten Donovan, Frances Kerry, William Maclean
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

[Plain Jane]

Coronavirus-hit airlines fight for their lives – DW – 03/16/2020

Airline bookings were already in free fall when Donald Trump announced a travel ban on arrivals from Europe due to the coronavirus pandemic. Several carriers are now demanding state aid and preparing mass layoffs.

www.dw.com

Fragile airline sector struggles to beat coronavirus
Airline bookings were already in free fall when Donald Trump announced a travel ban on arrivals from Europe due to the coronavirus pandemic. Several carriers are now demanding state aid and preparing mass layoffs.


Lufthansa planes on the ground
The true scale of the crisis facing global airlines due to the spread of the new coronavirus can be seen by the number of grounded planes at airports. If that's not proof enough, try their share prices. Germany's flag carrier Lufthansa has lost 41% of its value since the middle of last month, shares in British Airways owner IAG are down by almost half, while Air France-KLM is now worth 56% less. IAG said Monday it would slash the group's flight capacity by 75% during April and May owing to the virus outbreak.

Having already seen a sharp drop in demand since the COVID-19 outbreak first emerged in December in China, airlines are now struggling to keep up with fast-changing travel restrictions. Last week US President Donald Trump banned arrivals from 26 mostly-European Union countries, leading to a further collapse in bookings. Since then, dozens of other countries have locked down their residents and banned new flight arrivals.

Airline industry research house OAG calculated that nearly 2 million seats were hit by Trump's announcement alone. While Delta and United Airlines were the most affected US carriers, it warned that Lufthansa would be most impacted in Europe.

"Many trans-Atlantic services are operated in joint venture agreements between partners," John Grant, senior aviation analyst at OAG, told DW, adding that he hoped "the pain, in some way, would be shared" between the two continents.

Airlines set for bailouts

Lufthansa, the world's third most profitable airline after Delta and American, said on Friday it might need to tap the €550 billion ($610 billion) aid package announced by the German government. Last week, the German airline cut its usual 70 flights to the US to just four. It had previously announced the grounding of two-thirds of its global fleet as a result of the huge slump in demand.

OAG's Grant said Lufthansa, along with BA and Air France-KLM, usually relies on an "extremely profitable" trans-Atlantic market that provides "high volumes of business-class traffic." Amid the worsening spread in Europe and the US, the Cologne-headquartered carrier has described the COVID-19 outbreak as more severe for its financial health than the 9/11 attacks.

In a further warning, Lufthansa said in a statement it would suspend its 2019 dividend payment, adding that in the previous week, new bookings for its airline group — which includes Swiss, Austrian Airlines, Eurowings and Brussels Airlines — were down 50% on a week earlier. It also reported "a significant increase in the number of flight cancellations."

Lufthansa's peers are fairing worse. United Airlines President Scott Kirby said net bookings for Europe and Asia had plummeted 100%, while domestic bookings were down 70%. British Airways, which breathed a sigh of relief when Trump's travel ban didn't initially include the UK and Ireland — a decision reversed just two days later — warned staff last week the airline was "under immense pressure" and had begun urgent talks with lenders for fresh financing.

Lufthansa plane in parking position
Airlines around the world are incurring heavy losses becuae of the coronovirus spread leading to massive flight cancellations

French daily Les Echos on Saturday reported that the Paris government was considering a bailout of Air France-KLM. The report was quickly denied by ministers. Travel firm TUI has, meanwhile, effectively shut down its operations and will also seek German state aid, business daily Handelsblatt reported on Monday.

Job losses on the cards

Several airlines have already announced far-reaching job cuts. Norwegian said it would lay off half of its 11,000 staff. KLM says its cull could affect 2,000 employees. Scandinavian Airlines (SAS), meanwhile, says 90% of its workers will likely go. Other carriers are expected to demand staff take unpaid leave or — like Lufthansa — cut workers' hours, adding to the human misery in an industry already hit by fierce competition.

Airports, too, are struggling with the dramatic collapse in air travel. Germany's aviation hub, Frankfurt International Airport, has seen a 45% drop in traffic over the past week. Airport operator Fraport says it is preparing for a 60% decline.

Draconian measures imposed by several European, Middle East, South American and African nations are likely to be felt more strongly by their national carriers and regional low-cost airlines. As the Madrid government readied a nationwide lockdown at the weekend, budget airline Jet2 turned around its planes from Britain to Spain while in mid-air.

One or two 'green shoots'

China, which a few weeks ago was the epicenter of the outbreak, is now trying to stop foreigners bringing the novel coronavirus back to the country. All international arrivals to the capital Beijing will now automatically be sent to quarantine centers, which could spark a new wave of cancellations just as airlines start to reinstate some flights.

"China has added back over 3 million seats to their domestic network of which most are still empty. But it is a green shoot of recovery,” OAG's Grant told DW.

Hong Kong carrier Cathay Pacific, an early casualty of the coronavirus outbreak in China, is also adding some US flights back, as it hopes to be swamped with bookings from students and citizens seeking to escape a worsening health crisis in North America.

All the same, Cathay on Monday warned of a substantial loss in the first half of its financial year. It was forced to ground half its fleet when coronavirus first emerged. Bookings had already taken a beating from 6 months of anti-government protests against Beijing's interference in the territory's affairs.

Grant noted that international flight capacity in Asia continues to fall, especially as "Japan and South Korea are essentially stopping all flight as some lingering trade disputes are flaring up around the COVID-19 event."

Hopes expressed by airlines that some sense of normalcy will return in time for the busy summer tourism season appear to be at odds with most health experts, who think the coronavirus pandemic could last much longer.

Watch video01:51
Airline industry takes massive hit from travel ban

 

[Plain Jane]

As pandemic spreads, China's ex-epicenter down to 1 new case

MADRID (AP) — The battle to contain the coronavirus reached new urgency, as more governments locked down borders and ordered new closures and restrictions and pleas went out to funnel masks and ventilators to places struggling with soaring numbers of sick patients.

apnews.com

Lockdowns, tanking stocks: Virus fight shifts to Europe, US
By ARITZ PARRA and ADAM GELLER

MADRID (AP) — The global battle to contain the coronavirus reached a new level of urgency Monday, as governments locked down borders, a new wave of closures and restrictions kept more than 500 million students at home, and pleas went out to funnel masks and ventilators to places struggling with soaring caseloads.

The growing sense of crisis rocked global financial markets, particularly on Wall Street, where the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 12.9 percent. Investors’ fears that the outbreak will throw the global economy into a recession sent the market to its worst one-day loss since 1987.

The shifting fronts in the battle were made clear by figures showing that cases outside China — where the virus originated — surpassed those inside its borders for the first time. Spain officially became the fourth-most infected country in the world, surpassing South Korea.


With the number of cases worldwide topping 181,000, a surge of patients in Madrid’s hospitals fueled worries across Europe of what lies ahead.

There is no easy or quick way out of this extremely difficult situation,” said Mark Rutte, the prime minister of the Netherlands, in the first televised speech by a Dutch premier since 1973.

Only China, Italy and Iran have more confirmed cases of COVID-19 than Spain, where the number of infections increased overnight by roughly 20%, to 9,191, and the number of fatalities rose to 309, according to the Spanish Health Ministry. The actual figure was presumed to be even higher, because Spain switched to a new system of reporting.

A somber Rutte told viewers that “a large part” of the Netherlands’ 17 million people are likely to contract the virus. So far, 1,413 people have tested positive and 24 have died. The government has ordered schools, restaurants and bars closed until April 6 and banned gatherings of more than 100 people.

Countries from Canada to Switzerland, Russia and Malaysia announced sharp new restrictions on the movement of people across their borders.

“We have a window of time at the moment to slow the spread of the virus,” said Ulrike Demmer, a spokeswoman for Germany’s government, which reversed its earlier insistence that border controls would not work. It imposed new limits on crossings with France, Austria, Switzerland, Denmark and Luxembourg, after cases of the virus increased by more than 1,000 over 24 hours.

Full Coverage: Virus Outbreak
With much-needed ventilators in short supply, the British government asked manufacturers, including automakers Ford and Rolls-Royce, to convert some of their assembly lines to making the life-saving equipment.

“We are facing what is an unprecedented situation and that is going to require an unprecedented response,” said James Slack, a spokesman for Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Around the world, fast-changing rules and restrictions tore up the script for daily life.

Ireland ordered all pubs and bars to close for two weeks — including on Tuesday, St. Patrick’s Day.

In the Croatian capital of Zagreb, officials in charge of the city’s cemeteries restricted attendance at funerals to only the closest relatives of the deceased, to avoid spreading the virus.

In the U.S., casinos went dark not just in Las Vegas, but in at least 14 other states. From Alaska to New York, restaurants and bars were ordered either to shut down or to restrict their services to delivery and takeout.


Malaysia’s leader announced a sweeping lockdown, with travel in and out of the country banned for two weeks and only essential services allowed to stay open. The first confirmed cases of COVID-19 were reported in Somalia, which has one of Africa’s weakest health systems after nearly three decades of conflict between the government and the al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab extremist group.

In France, officials imposed nationwide restrictions on where people could go, allowing them to leave home only to buy food, go to work, or do other essential tasks.

French President Emmanuel Macron said the government ordered the restrictions because people hadn’t complied with earlier guidelines and “we are at war.”

School closings in 56 countries kept more than 516 million students home, the United Nations said. New York City joined those ranks Monday, closing a school system with 1.1 million students.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen suggested a 30-day ban on people entering the bloc for non-essential travel reasons.

“The less travel, the more we can contain the virus,” she said in a video message.

A number of EU member countries have, so far, resisting such far-reaching controls. But many went ahead Monday with measures to sharply curtail activities inside their borders.

In Switzerland, the city-state of Geneva banned gatherings of more than five people, though exceptions were made for business meetings that followed public health rules.

Switzerland’s government declared a state of emergency, ordering shops, restaurants, bars and other facilities shut down. The measures exclude health-care operations as well as supermarkets, but also include entertainment and leisure facilities, which will be closed until April 19.

“We need to do everything possible to slow the advance of the coronavirus,” Swiss President Simonetta Sommaruga said, urging people to practice social distancing and follow government guidelines.

In the United States, officials urged older Americans and those with chronic health conditions to stay home, and recommended functions be capped at 50 people.

Americans returning from abroad encountered chaotic airport health screenings that clearly broke all virus-fighting rules against having packed crowds close together.

For most people, the coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. But severe illness can occur, especially in the elderly and people with existing health problems. Worldwide, more more than 7,000 people have died. Over 78,000 have recovered, most of them in China.

Still, some countries have resisted more stringent measures to contain the virus.

In Britain, bars and restaurants remained open and there was no ban on large events. The prime minister’s spokesman said closing schools hadn’t been ruled out, but “the scientific and medical advice is that that’s not a step which we should be taking at this point in time.”

In China, thousands of workers headed back to jobs at factories desperate to get production going again, as the virus ebbed. In South Korea, only 74 more cases were reported.

But authorities urged vigilance to keep hard-won gains against the microscopic foe.

“If we loosen our grip on the quarantine,” the South Korean Dong-a Ilbo newspaper said in an editorial, “it could be just a matter of time for the embers of small-scale cluster infections to be revived.”

Italy reported another jump in infections Monday, up more than 3,000 to 27,980. With 2,158 deaths — including 349 more in just the last 24 hours — Italy now accounts for well over a quarter of the global death toll. Cases, however, slowed in Lombardy, the hardest-hit region.

In Spain, a cut in the frequency of commuter trains created considerable crowds during rush hour Monday Atocha, one of Madrid’s main train stations.

Wearing blue latex gloves, cleaner Mari Carmen Ramírez said she, like many others, couldn’t afford to risk her salary of 950 euros ($1,042) per month.

“I fear the coronavirus, but I fear more not being able to pay the utility bills,” the 55-year-old said. “When this is all over, how are we going to eat?”

___

Geller reported from New York. Associated Press writers Mike Corder in Amsterdam, Jovana Gec in Belgrade, Frank Jordans in Berlin, Jill Lawless in London, Colleen Barry in Milan, Italy, Ken Moritsugu in Beijing, Kim Tong-hyung and Hyung-jin Kim in Seoul, South Korea and Eileen Ng in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia contributed to this report.

 

[Plain Jane]

Zerohedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

Europe's 'Open Borders' System Faces Collapse Amid Covid-19 Outbreak

by Tyler Durden
Wed, 03/18/2020 - 02:00
TwitterFacebookRedditEmailPrint


Update (0200ET): Leaders of the 26 European countries that are part of what is normally a free-movement zone also agreed Tuesday to shut their external borders to most nonresidents for the first time.

"We are faced with a serious crisis, an exceptional one in terms of magnitude and nature," European Council President Charles Michel said late Tuesday.
"We want to push back this threat. We want to slow down the spread of this virus."

Other leaders phrased it in martial terms: "We are at war," French President Emmanuel Macron said Monday.
Until last week, citizens of the E.U. could move across the continent with ease, even as the virus slowly spread across its population.Just as a resident of Maryland can easily pack bags and head to Virginia, so, too, could a Pole cross into Germany.

But no more.

* * *
As The Gatestone Institute's Soeren Kern detailed earlier, as a growing number of countries close their borders to fight the coronavirus pandemic, the European system of open internal borders - a cornerstone of European integration - is on the brink of collapse.

The so-called Schengen Area, which comprises 26 European countries, entered into effect in 1995 and abolishes the need for passports and other types of control at mutual borders. It is a key practical and symbolic achievement of European integration and is now falling apart.
In a move packed with political significance, Germany, the largest and most powerful country in the European Union, on March 16 introduced controls on its borders with Austria, Denmark, France, Luxembourg and Switzerland after it registered 1,000 new cases of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in just one day.
Anyone without a valid reason to travel, German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said, would be turned away at the borders. Travelers with symptoms of COVID-19 would be refused entry as well. German citizens and anyone with a residence permit, however, will be allowed to reenter Germany.

"Protecting our population also requires measures to reduce the risk of infection from global travel,"Seehofer said.
"We are dealing with a very aggressive and fast-spreading virus. We will have to deal with it for months. As long as there is no European solution, you have to act in the interest of your own people."

The decision to impose border controls represents a major reversal by the German government. Just a few days earlier, on March 11, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said, "In Germany, we believe that border closings are not the answer to fight the spread of the Covid-19 epidemic." Her sentiment was echoed later that day by German Health Minister Jens Spahn, who stated, "We are not going to get rid of the virus by closing our borders. The virus is already with us and we have to get used to the idea."

On March 15, the German newspaper Bild reported that Merkel was still blocking all attempts by members of her cabinet to impose border controls. The infighting, however, had cost Germany valuable time in trying to contain the spread of the virus.
Writing for the influential German blog Tichys Einblick, commentator Ferdinand Knauss, explained that Merkel was blocking border controls because the dogma of open borders is an ideological pillar of Merkelism:

"In the face of the corona crisis, there were apparently discussions in the Federal Government about what most of our neighboring countries had long since done: consistent protective measures at the borders. Several of our neighboring countries — Denmark, Poland, Czech Republic, Austria — have largely closed their borders. In most countries, people from at-risk areas are strictly controlled upon entry. Not in Germany. You do not have to guess very long who prevents this. Only the Chancellor can do that. But why is she doing it?
"In that fateful year of 2015, the 'open borders' became a conditio sine qua non [indispensable condition] for the continuation of Merkelism. That is why the dogma must be maintained. Merkel knows that the instruction to close the border, in general to take consistent national measures to protect her own citizens, would be tantamount to her own declaration of political bankruptcy.
"So, as citizens become aware of the threat and their demand for protection increases, the corona crisis also becomes a crisis of Merkelism. It already is, as Merkel's rejection of border protection measures shows. One of the decisive questions will be how the media, which are still largely loyal to Merkel, and the political and social establishment weigh in: The morality of openness to the world versus the protection from threats. The greater and more painful the risk of corona, the harder it will be to neglect the need for protection.
"Merkel is now fighting. But as always in her chancellorship, she is not fighting for her country and its citizens, for which she is responsible. She is fighting for her power, for her legacy. When the citizens come to understand this, the corona crisis will have been Merkel's last fight in the political arena."

Merkel's stance had left Germany increasingly isolated, as a growing number of Schengen countries have introduced border controls:

• Austria. On March 10, Chancellor Sebastian Kurz announced controls along the border with Italy and a ban on the entry of most travelers from there. Kurz said, "The utmost priority is to prevent the spread and thus the importing of the illness into our society. There is therefore a ban on entry for people from Italy into Austria, with the exception of people who have a doctor's note certifying that they are healthy." Interior Minister Karl Nehammer also announced a ban on all air or rail travel to Italy.
• Slovenia. On March 11, Health Minister Ales Sabeder stated that the government had closed some border crossings with Italy and started making health checks at those remaining open in order to combat the spread of the coronavirus. He said that citizens would only be able to cross the border in six places while all other roads that crossed the border would be closed. Normally more than 20 crossings are open. Passenger train transport between the two countries has also been stopped and most bus companies have canceled routes to Italy. Sabeder said that foreigners with Slovenian residence permits would be allowed to enter Slovenia if they had a certificate that they have tested negative for coronavirus during the previous three days.
• Poland. On March 13, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki announced that, as of March 15, only Polish citizens or people with a Polish residence permit would be allowed to enter the country. Everyone returning home from abroad would be quarantined for 14 days. All international inbound passenger flights or trains are banned, but freight transport is not affected. "The state will not abandon its citizens," Morawiecki said. "In the current situation, however, we cannot allow ourselves to keep borders open to foreigners."
• Switzerland. On March 13, the Swiss government reimposed border controls with other European countries. Switzerland, although not a member of the European Union, is part of the Schengen zone. Justice Minister Karin Keller-Sutter said that travel restrictions from Italy were aimed at preventing Italian patients from seeking access to Swiss hospitals. Asylum seekers were also subject to the restrictions. Swiss citizens, holders of a resident permit as well as cross-border workers and people transiting through Switzerland are still allowed to enter the country.
• Denmark. On March 14, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen imposed border controls on all traffic by air, land and sea until at least April 13. Danish citizens are allowed to enter but any non-Dane without a valid reason for travel will be denied entry. "We stand on uncharted territory," Frederiksen said. "We are in a situation that looks nothing like what any of us have experienced before. It is going to cost us all. If we do not do this, we risk that the costs, human, health and financial, will be far, far greater."
• Hungary. On March 16, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán announced that, effective immediately, all passenger traffic into Hungary would be halted and only Hungarian citizens allowed to enter the country. Previously, the government had imposed controls on the country's borders with Austria and Slovenia. All train travel was halted between Hungary and Croatia, Slovenia and Ukraine.
• Spain. On March 16, Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska decreed the reestablishment of controls at all land borders. Only Spanish citizens, people with Spanish residency and cross-border workers will be allowed to enter national territory by land. The measure does not affect the transport of goods.

The Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania and Slovakia, in a bid to combat the spread of the coronavirus, also imposed border controls. Other European countries that are not part of the Schengen system, including Albania, Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia and the Republic of North Macedonia also introduced border controls.
The Bulgarian Foreign Ministry, which advised its citizens to avoid travelling abroad, described the current state of affairs:

"The situation at the land borders of European countries is constantly and drastically changing, which makes it impossible to travel to or from Bulgaria with all modes of transport.
"With regard to the prevention of the spread of the coronavirus, there is almost no country in Europe that has not at the moment introduced restrictive measures — border closures or separate border crossing points, enhanced border controls, shutdown of flights, closure of airports."

The break-down of Europe's system of open borders has been met with anger by those in favor of European integration. During a March 13 press conference in Brussels, Ursula von der Leyen, head of the European Commission, the administrative arm of the European Union, warned member states not unilaterally to close their borders:

"The Single Market has to function. It is not good when Member States take unilateral action. Because it always causes a domino effect. And that prevents the urgently needed equipment from reaching patients, from reaching hospitals and the medical personnel. Ultimately, it amounts to reintroducing internal borders at a time when solidarity between Member States is needed."

In a desperate effort to save the Schengen system, Von der Leyen on March 16 proposed a 30-day entry ban into the European Union. The idea apparently was that if the EU's borders were closed to the outside world, individual member states would not have to close theirs.
Ironically, just a few days earlier, Von der Leyen had condemned the March 11 decision by U.S. President Donald J. Trump to impose a 30-day ban on continental Europeans traveling to the United States. "The European Union failed to take the same precautions and restrict travel from China and other hotspots," Trump said. "As a result, a large number of new clusters in the United States were seeded by travelers from Europe."
On March 12, Von der Leyen issued an angry statement:

"The Coronavirus is a global crisis, not limited to any continent and it requires cooperation rather than unilateral action.
"The European Union disapproves of the fact that the U.S. decision to impose a travel ban was taken unilaterally and without consultation."

Von der Leyen now says that she will present the EU heads of state with a proposal to ban "unnecessary trips" to the Union. The entry ban would initially be for 30 days but could be extended if necessary. "The fewer trips there are, the more we can contain the virus," she said.
Anja Krüger, the pro-EU business editor for the German newspaper Tagesspiegel, noted:

"It is breathtaking how the borders in Europe are closed in the wake of the corona crisis, how one country after another seals itself off. The pandemic shows how fragile the European Union is....
"After the pandemic subsides, will everything be the same as before, as if nothing had happened? The question is how far the corona crisis is capable of an ad hoc destruction of a slowly growing European awareness among the people in the EU member countries over the years.
"Much will depend on how the crisis is managed. However, the fact that the return to nationalism was carried out quickly and firmly will arouse desires among opponents of European unification. What goes once, goes again and again."

In a March 13 press conference, the president of Italy's hard-hit Veneto region, Luca Zaia, said that Europe's borderless zone was "disappearing as we speak." He noted that the stringent border controls imposed by Austria shows that Schengen "no longer exists and will be remembered in the history books."

 

[Plain Jane]

Putin orders Russian constitutional vote despite virus fears

Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered a vote on changes to the constitution which could allow him to extend his rule.

apnews.com

Putin orders Russian constitutional vote despite virus fears
By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOVMarch 17, 2020


MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday ordered a vote on changes to the constitution which could allow him to extend his rule to be held next month as planned, but warned it could be delayed if the coronavirus situation worsens.

Putin issued a decree on holding the vote on April 22, a move that came a day after Russia’s Constitutional Court approved a law on constitutional amendments that could allow him to remain in power for another 12 years after his current term ends in 2024.

During a meeting with Russia’s top election official, Putin warned, however, that the nationwide vote could be pushed back over the new coronavirus.

If the situation requires that, we will postpone the all-Russia vote,” he said,
Russia so far has reported 114 infections and Putin said at a government meeting Tuesday that the situation has remained under control.
The authorities in Moscow banned gatherings of more than 50 people until April 10, and the opposition groups called back protests against the constitutional changes that had been planned for the weekend.
Under current law, Putin wouldn’t be able to run for president again in 2024 because of term limits, but the new measure would reset his term count, allowing him to run for two more six-year terms if he chooses.
Alexei Navalny, Russia’s leading opposition figure, denounced Putin for calling the vote amid the spread of the new coronavirus, saying that the Kremlin will count on support from elderly voters who would be at risk at the polls.
“Putin’s order to hold the vote on ‘nullifying’ his terms for April 22 looks like a crime amid the pandemic and the quarantine,” Navalny tweeted. “They will drive the pensioners to take part in this sham.”
The Constitutional Court ruled Monday that the provision is in line with the Constitution, even though Kremlin critics and some legal experts denounced it as trampling on the country’s main law.
The 67-year Russian leader has been in power since 2000, longer than any other country ruler since Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.

Other constitutional changes further strengthen the presidency and emphasize the priority of Russian law over international norms — a provision reflecting the Kremlin’s irritation with the European Court of Human Rights and other international bodies that have often issued verdicts against Russia.

The changes also outlaw same-sex marriage and mention “a belief in God” as one of Russia’s traditional values.
Putin said he hopes that Russians will turn out to support the changes.

“I strongly count on citizens of Russia to understand how important the changes are,” he said. “It’s very important for the country to express the social character of our state, underline the priority of our legislation over international law and determine other key points linked to our traditions, culture and history.”

 

[Plain Jane]

Zerohedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

Covid-19 Comes For Europe

by Tyler Durden
Thu, 03/19/2020 - 02:00
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Authored by Guy Milliere via The Gatestone Institute,
Italy's healthcare system is in a state of almost total collapse. As of today, 31,506 people in Italy have been infected with the coronavirus; of which 2,503 people have died. The numbers continue to grow. Hospitals are overwhelmed. Doctors have to choose which sick person to save and which sick person not to save.

The country has almost completely shut down. Many businesses are running in slow motion or have stopped. Prisoners are staging uprisings. Millions of people have been ordered to stay home and are allowed out only briefly to buy food. Most shops are shut. All public gatherings are prohibited, even funerals. Big cities look like ghost towns.



No other Western country has been so severely affected by the pandemic as Italy. Why?

First, Italy has an aging population. The median age of Italians is 47.3 years; one in four Italians is over 65. In addition, the country's birth rate is extremely low: 1.29 children per woman. Even before the coronavirus pandemic, Italy was a dying country. Sadly, the virus has accelerated the process.
Second, the authorities and medical personnel apparently underestimated the danger. Although the Italian government had suspended flights for days from China and Hong Kong from January 31, Italian doctors were saying that the illness was just a "bad flu". On March 9, an epidemiologist, Silvia Stringhini, wrote: "The media are reassuring, the politicians are reassuring, while there's little to be reassured of".
Third, the Italian health system is in appallingly bad condition. There are not enough intensive care units and, as everywhere, the possibility of a major crisis simply was not anticipated. In Italy there are 2.62 acute-care hospital beds per 1,000 residents (by comparison, the number in Germany is 6.06 per 1,000 residents). The Italian health system is entirely run by the government. A public health care service (SSN, Servizio Sanitario Nazionale) pays the doctors directly, limits their number, and sets the maximum number of patients they can treat per year (1,500).
Government-run healthcare always ends up being about the government trying to cut its costs rather than to help its citizens. Private clinics do exist, but represent only a small part of the care offered (the public system represents 77% of total health-care spending. (The only country in Europe where the figure is higher is the United Kingdom, where the figure is 79%.) Public hospitals must manage shortages, and when an exceptional situation occurs, rationing care leads to horrific choices. A recent report by Siaarti (Società Italiana di Anestesia Analgesia Rianimazione e Terapia Intensiva) bureaucratically offers "ethical recommendations for admission and intensive treatment in exceptional conditions of imbalance" and speaks of "consensual criteria of distributive justice" to justify not treating certain patients and leaving them to die.
Fourth, and rarely mentioned, is that Italy today is evidently home to a large Chinese community (more than 300,000), made up of people who arrived in the past two decades and who work in the textile and leather sector. Many of the Chinese living in Italy are from Wuhan and Wenzhou, and some had just been in Wuhan and Wenzhou for the Chinese New Year on January 25, when the Chinese authorities could not hide the epidemic any longer. These Chinese had returned to Italy from China before the Italian government suspended flights from there. The epidemic emerged in Lombardy; Bergamo, one of the capitals of the Italian textile industry, was one of the first cities affected.

Before the pandemic, the Italian economy was already in a state of stagnation; now, as people stay home and shops shut, it will probably plunge into a recession. Italian banks, since mid-February, have lost 40% of their market value. Major financial upheavals seem on the way.
The Italian government was hoping for help from the European Union, but neither the other member states nor the European Union itself has given any at all. Maurizio Massari, Italy's ambassador to the European Union, said at a recent European summit on the pandemic, that Brussels should go beyond "engagement and consultations", and that Italy needed "quick, concrete and effective actions". He got nothing.

Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank, refused to lower interest rates to help Italy; it was a statement Italian leaders took as a demonstration of contempt. Italian President Sergio Mattarella said that Italy expected "solidarity from the EU institutions," not "moves that could hinder Italy's actions". "Italy," said Matteo Salvini, leader of the Lega party, "has been given a slap in the face".
The dismissive attitude of the EU and the other members states seems to have been dictated by the fear of sliding into a situation as calamitous as that of Italy.
All European countries have an aging population, even if less than Italy's (the median age in Germany is 46.8; in France it is 41.2; in Spain it is 42.3). No country in the European Union has taken a clear, hard look at the danger Europe is facing.

"The coronavirus is very contagious," France's minister of health, Agnes Buzyn, said on January 26, "but much less serious than we thought".

The borders between France and Italy were not closed in time (only Austria and Slovenia closed their borders with Italy early), and Italians who wished to go to France were not stopped. The health systems of other European countries are not better prepared than the Italian one was. In Spain, Insalud (Instituto Nacional de Gestion Sanitaria), an organization equivalent to the Italian system, exists, and shortages and rationed care are the rule. The German (Krankenkassen) and the French (Sécurité Sociale) health insurance systems also operate on the same principles as those in Italy and Spain, and produce similar results. The economies of the main countries of the European Union were in a state of stagnation before the pandemic, and, like the Italian economy, are likely to plunge into a recession soon, too.

At the time of publication, 11,826 people were infected in Spain, 7,695 in France, and 9,360 in Germany. In Spain, 533 people have died; in France, 148 people, and in Germany only 26. As in Italy, the numbers escalate fast.
On March 11, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said to journalists who were accusing her of doing nothing, "60 to 70% of Germans will be infected with the coronavirus". Lothar Wieler, President of the Robert Koch Institute, the German government agency in charge of disease prevention and control, added that it was necessary to "avoid overloading hospitals" and to let the epidemic gain ground slowly over time.
An adviser to French President Emmanuel Macron told a journalist at Le Figaro that the strategy of France was the same as in Germany: the decision was made to "let the epidemic run its course and not try brutally to stop it". He suggested that the official will was to create "herd immunity", a term first used in the United Kingdom by Sir Patrick Vallance, the UK government's chief science adviser. He had said that the aim of the British government was to accept that a significant number of the citizens of a country would be infected, recover, and therefore be immunized. The French and German authorities evidently found inspiration in Sir Patrick's remarks.

The British government, faced with criticism from the World Health Organization, replied that "herd immunity" was not a stated policy,but no statement by the German or French governments said that "herd immunity" was not the policy they chose.
Umair Haque, the British Director of the Havas Media Lab, wrote:

"Herd immunity describes how a population is protected from a disease after vaccination by stopping the germ responsible for the infection being transmitted between people. Letting an entire nation be rampaged by a lethal virus for which there's no vaccine? How much death and mayhem would that cause, by the way?"

"Europe has now become the epicentre of the pandemic, with more reported cases and deaths than the rest of the world combined, apart from China," noted Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization. "More cases are now being reported every day than were reported in China at the height of its epidemic." Sadly, all available data show that he is right.
On March 11, President Donald Trump announced that the US was suspending all flights between the United States and Europe, a decision fully justifiable to save American lives. The next day, nevertheless, the heads of the European Union could not resist trying to maul the president: "The EU disapproves of the fact that the U.S. decision to impose a travel ban was taken unilaterally and without consultation," they said.
It is to be hoped that by now notions of "herd immunity" have been abandoned, and that the EU gets back to salvaging for Europe whatever it can.