INTL Europe: Politics, Economics, Military- April, 2020

[Plain Jane]

Unrest spreads in Paris outskirts amid coronavirus lockdown

Crowds of youths targeted riot police with fireworks and torched rubbish bins in a third night of unrest on the outskirts of Paris where a heavy police presence to enforce the coronavirus lockdown has exacerbated tensions.

www.reuters.com

NEWS
APRIL 21, 2020 / 1:04 AM / UPDATED 2 HOURS AGO
Unrest spreads in Paris outskirts amid coronavirus lockdown

Caroline Pailliez, Richard Lough
4 MIN READ

PARIS (Reuters) - Crowds of youths targeted riot police with fireworks and torched rubbish bins in a third night of unrest on the outskirts of Paris where a heavy police presence to enforce the coronavirus lockdown has exacerbated tensions.

France’s banlieues - high-rise, low-income neighbourhoods that encircle many of its cities - are frequently flashpoints of anger over social and economic inequality and allegations of heavy-handed policing.

In Villeneuve-La-Garenne, where the trouble first flared on Saturday after a motorcyclist crashed into the open door of a police car, youths aimed volleys of fireworks down streets lined with housing blocks towards police lines.

“The police are moving through the streets, LBDs (rubber ball launchers) and shields at the ready. Multiple fireworks,” tweeted Clement Lanot, a freelance journalist, at around midnight as violence broke out.

France’s lockdown to stem the spread of the coronavirus permits people to leave home only to buy groceries, go to work, seek medical care or exercise.

Some local residents said officers deliberately opened the door into the path of the motorcyclist, who required surgery to his leg. An investigation was underway, police said.

Unrest also broke out on the night of Monday to Tuesday in the neighbouring districts of Gennevilliers, Clichy-La-Garenne and Asnieres.

France’s interior ministry said the police had been subjected to ambushes and would not shy from making arrests to restore order if necessary. “The police are present in these neighbourhoods to enforce the lockdown and guarantee security,” a ministry official told Reuters.

MEMORIES OF 2005
Fifteen years ago, the death of two youths fleeing police in a northern Paris suburb triggered nationwide riots that lasted three weeks.

“It’s taking a turn that reminds me of 2005,” said Yves Lefebvre, head of France’s biggest police union, SGP Unite.

“What I fear is that it will explode in the banlieues. It may get very difficult.”

Police resources were being stretched by an absenteeism rate of about 10%, Lefebvre said, with officers off sick, in isolation or having to look after children during the lockdown.

“If tomorrow we’re confronted by widespread urban violence, we would have trouble keeping on top of it unless a curfew was put in place, and the army called in to help enforce it,” Lefebvre added.

A spokesperson for the national police force declined to comment on the possible need for a curfew if the situation deteriorated. The interior ministry said there was no problem with police numbers.

The Alliance police union reported sporadic outbreaks of unrest in low-income towns in the Yvelines region, west of the greater Paris region. Police cars were vandalised, fireworks detonated and projectiles hurled at officers.

Julien Le Cam, head of the Alliance union in Yvelines, said officers from investigative units were being redeployed to street patrols to maintain numbers.

“Normally one town is ‘on duty’ and they pass the baton. Last night it was all of them,” said Le Cam. “There were violent groups in all our difficult zones looking for contact with the police.”

Reporting by Caroline Pailliez with additional reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta and Richard Lough; Editing by Mark Heinrich
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

See this thread also:

INTL - At Least 25 French Cities and Towns Erupt in Riots as ‘Youths’ Attack Police

Areas in at least 25 cities and departments in France erupted into rioting on Monday night, including attacks on police and attempts to burn down a police station in Strasbourg. Some of the incidents are believed to have been sparked by a Saturday night motorcycle accident in the Paris suburb...

www.timebomb2000.com

 

[Plain Jane]

Britain's Zoom parliament makes an almost glitch-free debut

British lawmakers upended 700 years of history on Wednesday, grilling stand-in leader Dominic Raab by video link in an unprecedented but largely successful "hybrid parliament" session forced by the coronavirus outbreak.

www.reuters.com

NEWS
APRIL 22, 2020 / 5:21 AM / UPDATED 23 MINUTES AGO
'Fingers crossed it'll work': Britain's Zoom parliament begins

LONDON (Reuters) - British lawmakers will upend 700 years of history on Wednesday when they question ministers by video link - an unprecedented and largely untested ‘hybrid parliament’ arrangement forced by the coronavirus outbreak.

As Britain endures its fifth week of a national lockdown, with businesses shuttered and citizens ordered to stay at home, parliament returned from an extended Easter break on Tuesday and will question stand-in leader Dominic Raab at 1100 GMT.


A maximum of 50 lawmakers will be physically allowed in the debating chamber, with another 120 permitted to join in via Zoom video conference beamed onto television screens dotted around the walls of the 18th century wood-panelled room.

“Fingers crossed it’s going to work well today,” Speaker Lindsay Hoyle, who will be directing proceedings from within the chamber, told Sky News. “It’s symbolic, isn’t it? 700-years of working, and then suddenly we change to something new.”

Raab, deputising for Prime Minister Boris Johnson who is recovering from a spell in intensive care with COVID-19, will face up to 50 questions from lawmakers over 45 minutes. Once he is finished, health minister Matt Hancock will make a statement on the government’s response to coronavirus outbreak.

The new arrangement is so-far limited to questioning ministers, although officials are looking at ways that legislation can be discussed and even voted upon digitally.

“This is a starting point, this isn’t the end. What we want is a robust system that we build up from this point,” Hoyle said.

Reporting by William James, Editing by Kylie MacLellan
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

[Plain Jane]

Spain catches rapper who became Islamic State fighter

Spanish police have captured a former British rapper who was on the run after fighting for the Islamic State (IS) jihadist movement in Iraq and Syria, officials and media said.

www.reuters.com

NEWS
APRIL 22, 2020 / 3:33 AM / UPDATED 2 HOURS AGO
Spain says one of Europe's most-wanted Islamic State fighters arrested


2 MIN READ

(Reuters) - Spanish police detained one of Europe’s most wanted fugitive Islamic State (IS) fighters in the southern town of Almeria, the government said.

The Egyptian man, who has fought in Syria and Iraq, was hiding in an apartment with two other people who were also arrested and were being identified by police, the interior ministry said in a statement late on Tuesday.


The man has appeared in gory propaganda pictures of IS crimes, the ministry said.

“The detained man spent several years in the Syria-Iraq area and presents peculiar personality features such as an extremely violent criminal profile which caught the attention of police and intelligence services in Europe,” the statement added, without disclosing his identity.

The three suspects had come via North Africa and were keeping a low profile during Spain’s coronavirus lockdown, exiting the apartment one-by-one and wearing protective masks
Police are eager to intercept many of the dozens of Spanish Muslims who left for Syria and Iraq to fight alongside IS and may now want to perpetrate attacks on home soil such as the killing of 16 people in Barcelona in 2017.

Reporting by Inti Landauro; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
MORE FROM REUTERS

 

[Plain Jane]

Dutch village evacuated as precaution due to wildfire smoke

A village of 4,000 people in the southern Netherlands has been evacuated as smoke from a wildfire in a nearby national park drifted over homes.

apnews.com

Dutch village evacuated as precaution due to wildfire smoke
2 hours ago


THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — A village of 4,000 people in the southern Netherlands was evacuated early Wednesday as smoke from a wildfire in a nearby national park drifted over homes, authorities said.

Residents of Herkenbosch, a village close to the German border and 200 kilometers (124 miles) southeast of Amsterdam, were ordered out of their homes as a precaution due to concerns about high levels of carbon monoxide in the smoke, Mayor Monique de Boer said.
“In the times we’re living through — the corona era — we don’t take the decision lightly to move people from home to evacuation centers,” De Boer said.
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Residents were allowed to leave in their own cars or in transport organized carefully by authorities who also were concerned about residents who may be infected with the coronavirus.

People with confirmed infections were directed to a “corona hotel” in the nearby town of Roermond, the local municipality said.
The fire was burning through trees in the Meinweg National Park and it was not immediately clear when residents would be allowed to return home. Two tanks from the army were sent to the park Tuesday to help firefighters cut containment lines.
Several wildfires have broken out in recent days in the Netherlands in parks that have been dried out by weeks of dry, sunny weather. Earlier this week, a Dutch nursing home where several residents were infected with the coronavirus was evacuated due to another wildfire.

 

[Melodi]

We are having a very warm Spring in much of Europe, there was even a "gorse" fire in Ireland near the Wicklow mountains a couple of weeks ago.

Places that tend to have hotter Summers anyway are already starting to have fire danger risks, I suspect Greece will be next.

 

[Plain Jane]

US extends economic aid to Greenland to counter China, Russia in Arctic

The United States announced a $12.1 million economic aid package for Greenland on Thursday aimed at strengthening mutual ties and boosting a renewed U.S. push for a greater military presence in the Arctic.

www.reuters.com

NEWS
APRIL 23, 2020 / 8:15 AM / UPDATED 36 MINUTES AGO
U.S. economic aid to Greenland draws criticism in Denmark


2 MIN READ

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - An economic aid package being prepared by the U.S. government to Greenland is drawing criticism in Denmark less than a year after it rebuffed U.S. President Donald Trump’s offer to buy the vast Arctic island.

The U.S. ambassador to Denmark said in an op-ed this week that the government is working on “a substantial package of economic aid” to Greenland.

“They have clearly crossed the line,” said Karsten Honge, member of the foreign affairs committee for the Socialist People’s Party, a government ally.

“It’s completely unheard of that a close ally tries to create division between Greenland and Denmark this way,”


“This is an attempt to bribe the Greenlandic people with the aim to increase their military presence there,” he told Reuters.

Soren Espersen, a member of the Danish parliament’s foreign affairs committee for opposition party The Danish People’s Party, called the U.S. offer “an insult” to Greenland and Denmark.

The Arctic island is important for the U.S. military and its ballistic missile early warning system, as it balances a Russian and Chinese commercial and military buildup in the Arctic.

Greenland, home to only 56,000 people but rich in natural resources, is an autonomous Danish territory.

The United States plans to open a consulate in Greenland’s capital Nuuk later this year.

Neither the Danish foreign ministry not the U.S. embassy in Copenhagen were immediately available for comment.

Reporting by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

[Plain Jane]

Lombardy becomes latest Italian region to start own coronavirus tests

The northern Italian region of Lombardy, at the epicentre of Europe's worst coronavirus outbreak, began an antibody testing programme on Thursday as it prepared to start opening up its economy following weeks of lockdown.

www.reuters.com

NEWS
APRIL 23, 2020 / 8:09 AM / UPDATED 5 MINUTES AGO
Lombardy becomes latest Italian region to start own coronavirus tests

James Mackenzie, Alex Fraser
4 MIN READ

MILAN (Reuters) - The northern Italian region of Lombardy, at the epicentre of Europe’s worst coronavirus outbreak, began an antibody testing programme on Thursday as it prepared to start opening up its economy following weeks of lockdown.

The so-called serological tests on intravenous blood samples, using a kit designed by diagnostics specialist Diasorin, will be carried out in 14 of the worst-hit areas of Lombardy before being extended to the whole region next week.

Unlike nasal swab tests, which look for the presence of the coronavirus directly, the serological tests look for antibodies that indicate viral contagion, but they are quicker and simpler to administer.

They come as authorities around the world have begun to step up broad-based testing programmes they hope will give them a clearer picture of the spread of the virus, as they plan a gradual easing of lockdown measures that have kept much of the world’s population in confinement for weeks.

“The tests offer some certainty today and could give us more tomorrow,” Giorgio Gori, mayor of the town of Bergamo, one of the major centres of the outbreak, told SkyTG24 television.

He said the tests would have to be complemented by swab tests to confirm a patient’s status.

The tests in Lombardy will be carried out initially on people in voluntary quarantine, either because they have influenza-like symptoms often seen in COVID-19 patients or because they are suspected of having the disease.

Following the neighbouring regions of Veneto and Emilia-Romagna, which began testing earlier this month, Lombardy is the latest of a patchwork of testing programmes in Italy, which is expected to begin easing the national lockdown from May 4.


IMMUNITY
Lombardy, where the outbreak first emerged on Feb. 21, remains one of the worst affected regions in the world, accounting for around half of Italy’s 25,000 COVID-19 deaths.

Even before regional authorities began testing, a string of local municipalities had started testing on their own, while several large employers, planning for the period following a return to work, have also set up testing programmes.

“We started to do serological tests because we needed to have answers and to give answers,” said Luca Dure, mayor of the town of Cisliano, just outside Milan, who said the municipality had to be sure that volunteers looking after the elderly had not been infected.

We had the doubt that those volunteers carrying out these services could have been, in some way, in contact with the virus and this worried us a lot. So we tried to give some answers.”

With Italy’s fragile economy facing the most serious collapse since World War Two, authorities are desperate to restart production while avoiding a second wave of infections that could reignite the epidemic.

But in the absence of a cure or vaccine, the response has been hampered by the many unknown aspects of the virus and uncertainty over whether immunity can be developed against it.

Authorities had hoped antibody tests would allow them to issue so-called immunity certificates to let people with defences against the disease return to work.

However, scientists have warned that while they may help identify how many people have been infected, there is no certainty over whether the presence of antibodies shows that a patient has developed immunity.

The plethora of different testing systems and individual initiatives have added to confusion, with some doctors offering tests to paying patients and home tests being sold online.

One doctor offering tests in Milan said they could give some indication but would have to be complemented by the standard swab tests for complete security.

“The tests offer a quick, economical and relatively reliable diagnosis for patients with symptoms but they’re less appropriate for asymptomatic patients,” he said. “We’re not sure whether immunity exists for the disease.”

Reporting by Giancarlo Navach, Emilio Parodi, James Mackenzie, Alex Fraser; Editing by Mike Collett-White
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

Welcome To Orwellian Italy 2020

by Tyler Durden
Fri, 04/24/2020 - 04:20
TwitterFacebookRedditEmailPrint


Authored by postfataresurgo for The Saker Blog,
A video is circulating in Italy showing an armed policeman abruptly interrupting mass celebration in a small northern italian town in the Lombardy region, ordering the priest to stop the celebration immediately and dismiss the attendees. The priest refuses and goes on with mass, telling the Carabiniere that he has only 13 attendees at mass well distanced between each other and each wearing a mask. The priest will be later fined 680 EUR, and each attendee 280 EUR, all for violating current government measures against public gatherings due to Covid-19.



Never mind the policeman was totally ignorant of the Italian Penal Code which states (art.405) that anyone interrupting religious rites within a public area or public edifice (a church in this case) may be facing imprisonment up to 2 years. Never mind art. 19 of the Italian constitution which specifically protects freedom of religion, and religious rites. The current Italian government, arguably the worst in recent and remote Italian history, has dropped any possible mask of decency and respect of at least fundamental laws such as the Italian Constitution which – theoretically – should be above any other law of the land.


This episode is just another Orwellian scene anyone would have dismissed as impossible only a short time ago. Italians are quickly becoming accustomed to nightmarish scenes they could very well be the plot of a trash horror movie, such as an Army convoy carrying away corpses from the worst affected areas to be cremated elsewhere and without a funeral (and especially without autopsy) to drones and helicopters hovering above a lone walker along a beach or a public park, to police threatening and handing out fines to anyone caught outdoor “without reason”.

Reason, logic, decency and common sense have all gone out of the window, and in a span of time no one could have imagined only few months ago. The main moral authority you would have expected at least to question the implementation of insane measures has quickly abdicated to its role. The catholic church has in fact quickly taken measures that in most case even went beyond what public authorities asked, shutting down churches, masses and funerals, no questions asked. And, such as the case of the priest who insisted in celebrating mass, quickly dismissing him as a rebellious and inopportune outcast.

On top of all this, the current Italian government, a.k.a. La Junta, indeed reminding us of a south American military junta that has hijacked power with a coup. Call this coup as you wish, Pandemic, Covid-19, the Virus, whatever. Civil liberties have been suspended even way beyond sheer medical necessities and reasonability, far worse than any other country in Europe. Today’s Italian governments seems a replica of a puppet government set up by foreign powers, just like it was in 1943, after Italy was split in two governments, one in the south in the Allied occupied zone, and one in the north in the German occupied zone. No one has elected this government, its ministers, the PM, the deputy ministers. They belong to a strange coalition of former archenemies that became –overnight – like old time chums for the sake of sharing power.

M5S (Movimento 5 stelle) and the PD (Partito Democratico) were at each other’s throat before this new government was formed in 2019 in what evidently was a typical commedia italiana. Now they get along very well, not only politically, but also, what a coincidence, geographically. Other than a few ministers and deputy ministers, most members of this government are from southern Italy, including PM Conte. The overwhelming majority of them have no prior working experience of any kind other than being a politician since early age.

After an endless array of new measures and restrictions, more often than not contradicting each other, and in open violation of constitutional laws, the government finally imposed a national lockdown as of mid-March, when it was too indeed too late, as thousands of people from all over Italy had the time to return to their towns and villages from the worst affected area of Italy, Lombardy. The fact that the pandemic did not actually spread – other than few isolated cases – to southern Italy was a blessing, as it could have been a disaster of biblical proportions given the fact that the public health care system in the south is notoriously below decent standards, at least below capacity to face such an emergency.

Hapless, better yet hopeless, Italy’s current minister of public health, Roberto Speranza (whose last name means literally hope) is a fitting example of how this government works. With a degree in political science and no experience whatsoever in the medical field, he named a team of (so-called) experts led by another expert who claimed to be a member of WHO, among other medical honors and achievements.

But only few days ago the World Health Organization (WHO) felt compelled to issue an official statement in which formally dismisses Dr. Walter Ricciardi, the ultra-expert wanted by the hopeless minister, not to be a member of WHO, warning that his opinions “should not be associated” with those of WHO. In fact the guy is a former B-series actor in little known Italian movies, but a degree in medical hygiene and the right political connections earned him a high reputation post such as director of ISS (the Italian National Institute of health) until 2018, when he resigned after an enquiry exposed his collaborations (while director of ISS) with pharmaceutical companies, and his efforts to make mandatory a vaccine against meningococcus B which proved to be completely unnecessary.

It doesn’t take a degree in political science to notice that this is a government made up of pathetic Quislings, whose only preoccupations is to keep their (lucrative) posts as long as possible by following the orders imposed to them on a daily basis from Bruxelles, or Berlin. When other countries offered their help such as Russia, despite statements of warm gratitude by most of the local authorities most affected by the virus, updates of the Russian teams operating in northern Italy virtually disappeared from MSM. This happened after La Stampa, notoriously a leading pro EU establishment daily from Turin, expressed open doubts about Russia’s “real motivations” for being so generous with Italy.

Everybody agrees that the restrictions imposed on Italians and their civil liberties are not just draconian: they are senseless even from a basic medical standpoint, officially implemented to curve the spread of the virus, but in reality to destroy the morale and the will of people. Why is that so? Because the worst is yet to come. The will and resolution of Italians must be broken in order to usher in Greece-style cuts and “reforms” that will bring Italy to her knees, therefore forced to accept any measure imposed by the EU.


The ubiquitous acronym these days in Italy is not Covid. It’s MES, which stands for European Stability Mechanism. Skipping all unneeded technicalities, let’s go forward to what it will mean for Italy in simple terms. This Quisling government, having stubbornly refused to adopt economic measures that all other European countries have implemented, is simply exposing the economy at serious risk of default. When that will become inevitable, then the MES will step in, and will force Italy, in order to “be saved” from complete collapse, to accept a gruesome variety of “recovery” measures just as it happened in Greece in previous years.

Deja-vu, all over again. Just like in 2011 the sudden – forced – resignation of Berlusconi as PM of Italy had the then president of Italy Giorgio Napolitano to form a new, non elected executive in charge of “economic reforms” led by euro-technocrat Mario Monti, the ordeal is being repeated in 2020, courtesy this time of the Invisible Enemy (a.k.a. Covid-19), and the inevitable sudden halt of the Italian economy, so a “task force” of experts overseeing the government economic policies was named overnight by Italian president Mattarella.

Enter Vittorio Colao, whose CV is practically cliché hardly worth mentioning. Former Vodafone CEO, MBA at Harvard, experiences in Morgan Stanley, McKinsey, Unilever and the list could go on and on. Not to mention his personal relationship with Bill Gates, George Soros and other such fellows.

Right after being appointed, Colao has asked for himself and his associate “experts” complete civil and penal immunity. Do you think such a – how to say – peculiar request made the news? Hardly. We owe to a few representatives of the opposition parties who blew the whistle on such a unique request the fact that somehow made it to the news. Complete silence on MSM. What should we assume? That this group of experts is evidently planning to break existing laws, to say the least. It will be interesting to see what will happen in the coming weeks. In the meantime, Italians are getting increasingly tired of this brutal and useless lockdown and most likely will not wait to be allowed to go outside after May 4th.

 

[Plain Jane]

COVID-19 takes unequal toll on immigrants in Nordic region

The first person in Sadad Dakhare's two-bedroom apartment in Oslo, Norway, to show symptoms was his 4-year-old niece. Next, his mother, his sister and he himself fell ill. Then, about a week after his niece became sick, Dakhare heard his 76-year-old father coughing heavily.

www.reuters.com

NEWS
APRIL 24, 2020 / 4:06 AM / UPDATED 41 MINUTES AGO
COVID-19 takes unequal toll on immigrants in Nordic region

Lena Masri
8 MIN READ

(Reuters) - The first person in Sadad Dakhare’s two-bedroom apartment in Oslo, Norway, to show symptoms was his 4-year-old niece. Next, his mother, his sister and he himself fell ill. Then, about a week after his niece became sick, Dakhare heard his 76-year-old father coughing heavily.

He found his father lying in bed, gasping for air. “Just call an ambulance,” the father told Dakhare.

At an Oslo hospital, Dakhare’s father tested positive for COVID-19 and was treated for a few days before he was discharged to finish his recovery at home.

The Dakhare family’s story is a familiar one among Somalis in Norway and other Nordic countries, where the pandemic is taking a disproportionate toll on some immigrant groups. Governments in Sweden, Norway and Finland are taking extra steps to try to slow the spread of the disease in these communities.

Across Europe, little is known about who is affected by the virus because governments are releasing limited demographic information about the sick and those who die. But a Reuters examination of government data in three Nordic countries where more details are available shows that some immigrant groups are among those affected at higher rates than the general populace.

“WORRYING” DISPARITY
In Norway, where 15% of residents were born abroad, 25% who had tested positive for COVID-19 by April 19 were foreign-born. Somalis, with 425 confirmed cases, are the largest immigrant group testing positive, accounting for 6% of all confirmed cases — more than 10 times their share of the population.


Somalis are the most overrepresented immigrant group among Sweden’s confirmed cases, as well. Their 283 positive tests account for about 5% of the nearly 6,000 cases documented between March 13 and April 7. That’s seven times their share of the population. Iraqis, Syrians and Turks also made up disproportionately large shares of positive cases.

In Finland’s capital city of Helsinki, the mayor said it was “worrying” that almost 200 Somalis had tested positive by mid-April. They accounted for about 17% of positive cases — 10 times their share of the city’s population.

More than 100,000 Somalia-born live in the three countries, mostly in Sweden and Norway, one of the largest Somali diasporas in the world. Many arrived as refugees of war in the 1990s, 2000s and 2010s. Several factors place them more at risk of getting sick, public health officials and researchers say.

VIRUS OUTPACES RESPONSE
It is common in all three countries for multiple generations of Somalis to live, like the Dakhares do, in crowded apartments, making it easier for the virus to spread from one family member to the next. They also tend to work in high-contact jobs — healthcare workers, drivers and cleaners, for example — with a higher risk for exposure.

Language barriers also are at play, and some have criticized governments in Sweden and Norway for failing to move fast enough in communicating about the virus to immigrant groups.

“By the time information translated to different languages was spread sufficiently, the infection rate among minority groups was already very high,” said Linda Noor, a social anthropologist who is managing director of Minotenk, a think tank focused on minority-related politics in Norway. She said a lot of information in Norway was distributed through national health authorities’ websites that are unfamiliar to many people in immigrant communities.

Public health officials in both Norway and Sweden pointed to COVID-19 information they published in multiple languages, including Somali, in early to mid-March. But they acknowledged that they did not reach some immigrants fast enough.

GETTING THE WORD OUT
“I think it is clear from the epidemiological situation, especially looking at the high proportion of Somalis with COVID-19, that we did not reach this group in time,” said Hilde Kløvstad, department director at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health.

Once the virus started to spread, officials realized they needed to be more focused in their outreach, she said, adding that the spread of the virus among immigrant communities is slowing.

In Oslo, officials contacted leaders in immigrant communities, who helped them get the word out via social media, word of mouth, posters and online videos targeting Somalis, said Hanne Gjørtz, head of communications for the city. Health alerts in Somali aired on the radio, and text messages with translated information were sent to Somali residents.

“We saw that this led to increased traffic on our websites,” she said.

“But we are constantly learning,” she added. “It would definitely have been an advantage to have videos and posters in place earlier in this crisis. This has been and still is a crisis of great speed, and it took some time for us to find the right ways to reach different groups.”


HITTING THE STREETS
In Rinkeby-Kista and Spånga-Tensta, two Stockholm boroughs where immigrants and their children make up most of the population, rates of infection are more than two times higher than in the city overall. Trying to slow the spread of the virus in these areas, where Somalis are the biggest minority group, the government is offering temporary furnished rental apartments to at-risk-groups, such as elderly people who live in multi-generational housing, said Benjamin Dousa, chairman of the Rinkeby-Kista district council.

Government workers who speak a variety of languages, including Somali, have hit the streets in immigrant-heavy neighborhoods — near libraries, religious buildings, municipal offices, metro stations and grocery stores — to warn people about COVID-19, said officials from government body Region Stockholm.

In a statement to Reuters, Region Stockholm said it could have been faster in distributing multilingual information before the virus began spreading disproportionately among immigrant groups.

“However, we are working in the middle of a situation which is before unseen,” the statement said. “Therefore, it is difficult to be as fast as is needed and to foresee all needs.”

The statement added that the infection rate is slowing in Spånga-Tensta and Rinkeby-Kista.

“SITUATION DEMANDS TEAMWORK”
Helsinki is gearing up for similar outreach.

“The situation demands enhanced teamwork, continued development of multilingual services and effective targeted communications,” said Mayor Jan Vapaavuori. “We have entered into discussions with the Finnish Somali League about new measures to improve the situation.”


Somalis themselves also are trying to spread the word about how to stay safe.

Ayan Abdulle posted an informational video on Facebook, but she found she wasn’t reaching the people who needed the information most.

Abdulle, 29, who was born in Somalia and came to Norway at age 9, heads a non-governmental organization in the city of Bergen called Arawelo, which usually focuses on helping young immigrants apply for jobs and find friends. After the coronavirus outbreak, Abdulle started to focus on the elderly as well, helping them with grocery shopping. When she spoke with elderly Somali women out shopping last month, she learned they were not getting enough information about the coronavirus because they weren’t using social media and not all of them understood Norwegian.

“In Somali culture, most information is spread by word of mouth,” Abdulle said. “Now we are going from door to door and hanging posters informing people about the symptoms and how dangerous the disease can be.”

Reporting by Lena Masri in London. Editing by Janet Roberts and Ryan McNeill.
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

[Melodi]

There is another issue (I think) with the "minority" communities in Northern Europe that is medical rather than cultural that may not be being considered yet.

There is growing evidence that Vitamin D plays an important role in providing some natural immunity to this disease.

I know that Nightwolf told me there were already growing problems with diseases like rickets and other vitamin D deficiency problems showing up in Ireland, the UK, Scandinavia, etc both among the European Poor (who were not getting out as much and not getting enough sunlight in Winter) but increasingly year-round among Muslim Women (and some men) especially those that dressed in the full head and body coverings.

This was worse among folks with dark skin (Muslim or the African Evangelical Christians in Ireland who also dress modestly and have dark skin) than say lighter-skinned Lybians or Persian immigrants.

I just talked to Nightwolf and he says I am probably "on to something" and it was really worth looking at especially in Sweden which has short hot Summers (where the natives often to topless on beaches or at home-both sexes) but that non-natives (including us when we lived there) tend to wear large hats and other sun protection - and long-long-long dark Winters.

 

[Plain Jane]

He's number one: UK's Captain Tom, 99, add hits single to fundraising record

Coronavirus charity walk hero Captain Tom Moore became the oldest person to top Britain's main music chart and also added a world fundraising record to his accolades on Friday, just days shy of his 100th birthday.

www.reuters.com

NEWS
APRIL 24, 2020 / 1:09 PM / UPDATED 2 HOURS AGO
Britain's Captain Tom, 99, gets world records for fundraising walk and song


3 MIN READ

(Reuters) - Britain’s coronavirus fundraising hero Captain Tom Moore got two Guinness World Record titles to add to his accolades on Friday, just days shy of his 100th birthday.

The World War Two veteran took the record for the most money raised by an individual through a charity walk - as of Friday afternoon he had collected more than £28.6 million for the National Health Service (NHS) by completing laps of his garden.

Moore, who has used a walking frame with wheels since breaking his hip, had originally hoped to raise just £1,000. But he shot past that as media attention from around the globe zoomed in on his home in Bedfordshire, central England.

He was also recognised as the oldest person to reach number one in Britain’s main music charts through his appearance with singer Michael Ball on a cover of “You’ll Never Walk Alone” - another fundraiser for the health service.

Guinness World Records said that title had been held by Welsh star Tom Jones, who was 68 when he sang on the charity single “Barry Islands in the Stream” in 2009.


Moore, who turns 100 on April 30, said he felt honoured to receive the awards.

“My charity walk has raised more money than I could have possibly imagined and I am so thankful to those who have donated money and bought the single so we could achieve these records together and raise money for our incredible NHS during these difficult times.”

“These really are Guinness World Records titles for all of us,” he added.

Moore’s fundraising walk broke a 40-year-old record. Guinness World Records said the previous title for the most money raised through a charity walk was held by Canadian athlete Terry Fox.

Fox, who lost a leg to cancer when he was a teenager, set off on a cross-Canada run in 1980 by dipping his prosthetic limb into the Atlantic Ocean with the aim of getting all the way to the Pacific.

After 5,376km (3,341 miles) the cancer had spread to his lungs and forced him to stop near Thunder Bay, Ontario, on Sept. 1, 1980. He died less than a year later aged 22.

Guinness World Records said Fox collected C$14.7 million - worth £5.4 million at the time and £27,201,900 today, adjusted for inflation. A subsequent telethon raised a further C$10 million in his honour, the organisation added.

Writing by Andrew Heavens. Editing by Angus MacSwan
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

[Plain Jane]

2nd French court orders Amazon to better protect workers

Amazon will keep its French warehouses closed for now. The company announced the decision after an appeals court Friday upheld a ruling saying Amazon hadn’t done enough to protect workers from the virus. Workers expressed hope that negotiations with Amazon management on new safety measures can...

apnews.com

Click to copy
2nd French court orders Amazon to better protect workers
By ANGELA CHARLTONApril 24, 2020



1 of 3
Amazon and union lawyers gather prior to the start of at the Appel Court in Versailles, west of Paris, Tuesday, April 21, 2020. Last week, a French court ruled in a case brought by unions that Amazon warehouses selling nonessential items must shut down or face a fine of a million euros a day. Amazon is appealing. Amazon is appealing. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
PARIS (AP) — Amazon is keeping all of its French warehouses closed for the time being, after an appeals court upheld a ruling saying the company hadn’t done enough to protect workers from the coronavirus.

Unions in France and beyond welcomed Friday’s ruling by the appeals court in Versailles as a comeuppance for the online behemoth, and expressed hope that negotiations with Amazon management on new safety measures can start next week.

The standoff has drawn global attention, as worldwide demand for Amazon’s services soars because confined consumers can no longer shop in stores.

Amazon temporarily shut all its French distribution centers last week, after a lower court ordered it to stop selling non-essential goods while it works out new safety measures with staff. Amazon argued that it was too complicated to separate out its activities, and appealed.

The appeals court upheld the overall requirement for Amazon to work out new safety measures. But it also expanded the products Amazon is allowed to sell, adding electronics, office and pet supplies. The original ruling only permitted sales of food and medical and cleaning supplies.

The appeals court also reduced the potential fines Amazon faces for future violations, from 1 million euros per infraction to 100,000 euros.

Amazon said in a statement Friday that it will keep its distribution centers closed at least through April 28. The company insisted that its facilities are safe, and said it had involved worker representatives in discussions about security measures.

“We don’t think this decision is in the best interest of the French, of our partners and thousands of small French businesses that count on Amazon to develop their activities,” it said,
But some workers say the company placed profits over staff safety as virus outbreaks erupted around France. The courts found Amazon didn’t do enough to enforce social distancing, to ensure that turnstiles and locker rooms were virus-free, or to increase cleaning of its warehouses.

Unions say one worker infected with the virus is in intensive care.

The court rulings “will require (Amazon) to work differently, which is not such a bad thing,” said Jean-Francois Berot, a member of the SUD-Solidaires union who packages and picks up goods in an Amazon warehouse in Saran south of Paris.

“The judge reminded them that there are laws, and they have to adhere to them,” he said. He hopes negotiations with unions can start as soon as Monday.

Labor unions elsewhere are also watching.

“The court’s decision ... means that it’s time for Amazon to start behaving like a responsible employer and establish a productive relationship with labor unions, in France and elsewhere,” said Christy Hoffman, general secretary of UNI Global Union.

Amazon dominates the online delivery market in France, with 431 million euros in sales in 2018 and more than 10,000 employees.
___
Follow AP pandemic coverage at http://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and Understanding the Outbreak

 

[Plain Jane]

'Air on your face': Spanish children get outside for first time in six weeks

On foot and with bicycles, skateboards and scooters, Spanish children went outside at last on Sunday, emerging from their homes for the first time after six weeks of living under one of Europe's strictest coronavirus lockdowns.

www.reuters.com

NEWS
APRIL 26, 2020 / 5:01 AM / UPDATED 5 MINUTES AGO
Fresh air at last! Spanish children allowed out for first time in six weeks


3 MIN READ

MADRID (Reuters) - On foot, on skateboards and on scooters, Spanish children emerged from their homes on Sunday for the first time after six long weeks of living under one of Europe’s strictest coronavirus lockdowns.

The relaxation came as Spain, one of the worst hit by the global COVID-19 epidemic, registered its lowest daily increase in the coronavirus death toll in more than a month.

Children wearing protective masks were out in Madrid, with under 14s allowed outside for the first time since the government declared a state of emergency on March 14 and shut down most activity.

Lucia Ibanez, 9, out for a walk with her mother, said she had missed the streets and the park and “feeling the air on your face” during lockdown.


“I never thought I would miss school but I really miss it,” she said.

Children will be allowed one hour of supervised outdoor activity per day between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m., staying within one kilometre of their home.

Adults can accompany up to three children, who will not be allowed to use playparks and must adhere to social distancing guidelines, remaining at least two metres (6.5 feet) from other people.

Schools remain closed.

To tell you the truth, for me the time flew, it didn’t feel long at all. We played a lot, we aren’t missing anything thank God so we can’t complain,” said Tamara Romero, who took her two sons out on their scooters on Sunday morning.

Spain’s Health Ministry said on Sunday that 288 more people had died after being diagnosed with the coronavirus, the lowest daily rise in the past month and down on Saturday’s 378 and Friday’s 367.

The total number of deaths rose to 23,190 while the overall number of cases rose to 207,634 from 205,905 the day before.

Spain has registered the third highest number of COVID-19 deaths, after the United States and Italy.

The Health Ministry changed the methodology on Friday for logging cases of the virus. It will no longer count antibody tests and will only include positive results from PCR tests.

In a televised address on Saturday night, Prime Minister Sanchez said lockdown restrictions would be further eased, allowing people out to exercise alone from May 2 - if the coronavirus toll continues to fall.

People living together will be permitted to take short walks together.

He also laid out a wider government plan to loosen the lockdown at different speeds across different regions, depending on whether they meet with criteria established by the World Health Organization.

“We will not suddenly recover activity across all sectors,” he said. “The deescalation has to be gradual and asymmetric... We won’t all advance at the same pace but we will follow the same rules.”

Reporting by Jessica Jones and Clara-Laeila Laudette; Editing by Gareth Jones and Frances Kerry
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

[Plain Jane]

British PM Johnson will be back at work on Monday, office says

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will be back at work on Monday, a Downing Street spokeswoman confirmed on Saturday, after having recovered from a case of coronavirus that sent him to intensive care for three nights in early April.

www.reuters.com

NEWS
APRIL 25, 2020 / 5:35 PM / UPDATED 11 HOURS AGO
British PM Johnson will be back at work on Monday, office says

LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will be back at work on Monday, a Downing Street spokeswoman confirmed on Saturday, after having recovered from a case of coronavirus that sent him to intensive care for three nights in early April.

Johnson, 55, will take back control of a government under pressure from the economic fallout of shutdowns aimed at curbing the spread of the highly infectious virus, as well as a rising death toll.


As of Saturday, Britain has recorded more than 20,000 deaths from COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus.

Criticism is growing over the government response to the pandemic, with limited testing and shortages of protective equipment for medical workers and carers.

Johnson’s stand-in leader Dominic Raab has faced questions over how Britain will ease the lockdown without a deadly second wave of infections.

Britain’s interior minister urged Britons to stick to the lockdown rules earlier on Saturday. But many lawmakers want restrictions to be eased to bolster the economy, which budget forecasters say could be heading into its deepest recession in more than 300 years.

Johnson was taken to St Thomas’s Hospital in central London suffering from COVID-19 symptoms on April 5, and spent April 6-9 in intensive care.

Reporting by Sarah Young; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

[Plain Jane]

Germany may have to tackle drought and virus – DW – 04/25/2020

A leading meteorologist has warned that if heavy rains don't arrive soon, Germany could face its second drought in two years. Showers are forecast, but they might not be enough to protect much of this year's harvest.

www.dw.com

Germany heading toward drought amid coronavirus crisis: forecaster
A leading meteorologist has warned that if heavy rains don't arrive soon, Germany could face its second drought in two years. Showers are forecast, but they might not be enough to protect much of this year's harvest.





Germany could be facing its second drought in just two years, a leading meteorologist has said, just as farmers struggle with strict measures imposed to tackle the coronavirus pandemic.

"The past two years were unusually dry. The ground now needs rain," forecaster and oceanographer Mojib Latif told German regional newspaper Rhein Neckar Zeitung (RNZ) on Saturday.

Latif said the country's network of reservoirs is only partly full, adding that if there is no heavy rain in the next two to three weeks then a failed harvest could threaten the agriculture industry.
Read more: German river levels fall in heat, drought as farmers seek help

Major crop failures occurred in 2018 during a drought from April to November that led the German government to declare a crisis of "national proportions." During the fourth driest year since the National Meteorological Service (DWD) started recording rainfall patterns in 1881, the country saw the price of some vegetables rise by as much as 30%.

A total of 8,000 farmers were forced to apply for emergency aid.

Last year, Germany also saw an exceptionally dry summer that left some farmers nursing heavy losses.

Rain is forecast, but will it be enough?
Rain is forecast in the coming weeks, according to DWD. But Latif cautioned this would not be in the quantities needed to protect the agriculture sector from another drought.

It is also uncertain whether Germany has even recovered from the 2018 crisis. Agronomist Peter Gerandt from the University of Göttingen has warned that the soil could take years to recover because it has been so dry, leaving fields unable to absorb water fast enough.

Read more: Europe's hot summer weather could worsen the effects of COVID-19
German farmers have complained they are struggling to recruit enough seasonal labor to ensure a full spring harvest because of border closures put in place due to the coronavirus pandemic. The government recently lifted the restrictions, allowing workers from neighboring countries to travel to Germany to carry out the work.

Chancellor Angela Merkel also bemoaned the lack of rain in her weekly video message, which coincided with the country's annual "Day of the Tree."
Every evening, DW sends out a selection of the day's news and features. Sign up here.

 

[Plain Jane]

German labour minister wants to put right to home working in law

German Labour Minister Hubertus Heil is working on legislation to give employees the right to work from home even when the coronavirus crisis is over, he told a newspaper on Sunday.

www.reuters.com

NEWS
APRIL 26, 2020 / 12:30 PM / UPDATED 17 HOURS AGO
German labour minister wants to put right to home working in law


2 MIN READ

BERLIN (Reuters) - German Labour Minister Hubertus Heil is working on legislation to give employees the right to work from home even when the coronavirus crisis is over, he told a newspaper on Sunday.

“Everyone who wants to and whose workplace allows it should be able to work in a home office - even when the coronavirus pandemic is over,” Heil told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper.

With schools closed and many companies encouraging their employees to work from home to try to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, about 25% of Germans are now estimated to be working from home, up from about 12% normally.

Heil, a Social Democrat (SPD), said he would present legislation later in the year to anchor a right to home working in law, with employees allowed to work from home the whole time or for one or two days a week.

Finance Minister Olaf Scholz, also from the SPD, supported the idea, telling the paper: “The past weeks have shown how much is possible in the home office - this is a real achievement that we should not just abandon.”

However, the German Employers’ Association rejected it, telling the Funke media group that the last thing the battered economy needed at this time was more rules.

Katrin Goering-Eckardt, parliamentary leader of the opposition Greens, supported a right to home work but said it would only work if the government also guaranteed high-speed internet for all.

“A home office or mobile working must always be voluntary and needs binding rules. Nobody should be forced to do it, and a home office should not lead to work becoming limitless,” she said in a statement.

Reporting by Emma Thomasson; Editing by Hugh Lawson
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

[Plain Jane]

Italy to reopen factories in staged end to coronavirus lockdown

Italy will allow factories and building sites to reopen from May 4 and permit limited family visits as it prepares a staged end to Europe's longest coronavirus lockdown, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said on Sunday.

www.reuters.com

NEWS
APRIL 26, 2020 / 3:46 AM / UPDATED 9 HOURS AGO
Italy to reopen factories in staged end to coronavirus lockdown

Stephen Jewkes, Angelo Amante
4 MIN READ

MILAN (Reuters) - Italy will allow factories and building sites to reopen from May 4 and permit limited family visits as it prepares a staged end to Europe’s longest coronavirus lockdown, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said on Sunday.

More than two months after the first case of COVID-19 appeared in a small town outside Milan and following weeks of lockdown, Italy is looking ahead to a second phase of the crisis in which it will attempt to restart the economy without triggering a new wave of infections.

“We expect a very complex challenge,” Conte said as he outlined the road map to restarting activities put into hibernation since early March. “We will live with the virus and we will have to adopt every precaution possible.”

Manufacturers, construction companies and some wholesalers will be allowed to reopen from May 4, followed by retailers two weeks later. Restaurants and bars will be allowed to reopen fully from the beginning of June, although takeaway business will be possible earlier.

“The reopening is allowed on condition that all companies involved strictly respect security protocols in the workplace,” Conte said, adding that the reopening would lay the ground for deeper reforms of the economy in the months ahead.

In addition, parks will be allowed to reopen and limited family visits and funerals with no more than 15 people present will be permitted. But movement between regions remains suspended and people moving about will still have to carry a declaration explaining the reasons for their journeys.

Museums and libraries can reopen from May 18, when sports teams will also be able to resume group training, although Conte said conditions would have to be assessed before any decision on resuming the top-flight Serie A soccer championship.

Schools will remain shut, however, until the start of the new academic year in September, leaving families facing childcare problems for months to come.

ECONOMIC HIT
The lockdown has put a strain on the euro zone’s third-largest economy, which is headed for its worst recession since World War Two. Italian business leaders have called for the restrictions to be eased to head off economic catastrophe.

Conte said the more limited restrictions would likely remain in place until the discovery of an effective vaccine or cure for COVID-19, which is not expected for many months.

On Sunday, Italian authorities reported a third consecutive daily fall in coronavirus fatalities, with 260 deaths, the lowest number since March 14.

Italy’s death toll remains the heaviest in Europe, with more than 26,000 dead and almost 200,000 confirmed cases of the respiratory disease. But the number of new cases has been slowing and the number of patients in intensive care has been falling steadily.

Hit hard by the virus weeks before other major Western countries, Italy has been forced to serve as a model for how to fight it. It is being closely watched around the world as it takes its early steps to chart a path out of a strict lockdown it imposed in early March.

Some businesses deemed “strategic”, including activity that was mainly export-oriented, could reopen this week providing they get the go-ahead from local prefects.

Exporting companies need to resume activity sooner to reduce the risk of being cut out of the production chain and losing business, Conte said in an interview with the daily Repubblica earlier on Sunday.

Rome has introduced a series of measures including state-backed loans to help businesses stay afloat. But some business officials have complained about delays in implementing them.

Conte said the government was monitoring banks to make sure state-guaranteed liquidity arrived to companies in need.

He also said the government was working on a series of measures to help industry by cutting bureaucratic red tape.

Reporting by Stephen Jewkes and Angelo Amante; Writing by James Mackenzie; Editing by Peter Cooney
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

[Plain Jane]

The man with the epidemiologist tattoo - a very Swedish tribute

It's not every day that the face of a chief epidemiologist is inked as a tattoo. But then it's not every country that has tackled the coronavirus pandemic like Sweden.

www.reuters.com

The man with the epidemiologist tattoo - a very Swedish tribute


3 MIN READ

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - It’s not every day that the face of a chief epidemiologist is inked as a tattoo. But then it’s not every country that has tackled the coronavirus pandemic like Sweden.

Anders Tegnell was until the start of the crisis an unknown civil servant at the Public Health Agency but has become the face of Sweden’s strategy to keep schools, restaurants and businesses open during the outbreak.

Now the 64-year-old has name recognition on the streets and has been immortalised as a tattoo.


“I think he (Tegnell) is like the face outwards during this crisis and for me, I mean, I think he’s doing quite a good job because he has been standing straight in the frontline and he’s just been doing his job great,” said Gustav Lloyd Agerblad, 32, admiring the image of Tegnell’s face on his arm.

Sweden strategy has not been to stop the virus but to slow the spread enough for the healthcare system to cope. It has not been based on bans but instead on voluntary measures emphasising social distancing and good hygiene.

Even though the plan has prompted some scepticism from policy-makers overseas, around three-quarters of Swedes have expressed high or very high confidence in the Public Health Agency, a survey from Novus showed this month.

Prime Minister Stefan Lofven’s popularity has also surged and more than six out of 10 people have confidence in the government’s handling of the crisis.

“I came up with the idea because I believe in our strategy and I believe that the authorities can’t make us stay at home,” said tattoo artist Zashay Rissanen Tastas as he inked Tegnell’s face onto Agerblad.

“If we keep our distance it’s probably going to be fine.”

Still, more than 2,200 people have died of the virus in Sweden, fewer relative to the size of the population than in Britain, France and Spain but far more than in Denmark and Norway, where authorities have taken a stricter approach.

he size of the population than in Britain, France and Spain but far more than in Denmark and Norway, where authorities have taken a stricter approach.



Slideshow (4 Images)
The disparity with its Nordic neighbours has drawn fierce criticism from some Swedish scientists. But as other countries are seeking to re-start their struggling economies, people have also highlighted the benefits of Sweden’s approach.

On the streets of Stockholm, as in the tattoo parlour, some passers-by spoke highly of Tegnell.

“Everyone loves him. Absolutely. That’s how it is. He’s very popular,” said Tove Falck-Olsson.

But will it last? “We’ll have to see. It’s too soon to say, as he himself says, one has to give it some time and we’ll see,” she said.

Reporting by Johan Ahlander and Philip O'Connor; Editing by Alison Williams
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

[Plain Jane]

The man with the epidemiologist tattoo - a very Swedish tribute

It's not every day that the face of a chief epidemiologist is inked as a tattoo. But then it's not every country that has tackled the coronavirus pandemic like Sweden.

www.reuters.com

The man with the epidemiologist tattoo - a very Swedish tribute


3 MIN READ

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - It’s not every day that the face of a chief epidemiologist is inked as a tattoo. But then it’s not every country that has tackled the coronavirus pandemic like Sweden.

Anders Tegnell was until the start of the crisis an unknown civil servant at the Public Health Agency but has become the face of Sweden’s strategy to keep schools, restaurants and businesses open during the outbreak.

Now the 64-year-old has name recognition on the streets and has been immortalised as a tattoo.


“I think he (Tegnell) is like the face outwards during this crisis and for me, I mean, I think he’s doing quite a good job because he has been standing straight in the frontline and he’s just been doing his job great,” said Gustav Lloyd Agerblad, 32, admiring the image of Tegnell’s face on his arm.

Sweden strategy has not been to stop the virus but to slow the spread enough for the healthcare system to cope. It has not been based on bans but instead on voluntary measures emphasising social distancing and good hygiene.

Even though the plan has prompted some scepticism from policy-makers overseas, around three-quarters of Swedes have expressed high or very high confidence in the Public Health Agency, a survey from Novus showed this month.

Prime Minister Stefan Lofven’s popularity has also surged and more than six out of 10 people have confidence in the government’s handling of the crisis.

“I came up with the idea because I believe in our strategy and I believe that the authorities can’t make us stay at home,” said tattoo artist Zashay Rissanen Tastas as he inked Tegnell’s face onto Agerblad.

“If we keep our distance it’s probably going to be fine.”

Still, more than 2,200 people have died of the virus in Sweden, fewer relative to the size of the population than in Britain, France and Spain but far more than in Denmark and Norway, where authorities have taken a stricter approach.

he size of the population than in Britain, France and Spain but far more than in Denmark and Norway, where authorities have taken a stricter approach.



Slideshow (4 Images)
The disparity with its Nordic neighbours has drawn fierce criticism from some Swedish scientists. But as other countries are seeking to re-start their struggling economies, people have also highlighted the benefits of Sweden’s approach.

On the streets of Stockholm, as in the tattoo parlour, some passers-by spoke highly of Tegnell.

“Everyone loves him. Absolutely. That’s how it is. He’s very popular,” said Tove Falck-Olsson.

But will it last? “We’ll have to see. It’s too soon to say, as he himself says, one has to give it some time and we’ll see,” she said.

Reporting by Johan Ahlander and Philip O'Connor; Editing by Alison Williams
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

[Plain Jane]

Italy, UK explore possible COVID-19 link to child inflammatory disease

Italian and British medical experts are investigating a possible link between the coronavirus pandemic and clusters of severe inflammatory disease among infants who are arriving in hospital with high fevers and swollen arteries.

www.reuters.com

NEWS
APRIL 27, 2020 / 1:27 PM / UPDATED 14 MINUTES AGO
Italy, UK explore possible COVID-19 link to child inflammatory disease

Emilio Parodi, Alistair Smout
5 MIN READ

MILAN/LONDON (Reuters) - Italian and British medical experts are investigating a possible link between the coronavirus pandemic and clusters of severe inflammatory disease among infants who are arriving in hospital with high fevers and swollen arteries.

Doctors in northern Italy, one of the world’s hardest-hit areas during the pandemic, have reported extraordinarily large numbers of children under age 9 with severe cases of what appears to be Kawasaki disease, more common in parts of Asia.

In Britain, doctors have made similar observations, prompting Health Secretary Matt Hancock to tell a coronavirus news briefing on Monday that he was “very worried” and that medical authorities were looking at the issue closely.

In the United States, a leading paediatric society says it has yet to see something similar.

Kawasaki disease, whose cause is unknown, often afflicts children aged under 5 and is associated with fever, skin rashes, swelling of glands, and in severe cases, inflammation of arteries of the heart. There is some evidence that individuals can inherit a predisposition to the disease, but the pattern is not clear.

England’s national medical director, Stephen Powis, told the British briefing he had become aware of reports of severely ill children with Kawasaki-like symptoms in the past few days but stressed it was too early to determine a link with the coronavirus.


“I’ve asked the national clinical director for children and young people to look into this as a matter of urgency. ... We’re not sure at the moment,” Powis said.

In Italy, paediatricians are also alarmed.

A hospital in the northern town of Bergamo has seen more than 20 cases of severe vascular inflammation in the past month, six times as many as it would expect to see in a year, said paediatric heart specialist Matteo Ciuffreda.

Ciuffreda, of the Giovanni XXIII hospital, said only a few of the infants with vascular inflammation had tested positive for the new coronavirus, but paediatric cardiologists in Madrid and Lisbon had told him they had seen similar cases.

He has called on his colleagues to document every such case to determine if there is a correlation between Kawasaki disease and COVID-19. He aims to publish the results of the Italian research in a scientific journal.

‘MULTI-ORGAN INFLAMMATION’

Ciuffreda said his first case of apparent Kawasaki disease was a 9-year-old boy who came to the hospital on March 21, at the peak of the coronavirus outbreak, with high fever and low blood oxygen levels. He tested negative for the coronavirus.

A scan showed the child had an enlarged coronary artery, a hallmark of severe cases of Kawasaki disease, he said.

“The little boy worried me a lot, with a violent multi-organ inflammation affecting both heart and the lungs,” Ciuffreda said. “I feared he wouldn’t survive, but surprisingly, in the course of a few days, he took a positive turn and he got better.”

Kawasaki disease was anecdotally linked 16 years ago to another known coronavirus, though it was never proven. The research was carried out after another, related coronavirus known as NL63 was found in a baby showing symptoms of Kawasaki disease in 2004.

Ian Jones, professor of virology at the University of Reading in Britain, said the NL63 virus uses the same receptor as the new coronavirus to infect humans, but he also stressed it was too early to draw conclusions.

“We just have to wait and see if this becomes a common observation,” he said.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has yet to see something similar in the United States, which has the greatest number of coronavirus infections and deaths.”We are not aware of any reports of this phenomenon in the United States,” Dr. Yvonne Maldonado, who chairs the academy’s committee on infectious disease, said in an email, referring to a potential link between COVID-19 and Kawasaki-type symptoms.

Dr. Sean O’Leary, a paediatric infectious diseases expert at Children’s Hospital Colorado who is part of that AAP committee, said his hospital has seen several cases of Kawasaki this year, but none in the more than 30 children admitted for COVID-19.

“Even if it is related, is a very rare complication,” he said. “If it were more common, we’d already have a pretty good idea about it in the United States.”

Reporting by Emilio Parodi in Milan and Alisstair Smout in London; Additional reporting by Julie Steenhuysen in Chicago; Editing by Mark Bendeich, Alison Williams and Leslie Adler
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

Even The EU Are A Bunch Of 'Karens': Barnier Complains About Brexit Negotiations

by Tyler Durden
Mon, 04/27/2020 - 02:00
TwitterFacebookRedditEmailPrint


Authored by Tom Luongo via Gold, Goats, 'n Guns blog,
So, this happened...

EU lead negotiator for the free trade agreement with the United Kingdom is complaining in the press again.

The United Kingdom cannot refuse to extend the transition and at the same time slow down progress in important areas,” Barnier said, expressing concern that Britain has not presented concrete proposals for certain contentious issues, but did not name the areas, according to DPA news agency.
H/T TO FORT RUSS

For once someone is treating the EU the way it treats everyone else and they don’t like it. I guess Michel should change his name to Karen.

Except the problem here is there’s no manager to talk to because Prime Minister Boris Johnson isn’t listening.

The typical EU negotiations looks like this, according to former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis.

You walk in with a well thought out proposal, present it in detail thinking it’s the beginning of a negotiation only to find they aren’t listening at all and look at you like you’ve just sung the Swedish National Anthem.


Well it looks like Boris Johnson and the Brits are treating Barnier and the EU with the same vague contempt that he and the EU treat everyone else and guess what?

Karen doesn’t like it.

Remember, the Brits have ask for an extension by June 30th to extend this transition period they are in for another two years or negotiations end on December 31st.

If no trade deal is agreed to by the two sides by then, trade between them on WTO terms commences. Given the current state of EU politics and its sinking economic conditions the likelihood of the U.K. giving Barnier even the time of day at this point is pretty low.

He’s behaved appallingly at every stage of these discussions, going back three years, treating the Brits like a bunch of wayward children and the EU the assuming the role of the abusive, distant father.

If , at this late date, Barnier is accusing the Brits of stalling and complaining about it publicly then there is no deal and Johnson is dead set on a hard Brexit.

Because while Boris may look like a buffoon, he’s as shrewd a political operator as there is.

Because we all know what the real story is here, the EU wants to soak the U.K. for the next two and a half years while making them liable for hundreds of billions of pounds to bail out the European banking system.

That’s why they are pushing for an extension. That’s why they are putting non-starter proposals on the table, if any at all.

And there’s zero political will in the U.K. to give the EU another shilling.

Moreover, with Germany ascendant within the EU at the moment, since Chancellor Angela Merkel won the latest round against the Euro-integrationists resisting the call for debt mutualization and Eurobonds, Germany needs exports to the U.K. a whole lot more than the U.K. needs exports to Germany.

And that provides the dynamic to ensure there will be no tariffs put in place in the event of a hard Brexit. Because if they do it will gut what’s left of German exports to the U.K. and its now-suffocating automobile industry.

It means the Germans will set a ruthless agenda in the second half of this year in budget talks while it has the Presidency of the European Commission.

However, it also means that Italy will have a lot of leverage since the Germans don’t want to go back to the Deutschemark anymore than Italy wants to stay in the euro under the current arrangement. A new mark would be far stronger than the euro would be without Germany in it.

And that would also crush German exports.

I have to wonder at this point whether Merkel will reverse course on all of the terrible things she’s done to the German economy in the next six months. She has to realize, with her now commanding lead in the polls, she no longer needs the Greens to govern and doesn’t need to encourage them anymore.

Because their agenda is toxic in the post-COVID-19 world economy. German industry is now severely disadvantaged in a world of $15-20 per barrel oil and $1.50 mcf Natural gas.

Today the Green energy agenda makes zero sense.

No amount of stimulus or green spending as championed by ECB President Christine Lagarde will save the European economy and political system. Moreover, the harder ball the Brits play with Barnier over a trade deal, the more they play the Swedish National Anthem game the more countries like Italy will see Brussels for the inept, dysfunctional paper tiger it is.

And everyone may just get all those funny ideas the Brits had in 2016.

 

[jward]

Deven_Intel

@Deven_Intel
4h

#Spain has been increasing the amount of incursions into the #UnitedKingdom's #Gibraltar Territory. Spain claims that Gibraltar is rightfully there's while Britain says it's there's because it's been under British rule since 1713.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1255032892746395648

View: https://twitter.com/Deven_Intel/status/1255032892746395648?s=20

 

[Plain Jane]

Deven_Intel
@Deven_Intel
4h

#Spain has been increasing the amount of incursions into the #UnitedKingdom's #Gibraltar Territory. Spain claims that Gibraltar is rightfully there's while Britain says it's there's because it's been under British rule since 1713.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1255032892746395648

View: https://twitter.com/Deven_Intel/status/1255032892746395648?s=20

Wow! Just wow!

In the meantime there is an update to post 60.

UK says some children have died from syndrome linked to COVID-19

Some children in the United Kingdom with no underlying health conditions have died from a rare inflammatory syndrome which researchers believe to be linked to COVID-19, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said on Tuesday.

www.reuters.com

NEWS
APRIL 28, 2020 / 3:54 AM / UPDATED 3 HOURS AGO
UK says some children have died from syndrome linked to COVID-19

Guy Faulconbridge, Kate Holton
4 MIN READ

LONDON (Reuters) - Some children in the United Kingdom with no underlying health conditions have died from a rare inflammatory syndrome which researchers believe to be linked to COVID-19, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said on Tuesday.

Italian and British medical experts are investigating a possible link between the coronavirus pandemic and clusters of severe inflammatory disease among infants who are arriving in hospital with high fevers and swollen arteries.

Doctors in northern Italy, one of the world’s hardest-hit areas during the pandemic, have reported extraordinarily large numbers of children under age 9 with severe cases of what appears to be Kawasaki disease, more common in parts of Asia.

“There are some children who have died who didn’t have underlying health conditions,” Hancock told LBC Radio.

“It’s a new disease that we think may be caused by coronavirus and the COVID-19 virus, we’re not 100% sure because some of the people who got it hadn’t tested positive, so we’re doing a lot of research now but it is something that we’re worried about.”


Children were until now thought to be much less susceptible than their parents or grandparents to the most deadly complications wrought by the novel coronavirus, though the mysterious inflammatory disease noticed in Britain, Spain and Italy may demand a reassessment.

“It is rare, although it is very significant for those children who do get it, the number of cases is small,” Hancock, one of the ministers leading Britain’s COVID-19 response, said.

He did not give an exact figure for the number of deaths.

Kawasaki disease, whose cause is unknown, is associated with fever, skin rashes, swelling of glands, and in severe cases, inflammation of arteries of the heart.

Britain’s National Health Service says the syndrome only affects about eight in every 100,000 children every year, with most aged under 5.

There is some evidence that individuals can inherit a predisposition to the disease, but the pattern is not clear.

Children either testing positive for COVID-19 or for its antibodies have presented gastrointestinal symptoms such as abdominal pain, vomiting and diarrhea in the last two weeks, the Spanish Pediatric Association said on Monday.

Though the children were otherwise in good health, their condition could evolve within hours into shock, featuring tachycardia and hypotension even without fever.

Most cases were detected in school-age or teenage minors, and sometimes overlapped with Kawasaki disease or toxic shock syndrome (TSS).

Parents should be vigilant, junior British interior minister Victoria Atkins said.

“It demonstrates just how fast moving this virus is and how unprecedented it is in its effect,” Atkins told Sky News.

Professor Anne Marie Rafferty, the president of the Royal College of Nursing, said she had heard reports about the similarity between cases in infants and Kawasaki syndrome.

“Actually there’s far too little known about it and the numbers actually at the moment are really too small,” told Sky News. “But it is an alert, and it’s something that’s actually being explored and examined by a number of different researchers.”

Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge and Kate Holton in London and Clara-Læïla Laudette in Madrid; editing by Michael Holden and Angus MacSwan
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

[jward]

I'm hating the medical articles too. I've decided for my own peace of mind to focus on all the qualifiers with in them, and remain hopeful until it is no longer possible....because :: shakes head ::

 

[Plain Jane]

Catalan separatists use coronavirus crisis to argue for independence

Catalan separatists have used the coronavirus crisis as a fresh motive to argue for independence from Spain, some bluntly saying the pandemic would have caused fewer deaths had the wealthy northeastern region been on its own.

www.reuters.com

NEWS
APRIL 29, 2020 / 11:01 AM / UPDATED 30 MINUTES AGO
Catalan separatists use coronavirus crisis to argue for independence

Joan Faus
5 MIN READ

BARCELONA (Reuters) - Catalan separatists have used the coronavirus crisis as a fresh motive to argue for independence from Spain, some bluntly saying the pandemic would have caused fewer deaths had the wealthy northeastern region been on its own.

But with mistakes by both national and regional authorities, the separatists’ strategy to harshly criticise Madrid and suggest they would have done better could also backfire.

In a region that has the most deaths after Madrid, the separatists say central government should have imposed a tougher and earlier lockdown, and also complain that centralizing purchases of masks and other equipment tangled the response.

“Spain is unemployment and death, Catalonia life and future,” tweeted Barcelona’s chamber of commerce chairman Joan Canadell in one of the strongest rebukes.

Meritxell Budo, a spokeswoman for the regional government, also outraged many Spaniards, at a time of national sensitivity over the world’s third worst death toll, by saying there would not have been “so many deaths” in an independent Catalonia.

Spain has suffered 24,275 deaths, according to Wednesday’s data, including 4,905 dead in Catalonia.


The health crisis has upended Spanish politics, displacing Catalan separatism as the dominant theme it had been in recent years.

But the 2017 short-lived independence declaration, which triggered a major crisis, remains very much in everyone’s mind - and regional leaders still eye a standalone country.

The pandemic “has once more showed the need to have a (Catalan) state,” Marta Vilalta, deputy secretary general of Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya party (ERC), told Reuters.

Had it been able to act alone, Catalonia would have been much better placed to act swiftly, Vilalta argued, criticising Madrid’s takeover of health services from the regions.

Catalonia has a 7.5 million population, out of Spain’s 47 million, its own language - Catalan - and its own police, and is second only to Madrid in GDP contribution.

The Catalan government sought a full lockdown of the region on March 13 and two days later said only essential workers should be allowed to leave homes.,

Spain’s Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez issued a nationwide lockdown on March 14 but did not ban non-essential work until March 30.

“Spain has constantly been making mistakes,” Catalan regional interior secretary Miquel Buch told Reuters.

“SYSTEMATIC CONFRONTATION”
Authorities in Madrid dispute that, saying they acted when required, and have asked their many critics, including Catalan separatists, to show a sense of national unity.

Miquel Iceta, leader of Catalan Socialists, said it was inaccurate and offensive to say an independent region would have had fewer coronavirus deaths, accusing the Catalan government of seeking “excuses” to minimize its own mistakes.

Iceta, who opposes independence, said it was necessary for the Spanish and Catalan governments to resume bilateral talks interrupted by the pandemic, but warned that promoting “systematic confrontation” with Madrid does not help.

Joan Esculies, history professor at Catalonia’s Open University, said the separatists’ criticism was predictable but risky because the Catalan government had also struggled in some aspects, such as deadly outbreaks in nursing homes.

He expected the number of people in favour or against independence to not change much after the pandemic.

A total of 47.1% of Catalans were against independence with 44.9% in favour, according to a poll conducted between February 10 and March 9 by a Catalan government agency.

Throughout the crisis, separatist grassroots organization CDR has urged balcony protests to demand a stricter lockdown and reject the military’s presence in Catalonia to help combat the coronavirus.

The pandemic has heaped more uncertainty on local politics.

For one, the regional head of government Quim Torra, from the separatist centre-right Junts per Catalunya party, has put on hold his plan for a snap election, which was prompted by tensions with ERC, its coalition partner.

Then, leftist ERC, both a partner and a rival of Junts, could also potentially see its role as a kingmaker on the national scene dwindle.

The two main separatist parties are deeply divided on their strategy to achieve secession after the 2017 failed unilateral independence bid. ERC favours dialogue with Madrid, while Junts has adopted a more confrontational stance.


ERC was instrumental in January in handing Sanchez the votes needed in parliament to form a leftist coalition government - in exchange for political talks between the Spanish and Catalan authorities - after an inconclusive election.

But now Sanchez could seek new parliamentary allies with his call for a national recovery pact, making him potentially less dependent on ERC to get laws, including Spain’s budget, adopted by parliament.

Reporting by Joan Faus; Editing by Ingrid Melander and Andrew Cawthorne
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

[Plain Jane]

Belgians urged to double down on fries, do national duty

Rescuing Belgium's potato industry might easily be a matter of national pride, given the country's long claim of being the real birthplace of what Americans have the temerity to call french fries.

apnews.com

Belgians urged to double down on fries, do national duty
By SAMUEL PETREQUINyesterday



1 of 3
Manager Pascal Vandersteengen, left, hands a bag to a customer with a mouth mask as he works at his Belgian friterie, Chez Clementine, in Brussels, during a partial lockdown to prevent the spread of coronavirus, COVID-19, Tuesday, April 28, 2020. Before the COVID-19 epidemic, the prospects for the 2020 season looked bright following an excellent year marked by a rise of 7.5 percent in the production of frozen fries in Belgium. But the deadly virus outbreak brought exports to Chinese ports to a halt, then triggered a slowdown of potato sales across Europe as lockdown measures were implemented across the continent. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
BRUSSELS (AP) — In a country that claims to be the real birthplace of the finger food that Americans have the temerity to call french fries, rescuing the potato industry might easily be a matter of Belgian national pride.

So while a coronavirus lockdown keeps restaurants, bars and many of Belgium’s 5,000 frites stands closed, the trade association for the national potato industry is calling on the population at large to do its part by keeping deep fryers fired up on the home front.

“Traditionally, Belgians eat fries once a week, and it’s always a festive moment,” Romain Cools, the secretary general of industry group Belgapom, said in a phone interview Tuesday. “Now, we are asking them to eat frozen fries twice a week at home.”

The demand for frozen potatoes has nosedived in recent weeks, and the Belgian industry faces a possible loss of 125 million euros ($135.5 million), if hundreds of tons of surplus potatoes don’t move this year, Cools said.

“This is the first time in my 30-year career that I need to call on authorities for help,” he said. “The potato sector is so important. It should be helped because it’s a flagship for our whole industry.”

The industry wants to find new ways to move surplus stock and avoid waste. In partnership with the Dutch-speaking Flemish region of Belgium, Belgapom set up a program to deliver 25 tons of potatoes a week to food banks. Businesses are working to export some of their supplies to Central Europe and Africa, where the demand remains high.

The industry is also looking at working with starch factories to find other uses for excess potato stocks, such as feeding livestock or producing green electricity.

Both France and Belgium claim to have invented fried string potatoes as a side dish. But the ’pomme frites” culture is stronger in Belgium, where people share a taste for beer with the chip-eaters in Britain.

Belgians eat 38 kilograms (about 84 pounds) of fresh potatoes and 6-7 kilograms (13-15 pounds) of processed potatoes at home every year, according to Belgium’s National Union of Fry-makers. But even if consumers unite in upping per capita consumption of fries, the potato sector won’t emerge from the pandemic unscathed.

Before the coronavirus reached Europe, the 2020 prospects looked bright for Belgium’s potato industry, the world’s largest exporter, following a 7.5% rise last year in the production of frozen fries. But the virus outbreak halted exports to China, then triggered a slowdown of potato sales across Europe as lockdown measures were implemented.
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After supermarkets saw shoppers grab all the potatoes they could hoard, demand quickly plummeted and kept falling with the closure of fast-food chains, according to Belgapom.
Although Belgium is set to lift the home confinement order for most the country’s 11.5 million people as soon as Saturday, no date has been set for restaurants to reopen.

The outside shacks known as “fritkoten” where Belgians queue up day in and day out in normal times to buy their beloved fries, were allowed to remain open for takeaway orders during the national lockdown, but an estimated 80% stayed closed anyway after local authorities offered compensation for shuttered businesses.

Pascal Vandersteegen, the manager at Chez Clementine, a popular fritkot in the south of Brussels, says he has witnessed a 30% loss in revenue because of restrictions imposed to address the virus.

“Now, we have to close at 10 p.m. every day” he said. “We used to finish work at 1:30 a.m., and 6 a.m. on Fridays. But we are an institution. It’s been 30 years that we are here. If everybody closes, there won’t be anything left.”
___
Follow AP coverage of the coronavirus pandemic at http://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and Understanding the Outbreak

by Taboola

 

[Plain Jane]

Flypasts and promotion for UK fund-raising hero 'Colonel' Tom as he turns 100

British World War Two veteran Captain Tom Moore, who has become a national hero after raising millions for the health service, celebrated his 100th birthday on Thursday with a promotion, military flypasts and a message from the prime minister.

www.reuters.com

NEWS
APRIL 29, 2020 / 7:05 PM / UPDATED 3 HOURS AGO
Flypasts and promotion for UK fund-raising hero "Colonel" Tom as he turns 100

Michael Holden
4 MIN READ

LONDON (Reuters) - British World War Two veteran Captain Tom Moore, who has become a national hero after raising millions for the health service, celebrated his 100th birthday on Thursday with a promotion, military flypasts and a message from the prime minister.

Earlier this month, Moore began his fundraising mission for charities that help front-line National Health Service staff battling the COVID-19 crisis by completing laps of his garden with the help of a walking frame, initially setting out to raise just 1,000 pounds.

• 
  UK 'Colonel' Tom's fundraising total exceeds $37 million

As he celebrated his centenary, the amount he raised topped 30 million pounds ($37.4 million), the Guinness World Record for the most money raised by an individual through a walk.

He has also become the oldest person to notch up a number one single in Britain’s main music chart, featuring on a cover version of “You’ll Never Walk Alone”, with his endeavours winning the hearts and admiration of the public at home and across the world.


To celebrate his birthday, Moore was appointed the first Honorary Colonel of the Army Foundation College, based near the town where he grew up, a position that came with the approval of Queen Elizabeth, the defence ministry said.

He has also been re-presented with his World War Two Defence Medal which he had lost.

Historic World War Two aircraft carried out a flypast above “Colonel” Moore’s home in Bedfordshire, central England, early on Thursday with a second fly over by modern Royal Air Force helicopters due later.

Moore, who said he was still “Captain Tom”, said he was honoured by his promotion and all the kind messages he had received.

SERVED IN SOUTHEAST ASIA
“If people choose to call me colonel, well thank you very much,” he told BBC TV with a chuckle. The veteran, who served in southeast Asia during the war, waved at the World War Two fighter planes as they flew over his home.

Since Monday, Britain’s Royal Mail has added a special postmark to all stamped post with a congratulatory message to Moore while more than 125,000 birthday cards have been sent to him by well-wishers, so many a nearby school has had to open and display them.

“I never, ever anticipated ever in my life anything like this, it really is amazing. I must say ... thank you very much to everyone, wherever you are,” Moore said.

His exploits earlier this month have been heralded by politicians and royalty alike. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who returned to work on Monday after recovering from COVID-19 himself, recorded a special message for Moore.

I know I speak for the whole country when I say we wish you a very happy 100th birthday. Your heroic efforts have lifted the spirits of an entire nation,” Johnson said.

He said Moore was a “point of light in all our lives”.

The royal family have also sent messages of congratulations.

“It’s incredible, it’s amazing,” said Prince William, the queen’s grandson of Moore’s efforts. “It’s wonderful that everyone is being inspired by his story, his determination ... he’s a one man fund-raising machine.”

Editing by Stephen Addison, Paul Sandle, William Maclean
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.