INTL Europe: Politics, Economics, Military- August 2020

[Plain Jane]

Here is July's thread:

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

June's thread: https://www.timebomb2000.com/xf/index.php?threads/europe-politics-economics-military-june-2020.575289/ Regional Conflict in Mediterranean beginning page 27: https://www.timebomb2000.com/xf/index.php?threads/regional-conflict-brewing-in-the-mediterranean.565195/page-27 Main...

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Regional Conflict in the Mediterranean thread beginning page 35:

WAR - Regional conflict brewing in the Mediterranean

Amir Tsarfati @BeholdIsrael 15m The Turkish parliament has approved a law that will allow stricter monitoring of social media content. Critics fear the new legislation is a further step toward silencing dissent in the country.

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Main Coronavirus Thread beginning page 1302 :

CORONA - Main Coronavirus thread

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNH6vW2Yaf8 27:24 min 127 - Dr. Ruth Karron Answers Your COVID-19 Vaccine Questions •Jul 31, 2020 Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health How close are we to a vaccine? What do efficacy trials actually entail? What are the challenges to...

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German economy plunged 10% during 2nd quarter amid pandemic

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Germany’s economy, Europe's largest, took a massive hit during the pandemic shutdowns, shrinking by 10.1% percent during the April-June period from the previous quarter as exports and business investment collapsed.

apnews.com

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German economy plunged 10% during 2nd quarter amid pandemic
By DAVID McHUGHJuly 30, 2020

The buildings of the banking district are seen in Frankfurt, Germany, Thursday, July 30, 2020. The Federal Statistical Office will release 2nd-quarter German GDP (gross domestic product) figures on Thursday. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Germany’s economy, Europe’s largest, took a massive hit during the pandemic shutdowns, shrinking by 10.1% percent during the April-June period from the previous quarter as exports and business investment collapsed.

It was the biggest drop since quarterly growth figures began being compiled in 1970, the official statistics agency said Thursday. The plunge far exceeded the previous worst-ever recorded performance, a fall of 4.7% in the first quarter of 2009 during the global financial crisis.

Tough pandemic restrictions shut down everything from taverns to auto dealerships. The country has cautiously reopened and the economy has started bouncing back but economists say it is far from the pre-pandemic level and won’t reach break even until 2022 at the earliest.

Economist Carsten Brzeski at the bank ING Germany said the recovery would be “a long ride.”
“This picture shows the deepest but also the shortest recession ever,” Brzeski said. “All monthly indicators since May have already pointed to a strong rebound of economic activity in the course of what has been the worst quarterly performance ever.”

The government has enacted a multibillion-euro stimulus package of emergency loans, credit guarantees and tax breaks to cushion the impact. The German data release comes ahead of expected figures for Italy, France and the 19-country eurozone as a whole on Friday. Those numbers are likewise expected to be dismal, although they are backward-looking and don’t account for the rebound in activity after many of the toughest restrictions were lifted.

So far, government programs to help keep workers on payrolls across the currency union have cushioned the impact for many families. That has kept unemployment in check, one factor that could help support the rebound. The jobless rate inched up to 7.8% in June from 7.7% in May, according to a separate report published Thursday.

State statistics agency Destatis said that exports, imports, consumer spending and investment in equipment had “massively collapsed” during the second quarter.

Economist Stephan Kooths at the Institute for the World Economy in Kiel, Germany, said that consumer spending suffered not because of a lack of purchasing power but simply because the coronavirus measures reduced the chance to spend - to the tune of 130 billion euros.

 

[Plain Jane]

Scientists study coronavirus outbreaks among minks in Europe

Coronavirus outbreaks at mink breeding farms in Spain and the Netherlands have scientists digging into how the animals got infected and if they can spread it to people.

apnews.com

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Scientists study coronavirus outbreaks among minks in Europe
By ARITZ PARRA and MIKE CORDERtoday



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FILE - In this Dec. 6, 2012, file photo, minks look out of a cage at a fur farm in the village of Litusovo, northeast of Minsk, Belarus. Coronavirus outbreaks at mink farms in Spain and the Netherlands have scientists digging into how the animals got infected and if they can spread it to people. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits, File)

MADRID (AP) — Coronavirus outbreaks at mink farms in Spain and the Netherlands have scientists digging into how the animals got infected and if they can spread it to people.
In the meantime, authorities have killed more than 1 million minks at breeding farms in both countries as a precaution.

The virus that first infected people in China late last year came from an animal source, probably bats, and later spread from person to person, as other coronaviruses had done in the past. Some animals, including cats, tigers and dogs, have picked up the new coronavirus from people, but there hasn’t been a documented case of animals spreading it back to humans.


The outbreaks among the minks on the farms in the Netherlands and Spain likely started with infected workers, although officials aren’t certain. But it also is “plausible” that some workers later caught the virus back from the minks, the Dutch government and a researcher said, and scientists are exploring whether that was the case and how much of a threat such a spread might be.

The outbreak at the Spanish mink farm near La Puebla de Valverde, a village of 500 people, was discovered after seven of the 14 employees, including the owner, tested positive in late May, said Joaquín Olona, regional chief of agriculture and environment. Two other employees got infected even after the operation was shut down.

More than 92,000 minks were ordered killed at the farm in the Aragon region of northeastern Spain, with nine out of 10 animals estimated to have contracted the virus.

After the Dutch outbreaks began in April, professor Wim van der Poel, a veterinarian who studies viruses at Wageningen University and Research, determined that the virus strain in the animals was similar to the one circulating among humans.

“We assumed it was possible that it would be transmitted back to people again,” the virus expert said, and that’s what appeared to have happened with at least two of the infected workers.

Richard Ostfeld, a researcher at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, New York, said that if confirmed, these would be the first known instances of animal-to-human transmission.

“With the evidence for farmed mink-to-human transmission, we definitely need to be concerned with the potential for domesticated animals that are infected to pass on their infection to us,” Ostfeld said by email.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says some coronaviruses that infect animals can be spread to humans and then spread between people, but it adds that this is rare.


Both the World Health Organization and the Paris-based World Organisation for Animal Health, are studying the transmission of the virus between animals and people. Several universities and research institutes also are examining the issue.

The WHO has noted that the transmission on the mink breeding farms could have happened both ways. But WHO’s Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove said at a news conference last month that such transmission was “very limited.”

“This gives us some clues about which animals may be susceptible to infection and this will help us as we learn more about the potential animal reservoir of (the virus),” she said, referring to cases in the Netherlands and Denmark, another major producer of mink fur.

While scientists think the virus originated in bats, it may have passed through another animal before infecting people. A WHO team is currently in China, planning to study the issue.

More than 1.1 million minks have been killed on 26 Dutch farms that recorded outbreaks, according to the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority. The government announced Thursday that minks at a 27th farm also were infected and would be killed. The Netherlands, which has some 160 mink farms, is the world’s fourth-biggest producer of the prized fur after Denmark, China and Poland, according to Wim Verhagen, director of the Dutch federation of fur farmers. Spain has 38 active mink breeding operations, most of them in northwestern Galicia.

Both Spain and the Netherlands have tightened hygiene protocols at mink farms and banned transportation of the animals and visits to the buildings where they are kept.

China, which produces about a third of the mink fur market, and the United States have not reported any virus outbreaks in minks or animals at other farms.
—-
Corder reported from The Hague. Associated Press writers Maria Cheng in London and Ken Moritsugu in Beijing contributed.

 

[Plain Jane]

Italian island runs out of room to quarantine new migrants

ROME (AP) — About 250 Tunisian migrants in several small boats have reached a tiny Italian island that has run out of room to quarantine them as required by Italy's anti-coronavirus measures, local officials said Saturday.

apnews.com

Italian island runs out of room to quarantine new migrants
By FRANCES D'EMILIOyesterday

FILE -- In this file photo migrants sit on the quay after disembarking at Lampedusa harbor, Italy, on June 29, 2019. Small boats filled with more Tunisian migrants have reached a tiny Italian island, which had no room to quarantine them Saturday, Aug. 1, 2020, amid the pandemic. Sicilian daily Giornale di Sicilia quoted Lampedusa Mayor Toto' Martello as saying the island can’t wait until the government sends a ferry as promised so they can be safely isolated for 14 days as part of anti-COVID-19 measures. (AP Photo/Annalisa Camilli)

ROME (AP) — About 250 Tunisian migrants in several small boats have reached a tiny Italian island that has run out of room to quarantine them as required by Italy’s anti-coronavirus measures, local officials said Saturday.

The Sicilian newspaper Giornale di Sicilia quoted Lampedusa Mayor Toto’ Martello as saying the island can’t wait until the government sends a chartered ferry where the migrants can be held for 14 days to fulfill the country’s quarantine requirement.

The island’s migrant holding center, which was built for a maximum capacity of 95 people, was already holding 950 when the latest passengers arrived, Martello said. The 250 who arrived between Friday night and Saturday must stay on the dock for now, until the promised ferry arrives or some other solution is found.

Seven boats directly reached Lampedusa’s shores, while an eighth boat needed assistance as it approached the island after setting off from Tunisia’s Mediterranean coast.
Overall, the mayor said 250 boats carrying 5,000 migrants have reached the southern Mediterranean island in the last month. Many passengers were transferred to migrant residences on Sicily on commercial ferries or other vessels.

“I don’t understand why the premier doesn’t declare a state of emergency” on Lampedusa, Martello told the newspaper.

Arriving migrants have been linked to several dozen recent coronavirus clusters. Concern is growing among health authorities that Italy’s daily toll of new confirmed cases, which had been largely contained by June, could again start surging out of control.

Unless they come from countries specifically exempted from mandatory precautionary measures, such as most European Union countries and some others, foreigners must undergo a 14-day quarantine upon entering Italy.

Tunisian migrants fleeing their country’s worsening economic situation aren’t generally considered eligible for asylum. Italy has a repatriation deal with Tunisia for weekly flights to send back those who fail to obtain permission to stay. The flights were suspended during the brunt of Italy’s coronavirus epidemic but resumed on July 16.

Still, Tunisians keep coming, in small fishing boats sturdy enough to reach Lampedusa’s shores.

Italian Interior Minister Luciana Lamorgese told the Corriere della Sera newspaper that Italy is trying to arrange with the Tunisian government the possibility of using boats to increase the number of weekly repatriations.

“Local communities are rightly sensitive to the subject of health safety” from the migrants, he said.
___
Follow AP’s pandemic coverage at http://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and Understanding the Outbreak


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ILL IMM - Italian island of Lampedusa Runs out of Room to Quarantine Arriving Migrants

www.breitbart.com /europe/2020/08/01/italian-island-lampedusa-runs-out-room-quarantine-arriving-migrants/ Lampedusa Runs out of Room to Quarantine Arriving Migrants Breitbart London 3-4 minutes ROME (AP) — Several small boats filled with more Tunisian migrants have reached a tiny Italian...

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[Melodi]

Part of the problem is that North Africa is very-very close to Italy (and Spain) geographically, this is probably one reason why ancient Empires like Rome, Greece, and even later the Visigoths all ended up including parts of North Africa in either their empires directly or their spheres of influence.

These days, "Europe" goes up (to Scandinavia) rather than "around" "(the Medetrainan), but the geography and close physical distances haven't changed very much.

There simply isn't any way to keep every fishing boat or even raft coming from North Africa out of parts of Italy, Greece, and Spain especially with hundreds of miles of Islands that are a smuggler's paradise for thousands of years (there's a reason we think "Sicilian Mafia.")

This isn't like try to "stop people at the Mexican border, this is hundreds if not thousands of small boats full of desperate people washing up where they wash up; coming from places that just might shoot the crews of vessels trying for involuntary deportation of them back to their places of origin (some of which, like Libya have no functioning government to negotiate within any case).

I don't have a good solution, just explaining part of the problem; eventually, if something isn't done and if the economy falls totally apart, well what happens on Islands in those situations often isn't pretty; and the locals are already pretty unhappy.

 

[Plain Jane]

Serbian purchase of missile defence system shows ties deepening with China

Serbia has bought a new generation of medium-range, radar-guided surface-to-air missiles from China in a new sign of deepening cooperation between Beijing and Belgrade.

www.reuters.com

NEWS
AUGUST 3, 2020 / 6:10 AM / UPDATED 12 MINUTES AGO
Serbian purchase of missile defence system shows ties deepening with China


2 MIN READ

BELGRADE (Reuters) - Serbia has bought a new generation of medium-range, radar-guided surface-to-air missiles from China in a new sign of deepening cooperation between Beijing and Belgrade.

The purchase of the FK-3 missile defence system was included in state-run arms company Jugoimport SDPR’s annual report, submitted to the state Business Registers Agency last week and seen by Reuters.

Jugoimport SDPR said it made 163 import deals with 31 countries for $620.3 million in 2019. The weapons purchases included armed drones from China and Europe’s first known purchase of the FK-3.

“The biggest part of imports is related to the modernisation of MIG-29 planes, the procurement of drone systems, ... (and) air-defence system FK-3,” it said.
Beijing sees Serbia as part of its One Belt, One Road initiative, which is aimed at opening new foreign trade links for Chinese companies.

In 2018, the Jugoimport SDPR made 162 import deals with 32 countries, worth $482.7 million, including purchases of Russian-made helicopter gunships and transport helicopters.
China has invested billions of euros in the Balkan country, mainly in soft loans, infrastructure and energy projects.

In late June, Serbia’s air force received six CH-92A combat drones armed with laser-guided missiles, the first such deployment of Chinese unmanned aerial vehicles in Europe.

Serbia, which hopes to join the European Union, declared military neutrality in 2006 and joined NATO’s Partnership for Peace program, though it does not seek full membership in the Western defence alliance.

Serbia’s military is loosely based on former Soviet technology and in recent years Belgrade has procured MiG-29 fighter jets and missiles, helicopters, tanks and armoured personnel carriers from Russia.

Reporting by Aleksandar Vasovic; Editing by Timothy Heritage
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

[Plain Jane]

Outbreak hits Norway cruise ship, could spread along coast

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — A Norwegian cruise ship line halted all trips and apologized Monday for procedural errors after a coronavirus outbreak on one ship infected at least 5 passengers and 36 crew.

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Outbreak hits Norway cruise ship, could spread along coast
34 minutes ago



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Norwegian cruise ship MS Roald Amundsen moored in Tromso, Norway, Monday Aug. 3, 2020. After 40 people, including four passengers and 26 crew members on the Norwegian cruise ship have been tested positive for the coronavirus, the operator says it was stopping for all cruises with its three vessels. The 40 people were admitted to the University Hospital of North Norway in Tromsoe, north of the Arctic Circle, where the empty ship has docked. (Terje Pedersen/NTB Scanpix via AP)

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — A Norwegian cruise ship line halted all trips and apologized Monday for procedural errors after an outbreak of coronavirus on one ship infected at least 4 passengers and 36 crew members.

The 40 people on the MS Roald Amundsen who tested positive have been admitted to the University Hospital of North Norway in Tromsoe, north of the Arctic Circle, where the ship currently is docked.

“A preliminary evaluation shows that there has been a failure in several of our internal procedures,” Hurtigruten CEO Daniel Skjeldam said in a statement. He added the company that sails along Norway’s picturesque coast between Bergen in the south and Kirkenes in the north is “now in the process of a full review of all procedures, and all aspects of our own handling.”


The cruise line has contacted passengers who had been on the MS Roald Amundsen for its July 17 and July 24 departures from Bergen to the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard, which is known for its polar bears.

All 158 crew members on MS Roald Amundsen have been tested and 122 were negative. There were 209 guests on the first voyage and 178 guests on the second voyage.

But since the cruise ship line often acts like a local ferry, traveling from port to port along Norway’s western coast, the virus may not have been contained onboard. Some passengers disembarked along the route and may have spread the virus to their local communities.
The municipality of Tromsoe is urging people who have traveled on the ship or anyone in contact with the ship to get in touch with health authorities.

Its not known how the outbreak began since guests come from all over the world. The Norwegian news agency NTB said 33 of the 36 crew members that have tested positive came from the Philippines.

Over the weekend, Skjeldam said cruise ship officials did not know that they should have notified the passengers after the first case was reported Friday, adding that they followed the advice of the ship’s doctors.

But Line Vold of the Norwegian Institute of Public Health said its advice was to inform passengers and crew as soon as possible so they could monitor their health and go into quarantine if needed.

“We have made mistakes. On behalf of all of us in Hurtigruten, I am sorry for what has happened. We take full responsibility,” Skjeldam said.

The Hurtigruten line says the operations of three ships — MS Roald Amundsen, MS Fridtjof Nansen and MS Spitsbergen — have been halted for an indefinite period.
__
Follow AP’s pandemic coverage at http://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and Understanding the Outbreak

 

[Melodi]

Having cruise ships, especially one that doubles as a local ferry service (so people get on and off a lot) is like having a floating Petrie dish at the moment.

I give the Norwigiens and A for effort in terms of trying, and being that this is part of the local transport system it makes sense; but with this result, they might want to think about getting a much smaller boat and just using it for local transport for a few weeks?

Even if the taxpayers have to foot the bill until a more permanent arrangement can be made.

Ireland also has Islands with access issues, but none of them (that I know of) using cruise ships as part of their transportation network.

 

[Plain Jane]

Spain's ex-king Juan Carlos is in Abu Dhabi, says ABC newspaper

Former Spanish king Juan Carlos has been staying at Abu Dhabi's exclusive Emirates Palace Hotel since leaving Spain aboard a private jet on Monday under a cloud of financial scandal involving Saudi Arabia, newspaper ABC said on Friday.

www.reuters.com

NEWS
AUGUST 7, 2020 / 2:24 AM / UPDATED AN HOUR AGO
Spain's ex-king Juan Carlos is in Abu Dhabi, says ABC newspaper


2 MIN READ

MADRID/DUBAI (Reuters) - Spain’s former king, Juan Carlos, has been staying at Abu Dhabi’s exclusive Emirates Palace Hotel since leaving Spain aboard a private jet on Monday, newspaper ABC reported on Friday.

United Arab Emirates officials were not immediately available for comment. The Emirates Palace Hotel did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.

Dogged by mounting corruption allegations, Juan Carlos abruptly announced his decision to leave Spain on Monday but there has been no official confirmation of his whereabouts, setting off an international guessing game.

ABC said a private plane en route from Paris to Abu Dhabi stopped off in the northwestern Spanish city of Vigo to pick up Juan Carlos, four security guards and one other person on Monday morning.

Upon arrival at Abu Dhabi’s Al Bateen airport, the king and his entourage were flown by helicopter to the government-owned Hotel Emirates Palace, ABC said.

A palace spokesman said he did not know where Juan Carlos was. The former king’s lawyer did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Some media have speculated Juan Carlos is in a luxury resort in the Dominican Republic, and others place him in Portugal, where he spent much of his youth. But officials in both countries have said they have no knowledge of him arriving.

In June, Spain’s Supreme Court opened a preliminary investigation into Juan Carlos’ involvement in a high-speed rail contract in Saudi Arabia, after Switzerland’s La Tribune de Geneve newspaper reported he had received $100 million from the late Saudi king. Switzerland has also opened an investigation.

The former monarch is not formally under investigation. Through his lawyer he has repeatedly declined to comment on the allegations.

His lawyer, the royal palace and the government have all declined to say where he is.

Reporting by Nathan Allen, editing by Timothy Heritage; Additional reporting by Lisa Barrington and Maha el Dahan in Dubai
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

[Plain Jane]

Alpine glacier in Italy threatens valley, forces evacuations

ROME (AP) — Experts were closely monitoring a Mont Blanc glacier on Friday, a day after they evacuated 75 tourists and residents amid fears the glacier could soon break apart and crash into a popular Italian Alpine valley.

apnews.com

Alpine glacier in Italy threatens valley, forces evacuations
yesterday



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This image taken from a video shows an aerial view of part of the Planpincieux Glacier, which lies under a massif of Mont Blanc, located in the Alps, Friday, Aug. 7, 2020. Experts are closely monitoring a glacier they fear could break apart and crash into an Italian Alpine valley. On Thursday, 75 residents and tourists in the Ferret valley were evacuated from their homes and two lodgings in the shadow of the glacier. The glacier's size has been likened to that of a soccer field under a 80-meter (265 foot) high mass of ice. Sharp shifts in temperature are blamed for the risk. (AP Photo/Local Team)
ROME (AP) — Experts were closely monitoring a Mont Blanc glacier on Friday, a day after they evacuated 75 tourists and residents amid fears the glacier could soon break apart and crash into a popular Italian Alpine valley.

Valerio Segor, a glacier expert in Valle d’Aosta, a region in northwestern Italy, told reporters on Friday that the next 72 hours were critical for the Planpincieux Glacier, which lies under a massif on the Italian side of Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in the Alps.

Those forced to evacuate came from homes and holiday lodgings in the Ferret Valley in the shadow of the glacier. Tourists on Friday were barred from entering the scenic valley.

The glacier’s size has been likened to that of a soccer field under a 80-meter (265-foot) high mass of ice. Abrupt shifts in temperature from hot to cold to hot again are being blamed for the precarious state of the glacier, which Segor says has a stream of water running beneath it.

The glacier’s state has been monitored since 2013. Last year saw similar concerns, but the glacier held on to its grip on the mountain at 2,600-2,800 meters (8,500-9,200 feet) of altitude.
Lately, Planpincieux has been creeping downward at the rate of about 80-100 centimeters (32-40 inches) each day, Segor said.

The Corriere della Sera newspaper quoted glacier expert Fabrizio Troilo as saying there is “the danger it could give way in an instant.”

Corriere said an Alpine refuge was still open for climbers who come from the French side of Mont Blanc, which is known in Italy as Monte Blanco.
___
Follow all AP coverage of climate change issues at Climate.

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ALERT - Alpine glacier in Italy threatens valley, forces evacuations

Alpine glacier in Italy threatens valley, forces evacuations yesterday (6 August 2020) ROME (AP) — Experts were closely monitoring a Mont Blanc glacier on Friday, a day after they evacuated 75 tourists and residents amid fears the glacier could soon break apart and crash into a popular Italian...

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[Plain Jane]

UK military asked to help stem Channel migrant crossings

Britain’s military said Saturday it has been asked by the government to help prevent people from reaching the U.K. from France in small boats, after a surge in the number of vessels making the dangerous journey.

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UK military asked to help stem Channel migrant crossings
By JILL LAWLESSan hour ago



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A Border Force vessel brings a group of people thought to be migrants into the port city of Dover, England, from small boats, Saturday Aug. 8, 2020. The British government says it will strengthen border measures as calm summer weather has prompted a record number of people to attempt the risky sea crossing in small vessels, from northern France to England. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

Britain’s military said Saturday it has been asked by the government to help prevent people from reaching the U.K. from France in small boats, after a surge in the number of vessels making the dangerous journey.

The Ministry of Defense said it had received a request from the Home Office to “support U.K. Border Force operations in the Dover Straits.” The department said it was “working hard to identify how we can most effectively assist.”

Britain’s Conservative government has talked tough after dozens of crossings by migrants during recent weeks of warm summer weather. On Thursday, 235 people landed or were brought ashore from boats in the English Channel, a record number for a single day. Britain’s Coastguard said it was responding to “a number of incidents” in the Channel on Saturday.


Home Secretary Priti Patel has said the Royal Navy could be called in to prevent boats reaching U.K. waters, though other senior officials and politicians say that could be impractical and potentially dangerous.

Jack Straw, who served as Home Secretary during a previous Labour government, said “it will only take one of these dinghies to capsize and everybody to drown … for there to be a hullabaloo, including in the Conservative Party, and for the policy to have to be reversed.”

Straw told the BBC that cooperation with France was the only way of reducing the number of people making the risky journey across one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes. The French and British immigration ministers are due to hold talks next week.

Roger Gough, head of the county council in Kent, where the majority of migrants arrive, said “historically the best experience we’ve seen of reducing the inflows is when there’s been a successful agreement, level of shared interest, between the British and French authorities.”
Migrants have long used northern France as a launching point to reach Britain, either in trucks through the Channel tunnel or on ferries. Before the coronavirus pandemic, the U.K.’s strong economy and need for farm and restaurant labor drew migrants from around the world who could speak some English.

Some have turned to small boats organized by smugglers because lockdowns have reduced opportunities to stow away on ferries and trucks. Fine summer weather is also prompting more people to make the risky sea crossing — about 20 miles (32 kilometers) at its narrowest point — in vessels as small as dinghies and kayaks.

The number of migrants crossing the Channel is small compared to the number who try to reach southern European countries across the Mediterranean and Aegean seas.

Human rights and refugee groups say many migrants are legitimate refugees or have good reasons to want to come to Britain, such as relatives in the country. They argue the British government should offer safe and legal routes for them to come.

 

[Plain Jane]

Germany: Hundreds protest virus restrictions in Stuttgart – DW – 08/08/2020

Police said that social distancing measures were mostly observed. Protesters displayed banners that said "With mask – without me" and chanted "freedom, freedom."

www.dw.com

Germany: Hundreds gather in Stuttgart to protest virus-related restrictions
Police said that social distancing measures were mostly observed. Protesters displayed banners that said "With mask – without me" and chanted "freedom, freedom."





Around 1,000 protesters took to the streets in Stuttgart on Saturday to protest coronavirus-related restrictions.

Participants gathered in the Lower Schlossgarten in the city center, carrying umbrellas, displaying banners that said "With mask – without me" and chanting "freedom, freedom."
A total of 1,500 people registered for the rally under the"Lateral Thinking 711" initiative, while police estimate that the number of demonstrators present was closer to 1,000.


Watch video01:40
Germans not alarmed about rising COVID-19 infections
Read more: Coronavirus rallies: Germany's growing anti-lockdown movement
A police spokesman said social distancing measures were generally observed, but due to the high summer temperatures, such measures were not as carefully adhered to in shady places.
In a survey published on Saturday by the Forsa Institute, a polling company, for broadcast group RTL, only 9% of those questioned said they had sympathy for rallies against coronavirus measures.

The demonstrations were met with particularly strong rejection on the part of two age groups: 93% of those over 60, and 94% of 18-to-29-year-olds said they did not support the rallies.
Read more: Germany debates curbing freedom of assembly after coronavirus rallies

A man holds a banner reading "2020 GDR 2.0" during Saturday's demonstration against virus-related restrictions in Stuttgart.

'Not just the far-right'
According to the survey, the lack of sympathy is shared by supporters of almost all parties, with the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party marking the most notable exception; 59% of AfD supporters said they welcomed the protests.

However, the President of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Thomas Haldenwang, does not believe that demonstrations against the measurs have been dominated by extremists.

"Right-wing, but also some left-wing extremists have tried to instrumentalize the coroanvirus protests," Haldenwang told the Süddeutsche Zeitung. "They believed that people would rally behind them if they protested coronavirus policies. But that didn't work."

Read more:Opinion: Germany should not ban protests by coronavirus deniers
However, the right-wing extremists "staged themselves and stood in front of the cameras" creating a "false image" of the protests being dominated by the right. Instead, "all conspiracy theories of the world" are represented among those who resist the measures, he said.

"There are the pandemic deniers, and those who think that the government wants to use the lockdown to cover up and already-existing recession, or that the government is using this an excuse to introduce repression," said Haldenwang.

Around 20,000 people in Berlin gathered on August 1 to protest virus-related restrictions. However, unlike Saturday's demonstrations in Stuttgart, social distancing measures were generally not observed and few protesters wore masks.

Germany has fared better than many of its European neighbors, with nearly 217,000 confirmed cases and over 9,000 deaths. However, health experts have warned that the country is entering a second wave of the virus.

Read more: Hamburg's sex workers demand Germany's brothels reopen amid coronavirus


Watch video02:03
Berlin protest against virus curbs draws thousands
lc/rc (AFP, dpa)

 

[Plain Jane]

Protester dies in clashes after disputed Belarus vote

The Belarusian Interior Ministry says one protester has died in clashes with police in the capital Minsk.

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Belarus’ leader wins sixth term with over 80% of votes
By YURAS KARMANAU4 minutes ago



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Protesters carry a wounded man during clashes with police after the presidential election in Minsk, Belarus, early Monday, Aug. 10, 2020. Police and protesters clashed in Belarus' capital and the major city of Brest on Sunday after the presidential election in which the authoritarian leader who has ruled for a quarter-century sought a sixth term in office. (AP Photo)

MINSK, Belarus (AP) — Election officials in Belarus said Monday that President Alexander Lukashenko has won his sixth consecutive term, taking over 80% of the vote amid protests fueled by frustration with the country’s deteriorating economy, years of political repression and the authoritarian incumbent’s cavalier brushoff of the coronavirus threat.

Human rights groups said one person was killed — which the authorities denied — and dozens were injured in a police crackdown on protests that followed Sunday’s presidential election.

The country’s central election commission said that with all ballots counted, Lukashenko, who has led Belarus for 26 years, took 80.23% of the vote and his main opposition challenger, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, had only 9.9%.

Opposition supporters believe the election results were rigged and plan to gather in Minsk for more protests on Monday evening.

“We don’t recognize these results,” Tsikhanouskaya, a former English teacher and political novice, told reporters Monday.

“According to the data we receive from precincts, we won, and this corresponds with what we saw at polling stations,” she said. “People stood in lines at polling stations in order to vote for Tsikhanouskaya. I believe my own eyes rather than the data of the central election commission.”

Thousands of people took to the streets in a number of Belarusian cities and towns on Sunday night, protesting the early count suggesting Lukashenko’s landslide victory. They faced rows of riot police in black uniforms who moved quickly to disperse the demonstrators, firing flash-bang grenades and beating them with truncheons.

The brutal crackdown followed a tense campaign that saw massive rallies against Lukashenko, who has ruled the ex-Soviet nation with an iron fist for 26 years. Lukashenko has not yet commented on the results or the protests, only saying on Monday that “the people” should be the cornerstone of any politics, according to the state news agency Belta.

According to the Viasna human rights group, more than 200 protesters were detained, dozens sustained injuries and one died as the result of the clashes with police.

The Interior Ministry said Monday no one was killed during the protests and called reports about a fatality “an absolute fake.” According to officials, 89 people were injured during the protests, including 39 law enforcement officers, and some 3,000 people were detained.

On Monday morning, Belarus’ Investigative Committee opened a criminal probe into mass riots and violence toward police officers.

“What has happened is awful,” Tsikhanouskaya told reporters Sunday.

An AP journalist was beaten by police and treated at a hospital.

At Minsk’s Hospital No. 10, an AP reporter saw a dozen ambulances delivering protesters with fragmentation wounds and cuts from stun grenades and other injuries.

European officials urged Belarusian authorities to adhere to standards of democracy and respect the people’s civil rights on Sunday.

Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius told the BNS news agency on Monday that “it’s difficult to call this election transparent, democratic and free, regrettably.” Poland’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Monday morning saying that “the harsh reaction of the law enforcement forces, the use of force against peaceful protesters, and arbitrary arrests are unacceptable.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin, in the meantime, congratulated Lukashenko on his win on Monday, and so did the president of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. The results of the vote “indicate the popular support” of Lukashenko’s rule, Tokayev said.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in a Facebook post Monday it was “obvious that not everyone in the country agrees with the announced preliminary election results. And, as we know, any legitimacy arises solely from public trust,” urging Minsk to refrain from violence and calling for dialogue with the opposition.

Two prominent opposition challengers were denied places on the ballot, but Tsikhanouskaya, the wife of a jailed opposition blogger, managed to unite opposition groups and draw tens of thousands to her campaign rallies, tapping growing anger over a stagnant economy and fatigue with Lukashenko’s autocratic rule.

Lukashenko was defiant as he voted earlier in the day, warning that the opposition will meet a tough response.

“If you provoke, you will get the same answer,” he said. “Do you want to try to overthrow the government, break something, wound, offend, and expect me or someone to kneel in front of you and kiss them and the sand onto which you wandered? This will not happen.”

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, whose assessments of elections are widely regarded as authoritative, was not invited to send observers.

Tsikhanouskaya had crisscrossed the country, tapping into public frustration with a worsening economy and Lukashenko’s swaggering response to the pandemic.

Belarus, a country of 9.5 million people, has reported more than 68,500 coronavirus cases and 580 deaths but critics have accused authorities of manipulating the figures to downplay the death toll.

Lukashenko has dismissed the virus as “psychosis” and declined to apply measures to stop its spread, saying a lockdown would have doomed the already weak economy. He announced last month that he had been infected but had no symptoms and recovered quickly, allegedly thanks to playing sports.
___
Associated Press journalists Jim Heintz, Vladimir Isachenkov and Daria Litvinova in Moscow contributed to this story.

See this thread also:

GOV/MIL - Minsk: something happening there

View: https://twitter.com/zerosum24/status/1292569660601307136?s=20 View: https://twitter.com/zerosum24/status/1292565635902431234?s=20

www.timebomb2000.com

 

[Plain Jane]

Duterte volunteers to be Putin's COVID-19 vaccine guinea pig – DW – 08/11/2020

Rodrigo Duterte has praised Russia's efforts to develop a "free" COVID-19 vaccine for the Philippines. To alleviate fears, Duterte said he will offer to be "the first they can experiment on" in a public vaccination.

www.dw.com

Philippines' Duterte volunteers to be Putin's Russian coronavirus vaccine guinea pig
Rodrigo Duterte has praised Russia's efforts to develop a "free" COVID-19 vaccine for the Philippines. To alleviate fears, Duterte said he will offer to be "the first they can experiment on" in a public vaccination.





Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte confirmed he has accepted Russian President Vladimir Putin's offer to provide a Russian COVID-19 vaccine when it becomes available and said he is willing to participate in trials.

"When the vaccine arrives, I will inject it publicly. Experiment with me, that's fine. If it works on me, it will work on everyone," the Philippines leader said in a televised speech late on Monday.

Duterte's office on Tuesday said the Philippines is ready to collaborate with Moscow on vaccine trials, supply and production.

"The Philippines stands ready to work with Russia on clinical trials, vaccine supply and production, and other areas deemed practicable by relevant Philippine and Russian agencies to address this global health emergency," a government statement said.

Duterte lauded Russia's efforts to speedily develop a coronavirus vaccine.

"I will tell President Putin that I have huge trust in your studies in combating COVID and I believe that the vaccine that you have produced is really good for humanity," Duterte said.
To reassure the Filipino public, Duterte said: "I can be the first they can experiment on."
The Filipino leader said he is confident of the effectiveness of Russia's vaccine, which he said will be ready by December, when "the Philippines will be free of COVID-19 and will be able to enjoy a peaceful Christmas."

• 
  
  
  RESEARCHERS AND THEIR SELF-EXPERIMENTS
  An oral vaccination against coronavirus
  Courage, curiosity or complete hubris? It's probably a mixture of all these things that causes many scientists to test their own inventions on themselves first. According to the Global Times, a Chinese doctor not only developed an oral vaccine against the SARS-CoV-2 but also tried it out himself. So far, he hasn't seen any side effects.

12345678
Read more: Opinion: We need to deal with our coronavirus panic

'Free' Russian vaccines
Moscow received regulatory approval from the Russian Health Ministry to register a COVID-19 vaccine, Putin said on Tuesday, adding that Russia it is ready to supply it to the Philippines or team up with a local company to mass produce it.

Duterte suggested that Filipinos could participate in clinical trials but did not specify the laboratory behind it. He also did not give details about how Putin made the offer or the terms of the agreement.

"They want to provide us with the vaccine; they haven't said pay for it. I think President Putin wants to help us for free," he said.

Duterte has not hidden his admiration for the Russian leader in the past, having referred to Putin as his "idol" and "my favorite hero."

International health experts have voiced concern about the global race to develop a COVID-19 vaccine and how speed could compromise safety.

The Russian government said that the vaccine developed by Russia's Gamaleya Institute is the world's first. An immunization campaign is slated to begin in October.

Duterte also said that Chinese President Xi Jinping promised in July that the Philippines would be one of the first countries to benefit from some of the three most advanced Chinese vaccines in clinical trials.
Read more: Coronavirus vaccine: where profit and public health collide



Watch video03:09
How to finance a COVID-19 vaccine for all
Philippines returns to lockdown

The Philippines has registered among Asia's highest numbers of coronavirus infections, which rose to 139,538 on Tuesday after reporting 2,987 new cases.

Duterte restored a lockdown in and around the capital, Manila, for an initial two weeks amid a rise in infections during a period when restrictions were relaxed.

If the situation becomes a "runaway contagion," Duterte promised on Monday to mobilize the military to enforce the lockdown.

The Philippines' lockdown has been among the world's strictest. Rights groups have expressed concern about Duterte's approach and police conduct in enforcing COVID-19 measures.



Watch video01:51
Which COVID-19 vaccine is most promising?
mvb/dr (Reuters, EFE, dpa)

 

[Plain Jane]

Britain says it is working with France on blocking migrant route

Britain and France will work "at pace" to finalise a new plan for shutting down a migrant route across the Channel, British immigration minister Chris Philp said on Tuesday.

www.reuters.com

NEWS
AUGUST 11, 2020 / 3:14 AM / UPDATED AN HOUR AGO
Britain wants more flexibility to return illegal migrants to France

Peter Nicholls
2 MIN READ

DOVER, England (Reuters) - Britain said on Tuesday it wanted greater flexibility to return illegal immigrants to France after a surge in the number embarking on the perilous journey across the English Channel.

Hundreds of people, including some children, have been caught crossing to southern England from makeshift camps in northern France since Thursday - many navigating one of the world’s busiest shipping routes in overloaded rubber dinghies.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson says he wants to stop the illegal crossings and has sent Immigration Minister Chris Philp to Paris for talks with the French government.

Britain says the EU’s so-called Dublin Regulation, which currently governs the return of illegal immigrants, is too inflexible and has very tight timeframes. Junior health minister Edward Argar said Johnson wanted more flexibility.


“What he’s looking at, quite rightly, is greater flexibility ... in returning people who have come here illegally ... and need to be returned back to France,” Argar told Sky News.

More than 20 migrants were escorted to Dover on Tuesday by the British border force.

Many of the migrants seeking to reach Britain come from Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Syria and countries in Africa, fleeing poverty, persecution or war.

Some stand a chance of being granted asylum, while others, considered illegal economic migrants, are unlikely to be allowed to remain in Britain.

Organised crime groups offer to help the migrants cross the Channel for around 500 pounds ($650), the Sun newspaper reported, adding that some smugglers offer “kids go free” deals.

Britain’s interior ministry, known as the Home Office, declined repeated requests to supply data on the number of illegal crossings.

Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge and Sarah Young; editing by Kate Holton and Giles Elgood
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

Italian PM Giuseppe Conte Is Considering Digging A Tunnel Between The Mainland And Sicily

by Tyler Durden
Tue, 08/11/2020 - 04:15
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If there's one thing the pandemic has done globally, it has been forcing countries to look inward and reassess both their infrastructure and their reliance of products and services on China. The U.S. has already vowed to start making drug components domestically and President Trump has long been proposing infrastructure upgrades.
And in keeping with the trend of upgrading infrastructure - which hasn't quite been Italy's expertise anytime over the last few decades - Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has now said he is considering an underwater tunnel that links Sicily to mainland Italy.
Conte mulled the plans during a speech he gave on Sunday evening in which he announced several plans that appear to be focused on the country maintaining its infrastructure independence. Before building such a tunnel, Conte said that the country would need to improve its internal routes first.
As of today, Sicily is still the only region of Italy which cannot be serviced by the country's "Eurostar" trains.


The Strait of Messina Bridge has been proposed between the mainland and Silicy for years, but was cancelled in both 2006 and 2013 due to budget constraints. Now that the entire world has collectively decided to ignore budget constraints and allow Central Banks to do whatever they want, it's no surprise that a project connecting the 576 km between Calabria and the mainland may actually move forward.
At the same speech, Conte also said he wanted to focus on rolling out broadband across the country before reviewing whether or not China should be allowed to supply the country with 5G technology, Bloomberg reported.
“Italy needs a single grid and recent talks will be wrapped up with a clear path by the end of this month,” he said. Given the recent controversy surrounding Tik-Tok and ongoing questions about Chinese hardware and maintaining privacy, our guess is that Huawei may not be leading the list of infrastructure providers to help implement such a network.
But when it comes to the tunnel, there's one "genius" we can recommend...

 

[Plain Jane]

Majority of Scots support independence from UK - YouGov poll

A majority of Scots support independence from the United Kingdom, a YouGov poll found on Wednesday, with support for nationalists bolstered by a much more positive view of how they have responded to COVID-19 compared with London.

www.reuters.com

NEWS
AUGUST 12, 2020 / 6:29 AM / UPDATED AN HOUR AGO
Majority of Scots support independence from UK - YouGov poll


2 MIN READ

LONDON (Reuters) - A majority of Scots support independence from the United Kingdom, a YouGov poll found on Wednesday, with support for nationalists bolstered by a much more positive view of how they have responded to COVID-19 compared with London.

The poll for the Times newspaper found that 53% of people would vote for Scottish independence in a referendum, up 2 percentage points from January and the highest level of support for independence recorded by YouGov.

It is the latest poll to suggest rising support for Scottish independence and could strengthen calls for another vote on the matter, after Scots rejected it in a 2014 referendum by 55%-45%.

The Scottish National Party, who run the devolved administration in the nation, insist they have the right to call another vote. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said the 2014 referendum was decisive and should be respected.

The poll also suggested the SNP were on course for an unprecedented majority in the Scottish Parliament in elections next year, setting up a possible constitutional clash with Westminster.

Much of the increase in support appeared to be linked to diverging views of the leadership in Scotland and the United Kingdom as a whole. Some 72% of respondents agreed Scottish First Minister and SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon was doing very or fairly well, while only 20% said that for Johnson.

The YouGov Poll found 52% of voters believed Scotland was going in the right direction, up 20 percentage points from when the question was last asked a year ago.

Sturgeon’s Scottish Government has responsibility for health policy, and she has been more cautious than Johnson in easing lockdown.

Scotland, which holds about 10% of the UK’s population, has had no deaths from COVID-19 since mid-July. The UK, which uses a broader methodology to count deaths that is being reviewed, as a whole has recorded 1,362 deaths in that time.

YouGov polled 1,142 adults between August 6-10.

Reporting by Alistair Smout; editing by Kate Holton
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

[Plain Jane]

Belgian beach brawl fuels virus, political, climate tension

BRUSSELS (AP) — It started as a Saturday trip to Belgium's coast, a chance to escape a heat wave and coronavirus restrictions for a while.

apnews.com

Click to copy
Belgian beach brawl fuels virus, political, climate tension
By LORNE COOK and VIRGINIA MAYOtoday



1 of 19
Police patrol the beach on horseback at the Belgian seaside resort of Blankenberge, Belgium, Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2020. A skirmish took place on the beach on Saturday, Aug. 8, 2020 which resulted in two coastal communities banning day trippers from the city. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
BRUSSELS (AP) — It started as a Saturday trip to Belgium’s coast, a chance to escape a heat wave and coronavirus restrictions for a while. As the tide came in, the beach got crowded. Someone complained about the music being too loud. The mood quickly turned ugly.

Within minutes, dozens of people were battling it out on the sands. Some beach-goers threw bottles and umbrellas at police officers who intervened.

By Sunday, a “gang of outsiders” was being blamed, and two coastal communities had banned day trippers from the city. Officers stood ready at railway stations and blocked traffic, turning away people who can’t afford to live, work, or pay for hotel reservations in the area. Three teens, shirtless, still in their swimming gear, were charged with “armed rebellion.”


On Tuesday, Belgium’s interior minister was trying to explain how it all happened, summoned to a tetchy hearing by the main populist party and a far-right nationalist faction. Civic groups called for action, urging people from poorer neighborhoods — among the hardest-hit by the virus — to find lawyers if they felt harassed by police “racial profiling,” or by zealous officials protecting wealthy holiday-makers at well-to-do beach communities.

Welcome to Belgium; a country that still has no full-time government 18 months after the last cabinet resigned; a country with one of the highest COVID-19 mortality rates in the world per population where restrictions are testing peoples’ patience; a country that just doesn’t get much really hot weather. It’s a simmering political soup on the verge of boiling over.
At the seaside resort of Knokke-Heist, where golf carts with license plates ply well-kept streets, there was ample room to stretch out on the beach early this week. Local authorities have banished day-trippers, who include many minorities, from Belgian cities or France from its 15-kilometer (10-mile) stretch of sands until the heat wave — which saw temperatures of up to 36 degrees Celsius (97 Fahrenheit) — is over.

Down a tree-lined street, at a home that he says dates from Napoleonic times, the mayor — Count Leopold Lippens — told The Associated Press that Knokke-Heist is an exclusive area prized for its many shops, restaurants and art galleries, and that only law-abiding people should bother to come.

“We are here in a country called Belgium, where the law is the law,” Lippens said. “We want the rules to be followed and if the rules are not followed, well, we will use our police force to have them followed.”


“People who don’t do that, they will be eradicated from this place,” he said.

Asked whether he worried that banning ordinary people from spending the day might tarnish the image of his town, the mayor said: “People come because they like it, and they like it because it’s quality. We don’t want quantity, we want quality.”

That view grates with Thierry Dupiereux, information officer with Belgium’s League of Families, a social organization aimed at helping families in need, and which lobbies for policy change. He says that the beach bans deprive people of “a safety-valve that helps them unwind.”

Almost 10,000 people have died from the coronavirus in Belgium — a country of just 11.5 million — and Dupiereux said the travel restrictions are “a social injustice” aimed at a part of society that has been hardest hit by the disease and the job losses that followed; people “who have little money, who can’t afford a week’s vacation at the beach or holidays abroad.”

The coast is just a 90-minute train ride from the capital Brussels. Other places where people without cars could get away and cool off are poorly served by public transport. Many youths boarded trains in Brussels on Tuesday, but the Knokke-Heist station was almost empty.

At first, the national rail service SNCB resisted calls to cut the number of beach-bound trains, but caved in as political pressure mounted and will now provide fewer this coming weekend. A number of lawmakers urged Interior Minister Pieter De Crem to rein in the SNCB, notably Bjorn Answeeuw, from the populist N-VA party.

Belgium’s last government collapsed when the N-VA pulled out. The party is too big to ignore and has been central in talks to form a new administration over the 14 months since the last election. During that time, the N-VA has routinely criticized the interim government installed to manage the COVID-19 crisis. Fears over migration have proved a vote winner for the party.
“Going freely to the coast is a right that we all have. Being beach day-trippers does not make us terrorists for a day,” De Crem said. For people like those involved in Saturday’s beach riot in Blankenberge, De Crem suggested setting up a register — similar to ones used for soccer hooligans — and banning those on it from going to the coast.

Other parliamentarians expressed concern about the way police have acknowledged stopping people who merely look like the youths involved in the riot. “It wasn’t a night club bouncer who said this, it was a police officer,” said Socialist lawmaker Herve Rigot.

At the League of Families, Thierry Dupiereux said it’s difficult to work out who to believe these days, when the coronavirus, the lack of a full-time government and even a heat wave weigh on everyone’s minds and make for strange times.

“We’re in a political situation in Belgium today where a lot is at stake. We don’t always know who is acting on behalf of whom. There are lots of political games being played,” he said.
In a surprising about-face a few hours after speaking to AP, and after the parliamentary hearing — which might underline the pressures involved — Mayor Lippens announced that day-trippers could return to Knokke-Heist as of Wednesday.
___
Mayo reported from Knokke-Heist, Belgium. Mark Carlson in Brussels contributed to this report.

 

[Plain Jane]

Three people die in Scottish train derailment, carriages piled up

Three people died in a train derailment in eastern Scotland on Wednesday that left carriages overturned and piled on top of each other on a steep wooded slope, making it hard for emergency services to access the scene.

www.reuters.com

NEWS
AUGUST 12, 2020 / 6:46 AM / UPDATED AN HOUR AGO
Serious injuries after train derails in Scotland, first minister says

LONDON (Reuters) - A number of people were seriously injured in a passenger train derailment on Wednesday morning on the east coast of Scotland, first minister Nicola Sturgeon said, as she declared a major incident.

Television footage showed dark smoke billowing from a woodland area near Stonehaven, just south of the oil city of Aberdeen, after the ScotRail train derailed following heavy rain overnight.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he was saddened to learn of the “very serious incident” in Aberdeenshire and his thoughts were with all those affected.


One media report cited by Sky News said one person had died, however that has not been confirmed.

“Although details are still emerging I am afraid to say there are early reports of serious injuries,” Sturgeon said.

“This is an extremely serious incident. I’ve had an initial report from Network Rail and the emergency services and am being kept updated. All my thoughts are with those involved.”

Police received reports of a train derailing near Stonehaven, a town 15 km (9 miles) south of Aberdeen, at 0940 a.m. on Wednesday.

“Emergency services are currently in attendance and the incident is ongoing,” a Police Scotland spokeswoman said.

TV footage showed two air ambulances in a field near the scene, alongside about 25 police vehicles and ambulances.

Reporting by Paul Sandle and William Schomberg; editing by Kate Holton and Estelle Shirbon
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.


See this thread also:

INTL - Major incident declared as train derails in Scotland

https://www.rte.ie/news/2020/0812/1158765-scotland-train-derailment/ Major incident declared as train derails in Scotland Updated / Wednesday, 12 Aug 2020 13:31 The derailment happened near Stonehaven (pic: BBC Scotland) At least one person is feared to have died and serious injuries have been...

www.timebomb2000.com

 

[northern watch]

 

[northern watch]

 

[northern watch]

Putin promises to help securing safety of Belarus if needed

NewsArmy
By Colton Jones
Defence-blog.com

August 15, 2020
Modified date: 4 seconds ago

Alexander Lukashenko, Belarus leader who claims to have won a disputed presidential election, said on Saturday that Vladimir Putin had promised him to help securing safety of Belarus if needed, the state news agency Belta reported.

“As far as military matters are concerned, we have an agreement with Russia  within the framework of the Union State and the CSTO [Collective Security Treaty Organization]. . . that covers these incidents,” Mr Lukashenko said on Saturday after speaking to Putin, according to state news agency Belta.

The phone call came after Lukashenko said he needed to contact Moscow over growing protests against his rule.

“So I had a long and thorough discussion about the situation with the president of Russia. I was even a bit surprised by how up to date he is on what’s going on,” he said.

“He and I agreed: at our first request they will provide comprehensive security assistance to ensure Belarus’s security.”

Riots erupted across the country after the Central Election Commission in Belarus gave the victory to Lukashenko.

Protests in Belarus capital Minsk and other cities continued to explode this week.

Police arrested well over five thousand people nationwide, and shootings at demonstrations left several people injured and one person reportedly had been killed. Currently, thousands of people disagreed with the election results again took to the streets of cities, they flooded the streets in opposition to election results that indicate longtime authoritarian leader Lukashenko had secured the win.

Putin promises to help securing safety of Belarus if needed

Alexander Lukashenko, Belarus leader who claims to have won a disputed presidential election, said on Saturday that Vladimir Putin had promised him to help securing safety of Belarus if needed, the state news agency Belta reported. “As far as military matters are concerned, we have an agreement...

defence-blog.com

 

[northern watch]

 

[northern watch]

Warning: Russian Hybrid Intervention into Belarus is Likely Imminent

August 15, 2020, 12:00 pm EDT
By George Barros and Mason Clark
iswresearch.org

A Russian hybrid intervention into Belarus to support Belarussian president Lukashenko is likely imminent. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko had a phone call on August 15 to discuss the situation in Belarus. Putin thanked Lukashenko for returning 32 detained Wagner personnel on August 14. The Kremlin’s readout of the call stated “all problems that have arisen will be resolved soon” and characterized the protests as “destructive forces” trying to harm the Union State.[1] A Kremlin intervention would likely consist of Russian forces in unmarked uniforms supporting crackdowns on protesters. The Kremlin has not previously characterized the protests in Belarus as destructive. Kremlin-linked media outlets reported neutrally and slightly sympathetically towards protests in Belarus as of August 14.

The Union State is a supranational organization between Belarus and Russia. The Kremlin has been working to strengthen the Union State as a way to regain dominance over Belarus and integrate the Belarussian and Russian militaries. Success in that endeavor could allow Russian military forces to be stationed directly on the Polish border and in vital locations threatening NATO’s ability to defend the Baltic States.

Prior to his call with Putin Lukashenko held a meeting in Minsk on August 15 with Belarusian officials to discuss the situation in the country during which Lukashenko said the protests are “aggression against Belarus” and that Belarus “needs to reach out to Putin.”[2] This open request for help from Russia marked a sharp change in the tone Lukashenko has been using, as he has previously been accusing Russia of interfering in the elections and in Belarussian internal affairs. He has sought to gain leverage on Putin and refusing to cooperate with Putin’s efforts to strengthen the Union State. Lukashenko rationalized the need to engage the Kremlin at this time by characterizing the protests as foreign aggression against Belarus. Lukashenko claimed the threat faces not only Belarus, but the whole Union State, including Russia. Lukashenko likely used this meeting to acknowledge Putin’s objective to prevent a pro-democratic revolution in Belarus similar to the 2014 Euromaidan revolution in Ukraine.

The Belarusian Forestry Ministry placed bans on visiting 53 forests in Belarus, including almost all of the Gomel region’s forested areas. Gomel borders Russia's Bryansk region. This action may be preparation for the Kremlin to insert irregular forces into Belarus' south.[3] Russia’s Western Military District Commander Alexander Zhuravlev examined Russia’s fleet of military vehicles in the Bryansk region on August 14.[4] Bryansk is 110 kilometers from the Russian-Belarusian border.

Belarusian authorities have partially blocked Belarusians’ access to the internet since Lukashenko’s highly falsified presidential election on August 9.[5]

Video emerged allegedly showing Russian forces near Belarus IVO the highway from Smolensk to Vitebsk. Video footage surfaced on August 13 depicting a column of Russian hardware parked on the alleged shoulder of the highway from Smolensk, Russia to Vitebsk, Belarus.[6] The column included seven transport trucks and five Katyusha rocket launcher trucks. It is unclear whether the footage is actually from Smolensk or August 2020; the footage could be from a different location and/or from a previous date.

Support for Lukashenko in the Belarusian military continues to weaken. Men in Belarusian airborne infantry uniforms (VDV) are participating in ongoing protests in Minsk as of August 15.[7] It is unclear whether these persons are actual VDV personnel, veterans or active servicemembers. The Kremlin likely seeks to avoid having to intervene in Belarus but will do so if Lukashenko appears likely to lose control over his security services.

These indicators reinforce the ISW’s initial warning on a Kremlin irregular intervention in Belarus.[8] ISW will continue monitoring the situation and providing updates.

​

[1] http://kremlin(.)ru/events/president/news/63893

[2] https://www.belta(.)by/president/view/lukashenko-ne-nado-ubajukivat-mirnymi-aktsijami-my-vidim-chto-v-glubine-proishodit-402937-2020/;

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1294557687859077120

View: https://twitter.com/TadeuszGiczan/status/1294557687859077120


[3] The Belorusian Forestry Ministry conducted a similar ban on visiting forests in June 2020 likely unrelated to a Russian intervention into Belarus.

https://www.belta(.)by/society/view/zaprety-i-ogranichenija-na-poseschenie-lesov-dejstvujut-v-53-rajonah-belarusi-402940-2020

[4] https://gorod-tv(.)com/news/obschestvo/92120

[5] https://netblocks.org/reports/internet-disruption-hits-belarus-on-electi...

[6] https://www.dialog(.)ua/world/213228_1597348991

[7]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1294585189742583809

View: https://twitter.com/eye_ii_eye/status/1294585189742583809


[8] http://www.iswresearch.org/2020/08/warning-russia-may-send-little-green....

Warning: Russian Hybrid Intervention into Belarus is Likely Imminent

August 15, 2020, 12:00 pm EDT By George Barros and Mason Clark A Russian hybrid intervention into Belarus to support Belarussian...

www.iswresearch.org

 

[Plain Jane]

France asks Afghans not to free Taliban convicted of killing French citizens

France has asked the Afghan government not to include Taliban fighters convicted of killing French citizens in a prisoner release deal, the foreign ministry said on Saturday.

www.reuters.com

NEWS
AUGUST 15, 2020 / 4:38 PM / UPDATED 2 HOURS AGO
France asks Afghans not to free Taliban convicted of killing French citizens


2 MIN READ


PARIS (Reuters) - France has asked the Afghan government not to include Taliban fighters convicted of killing French citizens in a prisoner release deal, the foreign ministry said on Saturday.

The Afghan government has agreed to release 400 “hard-core” prisoners as part of moves towards peace talks with the Taliban militants, and an official said on Friday that 80 of these convicts had been freed so far.


“France is particularly concerned by the presence, among the individuals liable to be released, of several terrorists convicted of killing French citizens in Afghanistan,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.

“It firmly opposes the liberation of individuals convicted of crimes against French nationals, in particular soldiers and humanitarian workers,” it said.

"As a result, we have immediately asked the Afghan authorities not to proceed with the release of these terrorists.”

Disagreement over the release of the prisoners, who include individuals accused in connection with some of Afghanistan’s bloodiest attacks, has already delayed peace negotiations for months as the United States withdraws troops under a deal signed with the Taliban in February.

Reporting by Gus Trompiz; Editing by Daniel Wallis
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

[Plain Jane]

Lithuania says Russian military help in Belarus would mean 'an invasion'

Russian military help in Belarus would constitute "an invasion", Lithuanian foreign affairs minister Linas Linkevicius said on Monday.

www.reuters.com

NEWS
AUGUST 17, 2020 / 4:35 AM / UPDATED AN HOUR AGO
Lithuania says Russian military help in Belarus would mean 'an invasion'

VILNIUS (Reuters) - Russian military help in Belarus would constitute “an invasion”, Lithuanian foreign affairs minister Linas Linkevicius said on Monday.


“There are no reasons for military support from Russia, and no legal or other grounds for it. It would constitute an invasion into the country and would destroy the last traces of its independence”, Linkevicius told reporters in Vilnius.

Russia would risk a lot if it did it, in the face of what is going on in Belarus, in the face of the popular support. It should figure out that an invasion would not be justified, neither legally, nor morally, nor politically”, he added.

The Kremlin said on Monday that Russian President Vladimir Putin had told longtime Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko that Moscow was ready to assist Belarus in accordance with a collective military pact if necessary.

He also said external pressure was being applied to the country, although he did not say where from.

Reporting By Andrius Sytas; Editing by Hugh Lawson
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

[Plain Jane]

Soros, the weasel is bewailing the state of Europe these days. Interesting that he puts down China yet he wants to institute their type of control.

Zerohedge

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

www.zerohedge.com

Soros Warns Europe: "Beware The Leaders Within"

by Tyler Durden
Tue, 08/18/2020 - 02:45
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In a lengthy transcription of an interview with Italy's La Repubblica, billionaire hedge fund manager, philanthropist, and - some might argue - puppet master to a new world order, expounded at length on Europe's demise, financial market bubbles, and - the focus of this note - Europe's imminent demise unless they follow his grand plan.

He begins on a rather ominous note:

"We are in a crisis, the worst crisis in my lifetime since the Second World War. I would describe it as a revolutionary moment when the range of possibilities is much greater than in normal times. What is inconceivable in normal times becomes not only possible but actually happens. People are disoriented and scared. They do things that are bad for them and for the world."

Then escalates...

Q) So how do you see the situation in Europe and the United States?
A) I think Europe is very vulnerable, much more so than the United States. The United States is one of the longest-lasting democracies in history. But even in the United States, a confidence trickster like Trump can be elected president and undermine democracy from within.
But in the US you have a great tradition of checks and balances and established rules. And above all you have the Constitution. So I am confident that Trump will turn out to be a transitory phenomenon, hopefully ending in November. But he remains very dangerous, he’s fighting for his life and he will do anything to stay in power, because he has violated the Constitution in many different ways and if he loses the presidency he will be held accountable.
But the European Union is much more vulnerable because it is an incomplete union. And it has many enemies, both inside and outside.
Q) Who are the enemies inside?
A) There are many leaders and movements that are opposed to the values upon which the European Union was founded. In two countries they have actually captured the government, Viktor Orbán in Hungary and Jaroslaw Kaczyński in Poland. It so happens that Poland and Hungary are the largest recipients of the structural fund distributed by the EU. But actually my biggest concern is Italy. A very popular anti-European leader, Matteo Salvini, was gaining ground until he overestimated his success and broke up the government. That was a fatal mistake. His popularity is now declining. But he has actually been replaced by Giorgia Meloni of Fratelli d’Italia, who is even more of an extremist. The current government coalition is extremely weak.
They are only held together to avoid an election in which the anti-European forces would win. And this is a country that used to be the most enthusiastic supporter of Europe. Because the people trusted the EU more than their own governments. But now public opinion research shows that the supporters of Europe are shrinking and the support for remaining a member of the eurozone is diminishing. But Italy is one of the biggest member, it is too important for Europe. I cannot imagine a EU without Italy. The big question is whether the EU will be able to provide enough support to Italy.
Q) The European Union has just approved a €750B recovery fund…
A) That’s true. The EU took a very important positive step forward by committing itself to borrow money from the market on a much larger scale than ever before. But then several states, the so-called Frugal Five – the Netherlands, Austria, Sweden and Denmark and Finland – managed to make the actual agreement less effective. The tragedy is that they are basically pro-European, but they are very selfish. And they are very frugal. And, first, they led to a deal which will prove inadequate. The scale back of plans on climate change and defense policy is particularly disappointing. Secondly, they also want to make sure that the money is well spent. That creates problems for the southern states that were the hardest hit by the virus.
Q) Do you still believe in a European perpetual bond?
A) I haven’t given up on it, but I don’t think there is enough time for it to be accepted. Let me first explain what makes perpetual bonds so attractive and then explore why it is an impractical idea at the present time. As its name suggests the principal amount of a perpetual bond never has to be repaid; only the annual interest payments are due. Assuming an interest rate of 1%, which is quite generous at a time when Germany can sell thirty year bonds at a negative interest rate, a €1 trillion bond would cost €10 billion per year to service. This gives you an amazingly low cost/benefit ratio of 1:100. Moreover, the €1 trillion would be available immediately at a time when it is urgently needed, while the interest has to be paid over time and the longer out you go the smaller its discounted present value becomes. So what stands in the way of issuing them? The buyers of the bond need to be assured that the European Union will be able to service the interest. That would require that the EU be endowed with sufficient resources (i.e. taxing power) and the member states are very far from authorizing such taxes. The Frugal Four – the Netherlands, Austria, Denmark, Sweden (they are now five because they were joined by Finland) – stand in the way. The taxes would not even need to be imposed, it would be sufficient to authorize them. Simply put, this is what makes issuing perpetual bonds impossible.
Q) Can’t Chancellor Merkel who is determined to make the German presidency a success do something about it?
A) She is doing her best but she is up against a deeply engrained cultural opposition: the German word Schuld has a double meaning. It means debt and guilt. Those who incur a debt are guilty. This doesn’t recognize that the creditors can also be guilty. It is a cultural issue that runs very, very deep in Germany. It has caused a conflict between being German and European at the same time. And it explains the recent decision of the German Supreme Court that is in conflict with the European Court of Justice.
Q) Who are the enemies of Europe on the outside?
A) They are numerous but they all share a common feature: they are opposed to the idea of an open society. I became an enthusiastic supporter of the EU because I considered it an embodiment of the open society on a European scale. Russia used to be the biggest enemy but recently China has overtaken Russia. Russia dominated China until President Nixon, understood that opening and building up China would weaken Communism not only but also in the Soviet Union. Yes, he was impeached, but he, together with Kissinger were great strategic thinkers. Their moves led to the great reforms of Deng Xiaoping.
Today things are much different. China is a leader in artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence produces instruments of control that are helpful for a closed society, and represent a mortal danger for an open society. It tilts the table in favor of closed societies. Today’s China is a much bigger threat to open societies than Russia. And in the US there is a bipartisan consensus that has declared China a strategic rival.

Time to panic?

 

[Plain Jane]

Record money laundering spike in Germany – DW – 08/18/2020

Germany's Financial Intelligence Unit says suspected cases of money laundering and terrorist financing jumped by 50% in 2019. The real estate market is especially vulnerable when it comes to suspicious transactions.

www.dw.com

Germany sees record spike in money laundering cases — report
Germany's Financial Intelligence Unit says suspected cases of money laundering and terrorist financing jumped by 50% in 2019. The real estate market is especially vulnerable when it comes to suspicious transactions.





Germany's federal anti-money laundering unit registered a record 114,914 suspected cases of money laundering and financing of terrorism last year, Berlin's Tagesspiegel newspaper reported Tuesday.

That amounts to a jump of almost 50% compared to the previous year.
According to an advance copy of the Financial Intelligence Unit's (FIU) 2019 annual report released to the paper, the bulk of those cases were flagged by German banks and other financial institutions, as well as notaries and real estate agents.

The cases were linked to a total of 355,000 suspicious transactions.

"One problem for us is that the prosecution of money laundering in Germany isn't traditionally well established," FIU head Christof Schulte told the Tagesspiegel.
Read more: Germany's FIU withheld incriminating Wirecard warnings



Watch video01:57
What are the motives behind financial fraud?
'Extreme vulnerability' in property market
In its annual report last year, the FIU registered just over 77,000 cases of money laundering and noted an "extreme vulnerability" in Germany's real estate market when it came to dubious business deals.

German lawmakers passed a raft of anti-money laundering measures in November in an attempt to tackle the problem and bring the country in line with EU directives. Among other changes, the legislation imposed stricter regulations obligating real estate agents, notaries, precious metals dealers and auction houses to declare suspicious transactions.
Read more: Deutsche Bank's 5 biggest scandals

Anti-corruption group Transparency International had called on Germany to implement reforms after finding that about €30 billion ($34 billion) of illicit funds were funneled into German real estate in 2017. It said criminal networks, particularly the Italian Mafia, had managed to exploit legal loopholes to launder money through properties in Germany.
According to the organization, 15-30% of all proceeds from criminal activities are invested in real estate, either through building and renovating, or buying, selling and renting.
The FIU, based in the western city of Cologne, is part of Germany's customs authority.

 

[Plain Jane]

Germany says Berlin car crash suspect cited Islamist motives, had psychological problems

The suspected perpetrator of a series of car crashes on a Berlin motorway on Tuesday evening cited Islamist motives but appears to have acted alone, German police and prosecutors said on Wednesday.

www.reuters.com

NEWS
AUGUST 19, 2020 / 5:11 AM / UPDATED 43 MINUTES AGO
Germany treating Berlin car crashes as Islamist attack: media


2 MIN READ



A police officer investigates the scene of a series of allegedly deliberate car crashes on highway A100 in Berlin, Germany, August 19, 2020. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch
BERLIN (Reuters) - German authorities are investigating a series of apparently deliberate car crashes on a Berlin motorway on Tuesday evening as an Islamist attack, media reported on Wednesday.
“According to the current knowledge, it was an Islamist-motivated attack,” a spokesman for the prosecutors office was quoted as saying by Focus magazine. He added that there were also indications that the 30-year-old suspect with an Iraqi citizenship had psychological problems.

The Berlin-based Tagesspiegel newspaper cited a spokesman for the prosecutors as saying the sequence of events and the current results of the investigation suggested it could have been an attack.

Shouts of the suspect at the scene suggested that his actions could have been Islamist-motivated, it added.

A spokesman for the Berlin public prosecutors was not available for comment.

Police arrested the suspect at the scene after a device in his car which the man said was dangerous turned out to be a tool box.

The apparently deliberate car crashes left six people wounded, three of them seriously, the fire department said.

Reporting by Michael Nienaber; Editing by Riham Alkousaa and Thomas Escritt
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

[Plain Jane]

Belarus’ Lukashenko orders police to quell protests as EU leaders hold emergency summit

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko ordered police on Wednesday to put down protests in the capital Minsk, while European Union leaders held an emergency summit expected to endorse sanctions on…

www.france24.com

https://www.france24.com/en/tag/mali

EU leaders discuss Belarus sanctions, urge Putin to push for dialogue
Issued on: 19/08/2020 - 09:07

It is unclear how much support Russian President Vladimir Putin is willing to give to his Belarusian counterpart, Alexander Lukashenko. © Pool / Reuters
Text by:FRANCE 24Follow
4 min
European leaders have urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to push for dialogue in neighbouring Belarus ahead of emergency talks on the crisis triggered by President Alexander Lukashenko's disputed election win.

Thousands of demonstrators gathered on Independence Square in central Minsk on Tuesday evening waving the red-and-white flags of the opposition and calling on Lukashenko to resign, the latest in a wave of protests after the president claimed he had won a sixth term in the August 9 ballot.

EU chief Charles Michel said on Twitter he had spoken to Putin and added that "only peaceful and truly inclusive dialogue can resolve the crisis in Belarus".

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron also spoke with the Russian leader, whose country has close economic and military ties with its neighbour.

Merkel told Putin that authorities in Minsk must "enter into a national dialogue with the opposition and society to overcome the crisis", while Macron urged the Russian leader to foster "calm and dialogue".


In Kremlin readouts of the two calls, Putin emphasised that interfering in Belarus and putting pressure on its authorities would be "unacceptable", as the European Union moves to impose sanctions over the vote and the brutal police crackdown on protesters that followed.
The flurry of calls came ahead of an emergency video summit of European Union leaders to discuss Belarus on Wednesday.

Speaking ahead of the summit, the EU's commissioner for the internal market, Thierry Breton, said sanctions against Belarusian authorities would be reinforced.

"It is clear that (the outcome of the Belarus presidential election) is not in line with the wish of the people, there has been unacceptable violence, and the rule of law is not respected. Sanctions have already been taken and will no doubt be reinforced this afternoon," Breton told Europe 1 radio.

'Rotting system'
Belarusian state news agency Belta said Putin and Lukashenko had also spoken by phone to discuss the Russian president's calls with European leaders.

Moscow has said it is ready to step in if necessary in Belarus through the CSTO military alliance between six ex-Soviet states.

But it is unclear how much support Putin is willing to give to Lukashenko, who in recent years has often played off Moscow against the West.


Lithuanian lawmakers on Tuesday urged Western governments not to recognise Lukashenko as president and both the United States and Britain this week voiced concerns over the elections and the crackdown.

Lukashenko has defied calls to hold a new election and on Tuesday handed out awards to 300 members of the security services, who have been accused of abusing arrested protesters.

During a meeting of his security council, Lukashenko accused the oppostion of attempting to "seize power" and sever Minsk's economic and military ties with Russia.

Earlier on Tuesday, several hundred people gathered outside the walls of a detention centre to mark the 42nd birthday of Sergei Tikhanovsky, a popular blogger who was imprisoned alongside other Lukashenko rivals ahead of the election.

Tikhanovsky's wife, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, was allowed to run in his place but fled to neighbouring Lithuania after claiming that Lukashenko rigged the election to secure his official 80 percent of the vote.


In a video message, Tikhanovskaya said her husband was spending his birthday in prison accused of "a crime he did not commit".

"All of this blatant lawlessness and injustice shows how this rotting system works, in which one person controls everything, one person who has kept the country in fear for 26 years, one person who robbed Belarusians of their choice," she said.

Mass protests
Tikhanovskaya, 37, has said she will organise new elections if Lukashenko steps down and her allies have formed a Coordination Council to ensure a transfer of power.

On Tuesday evening, the council convened its first press conference and announced members — including Nobel Prize-winning author and ardent Lukashenko critic Svetlana Alexievich.

"We are just starting to feel like an independent nation," Maria Kolesnikova, the campaign manager of a jailed opposition candidate, told journalists during the briefing.

She also denied Lukashenko's claims that the opposition wanted to cut ties with Moscow and vowed that new leaders in Minsk would "maintain friendly, mutually beneficial, pragmatic" ties with Russia and EU countries.

Belarus over the weekend saw its largest street demonstrations since it gained independence from the Soviet Union, with more than 100,000 people rallying in the capital to demand Lukashenko stand down after 26 years in power.


The police crackdown on post-election demonstrations last week saw more than 6,700 people arrested, hundreds wounded and left two people dead.

Authorities gradually released detainees – many emerging with horrific accounts of beatings and torture. The interior ministry reported a third death on Tuesday, of a young man hit by a car while demonstrating.

The first Belarusian diplomat to publicly support the protesters, Minsk's ambassador to Slovakia Igor Leshchenya, announced his resignation earlier on Tuesday in an interview with the Tut.by news website.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

 

[Plain Jane]

Zerohedge

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

www.zerohedge.com

Sweden Refuses To Mandate Face Masks As Nordic Neighbors Expand Restrictions

by Tyler Durden
Thu, 08/20/2020 - 05:30
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Scandinavia and northern Europe is developing a reputation as a hotbed of "mandatory mask" denierism. But is it truly a dangerous affront to science and survival, as American social media companies like Facebook - which earlier today purged QAnon-linked accounts from its platform - want us all to believe?
One by one, scientists in Denmark, the Netherlands, Finland and Sweden have raised doubts about the effectiveness of asking citizens to wear masks in every public venue, with many arguing that asking people to wear masks at all hardly makes sense in places where the rate of spread is low. However, over the past few weeks, many have acknowledged that masks may be beneficial in certain circumstances, and policies that focus specifically on these (such as mandatory use on public transit) might be more beneficial.

As debate is mostly stifled in the US, Sweden's top epidemiologist and architect of the country's no-lockdown COVID-19 strategy, Anders Tegnell, is speaking up about Sweden's decision to stand by its mask policy, which, like most of Sweden's COVID-19 response, is surprisingly lax.

Speaking once again to the FT , Tegnell explained his doubts, his hopes and even areas where he suspects masks may be effective. But his final conclusion is that the "science" that American liberals are always boasting about simply isn't as concrete as the Washington Post, New York Times and others make it out to be.
"It is very dangerous to believe face masks would change the game when it comes to Covid-19," Tegnell told the FT. He also shared some evidence to suggest that his neighbors were caving to political whims, and perhaps pressure from Brussels, by widening mask mandates.

Soren Riis Paludan, a viral infections expert from Aarhus University, said research had suggested that at Denmark’s current infection rate 100,000 people would have to wear face masks properly for a week to avoid one infection. “If there’s very little virus in the community, the effect is limited. But if you’re in the middle of a hotspot, then everything says that they can have an effect. In Denmark, we have compromised and said face masks may be another tool in the toolbox,” Prof Paludan said. Another reason for Swedish reluctance, according to experts, is high trust in the authorities. “When the Swedish health agency says there’s no reason to wear face masks, people don’t wear face masks,” said Prof Ludvigsson. “In other countries, where there’s less trust and they don’t recommend wearing masks, people might do it anyway."

The odds of infection in the initial scenario above are staggeringly low, and yet, viral memes shared on Instagram and Facebook for the past few months have posed scenarios where neglecting to wear a mask could practically guarantee that more than a dozen random strangers could be accidentally infected. This is extremely unlikely.

Most evidence supporting mask involves retrospective analysis of hundreds of studies and data sets used to study other things. The truth is, we truly don't know how effective wearing a surgical mask might be to stop an infected individual from spreading it to another person (which is why they're worn in surgery).

Nordic experts also point to a lack of hard evidence over the effectiveness of face masks. Many countries as well as the World Health Organization have changed their advice on wearing masks as studies have appeared to point to a link between their use and lower infection rates. But some Nordic experts are still sceptical. Mr Ludvigsson noted that in a meta-analysis by the WHO of 29 studies that showed face masks were effective, only three concerned their use outside hospitals and of those that did not none involved Covid-19. Still, he said his personal position had changed and he now believed they should recommend their use on public transport in Sweden but for a set period. “It would increase compliance if people know it’s only for three months,” he added.

Though Tegnell says he is keeping an open mind.

"Face masks can be a complement to other things when other things are safely in place. But to start with having face masks and then think you can crowd your buses or your shopping malls - that’s definitely a mistake," he said, adding that countries such as Belgium and Spain with widespread mask use still had rising infection rates. Sweden’s public health agency said on Tuesday that it was working on proposals for the government in the next few weeks and could open up for face mask use in specific circumstances such as visits to hospitals or dentists. Sweden is not the only European country skeptical about face masks. In the Netherlands, they must be worn on public transport and at airports but are not mandatory elsewhere.

Our only question is, how much longer will Tegnell be allowed to peddle his view without rousing the anger, and retribution, of Big Tech?

 

[Plain Jane]

Second Polish minister resigns in a week – DW – 08/20/2020

Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz has resigned as part of a Cabinet reshuffle. It comes as Warsaw seeks to play an active EU role amid the Belarusian crisis.

www.dw.com

Polish foreign minister resigns — second Cabinet resignation this week
Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz has resigned as part of a Cabinet reshuffle. It comes as Warsaw seeks to play an active EU role amid the Belarusian crisis.





Polish Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz resigned on Thursday, ahead of a major Cabinet reshuffle.

It comes after Health Minister Lukasz Szumowski resigned on Tuesday amid rising coronavirus infections and accusations of a bungled response.

Czaputowicz, 64, is seen as a more moderate member of the right-wing government and had been foreign minister since January 2018.

Their replacements will be announced soon, according to a government spokesman. The ruling right-wing, Law and Justice party announced a government reshuffle after President Andrzej Duda was reelected in July.
Read more: Poland's Andrzej Duda wins 2nd term by narrow majority

Belarus crisis
Czaputowicz's resignation comes as Poland attempts to position itself to play a leading role in the European Union response to the Belarus crisis.

Belarusian Incumbent President Alexander Lukashenko has accused Warsaw of meddling in its affairs and ordered his army to the Polish border.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki rejected the accusations. He has called on the EU to act to reduce Belarus's economic dependence on Russia.

On Wednesday, Czaputowicz met with prominent Belarusian opposition activists Valery and Veronika Tsepkalo. Last weekend, he hosted US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to sign a deal deepening Polish-American defense cooperation at the expense of Germany.

His office told PAP news agency that "the minister has in the past said that the post-election period was the right time for a change" in the post of foreign minister.

He hopes "that his successor will maintain the current line and support the strengthening of Poland's position on the international stage."

In addition to the two ministerial resignations, the deputy health minister and the deputy digitalization minister resigned recently too.
aw/ng (AP, Reuters, AFP, dpa)

 

[Plain Jane]

Russian opposition leader Navalny in coma after suspected poisoning

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was in a coma and on a ventilator Thursday in an intensive care unit in Siberia after falling ill from suspected poisoning that his allies believe is linked to…

www.france24.com

Russian opposition leader Navalny in ‘serious condition’ after suspected poisoning
291shares
Issued on: 20/08/2020 - 07:09

Alexei Navalny pictured taking part in a memorial ceremony for slain Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov in Moscow on February 27, 2020. © Shamil Zhumatov, Reuters
Text by:FRANCE 24Follow
6 min
Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny is in a serious condition in a Siberian hospital after suffering symptoms of what his spokeswoman on Thursday said she believed was a deliberate poisoning.


Navalny, 44, was rushed to a hospital in the city of Omsk after he lost consciousness on a flight and his plane made an emergency landing.

The prominent lawyer and anti-corruption campaigner was placed in a coma on a ventilator, his spokeswoman, Kira Yarmysh, said on social media.

"We assume that Alexei was poisoned with something mixed into his tea. It was the only thing that he drank in the morning. Doctors say the toxin was absorbed faster through the hot liquid. Alexei is now unconscious," Yarmysh said.

The TASS news agency cited the head doctor at a hospital in Omsk confirming that Navalny had been admitted there and saying he was in a serious condition.

Tatyana Shakirova, a spokeswoman for the regional health ministry in Omsk, said doctors were doing "everything possible to stabilise his condition", confirming that it was "serious".
"The poisoning version is one of several versions being considered," she added. "It's not possible now to say what the reason was."

A spokesperson for the Kremlin said the Russian presidency wished him a "speedy recovery".

Navalny, a fierce critic of President Vladimir Putin, had started feeling ill when returning to Moscow from Tomsk by plane, his spokeswoman said.

He had drunk tea at a cafe at Tomsk airport before boarding his flight. The Interfax news agency quoted the cafe's owners as saying they were checking CCTV cameras to try to establish what had happened.

His plane later made an emergency landing in Omsk so that he could be rushed to hospital.
Pavel Lebedev, a fellow passenger, posted an account of what he saw on social media.

"At the start of the flight he went to the toilet and didn't come back. He started feeling really sick. They struggled to bring him round and he was screaming in pain," Lebedev said.
S7, the airline he was travelling with, said Navalny had started feeling very ill soon after take-off. It said he had not eaten or drank anything on board.

Putin's most prominent critic
Yarmysh, Navalny's spokeswoman, drew a parallel with an incident last year in which Navalny suffered an acute allergic reaction one doctor said could have resulted from poisoning with an unknown chemical.

Navalny, a lawyer and anti-corruption activist, has served several stints in jail in recent years for organising anti-Kremlin protests.

The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that Russia's arrests and detention of Navalny in 2012 and 2014 were politically motivated and violated his human rights, a ruling Moscow called questionable.

Russian officials have designated his non-profit organisation Foundation for Fighting Corruption, which has spearheaded major anti-corruption investigations, as a "foreign agent", thereby curtailing its activities.

Last month, Navalny had to shut the foundation after a financially devastating lawsuit from Yevgeny Prigozhin, a businessman with close ties to the Kremlin.

Take international news everywhere with you! Download the France 24 app
The most prominent member of Russia's opposition, Navalny campaigned to challenge Putin in the 2018 presidential election, but was barred from running.

He set up a network of campaign offices across Russia and has since been putting forward opposition candidates in regional elections, challenging members of Russia's ruling party, United Russia.

Like many other opposition politicians in Russia, Navalny has been frequently harassed by pro-Kremlin groups. In 2017, he was attacked by several men who threw antiseptic in his face, damaging one eye.
(FRANCE 24 with REUTERS and AP)

 

[Plain Jane]

Plane carrying dissident in coma leaves Russia for Germany

OMSK, Russia (AP) — A plane carrying a Russian dissident who is in a coma after a suspected poisoning left for a German hospital Saturday following much wrangling over Alexei Navalny’s condition and treatment.

apnews.com

Russian doctors say Navalny wasn’t poisoned, refuse transfer
By DARIA LITVINOVAan hour ago



1 of 11
FILE - In this file photo taken on Saturday, July 20, 2019, Russian opposition activist Alexei Navalny gestures while speaking to a crowd during a political protest in Moscow, Russia. Russian doctors treating opposition politician Alexei Navalny say they haven't found any indication that the Kremlin critic was poisoned. Deputy chief doctor Anatoly Kalinichenko at Omsk hospital says that as of today, no traces of poison were found in Navalny’s body. Navalny spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh posted a video on Twitter of Kalinichenko speaking. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin, File)

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian doctors treating opposition leader Alexei Navalny don’t believe he was poisoned and refused to transfer him to a German hospital on Friday.

Navalny, a 44-year-old politician who is one of President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest critics, was admitted to an intensive care unit in a coma at a hospital in the Siberian city of Omsk on Thursday, following what his supporters are calling a suspected poisoning that they believe was engineered by the Kremlin.

But Russian doctors treating opposition politician Alexei Navalny say they haven’t found any indication that the Kremlin critic was poisoned.

Omsk hospital deputy chief doctor, Anatoly Kalinichenko, said that no traces of poison were found in Navalny’s body. Navalny spokeswoman, Kira Yarmysh, posted a video on Twitter of Kalinichenko speaking.

“Poisoning as a diagnosis remains on the back burner, but we don’t believe that the patient suffered from poisoning,” Kalinichenko told reporters Friday.

Kalinichenko added that the diagnosis have been determined and relayed to Navalny’s family members. He refused to reveal it to reporters, citing a law preventing medical workers from disclosing confidential patient information.

Earlier Friday, Navalny ally Ivan Zhdanov said police found traces of a dangerous poisonous substance in the politician’s system, but didn’t say which one. Police officials didn’t confirm that.

Russian medical officials also haven’t approved Navalny’s transfer to Germany.
“The chief doctor said that Navalny is non-transportable. (His) condition is unstable. Family’s decision to transfer him is not enough,” Yarmysh tweeted. Omsk is about 4,200 kilometers (2,500 miles) east of Berlin, roughly a six-hour flight.

Navalny fell ill on a flight back to Moscow from the Siberian city of Tomsk on Thursday and was taken to the hospital after the plane made an emergency landing in Omsk. His team says a plane with all the necessary equipment is waiting at Omsk airport to take Navalny to a German clinic.


Alexander Murakhovsky, chief doctor of the Omsk Ambulance Hospital No. 1 where the politician is being treated, told reporters on Friday that Navalny’s condition “somewhat improved,” but he wasn’t stable enough for a transfer. Murakhovsky said doctors were still working on determining a diagnosis.

Yarmysh said that “the ban on transferring Navalny is needed to stall and wait until the poison in his body can no longer be traced. Yet every hour of stalling creates a threat to his life.”

Like many other opposition politicians in Russia, Navalny has been frequently detained by law enforcement and harassed by pro-Kremlin groups. In 2017, he was attacked by several men who threw antiseptic in his face, damaging an eye.

Last year, Navalny was rushed to a hospital from prison, where he was serving a sentence following an administrative arrest, with what his team said was suspected poisoning. Doctors said he had a severe allergic attack and discharged him back to prison the following day.

Navalny’s Foundation for Fighting Corruption has been exposing graft among government officials, including some at the highest level. Last month, he had to shut the foundation after a financially devastating lawsuit from Yevgeny Prigozhin, a businessman with close ties to the Kremlin.

The most prominent member of Russia’s opposition, Navalny campaigned to challenge Putin in the 2018 presidential election, but was barred from running.

He set up campaign offices across Russia and has been promoting opposition candidates in regional elections, challenging members of Russia’s ruling party, United Russia. One of his associates in Khabarovsk, a city in Russia’s Far East that has been engulfed in mass protests against the arrest of the region’s governor, was detained last week after calling for a strike at a rally.

 

[Plain Jane]

I guess the Russians changed their minds.

Zerohedge

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

www.zerohedge.com

Russian Opposition Leader Flown To German Hospital After Alleged "Poisoning"

by Tyler Durden
Fri, 08/21/2020 - 13:34
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Update (1330ET): Doctors at the Siberian hospital where Navalny was being treated have reportedly allowed the opposition leader to be flown to a top German medical facility, the head doctor said.

"We...took the decision that we don't oppose his transfer to another hospital, the one that his relatives indicate to us," Anatoly Kalinichenko, deputy chief doctor at Omsk hospital, told journalists late on Friday.

The flight out of Omsk is set to leave Saturday morning, but German doctors have already examined Navalny and said he is fit to be flown aboard for medical treatment.
It was previously reported that permission for Navalny to fly to Germany had been denied, but the authorities involved have apparently changed their minds.

* * *
After a spokeswoman claimed that Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny had been 'poisoned' by Russian security services who likely slipped the poison into Navalny's tea - the only thing he consumed before taking off on a flight from Siberia to Moscow, he claims - doctors at the Siberian hospital where Navalny was treated have instead blamed his condition on another medical malady: an unnamed metabolic disease.

According to Al Jazeera, the head doctor at the Siberian hospital where Navalny was treated said on Friday he had been diagnosed with a metabolic disease caused by low blood sugar.
Head doctor Alexander Murakhovsky, who runs the hospital in the city of Omsk, also said that police had found traces of industrial chemical substances on the 44-year-old Navalny's clothes and fingers.

Last night, allies of Navalny blamed the Kremlin for "thwarting" a medical evacuation to Germany, which they claimed placed Navalny's life in jeopardy.

Navalny, a fierce critic of President Vladimir Putin and his lieutenants, remains in a serious condition after his flight was forced to land in Siberia, where he was rushed to the hospital after collapsing in the bathroom.

Last night, allies of Navalny accused the Kremlin of thwarting his medical evacuation to Germany, saying the decision places his life in mortal danger.


With so many eyes on the Russian opposition leader, the notion that the Kremlin would target such a high-profile figure with one of its infamous "wet jobs" sounds faintly unrealistic, especially considering the next election isn't until 2024. Several journalists focusing on Russia warned against jumping to conclusions yesterday, arguing that Navalny's investigative journalism has earned him many enemies among Russia's moneyed, Kremlin-connected elite.

Navalny insisted he had been poisoned during a stay in a Moscow prison during the summer of 2019. But doctors contradicted his claims then, too - and sent him back to prison to finish his sentence, despite his claims that doing so would put his life in 'serious jeopardy'.

 

[northern watch]

 

[Plain Jane]

Zerohedge

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

www.zerohedge.com

Ireland's "#Golfgate" Scandal Threatens To Throw Government Into Chaos As Officials Resign

by Tyler Durden
Sun, 08/23/2020 - 08:45
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Ireland, like the UK, has become a bastion of coronavirus hysteria, as local officials have adopted strictly enforced rules and mask mandates as new cases terrified the public.
A few minutes ago, the ROI's Department of Health reported another 2 deaths and 156 new cases.



Like other EU members, Ireland's strict response to the virus suppressed cases quickly after an initial outbreak, but as life begins the steady return to normal, cases have bounced back slightly, reviving the public's fervent support for the rules, and their fury with anybody - particularly those in positions of power - who flouts what is widely seen as a patriotic duty, although it probably wasn't masks alone that helped Ireland overcome the first wave.

In keeping with that spirit, a major political scandal in Ireland erupted this week when the country's top government officials was outed for attending a formal dinner where social distancing rules - including mask wearing and restrictions on crowd sizes - weren't enforced.
But the issue continues to escalate. Ireland's national police force confirmed Friday night that it was "investigating an event" held in the city of Galway on Wednesday evening that may have breached coronavirus-related health laws - an obvious reference to the parliamentary Oireachtas Golf Society dinner which was held at a hotel in Galway.

Minister for Agriculture Dara Calleary - who was in his job barely a month - has resigned, as has the vice chair of Ireland's upper house, Jerry Buttimer.
The day before the dinner, the government ratcheted up the restrictions on indoor gatherings to just six people, while Weddings and some cultural events, including plays and concerts, could be attended by up to 50 people. The rules created some confusion, but there was little doubt that the Oireachtas Golf Society dinner was in poor taste.


Per local media reports, the event space originally included a partition to separate the group and keep numbers in each section to below 50, but they were apparently removed for the speeches at the event, resulting in the rules being broken. 81 people reporteldy attended the dinner.

Dara Calleary has resigned as agriculture minister after only a month in the job
On Twitter, Irish are griping about the scandal under the hashtag '#golfgate'.


Other government officials reportedly attended the dinner.

Calleary resigned on Friday after apologizing in a series of tweets where he expressed “sincere regret” to his government colleagues. "In light of the updated public health guidance this week I should not have attended the event. I wish to apologize unreservedly to everyone," he wrote.


Buttimer shared on Twitter a letter sent to the chief of parliament's upper house saying his attendance "had compromised the government at a time when people, across every sector of Irish society are doing their best to keep all safe during this global pandemic." He called the decision an "unintended but serious lapse in judgement," Buttimer said. He "should not have attended the dinner" he said, and would resign immediately.

The scandal could have implications beyond Ireland, as the Irish opposition is now gunning for EU trade commissioner Phil Hogan, who once held the position that Calleary just vacated. Given the importance of trade among the myriad issues facing the EU, Hogan is considered a key member of the Commission, which is led by President Ursula von der Leyen.

Hogan has so far refused to apologize for attending the Wednesday night dinner, and has instead insisted in a statement that he only attended after being assured that guidelines and rules would all be followed.

All told, dozens of figures in the Irish political scene attended the event, which was organized by a golf society in the Irish parliament. Other notable attendees included Séamus Woulfe, a recently appointed Supreme Court judge who was AG in the last government.

If anything, it's merely a sign of how confusing and uncertain all these rules are to follow. But the media, egged on by sanctimonious readers, seems ever-ready to pillory politicians and other people in power hoisted on their own petard.

 

[Melodi]

The real problem is that modern Ireland also has had a "one rule for me, one rule for thee" attitude on the part of politicians and others (including in the past the Catholic Church) along with "brown envelopes under the table" and just about everything of that ilk.

While I can also see there was somewhat of an over-reaction (in my opinion) because the real fault is that of the government itself - they changed the guidelines in a speech between 24 and 48 hours BEFORE the dinner and did not produce "official" new advice until this weekend.

So the Hotel had organized things under the old rules and yet, with no warning those rules were radically changed and done so in a TV broadcast after working hours.

I suspect if this ever comes to court, the hotel may win on that basis, provided they really did separate people into "two" dinners and didn't allow guests to go back and forth (which I suspect DID happen, since the hotel is so far not going that route).

But this escapade just looks really-really-really bad, you have to realize that Ireland had "no" official government for months, the party that got the most seats didn't expect to win and didn't run enough candidates. So ultimately the same two parties that have been running everything since the foundation of the country were back in power - this time officially together.

Think of a "government" formed by the worst Rhino Republicans and Swamp Creature Democrats and you can guess just how enthusiastic most citizens here were.

So after months of delayed decisions and growing issues, the new "government" is sworn in and promptly goes on a six-week "holiday," which due to public outrage will not be ending on Sept 1st instead of the 15th.

This is some of the backgrounds to the blazing rath of the Irish public of what was seen as Irish politicians sitting around at an awards dinner for their special government members golf club, wining and dining each other when other couples this weekend had to cancel their weddings and thousands of people are being laid off or on furloughs.

This was not really a case of the Irish press exaggerating so much as it was the match to light the dry kindling that was already smoldering out there.

Or as my housemate said, "An election before December 25, 2020 anyone?"...at least in parliamentary systems, there is that option, they have their own issues but it is possible to "get the bums out" before the end of the expected "term."

 

[Plain Jane]

How does coronavirus spread at a concert? Germans do a test

BERLIN (AP) — Germany held a pop concert Saturday to see how those attending could spread coronavirus if they had it.

apnews.com

How does coronavirus spread at a concert? Germans do a test
yesterday

22 August 2020, Saxony, Leipzig: Test persons of a large-scale experiment of the University Medicine Halle/Saale are standing at the entrance in front of the Arena Leipzig. Around 2200 visitors take part in the experiment entitled "Restart-19", in which pop singer Tim Bendzko will perform. The scientists want to use sensors and other aids to monitor walking paths and fluorescent disinfectant is to make visible which surfaces are often touched. They also want to trace the flight of aerosols - the smallest mixtures of particles that could carry the virus. The aim is to develop a mathematical model with which the risk of a corona outbreak after a major event in a hall can be assessed.(Hendrik Schmidt/dpa via AP)

BERLIN (AP) — Germany held a pop concert Saturday to see how those attending could spread coronavirus if they had it.

German researchers studying COVID-19 packed part of a Leipzig arena with volunteers, collecting data in a “real life” simulation of a pop concert but one with strict health and safety controls.

About 1,500 people took part in the experiment run by the University Hospital in Halle, each taking a coronavirus test ahead of time, testing negative, and having to wear protective masks throughout the day’s testing.

Researchers equipped each volunteer with contact tracers to record their routes in the arena and track the path of the aerosols — the small particles that could carry the virus — they emitted as they mingled and talked. Fluorescent disinfectants were used to highlight which surfaces at the mock concert were touched most frequently.

German pop singer Tim Bendzko appeared on stage to create as realistic a reaction from the crowd as possible for three scenarios.

Afterward, he said he had expected the day to feel more sterile and like an experiment but that the crowd was into the concert.

“We really had a lot of fun,” he said. “We survived drive-in concerts this summer and in that respect, for us, this is a first step toward normalcy.”

Under the first scenario, which simulated the very beginning of a pandemic, the concert-goers were kept close together in the room with no social distancing. In the second, the researchers instituted hygiene measures and larger social distances between the volunteers. In the third, a distance of 1.5 meters (5 feet) between participants was strictly enforced.

Stefan Moritz, who led the study, said researchers had only about a third of the volunteers they had hoped for, partially because many Germans are still away on summer holidays and partially due to fears of participating even with the safety measures taken. But he said the experiment had gone well.

“We are satisfied with the numbers,” he told reporters. “We have good data quality.”
The results of the study are expected in four to six weeks, he said.

In general, Germany has been praised for its handling of the pandemic with its rapid response and robust testing. It has registered only 9,267 confirmed virus deaths so far, one-fourth of Britain’s virus death toll.

But the numbers have been rising recently, and Germany’s disease control center reported 2,034 new cases of COVID-19 on Saturday, the first time the daily national increase has topped 2,000 since the end of April.

The Robert Koch Institute said coronavirus outbreaks are being reported in nursing homes, hospitals, schools and “especially among travelers and in the context of religious or family events.”

“The trend is very concerning,” the agency said.

Germany’s 16 states are in the process of resuming in-class teaching at schools. The possible risks of virus clusters building up in educational institutions and then spreading to families and further into society has been a matter of great concern.

In Berlin, one of the first states to return, at least 41 schools this week reported that students or teachers have become infected, and hundreds of them have been put into quarantine.
___
This story corrects the spelling of Leipzig.
___
Follow AP’s pandemic coverage at http://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and Understanding the Outbreak

 

[Plain Jane]

Baltic nations lock arms in support of Belarus protests – DW – 08/23/2020

Three decades after forming a mass human chain for their own independence, thousands in the Baltic states did it again for Belarus. The protest action took place as tens of thousands demonstrated in Minsk.

www.dw.com

Baltic nations form human chains in support of Belarus protests
Three decades after forming a mass human chain for their own independence, thousands in the Baltic states did it again for Belarus. The protest action took place as tens of thousands demonstrated in Minsk.





Thousands formed a human chain on Sunday in Lithuania, in a display of solidarity with protesters in Belarus on the 31st anniversary of the famous Baltic Way protest.

The Baltic Way was a pivotal moment in the region, when millions formed a human chain that ran 600 kilometers (372 miles) through Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, to express their desire for independence.

On Sunday, thousands were expected to join the human chain stretching some 30 kilometers (19 miles) from the Lithuanian capital Vilnius to the border with Belarus.

Read more: The Baltic States: From Soviet to European
Demonstrators were joined by key political figures in Lithuania, such as President Gitanas Nauseda.

"Three decades ago, Lithuanians lined up in a human chain together with their Latvian and Estonian brothers. The Baltic Way sent the message of Freedom. Today Belarusians are sending their message to the world: they want to be free,” Nauseda wrote on Twitter.

Demonstrations were also expected in Latvia, where hundreds of protesters marched along the border with Belarus and formed a human chain in the village of Piedruja, with Belarusian border guards looking on from the other side of the Daugava River.

"This is our Baltic way to express solidarity with all the people in Belarus," Inese Vaivare, the main organizer, told the cheering crowd in Piedruja.

Latvians gathered at the border with Belarus to support the protest movement
Human chains are also planned in the Estonian capital Tallinn and along the iconic Charles Bridge in Prague.

Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya expressed support for the actions of the three neighboring countries. Tikhanovskaya is currently in Lithuania, where she fled to shortly after the election that sparked a large protest movement in Belarus to demand the ouster of long-time president Alexander Lukashenko.

"It means a lot not only for me but all Belarusian people and they feel this support... It's very beautiful," Tikhanovskaya told AFP in an interview on Saturday.

Sunday marked another day of large demonstrations in Belarus, as tens of thousands of joined a rally against Lukashenko on Independence Square in the capital Minsk. Protesters rallied in defiance of threats from the state, even as security forces had blocked many metro stations, forcing large groups of people to venture out on foot.
jcg/mm (AFP, dpa)

 

[jward]

Switzerland may ban terrorist organization Hezbollah
A full ban of Hezbollah’s activities in Switzerland would mean that the Lebanese organization’s symbols would be banned and its bank accounts and assets seized and frozen within Swiss territory
By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL
AUGUST 23, 2020 15:40

A SUPPORTER with the Hezbollah logo painted on his face poses for a picture during a rally marking the 10th anniversary of the end of the 2006 war, in Bint Jbeil, southern Lebanon, on August 13, 2016.

(photo credit: AZIZ TAHER/REUTERS)



The central European country Switzerland may follow the decision made by its neighbor Germany and ban all Hezbollahactivities within its territory.

The Swiss federal council agreed on Wednesday to examine an application titled “Report on the activities of the Shi’ite Islamist Hezbollah in Switzerland.” The Jerusalem Post reviewed the application that could lead to a full ban of the global terrorist movement Hezbollah in Switzerland.


The initiative was launched by the Christian Democratic People’s Party of Switzerland, when party politician Marianne Binder submitted the initiative in June.

The language of the anti-Hezbollah legislative initiative reads that “On April 30, 2020, Germany banned all activities of the Shi’ite Islamist Hezbollah. Germany justified the decision with the fact that Hezbollah is calling for armed struggle and rejecting Israel’s right to exist.”

The initiative continues that “The EU previously banned the [military] arm that engaged in terrorist activities. It is not known which activities Hezbollah is developing in Switzerland. In view of the neutrality of Switzerland, however, the activities of Hezbollah cannot be legitimized and a report is also advisable for reasons of security policy.”

A full ban of Hezbollah’s activities in Switzerland would mean that the Lebanese organization’s symbols would be banned and its bank accounts and assets seized and frozen within Swiss territory.

In addition to Germany, the United Kingdom, Lithuania and the Netherlands have banned the entire Hezbollah organization. The European Union merely outlawed Hezbollah’s so-called “military arm” in 2013 and allowed its “political arm” to operate and raise funds and recruit new members for the umbrella Hezbollah movement in Beirut, Lebanon.


The Arab League, Israel, the US, Canada and many Latin American countries have designated Hezbollah’s entire entity a terrorist movement.

Former US ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell played a crucial role in convincing Germany’s government to ban all of Hezbollah activities in April.

posted for fair use

Switzerland may ban terrorist organization Hezbollah

A full ban of Hezbollah’s activities in Switzerland would mean that the Lebanese organization’s symbols would be banned and its bank accounts and assets seized and frozen within Swiss territory

www.jpost.com