Germany weighs up mandatory FFP2 masks in shops and on transport

Respiratory masks already compulsory in Bavaria over fears of coronavirus mutations

Germany is weighing up following Austria and Bavaria’s lead in making it compulsory to wear full protective filter masks on public transport and in shops, as the country remains on high alert about the impact of possible coronavirus mutations.

The Austrian chancellor, Sebastian Kurz, announced on Sunday that wearing single-use filtering facepiece respirator, or FFP2, masks would become mandatory on public transport and in shops from 25 January, as the Alpine state moves to extend its national lockdown until 7 February.

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Covid: Austrians who pass antigen test to be exempt from lockdown

Italy prepares for national lockdown over Christmas; Spanish minister warns of third wave

Austria is to enter a third lockdown from Boxing Day but will stage mass coronavirus tests in mid-January to determine who will be exempt from certain restrictions, the government announced on Friday.

Italy is preparing to outline new measures that could lead to a complete lockdown over the Christmas and new year period, while the Spanish government has warned of a possible “third wave” of infections.

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France will carry out border checks to stop skiers from spreading Covid

Coronavirus clusters in Alpine resorts played key role in early spread of virus in Europe

France will carry out random border checks over the holiday season targeting French skiers on their way to and from foreign resorts – particularly Switzerland and Spain – where slopes stay open, the prime minister, Jean Castex, has said.

“The goal is to avoid French citizens getting contaminated. That will be done by performing random checks at the borders,” Castex told French television, adding that returning holidaymakers would be ordered to quarantine for seven days.

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UK ski holiday firms in limbo as Covid restrictions and Brexit bite

British tourists, chalet owners and resort staff wait for winter season decisions across Europe

British holidaymakers, chalet owners and resort staff are in limbo as countries across Europe decide whether or not this winter’s ski season will go ahead.

This week, Britain’s biggest ski operator Crystal Ski Holidays was forced to cancel all its French ski trips in December after President Macron ordered the nation’s resorts to stay shut until the new year.

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Fugging hell: tired of mockery, Austrian village changes name

Mayor says residents, known as Fuckingers, ‘have had enough of visitors and their bad jokes’

Residents of an Austrian village will ring in the new year under a new name – Fugging – after ridicule of their signposts, especially on social media, became too much to bear.

They finally grew weary of Fucking, its current name, which some experts say dates back to the 11th century.

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Europe at odds over plan to ban Christmas ski holidays amid pandemic

Germany, Italy and France in favour of resort closures but Austria and Switzerland fear economic damage

Governments are at odds over a Europe-wide plan to bar ski holidays over Christmas and new year, with Germany, Italy and France in favour but Austria and Switzerland reluctant to damage a sector worth billions to their economies.

The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, on Thursday joined Italy’s prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, and the French president, Emmanuel Macron, in calling for a Europe-wide shutdown of winter sports until 10 January to avert a fresh coronavirus wave.

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Merkel forced to postpone plans to tighten lockdown rules

German chancellor says she does not currently have the backing of state leaders

Angela Merkel has said she does not have backing among state leaders for new restrictions to give Germany’s “soft” lockdown a harder bite, postponing any decision until a further meeting between the chancellor and 16 state premiers next week.

The chancellor had been in favour of people limiting social interactions in private to only one set second household, and forgo any kind of party until Christmas Eve, according to a draft proposal cited by several news outlets including Der Spiegel.

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Rothschild descendant claims initial victory in legal battle with Vienna

Geoffrey Hoguet is suing Austrian authorities for control of trust set up by his ancestors, but seized by Nazis in 1938

A Rothschild descendant has claimed an initial victory in a legal battle with the city of Vienna over a medical trust set up by his ancestors, seized by Nazis and now controlled by the city.

Geoffrey Hoguet is suing Austrian authorities for control of the trust, which he claims has been hollowed out by town hall officials who have made themselves administrator and potential beneficiary of assets worth up to €110m (£98m).

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Violent extremism linked to failure of migrants to integrate, EU says

Reference to Islam removed from EU governments’ declaration after disagreements

The rise of violent extremism in Europe has been linked to the failure of migrants to integrate, in a hard-debated joint declaration by EU governments on the recent terror attacks.

The statement by EU home affairs ministers was described by Horst Seehofer, Germany’s interior minister, as a “great sign of solidarity” when delivered on Friday but it had been heavily watered down from a controversial initial draft.

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Police investigate if Vienna attacker was part of wider network

Kujtim Fejzulai believed to have acted alone but known to have been an Isis sympathiser

Austrian police are investigating whether an Islamist terrorist who killed four people in Vienna on Monday night was part of a wider network and if the attack could have been prevented.

Kujtim Fejzulai, known to authorities as a sympathiser of the Islamic State group, which claimed credit for the murders, is believed to have been the lone gunman in the attack despite hours of uncertainty over whether accomplices remained at large.

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Austria terror attacker ‘pretended he had given up jihadism’

Kujtim Fejzulai deceived mentors in deradicalisation programme, minister says

An Islamic State-supporting gunman who killed four people and injured 23 others in an attack in central Vienna on Monday night deliberately “deceived” his mentors in a deradicalisation programme to feign a renunciation of jihadism, Austria’s interior minister has said.

The 20-year-old dual Austrian and North Macedonian citizen, named as Kujtim Fejzulai, was shot dead by police nine minutes after opening fire in the Austrian capital’s first district at 8pm.

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Does Vienna attack signal new wave of jihadist terrorism?

Fact that Isis attacks have declined in EU does not mean threat has disappeared, says expert

Does the attack in Vienna on Monday night presage a return to the darkest days of the wave of terrorist violence that shook Europe between 2012 and 2017?

Over that five-year period, hundreds died in lethal stabbings, attacks with cleavers, bombings of stadiums and airports, as well as assaults by multiple gunmen in city centres with AK-47s that bear horrible resemblance both to that still being investigated in the Austrian capital and the spate of attacks in France in recent weeks.

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Vienna shooting: fourth victim dies as police make several arrests – latest updates

Government confirms five people including suspected attacker have died

Here is more on the chancellor’s speech, from my colleague, Kate Connolly:

He said that the “Republic of Austria and its people have been the target of a brutal terror attack” in which “four citizens have been cold-bloodedly murdered.”

The Israelitische Kultusgemeinde (IKG) in Austria, the organisation representing the Jewish community, has said it has closed all its synagogues and related institutes across the country, following Monday night’s attacks in Vienna.

The decision affects synagogues, as well as kosher restaurants, Jewish supermarkets, schools and cultural centres, said Erich Nuler, spokesman for the IKG’s crisis committee, according to the Austrian daily Der Standard.

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Vienna attack: arrests made after four killed in ‘Islamist terror’ shooting

Attack in busy restaurant district of Austrian capital on eve of new Covid lockdown

Austrian police have made several arrests at addresses linked to a suspected Islamic State sympathiser who killed at least four people in a terrorist shooting attack in Vienna on Monday night.

Two men and two women died from their injuries after the attack in the centre of the Austrian capital, which took place hours before a coronavirus lockdown started.

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Failures at Austrian ski resort ‘helped speed up spread’ of Covid-19 in Europe

Commission report into Ischgl outbreak identifies ‘momentous miscalculations’ made by authorities

An independent commission has found that Austrian national and local authorities made “momentous miscalculations” by first hesitating and then rushing to evacuate an Alpine ski resort that has been described as the “ground zero” of the coronavirus first wave in Europe.

Ischgl, a town of 1,600 inhabitants in the Tirolean Paznaun valley and one of Europe’s premium skiing destinations, has been in the spotlight since the middle of March, after thousands of tourists, including at least 180 Britons, caught the virus there during the spring holidays and carried it back to their home countries.

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Europe struggles to stem rapid resurgence of coronavirus

Concern in Germany and maximum alert in France, as other countries report record infection rates

Several mainland European countries have recorded their highest daily number of Covid-19 infections since widespread testing began, as governments struggle to stem a rapid resurgence of the virus that risks overwhelming some healthcare systems.

The figures came as the World Health Organization reported a record one-day increase in global coronavirus cases, with the total rising by 338,779 in 24 hours. The previous record for new cases was 330,340 on 2 October.

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As Covid cases rise again, how are countries in Europe reacting?

Tighter measures are being imposed, but they vary across the continent

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‘Everyone was drenched in the virus’: was this Austrian ski resort a Covid-19 ground zero?

At least 6,000 people say they caught coronavirus in Ischgl, dubbed ‘Ibiza on ice’, and their class action is gaining pace. Those who were there recall a terrifying week

In the first week of March, Charlie Jackson had an argument with his wife. The recruitment agent, 53, from Pangbourne in Berkshire, was due to catch a flight to Innsbruck for a three-day “boys’ holiday”, skiing in the Tirolean Alps. Jackson’s wife, Carol, felt Ischgl, the resort booked by the group, was a bit too close to the parts of northern Italy that had recently been shut down to contain the spread of a mystery flu-like illness. But Jackson threw caution to the wind: he had already spent more than £1,000 on the trip.

Ischgl, one of the most popular ski resorts in Europe, is what Jackson calls “a boyish kind of place”. He and his friends had been visiting the town in the Paznaun valley, Austria, for the past nine years. The snow is reliably powdery from November to May. The compact nature of the place means you don’t need a car to get around. The facilities are well-run: Ischgl has 45 state-of-the-art ski lifts, three of which take you directly from the edge of town to the mountain.

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Bavaria rolls out coronavirus mass testing for returning holidaymakers

German state preparing airports, stations and border crossings after rise in cases

The German state of Bavaria is spearheading the mass rollout of coronavirus testing facilities in the hope of reaching as many returning holidaymakers as possible.

Airports, railway stations and main border crossings used by cars, are to be kitted out with mobile testing units, Markus Söder, the leader of the southern state, announced this morning.

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EU leaders seal deal on spending and €750bn Covid-19 recovery plans

Euro rises as heads of state finally thrash out agreement on day five

EU leaders have reached a historic agreement on a €750bn coronavirus pandemic recovery fund and their long-term spending plans following days of acrimonious debate at the bloc’s longest summit in nearly two decades.

As the meeting reached its fifth day, the 27 exhausted heads of state and government finally gave their seal of approval to a plan for the EU to jointly borrow debt to be disbursed through grants on an unprecedented scale, in the face of an economic downturn not seen since the Great Depression.

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