Condition of Russian opposition leader who was poisoned with novichok is improving
The Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been taken out of an induced coma and is responding to speech, the Germany hospital treating him has said.
The Charité hospital in Berlin, which has been treating Navalny since 22 August, said his condition was improving and that he was also being weaned off mechanical ventilation.
Continue reading...Pandemic has stalled party’s momentum but it still has strong chance of entering government next year
In pandemic times, public health takes precedence over the wellbeing of the planet, as Germany’s Greens have had to learn the hard way. With Covid-19 shoring up electoral sympathies around a crisis-seasoned Angela Merkel, the buoyant upstarts in opposition have lost much of the momentum they had built up over the last 12 months.
And yet, paradoxically, the environmental party’s chances of entering government in 2021 have never looked greater.
Continue reading...Fans gather in a German church to hear the first new sound in composition, Organ/ASLSP, for six years
Hundreds of fans have attended a special kind of musical happening at a church in Germany: a chord change in an organ piece that is supposed to last for an entirety of 639 years.
The performance of the Organ/ASLSP (As Slow As Possible) composition began in September 2001 at the St Burchardi church in the eastern town of Halberstadt and is supposed to end in 2640 — if all goes well.
Continue reading...The US president declined to accept the German government's assessment that the Russian opposition leader was attacked with a nerve agent. This week the chancellor, Angela Merkel, revealed that tests at a military laboratory had identified unequivocally that the Kremlin critic had been poisoned with novichok
Continue reading...President says US must look seriously at case but suggests media should be looking into China
President Donald Trump said the United States must look “very seriously” into the poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, but that his administration had not yet seen any proof.
“I think we have to look at it very seriously, if it’s the case,” he said, before talking at length about his diplomatic efforts in North Korea and nuclear non-proliferation in Russia. “I don’t know exactly what happened. It’s tragic. It’s terrible, it shouldn’t happen. We haven’t had any proof yet, but I will take a look.
Continue reading...Children aged between one and eight were found dead in beds in case that has shocked country
German prosecutors have said they will charge a 27-year-old woman with murder after five of her young children were found dead at their home in the western city of Solingen.
Heribert Kaune-Gebhardt, a prosecutor in nearby Wuppertal, told reporters that postmortem examinations on the dead children between the ages of one and eight showed signs of sedation and suffocation, but it was still unclear how exactly they died.
Continue reading...Three girls and two boys aged between 18 months and eight years discovered in Solingen
The bodies of five children have been discovered in a flat in western Germany with their mother the main suspect in their killings, police have said.
The bodies were found on the third floor of a building in the city of Solingen by the children’s grandmother, who alerted emergency services at 1.45pm local time on Thursday.
Continue reading...German opposition calls on chancellor to use gas pipeline project to pressurise Kremlin
Angela Merkel is under growing domestic pressure to end her support for the joint German-Russian Nord Stream 2 pipeline project over the confirmed poisoning of the Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
The German Green party called on the chancellor to use the nearly completed infrastructure project to pressure the Kremlin into answering allegations over what Merkel called the “silencing” of Navalny with a novichok nerve reagent.
Continue reading...Angela Merkel says poisoning was attempted murder and White House calls it ‘reprehensible’
World leaders are demanding answers from the Kremlin after toxicological examinations indicated that the Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was poisoned with a nerve agent from the novichok family.
The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, revealed that tests carried out at a military laboratory had “identified unequivocally” the Soviet era nerve agent. She referred to the case as an “attempted murder” and said the findings raised “very difficult questions that only the Russian government can answer, and has to answer.”
Continue reading...World leaders can be in little doubt: the evidence leads directly to Moscow and Putin
The debate over what precisely happened to Alexei Navalny has raged for almost two weeks. Some facts are agreed. The Russian opposition leader drank a cup of tea at Tomsk airport and then collapsed on a flight back to Moscow. After cursory treatment in a Russian hospital, he was flown to Berlin. Since then German doctors have been treating him in the Charité hospital, where he remains in a medically induced coma.
Far murkier is the question of who poisoned Navalny and why. On Wednesday the German government provided a pretty big clue when it revealed Navalny was poisoned with novichok. This is the substance used in 2018 against Sergei and Yulia Skripal. It was smeared on the front door of Skripal’s Salisbury home. Novichok also killed Dawn Sturgess, a Wiltshire woman who unknowingly sprayed it on her wrists.
Continue reading...The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, said in a personal statement that testing by a special military laboratory had shown proof that the Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was poisoned with a novichok nerve agent. 'It is now clear: Alexei Navalny is the victim of a crime,' Merkel said. 'He was meant to be silenced. This raises very difficult questions that only the Russian government can answer, and has to answer'
Continue reading...The reassessment of China highlighted by Wang Yi’s trip has political, economic and security implications
The Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi did not exactly end his week-long European tour with his tail between his legs but he may have been chastened if he ever believed Beijing could simply win over Europe by pointing to the extremist cold war rhetoric of Europe’s natural ally America.
The five-nation tour surely marked the end of an era where China can any longer get away with simple homilies on win-win solutions, multilateralism and non-interference in another’s internal affairs. Pointing to Donald Trump is also no longer enough to win European friends.
Continue reading...Parents and teachers fear face masks and other measures not enough to prevent second wave
Tens of millions of pupils, most wearing face masks, have headed back to class in France, Belgium, Poland and Russia, as schools across Europe cautiously reopened amid spiralling numbers of new coronavirus cases in several countries.
Parents and teachers around the continent have expressed fears that strict physical distancing and hygiene measures such as hand cleansing stations will not be able to prevent a second Covid-19 wave, maybe coinciding with the autumn flu season.
Continue reading...Jens Spahn subjected to shouts of ‘shame’ and ‘gay pig’ as he confronts crowd
Germany’s health minister was jeered, spat at and targeted by homophobic abuse as the countrywide protests of a vocal minority of people against coronavirus restrictions has taken on an increasingly aggressive tone.
The Conservative politician Jens Spahn, a key figure in Germany’s handling of the pandemic, on Saturday tried to confront a crowd of protesters outside an event ahead of local elections in North-Rhine Westphalia.
Continue reading...Andreas Geisel condemns ‘shameful’ scenes at rally against Covid restrictions
Berlin’s interior minister has expressed regret over a standoff outside the Reichstag building on Saturday during a rally against coronavirus restrictions.
Speaking to a committee of the city state’s interior ministry on Monday, Andreas Geisel said he was “deeply regretful” about the images from the protest, which were seen around the world.
Continue reading...Demonstrators against Covid-19 restrictions in Germany have been denounced by politicians after an attempt to storm the country’s parliament building. Some of the protestors carried the former imperial flag, which was used up until the end of the first world war, during the rally on Saturday.
Police said about 38,000 people, double the number expected, had gathered in Berlin to protest against restrictions to curb the spread of coronavirus, such as the wearing of masks and social distancing. About 300 were arrested after scuffles with police in front of the building.
‘Flags from the Reich and far-right profanity in front of the German parliament are an unacceptable attack on the heart of our democracy,’ the German president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, said. ‘We will never accept this’
Continue reading...German charity Sea-Watch and the Italian coastguard sent vessels to a rescue boat funded by the British street artist after it issued urgent calls for assistance, saying it was stranded in the Mediterranean and overloaded with people.
Hundreds of people on board the MV Louise Michel were transferred to safety on to the Sea-Watch 4, while an Italian coastguard patrol boat took 49 of those considered most vulnerable on board, transferring them to the southern Italian island of Lampedusa
President condemns ‘attack on heart of our democracy’ during protest against Covid restrictions
German leaders have condemned the “unacceptable” attempt by protesters to storm the Reichstag building during a mass rally against coronavirus restrictions.
Some of the protesters on Saturday carried the former imperial flag, which was used up until the end of the first world war.
Continue reading...Demonstrations in Germany and UK against coronavirus restrictions; Australian opposition calls for wider care home inquiry; Turkey sees two-month high in cases. Follow all the developments live
AFP is reporting from Rome:
Three Nigerian migrants attacked staff in a military hospital in Rome after testing positive for Covid-19, the defence ministry said Saturday.
And in Victoria, Australia’s worst-affected state.
#COVID19VicData for 30 August, 2020. There were 114 new cases detected in Victoria yesterday. Sadly we report 11 lives lost - condolences to all affected. More information will be available later today via our media release. pic.twitter.com/4voh37S3oM
Continue reading...India records world’s highest single day rise; Latest Johns Hopkins figures show 842,702 people have died; Jacinda Ardern thanks Aucklanders
The coronavirus pandemic has shut down art exhibitions around the globe, but organisers of the RIBOCA2 biennial in Latvia have pushed ahead, reimagining the event to reflect challenging times.
To ensure social distancing, installations by nearly 70 international artists are showcased at the sprawling 20-hectare (50-acre) Soviet-era Andrejsala industrial port in Riga, long abandoned and given up to nature.
Hello, I’m taking over from Amy for the next few hours, as ever please don’t hesitate to share relevant tips and pointers with us, you can get me on Twitter @JedySays or via email.
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