Luxembourg to take in 11 minors after member states and Switzerland pledge to find homes for 1,600
Eleven children trapped on Greek islands will be flown to Luxembourg next week, the first of a European Union migrant relocation scheme that highlights the uncertain fate of thousands.
The group will leave Chios and Lesbos for Luxembourg as part of an EU voluntary effort to help the most vulnerable quit Greece’s desperately overcrowded refugee and migrant island camps.
Continue reading...As several countries relax immigration rules for medically-trained refugees and migrants in the wake of coronavirus, campaigners are calling for Britain to follow suit
Campaigners have welcomed the relaxation of immigration restrictions by governments across Europe and the Americas to allow doctors, nurses and other key workers from refugee and migrant communities to join efforts against coronavirus.
And they urged countries still preventing medically-trained asylum seekers from working – including Britain – to follow suit
Continue reading...With 400 public health offices forging ahead with testing, the country is a model for others to emulate
As the coronavirus crisis tests the resilience of democracies around the globe, Germany has gone from cursing its lead-footed, decentralised political system to wondering if federalism’s tortoise versus hare logic puts it in a better position to brave the pandemic than most.
Under German federalism – which has roots going back to the Holy Roman Empire but was entrenched after the Nazi era to weaken centralised rule – key policy areas, such as health, education and cultural affairs, fall under the jurisdiction of the country’s 16 states, or Länder.
Continue reading...Spain, Germany and UK among countries to says measures could stay in place as deaths in Italy push past 15,000
Officials from Germany to Spain said they expect the stringent lockdown conditions to stretch for weeks longer as Italy saw its deaths from the coronavirus pandemic push past 15,000 and infections in the United States neared 300,000.
The virus has claimed 15,362 lives in Italy, officials said on Saturday, while the total number of confirmed cases in the country rose to 124,632.
Continue reading...Growers from Ireland to Spain says coronavirus lockdown has stopped migrant workers from arriving
At this time of year John Greene is usually preparing to welcome dozens of Slovakian strawberry pickers for another harvest at his farm in County Wexford in south-east Ireland.
The work is arduous and repetitive and he relies on their experience and stamina to get the fruit picked, packed and sold.
Continue reading...Germany was quick to see the threat while South Korea took an aggressive approach
Countries have approached coronavirus testing in different ways, and in some places there was far earlier recognition than in the UK of the need to develop tests and kits and to have sufficient numbers stockpiled. Here is how some countries got ahead of the curve.
Continue reading...Men were part of hooligan skinhead scene in country’s former communist east
Eight members of a German neo-Nazi cell have been jailed after a court found them guilty of forming a “terrorist organisation” that was planning a campaign of violence.
The higher regional court in Dresden sentenced the accused, aged between 22 and 32, to prison terms ranging from two years and three months to five and a half years for the ringleader of the group that called itself “Revolution Chemnitz”.
Continue reading...Man suspected of loosening rail bolts on bridge between Cologne and Frankfurt
A German man has been arrested on suspicion of having loosened the bolts on a high-speed train track between Cologne and Frankfurt.
The man, described by Frankfurt’s state prosecutor as being “without fixed abode”, was arrested near Cologne on Friday night after police found specialist equipment for loosening track bolts in his car.
Investigators reportedly tracked down the 51-year-old after a confession letter referring to the location of the attempted sabotage was sent to several politicians, including the chancellor, Angela Merkel.
According to Der Spiegel, the suspect was only recently released from prison in Nuremberg, where he had served a sentence for attempted blackmail.
German police had reported a “possible attack attempt” earlier on Friday after the driver of a high-speed Intercity Express train noticed something unusual in the early hours while crossing Theisstalbrücke bridge near Niedernhausen, just outside Frankfurt.
Several trains had already passed over the damaged track before the tampering was uncovered, police said. If the loosened rails had not been reported early, one of the trains could have derailed off the 50m-high bridge, German media reported, citing investigators.
The general prosecutor in Frankfurt would not comment on a motive for the attempted attack while investigations were ongoing.
People in the Bavarian town of Bamberg stood on their rooftops and opened their windows to sing Bella Ciao, an Italian resistance song, in solidarity with Italy where the death toll from the Covid-19 outbreak continues to rise
Continue reading...Walls have been raised and societies quarantined as people enter a new reality
It should not have come as a surprise. Life had already been upended in China. Iran and Italy have been reeling for a month. And yet it still felt sudden, this week, when walls were raised across the world, entire societies were quarantined and billions of people realised they had crossed a dividing line: from life before coronavirus to after.
After weeks of governments prevaricating over whether to ban mass gatherings, close businesses or seal borders, restrictions came in a flurry. “We are at war,” announced the French president, Emmanuel Macron. But without adequate weapons to fight the virus, let alone enough hospital beds or ventilators, this was the week the world beat a tactical retreat.
Continue reading...First case of its kind sheds light on complex fraud known as cum-ex trading
Two former London bankers were handed suspended jail terms and one a €14m fine for tax fraud in a landmark trial that is likely to unleash dozens of similar cases across Germany.
The ruling is the first criminal conviction for what the judge, Roland Zickler, called “a collective case of thievery from state coffers”.
Continue reading...Raids on properties linked to Reichsbürger movement follow Hanau terror attack
German police have raided properties in 10 states across Germany and arrested members of a far-right group after it was banned by the government.
The United German Peoples and Tribes organisation belongs to the broader Reichsbürger or Citizens of the Reich movement, which rejects the authority of the modern German state and is driven by conspiracy theories. It is armed and considered extremely dangerous, the police said.
Continue reading...Bank now realises Europe will sustain grievous economic damage from Covid-19
Weak. Clumsy. Behind the curve. The European Central Bank took stick for its initial response to the Covid-19 pandemic – and rightly so.
Those accusations can no longer be levied after the ECB used an emergency meeting to launch a gigantic new package of quantitative easing (QE) – the electronic money creation device that has become a key tool for central banks since the financial crisis of 2008.
Continue reading...The AfD are using the climate crisis strategically to distance themselves from the established parties
A dead bird of prey lying in the grass near a windfarm is the stark image on the home page of a new German website. “Climate change – we have got a couple of questions” is the headline that greets visitors, but the questioners already seem to know the answers to their 16 questions. “Due to an alleged climate emergency, new laws are to be passed prescribing a new way of life for us, one that will have adverse environmental effects and could lead to the deindustrialisation of Germany.”
Klimafragen.org is the latest attempt to question the scientific and social consensus around the climate crisis in Germany. The authors, all from well-known climate-denier institutions and conservative political circles, list areas where they say Germany’s climate policy still has blindspots, notably over climate models, sea levels, energy conversion and counter-opinions. Parliamentary groups in the Bundestag, they argue, should provide answers to their questions, although some are based on outdated findings. According to the organisers, about 33,500 people have signed up, seeking answers.
Continue reading...Border issue and other matters discussed in conference call with Germany, France and UK
Turkey has pressed European leaders to make fresh cash pledges to prevent tens of thousands of refugees from leaving the country and trying to reach Europe amid a Russian-Syrian offensive in north-west Syria.
After intense bombardment in Idlib province last month, Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, encouraged thousands of refugees in the country to move on towards the Greek islands and the Baltics, in a repeat of the surge to Europe in 2015.
Continue reading...A summary of the biggest developments in the global coronavirus outbreak
Key developments in the global coronavirus outbreak today include:
Continue reading...The dance community helped reunify East and West Germany in the 1990s, but gentrification is slowly killing it
I was in bed when my friend Alfonso called me. “It’s the last party at Griessmuehle,” he said. “It’s the last Cocktail there. Throw on some clothes. We’re going.”
Cocktail d’Amore is one of a handful of landmark Berlin parties that have made the German capital a centre of LGBTQ+ youth culture over the past two decades. It took place in a venue called Griessmuehle, an old East German grain mill that people enjoyed because one moment you might be kissing on shower tiles, the next dancing in a silo. Sadly, it is to be demolished this spring to make space for a resort hotel. It certainly wasn’t an architectural jewel like the Berlin Philharmonic concert hall or Museum Island – but clubs, along with cheap studio space and vibrant subcultures, are what made Berlin the city so many love today.
Continue reading...Agency chief says far-right terrorism and extremism are biggest danger to democracy
The chief of Germany’s domestic intelligence agency (BfV) has described far-right terrorism and extremism as the biggest danger facing democracy in Germany, as his agency put part of the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) under formal surveillance.
The most radical rightwingers in the country number 32,000, said Thomas Haldenwang, adding that 13,000 are considered potentially violent.
Continue reading...The most popular symbol of the radical left in Germany is an avowed anti-capitalist and a firm believer in collective property. He takes down neo-Nazis with the same bouncy energy as he tackles property speculators.
Books expounding his views, running at several volumes, top the German bestseller charts; posters bearing his face are currently plastered all over the country’s cities.
Continue reading...Government says it will support Greece as thousands of people arrive at Turkish border
The German government – anxious about the political consequences of a “repeat of 2015” – is tolerating Greece’s decision to suspend asylum claims at its borders and has launched a social media campaign to deter Syrian refugees from embarking on a journey to central Europe.
About 12,500 people are estimated to be waiting on the Turkish side of the Greek border after the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said on Saturday that he would open his country’s borders for refugees fleeing the nine-year war in Syria to cross over into Europe.
Continue reading...