Category Archives: Europe

Coronavirus live news: US records highest daily deaths since April; Obama, Bush and Clinton offer to get vaccines on TV

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French ex-president Valéry Giscard d’Estaing has died of Covid-related complications; US suffers highest daily deaths since April; Former US presidents hope to inspire public confidence in vaccine

Hi there - this is Archie Bland picking up the global coronavirus liveblog, and beginning in Russia, where 28,145 new cases, a record high, and 554 deaths have been recorded in the last 24 hours.

Those figures compare with 25,345 new cases and 589 deaths, the latter figure also a record, the previous day.

Hundreds of thousands of masked students in South Korea, including 35 confirmed Covid-19 patients, took the highly competitive university entrance exam today despite the viral resurgence that has forced authorities to toughen social distancing rules.

About 493,430 students were taking the one-day exam at about 1,380 sites across the nation, including hospitals and other medical facilities where the 35 virus patients and hundreds of other test-takers in self-quarantine sat separately from others, according to the education ministry.

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Coronavirus live news: Global death toll passes 1.5m

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World passes grim tally with a death reported every nine seconds on average; Italy registers 993 new deaths and 23,255 new cases; Iran goes past 1m cases

More than 1.5 million people have lost their lives due to Covid-19 with one death reported every nine seconds on a weekly average, as vaccinations are set to begin in December in a handful of developed nations.

Reuters reports that half a million deaths occurred in just the last two months, indicating that the severity of the pandemic is far from over. Nearly 65 million people globally have been infected by the disease and the worst affected country, United States, is currently battling a third wave of coronavirus infections.

I actually believe they’re going to be the most difficult time in the public health history of this nation.

A partial lockdown will begin this weekend in the Gaza Strip after Covid-19 infections surged in the densely populated territory, Gaza’s interior ministry declared on Thursday.

Mosques, schools, universities and kindergartens - excluding high schools and nurseries - will be closed during the day, although many businesses will be allowed to remain open until a night-time curfew from 6pm to 8am forces Gazans to stay at home. There will be a full closure at weekends.

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Brexit: UK has lowered demands on fish catches, says EU

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Significant gap remains as two sides enter crucial 48 hours of talks

Boris Johnson has lowered his Brexit demands by asking EU fishing fleets to hand over up to 60% of the value of stocks it takes from British waters, but the gap with Brussels remains wide, Michel Barnier has said ahead of what he described as a crucial 36 hours.

In briefings to EU ambassadors and MEPs in Brussels, the bloc’s chief negotiator said Downing Street had revised its demand down from 80%, but that it was unclear whether the divide could be bridged in the time remaining, prompting member states to caution against rushing into a deal.

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

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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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Hungary’s rightwing rulers downplay MEP ‘gay orgy’ scandal amid hypocrisy accusations

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József Szájer has boasted of rewriting constitution to define marriage as heterosexual institution

Hungary’s rightwing ruling party has tried to brush off accusations of hypocrisy over a “gay orgy” scandal in Brussels, involving one of its inner circle, the MEP József Szájer.

The prime minister, Viktor Orbán, and his ruling Fidesz party have enacted a range of legislation over the past decade infringing on LGBT rights, and Szájer himself boasted of personally rewriting Hungary’s constitution to define marriage as a heterosexual institution in 2011.

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France: teargas grenade that killed woman ‘may have been fired directly at her flat’

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Zineb Redouane, 80, was closing her shutters during gilets jaunes protest when she was fatally injured

A report into the death of an 80-year-old woman hit by a teargas grenade during a gilets jaunes demonstration in 2018 has suggested the police officer fired directly at her apartment.

Zineb Redouane was closing the shutters of her fourth floor flat in central Marseille when she was struck by the canister. Ballistic experts say it would have been travelling at more than 97 km/h when it smashed into her chest and face, causing devastating injuries.

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Coronavirus live news: CDC suggests first vaccines to US healthcare workers; England enters tier system

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US hospitalisations surge; New tier system replaces lockdown; BioNTech/Pfizer and Moderna file for EU approval of Covid-19 vaccine

The national accounts, released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics just now, shows that rise in seasonally adjusted chain volume measures, after a 7% fall in the June quarter.

In the US, a government panel on Tuesday formally recommended early doses of Covid-19 vaccines be given first to healthcare workers and long-term care facility residents in the US, generally seen as people who live in nursing homes and assisted living facilities.

Together, that group would represent roughly 23 million Americans, disproportionately including women, people of color and low-wage workers who makeup the healthcare labor force.

Related: CDC panel recommends giving Covid-19 vaccines to healthcare workers first

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Coronavirus live news: WHO says vaccines won’t prevent short-term surge; Putin orders start of mass inoculation

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Health body says there won’t be enough doses to prevent new wave in cases in next six months; Russian president says programme should start next week

Morocco hopes to launch an ambitious vaccination campaign against the coronavirus by year-end, but its efforts have sparked suspicion and rumours in the country, hard-hit by the pandemic.

The North African kingdom is hoping to immunise 20 million adults against Covid-19 within three months, using vaccinations from China’s Sinopharm and a UK-sourced shot developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University.

Boris Johnson might be persuaded to take a Covid-19 vaccination on television to show it is safe but he would not have one before those in greater need, his press secretary has said.

Johnson, 56, who spent time in intensive care earlier this year after contracting Covid-19, has hailed the UK approval of Pfizer’s vaccine as a global win and ray of hope.

I don’t think it would be something he would rule out.

But I think we also know that he wouldn’t want to take a jab that should be for someone who is extremely vulnerable, clinically vulnerable, and who should be getting it before him.

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Swedish-Iranian scientist faces ‘imminent risk of execution’ in Iran

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Ahmadreza Djalali had been sentenced to death on espionage charges

A Swedish-Iranian scientist sentenced to death in Iran on espionage charges may face execution as early as Wednesday, human rights groups and his wife have warned.

Ahmadreza Djalali was due to be taken from Evin prison to Rajai Shahr prison on Tuesday, a normal preliminary to an execution. Death sentences in Iran are often carried out on Wednesdays.

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Trier mayor says he is ‘speechless’ after car drives into pedestrians in German city – video

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A car drove at high speed into a pedestrian zone in the south-western German city of Trier on Tuesday, killing four people, including a baby, and seriously injuring 15, officials said. The driver, identified as a 51-year-old German man from the area, was arrested at the scene. 'We see these pictures again and again on television, and we always think that this cannot happen in Trier,' the mayor, Wolfram Leibe, said after visiting the site. 'I'm speechless'

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Right-wing Hungarian MEP resigns for attending ‘sex party’ that broke Belgian lockdown

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Politician in Viktor Orbán’s party apologises as Belgian police arrest 25 men over gathering

A Hungarian MEP in Viktor Orbán’s rightwing party, spotted fleeing along a gutter to escape police raiding a “sex party” above a Brussels bar, has apologised for breaching Belgium’s lockdown rules.

József Szájer, a senior member of the Fidesz party who helped write Hungary’s constitution in 2011, was one of about 20 people, mainly men and including at least two EU diplomats, who attended a party held near the Grand Place in the Belgian capital’s historical centre on Friday evening.

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Swedish police arrest woman suspected of confining son for decades

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Woman, whose adult son is being treated in hospital, held on suspicion of illegal detention and grievous bodily harm

Stockholm police have arrested a woman suspected of keeping her 41-year-old son confined to their flat for almost three decades, police and local media have said.

Emma Olsson, a public prosecutor in charge of the preliminary investigation, said the 70-year-old woman, who denies any wrongdoing, was being held on suspicion of illegal detention and causing grievous bodily harm.

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Russian man confesses to killing more than 25 women, investigators say

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Radik Tagirov, 38, is said to have confessed to murders after being identified using DNA evidence and shoe prints

Russian investigators claim to have caught the man responsible for more than 25 murders attributed to a perpetrator known for years only as the “Volga maniac”.

Russia’s Investigative Committee said that the suspect, a 38-year-old man named Radik Tagirov, confessed to a string of 26 murders of elderly women that had terrorised central Russia between 2011 and 2012. He had been identified using DNA evidence, shoe prints, and other evidence from crime scenes, investigators said.

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France and New Zealand join Australia’s criticism of Chinese government tweet

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Former diplomat urges more countries to stand against ‘coercion’ from Beijing, as Chinese state media says Australia is ‘treating China’s goodwill with evil’

France and New Zealand have joined Australia in criticising the Chinese government for its inflammatory tweet about Australian soldiers, as a former senior diplomat called for more countries to take a stand against Beijing’s “coercion”.

The tensions between China and Australia showed no sign of abating on Tuesday, with the Chinese embassy in Canberra accusing the Morrison government of overreacting to the social media post and of stoking the issue for domestic political purposes.

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Coronavirus live news: US may begin vaccinations before Christmas; Vietnam sees first case in three months

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WHO ‘will do everything’ to find Covid origin; Mexico and Brazil seeing ‘alarming’ case surge; Scott Atlas resigns as special adviser to Trump on coronavirus

Russia has reported a record 569 deaths linked to Covid-19 today, bringing the official death toll to 40,464.

Authorities also reported 26,402 new coronavirus infections in the last 24 hours, including 6,524 in the capital Moscow, bringing the national cumulative tally to 2,322,056.

Thanks to regular reader Scott Lafferty, who has been in touch to remind us that the Netherlands has today finally made face masks mandatory in indoor public spaces.

Face masks will be compulsory in all public buildings, shops, and stations from tomorrow as the coronavirus law comes into effect, and people who refuse to wear one face a fine of €95, reports Dutch News.

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‘Covid created an opportunity’: Lisbon turns 20,000 tourist flats into homes

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Initiative offers landlords the option of renting their properties to the city for a minimum of five years

For centuries, the maze of narrow, cobbled streets that make up Lisbon’s Alfama neighbourhood has told the story of the city’s past. But in recent years, as trendy cafes and tourist flats proliferated, the historic quarter began telling a worrying tale of the city’s future.

A rapid transformation had rippled across the city centre as Airbnb-style tourist rentals swelled to a third of the properties. As locals found themselves priced out and communities began hollowing out, many began grumbling about the aftershocks of terramotourism – a tourism earthquake.

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Europeans urged to quickly set out roadmap on Iran nuclear deal

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Diplomats call on UK, France and Germany to map out task facing incoming Biden administration

France, Germany and the UK must move quickly to set out a roadmap for Iran and the incoming Biden administration in the US to come back into compliance with the nuclear deal, some of Europe’s leading diplomats have said.

They warn that unless the three countries, known as the E3, coordinate a joint public statement setting out what both sides must do to end the impasse, there is a real risk that Joe Biden will come to power facing only escalating tensions with Iran.

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German police investigate after giant phallic ‘monument’ vanishes

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Only sawdust remains at site of Bavarian mystery statue that has gained celebrity status among alpine hikers

German police have opened an investigation into the disappearance of a large wooden sculpture of a phallus from a mountainside where it appeared without explanation several years ago.

The two-metre-tall (7ft) sculpture appeared to have been chopped down over the weekend, local newspaper Allgaeuer Zeitung reported on Monday, leaving behind only a pile of sawdust on the 1,738m-high (5,702ft) Grünten mountain, in southern Bavaria, 140km south-west of Munich.

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Four French police charged over beating of black music producer

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Alleged unprovoked attack on Michel Zecler, who also alleges racial abuse, was caught on film

Four French police officers have been charged in connection with the beating of a black music producer exposed by a video as Emmanuel Macron sought to contain the political fallout from a case that has scandalised the country.

Footage last week showed police punching, kicking and using a truncheon on Michel Zecler, who alleged that they also racially abused him several times. Before the video came to light, the officers had accused Zecler, 41, of resisting arrest and attacking them.

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EU will not fall into Brexit ‘negotiating trap’, UK told

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Irish foreign minister also calls for avoidance of blame game as ‘truth of Brexit’ becomes clear

Senior Irish and French and ministers have warned that the EU is not going to fall into a Brexit “negotiating trap” being laid by the UK as both sides entered into what the British foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, has described as “the last week or so” of substantive talks.

Simon Coveney, who has had a leading role in the first phase of negotiations over the Irish border, said at the same time both sides must avoid engaging in a blame game as the “truth of Brexit” and its subsequent challenges become clear.

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