Open Technology Fund, which helped activists evade state surveillance and sidestep web censorship, sees $20m grant pulled
The Trump administration has stopped vital technical assistance to pro-democracy groups in Belarus, Hong Kong and Iran, which had helped activists evade state surveillance and sidestep internet censorship.
Related: Trump memo on Comey firing was 'tinfoil helmet material', Mueller prosecutor says
Continue reading...Student says she was punched in face in Strasbourg by three men who said ‘look at that whore’
French police have opened an investigation after a young woman said she was attacked by three men and beaten in public for wearing a skirt.
The government denounced the “very serious” incident as unacceptable, which came amid growing anger in France at physical and verbal abuse towards women over their dress in public.
Continue reading...Bank accounts also frozen as part of lawsuit filed by catering firm, his spokeswoman says
Alexei Navalny’s bank accounts were frozen and his Moscow apartment seized as part of a lawsuit while the Russian opposition politician was recovering from a suspected poisoning in a Berlin hospital, his spokeswoman has said.
His assets were seized on 27 August in connection with a lawsuit filed by the Moscow Schoolchild catering company, Kira Yarmysh said in a video posted on Twitter on Thursday. The politician and his allies have been involved in a long-running dispute with the company.
Continue reading...Media criticise PM’s Covid strategy, as UK adopts job support scheme similar to Germany’s own
The UK followed in the footsteps of the German government by adopting a jobs support scheme on Thursday. The announcement came as German commentators spoke of their confusion at the zig-zag approach to tackling the coronavirus, describing a nation caught up in feelings of panic, disbelief and disillusionment.
“Military intervention to control coronavirus rules a possibility,” ran one banner headline in the business daily Handelsblatt this week, while an editorial in the Süddeutsche Zeitung was titled: “Johnson’s skittishness endangers his country.”
Continue reading...Sniffer dogs have started to be deployed at Helsinki airport to detect Covid-19 among travellers, in a state-funded trial that it is hoped will provide a cheap, fast and effective alternative method of testing people for the virus.
A dog is capable of detecting the presence of the coronavirus within 10 seconds and the entire process takes less than a minute to complete, according to Anna Hielm-Björkman, of the University of Helsinki, who is overseeing the trial
Continue reading...Pushback comes after PM’s suggestion UK’s Covid-19 infection rate was worse than Italy because Britons loved their freedom more
Italy’s president, Sergio Mattarella, said its citizens “also love freedom, but we also care about seriousness”, responding to Boris Johnson’s suggestion that the UK’s rate of coronavirus infection was worse than both Italy and Germany’s because Britons loved their freedom more.
Mattarella’s comments came at the end of a ceremony in Sardinia, in memory of the former Italian president Francesco Cossiga.
Continue reading...Three orcas rammed a boat off the coast of Spain.
The incident lasted 45 minutes, during which the animals bit off part of the the sailing boat's rudder as the crew had to travel to a port in Galicia to check for further damage.
A number of incidents involving orcas and sailing boats have been reported near Spanish and Portuguese coasts, but the reasons behind the behaviour are still not clear
Continue reading...Rapper Famke Louise joined by Bizzy and others refusing to follow government advice
They are young, famous and refusing to abide by the coronavirus restrictions. A group of Dutch celebrities have triggered both a sizeable backlash and a national debate after breaking cover on social media with the hashtag #ikdoenietmeermee, (I no longer participate).
The central figure is the rapper and model Famke Louise, 21, who told her 1 million Instagram followers she was no longer willing to go along with the growing number of restrictions designed to slow the spread of the virus. “Only together can we regain control of the government,” she said. “I no longer participate. Free the people.”
Continue reading...Water cannon and stun grenades used by riot squad after opposition denounce president’s secret ceremony as illegitimate
Riot police clashed with protesters in Minsk on Wednesday evening, using water cannon and stun grenades, hours after the inauguration of Alexander Lukashenko for another term as president.
Several thousand protesters, many carrying the red-and white opposition flag, took to the streets of the capital Minsk and other cities following a surprise announcement that Lukashenko had been sworn in for a sixth term in office following disputed elections in August.
Continue reading...Story of one Berlin travel agent illustrates how the Kurzarbeit scheme has kept businesses afloat
Without Germany’s furlough scheme, called Kurzarbeit (“short work”), Wulf Scheunert’s travel agency BITS would by now be “in freefall”, as he puts it.
Related: Rishi Sunak could do worse than copy Germany
Continue reading...One Dutch MEP compared the plans to the far right while Von der Leyen’s party called them ‘a good starting point’
The EU home affairs commissioner, Ylva Johansson, hopes migration will become just another “normal policy area”, even “boring”.
Since more than 1 million refugees arrived in Europe in 2015, migration has been neither “boring” nor easy for the bloc. Leaders have flung accusations at each other, exposing painful divisions. In 2015, Italy’s then prime minister told his fellow leaders they were “time wasters”, who didn’t deserve to call themselves Europeans. Central European countries accused their neighbours of trying to “blackmail” them.
Continue reading...Yachts less than 15 metres told to avoid area near coast of Galicia after series of incidents
Small yachts have been ordered to steer clear of a stretch of water off the north-west coast of Spain after at least three boats were damaged by a gang of boisterous orcas.
On Tuesday, Spain’s transport ministry said yachts of less than 15 metres in length would be banned from sailing close to the coast between Cape Prioriño Grande and Estaca de Bares point in Galicia for a week.
Continue reading...Tighter measures are being imposed, but they vary across the continent
Continue reading...Countries would be offered €10,000 an adult to take people in under ‘solidarity à la carte’ plan
The European commission is abandoning the idea of mandatory refugee quotas, as it revives an attempt to change Europe’s asylum and migration rules after more than four years of deadlock.
The long-awaited migration proposals, delayed by the coronavirus pandemic, would allow EU member states to choose whether to accept refugees, or take charge of returning those denied asylum to their home countries.
Continue reading...Doctors say Russian opposition leader could make full recovery from exposure to suspected novichok
Alexei Navalny has been discharged from Berlin’s Charité hospital after spending 32 days as an inpatient, following what German authorities say was poisoning with a novichok nerve agent and with doctors suggesting he could make a full recovery.
The hospital said in a statement on Wednesday morning that the Russian opposition politician’s condition had “improved sufficiently for him to be discharged from acute inpatient care”, and added that he had left on Tuesday.
Continue reading...The leader of a cult who claims to be a reincarnation of Jesus was arrested in Russia in a special operation.
Armed officers stormed communities in the depths of Siberia that have been run by Sergei Torop, known to his followers as Vissarion, for the past three decades, with masked troops leading the 59-year-old to a helicopter.
Russia’s investigative committee said it would charge him with organising an illegal religious organisation, alleging that the cult extorted money from followers and subjected them to emotional abuse
Keith Schembri is under investigation for money laundering linked to sales of passports to rich foreigners
Police in Malta have arrested Keith Schembri, the former prime minister Joseph Muscat’s chief of staff, as part of an investigation into alleged kickbacks connected to the sale of Maltese passports.
Schembri was arrested just after midnight on Tuesday, hours after a court issued a wide-ranging order for all his assets and those of his family and companies to be frozen. Being questioned alongside Schembri is the high profile Maltese accountant Brian Tonna, and one of his associates, who are also subject to the same freezing order. All three men deny wrongdoing.
Continue reading...Former traffic officer Sergei Torop, AKA Vissarion, arrested in special operation in Siberia
Russian authorities have mounted a special operation to arrest a former traffic police officer who claims to be the reincarnation of Jesus and has run a cult based in the depths of Siberia for the past three decades.
Helicopters and armed officers stormed communities run by Sergei Torop, known to his followers as Vissarion, and arrested the leader and two of his aides. Russia’s investigative committee said it would charge him with organising an illegal religious organisation, alleging that the cult extorted money from followers and subjected them to emotional abuse.
Continue reading...Announcement comes as Covid deaths increased by 27% in Europe week on week
The weekly number of new recorded coronavirus infections worldwide was last week at its highest level to date, the World Health Organization has announced, as deaths from Covid-19 in Europe increased by more than a quarter week on week.
Almost 1 million people have now died from the coronavirus since it emerged in China at the beginning of the year.
Continue reading...Ex-PM says internal market bill could lead to a united Ireland and undermine trust in UK
Theresa May has launched a blistering attack on the government’s plan to give itself powers to renege on the special arrangements for Northern Ireland in the Brexit deal.
She described the plans as “reckless” and “irresponsible” and said they “risked the integrity of the United Kingdom”, as they would not only tarnish Britain’s reputation globally as an upholder of the law but could contribute to a reunited Ireland.
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