Research suggests 5% commit another terrorism offence after leaving prison
Convicted terrorists are extremely unlikely to reoffend compared with other prisoners, research by academics and security services in Europe has found.
The research shows that less than 5% of convicted terrorists commit a second terrorist offence after leaving prison. In England and Wales, around 45% of all prisoners will reoffend within a year of release.
Continue reading...Infections in Saudi Arabia pass 20,000; Germany’s infection rate back at 1.0; Turkey delivers medical kit to the US
The United States accounts for about a third of all confirmed cases.
The global total stands at 3,083,467, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. The US has confirmed 1,002,498.
Related: Coronavirus map of the US: latest cases state by state
The US has reached the milestone of one million confirmed cases, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
The US death toll is now over 57,000 people.
Related: Three months and 50,000 deaths: the defining Covid-19 moments in the US – timeline
Continue reading...She-wolf in country’s north is pregnant, and newcomers from France or Italy spotted in south
Belgium is becoming “the wolf crossroads of Europe”, a conservation charity has said as it reported new sightings from France and Germany, while Flemish authorities separately announced the imminent arrival of wolf puppies.
Flanders’ environment minister, Zuhal Demir, announced that a pair of wolves in the north of the country were expecting cubs, four months after arrival in the area of a female wolf, Noëlla, who was billed as “a potential new love” for a previously lone wolf, August.
Continue reading...Hayden Prince, 24, fell to his death when large rock to which rope was tied became dislodged
A British man fell to his death in the Swiss Alps when a rock holding his abseiling rope toppled over as he descended a mountain, an inquest has heard.
L/Cpl Hayden Prince, 24, was on a private trip with two mountaineering friends while on annual leave from the British army. The group set out from the Hornli hut at the base camp of the Matterhorn at 6am on 2 June last year with a plan of turning around and descending by 2pm regardless of whether they had reached the summit.
Continue reading...Zdenêk Hřib says there is ‘risk to my life’ as magazine alleges he was poisoning target
The mayor of Prague has said he is under police protection from a “risk to my life”, with one Czech investigative outlet reporting he had been targeted in a Russian poisoning plot.
Zdeněk Hřib confirmed on Monday that police had placed him under protection several weeks ago after identifying a threat against him, but declined to say whether had been been targeted by Russia or reveal the nature of threat.
Continue reading...‘From Russia with love’ package including doctors and PPE criticised as propaganda to exploit cracks in EU
A Russian aid shipment sent to Italy in late March as Rome struggled to contain the coronavirus outbreak has raised questions about the Kremlin’s motives, amid cracks in EU solidarity.
Russia, which has cultivated good relations with Italy in recent years, was one of the first countries to come to the rescue during the early stages of Italy’s outbreak. It dispatched 122 military doctors, personal protective equipment (PPE), ventilators and mobile disinfection machines on cargo planes from Moscow.
Continue reading...Much garlanded novelist, playwright, poet and Oscar-winning screenwriter hailed as ‘a giant among European writers’
Swedish author Per Olov Enquist, described as “a giant among European writers” by his publisher, has died at the age of 85.
The author’s family told Swedish media that he died on Saturday night after a long illness. The much-celebrated novelist, playwright and poet, known by his initials PO, was winner of the Nordic Council’s literary prize and the Swedish Academy’s Nordic prize. His historical novel The Visit of the Royal Physician – set in the adulterous, backstabbing world of the 18th-century Danish courts, where the mad king Christian VII’s queen, the English princess Caroline Mathilde, falls in love with the court physician – won him the August prize, Sweden’s most prestigious literary award after the Nobel. It also made him the only Swedish author to take the Independent foreign fiction prize, the precursor to the International Booker, in 2001.
Continue reading...After 45 days at home, children in Spain up to the age of 13 are allowed to leave their homes for an hour a day. With around 220,000 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and more than 20,000 reported deaths the country has one of the strictest lockdowns in Europe
Continue reading...Plane maker’s staff told it needs to take immediate action to survive coronavirus lockdown
Airbus has warned its 135,000 employees that it may not survive the coronavirus lockdown unless it takes immediate action that may involve deeper job cuts.
Its chief executive, Guillaume Faury, told staff in a letter on Friday that the plane maker was “bleeding cash at an unprecedented speed”, and was considering all options as it waited to see how badly demand would be affected by the Covid-19 outbreak.
Continue reading...No new patients in city at centre of pandemic but fears over new infections persist
The Chinese city of Wuhan, where the coronavirus pandemic began, has discharged all of its coronavirus patients, as the nation reported only three new cases and no new deaths.
According to the National Health Commission, as of Sunday the number of new coronavirus patients in Wuhan was at zero. “Thanks to the joint efforts of Wuhan and medical staff from around the country,” said a spokesman for the commission, Mi Feng.
Continue reading...Packed pools, beaches and tour buses will not return immediately as country plans for scaled back 2020 season
Packed pools, beaches and tour buses, as well as middle seats on planes, hotel minibars and scrums at airport check-ins, may all be a thing of the past as Europe’s tourism industry attempts to reimagine the holiday in the wake of the coronavirus.
Travel will take place only under “specific new rules”, Greece’s tourism minister has said as he prepares to propose ways of salvaging the sector with his EU counterparts in the era of Covid-19 on Monday.
Continue reading...Dozens of protesters were arrested in Berlin on Saturday for flouting lockdown rules and staging a demonstration against lockdown measures.
About 200 people were involved in the protest, which was shut down by German police. Demonstrators said lockdown measures are an infringement of their constitutional rights
Germany’s leading coronavirus expert Christian Drosten on Merkel’s leadership, the UK response and the ‘prevention paradox’
Christian Drosten, who directs the Institute of Virology at the Charité Hospital in Berlin, was one of those who identified the Sars virus in 2003. As the head of the German public health institute’s reference lab on coronaviruses, he has become the government’s go-to expert on the related virus causing the current pandemic.
In an exclusive interview, Drosten admits he fears a second deadly wave of the virus. He explains why Angela Merkel has an advantage over other world leaders – and why the “prevention paradox” keeps him awake at night.
Continue reading...Trans people fear more discrimination as Orbán pushes through law defining gender based on ‘sex at birth’
Hungary’s rightwing government looks likely to push through legislation that will end the legal recognition of trans people by defining gender as “biological sex based on primary sex characteristics and chromosomes” and thus making it impossible for people to legally change their gender.
Trans people and rights activists say the law, which has been introduced into parliament as attention is focused on the coronavirus pandemic, will increase discrimination and intolerance towards trans people. Many will try to leave the country, while those who do not have that chance will face daily humiliations.
Continue reading...UK will need extension to agree Brexit deal as pandemic derails talks
Boris Johnson must extend the UK’s transition out of the EU for up to two years to avoid compounding the economic damage of the coronavirus pandemic with a hugely disruptive and disorderly Brexit, according to a close ally of Angela Merkel.
In an interview with the Observer, Norbert Röttgen, chair of the Bundestag’s foreign affairs committee, said it was now impossible to see how the UK and other EU countries could agree even a minimal outline free trade agreement this year because the talks were so behind schedule.
Continue reading...As WHO warns no evidence exists to suggest people can’t catch Covid-19 twice, India, Belgium and Greece among latest countries to ease lockdowns
The global toll from Covid-19 passed 200,000 on Saturday, with over 2.8 million people infected, as the WHO warned against issuing “immunity passports” because there is no evidence people who recovered from the disease are protected against a second infection.
It took more than three months after the coronavirus first emerged for deaths from the disease to pass 100,000, a grim milestone that was reached on 10 April. It took just over two weeks for that toll to double, and worldwide the number of confirmed infections is creeping towards 3 million.
Continue reading...Neighbourhood of Les Parcs de Saint Tropez reportedly screened as local hospital staff do without
On the sunny Côte d’Azur, playground of the rich and famous, lockdown life in Les Parcs de Saint Tropez is good.
The Mediterranean – accessed via a private beach – is a little cool this time of year, but the luxury mansions and château here on the Cap Saint Pierre have swimming pools and if the temperature drops below 70F, as it did briefly this week, there is always the tennis courts or vast landscaped gardens.
Continue reading...EU negotiator expresses frustrations at UK refusal to discuss key issues of transition
Michel Barnier has suggested the UK is running down the clock in talks over the future trade and security relationship with the EU.
The claim by the bloc’s chief negotiator during a virtual press conference at the end of a difficult week of videoconference talks was swiftly denied by the government.
Continue reading...Belgium appears hardest hit on paper, but not all countries count non-hospital fatalities
Every day, the statistics bring more grim headlines: “Italian death toll passes 20,000”, “Record UK daily death toll”, “Europe’s fatalities pass 100,000”. Across the world, people await national updates on the coronavirus – and compare their country with others.
The comparison game has been especially marked in Belgium, which on paper has the unhappy title of highest number of Covid-19 deaths per capita in Europe. Belgium – population 11.5 million – has counted at least 6,675 deaths since the start of the outbreak, more than Germany, which is nearly eight times more populous.
Continue reading...Jean-Marc Caimi and Valentina Piccinni investigated how Italian teenagers were coping with the coronavirus lockdown, working with them to take pictures using video chat apps
Some can’t wait to go out again, others don’t really want to, happy to stay home connected to the outside world only through their computer. Some are worried about the virus and others, instead, are more concerned about the climate crisis.
To give an answer to this important question, we adopted the same means teenagers use to study and communicate within their community. Zoom, Skype, WhatsApp … these video chats were our eyes to take the pictures, remotely.
Teens (and their parents) allowed us to take snapshots using the camera of their computers, tablets or mobile phones, at home, in their bedroom or where they are spending the quarantine, while they study, read, chat, play music, watch TV or exercise.
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