Britain’s prime minister announced a fresh round of lockdowns Monday, closing schools and nonessential shops, as the country begins vaccinating health care workers and the elderly.Prime Minister Boris Johnson said people must stay at home until at least mid-February, noting that British hospitals are under more strain now than they have been at any point during the pandemic.“If the rollout of the vaccine program continues to be successful. If deaths start to fall as the vaccine takes effect. And critically, if everyone plays their part by following the rules, then I hope we can steadily move out of lockdown,” Johnson said in a televised address Monday.Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson visits Chase Farm Hospital in north London, Jan. 4, 2021, part of the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust.The announcement comes days after British health officials confirmed a variant of the coronavirus that doctors say is far more contagious than the original.New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said Monday that a case of the same variant had been confirmed in an older New York state resident who had not traveled recently.NEW: The Wadsworth Lab has confirmed New York State’s first case of the U.K. variant (B.1.1.7) of the virus that causes COVID.An individual from Saratoga County, New York, tested positive for the strain. The individual had no known travel history.— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) Brian Pinker, 82, receives the Oxford University/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine from nurse Sam Foster at the Churchill Hospital in Oxford, England, Jan. 4, 2021.British officials say half a million doses of the vaccine are ready for use.The AstraZeneca vaccine is cheaper and more easily transported than the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine because it does not need to be kept at extremely cold temperatures. The Pfizer shot has already been administered to many health care professionals in Britain and the United States.France, which is administering the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, pledged Monday to increase the speed at which it is inoculating its health care workers after facing criticism from the public.FILE – A man applies finishing touches to graffiti representing a vaccine, amidst the spread of coronavirus disease, in Kolkata, India, Jan. 2, 2021.In Russia, Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said that more than 800,000 people had received the domestically produced Sputnik V vaccine and that 1.5 million doses had been distributed throughout the country of 147 million.The Kremlin is pinning its hopes on mass vaccinations, not nationwide restrictions, to stop the spread of the virus and save its struggling economy from the hit of another lockdown.The coronavirus has killed more than 1.8 million people globally since emerging in China in December 2019, according to Johns Hopkins.Experts fear the worst is yet to come, predicting a sharp rise in cases and deaths after weeks of holiday gatherings.VOA’s Fern Robinson contributed to this report.
 
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A British judge has ruled that Julian Assange, the founder of the whistleblowing website Wikileaks, cannot be extradited to the United States to answer charges of hacking and theft of classified material because of the risk he could commit suicide in U.S. detention. Henry Ridgwell reports from London.Camera: Henry Ridgwell
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European weather forecasters say about 2 meters (over 6 feet) of snow fell early Monday in parts of northern Italy’s alpine region, blocking roads and burying cars and houses in some areas.From its Twitter account, the Alpine-Adriatic Meteorological Society posted video from Italy’s northeastern area of Comelico, near the border with Austria. Snow blocked the entrances to homes and buildings, with more snow falling in the small village of Sappada, in the region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia.Italian firefighters said they carried out more than 100 operations to clear roads of snow.In the Veneto region, the firefighters report they used a snow cat – a large, tracked vehicle built for traveling through snow — to rescue a family stuck in a remote area.Forecasters say more snow is expected in the area region in the coming days. 
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Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said Monday the country will impose a total lockdown for the rest of January as a surging number of COVID-19 cases threatens to overwhelm hospitals.Speaking before parliament, Sturgeon said she is more concerned about the current situation than at any time since the pandemic began last March. She said the surge is putting pressure on health care facilities, adding: “In fact, our modeling suggests that without further intervention, we could breach inpatient COVID capacity within three or four weeks.”She said effective midnight Monday, all residents will be required to stay home except for essential purposes. There will also be no travel allowed in or out of Scotland during that time, and no more than two people from up to two households will be able to meet outdoors.Sturgeon said Scotland is seeing a “steeply rising trend of infections,” with more than 1,900 new cases over the previous 24 hours, and an overall positivity rate of about 15%.She blamed the surge largely on the new COVID-19 variant, identified last month in the south of Britain. The first minister said the new variant spreads as much as 70% faster than the original strain and accounts for nearly half of new cases in Scotland.She called the new variant a “massive blow” to the fight against the virus and said the simplest way to describe the challenge they face is to compare it to a race, with the vaccine in one lane and the virus in the other, with the virus currently much faster.She said, “To ensure that the vaccine wins this race, it is essential to speed up vaccination as far as possible but to give it the time it needs to get ahead, we must also slow the virus down. And because it is now spreading faster, that means even tougher restrictions are necessary.” 
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British Health Secretary Matt Hancock said Monday the government is not ruling out new restrictions as the coronavirus continues to spread even in areas with the strictest constraints.In television interviews, Hancock said a new variant spreads more easily than the original strains of the virus and Britain’s three-tiered system of restrictions is proving less effective at controlling it.Hancock said that while new restrictions might be necessary, ultimately it is up to people’s behavior. He said people should act as if they already have the virus and take greater care around others.“Yes, it’s about the government rules, and absolutely we’re prepared to bring in, unfortunately, tougher rules if they are needed on the public health advice. But it’s on all of us,” Hancock said.The health secretary praised the National Health Service (NHS) for its vaccination program, saying it has successfully inoculated more than a million people at 700 sites around the country and that there would be more than a thousand sites by the end of the week.Hancock also praised the latest vaccine, produced in a joint effort between the University of Oxford and drug manufacturer AstraZeneca, saying British science is leading the world.Britain reported 55,157 new cases on Sunday, and 455 new deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data. The nation set a daily record for new cases Saturday with 57,853. 
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Norwegian officials insisted Monday that there was “still hope” in finding survivors in air pockets five days after a landslide killed at least seven people as it carried away homes in a village north of the capital. Three people are still missing.
 
Police spokesman Roger Pettersen said search efforts in the landslide-hit village of Ask, 25 kilometers (16 miles) northeast of Oslo, are still considered “a rescue operation.” But only bodies have been found in the last few days.
 
The region’s below-freezing temperatures are “working against us, but we have been very clear in our advice to the (rescuers) that as long as there are cavities where the missing may have stayed, it is possible to survive,” said Dr. Halvard Stave, who taking part in the rescue operation.  
 
Temperatures in Ask were -8 degrees Celsius (17.6 degrees Fahrenheit) on Monday.
 
“I would still describe the situation as very unreal,” Anders Oestensen, the mayor of Gjerdrum municipality, where Ask is located.
 
Search teams patrolled with dogs as helicopters and drones with heat-detecting cameras flew over the ravaged hillside in Ask, a village of 5,000 that was hit by the worst landslide in modern Norwegian history. At least 1,000 people were evacuated.
 
The landslide early Wednesday cut across a road through Ask, leaving a deep, crater-like ravine. Some buildings ae now hanging on the edge of the ravine, which grew to be 700 meters (2,300 feet) long and 300 meters (1,000 feet) wide. At least nine buildings with over 30 apartments were destroyed.
 
“This is completely terrible,” King Harald V said after the Norwegian royals visited the landslide site on Sunday.
 
The limited number of daylight hours in Norway at this time of year and fears of further erosion have hampered rescue operations. The ground is fragile at the site and unable to hold the weight of heavy rescue equipment.
 
The exact cause of the accident is not yet known but the area is known for having a lot of quick clay, a material that can change from solid to liquid form. Experts said the quick clay, combined with excessive precipitation and damp winter weather, may have contributed to the landslide.  
 
In 2005, Norwegian authorities warned people not to construct residential buildings in the area saying it was “a high risk zone” for landslides, but houses were eventually built there later in the decade.
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Rescue workers have uncovered a seventh body from a landslide that buried homes in a village near Norway’s capital, police said Sunday, but hopes persist that three people still missing might yet be found alive. The tragedy occurred early Wednesday when several houses were destroyed and shifted hundreds of meters under a torrent of mud in the village of Ask, 25 kilometers (15 miles) northeast of Oslo. Police spokesman Bjorn Christian Willersrud told journalists they hoped to find survivors in the landslide zone. “It is still a rescue operation until we decide otherwise,” he said. Earlier Sunday, the head of the rescue operation, Goran Syversen, told reporters: “We are working hard in the depression created by the landslide.”  “We have five teams working at the same time. They are doing very difficult work which is not without risk. Nevertheless, we are making good progress,” he said. Police said the latest body was found near where two others had been recovered, but they gave no further details. The teams, backed up by sniffer dogs, helicopters and drones, have now found three bodies Sunday, one on Saturday and three on Friday. Three of the victims, two men and a woman, have been identified as Eirik Gronolen, 31, Lisbeth Neraas, 54 and Bjorn-Ivar Grymyr Jansen, 40. But police have published the names of all 10 people, including a 2-year-old and a 13-year-old, who went missing Wednesday. Ten people were also injured in the landslide, including one seriously who was transferred to Oslo for treatment. About 1,000 people of the town’s population of 5,000 have been evacuated, because of fears for the safety of their homes as the land continues to move. “It is a completely surreal and terrible situation,” one of the evacuees, Olav Gjerdingen, told AFP, adding that his family were sheltering at a hotel. The rescuers received a visit Sunday from King Harald, his wife, Sonja, and Crown Prince Haakon, who lit candles for the victims in a local church. “I’m having trouble finding something to say, because it’s absolutely horrible,” the king said after the visit. “This terrible event impacts us all. I sympathize with you who are beginning the new year with sadness and uncertainty,” he said in a televised statement. The authorities have banned all aircraft from the disaster area until Monday afternoon while they conduct aerial searches. “We are searching where we believe we might still find survivors,” said the head of the team of firefighters, Kenneth Wangen, adding that the search zone had been expanded. The rescue teams, who are also seeking to save family pets, were digging channels in the ground to evacuate casualties. Some local people have lit candles near the perimeter of the disaster site in tribute to the victims.
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A Spanish-flagged humanitarian ship on Sunday was seeking a port of safety for 265 migrants its crew rescued from the Mediterranean Sea in the last few days. The Open Arms charity tweeted that its vessel on Saturday had safely brought aboard 96 migrants who had been adrift in a wooden boat with without life vests in international waters. It said the passengers, most of them from Eritrea, included two women and 17 minors and were suffering from hypothermia.  In a separate operation two days before that rescue, Open Arms took aboard 169 migrants, who had departed Libyan shores, where many human traffickers are based.  The traffickers launch vessels, many of them flimsy rubber dinghies or rickety fishing boats, crowded with migrants who hope to reach European shores to seek asylum.  Some are fleeing conflict or persecution, but many of the hundreds of thousands of migrants who have been rescued at sea in recent years are fleeing poverty and thus are denied asylum by European Union countries.  Italy and fellow EU nation Malta have often refused docking permission to the humanitarian rescue boats, contending that most migrants want to reach jobs or relatives in northern Europe. Italian and Maltese government authorities have insisted other European nations do their share.  
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Another Scottish independence referendum should not take place for a generation, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Sunday, as Scotland’s leader renewed calls for a fresh vote in the wake of Brexit.   “Referendums in my experience, direct experience, in this country are not particularly jolly events,” the prime minister told BBC’s “Andrew Marr Show.”   “They don’t have a notably unifying force in the national mood, they should be only once in a generation.”   Scotland voted to remain part of the United Kingdom in 2014.   FILE – In this Feb. 10, 2020, file photo, Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon speaks during an event at the European Policy Center in Brussels.Scottish National Party leader Nicola Sturgeon at the time called it a once-in-a-generation vote, but now argues that Britain’s departure from the European Union, which a majority of Scots opposed, has changed the game.   Recent polls have shown consistent support for independence, boosted by rows between London and the devolved governments over the handling of the coronavirus pandemic.   “For too long, successive U.K. governments have taken Scotland in the wrong direction, culminating in Brexit. It’s no wonder so many people in Scotland have had enough,” she wrote on her party’s website on Saturday.   “We didn’t want to leave and we hope to join you again soon as an equal partner,” she added, in a message to the EU.   Johnson has ruled out holding another vote, but Sturgeon will likely claim a mandate and heap pressure on the prime minister should her party perform well in upcoming local elections.   When asked why it was fair to hold a referendum on EU membership but not another on Scottish independence, Johnson told Marr: “The difference is we had a [European] referendum in 1975 and we then had another one in 2016.   That seems to be about the right sort of gap.”  
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Pope Francis condemned on Sunday people who had gone abroad on holiday to escape coronavirus lockdowns, saying they needed to show greater awareness of the suffering of others.Speaking after his weekly noon blessing, Francis said he had read newspaper reports of people catching flights to flee government curbs and seek fun elsewhere.”They didn’t think about those who were staying at home, of the economic problems of many people who have been hit hard by the lockdown, of the sick people. (They thought) only about going on holiday and having fun,” the pope said.”This really saddened me,” he said in a video address from the library of the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace.The traditional Angelus blessing is normally given from a window overlooking St. Peter’s Square, but it was moved indoors to prevent any crowds gathering and limit the spread of COVID-19.”We don’t know what 2021 will reserve for us, but what all of us can do together is make a bit more of an effort to take care of each other. There is the temptation to take care only of our own interests,” he added.Many countries have imposed strict restrictions to prevent the spread of coronavirus, which has killed more than 84 million people worldwide, according to the latest Reuters tally.
 
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Rescue workers have uncovered a fifth body four days after a landslide buried homes near Norway’s capital, police said Sunday, as the search goes on for five people still missing.The tragedy occurred in the early hours of Wednesday when houses were destroyed and shifted hundreds of meters under a torrent of mud at the village of Ask, 25 kilometers northeast of Oslo.”Just before 6 a.m. a deceased person was found,” a police statement said.The discovery of a fourth body was made Saturday after three were recovered the day before at the bleak, snow-covered scene at Ask, in Gjerdrum municipality.Police on Saturday identified the body of the first person found on Friday as 31-year-old Eirik GrÃnolen.The identities of the four other dead have not been released.But police on Friday published a list of the names of all the eight adults, a 2-year-old and a 13-year-old child who went missing on Wednesday.Ten people were also injured in the landslide, including one seriously who was transferred to Oslo for treatment.About a thousand people have been evacuated out of a local population of 5,000, because of fears for the safety of their homes as the land continues to move.Search and rescue teams have been using sniffer dogs, helicopters and drones in a bid to find survivors.The search teams were also digging channels in the ground to evacuate casualties.Experts say the disaster was a “quick clay slide” of approximately 300 by 800 meters.Quick clay is found in Norway and Sweden and notorious for collapsing after turning to fluid when overstressed.Prime Minister Erna Solberg described it as one of the biggest landslides the country had ever experienced.The royal court said in a statement that King Harald, his wife, Sonja, and Crown Prince Haakon were to visit the disaster area later Sunday morning.   
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More than 1,200 revelers were booked for breaking coronavirus restrictions as an illegal rave in northwestern France ended Saturday after more than two days of partying that saw clashes with police.Police had failed to stop the underground event, which drew around 2,500 people from Thursday night to two empty warehouses in Lieuron, south of the city of Rennes in Brittany.But the prosecutor’s office said police had detained two people, neither of whom had any previous convictions, as part of efforts to identify the organizers.They were also searching one address and had so far turned up a sum of money that appeared to be part of the proceeds from the event, and drugs, prosecutor Philippe Astruc said.Police seized the material and booked more than 1,200 for a variety of offenses, he added.Such mass gatherings are banned across France to prevent the spread of COVID-19, and a nationwide 8 p.m.-6 a.m. curfew has been in force across the country.Illegal nightclubsTechno music blared from the warehouses, which had been transformed into illegal nightclubs for partygoers who flocked to the site from across France and even from abroad.The local prefecture said Saturday that the music had been switched off and sound systems dismantled after two nights, and the first revelers began leaving the site before dawn.French Gendarmes evacuate the last partygoers who attended a rave in a disused hangar in Lieuron, south of Rennes, Jan. 2, 2021.Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said in a tweet that police had seized a truck, sound equipment and generators from the site of the illegal rave.The large police presence at the site had led to the breakup of the event “without violence,” he added.The regional prefect, Emmanuel Berthier, said 800 people had been booked specifically for coronavirus-related offenses such as failing to respect the curfew restrictions or wear masks, or for participating in an illegal assembly.Police had fined several hundred others for use of narcotics, he told reporters.’We had to party’Police on access roads were checking all those leaving the site, on foot or in vehicles, looking for signs of drugs or drug use, an AFP photographer said.Police reinforcements continued to arrive and close off the site Saturday morning, the photographer said.”It’s been a year since we could do anything,” said partygoer Antoine, 24. The salesman was part of a group of five from Brittany who attended the rave.With beers still in their hands, the group members said they “had come to celebrate the 31st here because it was a huge party.””We knew what we were risking. … We had to party. For a year everything has been stuck,” said a 20-year-old waitress in the group.Alexis, 22, a baker, said that “at one point you say to yourself, ‘I am going to force my New Year.’ “He added that the rave had even been reported in The New York Times, saying “it was the biggest party of the year.”‘Lives in danger’French authorities have been worried about mass parties throughout the pandemic, but New Year’s Eve was a particular concern.A man undergoes a rapid antigen test for COVID-19 after the evacuation by French Gendarmes of the last partygoers who attended a rave in a disused hangar in Lieuron, Jan. 2, 2021.Police tried Thursday night to “prevent the event but faced fierce hostility from many partygoers” who set one of their cars on fire and threw bottles and stones, the prefecture said Friday.First aid workers had distributed hand gel and masks at the event to try to limit the spread of the coronavirus.The regional health authority in Brittany noted the “high risk of the spread of COVID-19″ at the event and called on those who took part to undergo coronavirus tests and self-isolate immediately for seven days.The prefecture said in a tweet that a testing center had been set up in a gymnasium in Lieuron.”They have put their lives in danger, their health. They must now protect those around them,” it said.The French government, facing the threat of a new wave of COVID-19 infections, announced Friday that it was extending its overnight curfew by two hours in 15 regions to help combat the virus, starting it at 6 p.m. instead of 8 p.m.As of Saturday afternoon, the country’s total number of cases stood at more than 2.7 million, and it was closing in on 65,000 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.
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From his newsstand at the bottom of two hilly streets in Rome, Armando Alviti has been dispensing newspapers, magazines and good cheer to locals from before dawn till after dusk nearly every day for more than a half-century.“Ciao, Armando,” his customers greet him as part of their daily routine. “Ciao, amore (love)” he calls back. Alviti chuckled as he recalled how, when he was a young boy, newspaper deliverers would drop off the day’s stacks at his parents’ newsstand, sit him in the emptied baskets of their motorbikes and take him for a spin.Since he turned 18, Alviti has operated the newsstand seven days a week, with a wool tweed cap to protect him from the Italian capital’s winter dampness and a tabletop fan to cool him during its torrid summers. A mighty battle therefore ensued when the coronavirus reached Italy and his two grown sons insisted that Alviti, who is 71 and diabetic, stay home while they took turns juggling their own jobs to keep the newsstand open.“They were afraid I would die. I know they love me crazy,” Alviti said.The world’s second-oldest populationThroughout the pandemic, health authorities around the world have stressed the need to protect the people most at risk of complications from COVID-19, a group which infection and mortality data quickly revealed included older adults. With 23% of its population age 65 or older, Italy has the world’s second-oldest population, after Japan, with 28%.The average age of Italy’s COVID-19 dead has hovered around 80, many of them people with previous medical conditions like diabetes or heart disease. Some politicians advocated limiting how much time elders spent outside of their homes to avoid lockdowns of the general population that were costly to the economy.Among them was the governor of Italy’s northwestern coastal region of Liguria, where 28.5 percent of the population is age 65 or older. Gov. Giovanni Toti, who is 52, argued for such an age-specific strategy when a second surge of infections struck Italy in the fall.Older people are “for the most part in retirement, not indispensable to the productive effort” of Italy’s economy, Toti said.To the news vendor in Rome, those were fighting words. Alviti said Toti’s remarks “disgusted me. They made me very angry.”“Older persons are the life of this country. They’re the memory of this country,” he said. Self-employed older adults like him especially “can’t be kept under a bell jar,” he said.’Ageism is so accepted’The pandemic’s heavy toll on older people, particularly those in nursing homes, might have served to reinforce ageism, or prejudice against the segment of population generally referred to as “elderly.”The label “old” means “40, 50 years of life being lumped in one category,” said Nancy Morrow-Howell, a professor of social work at Washington University in St. Louis who specializes in gerontology. She noted that these days, people in their 60s often are caring for parents in their 90s.“Ageism is so accepted … it’s not questioned,” Morrow-Howell said in a telephone interview. One form it takes is “compassionate ageism,” Morrow-Howell said, the idea that “we need to protect older adults. We need to treat them as children.”Alviti’s family won the first round, keeping him away from work until May. His sons implored him to stay home again when the coronavirus rebounded in the fall.He struck a compromise. One of his sons opens the newsstand at 6 a.m. and Alviti takes over two hours later, limiting his exposure to the public during the morning rush.Fausto Alviti said he’s afraid for his father, “but I also realize for him to stay home, it would have been worse, psychologically. He needs to be with people.”In the open-air food market in the Trullo neighborhood of Rome, produce vendor Domenico Zoccoli, 80, also scoffs at the belief that people past retirement age “don’t produce (and) must be protected.”Before dawn broke on a recent rainy day, Zoccoli had transformed his stall into a cheerful array of colors: boxes of red and green cabbages, radicchio, purple carrots, leafy beet tops, and cauliflower in shades of white, violet and orange, all harvested from his farm some 30 kilometers away.“Old people must do what they feel. If they can’t walk, then they don’t walk. If I feel like running, I run,” Zoccoli said. After packing up his stall at 1:30 p.m., he said he would work several hours more in his field, skipping lunch.Childcare providersMarco Trabucchi, a psychiatrist based in the northern Italian city of Brescia who specializes in the behavior of older adults, thinks the pandemic has gotten people to reconsider their attitudes for the better.“Little attention was given to the individuality of the old. They were like an indistinct category, all equal, with all the same problems, all suffering,” Trabucchi said.In Italy, with childcare centers chronically scarce, legions of older adults, some decades beyond retirement, effectively double as essential workers by caring for their grandchildren.According to Eurostat, the European Union’s statistics bureau, 35% of Italians older than 65 look after grandchildren several times a week.Felice Santini, 79, and his wife, Rita Cintio, 76, are such a couple. They take care of the two youngest of their four grandchildren multiple times per week.“If we didn’t care for them, their parents couldn’t work,” said Santini. “We’re helping them (a son and daughter-in-law) stay in the productive work force.”Santini still works himself, a half-day as a mechanic at an auto repair shop. Then, when he comes home, his hands keep busy in the kitchen: stuffing homemade cannelloni with sausage, making meat sauce and baking orange-flavored Bundt cakes for his grandkids.Cintio finds it painful not being able to hug and kiss her grandchildren. But she embraced 9-year-old Gaia Santini when the girl ran joyfully toward her after her grandmother navigated Rome’s narrow streets to pick her up at school. Cintio will take Gaia home for a break, before next accompanying her to an ice-skating lesson.Worried about COVID-19’s second surge, the couple’s son, Cristiano Santini, said he tried to limit the frequency with which his parents watch the children, but to little avail.“They’re afraid (of infection), but they are more afraid of not living much longer” due to their ages and missing previous time with their grandchildren, he said.
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Humanitarian agencies are urging Bosnian authorities to resolve their differences and provide immediate protection for hundreds of migrants, refugees and asylum-seekers who are living without shelter in wintertime temperatures.About 900 people have been stranded for more than a week near the former Lipa Emergency Tent Camp in northern Bosnia. They have been living in dire conditions, trying to withstand freezing temperatures, since a huge fire destroyed the camp where they resided.U.N. human rights spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told VOA that plans to transport the former camp residents to an appropriate temporary facility fell through. That, she said, is because residents of the area where they were going protested the move.“The deadlock continues,” Shamdasani said. “These people remain outdoors without adequate shelter in freezing conditions. So we are calling on the authorities to ensure that these people are protected, that they receive adequate shelter and living conditions in line with the human rights obligations of the government of Bosnia and Herzegovina.”Soldiers put up tents for migrants at the Lipa camp outside Bihac, Bosnia, Jan. 1, 2021.Humanitarian organizations fear the ongoing impasse and the hostile rhetoric could heighten local xenophobia.Shamdasani described the former tent camp dwellers as a mixed group of people from Africa, the Middle East and Asia. She said some were recognized refugees, others were irregular migrants and some were seeking asylum.”But the bottom line is that these are human beings who, whether they plan to stay in Bosnia and Herzegovina, whether they were transiting through Bosnia and Herzegovina trying to access other parts of Europe, they are currently on the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina,” Shamdasani said. “So the government has a responsibility to ensure that they receive adequate shelter and that their human rights are protected.”Aid organizations say prompt action is needed to end the impasse between authorities and local populations, and to ease the suffering of hundreds of people who already have suffered far too much.
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Despite Britain sealing a post-Brexit deal with the European Union, one that will allow for tariff-free trade in goods, some British firms are considering fully or partially relocating their businesses to mainland Europe, saying they fear for their prospects if they don’t.
 
How many is unclear — no one is yet keeping tally.  
 
A year ago, a British business lobby group, the Institute of Directors, found in a survey that a third of small-to-mid-size enterprises [SMEs] were planning or considering relocating or setting up additional facilities on the other side of the Brexit curtain.
 
Dutch investment authorities say they have lured 140 Brexit-wary companies since Britain’s 2016 referendum to quit the EU, and more than another 100 are exploring moves. Other EU countries also are reporting record numbers of British firms moving or considering full or partial relocations. Slovakia, within a year of the 2016 Brexit referendum, saw 400 British firms register new businesses in the country, including Jaguar Land Rover, which currently is building a new plant near Nitra in western Slovakia.
 UK Begins Post-Brexit FutureThe UK’s 48-year obligation to follow Brussels’ rules has endedAmong Slovak-bound British businesses is the Goodfish Group, a company based in the English Midlands, and which, until the Brexit referendum, largely made plastic injection moldings for British-based auto-manufacturers. It must diversify, mainly through acquisitions, thanks to a serious fall-off in orders since the referendum, and to turn its focus to supplying moldings for other sectors, including retail. The company exports a third of its products to EU countries and since the referendum, needs to close one of four factories.  
 
Greg McDonald, who founded Goodfish Group in 2010 after a 25-year career in investment management and corporate development, is rueful about Brexit and disparaging about Britain’s politicians, who he says just don’t understand the complexity and importance of supply chains and the nitty gritty of everyday business outside banking or PR. “They have not got a clue — they are so far removed,” he says.
 
McDonald initially registered a company in Slovakia to be ready to transfer some production there in the event of Britain failing to conclude a tariff-free trade deal with the EU. The agreement, struck Christmas Eve and which was approved midweek by the House of Commons, doesn’t satisfy him, and he’s completed the legal requirements to start trading in Slovakia. He now must sign a lease on a factory, which will complement the three plants he currently runs in Britain.  
 
Speaking Wednesday in the Commons, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson lauded the deal, which gives tariff and quota-free access to Europe’s Single Market when it comes to goods and parts, saying it will mark the start of “what will be a wonderful relationship between Britain and our friends and partners in the EU.”  
 
He added: “We were told we could not have our cake and eat it.” Johnson Thursday described the new year’s severing of ties with the EU as “an amazing moment” for Britain, saying Brexit had put “freedom in our hands” and that the British would be able to do things “differently and better” outside the EU.
 Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson gives a thumbs-up gesture after signing the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement at 10 Downing Street, London, Dec. 30, 2020.Hours after speaking, Johnson’s father Stanley, a former European Parliament lawmaker, revealed he is applying for French citizenship. Stanley Johnson’s mother was born in France.
 
McDonald fears that’s not the way it will turn out. “We are going to have tariff-free access but there are all sorts of other ways business will be stifled,” he says. He cites the burden of additional customs paperwork and inspections and likely slower transfers at ports that will add to costs and reduce price competitiveness.  
 
Because of this, foreign-based auto-manufacturers will reduce their production in Britain, he forecasts.“Honda, Toyota, BMW will make in Britain what they need to satisfy the domestic UK market but not, as before, for the whole of the EU market,” he adds.
 
Much of industry across Europe is dependent on parts moving easily, seamlessly from factory to factory, across open borders, with few delays and inspections and little paperwork, if any. That has meant firms can rely on just-in-time delivery of parts, products and goods they need. For British businesses in the automotive industry, as well as in other manufacturing sectors, trading will now be much more complicated.
 Lorries disembark a ferry from Scotland, at the P&O ferry terminal in the port at Larne on the north coast of Northern Ireland, Jan. 1, 2021.McDonald hopes by starting up production also in Slovakia and “being on the right side of the Brexit curtain,” as he puts it, Goodfish, which currently employs 110 full-time workers and 25 part-time or agency employees and has a turnover of $18 million, will have a better shot at competing in a much bigger market.  
 
Trying to navigate Brexit has been a strain for him. He apologizes for his raspy voice, explaining he’s developed stress-related muscle tension dysphonia. “Surprise, surprise,” he adds.  
 
Supply chain challenges, burdensome paperwork and the impact of shipping delays, plus increased costs, is worrying small and mid-sized enterprises across Britain that trade with the EU.
 
“Manufacturers and farmers will face irksome checks at borders for things like customs, VAT (value added tax), safety and security, plant and animal health, and much more. Services companies will lose access to the single market unless they set up subsidiaries within it,” notes Charles Grant of the Center for European Reform [CER], a London-based research organization.  
 Tax refund electronic machines are displayed Friday Jan.1, 2021 in the port of Calais, northern France.In an analysis for CER this week, Grant says some British manufactures will struggle to meet the deal’s requirements when it comes to the origin of components and products in their goods. A high percentage of the components used must have been made in either Britain or EU countries and nowhere else to qualify for zero EU tariffs or to avoid quotas.
 
“Boris Johnson’s post-deal victory speech, in which he falsely declared the deal would mean ‘no non-tariff barriers,’ suggests a government still struggling to fully understand the consequences” of the trade deal,” Grant said.
 
Brexit is not over yet, Grant adds, predicting that if the deal “proves a major inconvenience for significant groups of people, businesses and institutions, a debate will start on how to improve it.” Under the deal, either party, Britain or the EU may request a review of the provisions on trade, four years after it enters into force. “That will make the EU-UK relationship a theme of the general election that is likely in three or four years,” he adds.
 
When it comes to the automotive industry, there’s relief a trade deal has been agreed upon, says Paul Lund of Fitch Ratings, an American credit rating agency. He describes it, though, as “one step better than the worst case.”  
 
The worry, he explains, was how “tariffs would be set on parts coming to Britain, being put in cars and then the cars being exported [to the EU] and what the ultimate rate would be on exported cars” to the EU. That threat has now disappeared. The concern is with supply chain interruptions and costs because of the more complicated border-crossing arrangements. Ports could become bottlenecked, he says. Costs will affect price competitiveness.  
 
“I think this will hit the SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises). I don’t think this is a big problem for the big industrial firms. The value of their production is too big. They are much more geared to handle the paperwork and sorting out the administrative burden and making it more automatic,” he notes.  
 
Lund also says British firms will need to have more capital on hand so they can stock and warehouse more parts and products to ensure there is no interruption in their ability to supply customers. Another added cost.
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Pope Francis reappeared Friday after chronic sciatic pain forced him to miss the Church’s New Year services and made no mention of his ailment as he delivered his traditional appeal for world peace.
 
The pope was unable to attend services Thursday and again Friday morning because of the sciatica – a relatively common problem that causes pain along the sciatic nerve down the lower back and legs.
 
It was believed to be the first time since he became pope in 2013 that Francis, who turned 84 last month, has been prevented by health reasons from leading a major papal event.
 
However, he showed no sign of discomfort as he delivered a noon address and prayer, standing at a lectern in the library of the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace.
 
“Life today is governed by war, by enmity, by many things that are destructive. We want peace. It is a gift,” Francis said, adding that the response to the global coronavirus crisis showed the importance of burden-sharing.
 
“The painful events that marked humanity’s journey last year, especially the pandemic, taught us how much it is necessary to take an interest in the problems of others and to share their concerns,” he said.
 
The noon blessing is normally given from a window overlooking St. Peter’s Square, but it was moved indoors to prevent any crowds gathering and limit the spread of COVID-19.
Francis highlighted in particular his worries about Yemen, which has been blighted by six years of violence that has pitted a Saudi-led coalition against the Iran-aligned Houthi movement.
 
At least 22 people were killed in an attack on Aden airport Wednesday, which triggered a fresh round of coalition air raids.
 
“I express my sorrow and concern for the further escalation of violence in Yemen, which is causing numerous innocent victims,” Francis said. “Let us think of the children of Yemen, without education, without medicine, famished.”
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Britain on Friday began a new year and life outside Europe, after leaving the bloc’s single market trading rules to go it alone for the first time in nearly half a century.Brexit, which has dominated politics on both sides of the Channel since 2016, became reality an hour before midnight, ending the UK’s 48-year obligation to follow Brussels’ rules.Free movement of more than 500 million people between Britain and the 27 EU states ended.More rigorous customs checks returned for the first time in decades, despite the hard-fought brokering of a tariff- and quota-free trade deal.New Year’s Day newspapers reflected the historic but still deeply divisive change, which will have repercussions for generations to come.The pro-Brexit Daily Express’ front-page photograph showed the White Cliffs of Dover — an enduring symbol of Britishness — with “Freedom” written on a Union flag.”Our Future. Our Britain. Our Destiny,” said the headline.The pro-EU Independent was less sure: “Off the hook — or cut adrift?” it asked, reflecting widespread uncertainty at the path the country had now chosen.As dawn broke on 2021, attention turned to Britain’s borders, particularly the key Channel seaports, to see if the end to seamless trade and travel would cause delays and disruption.But with New Year’s Day a public holiday followed by a weekend, and the government having announced the phased introduction of checks, few immediate problems were envisaged.”The traffic forecast for the next few days is very light,” said John Keefe, spokesman for Eurotunnel, which transports freight, cars and coaches under the Channel.Practical changesAs the first ferry left the port of Dover early Friday, truckers rolling into Calais had to deal for the first time with the new rules for transporting goods to and from mainland Europe.The Road Haulage Association, an industry body, estimates that some 220 million new forms will now need to be filled in every year to allow trade to flow with EU countries, including permits to even drive on the roads leading to ports like Dover.”This is a revolutionary change,” Rod McKenzie, managing director of public policy at the RHA, told The Times newspaper this week.Other practical changes include how long Britons can visit their holiday homes on the continent, to travel with pets, and an end to British involvement in an EU student program.Vacationers and business travelers used to seamless EU travel could face delays, although fears Britons will have to get international permits to drive in Europe were averted by a separate accord.British fishermen are disgruntled at a compromise in the free trade agreement to allow continued access for EU boats in British waters, which has raised fears of clashes at sea.The key financial services sector also faces an anxious wait to learn on what basis it can keep dealing with Europe, after being largely omitted from the trade deal along with services in general, which account for 80% of Britain’s economy.In Northern Ireland, the border with Ireland will be closely watched to ensure movement is unrestricted — key to a 1998 peace deal that ended 30 years of violence over British rule.And in pro-EU Scotland, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon gave a clear sign of a looming battle ahead for a new vote on independence.”Scotland will be back soon, Europe. Keep the light on,” she tweeted.’Make the most of it’Despite the uncertainty, Prime Minister Boris Johnson is bullishly optimistic, writing in Friday’s Daily Telegraph that Brexit presented “opportunities unknown to modern memory.”He said Britain had been given “a safe European home” since joining the then Common Market in 1973 but added that “the world has changed out of all recognition, and so has the UK.”We need to keep pace with developments on the west coast of America and in the Pearl River delta,” he added.”We need the Brexit-given chance to turbo-charge those sectors in which we excel.”Divisions over Brexit, both political and social, remain deep and are likely to last for years, despite a muted end to the saga overshadowed by the global health crisis.Opinion polls indicate that most Britons want to move on and are far more worried about the worsening coronavirus pandemic, which has left more than 73,500 dead in Britain alone.Johnson, who survived several days in intensive care with COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, last April, warned of tough times ahead but said a UK-developed vaccine offered grounds for hope.But his desire for a prosperous, more globally focused Britain could yet see a resurgence of Brexit wrangling, as the country finds out what its new trading terms mean in reality.
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Muted New Year’s Eve celebrations were expected in Italy, where tight restrictions are in place to curb the spread of COVID-19. The government has deployed thousands of police officers to ensure that rules are adhered to and that Italians do not hold large gatherings to celebrate the start of 2021. Adding to an abnormal end to the year is the Vatican’s announcement that Pope Francis will not preside over New Year’s Eve and Day services due to a painful back condition.Italians have grown used to the tight restrictions that come into place when the country is categorized a red zone. A person sits next to the Barcaccia fountain with Spanish steps in the background, as Italy goes back to lockdown as part of efforts put in place to curb the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Rome, Dec. 31, 2020.Until January 4, Italians will not be able to leave their homes unless they have filled out a self-declaration that explains where they are going. They will only be allowed to visit someone else’s home with one other person. Only people who need to go to work or have a health motive or an emergency are allowed out.All shops will be closed, except those for food and other urgent necessities like pharmacies. All bars and restaurants across the country will be closed except for carry out service.This restaurant owner said being placed in a red zone has meant working less than half what they were used to. The economic damage suffered by the sector has been significant with many fearful they will not be able to keep their businesses going in the future.Italian authorities have warned against large family gatherings. They have also tried to dissuade anyone from setting off fireworks to avoid accidents that could cause an extra burden on hospitals.While Italians are only too aware this will be a New Year’s Eve like they have never experienced, some are preparing to make the most of it, in their desire to bid this coronavirus-stricken year farewell.This man said, “We will see few friends, a relative or two and during times we are allowed to see each other.”Italy has a curfew in place from 10pm until 7am for the next four days. Travelling out of one’s municipality is also banned. Fines are stiff, so few are expected to take unnecessary risks.The recent news that COVID-19 vaccines have arrived in Italy and are being administered has many hoping there is a light at the end of the tunnel and that 2021 will be a better year than the one coming to an end. Still, not everyone in Italy is in favor of getting vaccinated, and many know the road ahead remains a long one.New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day will also be quite different at the Vatican. FILE – Pope Francis leads the Mass on Christmas Eve in St. Peter’s Basilica amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic at the Vatican, Dec. 24, 2020. Pope Francis is being forced to skip his traditional services because of a painful back and right leg problem. The Vatican’s spokesman, Matteo Bruni, said the pope is suffering from “sciatica” and will not be presiding at a year-end prayer service Thursday evening and will also not be celebrating Mass on New Year’s Day, both inside St. Peter’s Basilica.The pope is expected to deliver his Angelus prayer at noon on Friday, which will be streamed online from the library of the Apostolic Palace.
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The United Kingdom exits the European Union’s orbit Thursday, turning its back on a tempestuous 48-year liaison with the European project for an uncertain post-Brexit future in its most significant geopolitical shift since the loss of empire.Brexit, in essence, takes place at the strike of midnight in Brussels, or 2300 London time (GMT), when the United Kingdom leaves de-facto membership that continued for a transition period after it formally left the bloc January 31.For five years, the frenzied gyrations of the Brexit crisis dominated European affairs, haunted the sterling markets and tarnished the United Kingdom’s reputation as a confident pillar of Western economic and political stability.After years of Brexit vitriol, one of the most significant events in European history since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union will pass with little fanfare: The United Kingdom will slip away, serenaded by the silence of the COVID-19 crisis.Supporters cast Brexit as the dawn of a newly independent “global Britain,” but it has weakened the bonds that bind England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland into a $3 trillion economy.UK chief trade negotiator David Frost looks on as Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson signs the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement at 10 Downing Street, London, Dec. 30, 2020.”This is an amazing moment for this country,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson, 56, said in his New Year’s Eve message. “We have our freedom in our hands, and it is up to us to make the most of it.”As EU leaders and citizens bade farewell, Johnson said there would be no bonfire of regulations to build a “bargain basement Dickensian Britain” and that the country would remain the “quintessential European civilization.”But Johnson, the face of the Brexit campaign, has been short on detail about what he wants to build with Britain’s “independence,” or how to do it while borrowing record amounts to pay for the COVID-19 crisis.BrexitIn the June 23, 2016, referendum, 17.4 million voters, or 52%, backed Brexit while 16.1 million, or 48%, backed staying in the bloc. Few have changed their minds since. England and Wales voted out, but Scotland and Northern Ireland voted in.The referendum showed a United Kingdom divided about much more than the European Union, and fueled soul-searching about everything from secession and immigration to capitalism, the legacy of empire and what it now means to be British.Leaving was once the far-fetched dream of a motley crew of “eurosceptics” on the fringes of British politics: Britain joined in 1973 as “the sick man of Europe” and two decades ago British leaders were arguing about whether to join the euro. It never did.But the turmoil of the euro zone crisis, attempts to integrate the EU further, fears about mass immigration and discontent with leaders in London helped Brexiteers win the referendum with a message of patriotic, if vague, hope.”We see a global future for ourselves,” said Johnson who won power in 2019 and, against the odds, clinched a Brexit divorce treaty and a trade deal, as well as the biggest Conservative majority since Margaret Thatcher, in the 2019 election.Supporters see Brexit as an escape from a doomed Franco-German project that has stagnated while the United States and China surged ahead. Opponents say Brexit will weaken the West, further reduce Britain’s global clout, make people poorer and lessen its cosmopolitanism.When the bell known as Big Ben tolls 11 through a scaffold, there will be few outward displays of emotion as gatherings are banned because of COVID-19 restrictions.FILE – British Union flag waves in front of the Elizabeth Tower at Houses of Parliament containing the bell know as “Big Ben” in central London, March 29, 2017.United Kingdom?After the United Kingdom leaves the Single Market or the Customs Union, there is almost certain to be some disruption at borders. More red tape means more cost for those importing and exporting goods across the EU-U.K. border.After haggling over a trade deal for months, the British government published 70 pages of case studies just hours before its departure advising companies on what rules they would have to follow at the new U.K.-EU border.The Port of Dover expects volumes to drop off in early January. The most worrisome period, it says, will be in mid- to late January when volumes pick up again.Support for Scottish independence has risen, partly because of Brexit and partly because of COVID-19, threatening the 300-year-old political union between England and Scotland.FILE – In this Feb. 10, 2020, file photo, Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon speaks during an event at the European Policy Center in Brussels.Scottish leader Nicola Sturgeon has said an independence referendum should take place in the earlier part of the devolved parliament’s next term, which begins next year.After clinching the Christmas Eve trade deal that will smooth out the worst disruption, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen quoted both William Shakespeare and T.S. Eliot.”Parting is such sweet sorrow,” she said. “What we call the beginning is often the end. And to make an end is to make a beginning.” 
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The father of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Thursday he was in the process of applying for a French passport to maintain his ties with the European Union after Brexit. 
 
Stanley Johnson, a former member of the European Parliament who voted Remain in Britain’s 2016 referendum, told RTL radio he wanted to become a French citizen because of strong family links to France. 
 
“If I understand it correctly, I am French. My mother was born in France, her mother was totally French as was her grandfather. So for me it is about reclaiming what I already have. And that makes me very happy,” said the 80-year-old Johnson, who was speaking in French. 
 
“I will always be a European, that’s for sure. One cannot tell the British people: you are not Europeans. Having a tie with the European Union is important,” he added. 
 
His son Boris was the public face of the Leave campaign in the 2016 referendum and says Britain can “prosper mightily” as a fully sovereign nation outside what he sees as an overly bureaucratic EU. 
 
But on Wednesday, the prime minister sounded a more conciliatory note as parliament approved a new trade deal with the EU, saying: “This is not the end of Britain as a European country. We are in many ways the quintessential European civilization … and we will continue to be that.” 
 
Britain officially leaves the EU’s orbit Thursday night, after an often strained 48-year liaison with the European project.  
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Pope Francis will not lead New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day services because of a flare up of his sciatica condition, which produces pain in his right leg, the Vatican said Thursday.  It was the first time in years that Francis, who turned 84 this month, has had to skip a papal event for health reasons. A year-end vespers service the pope was to lead Thursday afternoon will be led by Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, and the Friday Mass will be said by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican Secretary of State.  
 
The Vatican said the pope would lead his noon prayer Friday as scheduled.  
 
The pope suffers from sciatica, a condition that causes pain that radiates from the lower back along the sciatic nerve to the lower part of the body.  
 
He can sometimes be seen walking with difficulty because of the pain and receives regular physical therapy because of the condition.
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With Istanbul facing further COVID restrictions at the start of the New Year, scores of public spaces across the city have become venues for light installations as part of a major art exhibition. Dorian Jones reports the aim is to lift people’s spirits in these dark times.Producer: Marcus Harton.
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U.S. prosecutors on Wednesday accused Ukrainian tycoon Ihor Kolomoisky and another Ukrainian businessman of using misappropriated funds to buy real estate in Ohio, following earlier similar U.S. allegations involving property in Kentucky and Texas.Kolomoisky, one of the most prominent tycoons in Ukraine and regarded as a key political backer of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, had denied the previous allegations. Bruce Marks, a U.S. lawyer who represents Kolomoisky, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the latest complaint.Representatives for the other businessman, Gennadiy Boholiubov, could not be immediately reached for comment. He has not previously commented on the matter.In a statement, the U.S. Department of Justice alleged the two men had used misappropriated funds from Ukraine-based PrivatBank to buy commercial real estate in Ohio and that the U.S. was seeing its forfeiture.U.S. prosecutors said that between 2008 and 2016, Kolomoisky and Boholiubov obtained fraudulent loans and lines of credit, some of whose proceeds they laundered through shell company accounts at PrivatBank’s Cyprus office before transferring the money to the United States.Altogether, the properties in the three U.S. states are worth more than $60 million, the Justice Department said. 
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U.S. trade officials said on Wednesday they were increasing tariffs on certain European Union products, including aircraft-related parts and wines from France and Germany, amid an ongoing civil aircraft dispute between Washington and Brussels.In a statement, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) said it was adding tariffs on aircraft manufacturing parts and certain nonsparkling wines as well as cognacs and other brandies from France and Germany.The USTR did not say when the tariffs would take effect but noted that additional details would be “forthcoming.”The new tariffs are the latest action in the 16-year U.S.-EU dispute over civil aviation subsidies involving European aircraft company Airbus SE and its U.S.-based rival Boeing Co.The USTR said on Wednesday that the EU had unfairly calculated tariffs against the United States allowed by a September World Trade Organization ruling in the dispute. “The EU needs to take some measure to compensate for this unfairness,” the office said.Representatives for the European Union could not be immediately reached for comment on the USTR action.
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