Police in Minsk, Belarus used water cannon to disperse crowds as protests against President Alexander Lukashenko continued for the ninth straight Sunday. An estimated 100,000 people took to the streets of the capital Sunday.Since the longtime president claimed victory in a contested election August 9, protesters have regularly taken to the streets demanding his resignation and the release of political prisoners.Lukashenko maintains he won the poll in a landslide — garnering 80% of all ballots — despite widespread claims at home and abroad the vote was heavily rigged to keep him in power.For Belarus Protesters, Battle is for Long HaulDemonstrations intensified after an embattled Lukashenko was secretly sworn in for yet another term, but protesters realize the end may not come soonOver the weekend, Belarus canceled the accreditation of all foreign journalists.Late last week, the European Union imposed sanctions on about 40 Belarusian officials accused of falsifying the election results and cracking down on the subsequent protests. Lukashenko was not on the list.Public anger has stewed over the crackdown in the wake of the protests that have seen more than 7,500 arrests and police violence against demonstrators.Hundreds have emerged from police custody with bruises and tales of torture at the hands of Lukashenko’s security agents.Lukashenko has said the protests are encouraged and supported by the West and accused NATO of moving forces near Belarusian borders. The alliance has denied the accusations.
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Heavy fighting continued Sunday between Armenian and Azerbaijan forces in Nagorno-Karabakh, a primarily ethnic Armenian region in Azerbaijan.Azerbaijani officials said Armenian forces had begun attacking Azerbaijan’s second largest city, Ganja. Unverified videos on Twitter from government officials show damaged buildings.Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry rejected accusations that Azerbaijan’s military had targeted civilians. Officials in Nagorno-Karabakh have said nearly 200 of their service personnel had been killed. Azerbaijan confirmed the deaths of at least 24 civilians.Armenian, Azerbaijani Forces Continue to ClashOngoing conflict over breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh is threatening to erupt into all-out warIn a statement released Sunday, the International Committee of the Red Cross condemned the violence.“All feasible measures must be taken to protect and spare civilians and civilian infrastructures like hospitals, schools and markets. Water supply for civilians must also be protected. These are obligations under international humanitarian law,” Martin Schüepp, ICRC Eurasia regional director in Geneva, said in the statement.Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said late Saturday that his forces “raised the flag” over the strategic town of Madagiz and had taken several villages.The Armenian Defense Ministry said separatist forces in Nagorno-Karabakh had fended off a large Azerbaijani attack, and spokeswoman Shushan Stepanian pointed to intense fighting “along the entire front line,” saying Armenian forces had shot down three Azerbaijani planes.Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry denied any aircraft were shot down and said Armenian personnel had shelled civilian territory.     Azerbaijan has not offered details on military casualties.Vahram Poghosyan, a spokesman for Nagorno-Karabakh’s president, said Saturday on Facebook that intelligence showed that about 3,000 Azerbaijanis were killed in the fighting, without providing details.Armenian Defense Ministry spokesman Artsrun Ovannisian said later Saturday that 2,300 Azerbaijani troops were killed, including about 400 in the previous day; however, this claim cannot be verified.President Aliyev has demanded the withdrawal of Armenia from Nagorno-Karabakh as the only way to end the fighting.Meanwhile, Nagorno-Karabakh authorities have called on the international community to “recognize the independence” of the enclave as “the only effective mechanism to restore peace.” Armenian and Azerbaijani forces ignored calls this past week by the United States, France and Russia for an immediate cease-fire in Nagorno-Karabakh, as fighting escalated to levels not seen since the 1990s. The three countries co-chair the OSCE Minsk Group, which is tasked with finding a peaceful solution. The OSCE is the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.Armenian separatists seized Nagorno-Karabakh, formerly an autonomous territory within Azerbaijan, in a bloody war in the 1990s that killed an estimated 30,000 people.     Talks to resolve the conflict have been halted since a 1994 cease-fire agreement among Armenia, Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh.  Peace efforts collapsed in 2010.
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The South Pacific archipelago of New Caledonia has voted to remain part of France, election authorities announced. Officials said 53.26% of more than 180,000 registered voters rejected independence in a referendum Sunday. At least 80% of eligible voters went to the polls. In a tweet, French President Emmanuel Macron called the vote a “mark of confidence in the Republic.”  “Together we will build the New Caledonia of tomorrow,” he wrote. Les Calédoniens ont confirmé leur souhait de maintenir la Nouvelle-Calédonie dans la France. C’est une marque de confiance dans la République. J’entends aussi la voix de ceux qu’anime la volonté de l’indépendance. Nous construirons tous ensemble la Nouvelle-Calédonie de demain.— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) October 4, 2020New Caledonia’s economy is supported by about $1.5 billion in French subsidies each year and many have said they fear the economy will collapse without those payments.   While the territory already enjoys a large degree of autonomy, it does heavily rely on France for some matters, including defense and education.   The referendum is part of a process that started in 1988 to end years of violence between the supporters and opponents of independence from France. A decade later, a deal was reached to have the independence vote in 2018. Although voters said “no” to independence two years ago, the deal allowed for two more referendums to be held by 2022.   Under colonial rule, the territory’s indigenous Kanaks had been confined to reserves and excluded from much of the island’s economy.   Political analysts say the Kanaks tend to back independence, while the descendants of European settlers lean toward maintaining the connection to France.  
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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson does not particularly wish for the Brexit transition period to end without a new trade deal in place but believes that Britain could live with such an outcome, he said on Sunday.   With the Dec. 31 expiry of the transition period fast approaching, Johnson and the head of the EU’s executive, Ursula von der Leyen, agreed in a phone call on Saturday to step up negotiations on a post-Brexit deal.   “I think it’s there to be done,” Johnson said during an interview on BBC television.   “Alas, there are some difficult issues that need to be fixed, and there’s no question that the EU needs to understand that we’re utterly serious about needing to control our own laws and our own regulations, and similarly they need to understand that the repatriation of the UK’s fisheries … is very important.”   Asked whether he was worried about the potential impact of a no-deal situation in the middle of the COVID pandemic, Johnson said: “I don’t want the Australian WTO-type outcome, particularly, but we can more than live with it.   “I think the people of this country have had enough … of being told that this will be impossible or intolerable. I think we can prosper mightily under those circumstances.”   The government last week told importers and exporters they would have to complete extra paperwork whether there was a deal or not and that a lack of preparation on their part could lead to 100 km queues of trucks.   That prompted accusations from the opposition that ministers were setting up industry to take the blame for any chaos that might follow a botched Brexit.   The EU says that any deal must be sealed by the end of October, or in the first days of November at the latest, to leave enough time for ratification by the bloc before the end of the year.   More trade talks are due in London next week and in Brussels the following week before the 27 national EU leaders meet over Oct. 15-16 to assess progress. London has also said it wants clarity by Oct. 15 on whether a deal is possible or not.   An estimated trillion euros ($1.17 trillion) of annual trade would be at stake if they fail to reach an agreement. ($1 = 0.8537 euros)      
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Belgium has arrested and charged three men suspected of involvement in the 1994 Rwanda genocide.A spokesperson for the Belgian federal prosecutor’s office said in a statement Saturday that the three had been “charged with serious human rights abuses.”Eric Van Duyse said two had been arrested Tuesday in Brussels and the third had been arrested Wednesday in Hainault province.Van Duyse did not give any details about the suspects but said that their identities had been verified with the help of testimony from witnesses in Rwanda.He said one of the men is under electronic surveillance and the other two are in detention.Van Duyse said whether the men will be tried will depend on information compiled by the investigating magistrate and the prosecutor’s office.The arrests were first reported Friday by the Belgian weekly magazine Le Vif.About 800,000 people, mostly Tutsis and some moderate Hutus, were killed in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.The U.N.’s International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda indicted more than 90 people and tried 80 of them before it ceased operation in 2015.Since 2001, Belgium has held five trials for Rwandans implicated in the killings, giving prison terms up to 20 years.A Belgian court found former senior Rwandan official Fabien Neretse guilty of genocide in December and sentenced him to 25 years in prison.
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Iran has temporarily released French-Iranian academic Fariba Adelkhah, who has been in jail after being convicted of security breaches, her lawyer said Saturday on Twitter.”Fariba Adelkhah has come out [of prison] on leave with an electronic ankle bracelet,” Saeid Dehghan said in a tweet, without giving any other details of the release.There was no immediate official statement on the case from Iran’s judiciary.France had in June demanded that Adelkhah, 61, an anthropologist held since 2019, be released immediately, saying her detention was harming trust between the two countries.Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards have arrested dozens of dual nationals in recent years, mostly on espionage charges.In March, Iran granted temporary release to British-Iranian aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, along with thousands of other prisoners, following concerns about the spread of the coronavirus in prisons.In March, Iran and France exchanged prisoners: academic Roland Marchal for engineer Jalal Ruhollahnejad.Since then, however, there had been little sign that Adelkhah would be released. She was sentenced in May to six years in prison on security-related charges.Relations between France and Iran have improved over the last year but remain tense because of Iran’s nuclear activities, its ballistic missile program and regional activities.
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Heavy fighting continued between Armenia and Azerbaijan forces Saturday in the conflict over the separatist territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, officials from both countries said.Armenian and Azerbaijani forces seemingly ignored calls this week by the U.S., France and Russia for an immediate cease-fire in Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnic-Armenian breakaway province inside Azerbaijan.Armenian Defense Ministry officials said they had repelled a large attack by Azerbaijan along the front line and shot down three planes.Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry denied any planes being shot down and said Armenian personnel had shelled civilian territory.Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev said his forces had taken control Saturday of the strategic village of Madagiz.The attacks took place after Stepanakert, the regional capital, came under fire by Azeri forces, media reports said.The fighting has killed at least 150 people on both sides in the turbulent South Caucasus region since fighting began September 27, the two countries said.Azerbaijan’s president has demanded the withdrawal of Armenia from Nagorno-Karabakh as the only way to end the fighting.Both sides previously had dismissed the demands for a truce in the disputed region, where fighting has escalated in recent days to levels not seen since the 1990s.Armenian separatists seized Nagorno-Karabakh from Azerbaijan in a bloody war in the 1990s that killed an estimated 30,000 people.Talks to resolve the conflict have been halted since a 1994 cease-fire agreement among Armenia, Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh.Peace efforts in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, mediated by the Minsk Group, composed of the United States, France and Russia, collapsed in 2010.
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Two people died and nine people were missing in France and Italy after a storm hit along the border of the two countries, bringing record rainfall in places and causing flooding that swept away roads and damaged homes, authorities said Saturday.The storm, dubbed Alex, ravaged several villages around the city of Nice on the French Riviera. Nice Mayor Christian Estrosi called it the worst flooding disaster in the area for more than a century after flying over the worst-hit area by helicopter.”The roads and about 100 houses were swept away or partially destroyed,” he told French news channel BFM.”I have been particularly shocked by what I saw today,” French Prime Minister Jean Castex told a news conference after visiting affected areas, adding he was concerned that the death toll could rise.Roads, bridges goneAt least eight people were missing in France, authorities said. These included two firefighters whose vehicle was carried away by a swollen river, according to local witnesses cited by several French media.Television images from both countries showed several roads and bridges had been swept away by floodwater, and numerous rivers were reported to have left their banks.In Italy, at least two people died — one a firefighter hit by a falling tree and another a man in his 30s whose car was swept into a river after a road subsided, local authorities said.As night fell, one Italian was still unaccounted for, while another 16 people earlier feared missing, including a group of six German trekkers, had all been found safe.Officials in the Piedmont region reported a record 630 mm (24.8 inches) of rain in just 24 hours in Sambughetto, close to the border with Switzerland. The Piedmont regional chief, Alberto Cirio, called on the government to declare a state of emergency.The water level in the River Po jumped by 3 meters (9.84 feet) in just 24 hours.Villages cut offEric Ciotti, a member of the French parliament who is from one of the worst affected villages in the area, Saint-Martin-Vésubie, said several villages located in steep-sided valleys of the mountainous region were cut off.Meteo France said that 500 mm (19.69 inches) of rain was registered over 24 hours in Saint-Martin-Vésubie and close to 400 mm in several other towns — the equivalent of more than three months of rain at this time of the year.There was more rainfall than on October 3, 2015, when floods caused the death of 20 people in and around the French Riviera city of Cannes, Jérémy Crunchant, the director of civil protection, told France Info.In Venice, a long-delayed flood barrier system successfully protected the lagoon city from a high tide for the first time on Saturday, bringing big relief following years of repeated inundations.
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The United Nations reports widespread human rights violations are rampant in both government- and rebel-controlled areas of Ukraine, as well as in the Russian-annexed Crimean Peninsula.The report by the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights has been submitted to the U.N. Human Rights Council.There is immediate concern about the increase in violence in the lead-up to local elections October 25 in government-controlled areas of Ukraine. Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Nada Al-Nashif says extreme right-wing groups are attacking peaceful political gatherings, the offices of political parties, and political activists in their homes.“We are further concerned that the impunity accompanying these acts of violence creates a climate of fear and self-censorship encouraging further attacks. … The office also documented attacks against members of the media, as well as attacks against LGBTI people, and people perceived to be LGBTI,” Al-Nashif said.Al-Nashif says the credibility of the election will depend upon the ability of Ukrainian authorities to protect people from these attacks so they can exercise their right to vote freely and without fear.Justice system violationsThe report highlights widespread human rights violations in the Ukrainian justice system, including arbitrary arrest and detention, unreasonable trial delays, and the use of torture and coerced confessions.Al-Nashif says access to justice remains out of reach in the self-proclaimed Russian-backed republics in eastern Ukraine.“Individuals are often held incommunicado and subjected to torture and ill-treatment in order to extort confessions,” she said. “Cases are dealt with behind closed doors, with individuals denied access to lawyers of their choice.”The report details human rights violations in Crimea by the Russian occupying power against Crimean Tatars, including torture, forced confessions and the suppression of religious practice for several groups, including Protestants, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Muslims and Messianic groups.Ukraine’s First Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs Emine Dzhaparova corroborates the U.N. report. As a Crimean Tartar herself, she is particularly critical of Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea and of its alleged repressive actions to shut down the voices of dissent.
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A festive, jubilant crowd thronged Berlin’s historic Brandenburg Gate 30 years ago Saturday, celebrating the reunification of Germany less than a year after the Berlin Wall had fallen.Located in Berlin’s eastern communist sector, the Brandenburg Gate had been inaccessible to West Germans for 28 years. But not on October 3, 1990, with strains of Beethoven’s Ode to Joy in the background as exultant crowds marked the dawn of a new era in German and European history.“The day has come in which for the first time in history the whole of Germany has found its lasting place in the circle of Western democracies,” declared Richard von Weizsäcker, the federal German president who was suddenly the head of state of a larger Germany.“Farewell to an unloved country,” Britain’s ambassador to East Germany, Patrick Eyers, wrote in his final dispatch to London as envoy on the eve of German reunification.“At midnight tonight the German Democratic Republic will cease to exist as a state,” he wrote. “In what mood do the people of the GDR come to unity? … My impression is one of deep emotion, of contentment mixed with a certain trepidation in the face of the uncertainties ahead. But none of them is looking back.”Back in London, then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher shared the trepidation. She had opposed speedy reunification, fearing a united Germany would dominate Europe, changing the power dynamics of the European Union. She also feared that Soviet hardliners might view it as a humiliation, prompting them to undermine then-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, complicating the unwinding of the Cold War.“I fear that he will feel isolated if all the reunification process goes the West’s way,” she said in a quote by her biographer, Charles Moore.The following year, Soviet hardliners did try to oust Gorbachev in a bungled coup attempt. Thatcher’s position pitted her against many in her own Cabinet and other European leaders, as well as against George H. W. Bush’s White House. Bush aides thought she was being impractical and that rapid German reunification was inevitable. They dubbed her a “Cold warrior” who was over-anxious about the consequences of German reunification.Thirty years on, the old East-West divide remains at play. In the third and final volume of his authorized Thatcher biography, Herself Alone, published last year, Moore, a former editor of Britain’s Daily Telegraph, notes that one of the Russians who became convinced that his country had been humiliated by the West during this era-shattering period was Vladimir Putin, a former a KGB officer who served in East Germany.In 2017, Putin described the manner of German reunification as Gorbachev’s “mistake” and criticized him during an interview for failing to secure binding guarantees from the West that there would be no eastward expansion of NATO. Gorbachev had initially called for a united but neutral Germany – a proposal rejected by West Germany, the U.S. and Poland, another newly emerging democracy on Russia’s border.Gorbachev backed down.Difficult adjustmentIn the years following reunification, many East Germans became increasingly disillusioned as they struggled to adjust themselves to new realities.Many began to feel that they had not been reunited with their Western cousins, but instead had been taken over by them. They complained of Westerners disparaging their achievements and disdaining their educations as subpar. Many older East Germans lamented the increased pace of life, based more on commercial principles. They mourned the loss of predictability, while all too often forgetting the constraints and repression of communism.With inefficient factories closing, unemployment soared with some towns seeing one in five workers jobless, souring the vision of “blooming landscapes” they had been promised by German chancellor Helmut Kohl when the wall came down. Berlin pumped billions of euros into the East but many older East Germans complained that at least under communism they were guaranteed work and free health care. Many youngsters left, shrinking Germany’s population in the East by 2.2 million, leaving their parents and grandparents feeling like second-class citizens. There was a surge of support for a newly formed socialist political party, the Linkspartei – or “Left” party.Three decades on, the former East Germany is catching up economically with its Western sibling, but a series of reports and studies in the runup to Saturday’s 30th anniversary of German reunification suggests stark divides remain. “I had hoped that in this … 30th year after German reunification, we would be further along than we are,” said Marco Wanderwitz, the government ombudsman for the former communist East Germany.German politicians point to a narrowing of the per capita GDP gap between its eastern and western regions as an example of the resounding success of German reunification. Per capita GDP in eastern Germany has reached 79.1%, a gain of 42 percentage points since 1990. Ironically, in some areas, Germans in the country’s east are doing better than their counterparts to the west. Women in the former GDR are more likely to work full time in part because of better childcare facilities, a legacy of the region’s communist past.But one government study shows that, on average, salaries in the East are only 88.8% of those in the West. Eastern Germany has more people out of work and lower property values. “In an extraordinary manner, in many ways Germany looks like it’s still divided,” the left-leaning daily newspaper TAZsaid. Der Spiegel magazine laments that the “feelings of mistrust and alienation between East and West have not disappeared.”A government report overseen by Wanderwitz also sadly notes the lack of satisfaction Germans in the East feel toward the political system. While more than 90% of western Germans think democracy is the “best suited form of government,” only 78% of East Germans agree. Wanderwitz notes: “Trust in state institutions is also some cases is at a shockingly low level.” Even so, he says that while “some things have taken longer than planned … in many areas we can basically say: unity accomplished.”Easterners, known as Ossies, say unity will be accomplished only when they are taken more seriously. They say their origins determine their position in society and their prospects far more than they do for Westerners. They complain they are underrepresented in the top echelons of German public life. Chancellor Angela Merkel, who was born in the East, is one of the few Ossies in the top political ranks of the country, and not one dean in Germany’s 81 universities is from the former communist half of the country. In last year’s regional government elections, the East saw a surge in support for the anti-immigrant, nationalist far-right AfD party, testimony to the rift between the country’s prosperous West and its still-adjusting East.
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Armenian and Azerbaijani forces continued fighting Saturday for the seventh day over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, ignoring international calls for a cease-fire.   
 
Armenia says the territory’s capital, Stepanakert, was the target of bombing by Azeri forces.  
 
Authorities in the breakaway territory have warned that the “last battle” for the region has begun. They called on the international community Saturday to “recognize the independence” of Nagorno-Karabakh as “the only effective mechanism to restore peace.”
 
In a statement issued late Friday, the second this week, the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Igor Popov of Russia, Stéphane Visconti of France, and Andrew Schofer of the United States, expressed their “alarm at reports of increasing civilian casualties” and strongly condemned the continued violence.  
 
“Targeting or threatening civilians is never acceptable under any circumstances,” the statement said, adding that “the co-chairs call on the sides to observe fully their international obligations to protect civilian populations.”
 
Armenia responded positively Friday to a call by the Minsk Group for a cease-fire between its forces and Azerbaijani forces, engaged in a conflict that is threatening to escalate into all-out war.Armenia is “ready to engage” with the OSCE Minsk Group “to reestablish a cease-fire regime based on the 1994-1995 agreements,” the country’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement Friday.
 
Azerbaijan’s president has demanded the withdrawal of Armenian forces from Nagorno-Karabakh as the only way to end the fighting.
 
Both sides previously had dismissed demands for a truce in the disputed region, where fighting has escalated in recent days to levels not seen since the 1990s.  Dozens of people have been killed and hundreds of others injured in the fighting that erupted September 26.
 
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A festive, jubilant crowd thronged Berlin’s historic Brandenburg Gate 30 years ago Saturday, celebrating the reunification of Germany less than a year after the Berlin Wall had fallen.Located in Berlin’s eastern communist sector, the Brandenburg Gate had been inaccessible to West Germans for 28 years. But not on October 3, 1990, with strains of Beethoven’s Ode to Joy in the background as exultant crowds marked the dawn of a new era in German and European history.“The day has come in which for the first time in history the whole of Germany has found its lasting place in the circle of Western democracies,” declared Richard von Weizsäcker, the federal German president who was suddenly the head of state of a larger Germany.“Farewell to an unloved country,” Britain’s ambassador to East Germany, Patrick Eyers, wrote in his final dispatch to London as envoy on the eve of German reunification.“At midnight tonight the German Democratic Republic will cease to exist as a state,” he wrote. “In what mood do the people of the GDR come to unity? … My impression is one of deep emotion, of contentment mixed with a certain trepidation in the face of the uncertainties ahead. But none of them is looking back.”Back in London, then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher shared the trepidation. She had opposed speedy reunification, fearing a united Germany would dominate Europe, changing the power dynamics of the European Union. She also feared that Soviet hardliners might view it as a humiliation, prompting them to undermine then-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, complicating the unwinding of the Cold War.“I fear that he will feel isolated if all the reunification process goes the West’s way,” she said in a quote by her biographer, Charles Moore.The following year, Soviet hardliners did try to oust Gorbachev in a bungled coup attempt. Thatcher’s position pitted her against many in her own Cabinet and other European leaders, as well as against George H. W. Bush’s White House. Bush aides thought she was being impractical and that rapid German reunification was inevitable. They dubbed her a “Cold warrior” who was over-anxious about the consequences of German reunification.Thirty years on, the old East-West divide remains at play. In the third and final volume of his authorized Thatcher biography, Herself Alone, published last year, Moore, a former editor of Britain’s Daily Telegraph, notes that one of the Russians who became convinced that his country had been humiliated by the West during this era-shattering period was Vladimir Putin, a former a KGB officer who served in East Germany.In 2017, Putin described the manner of German reunification as Gorbachev’s “mistake” and criticized him during an interview for failing to secure binding guarantees from the West that there would be no eastward expansion of NATO. Gorbachev had initially called for a united but neutral Germany – a proposal rejected by West Germany, the U.S. and Poland, another newly emerging democracy on Russia’s border.Gorbachev backed down.Difficult adjustmentIn the years following reunification, many East Germans became increasingly disillusioned as they struggled to adjust themselves to new realities.Many began to feel that they had not been reunited with their Western cousins, but instead had been taken over by them. They complained of Westerners disparaging their achievements and disdaining their educations as subpar. Many older East Germans lamented the increased pace of life, based more on commercial principles. They mourned the loss of predictability, while all too often forgetting the constraints and repression of communism.With inefficient factories closing, unemployment soared with some towns seeing one in five workers jobless, souring the vision of “blooming landscapes” they had been promised by German chancellor Helmut Kohl when the wall came down. Berlin pumped billions of euros into the East but many older East Germans complained that at least under communism they were guaranteed work and free health care. Many youngsters left, shrinking Germany’s population in the East by 2.2 million, leaving their parents and grandparents feeling like second-class citizens. There was a surge of support for a newly formed socialist political party, the Linkspartei – or “Left” party.Three decades on, the former East Germany is catching up economically with its Western sibling, but a series of reports and studies in the runup to Saturday’s 30th anniversary of German reunification suggests stark divides remain. “I had hoped that in this … 30th year after German reunification, we would be further along than we are,” said Marco Wanderwitz, the government ombudsman for the former communist East Germany.German politicians point to a narrowing of the per capita GDP gap between its eastern and western regions as an example of the resounding success of German reunification. Per capita GDP in eastern Germany has reached 79.1%, a gain of 42 percentage points since 1990. Ironically, in some areas, Germans in the country’s east are doing better than their counterparts to the west. Women in the former GDR are more likely to work full time in part because of better childcare facilities, a legacy of the region’s communist past.But one government study shows that, on average, salaries in the East are only 88.8% of those in the West. Eastern Germany has more people out of work and lower property values. “In an extraordinary manner, in many ways Germany looks like it’s still divided,” the left-leaning daily newspaper TAZsaid. Der Spiegel magazine laments that the “feelings of mistrust and alienation between East and West have not disappeared.”A government report overseen by Wanderwitz also sadly notes the lack of satisfaction Germans in the East feel toward the political system. While more than 90% of western Germans think democracy is the “best suited form of government,” only 78% of East Germans agree. Wanderwitz notes: “Trust in state institutions is also some cases is at a shockingly low level.” Even so, he says that while “some things have taken longer than planned … in many areas we can basically say: unity accomplished.”Easterners, known as Ossies, say unity will be accomplished only when they are taken more seriously. They say their origins determine their position in society and their prospects far more than they do for Westerners. They complain they are underrepresented in the top echelons of German public life. Chancellor Angela Merkel, who was born in the East, is one of the few Ossies in the top political ranks of the country, and not one dean in Germany’s 81 universities is from the former communist half of the country. In last year’s regional government elections, the East saw a surge in support for the anti-immigrant, nationalist far-right AfD party, testimony to the rift between the country’s prosperous West and its still-adjusting East.
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Scotland First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has called on a lawmaker from her own ruling Scottish National Party to resign after she traveled by train following a positive test for COVID-19. Westminster Member of Parliament Margaret Ferrier was suspended Thursday by her party after breaking self-isolation rules to attend Parliament in London while awaiting results of a coronavirus test, which later came back positive. After experiencing symptoms consistent with COVID-19, the 60-year-old lawmaker sought out testing on Saturday, and then traveled from Glasgow to London on Monday because she was “feeling much better.” She received the positive results later that evening, just hours after speaking for four minutes during a coronavirus debate in the Commons chamber. Ferrier returned to Scotland by train Tuesday morning despite the positive test results. It is mandatory for people in Britain to self-isolate if they test positive for the coronavirus, with fines of 1,000 pounds for those who violate the rule. Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon speaks during the Scottish government’s daily briefing on the coronavirus outbreak, at St. Andrew’s House, Edinburgh, in this handout picture released by the Scottish Government on Oct. 2, 2020.From her Twitter account Friday, the first minister said, “I’ve spoken to Margaret Ferrier and made clear my view that she should step down as an MP. I did so with a heavy heart—she is a friend & colleague—but her actions were dangerous & indefensible. I have no power to force an MP to resign but I hope she will do the right thing.”Ferrier apologized for her actions via Twitter on Thursday, saying there was no excuse. “Despite feeling well, I should have self-isolated and waited for my test, and I deeply regret my actions.” Ferrier said she took full responsibility and urges everyone not to make the same mistakes she has. She also said she notified the police and the House of Commons regarding her actions. There has been no reaction regarding Sturgeon’s call for her to resign. 
 
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French President Emmanuel Macron Friday called Islam “a religion that is in crisis all over the world,” in a speech addressing what he calls “separatism” in France’s Islamic community.
 
In remarks delivered in the western Paris suburb of Les Mureaux, Macron said Islam is a religion in deep crisis worldwide, even in countries where it is the majority religion, because of “tensions between fundamentalism and political projects … that lead to very strong radicalization.”
 
The French president said in France there is a “parallel society” of radical Muslims thriving outside the values of the nation, a “separatism” as he describes it, that thrives in some neighborhoods around the country, where Muslims with a radical vision of their religion take control of the local population to inculcate their beliefs.
 
But Macron said everyone can share in the blame for this so-called separatism.
 
“We ourselves have built our own separatism, that of our neighborhoods. This is the ghettoization that our republic, initially with the best intentions in the world, allowed to take place,” said the French leader Friday.He noted France’s concentration of populations into districts according to their origins, which has also concentrated educational and economic difficulties as well.
 
Macron said where French secular society failed Islamic youth, radicals stepped in.
 
The French president said the government will offer legislation in December to “reinforce secularism and consolidate republican principles.”Macron to Outline France’s Controversial Anti-Separatism BillFrance’s Muslim community – Europe’s largest – worries new law could deepen anti-Islamic sentimentsHe called secularism “the cement of a united France,” and added: “Let us not fall into the trap laid by … extremists, who aim to stigmatize all Muslims.”
 
During his speech, Macron repeatedly stressed the importance of schools in instilling secular values in young people and said that the government would require private schools to agree to teach them. Beginning next year, with few exceptions, the 50,000 French children who are currently educated at home would be required to attend school with fellow students, he said.
 
The bill would include additional education funding as well.
 
The remarks come as a trial is underway in Paris over the deadly January 2015 attacks on satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo and a kosher supermarket by French-born Islamic extremists. Last week, a man from Pakistan stabbed two people near Charlie Hebdo’s former offices in anger over its publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad. 
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A British judge will deliver a decision January 4 on whether to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the United States to face charges, including espionage.District Judge Vanessa Baraitser made the announcement at London’s Old Bailey Court after nearly four weeks of hearings.The U.S. has requested extradition of Australian-born Assange on 17 espionage charges and one charge of misusing computers in connection with Wikileaks’ 2010 and 2011 publication of thousands of confidential U.S. cables, mainly relating to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.A group of protesters gathered in front of the court in support of Assange.After the court adjourned, Stella Moris, Assange’s fiancée and the mother of his two young children, called for his release.”Julian is a publisher,” she said. “Julian is also a son, he’s a friend. He’s my fiancé and a father. Our children need their father, Julian needs his freedom, and our democracy needs a free press. Thank you.”Kristinn Hrafnsson, a Wikileaks editor, said extradition would mean ”darkness for us all.””After all these four weeks, we should be in no doubt that there is only one thing that has to happen as an outcome of these proceedings,” Hrafnsson said. “If Julian Assange is extradited it will mean darkness for us all. It cannot happen. We must take a stand. There can only be one outcome: no extradition.”Assange’s lawyers, fighting the U.S. extradition request, say the charges were politically motivated and that his mental health is at risk, arguing that U.S. prison conditions breach Britain’s human rights laws, adding that Assange and his lawyers were surveilled while he was in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.Lawyers representing the United States said that many of those arguments related to issues to be addressed in a trial and have no bearing on extradition.
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EU leaders overcame a diplomatic stalemate Friday to agree on sanctions on Belarus after a long evening of summit talks, assuring Cyprus the bloc would stand firm on Turkey for its oil and gas drilling in the Mediterranean.The agreement to sanction some 40 Belarus officials accused of rigging an Aug. 9 presidential election allows the EU to make good on its promise to support pro-democracy protesters in Minsk and regain some credibility after weeks of delays.”We have unblocked sanctions on Belarus,” a senior EU official told Reuters.Another EU diplomat said: “It’s a decent compromise,” but gave no details.The EU’s chairman and chief executive were to give a news conference in the early hours of Friday.While Britain and Canada have imposed sanctions on Minsk to show support for pro-democracy demonstrations there, the impasse in the 27-nation EU, where decisions are taken by unanimity, has cost the bloc credibility, diplomats say.Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades, on the day of his island’s 60th anniversary of independence from Britain, had demanded a much tougher stance on Turkey as the price for supporting Belarus sanctions.He said the EU must send a message that Ankara’s oil and gas exploration along the coast of the Mediterranean island is unacceptable.Germany pushed back against the imposition of EU sanctions on Turkey, fearing it would disrupt efforts to cool tensions with Greece.Turkey, both a candidate to join the EU and a member of NATO, has slid toward authoritarianism under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan but remains a strategically located partner that the EU cannot ignore.In a sign that the diplomatic stand-off is easing at least between Athens and Ankara, NATO announced on Thursday that the two alliance members had set up a “military de-confliction mechanism” to avoid accidental clashes at sea. 
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Britain’s primary environmental agency announced that beginning Thursday a ban on all “single-use” beverage straws is in effect, making it illegal for businesses to sell or supply them to individual customers.
 
The ban was passed and set to take effect in April, but the COVID-19 pandemic prompted law makers to postpone its implementation so as to not impose a further burden on businesses.
 
A statement Thursday from Britain’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural affairs says the ban includes plastic straws, stirrers and cotton swabs.
 
In a statement on its official web site, the agency says it is estimated Britain uses 4.7 billion plastic straws, 316 million plastic stirrers, and 1.8 billion plastic-stemmed cotton swabs annually, many of which find their way into the ocean.
 
In the statement, Britain’s Environment Secretary George Eustice said single-use plastics cause “real devastation to the environment” and the government is firmly committed to tackling the issue.
 
He said the ban on straws, stirrers and cotton swabs is just the next step in “our battle against plastic pollution and our pledge to protect our ocean and the environment for future generations.”
 
Exemptions to the ban include disabled persons or those who need them for medical purposes. Some catering businesses also will be allowed to use plastic straws or stirrers in certain circumstances, and businesses may sell some of the banned items to other businesses. 
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Millions of Madrileños were preparing to go into lockdown once again Thursday as authorities in Western Europe’s worst hotspot shut down the Spanish capital to try to halt a new surge in COVID-19 cases. The Spanish government gave regional authorities 48 hours to comply with new restrictions which will affect this city of more than 3 million people and nine surrounding communities.  Isabel Díaz Ayuso, the head of Madrid’s city government, said regional authorities will abide by the order but will challenge the Spanish government in the courts, widening a rift between her conservative regional administration and the minority left-wing coalition central government. Other regions such as Catalonia, Andalusia and Galicia have also opposed the new restrictions. Madrid authorities say the lockdown will damage the economy of the Spanish capital which thrives on its bars, restaurants and — in normal times — tourists. A waiter wearing a protective face mask waits for customers in his terrace at Plaza Mayor square amid the outbreak of the coronavirus disease, in Madrid, Spain, Oct. 1, 2020.The dispute has been widely criticized by health workers and epidemiologists who say the bickering has hindered attempts to save lives in Europe’s worst-hit city. Spain, with the highest infection rate in the European Union, has reported 300 coronavirus cases per 100,000 inhabitants during the past two weeks. Madrid, where over a third of all Spain’s cases have been recorded, reported 735 cases per 100,000 people. By Thursday, Spain had recorded 769,188 cases — the highest in Western Europe — and 31,791 deaths. Efforts wane As the pressure on the city’s hospitals and health centers has mounted, doctors said authorities have given up its track and trace program. “They have left us to our own fate,” Angela Hernández, vice president of the Madrid Doctors Association, told VOA. She said track and trace teams in Madrid have stopped trying to reach people who have tested positive for COVID-19, including school children and any family or friends. “With no track and tracing, it means this can only get worse even if they close down the city,” said Hernández. “The politicians should have used this moment to help the public regardless of political differences. … Instead, they just want to perpetuate their own positions.” People queue for a rapid antigen test for COVID-19 in the southern neighborhood of Vallecas in Madrid, Spain, Oct. 1, 2020.The new curbs will apply to Madrid, with a population of over 3 million, and nine surrounding municipalities with populations of at least 100,000 each. Borders will be closed to outsiders for non-essential visits, with only those traveling for work, school or medical visits allowed to cross. Bars and restaurants will be subject to a curfew between 11 p.m. and 1 a.m. Residents will not have to stay at home, as happened during the state of emergency in March, but can move around their own areas. Protests  Ayuso agreed to abide by the lockdown order but said the battle was not over. “Madrid is not in rebellion. We will obey them but we will go to court to oppose them. This plan destroys Madrid,” she said. A partial lockdown has already been imposed in many of the poorer areas of Madrid with high infection rates, prompting demonstrations. Protesters said they felt marginalized by the conservative authorities who were putting jobs at risk. “It is OK for me to travel to Salamanca to serve at the tables of the rich, but they put restrictions on my area where I live,” said Gema Ordoñez, a waitress who works at a cafe in one of the most exclusive areas of Madrid and lives in Vallecas, an area placed under partial lockdown. “Many people where I live do not have jobs with contracts. If they have to stay at home because someone has tested positive for the virus, they will lose their jobs.” A man wearing a face mask to prevent the spread of the coronavirus walks in the southern neighborhood of Vallecas in Madrid, Spain, Oct. 1, 2020.Rafael Bengoa, a former World Health Organization director and one-time adviser to U.S. President Barack Obama, said shutting down Madrid was the only option. “Imposing partial lockdowns does not work. There is community transmission so it means a total lockdown must happen,” he told VOA. Echoes of a bitter past The bitter political fighting evokes dark memories and raises alarms in a nation that has yet to fully heal from a 1936-1939 civil war between forces on the left and right that resulted in the deaths of an estimated half-million people.  Jason Webster, the author of Violencia which tells the history of Spain’s violent past, said: “Sadly, what’s happening now in Madrid — the petty point-scoring, politicians caring more about damaging their opponents than actually serving the people who elected them — is nothing new.  “People are used to it, but the damage lingers and festers until seemingly out of nowhere there comes an explosion. Only time will tell whether that will happen again.” 
 
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Barbados intends to remove Britain’s Queen Elizabeth as head of state and become a republic. Observers say the former British colony has debated such a move for decades, but the Black Lives Matter movement and resentment over Britain’s treatment of Caribbean migrants have acted as catalysts. But one prominent British MP is blaming China for pressuring Barbados into breaking ties with Britain, as Henry Ridgwell reports from London.  PRODUCER: Jon Spier
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Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is calling on Georgian authorities to guarantee the safety of journalists covering the parliamentary election campaign in the country after TV crews were attacked during clashes between pro-government and pro-opposition activists.”We call on the leaders of the two parties to condemn these attacks and we urge the authorities to conduct an exhaustive and transparent investigation in order to identify those responsible,” the Paris-based watchdog said in a statement  on October 1, warning that the environment for journalists has “worsened” in the run-up to the October 31 vote.RSF said at least five journalists covering the campaign were physically attacked in the southern town of Marneuli on September 29 during clashes between members of the ruling Georgian Dream party and the opposition United National Movement.Jeyhun Muhamedali, one of four journalists with the opposition TV channel Mtavari Arkhi, was hospitalized with a head injury sustained during the violence, in which a camera and microphone were damaged, according to the group.A camera operator with Georgia’s public broadcaster GPB was also attacked and his camera smashed.Georgian police have launched an investigation into the violence and into the obstruction of journalists’ work.”The state has an obligation to guarantee journalists’ safety. With four weeks to go to a high-stakes election, impunity for those responsible for violence must be combatted,” said Jeanne Cavelier, the head of RSF’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia desk.The South Caucasus country is ranked 60th out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2020 World Press Freedom Index. 
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Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has told a German magazine that Russian President Vladimir Putin was behind his poisoning.In excerpts of his comments released Thursday by Der Spiegel, Navalny said, “I don’t have any other versions of how the crime was committed.”The Kremlin has denied any involvement.Navalny fell ill on an August 20 flight and was initially hospitalized in the Siberian city of Omsk.Russian doctors said they found no trace of poisoning, but after Navalny was transferred to a hospital in Germany, tests there showed he was poisoned with the nerve agent Novichok, originally developed by the former Soviet Union. Subsequent tests by French and Swedish laboratories confirmed that result.The same type of nerve agent was used in a 2018 attack against a former spy in Britain.Navalny is a frequent critic of Putin and told Der Spiegel he plans to return to Russia.“My job now is to remain the guy who isn’t scared,” he told the magazine. “And I’m not scared.”Navalny spent 32 days in the hospital, and his German doctors have said he could make a full recovery.  
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The Spanish government has issued limited lockdown orders on Madrid as the country experiences a new surge of coronavirus cases.The capital city’s 3 million residents will not be allowed to venture from their homes except to go to work, school, shopping or for medical care.  All bars and restaurants will be forced to close earlier than normal and reduce their seating capacity by 50%.The new restrictions were approved during a meeting Wednesday between the government of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and the heads of Spain’s various autonomous regions. Health Minister Salvador Illa told reporters the restrictions will apply to municipalities with at least 100,000 inhabitants each, which would also affect nine municipalities surrounding the Spanish capital.Europe is experiencing a steady rise of new COVID-19 infections, with Spain leading the way with about 300 infections per 100,000 inhabitants. But the rate is more than double in the Madrid region, which stands at more than 780 infections per 100,000.“Madrid’s health is Spain’s health,” Health Minister Illa said.But the new restrictions have been denounced by Madrid’s right-wing regional government, with regional health minister Enrique Ruiz Escudero accusing the national Socialist-led government of interfering in the region’s handling of the pandemic. Madrid’s regional government rejected the new restrictions during Wednesday’s meeting, along with Catalonia and three other conservative-ruled regions.Meanwhile, two of the world’s biggest airlines, U.S. carriers American and United, say they will begin furloughing a combined 32,000 workers on Thursday due to a lack of more emergency aid from the federal government. The U.S. airline industry had received $25 billion in payroll support in March during the first days of the pandemic, as domestic and international travel ground to a halt.The furloughs by American and United come on the same week U.S. entertainment giant Disney announced it will lay off 28,000 workers, the majority of them at the company’s theme parks in Florida and California.The U.S. National Football League said Wednesday that Sunday’s scheduled game between the Tennessee Titans and Pittsburgh Steelers will be delayed until either Monday or Tuesday due to an outbreak of COVID-19 cases within the Titans’ franchise.Three players and five nonplayer personnel tested positive for the virus after the team played the Minnesota Vikings in Minneapolis on Sunday, prompting the Titans to shut down its practice facilities in Nashville. A fourth player tested positive Wednesday. The Titans are the first NFL franchise with a COVID-19 outbreak since the beginning of the season in early September.
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The United States has held off on joining Britain and Canada in imposing sanctions on Belarus in hopes the European Union can overcome an internal dispute, paving the way to coordinated U.S. and EU sanctions, four sources said on Wednesday.The EU had vowed in August to impose sanctions on Belarus for alleged fraud in its August 9 election and for human rights abuses since, but Cyprus, one of its smallest members, has prevented this.Cyprus has maintained it will not agree to the Belarusian sanctions unless the EU also puts sanctions on Turkey because of a separate dispute over Turkish drilling for oil and gas in the Eastern Mediterranean.Six sources told Reuters last week that Britain, Canada and the United States planned to impose sanctions on individual Belarusians in a coordinated move. Only London and Ottawa followed suit on Tuesday.Speaking on condition of anonymity, three sources on Wednesday said Washington refrained because it believed the EU might achieve consensus at this week’s European Council meeting.One source in Washington familiar with the matter told Reuters that a U.S. package, including human rights sanctions, was essentially ready, but the timing of any announcement was uncertain.The sanctions aim to impose consequences for the disputed election, which the opposition says was stolen, and for the treatment of protesters in Belarus, where President Alexander Lukashenko has ruled for 26 years.More than 12,000 people have been arrested since Lukashenko, who denies electoral fraud, was named the election’s landslide winner. Major opposition figures are either in jail or in exile.A Cyprus source said there was a “political agreement” on Turkish sanctions at an informal EU foreign ministers’ meeting in Berlin in August and Cyprus remained ready to implement it though it was not clear precisely what the source meant.”It’s not a question of softening or hardening of [Cyprus’] position,” the source said.After the meeting, Germany’s foreign ministry said ministers agreed on their “solidarity with Greece and Cyprus” but stressed that constructive dialog with Turkey was vital to resolve “contentious issues in the eastern Mediterranean.”The embassy of Cyprus in Washington, the White House and the State Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment. 
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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson received a rare reprimand Wednesday by the speaker of the House of Commons for treating lawmakers with contempt by rushing through far-reaching COVID-19 restrictions without proper review by lawmakers.Just before the prime minister’s weekly “question time” with members of Parliament, Lindsay Hoyle, speaker of the House of Commons, admonished Johnson for making rules in a “totally unsatisfactory” way.Hoyle said that several of the COVID-19-related measures were published and brought before Parliament only hours before they were to take effect, and some after the fact. The speaker said the actions showed total disregard for the House of Commons and called on Johnson and his government to prepare measures more quickly.The speaker did hold back a rebellion within Johnson’s own Conservative Party, where more than 50 members had threatened to join an opposition-led measure demanding more say over future rules to stop the spread of the virus and accusing ministers of governing “by decree.”But they were denied a chance to vote on the proposal after the speaker ruled there was not enough time for a proper debate.Later Wednesday, during a news briefing on the COVID-19 pandemic, Johnson said the government would not hesitate to put even stricter pandemic restrictions in place if evidence supported such a move.Britain reported 7,143 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, the highest one-day figure to date for the country, which has the highest official death toll in Europe.Areas of Britain, particularly in the northeast where a second wave of COVID-19 infections is surging, are faced with local restrictions designed to slow its spread. Britain has reported more than 42,233 deaths from the virus, the world’s fifth-highest total.
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