With the political opponents of President Nicolás Maduro boycotting Sunday’s election for the National Assembly, his socialist party is expected to dominate the vote, giving him control of the last major institution in Venezuela outside his grasp.The opposition contends the election is rigged and has called its own referendum to counter it. Both votes are playing out in the waning days of the Trump administration, which leaves office with Maduro firmly entrenched despite its efforts to bring about his departure through diplomacy and sanctions.By taking over the National Assembly, some experts say, Maduro’s United Socialist Party of Venezuela will effectively smother the last remnants of democracy in the country.”Everything indicates that he will achieve what he has always sought, which is to have total, authoritarian, hegemonic control of all the country’s institutions,” said Michael Shifter, president of the Washington-based Inter-American Dialogue.He expects U.S. President-elect Joe Biden, who has not hesitated in calling Maduro a “dictator,” to maintain a tough position against the South American leader, and even refine the strategy further, such as taking steps to work more closely with European allies.Deepening crisisOnce an oil-producing powerhouse, Venezuela has been embroiled for years in a deepening political and economic crisis. More than 5 million people have fled the country in recent years, the world’s largest migration after war-torn Syria. The International Monetary Fund projects a 25% decline this year in Venezuela’s GDP, while hyperinflation diminishes the value of its currency, the bolivar.Maduro, the handpicked successor to the late President Hugo Chávez, won a second term in 2018. But Washington and several nations accused him of fixing the outcome by banning his most popular opponents from challenging him.FILE – Opposition leader Juan Guaido arrives at the “Venezuela raises its voice” campaign rally in the Terrazas del Avila neighborhood of Caracas, Venezuela, Nov. 12, 2020.Opposition leader Juan Guaidó, 37, rose to head the National Assembly in early 2019, declaring presidential powers and vowing to oust Maduro, 58. The dramatic move sparked massive street demonstrations across Venezuela and won support from dozens of nations.The Trump administration took the lead by hitting Maduro with punishing sanctions, targeting the state-run oil firm PDVSA and cutting him off from billions of dollars annually. The U.S. Justice Department also indicted Maduro as a “narcoterrorist,” offering a $15 million reward for his arrest.But he remains in power with backing from Venezuela’s military and international support from nations like Iran, Russia, China and Cuba. Maduro’s domestic allies also control the supreme court, prosecutor’s office and elections commission.Maduro has campaigned for his party’s congressional candidates — including his son and wife — promising to finally silence the right-wing opposition, which he accuses of inciting violent protests.Ahead of the election, state TV has broadcast video of large campaign rallies with cheering crowds led by Maduro and his political allies, despite polls showing he is widely unpopular.’Five years of horror'”We’ve had to suffer under five years of horror, plots, conspiracies and failure,” Maduro said. “Our people are aware that it was a mistake to elect the opposition.”International bodies like the European Union have refused to send observers to Sunday’s election, saying the conditions for a democratic process don’t exist.Guaidó’s once-high approval rating has fallen since early last year as Venezuelans grow frustrated that the opposition hasn’t been able to topple Maduro and restore stability.Rejecting Sunday’s vote, the opposition will instead hold a referendum asking Venezuelans a series of questions to gauge support for ending Maduro’s rule, holding new elections and seeking international help in solving Venezuela’s crisis.FILE – Nicolas Maduro Guerra, son of Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro, campaigns for a spot in the National Assembly for the Dec. 6 midterm elections, in Maiquetía, Venezuela, Nov. 29, 2020.The referendum is being held over several days immediately following the congressional election. Venezuelans can register their votes digitally and in person in cities across Venezuela and abroad. Civil organizations are organizing it without any independent audit or observation.Guaidó is banned from television and radio broadcasts in Venezuela. Instead, he has appeared in public by talking with people waiting in long lines to buy gas or speaking to representatives of a teachers union. He urged them to take part in the referendum.Despite the boycott by the Guaidó-led coalition, a small number of opposition parties not associated with him have had dialogue with the government and are participating in the election. Critics say this will allow Maduro to maintain the semblance of a valid contest.’We have to keep fighting’Carlos Vecchio, Guaidó’s ambassador to Washington, said opposition leaders realize the risk of carrying out the referendum as once-fervent support fades and they face potential aggression from Maduro’s armed forces and roving groups of his supporters on motorcycles.”I can understand that frustration, but we have no alternative. We have to keep fighting for a transition,” Vecchio said. “I feel frustration as well.”He cited the lack of access to Venezuelan media and the Maduro government’s decision earlier this year to strip the main opposition parties of their leaders and replace them with its own representatives.Vecchio wouldn’t say whether his delegation in Washington has made contact with Biden’s incoming administration, saying they remain focused on keeping up support from both Republicans and Democrats.Elliott Abrams, the U.S. special representative to Venezuela, said the U.S. will continue to recognize the opposition lawmakers in the current National Assembly and Guaidó’s role as interim president, despite Sunday’s outcome. Without being re-elected, their term ends in early January.Abrams said he also expects broad international support for Venezuela’s opposition to remain firm, even as Maduro’s government tries to push them out of Venezuela’s political landscape.”They’ve done everything they can to make sure this is not a free election,” Abrams said. “We’re getting instead an election that doesn’t deserve to be called an election.”
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U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet condemned gross violations of human rights in Belarus on Friday, calling on the government to put an end to the abusive treatment of its people.Bachelet told the U.N. Human Rights Council that conditions in Belarus have deteriorated since the council held an urgent debate on the human rights situation in September, following Belarus’ widely criticized presidential elections August 9.FILE – United Nations’ High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet adjusts her mask during the 45th session of the Human Rights Council, at the European U.N. headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, Sept. 14, 2020.More than 27,000 people have been arrested, including senior citizens participating in peaceful marches, she said, adding that penalties imposed on protesters appear to be growing more severe, with over 900 people reportedly having been treated as suspects in criminal cases. Security forces have used tear gas, water cannons, rubber bullets and stun guns to disperse crowds, Bachelet said, and at least four people have been killed. “We also have multiple and credible reports of people beaten by members of the security forces during and after their transport to police stations or detention centers,” she said. “If confirmed, such incidents should constitute ill-treatment and, in some cases, may amount to torture. Moreover, masked men, without insignia or identification, have frequently taken part in the dispersal of protests, alongside riot police.” Up to 2,000 complaints of torture of people while in custody were lodged by the end of October. Such actions heighten a climate of fear and an atmosphere of lawlessness and impunity, she said. “Many people who have been detained have reported being held in overcrowded cells, without adequate ventilation — despite the risks linked to the COVID-19 pandemic — denied food, water, access to the toilet and medical treatment,” Bachelet said. “They have further reported violent and random beatings as well as acts of humiliation, insults and threats.” FILE – Belarusian law enforcement officers block opposition supporters during their rally to reject the presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus, Nov. 1, 2020.The high commissioner is calling on the government to immediately release all those unlawfully detained, to respect the right of peaceful assembly, and to ensure independent and impartial investigations into cases of alleged torture and other human rights violations. Belarus Ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva Yuri Ambrazevich accused the U.N. of distorting the situation. He said full-fledged wars have received less attention than is being directed at his country. The pressure being exerted on Belarus violates the U.N. Charter on the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign state, he said, blasting the European Union for imposing sanctions on Belarus, which he said clearly violated international law. 
 
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President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has complained about an international conspiracy forming against Turkey, and he says it’s attempting to frustrate his projection of Turkish power and influence abroad.Domestic and foreign critics counter that there isn’t yet a conspiracy, but if one does emerge, it largely will be due to his picking fights with his country’s neighbors, including the European Union and Turkey’s NATO allies. They are exasperated by his threats, whenever he is crossed, to throw open the doors for migrants to once again flock into Europe.Erdogan has in recent months frequently blamed invisible, malevolent foreign enemies for Turkey’s sharply deteriorating economy. For most of this year, foreign investors have shunned the country, and an already weak Turkish lira plunged last month to record lows in value against the dollar and euro. Western critics say Turkish economic woes are the result of his own mishandling of the economy.FILE PHOTO: A merchant counts Turkish lira banknotes at the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul, Turkey, March 29, 2019.Additionally, the Turkish leader and his aides have accused European nations of ganging up to sabotage his geopolitical ambitions, especially in the eastern Mediterranean, where Ankara is locked in an escalating maritime quarrel with Greece and Cyprus that risks getting out of hand over lucrative gas and oil drilling rights.The huge energy potential of the eastern Mediterranean has drawn other powers in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East into the destabilizing standoff. Western Europeans and Turkey’s other regional neighbors say maritime law is on the side of Athens and Cyprus, accusing Ankara of brinkmanship in a deadlock that’s seen opposing warships come close to clashing.“We see ourselves as an inseparable part of Europe,” Erdogan told members of his ruling Justice and Development Party [AKP] in a speech last month. “However, this does not mean that we will bow down to overt attacks to our country and nation, veiled injustices and double standards,” he added.Civilians flee from Idlib toward the north to find safety inside Syria near the border with Turkey, Feb. 15, 2020.In October, as European criticism mounted about Turkish adventurism, including a military intervention into northern Syria aimed at dislodging Syrian Kurds, Erdogan, retorted, “Hey EU, wake up. I say it again: If you try to frame our operation as an invasion, our task is simple — we will open the doors and send 3.6 million migrants to you.”Conspiracy theories have long been a feature of cultural and political life in Turkey, certainly since the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. And during his 17-year-long rule, political critics have accused Erdogan of stoking the long-held Turkish fear of being surrounded by foreign powers and beset by shadowy outside forces eager to weaken the country and to prevent it from restoring Ottoman greatness.“In fueling the current disputes in the Eastern Mediterranean, the [Turkish] leadership is using a narrative revolving around themes such as conquest—referring to the 1453 Ottoman conquest of Constantinople, today’s Istanbul—battles and wars, a huge [and undefined] foreign conspiracy, and a return to glory,” Marc Pierini, an analyst at the research group Carnegie Europe, noted in a posted commentary.Erdogan’s frequent complaint about an anti-Turkish foreign conspiracy risks turning into a self-fulfilling prophecy, warn some analysts and Western diplomats.French President Emmanuel Macron greets Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during a joint news conference at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, Jan. 5, 2018.From a diplomatic row with NATO ally France over the enforcement of an international arms embargo on Libya, to the deployment of special forces and Ankara-paid mercenaries to the strife-torn North Africa country, from military adventurism in northern Syria and Nagorno-Karabakh, to Turkey’s illegal drilling in Cypriot waters, the Turkish leader is amassing an impressive list of opponents.Ankara seems ever more willing to challenge allies and enemies alike in pursuit of a larger role on the world stage. If Western nations, and Turkey’s near neighbors, start coordinating containment strategies, it will be as a consequence of Erdogan’s aggressive aim to expand, through assertive diplomacy and military means, Turkish influence in the Mediterranean, Aegean and Black Sea, say Western diplomats and analysts.There are increasing signs that Turkey’s NATO partners are tiring with Erdogan’s assertive geopolitical ambitions and irredentist claims against his neighbors. “The totality of Turkey’s policies and actions have now reached a point of dangerous escalation,” according to analysts Heather Conley and Rachel Ellehuus of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a research group in Washington.They noted in a commentary for CSIS that Erdogan’s actions “substantially challenge the coherence of NATO’s collective defense posture in the Mediterranean and weaken its political cohesion.”“To avoid this,” they say, Western allies “should approach the growing instability in the Mediterranean through an integrative policy that seeks to de-escalate tensions and define, with Ankara, common interests by identifying some agreed principles to guide regional behavior.” They add: “If Turkey is unwilling to join such an initiative, greater transatlantic tensions lie ahead.”NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, left, and Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu speak to the media after their talks in Ankara, Turkey, Oct. 5, 2020.Turkey’s wrangling with allies and neighbors have increased since 2015, when Erdogan adopted as policy the so-called Blue Homeland Doctrine, originally drawn up by Turkish Admiral Cem Gurdeniz in 2006. The doctrine outlined an ambitious goal to expand Turkish influence with an aim to improve access to important energy and other economic resources. Its implementation has seen Erdogan resorting to ad hoc arrangements, reversing bilateral understandings, and backsliding on multilateral agreements and Turkish obligations to NATO—creating even greater regional instability, say critics.Despite his complaints about an anti-Turkey international conspiracy, some analysts say Erdogan has been helped by the absence of coordination between Western allies and by their circumspection.They say Western officials have held off imposing further sanctions on Turkey or enforcing sanctions that have already been announced. In July, EU foreign ministers asked the bloc’s diplomatic corps to draw up possible enforcement options for sanctions imposed on Turkey for its gas and oil drilling activities in Cypriot territorial waters and what they see as Ankara’s “gunboat diplomacy” in the eastern Mediterranean.A man reads walks past Cypriot newspaper with a front page carrying a photo montage about Turkey’s actions over Cyprus and international companies exploration for gas in the eastern Mediterranean in capital Nicosia, Cyprus, Feb. 13, 2018.Likewise, the U.S. has held back. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said Turkey’s illegal drilling in Cypriot waters is “unacceptable,” but the Trump administration hasn’t followed up with concrete action and has not yet imposed sanctions for Turkey’s recent purchase of the Russian S-400 missile defense system, an acquisition seen as breaching Ankara’s NATO commitments.Western diplomats and analysts say there are increasing signs, though, that Turkey’s NATO partners are wary of Erdogan’s adventurism and go-it-alone strategy. Impatience is likely to build quickly next year when U.S. President-elect Joe Biden enters the White House.Erdogan clashed often with Donald Trump, but Washington backed off confronting Ankara and opted for backroom deal-making. The two leaders were at least united in antipathy toward the EU. But that won’t be the case next year, and Erdogan is likely to find himself dealing with a less forgiving U.S. leader, according to Western diplomats.FILE – Turkish Finance Minister Berat Albayrak speaks during a conference to ease investor concerns about Turkey’s economic policy, in Istanbul, Turkey, Nov. 8, 2020.Since the U.S. election, Erdogan has shown signs he knows he will need to adjust. Hours after the U.S. election, Erdogan’s son-in-law, Berat Albayrak, resigned as Turkey’s economy minister. Albayrak had a close friendship with Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law.The Turkish president has also since the election vowed to launch a period of economic and legal reforms, saying he will prioritize legislation to strengthen democracy and improve human rights, an announcement widely seen as anticipating the changed circumstances in Washington. Biden has promised to host next year a global Summit for Democracy.
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Turkey is voicing concern over a new military alliance between Greece and the United Arab Emirates, warning it threatens to change the balance of power in the region. Turkey and Greece are engaged in a bitter dispute over territorial waters, as Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul
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President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has complained about an international conspiracy forming against Turkey, and he says it’s attempting to frustrate his projection of Turkish power and influence abroad.Domestic and foreign critics counter that there isn’t yet a conspiracy, but if one does emerge, it largely will be due to his picking fights with his country’s neighbors, including the European Union and Turkey’s NATO allies. They are exasperated by his threats, whenever he is crossed, to throw open the doors for migrants to once again flock into Europe.Erdogan has in recent months frequently blamed invisible, malevolent foreign enemies for Turkey’s sharply deteriorating economy. For most of this year, foreign investors have shunned the country, and an already weak Turkish lira plunged last month to record lows in value against the dollar and euro. Western critics say Turkish economic woes are the result of his own mishandling of the economy.FILE PHOTO: A merchant counts Turkish lira banknotes at the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul, Turkey, March 29, 2019.Additionally, the Turkish leader and his aides have accused European nations of ganging up to sabotage his geopolitical ambitions, especially in the eastern Mediterranean, where Ankara is locked in an escalating maritime quarrel with Greece and Cyprus that risks getting out of hand over lucrative gas and oil drilling rights.The huge energy potential of the eastern Mediterranean has drawn other powers in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East into the destabilizing standoff. Western Europeans and Turkey’s other regional neighbors say maritime law is on the side of Athens and Cyprus, accusing Ankara of brinkmanship in a deadlock that’s seen opposing warships come close to clashing.“We see ourselves as an inseparable part of Europe,” Erdogan told members of his ruling Justice and Development Party [AKP] in a speech last month. “However, this does not mean that we will bow down to overt attacks to our country and nation, veiled injustices and double standards,” he added.Civilians flee from Idlib toward the north to find safety inside Syria near the border with Turkey, Feb. 15, 2020.In October, as European criticism mounted about Turkish adventurism, including a military intervention into northern Syria aimed at dislodging Syrian Kurds, Erdogan, retorted, “Hey EU, wake up. I say it again: If you try to frame our operation as an invasion, our task is simple — we will open the doors and send 3.6 million migrants to you.”Conspiracy theories have long been a feature of cultural and political life in Turkey, certainly since the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. And during his 17-year-long rule, political critics have accused Erdogan of stoking the long-held Turkish fear of being surrounded by foreign powers and beset by shadowy outside forces eager to weaken the country and to prevent it from restoring Ottoman greatness.“In fueling the current disputes in the Eastern Mediterranean, the [Turkish] leadership is using a narrative revolving around themes such as conquest—referring to the 1453 Ottoman conquest of Constantinople, today’s Istanbul—battles and wars, a huge [and undefined] foreign conspiracy, and a return to glory,” Marc Pierini, an analyst at the research group Carnegie Europe, noted in a posted commentary.Erdogan’s frequent complaint about an anti-Turkish foreign conspiracy risks turning into a self-fulfilling prophecy, warn some analysts and Western diplomats.French President Emmanuel Macron greets Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during a joint news conference at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, Jan. 5, 2018.From a diplomatic row with NATO ally France over the enforcement of an international arms embargo on Libya, to the deployment of special forces and Ankara-paid mercenaries to the strife-torn North Africa country, from military adventurism in northern Syria and Nagorno-Karabakh, to Turkey’s illegal drilling in Cypriot waters, the Turkish leader is amassing an impressive list of opponents.Ankara seems ever more willing to challenge allies and enemies alike in pursuit of a larger role on the world stage. If Western nations, and Turkey’s near neighbors, start coordinating containment strategies, it will be as a consequence of Erdogan’s aggressive aim to expand, through assertive diplomacy and military means, Turkish influence in the Mediterranean, Aegean and Black Sea, say Western diplomats and analysts.There are increasing signs that Turkey’s NATO partners are tiring with Erdogan’s assertive geopolitical ambitions and irredentist claims against his neighbors. “The totality of Turkey’s policies and actions have now reached a point of dangerous escalation,” according to analysts Heather Conley and Rachel Ellehuus of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a research group in Washington.They noted in a commentary for CSIS that Erdogan’s actions “substantially challenge the coherence of NATO’s collective defense posture in the Mediterranean and weaken its political cohesion.”“To avoid this,” they say, Western allies “should approach the growing instability in the Mediterranean through an integrative policy that seeks to de-escalate tensions and define, with Ankara, common interests by identifying some agreed principles to guide regional behavior.” They add: “If Turkey is unwilling to join such an initiative, greater transatlantic tensions lie ahead.”NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, left, and Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu speak to the media after their talks in Ankara, Turkey, Oct. 5, 2020.Turkey’s wrangling with allies and neighbors have increased since 2015, when Erdogan adopted as policy the so-called Blue Homeland Doctrine, originally drawn up by Turkish Admiral Cem Gurdeniz in 2006. The doctrine outlined an ambitious goal to expand Turkish influence with an aim to improve access to important energy and other economic resources. Its implementation has seen Erdogan resorting to ad hoc arrangements, reversing bilateral understandings, and backsliding on multilateral agreements and Turkish obligations to NATO—creating even greater regional instability, say critics.Despite his complaints about an anti-Turkey international conspiracy, some analysts say Erdogan has been helped by the absence of coordination between Western allies and by their circumspection.They say Western officials have held off imposing further sanctions on Turkey or enforcing sanctions that have already been announced. In July, EU foreign ministers asked the bloc’s diplomatic corps to draw up possible enforcement options for sanctions imposed on Turkey for its gas and oil drilling activities in Cypriot territorial waters and what they see as Ankara’s “gunboat diplomacy” in the eastern Mediterranean.A man reads walks past Cypriot newspaper with a front page carrying a photo montage about Turkey’s actions over Cyprus and international companies exploration for gas in the eastern Mediterranean in capital Nicosia, Cyprus, Feb. 13, 2018.Likewise, the U.S. has held back. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said Turkey’s illegal drilling in Cypriot waters is “unacceptable,” but the Trump administration hasn’t followed up with concrete action and has not yet imposed sanctions for Turkey’s recent purchase of the Russian S-400 missile defense system, an acquisition seen as breaching Ankara’s NATO commitments.Western diplomats and analysts say there are increasing signs, though, that Turkey’s NATO partners are wary of Erdogan’s adventurism and go-it-alone strategy. Impatience is likely to build quickly next year when U.S. President-elect Joe Biden enters the White House.Erdogan clashed often with Donald Trump, but Washington backed off confronting Ankara and opted for backroom deal-making. The two leaders were at least united in antipathy toward the EU. But that won’t be the case next year, and Erdogan is likely to find himself dealing with a less forgiving U.S. leader, according to Western diplomats.FILE – Turkish Finance Minister Berat Albayrak speaks during a conference to ease investor concerns about Turkey’s economic policy, in Istanbul, Turkey, Nov. 8, 2020.Since the U.S. election, Erdogan has shown signs he knows he will need to adjust. Hours after the U.S. election, Erdogan’s son-in-law, Berat Albayrak, resigned as Turkey’s economy minister. Albayrak had a close friendship with Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law.The Turkish president has also since the election vowed to launch a period of economic and legal reforms, saying he will prioritize legislation to strengthen democracy and improve human rights, an announcement widely seen as anticipating the changed circumstances in Washington. Biden has promised to host next year a global Summit for Democracy.
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The U.S. Justice Department is discussing a deal with lawyers for Huawei’s finance chief, Meng Wanzhou, that would allow her to return to China from Canada, a person familiar with the matter said.Negotiations between Meng’s lawyers and the Justice Department picked up after the U.S. presidential election, the person said, but it is still unclear what kind of deal can be struck.Meng does not think she did anything wrong and therefore is reluctant to make admissions that she does not think are true, the person said.The source said the talks did not appear to be part of a larger deal with Huawei.The Wall Street Journal first reported on the possible deal.Meng, 48, was arrested in Canada in December 2018 on a warrant from the United States. She is facing charges of bank fraud for allegedly misleading HSBC Holdings Plc about Huawei’s business dealings in Iran, causing the bank to break U.S. sanctions.Justice Department spokesman Marc Raimondi declined to comment. Huawei did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office and Canada’s Foreign Ministry had no immediate comment.
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Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven announced Thursday that high schools would switch to distance learning beginning Monday through early January to slow the rate of COVID-19 infections in the country. Lofven made the announcement at a Stockholm news conference alongside Swedish Education Minister Anna Ekstrom. He said he hoped the move would have a “breaking effect” on the rate of COVID-19 infections. He added it was not intended to extend the Christmas break for students and he said he was putting his trust in them that they would continue to study from home. The distance learning will be in effect until January 6.People walk past shops under Christmas decorations during the novel coronavirus pandemic in Stockholm, Dec. 3, 2020.After a lull during summer, Sweden has seen COVID-19 cases surge over the past couple of months, with daily records repeatedly set. Deaths and hospitalizations have also risen sharply. Meanwhile, earlier Thursday, Swedish State Epidemiologist Anders Tegnell told reporters he did not think masks were necessary, just two days after the World Health Organization (WHO) expanded its advice to use masks as part of a comprehensive strategy to combat the spread of COVID-19. Tegnell said that in some situations, masks might be necessary, but that the current situation in Sweden did not require it. He said the evidence for wearing a mask was weak and he believed social distancing was much more important. In its expanded guidelines, the WHO said that where the virus was circulating, people — including children and students age 12 or older — should always wear masks in shops, workplaces and schools that lack adequate ventilation, and when receiving visitors at home in poorly ventilated rooms. On Thursday, Sweden reported 6,485 new COVID-19 cases and 35 new virus-related deaths, bringing the nation’s total COVID-19 fatalities to 7,007. 
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A leading European human rights organization called out the Polish government Thursday with a memorandum condemning the Eastern European country’s treatment and stigmatization of its LGBTI citizens.In a report, Dunja Mijatovic, the Council of Europe’s commissioner of human rights, criticized Poland’s ruling nationalist Law and Justice party for eroding conditions and treatment of LGBTI people. Mijatovic explicitly addressed President Andrzej Duda for what the report called his endorsement of hate, after Duda called the LGBTI movement an “ideology worse than communism.”FILE – Surrounded by migrants, Dunja Mijatovic, the Council of Europe commissioner for human rights, addresses reporters at the Vucjak refugee camp outside Bihac, northwestern Bosnia, Dec. 3, 2019.”Stigmatization and hate speech carry a real risk of legitimizing violence,” Mijatovic said in the report. “LGBTI are people, not an ideology.”The commissioner cited instances wherein propaganda, hateful rhetoric and social exclusion has been encouraged by Polish authorities, citing the declaration of “LGBTI-free zones” by local authorities in six Polish cities as promoting hate and perpetuating the stigmatization of the community.Reuters reported Thursday that the Polish government released a statement rejecting Mijatovic’s criticisms, saying the institution of marriage as a union between men and women is manifest in the Polish constitution. Previously, Law and Justice party chief Jaroslaw Kaczynski called LGBTI people a “threat to the traditional family.”Mijatovic called for the rejection of Polish laws pending before parliament that she said target LGBTI people.“Public authorities, politicians and opinion leaders in Poland [should] not to engage in hate speech or any discourse denigrating LGBTI people, and … firmly denounce such actions and statements, including when they come from private parties,” she said.The Council of Europe is an international organization founded after World War II to uphold human rights.
 
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Greece has lashed out at Turkey, accusing it of pushing distressed asylum seekers into Greek waters, endangering their lives during risky sea crossings to Europe. Athens says such conduct highlights Turkey’s failure to keep its end of a deal with the European Union to stop illegal migration. There has been no comment from Ankara.
 
Migration Minister Notis Mitarachi voiced the accusation as crews from Greece’s Hellenic Coast Guard recovered the bodies of two women, one of them 30 years old. They drowned after a dinghy packed with 32 other migrants capsized in high seas along the narrow strait that divides Greece and Turkey.
 
The surviving migrants, including three toddlers, were Somalis, rescued in freezing waters off the island of Lesbos.
 
Survivor accounts, according to Mitarachi, suggest that while Turkish authorities responded to a distress signal placed by the Somali migrants, they refused to offer assistance.
 
Instead, the minister said, the Turkish coast guard pushed the craft into Greek waters, watching it sink – a response Greece says warrants a stiff response from the European Union.
    
Mitarachi said the notion alone of allowing safe passage to a vessel of this type that fails to meet fundamental safety requirements is inconceivable.
    
But more importantly, Mitarachi said in a speech to parliament, such conduct violates a key 2016 agreement Turkey signed with the European Union, obligating it to stop illegal migrant inflows, not to facilitate them or imperil the lives of asylum seekers.
 
Calls placed to the Turkish embassy in Athens were not returned.
 
It is not the first time such accusations have been leveled against Ankara.
 
In recent months, both Greece and Turkey have repeatedly accused each other of waging illegal pushbacks of refugees and mistreating them.  
 
Additionally, the United Nations’ refugee agency has called out Greece for allegedly underreporting land and sea arrivals from Turkey – a move believed to provide local authorities a free hand to conduct illegal pushbacks.
 
Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, migration has dropped drastically.   
 
But officials in Athens say the deadly sinking illustrates just how flawed and fragile the migration deal is, not least, as Europe remains reluctant to get tough with Turkey.
 
Under the deal, almost all migrants illegally entering Greece are deported to Turkey unless granted political asylum. With relations between the two NATO allies at their lowest point because of an energy standoff in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, all forced returns have been halted since March.
 
And with refugee camps in Greece already overcrowded, even the drips and dribbles of migrants recorded in recent weeks are creating fresh problems.
 
Greek government data released Thursday showed just 139 migrants deported to Turkey in the first three months of 2020. That’s just a fraction of the nearly 15,000 who have illegally entered this year…adding to the more than 100,000 stuck in the country for years.
 
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France is mourning the death of its former president Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, as a result of contracting the COVID-19 virus. Giscard led France for seven years, from 1974 to 1981 and many now remember him as a reformer and a champion of European unity.After several hospitalizations over the last few months, Valéry Giscard d’Estaing died on Wednesday at the age of 94 in his chateau – a two hours’ drive from Paris, according to his family.  The former head of state left the public stage years ago but the announcement of his death late Wednesday shocked and saddened the nation.At the French Senate, France’s culture minister Roselyne Bachelot paid tribute to Giscard d’Estaing.FILE – Valery Giscard d’Estaing, left, as finance minister and Jacques Chirac as secretary of state to finance leave Elysee Palace, Aug. 9, 1969.The minister said she feels emotional after Giscard d’Estaing’s passing. She paid tribute to his memory as he led many reforms which still impact French society today.Giscard d’Estaing led France for a single seven-year term from 1974-1981, during which the country made great strides in nuclear power, high-speed train travel as well as lowering the voting age to 18.  It was also during his time that France legalized abortion. FILE – French former President Valery Giscard d’Estaing speaks to the media in Paris, April 8, 2013.His seven-year mandate transformed France,” President Emmanuel Macron said in a statement.Giscard was also active on the international stage at a crucial time, during the Cold War.  In 1976, he visited Washington to meet then-President Gerald Ford and address the U.S. Congress.“Is there a future for freedom in the world we are building for our children?,” he asked.Europe was at the heart of his foreign policy: monetary union and greater cooperation. German Chancellor Angela Merkel paid tribute to former French leader on Thursday, saying  “France had a statesman and Germany a friend, and we have all lost a great European,” in a tweet posted by her spokesperson.Deeply involved in the construction of a united Europe, Giscard d’Estaing expressed sadness at the announcement of a Brexit.  This is what he said in one of his last interviews, earlier this year, to Associated Press.“In today’s world where you have big structures such as China, the United States of America with the first economy of the world, the European Union is too small. The changes will be big in Britain. It is a very serious problem for them because they must organize their situation, their relationships, their diplomacy, etc. I wish they rejoined (Europe).”   Giscard’s family said that according to his wishes,  funeral ceremonies would take place in the “strictest intimacy.”
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The head of Germany’s disease control agency said Thursday that while COVID-19 infection rates have stabilized, they are still too high.  
Robert Koch Institute for Infectious Diseases President Lothar Wieler told reporters in Berlin he believes the number of infections has not dropped because German citizens are not taking restrictions on large gatherings seriously enough.  
Wieler noted other nations, such as Belgium and France, have brought down their infection rates. He said, “…the reason for this lies in people’s behavior, if they follow the rules or not.”
Wieler said he supports the decision announced Wednesday by German Chancellor Angela Merkel. After meeting with the nation’s 16 regional governors, Merkel said the current COVID-19 restrictions will remain in place until January 10. Merkel said Germany had failed to reach its goal of reducing the rate of infections to 50 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in a week.
The agreement means restaurants, bars and gyms remain closed and limits on personal contacts will remain into the new year, though all sides agreed to ease some restrictions over the Christmas period.
Wieler said large outbreaks are once again being reported in nursing homes, where elderly and frail people are particularly susceptible to the coronavirus.
Almost 480 deaths from COVID-19 were reported in the past day, raising Germany’s total to 17,602.
Wieler appealed to people to respect social distancing and hygiene rules.
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Valery Giscard d’Estaing, the president of France from 1974 to 1981 who became a champion of European integration, died on Wednesday. He was 94.Giscard d’Estaing’s office said he passed away in his family home in the Loir-et-Cher region, in central France, after contracting COVID-19.”In accordance with his wishes, his funeral will take place in strict privacy,” his office said.Giscard d’Estaing was hospitalized last month with heart problems, but remained vigorous deep into old age.In a January 2020 interview with The Associated Press, he displayed a firm handshake and sharp eye, recounting details from his meetings as French president in the 1970s with then-U.S. President Jimmy Carter and then-Egyptian leader Anwar Sadat, whose photos graced his office walls.He wrote the article in the EU charter that allowed Brexit to happen – the brief measure that allows a member state to leave the bloc.On the eve of Britain’s departure this year, Giscard told AP it was a “step backward” geopolitically, but took the long view. “We functioned without Britain during the first years of the European Union. … So we will rediscover a situation that we have already known.”Born in Germany in the wake of World War I, Giscard d’Estaing helped liberate Paris from the Nazis in the next world war, and later laid the groundwork for the shared euro currency and helped integrate Britain into what became the EU in the 1970s.Seeing the Britons leave, “I feel great regret,” he said.FILE – Valery Giscard d’Estaing, left, as finance minister and Jacques Chirac as secretary of state to finance leave Elysee Palace, Aug. 9, 1969.He remained unfailingly optimistic in the European project, forecasting that the EU and the euro would bounce back and gradually grow stronger and bigger despite the challenges of losing a major member.When he took office in 1974, Giscard d’Estaing began as the model of a modern French president, a conservative with liberal views on social issues.Abortion and divorce by mutual consent were legalized under his term, and he reduced the age of majority from 21 to 18.He played his accordion in working class neighborhoods. One Christmas morning, he invited four passing garbage men to breakfast at the presidential palace.He lost his reelection bid in 1981 to Socialist Francois Mitterrand.Born in 1926 in Coblenz, Germany, where his father was a financial director of the post-World War I French occupation administration, he grew up with a pan-European view. After joining the French Resistance during World War II, he next saw Germany as a tank commander in the French military in 1944.In 1952, he married Anne-AymoneIt de Brantes, the daughter of a count and heiress to a steel fortune. They had four children: Valerie-Anne, Louis, Henri and Jacinte.Young Giscard d’Estaing studied at the prestigious Polytechnical Institute and then the elite National School of Administration, before mastering economics at Oxford.President Charles de Gaulle named him finance minister at the age of 36.
After his defeat in the 1981 presidential election, he temporarily retired from politics.FILE – French former President Valery Giscard d’Estaing speaks to the media in Paris, April 8, 2013.He then found a second calling in the European Union. He worked on writing a European Constitution, which was formally presented in 2004 but rejected by French and Dutch voters. However, it paved the way for the adoption of the Treaty on European Union in 2007.At age 83, he published a romance novel called The Princess and the President, which he said was based on Princess Diana, with whom he said he discussed writing a love story.Asked about the nature of their relationship, he said only: “Let us not exaggerate. I knew her a bit in a climate of a confidential relationship. She needed to communicate.”Earlier this year, a German journalist accused Giscard of repeatedly grabbing her during an interview, and filed a sexual assault complaint with Paris prosecutors. Giscard’s French lawyer said the 94-year-old former president “retains no memory” of the incident.Former French President Francois Hollande paid tribute to “a statesman who had chosen to open up to the world and was thinking that Europe was a condition for France to be greater.”Hollande’s predecessor, Nicolas Sarkozy, expressed his “deep sadness.” Giscard d’Estaing “made France be proud,” he said.
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Peruvian police seized nearly $6 million in fake U.S. bills and arrested one person believed to be part of a known gang that specializes in counterfeiting foreign money.Police announced on Wednesday the phony bills, mostly in denominations of $10’s and $20’s, were found inside a building in Lima’s Carabayllo district. They also confiscated the printing machine allegedly used to produce the fake money.Authorities says the bogus bills were going to be sent into neighboring Ecuador and Bolivia before circulating through commercial markets worldwide.Police say Peru is known for being a haven for money counterfeiters.
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Britain says it plans to start injecting people with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine as early as Monday after becoming the first country to approve a COVID-19 vaccine following large-scale clinical trials. The British government approved the use of the coronavirus vaccine on Wednesday, after the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) announced it had completed its safety review. The decision marks a significant milestone in the battle against the pandemic, although challenges remain for poorer health systems in rolling out the vaccine. “The MHRA’s recommendation has been reached following an extremely thorough and scientifically rigorous review of all the evidence of safety, of effectiveness and of quality of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine,” said Dr. June Raine, head of the MHRA, in a virtual press conference Tuesday. “The data showed that this vaccine is 95% effective. It is effective in all the groups that were given the vaccine within the trial, irrespective of age, sex, race or country that they lived in.”  Raine explained that the approval was completed so quickly because regulators had implemented a process known as a “rolling review.”   “A rolling review can be used to complete the assessment of a promising medicine or a vaccine in a situation where time is of the essence in the shortest time possible. But — and this is a very important point indeed — that doesn’t mean that any corners have been cut. None at all,” Raine said. Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks during a news conference on the ongoing situation with the coronavirus pandemic, at Downing Street in London, Wednesday December 2, 2020.British Prime Minister Boris Johnson struck a note of caution in a press conference Wednesday. “There are immense logistical challenges. The virus has got to be stored at minus 70 degrees [Celsius]. Each person needs two injections three weeks apart. So, it will inevitably take some months before all the most vulnerable are protected — long, cold months. So, it’s all the more vital that as we celebrate this scientific achievement, we’re not carried away with overoptimism or fall into the naive belief that the struggle is over. It’s not,” Johnson said. Pfizer is expected to deliver 800,000 vaccine doses to Britain in the coming days. The government has so far ordered 40 million doses, enough to vaccinate 20 million people. Care home residents will be first in line, alongside front-line health care workers. The elderly and clinically vulnerable will be next. Healthy adults will likely have to wait several months. Dr. Simon Clarke, a microbiologist at Britain’s University of Reading, told VOA that scientists still do not know if the vaccine will generate so-called herd immunity in a population. “We don’t yet know whether this vaccine only prevents disease, i.e., getting sick, or whether it will also prevent people from contracting the virus and passing it on to people,” he said. Convincing a skeptical public “There’s so much that we don’t know about, and there haven’t been enough trials. There hasn’t been enough time to even find out if these vaccines are safe,” said Samantha London, a 38-year-old musician who lives in Brixton, a district in South London. Fellow Brixton resident Abi Babalola said she would take the vaccine if it is offered. “Definitely myself and my family will be taking it, because we need to get back to normal. I’ve had enough,” she said. An employee of Cryonomic, a Belgium company producing dry ice machines and containers that will be used for COVID-19 vaccine transportation, pushes a medical dry ice container in Ghent, December 2, 2020.Poorer health systems lack the storage capacity to keep the vaccine at minus 70 degrees Celsius. Dr. Nonhlanhla Rosemary Dlamini, the World Health Organization’s representative in Malawi, said it could be some time before any vaccine is rolled out. “The kind of equipment that many countries have, including Malawi, is not that ultra-cold chain kind of equipment. So, as we are doing our assessment, we look at that. But, however, we still do not know what kind of vaccine is going to come into the country,” Dlamini said. Several developed nations have ordered millions of doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. U.S. regulators are due to meet December 10 to discuss emergency approval for the Pfizer shots, and again a week later to discuss another vaccine produced by Moderna.  Another vaccine developed jointly by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford has also reported successful early results. It can be stored at regular refrigerator temperatures. Clarke is optimistic that the fight against the coronavirus has reached a significant milestone. “By spring, I think we will be well on our way to returning to normal. I don’t expect we’ll be quite there by then, but we’ll be on our way. And I think the rest of the world can expect to see other vaccines which might be more useful, perhaps don’t need the cold chain that this vaccine requires,” Clarke said. The first human cases of the coronavirus were identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. In less than 12 months, several new vaccines have been developed at unprecedented speed. 
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The European Space Agency (ESA) has signed a $102 million contract with a Swiss start-up company to purchase a unique service: the first-ever removal of an item of space debris from orbit.
 
The company, ClearSpace SA, will capture part of a used rocket using what is described as a “tentacle,” and then dragging it down for reentry. The object to be removed from orbit is a so-called Vespa payload adapter that was used in 2013 to hold and then release a satellite. It weighs about 112 kilograms.
 
Experts have long warned that hundreds of thousands of pieces of space debris circling the planet — including an astronaut’s lost mirror — pose a threat to functioning satellites and even the International Space Station (ISS).
 
During a remote news conference regarding the contract late Tuesday, ESA Director General Jan Woerner said there are more than a million pieces of space debris orbiting the Earth. He said there have already been cases in which satellites and spacecraft have been hit by the debris.
 
The ESA says the deal with ClearSpace SA will lead to the “first active debris removal mission” in 2025, in which a custom-made spacecraft, known as the ClearSpace-1, will rendezvous with, capture and take down the Vespa payload adapter for reentry.
 
ClearSpace SA CEO Luc Piguet says the company hopes to expand such operations in the future to include multiple object removal, and even servicing and refueling spacecraft.  
 
“When we look toward the future, what we can see already today is that there’s more than 5,000 nonfunctional objects in orbit, which essentially are, if you want, clients that need some sort of service. And every year, we add 74 new objects to this list,” Piguet says.
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Britain’s prime minister, Boris Johnson, has likened the scientists who have developed coronavirus vaccines to the cavalry arriving just in the nick of time. “The toot of the bugle is louder,” he reassured Britons during a recent news conference.   But like his European counterparts, Johnson’s government is scrambling to come up with a vaccine distribution plan and is having to answer key logistical and epidemiological questions, including who should be in the early waves to receive inoculations and how to ramp up a mass immunization program able to vaccinate millions as soon as possible.   On Tuesday, British regulators approved the use of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine, saying a rollout will begin next week. Health minister Matt Hancock said the approval of the vaccine is “fantastic news.”   Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson leaves Downing Street in London, Britain, Dec. 2, 2020.And at a Wednesday press conference, Johnson admitted that it would be an “immense logistical challenge” just to get the vulnerable inoculated.  “It will inevitably take some months before all the most vulnerable are protected — long, cold months. So it’s all the more vital that as we celebrate this scientific achievement we are not carried away with over-optimism or fall into the naive belief that the struggle is over,” he said.  Most countries say they will focus early inoculations on medical professionals and care workers and vulnerable groups, the elderly and those with chronic underlying health conditions.   Thereafter it gets more complicated.   Vaccine skepticismAnd another crucial question is how to persuade enough people to accept vaccinations so that the virus can be suppressed.  Even before the emergence of the coronavirus, Europeans were among the most skeptical about the safety and efficacy of vaccines, according to a pre-pandemic survey of 140,000 people across more than 140 countries.   The survey conducted for the Wellcome Trust, a medical research charity based in London, found that in France, Austria, Switzerland, Russia and Belgium up to a third of the population distrusts vaccines.   FILE – Anti-vaccination activists protest the decision of the Health Ministry and Education Ministry to not allow children without vaccination to go to school, in Kyiv, Ukraine, Aug. 22, 2019.And in Ukraine only about half of the population agreed that modern vaccines are safe.   European governments fear vaccine skepticism is only increasing because of social media agitation by extreme critics of vaccinations, or anti-vaxxers. Recent surveys have found that Britons are becoming increasingly questioning about the coronavirus vaccine. A majority in France, Germany, Italy and Britain say they are “likely” to get inoculated, but only a minority say they will definitely get vaccinated. And hesitancy is growing, according to a French Prime Minister Jean Castex, wearing a protective face mask, attends the questions to the government session at the National Assembly in Paris, France, Dec. 1, 2020.The chairman of the French Senate, Gérard Larcher, has called for mandatory inoculations, saying, “It’s not just for yourself, it’s a form of solidarity and protection for the whole of society.” But so far Macron has rebuffed the idea of compulsion, fearing it will prompt greater resistance. Fifty-nine percent of the French say they will refuse to be vaccinated, according to an opinion poll conducted for Journal du Dimanche.  Germany’s science minister, Anja Karliczek, said Tuesday vaccinations would be voluntary and that the same safety standards are being applied in the approval process for coronavirus vaccines as for other drugs. Emphasizing how standards have been maintained would likely gain the widest possible public acceptance for coronavirus immunization, she added.   Logistical challenges  Aside from the problem posed by vaccine refusal, European governments say they’re also trying to solve logistical challenges, from securing sufficient vaccines before the northern hemisphere summer ends, to having enough cold storage facilities for the vaccines manufactured by Pfizer and Moderna, when they start arriving after European regulators have approved them.  An employee of Cryonomic, a Belgium company producing dry ice machines and containers which will be used for COVID-19 vaccine transportation, pushes a medical dry ice container in Ghent, Dec. 2, 2020.The vaccine developed by U.S. pharmaceutical giant Pfizer needs to be stored and shipped at minus 75 degrees Celsius. Germany has already started gearing up to solve the storage challenge, with large freezers already rolling off production lines. Wales’ health minister, Vaughan Gething, warned Tuesday that the Welsh government doesn’t have any storage facilities as yet and will be unable to receive or store any vaccines allocated by the British government.  Other challenges include having sufficient staff available to administer vaccines, setting up data systems able to track the progress of immunizations and notifying people when to receive vaccinations and then when to return for a second booster shot. Germany is planning to set up inoculation centers that will be overseen by the governments of the country’s 16 regional states.   In France, immunizations will likely be left to family doctors and local pharmacists. In Britain, the national health service will be in charge, but it has been overstretched with rolling out tests and tracing the contacts of the infected, earning sharp criticism from lawmakers.  Government officials across Europe say they hope that they have learned lessons from the less than smooth supply lines and production shortages they experienced earlier in the year for ventilators, drugs and personal protective gear. Huge global demand led to bottlenecks, delays and transportation shortfalls. 
 
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Britain has given emergency approval to a new COVID-19 vaccine developed by U.S.-based pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, becoming the world’s first western nation ready to begin mass inoculations against a disease that has sickened nearly 64 million people worldwide, including more than 1.4 million deaths.The government’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Authority granted approval Wednesday for the vaccine, which Pfizer developed along with Germany’s BioNTech. The first vaccinations will begin next week, with staffers of the Britain’s National Health Service, nursing home residents and staffers expected to receive first priority.The approval comes weeks after Pfizer announced the vaccine had been shown to be over 90% effective after its final, widespread clinical trials.  Britain has already pre-ordered 40 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.FILE – In this Nov. 19, 2020, file photo, healthcare workers process people waiting in line at a United Memorial Medical Center COVID-19 testing site in Houston.The Trump administration has said that 20 million people could be inoculated by the end of this year.As it has for months, the United States continues to lead the world in coronavirus infections, with nearly 13.7 million cases and more than 270,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. [[ COVID-19 Map – Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center (jhu.edu) ]] The U.S. has 98,691 patients hospitalized with COVID-19, according to the COVID Tracking Project, making it the highest number of hospitalizations since the pandemic reached the nation’s shores.Since it began nearly a year ago, the coronavirus pandemic has dramatically increased the number of people who are experiencing extreme poverty, according to the United Nations.The world body said in its annual humanitarian report that 235 million people, or one in 33 people, will require basic needs like food, water and sanitation in 2021, a 40% increase from this year.The U.N. report said the greatest need for humanitarian assistance next year is in Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Ethiopia.The United Nations contributed a record $17 billion in 2020 for humanitarian response worldwide, the report said.
 
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A Hungarian member of the European Parliament abruptly resigned from the EU body after police broke up a party he attended in Brussels because it violated coronavirus restrictions.On his personal website Tuesday, Jozsef Szajer, a well-known figure in the right-wing Fidesz party led by Prime Minister Viktor Orban, confirmed that he had been at the party last week. He did not comment on Belgian media descriptions of it as an all-male orgy in the heart of the city’s gay-bar district.  In his statement, Szajer denied reports that he had used drugs. He said once police arrived at the scene, he “indicated that I was a representative because I did not have a (identification) card, the police conducted the procedure, were given a verbal warning and then taken home.”“I am sorry that I have broken the rules of assembly, this was irresponsible on my part, and I will take the sanctions that come with it.”Brussels prosecutor’s office spokeswoman Sarah Durant confirmed that police put an end to a party that took place in a flat in downtown on Friday evening after they were called to intervene because of a disturbance.The office did not confirm media reports that it was a group sex party and the Brussels police spokeswoman declined to comment.All those who attended the party have been reported for violating anti-COVID-19 measures banning social gatherings.”Beside the police reports, there is also a proposal for an amicable settlement,” Durant said, adding the case will be closed if the persons pay the fine.The revelations were the latest in a series of scandals involving members of the ultra-conservative Fidesz party, which has vocally heralded Hungary’s role in defending Christian family values.
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Britain has given emergency approval to a new COVID-19 vaccine developed by U.S.-based pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, becoming the world’s first western nation ready to begin mass inoculations against a disease that has sickened nearly 64 million people worldwide, including more than 1.4 million deaths.The government’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Authority granted approval Wednesday for the vaccine, which Pfizer developed along with Germany’s BioNTech. The first vaccinations will begin next week, with staffers of the Britain’s National Health Service, nursing home residents and staffers expected to receive first priority.The approval comes weeks after Pfizer announced the vaccine had been shown to be over 90% effective after its final, widespread clinical trials.  Britain has already pre-ordered 40 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.FILE – In this Nov. 19, 2020, file photo, healthcare workers process people waiting in line at a United Memorial Medical Center COVID-19 testing site in Houston.The Trump administration has said that 20 million people could be inoculated by the end of this year.As it has for months, the United States continues to lead the world in coronavirus infections, with nearly 13.7 million cases and more than 270,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. [[ COVID-19 Map – Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center (jhu.edu) ]] The U.S. has 98,691 patients hospitalized with COVID-19, according to the COVID Tracking Project, making it the highest number of hospitalizations since the pandemic reached the nation’s shores.Since it began nearly a year ago, the coronavirus pandemic has dramatically increased the number of people who are experiencing extreme poverty, according to the United Nations.The world body said in its annual humanitarian report that 235 million people, or one in 33 people, will require basic needs like food, water and sanitation in 2021, a 40% increase from this year.The U.N. report said the greatest need for humanitarian assistance next year is in Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Ethiopia.The United Nations contributed a record $17 billion in 2020 for humanitarian response worldwide, the report said.
 
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Five people, including 9-month-old baby, were killed in Germany on Tuesday when a car plowed into a pedestrian street, according to local police. At least 14 other people were injured. Police in the southwestern town of Trier arrested the driver, a 51-year-old Trier native, who was intoxicated and appeared to be suffering from psychological problems, prosecutor Peter Fritzen said at a news conference. Police said there does not appear to be a political motive behind the incident, but Trier Mayor Wolfram Leibe warned that authorities “should not pass premature judgment.” In a statement, German Chancellor Angela Merkel offered condolences. “My sympathy goes to the families of those whose lives were so suddenly and violently torn away from them. I am also thinking of the people who suffered injuries, in some cases very serious ones, and I wish them strength,” she said. Germany has tightened security in pedestrian zones across the country since an attack on a Christmas market in Berlin in 2016 left 12 people dead. 
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