Trade turnover between Russia and the Netherlands saw a year-on-year surge of 23% from January through May 2021, according to the Russian ambassador to the Netherlands Alexander Shulgin.
“The Netherlands, along with Germany and China, are traditionally among Russia’s three major trading partners,” the ambassador said.
According to Shulgin, trade turnover between the two nations dropped 41.6% to $28.6 billion during the pandemic-hit 2020.
“Last year, Russian exports to the Netherlands fell by 44.6%, from $44.7 billion to $24.8 billion, while imports to Russia saw a modest decrease by 5.7%, from $4 billion to $3.7 billion,” the top diplomat said.
He added that the Netherlands remains the leader in terms of investment cooperation with Russia.
“The volume of direct investments from the Netherlands to Russia totaled $46.7 billion as of January 1, 2021, while investments from Russia to the Netherlands amounted to $33.8 billion,” Shulgin said, citing Russian central bank data.
He also said that major cooperative projects for production and liquefaction of natural gas, as well as projects focused on renewable energy sources, are being successfully implemented.
An airport in Afghanistan's Kandahar has come under a rocket attack, forcing cancellations of all flights, as fighting intensified on the outskirts of the city with Taliban seeking to recapture its former stronghold.
At least three rockets were launched towards Ahmad Shah Baba International Airport (KDH) on Sunday, with two of the projectiles hitting the runaway, airport chief Massoud Pashtun said, as cited by AFP.
The reported strike resulted in damage to the runaway, bringing the aiport's operation to a halt. Both outbound and inbound flights were cancelled, but are expected to resume later in the day, the official said.
The attack comes as Taliban has ramped up its offensive on the capital of southern Kandahar province, considered the birthplace of the Islamist movement. The group has been going through a resurgence, having gained swathes of territory after the US troops left Bagram Air Base, its main airfield in the country, in early July.
Israel is preparing to get rid of some 80,000 Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine doses after their shelf life expired. Previously, the Jewish state salvaged some 700,000 nearly expired doses by sending them to South Korea in a swap deal.
While its campaign to inoculate elderly Israelis with a booster shot has just kicked off, Tel Aviv is reportedly poised to decimate thousands of vaccine doses that expired by the end of July, Israeli media reported on Saturday.
Some 80,000 unused vaccine doses worth around $1.8 million are expected to be “thrown in the trash,” Israel’s Channel 12 news reported. The doses will go to waste as the Israeli government’s frantic attempts to either exchange the doses with foreign countries or inoculate as many residents as possible until the jabs are no longer usable turned out partially successful.
After an initial vaccine swap deal with Palestinians fell through due to concerns that the doses were too close to their expiration date, Israel struck a similar deal with South Korea, agreeing to ship some 700,000 doses out of nearly 1,4 million that were set to expire by the end of July. In return, South Korea agreed to send the same number of doses to Israel in the fall.
Tel Aviv planned to use further 600,000 doses to vaccinate children aged 12-15, with the fate of the remaining 100,000 doses being unclear at the time. Apparently, the majority of them will now go straight to the dustbin, with the dump expected to become the highest ever number of coronavirus vaccines thrown away by Tel Aviv at once.
Responding to the report, Israeli Health Ministry neither confirmed, nor deny the imminent destruction of the jabs, citing “confidentiality agreements.”
“The State of Israel is managing its stock of vaccines while paying attention to the expiry of the product,” the ministry said, as cited by The Times of Israel.
The disposal of vaccines might come just at the wrong time as the Jewish state is ramping up its vaccination drive by becoming the first country in the world to offer third vaccine shots, known as booster shots, to people aged over 60 amid concerns about the waning efficacy of Pfizer vaccine against the highly contagious Delta variant. Last month, the Israeli Health Ministry reported that the vaccine's effectiveness to prevent symptomatic infection plunged to 64%, but retained that the shots were still 93% effective against preventing severe illness.
The booster shot campaign formally launched on Friday, with Israeli President Isaac Herzog, 60, becoming one of the first to test the new scheme. Around 59% of Israeli population has been fully vaccinated so far.
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Laying hands on new things is always exciting – yet little can be as thrilling as entering the fresh addition to the Earth’s only inhabited satellite for the first time – the brand new Nauka lab module of the ISS.
A brief tour of the module shared online by Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky on Saturday offered space enthusiasts a sneak peek at the newly arrived mini-lab.
Footage from the International Space Station (ISS) shows Novitsky and his fellow cosmonaut, Pyotr Dubrov, opening the module’s hatch and floating into the Nauka.
Pyotr Dubrov and I welcome everyone from our new module #Nauka!
The two-minute clip shows the docking port and the workshop area of the module, which is capable of producing enough oxygen for six people and recycling waste into drinkable water apart from its main purpose of being a lab to carry out experiments. Nauka is also fitted with the 11-meter-long European Robotic Arm supplied by the European Space Agency (ESA).
For those hoping to get a better view of the module’s intricate interior, Novitsky promised to post a more detailed room tour "soon."
The Nauka module docked with the ISS earlier this week, replacing Russia’s 20-year-old module Pirs, which was undocked from the station before Nauka’s arrival and burnt up in Earth’s atmosphere.
Nauka’s own time as part of the ISS started with a bang. Its arrival on Thursday turned into quite a nerve-racking experience for those aboard the station and for the ground control team as well. Some three hours after the docking, the module unexpectedly activated its thrusters, spinning the whole station and turning it some 45 degrees. The ISS was put back in its place shortly after the accident, which grabbed international attention.
While the exact nature of the mishap is not known yet, Russia’s space chief Dmitry Rogozin dismissed it as a minor accident likely caused by a “human factor.” The head of Roscosmos suggested the ground control might have become too “euphoric” after the docking that someone forgot to shut down Nauka’s orientation control system.
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Millions of Americans face imminent homelessness, after Democrats left Washington without extending an eviction moratorium, set to expire on Saturday. However, America’s largest corporate landlords are about to make a killing.
An 11-month eviction moratorium that prevented tens of millions of Americans from losing their homes during the coronaviru-induced economic shutdown expires on on July 31, after Congress left Washington for recess without passing a bill to extend it.
The moratorium was put in place by the Donald Trump administration last year and extended by the Joe Biden administration in June, but a Supreme Court ruling that same month stated that further extension would require “clear and specific congressional authorization.” President Biden asked his allies in Congress this week to pass a bill extending the eviction ban, and House Democrats had enough votes to do so, but nevertheless didn’t. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi put the failure down to not having “enough time to socialize it within our caucus as well as to build the consensus, especially in a time of Covid.”
Pelosi’s typically Washingtonian answer will do little to assuage the millions of Americans behind on their rent. A precise figure here is hard to nail down, but Moody’s estimates that six million tenants are in arrears, while more than 3.5 million people told the US Census Bureau earlier in July that they face eviction within the next two months. As of Saturday, they are no longer protected from being turfed out onto the streets.
The moratorium also applied to homeowners behind on their mortgages and facing foreclosure, two million of them to be precise, according to figures from Harvard University.
Eight million homes may soon be vacant, and some of America’s largest corporate landlords are likely waiting to snap them up. Staggeringly wealthy pension funds like BlackRock and Blackstone have spent the pandemic buying up homes, often at well over market price, with a view to renting them out to the same Americans now priced out of the market. The eviction moratorium was a double-edged sword in some cases, with small-time ‘mom and pop’ landlords unable to collect rent from their tenants facing no choice but to sell to BlackRock and its ilk.
This process has been underway since the 2008 economic downturn, and beyond the borders of the US. The UN in 2019 accused Blackstone of “wreaking havoc with tenants’ right to security and contributing to the global housing crisis.”
This time, they’re eyeing the market atop even bigger war chests. BlackRock, for instance, was hired by the Federal Reserve last year to buy up mortgages on its behalf, ostensibly to shore up the US economy from the virus-induced downturn. The Fed turned to BlackRock in 2008 as well, and the partnership proved lucrative. BlackRock now manages more than $7 trillion in assets, up from $1.3 trillion at the time of the last economic crisis.
The American middle class still holds more than double the wealth of the top one percent of the country, and home ownership is universally recognized as the first step toward acquiring membership in this class. The US government has long acknowledged this, with the Department of Housing and Urban Development stating all the way back in 2004 that buying a house can be the “most important source of wealth accumulation and ultimate financial security” for lower-middle income families.
Put simply, a nation of renters is not a financially secure nation, and when corporate landlords buy up houses to rent indefinitely and in doing so price independent buyers out of the market, they’re redistributing wealth from the middle class to the fraction of a percent at the top.
Opposition to the eviction moratorium has been loud, and has come from the left and the right alike. Progressives like Missouri Rep. Cori Bush (D) and Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar (D) staged a sleep-out on the steps of the Capitol on Friday night to protest their fellow Democrats’ apparent indifference to passing a moratorium extension. These progressives have repeatedly called for mass rent relief and government-subsidized housing, claiming “housing is a human right.”
Good morning. The eviction moratorium expires tonight at midnight.
We could have extended it yesterday, but some Democrats went on vacation instead.
We slept at the Capitol last night to ask them to come back and do their jobs.
The populist right, as distinct from the more traditional pro-business Republicans in Congress, have focused their anger on BlackRock and Blackstone, for their role in denying ordinary Americans a share in the country’s wealth.
It’s our moral duty and responsibility to stand up for the American workers. BlackRock and others continue to buy up as much land as possible as our citizens become serfs. To #SaveAmerica we need #AmericaFirst populists to represent our people. pic.twitter.com/NTjQNx96N6
And then Blackrock will buy the property and rent to you. You will own nothing and eat bugs. Welcome to the Great Reset. Funny how COVID happen to come along just at the right time. https://t.co/Xh9MhJyxAM
Curiously, no political will seemingly exists to fight the corporate-backed dehousing of America. Republicans who profess to defend the freedom of America’s middle class have remained largely silent, all the stranger given the fact that a nation of renters falls right in line with the World Economic Forum’s ‘Great Reset’ initiative, an ambitious plan to reshape the world’s post-pandemic economy into one where the average citizen “owns nothing.” Incidentally, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink is a trustee of the WEF.
Democrats aren’t putting up any opposition either. Explaining the lack of a vote on Friday, Speaker Pelosi said that “[Democrats] only learned of this yesterday,” a bizarre statement given the fact that the end of the moratorium had been expected for a month. And though Biden appealed to Congress to pass the bill, it is difficult to take this appeal seriously given the staffing pipeline between BlackRock and the Biden administration.
Brian Deese served as the Global Head of Sustainable Investing at BlackRock, and now directs the National Economic Council. Wally Adeyemo is a former senior adviser at BlackRock, and now serves as deputy secretary of the Treasury Department. Mike Pyle used to be an investment strategist at BlackRock, now he’s Vice President Kamala Harris’ chief economic adviser.
And, while Biden on Friday called on states to use federal funding from the American Rescue Plan to bail out renters, these efforts have been piecemeal thus far. For now, many Americans falling behind on their rent are on their own.
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Donald Trump Jr. inadvertently kicked off a popular movement with liberals on social media after joking suggesting that only those vaccinated against Covid-19 should be able to cast ballots.
“Someone should introduce a bill mandating that you have to show your vaccination card to vote and watch everyone on the Left’s brain malfunction and explode,” Trump Jr. said in a tweet shared over the weekend by Democrat Super PAC ReallyAmericans.
— ReallyAmerican.com 🇺🇸 (@ReallyAmerican1) July 31, 2021
While Trump Jr.’s post was clearly meant to poke fun at the Democratic Party’s seemingly supporting Covid-19 vaccine mandates set by businesses while pushing back against stricter voter ID laws put forth recently in states such as Georgia, liberals were quick to embrace the idea, taking it at face value.
Many supporters of the idea to link constituents’ vaccination status to their eligibility to vote cited the higher vaccination rates among those who identify as Democrats, already savouring the prospect of stripping Republicans who are not vaccinated of their voting rights.
As much as I hate to agree with Don Jr, #VaxToVote sounds like a great idea, because...
All of the states with the LOWEST vaccination rates are trump states. https://t.co/txPX1OKyJd
Trump Jr. responded to the hashtag “#VaxtoVote” - kicked off by his tweet - by blasting supporters of the Democratic party for endorsing the restriction of the voting rights of people they disagree with, something that critics of new Georgia voting legislation have accused Republicans of doing.
“Libs with a hilarious self-own trending #VaxToVote,” he tweeted. “After years of crying about voter ID as a supposedly ‘racist’ restriction on voting rights, the left is now un-ironically calling for vax cards to be required to vote...You know, an ACTUAL restriction on voting rights.”
Libs with a hilarious self-own trending #VaxToVote.
After years of crying about voter ID as a supposedly "racist" restriction on voting rights, the left is now un-ironically calling for vax cards to be required to vote...You know, an ACTUAL restriction on voting rights.
I make a joke about an obviously crazy idea to highlight the hypocrisy of the left, but these authoritarian libs are so unhinged and braindead, that they of course think #VaxToVote is a good idea. You can't make this shit up! 🤣
A recent Washington Post-ABC News poll found that attitudes about vaccination in the US are largely divided along party lines. The poll, conducted between June 27-30, found that while some 86% of Democrats have received at least one Covid-19 vaccine shot, only 45% of Republicans have been inoculated with at least one dose. Some 47% of Republicans said that they might never get vaccinated.
Still, Don Jr’s “proposal” might not ring hollow among a sizable portion of his party’s supporters, as the GOP voter base itself appears to be split on the issue. A new survey by The COVID States Project showed that while about 64% of Americans favor a universal vaccine mandate, 45% of Republicans approve of the idea.
Liberal activist Shaun King, connected to movements like Black Lives Matter, is facing accusations of living like the one-percenters he so often criticizes.
Having previously worked for Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign and promoting the social justice causes he often does, it may come as a surprise to some that King lives rather lavishly, according to a New York Post report highlighting King’s sprawling lakefront property in New Brunswick, New Jersey.
King moved to the 3000 square foot property from a two bedroom apartment in Brooklyn, the report claims. His new house reportedly has a gourmet kitchen, lakefront backyard, and five bedrooms.
The property was allegedly bought by King’s wife, educator Rai-Tonicia King for $842,000 in November of last year, the Post reported, citing public records
King has earned a rather controversial reputation as an activist, with many questioning his fundraising methods and actual financial commitment to the movements he claims to support.
Among the accusations against him, King was accused by the grant-giving organization Proteus Fund of never returning or explaining where its donation to Justice Together, an anti-police brutality group King founded, went after the group was abruptly disbanded in 2015.
Samaria Rice, the mother of 12-year-old black boy Tamir Rice who was shot and killed by police in Cleveland in 2014 - has publicly blasted King for using her son’s name to raise questionable funds.
“Personally I don’t understand how you sleep at night,” she wrote to King last month in response to King claiming to have had a personal conversation with her. “I never gave you permission to raise nothing.. Along with the United States, you robbed me for the death of my son,” Rice said in an Instagram post, accusing King, among other things, of lying about his race. “As a white man acting black you are a[n] imposter that cannot be trusted.”
King’s race has since long become a subject of intense speculation fuelled by an investigation conducted by right-wing outlet Breitbart News, which dug up the activist’s birth certificate and criminal records that revealed his father was white. King rejected the claim, arguing that the man listed on the certificate was not his biological father, and insisted that his actual father was black.
The latest details about King’s victories in the real estate market have only added fuel to the fire, with both liberal and conservative critics quick to label King, who deleted his Twitter account earlier this month, a grifter.
“‘Talcum X grifts off of black Americans.’ There, fixed that headline for you,” one user wrote in response to the Post report, ‘Talcum X’ being a reference to King’s biracial background.
"Is the neighborhood predominantly white?" conservative author Stephen L. Miller tweeted an apparent reference to the recent revelations about another prominent BLM figurehead Patrisse Cullors who earlier this year was revealed to have splashed $3.2 million on real estate in mostly-white neighborhoods.
While the self-described “trained Marxist” defended her purchases, a New York branch of the racial justice movement called for an investigation into her operations and finances.
Washington DC Mayor Muriel Bowser is the latest politician to be labeled a hypocrite after critics saw red over a maskless photo of her with comedian Dave Chappelle taken shortly before her mandate took effect.
The photo includes Bowser, Chappelle, district deputy mayor for planning and economic development John Falcicchio, and two others. No one is wearing a mask.
“[Dave Chappelle] reopened [The Anthem] on Friday night!” Falcicchio captioned the photo with.
Masking was already required at the venue “at all times,” but Facicchio did not say whether it was taken on the grounds of The Anthem or elsewhere. Bowser, however, announced on Thursday that every person over two must be masking indoors, regardless of their vaccination status.
The mandate went into effect on Saturday morning, meaning the photo was taken hours before the new guidance kicked in.
Another photo posted to Instagram - later deleted, but saved in screenshots - also showed what appeared to be a massive - and maskless - celebration of Bowser’s upcoming birthday on the night the photo was taken.
Muriel Bowser mask mandate started at 5AM this morning.
DC is only the latest city to reinstate mask mandates in response to slowing vaccination rates and spiking cases.
“We will continue to do what is necessary to keep DC safe,” Bowser said when announcing the mask mandate.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also recently reversed its mask guidance, saying only weeks after announcing vaccinated individuals could drop pandemic-era precautions that things like indoor masking are still necessary in areas where cases are going up, a trend health experts have attributed to the delta variant.
Critics, however, have argued that masks provide little protection compared to vaccination and the reinstatement of mask mandates could lead to further lockdowns, something that could be economically detrimental to businesses that have struggled through the pandemic.
Politicians like Bowser have especially come under fire for sending the opposite message to the one they are preaching publicly.
The mayor’s celebrity photo was ripped into by critics, many of whom used it as prime proof that the mayor’s new mandate is “not about public health.”
“Mayor Bowser made the mask mandate Saturday so she and the deputy mayor could get this maskless picture with Dave Chappelle last night,” Fox News’ Cameron Cawthorne tweeted.
“Perhaps an answer to the question of why the DC mask mandate only went back into effect this morning,” Washington Examiner’s Jerry Dunleavy similarly added.
Here's the clown Mayor of DC not obeying her own mask orders tonight after she just made them yesterday.
In November, @MurielBowser broke her travel restrictions to party with Biden in Delaware.
Now, she’s reimposing citywide mask mandates despite no significant rise in deaths, but not before she celebrates her birthday with a DJ & Dave Chapelle.
Current DC Covid-19 regulations say that fully vaccinated people “may visit with a small group of fully vaccinated people in an indoor setting without need to wear a mask or social distance.” However, if it is “difficult” to know the vaccination status of all people taking part in such a gathering, fully vaccinated people have to wear a mask and social distance much like their unvaccinated peers.
Bowser has not directly commented on the photos, but she did celebrate Chappelle’s Friday evening show as part of the city reopening after a year of lockdowns.
“Washingtonians have waited months to be able to enjoy shows like this one again, and it makes it even sweeter to be able to reopen one of our favorite venues with a performance from one of the world’s most beloved comedians and a DC native, Dave Chappelle,” she wrote in a statement.
Bowser was also releasing public messages on Friday urging other DC residents to mask up yet again.
Let’s stay in this together, DC. By masking up, we can protect our community and keep DC open.
The mayor was also accused of breaking her city’s Covid-19 restrictions in November when she traveled to Joe Biden’s presidential victory speech in Delaware at the time, a trip her office described as “essential travel” despite criticisms.
The daughter of late fantasy author Terry Pratchett rushed to the writer’s defense after critics supposedly began attaching the artist to transphobic beliefs. Even Pratchett’s own Twitter handle sprang to life to refute the idea.
The debate over Pratchett, who wrote more than 70 books before his death in 2015, began with a commenter pointing out that the author may have had different views on gender than one of his frequent collaborators, Neil Gaiman, known to many as a writer who has challenged gender norms through his works.
Also if you reduce human beings to "terfs" or "TRAs", because it's easier to be hateful about a labelled group rather than a real individual with real experiences and feelings, have a read of this. Be more Terry. pic.twitter.com/Pyqnq2R4Ni
The debate over Pratchett’s work and views was challenged by none other than his daughter, Rhianna, who called the accusations baseless and “horrifying.”
“This is horrifying. My father would most definitely not be a GC if he was still alive. Read. The. Books,” she tweeted.
She went on to accuse ‘gender critical’ activists – who believe gender is biological and immutable – of trying to “recruit” her father’s name to align with their cause.
If you’re desperately trying to recruit the dead to your cause then you should probably have a big think about just what you’re supporting.
— Rhianna Pratchett 💙 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️ (@rhipratchett) July 31, 2021
Pratchett’s daughter also shared tweets from author Richard Cobbett praising her father’s ‘Discworld’ series and its inclusivity.
“One of the many reasons that I’m proud to be a lifelong fan of [the Discworld] series is its compassion and devotion to humanity in all of its forms – and that includes many, many characters willing to take control of their own destinies in a world that wants them to be quiet,” he wrote.
Others also stepped forth to cite specific examples from Pratchett’s books or to use their personal connections to the late author to assure anyone following the debate that he would not be aligned with non-inclusive activists.
I knew Terry, and he’d have held the GCs and everything they stood for in utter contempt. (He was absolutely opposed to bigotry.)
the discworld book monstrous regiment ends with an AFAB character who has lived as a man for decades deciding to introduce himself to his family as a man, but yeah, I'm sure terry pratchett would be all about *checks notes* not letting people choose what bathroom to pee in
— acab|blm|☪️|🏳️🌈|⚧ امنه خان (@jaythenerdkid) July 31, 2021
Terry Pratchett’s official Twitter account also jumped to his defense, tweeting, “They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it's not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance. Equal Rites #TransRightsAreHumanRights,” the ‘Equal Rites’ bit being a reference to the third novel in his ‘Discworld’ series and a play on the phrase “equal rights.”
Love that Terry Pratchett has interrupted his own eternal slumber to say ‘absolutely fucking not’ to transphobes trying to co-opt his legacy. https://t.co/sWJUUgYDjV
— Max Morgan 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️ (@SpillerOfTea) July 31, 2021
Sometimes, the voice of a person long dead remains more alive and more relevant than that of a thousand still living. pic.twitter.com/RAJYEvtoC3
The Oregonian has put out a video teaching drivers how to pump their own gas. Puzzled outsiders soon realized it was not satire: with state law prohibiting self-service, many in the Beaver State have never fueled their vehicles.
Filling one’s own gas tank is a process drivers the world over take for granted. Pump, pay, and drive away. However, with the exception of certain rural and tribal-administered areas, Oregon is one of two US states that prohibits this, and requires motorists to seek the help of gas-station attendants (New Jersey is the other).
That posed a problem last week, when temperatures in the state reached 100 degrees fahrenheit (37.7 celsius). In a bid to spare gas-station workers the ravages of the heat, the Office of the State Fire Marshal suspended enforcement of the law on Tuesday, meaning that many motorists were forced to fill up their own vehicles for the first time in their lives.
To the amusement of many online, the Oregonian put out a helpful how-to guide on Friday, containing such helpful advice as “select appropriate octane grade for your car,”“unscrew cap and set aside,” and “pull trigger and hold.”
The ad is not the strangest gas-related PSA to come out of the US in recent months, however. When a ransomware attack shut down a critical fuel pipeline in May and caused shortages up and down the east coast, the US government warned motorists fearing shortages “do not fill plastic bags with gasoline.”
The warning wasn’t based on hypothetical danger either. Several videos had emerged in the preceding days showing drivers attempting – and failing – to fill clear plastic bags and buckets with gasoline.
Anyone in Oregon still unsure of the precise operation necessary to top up their tank needn’t fret. The Fire Marshal’s order only applies until midnight, after which attendants will be back at work.
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Three officers were injured as mass protests in Paris against a Covid-19 "health pass" spilled over into fierce clashes between the demonstrators and police, as thousands took to the streets of France for a third weekend in a row.
Tensions have been running high on the streets of Paris on Saturday, as scores of people rallied against the government’s plan to demand a special Covid-19 health certificate to let people engage in everyday activities.
At some points, the situation apparently spiraled out of control as the law enforcement officers were seen using water cannons and tear gas against the angry crowds pelting the police with what appears to be stones and bottles.
— Ignorance, the root and stem of all evil (@ivan_8848) July 31, 2021
A video published on the social media also showed what appears to be an explosion of a small incendiary device on one of the streets, where the police engaged the protesters.
Another video showed a brief but intense scuffle between the police and the protesters that apparently prompted one of the officers to try his boxing skills in a standoff with the crowd. The officers were actively using tear gas cylinders and pepper spray to disperse the crowds and drive them away.
A group of retreating police officers also saw some of their colleagues falling over a barricade made of burning dust bins. The incident ended up with one officer briefly catching fire, with his colleagues rushing to douse the flames.
Le Parisien reported that at least three police officers were injured in Saturday’s clashes. It is unclear how many protesters were injured and detained during the demonstrations. Footage that surfaced on the social media showed police putting handcuffs on several people lying on the ground.
Paris was not the only protest venue on Saturday as similar events were held in some 150 cities across France, according to the media reports. Most demonstrations were peaceful.
The massive protests were sparked by the decision by President Emmanuel Macron's government to further tighten Covid-19 regulations. Starting from August 9, French citizens would need a special health pass to get into cafes and even to use certain means of public transport. The 'green pass' document proves that a person is either fully vaccinated, has recovered from Covid-19 or has recently been tested negative for the disease.
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An alleged wage dispute in southwestern Germany escalated into a bizarre rampage, echoing the story of American Marvin Heemeyer. A disgruntled construction worker used an excavator to vandalize a residential complex he'd built.
Windows broken, balconies torn down and chunks of concrete everywhere: that's what was left of a newly-built low-rise apartment complex in the small German town of Blumberg. The would-be residents that were about to move into their brand-new apartments will now have to wait for months until repair works are finished.
The devastation was caused by one single man, who was apparently so enraged over his outstanding invoices that he hopped into an excavator and started meticulously tearing down the façade of a building he himself had helped to build.
Known only as Matija P., the 47-year-old has already been nicknamed "Excavator Rambo" by some German media. He also might face up to five years in prison for his deed, with the German police having opened a criminal case over property damage.
A video of the incident that has been widely shared on social media shows the heavy equipment tearing down the glass balconies and breaking windows of the apartment block as Matija P. dismantles the building's façade.
Germany’s mini-Heemeyer? Worker demolishes building's facade with EXCAVATOR after claiming he wasn’t paid in full
The escapade could well have ended badly for the disgruntled worker, as he didn't stop at vandalizing the apartment block itself, but proceeded to vent his anger at the nearby garages. According to the police, gas cylinders were being stored in the garages and the rampage might have ended up in a big bang.
According to some media reports, the only reason the man stopped destroying property was the fact that his excavator eventually broke – an ending eerily similar to that of the "Killdozer" operated by Marvin Heemeyer – a Colorado man who in 2004 went on a massive rampage over a property dispute – except that the German "Rambo" did not take his own life after the destructive act.
Instead, after taking it out on the building, the builder-turned-vandal got into his car and simply drove away. Later, Matija P. turned himself in and stated that his outburst of anger was caused by some payments that were supposedly wrongly withheld from him.
Reports insist that Matija P. was not drunk or under the influence of drugs. The police also found no reasons to place him in custody.
At least 30 apartments were damaged in Wednesday's incident, the police said in a statement. The losses inflicted to the building owner amount to around €500,000 ($593,350). Police officers also had to cordon off the area to rule out the possibility of any damage to the gas cylinders.
The property developer, Ingo Fangerow, insists that the contractor had received his due payment. Fangerow admitted, though, that he'd withheld 1.5% of the total sum of around €4 million ($4.75 million) citing some "individual defects" in construction.
Matija P. can hardly hope now to get reimbursed for his efforts. If he doesn't end up in a German jail, he may well be facing a hefty fine for property damage.
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Anti-vaccine campaigner Piers Corbyn has been caught on camera by a pair of pranksters, accepting what he apparently understood was a bribe from AstraZeneca to shift his criticism from their vaccine to Pfizer and Moderna’s shots.
Piers Corbyn has become a regular fixture at anti-lockdown rallies in London over the last year, getting himself arrested on multiple occasions for breaching mask mandates and other Covid-related restrictions. He’s compared mass innoculation to the Holocaust, and picketed vaccination centres.
However, he’s apparently not above taking some cold, hard cash from the companies behind the jabs. YouTube pranksters Josh Pieters and Archie Manners recently posed as shareholders in AstraZeneca and scheduled a meeting with Corbyn at London’s trendy Sloane Square. There they feigned interest in Corbyn’s views and offered him financial support – as long as he criticized vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna instead of AstraZeneca.
In order to film the prank legally, the pair actually invested in AstraZeneca, purchasing a solitary share in the vaccine firm.
Corbyn called the cash offer “brilliant” and accepted it, but stated that he would only do so “as long as I can accept it with no insistence on any policy changes or anything that I’m doing.”
Manners told Corbyn that they were “not asking for a change in policy or anything but if there is anything that could be done to focus a bit on Pfizer or Moderna... that would be a useful thing.”
Corbyn seemingly agreed, saying that he was planning on focusing on the other vaccines anyway, and wrote down some perceived benefits of AstraZeneca’s vaccine relative to Pfizer and Moderna’s, and took the money, but only after Pieters and Manners staged a distraction and swapped the envelope containing £10,000 for another containing Monopoly money.
“If people ask where has this come from I’ll say... it’s a businessman who runs restaurants,” Corbyn suggested.
Piers Corbyn himself explained his side of the story on Saturday, stating that he “burst out laughing” once he realized he was the victim of a “skillful” prank. He admitted that he “perhaps naively” took the cash, but claimed that the pranksters would “take clips of conversation to make it look like something.”
Piers Corbyn says he "perhaps naively" accepted £10,000 - which later turned out to be Monopoly money - from a man posing as a shareholder in AstraZeneca to stop criticising their vaccine, describing the prank as an "attempted frame up". pic.twitter.com/Lqb9hb3sLP
It remains unclear whether the prank would turn off Corbyn’s supporters, some of whom have continued to defend the activist and question the motivation of the pranksters in online threads.
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Wildfires continue to rage in southwestern Turkey, with a new massive blaze now threatening tourist hotspot Bodrum. At least six people have been killed by fires that devastated large swaths of forest and destroyed multiple homes.
The new blaze erupted on Saturday in wooded mountains next to the popular holiday resort town of Bodrum located on Turkey's Aegean coast. Footage from the scene shows a wall of fire towering above the town.
Bundan öte artık ne söyleyeceğimi bilemiyorum.
Alevler insanların içine kadar girmiş Bodrum’da.
Çaresiz bir halde can kaybı olmaması için dua ediyorum.
Bu nasıl bir felakettir böyle yardım et Allahım...
Zira hala içimize umut salacak bir kurtarma söndürme operasyonu yok ortada... pic.twitter.com/LQn2BZeEPv
A herd of wild boars was filmed trying to escape the wildfire raging in the mountains around Bodrum. The ongoing blazes took a heavy toll on both wild and domestic animals, left behind by their fleeing owners.
Fires are ongoing in other locations along Turkey’s coast as well, including in the wilderness around the popular Mediterranean resort of Marmaris. Footage from the scene shows emergency crews, supported by firefighting helicopters, digging trenches and firebreaks in a bid to stop the fire from spreading.
Multiple aircraft, including a Russian Be-200 firefighting plane, sent in to help Turkey with the blazes, were spotted taking water from the sea just off Marmaris and dousing the burning mountains.
The fire outside the resort erupted just as Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited the town of Manavgat, located some 75 kilometers (45 miles) east of the resort city of Antalya, which was ravaged by fire earlier this week.
Manavgat kalem köyü.. Yangın sonrası ilk görüntüler
— Murat Girayhan Üçkan(ŞDP)💛💙 (@UckanGirayhan) July 31, 2021
The president flew over the devastated area in a helicopter, delivering a speech afterwards. Erdogan praised firefighters for their efforts to contain the fires, promising to help the devastated communities to rebuild. He also reiterated the allegations raised by top officials, that the fires ripping trough the country may have been caused by arsonists, saying that "suspicions of sabotage beset us," and adding that police will investigate every lead.
"We cannot do anything beyond wishing the mercy of God for the lives we have lost but we can replace everything that was burned," the president said, speaking at the crisis center in Antalya. "Our goal is to completely rebuild all victims' houses within a year."
Later in the day, Erdogan visited the city of Mugla, the capital of its namesake province, which is also struggling with the forest fires. Delivering a speech there, the president revealed that one suspected arsonist has been detained. Erdogan did not provide many details, stating only the detained individual is believed to be linked to a blaze near the city of Milas in the province
"It is our duty to find those who burn our forests and burn their lungs," he stressed.
The death toll of the ongoing disaster rose to six on Saturday, as two firefighters died during efforts to control the fire in the Antalya region, according to the country's agriculture minister Bekir Pakdemirli. Over 400 people required medical treatment amid the blazes, with 10 still hospitalized.
Thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes, with multiple residential buildings destroyed by the blazes.
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American BMX superstar Connor Fields has been discharged from a Tokyo intensive care unit after the reigning Olympic champion suffered a bleed on the brain during an horrific smash as he attempted to defend his title on Friday.
Fields, 28, was the red-hot favorite to retain gold five years after he stormed to victory in Rio de Janeiro but those hopes were dashed when the Texan was involved in a heavy accident early in Friday's race.
The racer became entangled in a crowded group or riders, the force of which sent him flying over his handlebars and face-first into the asphalt, where he was soon joined by two other racers who were also caught up in the crash.
Fields was initially lying motionless on the track after the accident, with further concerns raised when he was removed from the crash site on a stretcher while being fitted with a neck brace.
It has since been confirmed that Fields suffered a litany of injuries in the smash including broken ribs and a bruised lung – but the most concerning effect from the accident was later revealed as a bleed on the brain.
"The doctors reported that Fields sustained a brain hemorrhage at the venue," USA Cycling announced in a statement.
"After a night in the ICU, the doctors are pleased to report that there has been no additional bleeding and no new injuries were found," they added.
Doctors have also stated that they felt comfortable in releasing Fields from intensive care after they found no further evidence of additional bleeds on his brain.
"There's a bit of fluid on his brain but it has not increased for the last 24 hours, so they're feeling good about that. So far the results seem pretty positive," Fields' father, Mike, told USA Today.
"Cognitively, he's doing well. He knows where he is. He knows his birthday. He recognizes people."
Team Netherlands' Niek Kimmann was the envetual winner of Saturday's final, and the Dutchman paid tribute to Fields after he won gold.
"I haven't seen the crash, but I hope he's OK," he said. "He's been a great ambassador for the sport. It's sad he wasn't able to defend his gold medal."
The attack that killed two people aboard an Israeli-operated vessel off the coast of Oman in the Arabian Sea on Thursday, is believed to have been a drone strike, US Navy’s Fifth Fleet, which operates in the region, has said.
American explosives experts, who have examined the Mercer Street product tanker, have discovered “clear visual evidence that an attack had occurred” on the ship, the Fifth Fleet said, in a statement on Saturday.
“Initial indications clearly point to a (drone)-style attack,” it stated, without elaborating on how such a conclusion was reached.
Two US warships – nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan and guided missile destroyer USS Mitscher – have been escorting the ill-fated merchant vessel to a safe port, it added.
The statement by the US Navy has echoed earlier media reports, which cited an unnamed US official, who blamed the attack on a “suicide drone.”
The Liberian-flagged tanker Mercer Street, operated by the London-based Zodiac Maritime company of Israeli billionaire, Eyal Ofer, was hit late on Thursday northeast of the Omani island of Masirah, some 300 kilometers (186 miles) southeast of the country’s capital, Muscat. Two crew members were killed in the attack, one of them reportedly being a Romanian captain and the other confirmed as a British security guard.
Israeli foreign minister Yair Lapid has accused his country’s main regional rival, Iran, of striking Mercer Street and urged the international community to act against Tehran. “The world must not be silent in the face of Iranian terrorism that also harms freedom of shipping,” Lapid said in a statement.
Iranian authorities haven’t officially commented on the incident in the Arabian Sea. However, state run al-Alam broadcaster has cited “sources in the resistance axis,” who claimed that the ship had been targeted in response to recent Israeli airstrikes against Iran’s ally, Syria.
Explosions and fires aboard Israeli and Iranian-owned vessels have been frequent in the waters around the Persian Gulf since the start of the year. The two countries have been trading blame for various incidents, while themselves denying any responsibility for attacks.
However, none of the previous attacks resulted in human casualties and the damage sustained by the ships was significant and allowed them to continue operations after repairs.
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100m star Blessing Okagbare will not be challenging the likes of British record holder Dina Asher-Smith in the semifinals at the Olympics on Saturday, with doping chiefs handing her a provisional suspension over a growth hormone.
Self-declared "queen of the track" Okagbare was due to race for a place in the final in Tokyo, and the six-time African Championships winner had voiced her excitement and thanked god for her place at the Olympics earlier this week.
The long jump silver medalist at the Games in 2008 and current holder of the African 200m record has now been ruled out of her latest shot at glory after the Athletics Integrity Unit announced it had detected the growth hormone – a substance on the World Anti-Doping Agency's Prohibited List – in an out-of-competition test earlier this month.
Lab officials told the unit about the result on Friday, and Okagbare was informed that she would not be allowed to compete just hours before the semifinal on Saturday.
First doping story of #Tokyo2020 involving positive test. And it’s a big name in Nigerian sprinter Blessing Okagbare. She’d already started 100m and was due to run in semi finals later today. Now suspended and will be scratched from start list. #Olympicspic.twitter.com/rWfGaZbARf
Okagbare would have taken on the likes of Asher-Smith and the fastest woman of all time, Jamaica's Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, in her bid to move a step closer to a medal.
The hugely experienced 32-year-old won 100m gold at the Commonwealth Games in 2014 – the same year in which she married former Nigeria football international Igho Otegheri – and has also won a string of honors in relay racing.
Her 200m individual semifinal berth would have been her first since the World Championships in Doha in 2019, when Okagbare was disqualified for lane infringement.
She set the African record at the distance with a time of 22.04 seconds in 2018.
"If courage has a face, it is this woman right here," she told her Instagram following of almost 30,000 recently.
"The energy you give and receive is contagious so, be mindful when spreading words."
A man in France has been charged with threatening politicians by attaching their names to makeshift guillotines. He claimed it was in protest at the country’s Covid-19 restrictions.
A 50-year-old man from the southwestern Landes region will be tried in October for making “death threats against public officials,” a local prosecutor’s office said.
The suspect, who was identified through CCTV footage and detained on Thursday, set up dummy guillotines in the towns of Saint-Sever, Samadet, and Geaune last week. Sheets of paper with the names of 382 mayors were attached to the devices.
Vous avez raison !!! Je suis très inquiète Mais ou va t’on ??? Voici ce que les médecins et infirmières, ont trouvé devant leur cabinet médical à Samadet dans les Landes hier matin Une guillotine avec lettre de menace https://t.co/f2OJCaWz3bpic.twitter.com/cLODD7xCfR
The listed officials had all put their names to a recent opinion piece in the Le Journal du Dimanche newspaper, in which they had “saluted the courage” of the decisions made by President Emmanuel Macron, including the introduction of a health pass.
The suspect was quoted by the AFP news agency as saying the guillotines were made of wood and cardboard, and not intended to be perceived as a death threat. He said he wanted to “alert the mayors to the violations of fundamental freedoms by the government’s decisions” during the pandemic.
Nevertheless, Pascale Requenna, the mayor of Hagetmau and a regional councilor, told the media she had been frightened by the installations and, along with Samadet Mayor Bernard Tastet, had filed a police complaint.
“The symbol of the guillotine is unbelievably violent,” Requenna said. “We have the right to fight with words and ideas, but to use symbols like the guillotine to challenge the positions of elected officials – I find it distressing, violent, and extremely serious.”
A symbol of terror during the French Revolution, the guillotine was last used to execute a criminal in France in 1977. A dummy version of the lethal device has since been spotted during anti-government protests, such as those organized by the Yellow Vest movement.
France has strict laws against threats to public officials. In 2019, a protester was detained for merely shouting the word “guillotine” at a politician from Macron’s party, the Republic on the Move (LaREM).
The health passes to which the suspect was objecting serve as proof that a person has been fully vaccinated, has tested negative for Covid-19 within the past 48 hours, or has recovered from the virus.
From August 9, people in France have to show such a pass to visit cafés and restaurants, or board planes and inter-city trains. The pass is already required for visits to museums, cinemas, and cultural venues with a capacity of more than 50 people.
The authorities say the strict measures are necessary to curb the spread of the more contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus. The introduction of the health pass has faced protests across the country, however, with activists insisting it infringes on peoples’ freedoms.
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