Showing posts with label world news. Show all posts
Showing posts with label world news. Show all posts

US Embassy in Pakistan apologizes for ‘unauthorized post’ predicting PM Khan will lose power after Trump defeat


The US Embassy in Pakistan is claiming their Twitter account was accessed “without authorization” when it retweeted a political message from Ahsan Iqbal, a lawmaker rival of Prime Minister Imram Khan.

“The US Embassy does not endorse the posting or retweeting of political messages,” the embassy’s account tweeted on Wednesday. “We apologize for any confusion that may have resulted from the unauthorized post.”

The tweet in question from Iqbal, a member of the opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz party, predicted the prime minister would be shown the way out in the wake of Trump’s presumed loss to Joe Biden in the US presidential election.

Responding to a Washington Post headline that read “Trump’s defeat is a blow for the world’s demagogues and dictators,” Iqbal wrote, “We have one in Pakistan too. He will be shown [the] way out soon.” 

The hashtag #ApologiseUSEmbassy began trending in Pakistan on Wednesday, eventually leading to the apology, though criticism of the post has continued.

“Embarrassing. The US embassy tweeting derogatory comments about sitting US President Mr. Donald Trump and Prime Minister of Pakistan Mr. Imran Khan. First time ever seen an embassy insulting its own lawful elected president. We expect some heads must roll,” Dr. Shahbaz Gill, a special assistant to Khan, tweeted. 

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Libya peace process ‘breakthrough’: Warring parties agreed to hold elections in 18 months, UN says


The two parties to Libya’s long-lasting civil war have reached an agreement on holding nationwide elections in 18 months, the UN envoy to Libya has announced, calling it a “breakthrough” in the protracted peace process.

"There's real momentum and that's what we need to focus on and encourage," Stephanie Williams, acting special representative of the UN Secretary-General in Libya, said during a news conference after a round of talks between 75 UN-picked Libyan participants in Tunisia. 

The representatives of the internationally recognized Government of National Accord (GNA) and Khalifa Haftar's Libyan National Army (LNA) have been meeting since Monday and have eventually come up with a preliminary agreement on a roadmap to “free, fair, inclusive and credible parliamentary and presidential election.”

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In this file photo taken on September 7, 2019, a fighter loyal to the internationally recognised Libyan Government of National Accord (GNA) fires a truck-mounted gun during clashes with forces loyal to strongman Khalifa Haftar in the capital Tripoli's suburb of Ain Zara © AFP / Mahmud TURKIA
Warring sides in Libya sign ‘historic’ permanent ceasefire deal, UN says

On Thursday, the representatives are expected to try and find a way to form a unified transitional government that is expected to oversee the run-up to the elections. Its "prerogatives and competencies" will particularly be discussed during the event, Williams said.

On the same day, a joint military commission created by the two sides will hold a session in the Libyan city of Sirte to advance the existing truce and adopt proposals for both sides to withdraw its forces from the frontlines.

The talks follow a “permanent truce” agreed by the GNA and the LNA in Geneva in October. Libya has been plunged into chaos since 2011 when a bombing campaign led by NATO helped militant groups topple its long-time ruler, Muammar Gaddafi.

Since 2014, the nation has been split between the GNA that controlled its capital, Tripoli, and the LNA that held sway over vast territories in the east of the country. Haftar-led forces launched an assault on Tripoli in April 2019, which ended in June 2020, after Turkey intervened in the conflict.

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Ras Lanuf Port in Libya, August 18, 2020. © Reuters / Esam Omran Al-Fetori
Ceasefire sees Libya’s NOC end all closures of oilfields & ports after 8-month blockade

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Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile is 12 TIMES over nuclear deal limit – IAEA


Iran has accumulated a low-enriched uranium stockpile that is 12 times greater than that allowed under the 2015 nuclear deal, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said.

A confidential report by the UN nuclear watchdog suggests that the total amount of enriched uranium in Iran’s possession accounts for more than 2.4 tons, AP and Reuters reported, citing papers they saw.

The quantity is about 12 times higher than the limit of 202.8 kilograms set by the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) signed between Iran and Russia, China, France, Germany, the UK and EU, also known as the Iranian nuclear deal. The US was a signatory to the deal before the Trump administration withdrew from it in 2018. 

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Tehran, Iran, (October 10, 2020 file photo)
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The IAEA report also says that the Islamic Republic has been enriching uranium to a purity of up to 4.5 percent, which is also higher than 3.67 percent agreed under the deal.

However, the violation did not just happen overnight: the IAEA has reported on Iran exceeding the agreed limit on enriched uranium stockpiles since at least March.

The latest figure is just some 337 kilograms up from the previous one reported by the IAEA in August, which amounted to 2.1 tons. That is less than the increases in stockpile recorded by the IAEA over the previous two quarters.

Tehran previously announced several stages of reducing its commitments under the deal in response to the US' unilateral withdrawal from the agreement back in 2018. Washington then re-introduced economic sanctions against the Islamic Republic previously lifted under the deal and also imposed new crippling restrictions targeting Iran’s oil sector in particular.

The US pressed its allies into joining the sanctions regime as well, even when the IAEA repeatedly declared Iran in full compliance with the deal. Other parties to the agreement have argued the deal must be saved.

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Iranian President Hassan Rouhani speaks at a news conference on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, US, September 26, 2019. © Reuters / Brendan McDermid
Iran to take ‘any opportunity’ to lift Washington sanctions after US election – President Rouhani

With its latest report, the IAEA said that the Iranian authorities are still granting the agency’s inspectors full access to its nuclear facilities and informing the UN watchdog about its nuclear program developments.

Most recently, Iran informed the IAEA about installing three cascades of advanced uranium enrichments centrifuges to an underground facility under the nuclear site in Natanz. The first cascade has been installed already, according to the report.

However, the agency also expressed its concerns over last year’s discovery of what was described as man-made uranium particles at a site near Tehran that was not declared by Iran.

“Following an assessment of this new information, the agency informed Iran that it continues to consider Iran’s response to be not technically credible,” it said, requesting “a full and prompt explanation.”

The Iranian authorities have repeatedly denied they ever intended to create a nuclear weapon.

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WATCH: Clashes during Poland’s Independence Day as marchers lob fireworks & police use rubber bullets


Several thousand people reportedly gathered in Warsaw on Wednesday to mark Poland’s Independence Day, with clashes breaking out between some of those assembled and riot police. Several officers were injured, Warsaw police said.

Footage captured during the march, which was held despite Covid restrictions, showed people throwing barriers aside and launching projectiles at riot police, who in turn reportedly used tear gas and rubber bullets.

One of the rubber bullets reportedly struck 74-year-old photojournalist, Tomasz Gutry, in the face, with pictures published by local media showing a bleeding gash below his left eye.

Footage posted online also showed marchers crossing the central Poniatowski Bridge, where fireworks were let off at a building displaying LGBT and Women’s March flags, and one apartment caught fire. 

No one was injured in the blaze, which local firefighters confirmed was caused by a firework, as they appealed for “common sense” from march participants. 

Other videos apparently showed police beating people with batons and using stun grenades, as dozens of officers marched up the steps of the Warszawa Stadion railway station.

Police confirmed that “several” officers were injured in Wednesday’s events. 

Some of those marching also blocked roads near Warsaw’s National Stadium where a temporary hospital for Covid-19 patients had been set up, police said. A police spokesperson said that officers “acted strongly to clear roads blocked by hooligans” in order to let ambulances carrying respirators past. 

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Working from home? You need to be TAXED for the privilege, Deutsche Bank proposes


Those working from home during the Covid-19 pandemic need to pay a tax to subsidize those who can’t, as well as fund the infrastructure lying idle, a Deutsche Bank researcher has proposed as part of a recovery strategy.

“For years we have needed a tax on remote workers – [Covid-19] has just made it obvious,” wrote Luke Templeman, a London-based ‘Macro Strategist’ for Deutsche Bank, in the November 2020 issue of the bank’s research publication Konzept.

Templeman’s argument is that people working from home save on lunch, commuting and travel, cleaning and “socializing” at the office, thereby not contributing to the expensive infrastructure built over the decades to support “face-to-face working” while benefiting from it. Letting these assets rot will extend the “economic malaise,” he argues.

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As a solution, he proposes a five percent tax, to be paid either by the employer if they don’t provide a “permanent desk,” or the employee if they choose to work from home instead. How would this convoluted arrangement be enforced? Simple: by audits “coordinating with company travel and technology systems.” 

He also argues that those “lucky enough to be in a position to ‘disconnect’ themselves from the face-to-face economy owe it to” essential, low-wage workers who don’t have that choice and risk coronavirus infections by showing up to work.

The approximately $48 billion raised by his tax in the US could go towards subsidizing their pay, or putting them on the dole while all the “infrastructure” built to serve office workers shuts down permanently, which seems more likely.

While claiming that workers will hardly feel the tax, which his back-of-the-envelope math suggests would amount to $10 a day, Templeman notes that companies may actually find it more profitable, since they would save a lot more from downsizing their office space. 

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FILE PHOTO: Employees reacts as Jay Heller, head of capital markets & initial public offering (IPO) execution of Nasdaq Inc, center, opens trading on Zoom Video Communications Inc. during the company's IPO at the Nasdaq MarketSite on April 18, 2019 in New York City
COVID-19 lockdowns are in lockstep with the 'Great Reset'

What happens to that office space, he answers in another essay in Konzept, urging the relaxation of zoning rules to enable people to live in downtowns and work from home. While this may lead to “hodgepodge” cities and the demise of post-WWII urban planning, he argues “change has been needed for some time and the pandemic is the perfect opportunity for central government to take charge and overhaul our approach to city building.”

Templeman brushes off concerns about government interference in economic choices, bringing up the UK 'widow tax' that served in lieu of income tax until one could be imposed, to argue that “governments have always backsolved taxes to suit the social environment.”

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‘It’s about people’s lives’: Vaccines should not be politicized & Hungary will work with everyone on Covid-19, Hungarian FM to RT


Political tensions should not affect international cooperation in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic, particularly in the field of vaccination, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto told RT.

International cooperation based on mutual respect is now more important than ever before, Szijjarto said, adding that “hypocrisy, political correctness, judging and lecturing each other should be left behind” as the world struggles to cope with the pandemic that already claimed the lives of more than 1.2 million people.

“I have a feeling that the issue of vaccines is becoming over-politicized,” he said.

“Instead of attacking other countries on a political basis, we should think about how to cooperate,” the minister said. “It is about people’s lives,” the official, who himself contracted Covid-19 and has been in quarantine for nine days, warned. 

This cooperation is especially important when it comes to vaccines, as vaccination is the “only solution” to the crisis and any other measures would be “interim,” he said.

“The more vaccines the better,” Szijjarto said, adding that his nation is “interested” in any prospective vaccines regardless of their country of origin and is currently negotiating about vaccine purchases with the US, Russia, China, and Israel. Buying a Pfizer vaccine “within the common European framework” is on the table as well. 

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Sputnik V vaccine
Budapest & Brussels on potential collision course as Hungary says it will import Russian Covid-19 vaccine despite EU objections

The minister also confirmed that Hungary hopes to localize production of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine, or at least part of the production chain, adding that he is currently in active talks with Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko and Trade and Industry Minister Denis Manturov. 

Szijjarto said Hungary “will not allow anybody to put pressure on us not to negotiate with eastern counterparts” and denounced what he called “rumors” about EU members being unable to purchase vaccines from outside the union as “absolutely not true.”

Hungary plans to receive the first, small-scale batch of Russian vaccines in December to hold domestic clinical trials and tests, Szijjarto confirmed, adding that some larger-scale purchases for general use could follow in the second half of January. 

Russia was the first nation to register its Covid-19 vaccine in September, provoking skeptical reactions from some international commentators. Brussels excluded Sputnik V from its early order scheme, adding that it would only cover European companies. 

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FILE PHOTO.
No Sputnik V for you! EU insists only ‘approved’ Covid vaccines allowed after Orban says Hungary is in talks with Russia & China

The developers of the Sputnik V vaccine said earlier on Wednesday that it appears to have 92-percent efficacy, citing preliminary results of large-scale Phase III clinical trials.

As for his own illness, Szijjarto said he has exhibited all kinds of symptoms while in quarantine and that the disease took a heavy toll on his health. Symptoms may change very rapidly, making it difficult to forecast its development, he explained.

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11yo Muslim student threatened to behead teacher at Berlin primary school, teacher says


The head teacher of a primary school in Spandau, Berlin has told German media that an 11-year-old Muslim pupil threatened to behead his teacher after defending the murder of Samuel Paty in France.

Karina Jehniche, the head of the school, told Der Tagesspiegel that fellow students were stunned when they heard the pupil tell his teacher “I’ll do the same with you as the boy did with the teacher in Paris.” 

The pupil was also allegedly involved in an earlier shocking incident during a minute’s silence in memory of Paty. The 11-year-old reportedly told a fellow student that it was “OK” to kill someone “who had insulted the prophet.”

An imam who was present reportedly immediately spoke to the child, and the school sent him home after a conversation with his parents.

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Schoolchildren arrive to pay tribute to Samuel Paty, the French teacher who has beheaded in the Paris suburb of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, at the Anne Franck college in Plescop. © Reuters / Stephane Mahe
French police investigate CHILDREN for ‘defending terrorism’ in comments made after teacher’s beheading by Islamist

The news comes a week after officials in France said that children as young as eight were under investigation for defending Paty’s murder at memorial services. Across France, according to Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, 66 inquiries were opened into alleged support of terrorism following the teacher’s murder.  

French teacher Samuel Paty was murdered by a Chechen Islamist extremist in a suburb north of Paris on October 16, after he had shown cartoon depictions of the Prophet Mohammed during a lesson about free speech. The perpetrator was shot and killed by police shortly afterwards. 

Paty’s death sparked a major clampdown by the French government on Islamist extremism, and President Emmanuel Macron came out in defense of the publication of the Mohammed cartoons. 

Several Muslim countries, particularly Turkey, have been critical of France and other European nations for refusing to denounce the cartoons, which they believe are blasphemous. 

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‘Like having billions of tiny 3D printers’: Scientists train BACTERIA to build complex microscopic structures


Researchers at Finland’s Aalto University have successfully turned bacteria into a microscopic workforce of nanobots, using molds made of hydrophobic material to create incredibly intricate three-dimensional objects.

The researchers placed the Komagataeibacter medellinensis bacteria in a mould with water and the requisite amount of nutrients like sugar, proteins and air. Once sufficiently fuelled-up, the bacteria begin to produce nano cellulose structures, in line with the hydrophobic (water repellant) mold in which they were placed.  

Cellulose is the main component found in the cell walls of plants and substances like wood and cotton. 

This type of guided growth through the use of superhydrophobic materials, which also minimize the accumulation of dust and microorganisms, could soon be used for extremely intricate tissue regeneration and organ repair in the human body.

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The handheld 3D skin printer developed by U of T Engineering
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The technique differs from existing and widely available 3D printed materials in that it allows for the creation of fibers one thousand times thinner than a human hair. 

These fibers can then be aligned, oriented and layered as required, affording unprecedented opportunities for delicate and fine-tuned repair work of muscles and organs within the human body, up to and potentially including the brain. 

“It's like having billions of tiny 3-D printers that fit inside a bottle,” says Luiz Greca, a doctoral student at Aalto University. “We can think of the bacteria as natural microrobots that take the building blocks provided to them and, with the right input, create complex shapes and structures.”

The team successfully created 3D objects with pre-designed features ranging from one-tenth the diameter of a human hair to 20 centimeters. 

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© Wikimedia Commons
Lego for bones? Scientists develop method for repairing fractures using 3D-printed bricks inspired by popular toy

“We hope that these results will also inspire scientists working on both bacteria-repelling surfaces and those making materials from bacteria,” says team member Dr. Blaise Tardy.  

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4 dead and 1 missing as Greek tanker collides with Turkish fishing boat in E. Mediterranean (VIDEO)


A Greek crude oil tanker and a Turkish fishing vessel have collided in the Eastern Mediterranean, killing four men, amid heightened tensions over gas exploration in the contested waters. One person remains missing.

The Adana Governorate in Turkey confirmed that a collision took place between the Ephesos, a Greek-flagged tanker, and a Turkish fishing boat at 5:50am local time on Wednesday. 

The incident occurred around 15 nautical miles off the coast, not far from the city and port of Mersin. The cause of the accident was not reported.

The statement from Adana officials said search and rescue teams have recovered four bodies, but one person remains missing.

Footage captured the aftermath of the collision, with the Turkish fishing boat capsized and rescue crews reaching the scene of the accident. The Greek tanker can be seen in the distance. 

Turkey’s Coast Guard Command said that three boats and a diving team had been dispatched to the area and the search would continue for the missing fisherman.

According to maritime vessel tracker MarineTraffic, the Ephesos left Ceyhan – the end point of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline – in the early hours of Wednesday morning. The vessel, which is 274 meters long and 50 meters wide, was heading westward and was reportedly scheduled to arrive in Gibraltar on November 17. 

The Ephesos is currently registered by the tracking service as “stopped.”

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is pictured during a ceremony at the Naval Academy in Istanbul, Turkey, August 31, 2019. © Reuters / Murat Cetinmuhurdar / Presidential Press Office
Turkey slams declaration by Cyprus, Greece & Egypt condemning Ankara’s ‘provocations’ in E. Mediterranean

Greece and Turkey have been at loggerheads this year as a dispute over exploration rights in the Eastern Mediterranean drags on. 

In October, Turkey redeployed its Oruc Reis exploration vessel to the contested waters. Greece, Cyprus, Egypt, along with the EU and the US, condemned Turkey for its unilateral action in the region. 

Meanwhile, Ankara has brushed off the criticism, calling it “baseless accusations.” 

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'Everything is now a pandemic': Bolsonaro tells Brazilians to stop being ‘sissies’ about Covid


Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro has said the severity of the coronavirus pandemic is exaggerated, urging his compatriots to stop being “sissies” in the face of Covid-19 and pointing out that “all of us are going to die one day.”

Speaking on Tuesday at a ceremony to mark the resumption of tourism, Bolsonaro described the Covid-19 pandemic as having been blown out of proportion. The nation’s death toll from the virus has hit 162,000. 

He continued by saying that “everything is now a pandemic,” and that Brazil was part of a worldwide wave of “closing things down.” 

Everyone is going to die. There is no point in escaping from that, in escaping from reality. We have to stop being a country of sissies.

He tempered his remarks by saying he felt for those who had died, before claiming that he did not know why he was in charge because he hadn’t been allowed to make any decisions regarding the handling of the pandemic. “What we lacked was not a leader, it was letting the leader work,” he emphasized.

The president also said that his life in Brazil is “s**t” and added that “whoever thinks holding this office is a turn-on, is completely wrong.”

Bolsonaro himself contracted Covid-19 in July and said in early August that he had made a full recovery.

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FILE PHOTO. Graffiti depicting coronaviruses with the face of Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro is seen in Rio de Janeiro.
New wave of anti-coronavirus lockdowns is 'crazy,' Brazil's Bolsonaro says

Earlier on Tuesday, the president posted on Facebook to hail the halting of the CoronaVac trial in Brazil as “another victory for Jair Bolsonaro.” The president has been very critical of the vaccine because of its links to China, and he previously claimed he would never buy it. 

It was reported on Wednesday that the CoronaVac trial would resume in Brazil. 

At the end of October, Bolsonaro took a swipe at other state leaders for imposing harsh Covid-19 measures, labelling the new wave of anti-coronavirus lockdowns as “crazy.”

Brazil is currently the world’s third-most afflicted nation with Covid-19, having registered a total of 5,701,283 cases since the start of the pandemic. On Tuesday, the country recorded a further 25,517 infections and 204 new deaths.

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Mongolia records FIRST local Covid-19 transmission, imposes 3-day lockdown in capital


Mongolia has placed its capital, Ulaanbaatar under lockdown, as the country recorded its first locally-transmitted Covid-19 case since the start of the pandemic.

The capital was placed under three-day restrictions starting from Wednesday after a truck driver delivering goods from Russia and his wife tested positive for Covid-19. The results came after the couple had spent 21 days in quarantine.

The government also ordered several checkpoints at the northern border with Russia closed down.

Twenty-four people who came into close contact with the driver were tested and isolated. Officials urged everyone who was at a concert that the infected couple attended to get tested as well.

Mongolia’s State Emergency Commission reported later on Wednesday that two more of the man’s relatives tested positive.

The new cases mark Mongolia’s first domestic coronavirus transmission since the start of the pandemic. The sparsely-populated landlocked nation previously only had imported Covid-19 cases. Mongolia moved to quickly close its southern border with China in late January when the world’s first outbreak of the novel coronavirus occurred in the Chinese city of Wuhan.

Mongolia so far has only had 376 Covid-19 cases and no deaths.

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Looks like… Trump? Spain’s THIRD botched ‘restoration’ ruins classical statue on Palencia facade


In a trifecta for art ‘restoration’ projects that end up comically grotesque, an early 20th-century facade in the Spanish city of Palencia has joined the infamous ranks of ‘Potato Jesus’ and the mauled ‘Immaculate Conception.’

What was once the smiling face of a woman as part of a Biblical statuary on top of the Unicaja Bank headquarters in Palencia was “restored” to a crude parody, as local artist Antonio Guzman Capel pointed out on Facebook.

https://ift.tt/3kjS8qi

“It looks like the head of a cartoon character,” Capel lamented. “I’m sure whoever did it got paid for it, but the bigger crime was committed by the person who commissioned it and then tried to carry on as though nothing was wrong.”

El antes y el después, edificio calle mayor principal, 9, Palencia.

Posted by Antonio Capel Artista on Monday, 9 November 2020

Another Spaniard posted the “before and after” photos showing the damage, and comparing the final result to caricatures of current US President Donald Trump.

The bank HQ was originally built for the Catholic-Agrarian Federation in 1923, so it had religious statuary along the facade. 

While the perpetrator of the artistic atrocity is yet unknown, the botched statue is now the third work of art in Spain ruined by unskilled artisans over the past decade. The first, and most famous, was a century-old painting of Jesus on the wall of a church in Borja. After an octogenarian parishioner tried to restore the flaking paint, the result became known as “Monkey Christ” or “Potato Jesus,” and has since been embraced by Borja as a tourist attraction.

In June this year, Spanish media reported that a furniture restorer in Valencia charged an art collector €1,200 ($1,400) to “clean up” a copy of the ‘Immaculate Conception,’ painted by the famous 17th-century artist Bartolomé Esteban Murillo. The result looked nothing like the original, however.

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FILE PHOTO: The original painting 'The immaculate Conception of Los venerables' by Spanish artist Bartolome Murillo at the Prado Museum on June 4, 2020 in Madrid
First ‘Monkey Christ’ now the Virgin Mary too? ANOTHER Spanish artwork mauled by botched ‘restoration’ 

Following that incident, Spain’s Professional Association of Restorers and Conservators (ACRE) has called for stricter controls over who can be allowed to restore works of art, but apparently without much effect.

“THIS is not a restoration,” ACRE tweeted indignantly.

Palencia is a city in the northern Spanish province of Castile and Leon, about halfway between Burgos and Valladolid. It is best known for the Gothic Cathedral of San Antolin, finished in 1504. Thankfully, it remains untouched by ‘restorers’ – so far. 

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Danish PM apologizes after illegal cull order of entire mink population over Covid outbreaks


The decision to cull Denmark’s entire population of mink after a mutated strain of Covid-19 was found to have no legal basis, the country’s prime minister has admitted, days after ordering the move to hinder its spread to humans.

PM Mette Frederiksen last week ordered the culling of the country’s 15-17 million-strong mink population, after the World Health Organization (WHO) said it was looking into reports that the virus was jumping from animals to people. 

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Mink farmers protest in Holstebro, Jutland, Denmark, November 6, 2020. © Reuters / Ritzau Scanpix / Bo Amstrup
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“Even if we were in a rush, it should have been completely clear to us that new legislation was required, and it was not. I apologize for that,” Frederiksen told parliament on Tuesday. 

The PM insisted that she did not know last week that the mass cull would be illegal, and that the issue had only come to light over the weekend.

The government’s call for all mink to be slaughtered came on November 4, but was made without the required legislation, local media reported. According to Danish law, disease must be found in animals, or they must be found in an infected area, before the government can order a blanket cull.

Some 2.5 million mink have already been killed, according to official counts, although a spokesperson for the Danish police said the number was likely to be higher. 

On Tuesday the government withdrew its original order and sent out a new letter to mink breeders, specifying that mink at farms where coronavirus was present should be culled.

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File photo © Mads Claus Rasmussen via REUTERS / Ritzau Scanpix
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Mink breeder Ervin Vallebo from the Danish town of Glumso had already killed half of his animals in the space of a week since the original order. “It is 32 years of breeding work that disappears into the killing box,” he said.

His concerns were echoed by fellow mink breeder and chairman of the Zealand Fur Breeders' Association, Ann Mona Kulso Larsen, who said the government was “removing our livelihood.”

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‘Safer world?’ Stoltenberg calls on international community to get rid of nukes, says NATO members should keep theirs for now


The world should “urgently pursue nuclear disarmament,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has said, while calling nukes a pillar of international peace and arguing it is not the time for the Alliance to forgo its arsenal.

The international community needs to bolster its efforts aimed at getting rid of nuclear weapons in the world, the secretary general said on Tuesday, at NATO’s annual Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) conference in Romania.

“Our ultimate goal is a world free of nuclear weapons”, he declared, while calling the UN Non-Proliferation Treaty the best basis for a way forward. That agreement, which came into force in 1970, was designed to prevent the spread of nuclear arms technologies through their transfer from nuclear powers to non-nuclear states as well as to set the goal of a complete nuclear disarmament.

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Robert O'Brien also wants to arm US Navy destroyers (file photo) with the hypersonic missiles still being developed
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Yet, Stoltenberg apparently believed it would be a bad idea to let NATO set an example in this noble pursuit and be first to abandon its nuclear arsenal in the name of peace. The secretary-general maintained that nuclear weapons do play a “vital role” in safeguarding international security, adding that any nuclear disarmament should happen only in what he called a balanced, reciprocal and verifiable way.

“Giving up our deterrent without any guarantees that others will do the same is a dangerous option”, he said. “A world where Russia, China, North Korea and others have nuclear weapons, but NATO does not, is not a safer world.”

Still, he boasted NATO’s supposed success on the way to a nuclear-free world. “Together, we have reduced the number of nuclear weapons in Europe by more than 90 percent over the past 30 years,” he said.

What the secretary-general apparently forgot to mention was that this achievement was not a result of some internal deliberations at NATO but that of a series of treaties between the US and the USSR and, later, Russia. 

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RT
‘Putin’s proposal a non-starter’: White House rejects Russian call to extend nuclear arms control treaty

The list of these agreements includes the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty that barred the two nations from possessing and developing short- and mid-range ground-based nuclear-armed missiles altogether. Another one was the 1991 START Treaty that limited the number of nuclear warheads each side could have to 6,000 and the number of nuclear delivery vehicles, such as ballistic missiles or heavy bombers and submarines, to 1,600.

The 2010 New START Treaty further limited these numbers to 1,550 nuclear warheads and 800 delivery vehicles, with only 700 of them deployed, for each side. Now, Stoltenberg is calling on Moscow and Washington to “continue to lead on arms control” and to particularly extend the New START, which is set to expire in February 2021.

The secretary-general, however, did not mention that it is a NATO member, the US, that has been reluctant to do just that up to now. In mid-October, Washington dismissed as a “non-starter” Russian President Vladimir Putin’s proposal to extend the treaty for one year without any preconditions and to work out the details for a prolonged extension later, only to threaten Russia and China with some as-yet-nonexistent hypersonic missiles less than two weeks later.

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A Russian Yars ICBM system during the Victory Day Parade in Red Square in Moscow, June 24, 2020.
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Neither did Stoltenberg mention that it was the US that unilaterally left the INF Treaty in 2019, putting Europe on the brink of becoming a theater for a potential nuclear arms race. Nor did he say that Washington conducted a test of a missile previously banned by the INF less than a month after it officially withdrew from it.

Instead, the NATO secretary-general followed the US narrative in declaring that it is China that has a “responsibility” to engage in arms-control negotiations – something that Washington has long demanded.

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Clashes on the streets of Lima after Peru’s President Martin Vizcarra ousted & successor sworn in (VIDEO)


Violent clashes broke out between protesters and police in Lima, Peru on Tuesday, after the country’s national congress voted on Monday to oust President Martin Vizcarra on grounds of “moral incapacity.”

Footage posted on social media from the protests appeared to show officers in riot gear striking people with batons, amid loud bangs. 

At least four people were arrested in the capital, and demonstrators could also be seen hurling stones and charging, as police used tear gas to control the crowds. 

Crowds also gathered outside Congress in central Lima, where politician Manuel Merino was being sworn in as the country’s interim president. Merino is Peru’s third president in four years, and he takes over from Vizcarra until July 2021, with elections scheduled for April. 

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Peru's President Martin Vizcarra addresses the media outside Congress as he faces a second impeachment trial over corruption allegations, in Lima, Peru, November 9, 2020
Impeachment or ‘coup’? Peruvian Congress votes to oust president over ‘moral incapacity’

Some of those demonstrating carried signs reading, “Merino is not my president” – a reference to what many members of the public view as a kind of parliamentary coup.

Peruvians also banged pots and pans on their balconies, with demonstrations taking place across the country on Tuesday, including in the cities of Serco, Arequipa, Lambayeque, and Cusco.

Vizcarra, who said he is co-operating with prosecutors, has questioned the “legality” and “legitimacy” of the decision to remove him from office.

“The legality is in question because the Constitutional Court did not speak out,” he said. “And the legitimacy, who gives it? Legitimacy is given by the people.”

Legislators backed Vizcarra’s removal based on corruption allegations, with a vote of 105 to 19 in favor of his ousting.

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France's Macron calls for EU border reform after terrorist attacks, favors founding European security council


The threat of terrorism is a European reality that needs a coordinated and quick answer, French President Emmanuel Macron warned on Tuesday. He also raised his previous proposals for a new European internal security council.

In light of recent terrorist attacks in both France and Austria, European countries must work on a re-think of the open-border Schengen area, Macron said in Paris.

Europe wants to keep its borders open, but wants to better protect its external borders, the French leader added. Macron’s statement follows talks with Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz at the Elysee Palace near Paris where the two leaders discussed the fight against Islamist extremism.

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France suffered two terror attacks in October, including the beheading of a schoolteacher who had shown cartoons of the Prophet Muhammed to his class, and the killing of three people at a church in the southern city of Nice.

In the Austrian capital Vienna, a jihadist killed four people on November 2. The attacker had traveled to neighboring Slovakia in July in an attempt to buy ammunition, according to Austrian officials.

Macron had earlier urged tighter border controls as part of the effort against extremism, pointing out that criminals trafficking migrants have been linked to terrorist networks.

At stake now is the protection of the external borders, not a limitation of the right to asylum, Macron added on Tuesday.

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A woman places flowers at the site of a terrorist attack in Vienna, Austria, November 5, 2020. © Reuters / Leonhard Foeger
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The French president also spoke in favor of setting a European “internal security council” - an idea he has raised before - and insisted that the creation of “common databases” might be part of a response to the terrorist threat.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel echoed Macron, saying that it is urgently necessary to reform the Schengen free travel area. “It is vitally necessary to know who comes in and who leaves the Schengen area,” she added.

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New EU budget dismissed as ‘Soros Plan’ by Hungarian govt spokesperson


Hungary’s government spokesperson Zoltan Kovacs has accused the EU of “blackmail” and of “executing the Soros Plan” after the European Parliament reached agreement on the bloc’s 2021-2027 budget and €1.8-trillion recovery package.

The European Parliament and EU government negotiators reached a deal on Tuesday after four months of talks, although the agreement could suffer some hitches when it seeks formal approval by the 27 member states, given previous reservations expressed by Poland and Hungary.

Following the conclusion of talks, Kovacs published an article via the PM's International Communications Office accusing the EU of “executing the Soros Plan” by trying to give the parliament the power to “blackmail and pressure dissenting member states to fall in line.” 

Prior to the budget being agreed, Hungary and Poland, who have come in for EU criticism for undermining the independence of their judiciary systems, had expressed their opposition to a condition in the budget that makes clear countries can only receive money from the EU if they observe the rule of law.

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Budapest has also been at odds with the European Commission after the latter launched an infringement procedure against the state over its migration-related regulations.

In a recent interview, Hungarian PM Viktor Orban claimed that “George Soros wrote it four years ago that those countries that refuse to let migrants in should not receive EU funds.” 

On a similar note, last month, Poland’s Deputy Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski said that if the EU proceeds with the budget and its associated conditions, “there will be a veto,” as the government will “firmly defend Poland’s vital interests.”

Germany currently holds presidency of the EU, and its Permanent Representative Michael Clauss has defended the budget deal as a “well-balanced” agreement that “addresses the issues” raised by the European Parliament and respects the guidance received from the European Council. 

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Netherlands to cull 48,000 chickens after ANOTHER bird flu outbreak


The Dutch government has ordered the culling of a further 48,000 chickens after an outbreak of highly infectious bird flu was detected – the second such incident in less than a week.

Health officials said on Tuesday that an outbreak of the H5N8 strain of bird flu had been discovered at a chicken farm in the village of Lutjegast, in the northern province of Groningen.

A local transport ban on products including poultry and eggs has been placed on farms within a 10km radius of the affected site by the Minister of Agriculture and Deputy Dutch PM Carola Schouten.

It comes after the Netherlands, Europe’s largest exporter of chicken meat and eggs, ordered some 215,000 chickens to be slaughtered on November 5, following a bird flu outbreak at a farm in the eastern town of Puiflijk near the German border. 

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FILE PHOTO: Chickens are seen at a poultry farm. © REUTERS / Stephane Mahe
215,000 chickens to be culled after bird flu detected on Dutch farm – Ministry of Agriculture

Also on Tuesday, German authorities in the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein ordered that poultry there be kept indoors, after outbreaks on two farms in the region. 

British health officials have meanwhile called for some 13,500 chickens to be culled in the northwestern county of Cheshire, where a bird flu outbreak was detected. 

In the Netherlands, commercially farmed poultry must be kept indoors in line with the current national measures to tackle bird flu. In addition, zoos, animal sanctuaries, and bird owners are required to “shield” poultry and waterfowl, so the animals do not have contact with wild waterfowl or their droppings.

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WHO panel urges governments to share experience on ‘effective fight’ against Covid-19


A World Health Organization (WHO) panel has called on governments to pool their experiences in tackling the novel coronavirus, and so pass on the best methods they have discovered or developed in fighting the pandemic.

Former New Zealand PM Helen Clark, co-chair of the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response, said member states had been invited to make contributions to the group’s work.

A “one size fits all” approach to the pandemic will not be appropriate, she added, but countries will still find it useful to “share experiences, and to consider policy alternatives and solutions developed by others.”

The panel also wants to establish an “accurate chronology” of the events around the emergence of Covid-19, and to review the different containment strategies deployed in various countries, Clark said.

Another co-chair, former Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, said “some countries have dealt well with the virus, and we should be asking what we can learn from them.”

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The WHO said on October 30 that its team of experts had held a first virtual meeting with their Chinese counterparts to investigate the origin of the novel coronavirus, which emerged in China late last year.

However, Washington claimed on Tuesday that the terms under which the WHO-led team of experts would work were not “transparently negotiated” or in line with the mandate agreed by member states.

The Trump administration has halted US funding for the WHO, criticizing its response to the pandemic and “pro-China” position. President-elect Joe Biden plans to keep the US in the UN health organization.

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Displaced Syrians settle in ancient Roman ruin instead of ‘overcrowded’ refugee camps amid Covid-19 pandemic (PHOTOS)


In a bid to avoid overcrowded refugee camps a family of refugees in Syria has set up home in the ruins of a Roman temple of the ancient settlement of Baquirha in the north of the war-torn country.

Abdelaziz al-Hassan, his wife and three children fled their home in Idlib last winter after a series of attacks on the city.

They now live in a tent village, pitched at the second-century temple of the ancient local god Baal, also called ‘Zeus’ in Greek mythology. “I chose this place because it provides peace of mind, far from overcrowded places and those riddled with disease,” al-Hassan told the AFP news agency, later mentioning the site’s relative safety from the Covid-19 pandemic.

An aerial view shows a makeshift camp of displaced Syrians on November 1, 2020 at Byzantine ruins in the area of Baqirha ©  AFP / Abdulaziz ketaz

“Two days ago, near the tent's opening, I killed a viper,” the man revealed, adding, “every other day, we have to kill a scorpion. … But we haven't found anywhere better than here yet”.

Displaced Syrians are pictured on November 1, 2020 in their makeshift camp amid Roman ruins in the area of Baqirha in northwest Syria not far from the Turkish border. ©  AFP / Abdulaziz ketaz

The family has set up a long tent as their house, it just fits in-between the temple’s three standing walls. In front of it is another big open tent, with a line strung across two of the temple’s half-destroyed columns to dry laundry on.

Outside there is an electricity source – two solar panels, with a cord leading to an industrial-looking fan inside the tent.

The small cooking stove the family has, however, runs on firewood.

A dog rests near the ruins of a Roman temple at a makeshift camp of Syrians displaced by war at the UNESCO-listed site of Baqirha ©  AFP / Abdulaziz ketaz

Syria has many such historic structures built by the Romans, Byzantines and even European Crusaders. Al-Hassan and his family aren’t the only refugees living in Baquirha, as the near decade-long civil war between the Syrian government and the nation’s different domestic and foreign elements has displaced millions of people.

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