Month: November 2021

Germany will have a new government next month after three parties agreed this week to form a coalition, ousting the ruling Christian Democrats, the party of outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel. The new government faces an early test of foreign policy, as Russia has deployed tens of thousands of troops on Europe’s eastern borders. Members of the Social Democratic Pary, or SDP, which narrowly won the highest vote share in September’s election, agreed to lead a coalition alongside the Green party and the Free Democrats. SDP leader Olaf Scholz, who will be Germany’s next chancellor, pledged to strengthen Germany’s existing alliances …

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Germany will have a new government next month after three parties agreed to form a coalition, ousting the ruling Christian Democrats of outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel. The new government under Olaf Scholz faces an early test of foreign policy, as Russia has deployed tens of thousands of troops on Europe’s eastern borders. Henry Ridgwell considers Berlin’s future relationship with Moscow. Camera: Henry Ridgwell …

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Czech President Milos Zeman was readmitted to a hospital late Thursday after he tested positive for COVID-19. He’d left the Prague military hospital only hours before, following more than a month’s treatment for an unspecified illness. The presidential office said Zeman was tested after he arrived at his official residence in Lany, west of Prague, in the afternoon. His official program was postponed, and it was unclear whether Zeman would be able to swear in the country’s new prime minister as scheduled Friday — a process already long delayed because of the president’s previous hospitalization. Zeman, 77, was rushed to …

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European countries expanded COVID-19 booster vaccinations, began plans to get shots to young children and tightened some curbs Thursday as the continent battled a surge in coronavirus cases and concerns about its economic fallout grew. Slovakia went into a two-week lockdown, and the Czech government declared a 30-day state of emergency involving early closure of bars and clubs and a ban on Christmas markets. Germany crossed the threshold of 100,000 COVID-19-related deaths. Europe is at the heart of the latest COVID-19 wave, reporting a million new infections about every two days and now accounting for nearly two-thirds of new infections …

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Pope Francis, meeting the prime minister of Lebanon Thursday, compared the country to a dying person and promised to do everything in his power to help it “rise again.”    Francis and Prime Minister Najib Mikati, who took office in September after a year-long government vacuum, met privately for about 20 minutes and discussed the country’s devastating economic and social crisis, the Vatican said in a statement.    The fallout from Lebanon’s financial collapse in 2019 has left swathes of the nation in poverty and foreign donors are demanding an audit of the central bank and financial reforms before they …

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Italy has given safe haven to Sharbat Gula, the green-eyed “Afghan Girl” whose 1985 photo in National Geographic became a symbol of her country’s wars, Prime Minister Mario Draghi’s office said Thursday. The government intervened after Gula asked for help to leave Afghanistan following the Taliban takeover of the country in August, a statement said, adding that her arrival was part of a broader program to evacuate and integrate Afghan citizens.   U.S. photographer Steve McCurry took the picture of Gula when she was a youngster, living in a refugee camp on the Pakistan-Afghan border.   Her startling green eyes, …

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The holiday tree is towering over the main square in this central German city, the chestnuts and sugared almonds are roasted, and kids are clambering aboard the merry-go-round just like they did before the pandemic. But a surge in coronavirus infections has left an uneasy feeling hanging over Frankfurt’s Christmas market. To savor a mug of mulled wine — a pleasurable rite of winter in pre-pandemic times — masked customers must pass through a one-way entrance to a fenced-off wine hut, stopping at the hand sanitizer station. Elsewhere, security officers check vaccination certificates before letting customers head for the steaming …

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An accident at a coal mine in Russia’s Siberia region killed at least 11 people Thursday and injured more than 40 others. Local officials said there were 285 people inside the Listvyazhnaya mine in the Kemerovo area at the time of the accident. Rescue operations were ongoing for more than 40 people still underground. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed condolences to the families of those who died. Some information for this report came from the Associated Press, AFP and Reuters. …

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Russia’s Supreme Court on Thursday will consider a request to shut down Memorial, the country’s most prominent rights group and a pillar of its civil society. Founded by Soviet dissidents including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Andrei Sakharov in 1989, Memorial has built up a huge archive of Soviet-era crimes and campaigned tirelessly for human rights in Russia. Prosecutors have asked the court to dissolve Memorial International, the group’s central structure, for allegedly violating Russia’s controversial law on “foreign agents.” The move has sparked widespread outrage, with supporters saying the shuttering of Memorial would mark the end of an era in …

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