Category: Євросоюз

Tens of thousands of people, many of them far-right supporters, protested Saturday in Vienna against coronavirus restrictions a day after Austria’s government announced a new lockdown and said vaccines would be made compulsory next year. Whistling, blowing horns and banging drums, crowds streamed into Heroes’ Square in front of the Hofburg, the former imperial palace in central Vienna, in the early afternoon, one of several protest locations. Many demonstrators waved Austrian flags and carried signs with slogans such as “no to vaccination,” “enough is enough” or “down with the fascist dictatorship.” The crowds had swelled to roughly 35,000 people by …

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Police opened fire on protesters in rioting that erupted in downtown Rotterdam around a demonstration against COVID-19 restrictions late Friday night. The Dutch city’s mayor called it “an orgy of violence.” Police said that two rioters were hospitalized after being hit by bullets, and investigations were underway to establish if they were shot by police. The condition of the injured rioters was not disclosed. Officers arrested 51 people, about half of them minors, police said Saturday afternoon. One police officer was hospitalized with a leg injury sustained in the rioting, another was treated by ambulance staff and “countless” others suffered …

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This was supposed to be the Christmas in Europe where family and friends could once again embrace holiday festivities and one another. Instead, the continent is the global epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic as cases soar to record levels in many countries. With infections spiking again despite nearly two years of restrictions, the health crisis increasingly is pitting citizen against citizen — the vaccinated against the unvaccinated. Governments desperate to shield overburdened health care systems are imposing rules that limit choices for the unvaccinated in the hope that doing so will drive up rates of vaccinations. Austria on Friday went …

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Guillermo Arránz spends his days in a forest hacking into pine trees to extract what is to him, liquid gold. Some might see it as lonely and backbreaking work, but to Arránz it brings great satisfaction. He is his own boss and spends his days enjoying nature. Arranz is one of Spain’s resineros, or resin extractors, whose centuries-old practice involves bleeding trees of their milky sap. This simple practice has taken on fresh importance as Spain struggles to cope without any natural source of energy. Energy analysts say pine resin might be the new petroleum. Resin can be used to …

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Hundreds of Kurds who had camped along Belarus’ border for weeks were forced to return home Thursday after failing to enter the European Union. At Irbil International Airport, VOA Kurdish stringer Ahmad Zebari interviewed some of the returnees and filed this report narrated by Namo Abdulla. Producer and camera: Ahmad Zebari. …

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Crowds of rioters in the port city of Rotterdam torched cars and threw rocks at police, who responded with bullets and water cannons, as protests against COVID-19 measures turned violent Friday night.  “We fired warning shots and there were also direct shots fired because the situation was life-threatening,” police spokesperson Patricia Wessels told Reuters.  “We know that at least two people were wounded, probably as a result of the warning shots, but we need to investigate the exact causes further,” she said.  Some people on social media circulated images of someone they said had been shot by police. Police responded …

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Poland accused Belarus on Friday of trucking hundreds of refugees to the two countries’ border and encouraging them to illegally cross into Polish territory to enter the European Union, an accusation that comes hours after Belarusian officials cleared the refugee camp where thousands had been hunkered down. Approximately 2,000 refugees, many of them Middle Eastern, were moved into a large warehouse on Thursday, enabling them to escape the freezing cold of the outdoor makeshift encampment. Several refugees had died while exposed to the cold temperatures. Poland’s accusation against Belarus suggests that the escalating East-West crisis, which has been developing over …

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NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Friday the situation at the border between Poland and Belarus is “deeply concerning” and the alliance stands ready to help its allies involved.  Stoltenberg made the comments in Berlin, where he met with outgoing German Chancellor Angela Merkel to discuss the issue and others facing NATO member nations.  Poland and the EU accuse the government of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko of “weaponizing” migrants, largely from Africa, the Middle East and Afghanistan, by inviting them to enter Belarus and shepherding them to the Polish border, sometimes by force. Belarus denies the claim.  Polish troops have clashed several times with the migrants as they attempted to force their way …

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German health officials said Friday the current COVID-19 situation in the country is a national emergency and called for immediate measures to be taken to mitigate the situation — including lockdowns, even for people who have been vaccinated. Germany’s Robert Koch Institute for Infectious Diseases (RKI) reported 52,970 new COVID-19 cases Friday, the third straight day new infections topped 50,000.  The infection incidence rate remains just more than 340 per 100,000. At a news conference Friday in Berlin, RKI President Lothar Wieler did not hold back his concern, saying, “All of Germany is one big outbreak. This is a nationwide …

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Austrian Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg announced Friday the government will begin a nationwide lockdown Monday and mandate vaccinations for all, making it the first European nation to reimpose COVID-19 measures, as cases throughout the region surge. At a news conference Friday, Schallenberg said Monday’s lockdown will be reevaluated after 10 days, but they will run a maximum of 20 days, ending automatically December 13. He also announced COVID-19 vaccinations will become mandatory beginning February 1. The lockdown will include an all-day curfew for the entire country, though schools and kindergartens will remain open. People may leave their homes only for work, …

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Hungary’s opposition leader wants to restore his country’s frayed ties with the West — and also has a message for American fans of right-wing Prime Minister Viktor Orban. “Let me state very strongly for all Americans that to be a part of Putin’s fan club doesn’t make you a conservative,” said Peter Marki-Zay, a self-described conservative Christian running against Orban in next year’s elections, in an interview with The Associated Press. “Orban is betraying Europe, Orban is betraying NATO, Orban is betraying the United States,” he said. Marki-Zay, the 49-year-old mayor of the small city of Hodmezovasarhely, is leading a …

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Officials in Belarus have cleared a refugee camp on the Poland-Belarus border where thousands of refugees had hunkered down in the hope of entering the European Union via Poland. Approximately 2,000 refugees, many of them Middle Eastern, were moved Thursday into a large warehouse, enabling them to escape the freezing cold of the outdoor makeshift encampment. European Union countries have been watching the developments at the Poland-Belarus border, anxious about the prospect of several thousand migrants entering within their borders. Meanwhile, several hundred refugees decided Thursday to give up their hope of entering the EU and decided, instead, to take …

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The European Union’s drug regulator, the European Medicines Agency, said Thursday that unvaccinated individuals account for much of the “fourth wave” of COVID-19 infections in the region and encouraged EU member nations to close the vaccination gap. During its regular COVID-19 briefing at EMA headquarters in Amsterdam, EMA biological threats chief Marco Cavaleri told reporters that in EU states, unvaccinated people, particularly those over the age of 50, are most likely to be hospitalized with severe COVID-19, be placed in intensive care or die. Cavaleri urged member nations, especially those with “unacceptably low” vaccination rates, to “close this gap and make sure that as many people as possible will get vaccinated.” Cavaleri said the data they have collected continues to show, as expected,  vaccine booster shots restore protection against infection and disease. He said …

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A nonbinary pronoun added to an esteemed French dictionary has ignited a fierce linguistic squabble in the country.  Le Petit Robert introduced the word “iel” — an amalgamation of “il” (he) and “elle” (she) — to its online edition last month. While the term is gaining currency among young people, it is still far from being widely used, or even understood, by many French speakers.  Though at first the change went mostly unnoticed, boisterous debate broke out this week in a nation that prides itself on its human rights tradition but that also fiercely protects its cultural heritage from foreign …

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Germany’s Bundestag — the lower house of parliament — Thursday approved new COVID-19 countermeasures the day after the Germany’s Robert Koch Institute for Disease Control and prevention (RKI) warned of a “terrible Christmas” if new counter measures are not put in place. The Bundestag, led by votes from what is likely Germany’s new ruling coalition, the Social Democrats, the Green Party, and the Free Democratic Party, approved new rules include requiring people to show proof of full vaccination or recovery or a valid negative COVID-19 test for workplaces and on public transport. The new parliament did not extend the existing rules …

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For more than a year, Russian-aligned troll factories overseeing thousands of social media accounts have been accused by Western countries and disinformation experts of spreading anti-vaccine messages in an aggressive campaign to spread conspiracy theories and cast doubt on Western coronavirus vaccines.  But the year-long offensive appears to have backfired.  Russian officials now worry that the anti-vaccine skepticism encouraged by the troll factories has spilled over and is partly responsible for the high level of vaccine hesitancy among Russians. Only 35% of the country’s population is fully vaccinated, despite the wide availability of the country’s home-grown Sputnik vaccine. Despite surging …

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The G-7 group of nations condemned what it called the Belarus government’s “orchestration of irregular migration across its borders” Thursday, as neighboring Poland reported new attempts to cross its border. “We call on the regime to cease immediately its aggressive and exploitative campaign in order to prevent further deaths and suffering,” the foreign ministers of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Britain and the United States said in a joint statement. “International organizations need to be provided with immediate and unhindered access to deliver humanitarian assistance.” European countries accuse Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko of pushing thousands of migrants, mostly from the …

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Poland is dealing with a huge migrant crisis as thousands try to enter its territory from Belarus. Polish authorities have created an exclusion zone and do not allow volunteers to help migrants who reach European Union soil. Jamie Dettmer narrates this report by correspondent Ricardo Marquina from the Polish town of Michalowo near the border with Belarus. …

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Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said China’s hypersonic missile test over the summer drew “concerns” about Beijing’s growing capability, but he said he did not compare it to Russia’s launching of the world’s first artificial satellite, Sputnik I, in the 1950s. “Those are terms that I wouldn’t use, I don’t personally use,” Austin replied Wednesday to reporters asking whether the July 27 launch was a “Sputnik moment.” Austin called China the U.S. military’s “pacing challenge” but added that the U.S. was focused on “robust capability across the board” rather than one specific capability such as hypersonic weapons. Even though the …

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Migrants in a makeshift camp on the western border of Belarus are being taken away by bus, a Polish government official was quoted as saying Wednesday. Thousands of migrants, primarily from the Middle East, have been stuck in the camp since Nov. 8. Most are escaping conflict and instability at home for opportunities in Germany or other countries in western Europe.  On Tuesday, Polish security forces along the border fired water cannons and tear gas at stone-throwing migrants, after Poland accused Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko’s government of providing smoke grenades and other weapons to the migrants.  But on Wednesday, a …

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