Landschlacht, Switzerland, Wednesday 28 April 2020 (Lockdown Day #44)

Landschlacht is part of a larger municipality called Münsterlingen which is a union, an amalgamation of the village of Landschlacht with the town of Scherzingen.

Sometimes I ask myself:

“Can any good thing come out of Münsterlingen?”

But I have not completely abandoned hope in this regard, for there are institutions (besides those that provide food and drink) that seek to improve our lives here.

Landschlacht has the Chapel of St. Leonhard, a Kindergarten and a Primary School.

Münsterlingen, as a whole, has a Thurgau Kantonspital, a centre for the blind and the Psychiatrische Klinkum as well as the Benedictine Monastery.

I have rarely explored Scherzingen – I have never seen the point – so I cannot with much authority tell you what Scherzingen has to offer, save for the church the Kreuzlingen bus passes.

But the one asset that Scherzingen produced, in spite of itself, is the Swiss author Peter Stamm.

Of the many words a writer produces, it is Peter Stamm’s To the Back of Beyond that I often treasure among the many books I call mine in our cluttered apartment.

My wife is insisting that I have too many.

Too many books, too many DVDs, too many CDs, too many things, too much stuff.

And I have lived too many years not to know that the wisdom of women is far superior to my own.

So when my wife implores me for the millionth time to declutter and put my life in order, she is absolutely correct.

But she fails to realize that it is these things that keep me bound to where I am.

It is my fear that without these things to hold me here I shall one day simply walk away.

And it is this impulse, rarely spoken, often felt, of simply walking away from everyone and everything that Stamm powerfully captures in To the Back of Beyond.

Because are there not moments within us all when we have wondered how we would go about disappearing from our own lives?

“After returning from a pleasant holiday with his wife, Astrid, and their two children, Thomas leaves the house.

He walks down the street and he keeps on walking.

At first Astrid asks herself where he has gone, and then when he is coming back, and finally whether he is even alive.

‘To the Back of Beyond’ is a novel that takes away the safe foundations of a marriage and a lifestyle to ask deeper questions about identity, connection and how free we are to change our lives.”

I am a walker, and during these disease-riddled days with bookstores, cinemas, gyms, libraries, museums, restaurants and schools closed, my wise wife recommends for both my mind and body that I take a walk around the neighbourhood every day.

Though never pursued, there lies within me what I like to call the Stamm Seduction.

To find a path, a road, and follow it until I decide to stop.

Each time I leave my apartment block and turn west upon the street upon which the block sits…..

Each time I follow Schulstrasse (our main street) a bit further and further through farmer’s fields and then through the neighbouring town of Altnau…..

Each time I continue straight on through Altnau on the now-named Zelglistrasse through more fields of rapeseed and grass and orchards of blossoming apple trees to reach the large greenhouse festooned with flowers for sale…..

Each time I come to the trail’s end and then ponder whether to walk north or south, but then turn back home for it is the right and proper thing to do…..

I am Thomas of Stamm’s novel.

The itch inside my mind, the hunger in my heart, whispers…..

“Go, go, just a bit beyond”…..

And whispers in daylight become thoughts in darkness.

“Beware thoughts that come in the night.

They aren’t tuned properly.

They come in askew, free of sense and restriction, deriving from the most remote of sources.”

I am an imperfect man who by virtue of his character creates his own imperfect world.

And sometimes I think that a man who cannot make things go right can at least go.

He could quit trying to get out of the way of Life.

Chuck routine, fuck the familiar.

Live the real jeopardy of circumstance.

Live the tangible uncertainty of adventure.

Find somewhere out there the dignity somehow lost in the complaceny of the commonplace.

And it is this impulse that is rarely communicated and never understood when a man tries to explain it to a woman.

For many men there is a division within.

On the one side there is love and loyalty to spouse and family, to act responsibly and morally correct, to do the right thing whether it feels right to do so or not.

It is this desire to feel less lonely, to lose oneself in something greater than oneself, that compels men to sacrifice themselves to the world of women’s whims and the mindless demands of a work world that cares little about the needs of the man, save for what blood, sweat and toil he can devote to his employer, in the name of providing for those he loves, in the dim hope that they in return will reward him for his time and effort in their regard.

On the other side there is the wild untamed beast within that drives him to act in ways that cannot and will not conform, that cannot automatically assent, that cannot easily cope with constancy and consistency.

Those who seek to subjigate us to their will, by giving them all of who we are, demand we do so with no obvious complaint or discomfort.

Complain and clearly you have an attitude, you are disloyal, you don’t love us anymore.

Gain for them the world and sacrifice your soul to do so and they will love you until someone better comes along.

We should sing inside our cages, celebrate our servitude and strive to improve the lives of our employers and our wives and our children regardless of the quiet desperation that darkens our days and dims our hopes through the passage of unforgiving time.

We try to compensate for the loneliness that these demands on our time creates by surrounding ourselves with things that distract us from thinking about how restless we are.

We seek to acquire what we cannot afford and don’t really need in the dim hope that the loss of time and comfort, of life and love, to get these things will somehow compensate for all that was lost.

So many men have been taught by their parents that boys don’t cry, don’t show affection, are valued only for what they can produce, must be strong and independent while simultaneously giving that strength and independence away to live a satisfactory life.

Fathers and husbands have no time for their children and wives, for they must give their all to their employer who will abandon them the moment they are not needed.

They come home as strangers to strangers and wonder who these people are who tolerate their presence within their space as long as the income is provided that sustains them.

So many men lacking peace within long to climb the hills and shout obscenities at the universe, but do not do so for fear they may disturb the peace without.

We long to say how we feel to someone, to anyone, but there is no one.

Most men do not really speak in truth or in volume with other men for we have never really learned how, women listen only to hear openings in the discussion where they can interrupt and interject and influence these odd malcontents to remain within their world, and children are simply too young to understand and when they are older it is then too late.

And so many men, too many men, not knowing how to deal with feelings they are told they must repress, act in ways that are destructive to themselves and to those around them.

So many men seek power over someone, over something, to deny the overwhelming feeling of their true powerlessness.

I seek, much to my wife’s disappointment, neither fame nor fortune, profit or power, God or glory, but rather I seek solitude and reflection to not only understand how I as an individual am alone, even at home, even in a crowd, but how I can embrace that solitude that is my interior life, that is the undiscovered country within us all.

I read to discover that I am not alone in how I feel.

I write to discover how I feel and to tell others that they are not alone in how they feel.

Some seek to travel, to escape from where they are, for the promise of a better tomorrow, somewhere over the rainbow.

But the over there soon becomes over here, because wherever we go, there we are.

We are not running from places and people as much as we are trying to run away from ourselves, from an image of ourselves we don’t particularly enjoy seeing, so we seek to see something else other than the man in the mirror.

As disturbing as it is to read of the corona virus terrifying the planet, or of shootings in Nova Scotia, or of fatal police incidents in Australia, or of murdering Prime Ministers and their First Ladies in Lesotho, or of corruption in Brazil, or of displaced Rohingya refugees without homes or hopes, or of senseless civil war in Yemen in a conflict as illogical as two bald men fighting over a comb, there is still a sense of universal interconnectedness with all of the chaos that envelops all of us.

I need not travel to find a better place, for as any glance at the news will teach you, there is no such place.

We differ only in degrees and in particularities of individual circumstances.

We tell ourselves the pain and sorrow other people and places suffer could never happen to us, until one day it does.

That at least has been a benefit of Covina-19.

It reminds us that we are all mortal, that whether we are Russian or American, Saudi or Swiss, Korean or Canadian, the corona virus can kill us should it so choose.

And if the pandemic or some disease doesn’t kill us and others don’t kill us, then most of us will kill ourselves by degrees within the particularities of our individual circumstances.

I read the news to discover that I am not alone.

I write about the news in the hopes of learning how I feel is not unique to myself.

Consumers in Switzerland drank around 255 million litres of wine last year – about 20% of which was homegrown white.

In 2019, wine consumption in Switzerland rose by 4.7% on 2018. This corresponds to almost 40 bottles per capita.

The popularity of Swiss wine – especially white – is growing, according to the Federal Office for Agriculture.

Between 2018 and 2019, consumption of Swiss white wine increased by 10.3% to around 48 million litres.

That of Swiss red went up by 1.6 % to 44.3 million litres.

Consumption of foreign white wine also increased, but less so, and totalled around 41 million litres (+5.9 %) in 2019.

(Admittedly I am somewhat surprised to learn that less wine rather than more is not being consumed during these times that try men’s souls…..)

A shortage of frozen butter in Switzerland has the industry wanting to import 1,000 tons.

Dairy farmers disagree.

On Thursday an umbrella group for the dairy sector announced that it had applied to the federal authorities for permission to import 1,000 tons of butter.

There are currently 1,500 tons of frozen butter reserves in Switzerland, but the nation would need 4,000 – 5,000 tons to get through the demand for the rest of the year, says the group.

Butter production has been slow for months now, it said, and sales have increased in recent weeks.

Due to the inadequate domestic supply of milk fat, butter is likely to become slightly more expensive.

With the import of foreign butter, there would be a surcharge of up to CHF0.01 ($0.01) per kilogram of milk.

The Swiss Farmers Union has reacted to the import request by calling butter imports an “absolute no-go“.

On its website, the association argues that Swiss milk producers “still have to accept deductions for the export of milk fat”.

It also says that the butter stocks have grown in recent weeks.

Around 43,000 tons of butter are sold in Switzerland every year.

Depending on the brand and packaging, Swiss butter retails at anywhere from CHF 12 to CHF 20 per kilo.

Normally, Switzerland is able to produce all of the milk-based products it needs.

However, Switzerland loses hundreds of dairy farms each year.

(Perhaps the never-ending destruction of independent farms of dozens of cows to competition with huge operations of huge herds with government regulations and restrictions that favour big business over solitary farmers might be a factor?

And what does it matter if butter bought in Switzerland comes from a Swiss cow, for patriotism places poorly where profits are concerned.

And besides an independent farmer might have independent thought and surely that cannot be good for a cohesive society.)

In a revised forecast in the wake of the corona virus pandemic, federal authorities predict GDP will contract by 6.7% in 2020 and recover slowly in 2021.

On Thursday, the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) announced that it had adjusted 2020 economic forecasts to take into account sporting events affected by the pandemic.

The original revised forecast estimated the economy would contract by 1.5%.

Unemployment is expected to average 3.9% over the year.

In a press release, SECO warned that this would make it the biggest slump in economic activity since 1975.

This is a more dire prediction than that of the BAK Economics Institute, a Basel-based think tank, which at the end of March predicted a drop in GDP of 2.5% in 2020.

The forecast expects a modest recovery with the easing of restrictions in the next few months.

However, income losses due to high rates of partial and full unemployment as well as the considerable economic uncertainty “will limit the amount of lost ground that private consumption will be able to make up in the second half of the year”, according to the economic ministry.

Rising government debt in many countries as well as further upheaval in the financial markets and Swiss real estate sector could also exacerbate risks.

Switzerland is also heavily affected by the decision to postpone the 2020 Olympic Games and other major sporting events given the large number of sporting associations in the country.

Assuming no further restrictive measures, the Swiss economy should continue its fragile recovery in 2021, with GDP forecasted to grow by 5.2%.

Unemployment is set to rise further to 4.1% in 2021, with employment only likely to see a minimal rise.

The economic lockdown measures to contain the coronavirus have led to a spike in requests for social assistance.

In the first two weeks after the government declared an “exceptional situation”, the number of welfare applications quadrupled.

This is according to a study by the Zürich University of Applied Sciences, which found that those most affected were hourly wage workers, those in part-time jobs and the self-employed.

(Nothing inspires more warm and cuddly feelings towards the news and the nation when people are reduced to numbers and statistics…..)

Researchers in Geneva and Basel have launched a clinical trial to test two drugs in the prevention of infection among people who were in contact with newly confirmed Covid-19 patients.

The trial announced on Thursday is intended to help monitor and contain any new Covid-19 outbreaks at a time when many countries, including Switzerland, are easing restrictions.

Treating these exposed people preventively is called “post-exposure ring chemoprophylaxis” and is considered a pragmatic way to slow or contain the spread of a virus at the early stages.

“Protecting contact persons from getting sick is not only desirable from an individual’s point of view but could also prove an innovative public health approach,” said Alexandra Calmy, who leads the project at the University Hospitals Geneva.

The trial, now in Phase 3, is enrolling 400 people who were in close contact with newly diagnosed COVID-19 patients.

They will be randomly divided into three groups.

One of the two drugs that will be assessed is the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine, which has been hotly debated by politicians and public health experts as a possible treatment to Covid-19.

Novartis’ Sandoz division is one of the largest makers of the drug and has donated doses to Swiss hospitals as part of its Covid-19 response.

Participants in the second group will receive the anti-HIV drug lopinavir/ritonavir.

The third group will not receive any drugs.

Three weeks after enrolment, participants will be checked to see if they develop infection.

“If one or both of the two repurposed drugs should prove efficacious, this would allow us to react rapidly when new cases emerge thereby helping us to flatten the feared second and third waves of the pandemic,” said Niklaus Labhardt, who is a Senior Physician at the University Hospital Basel.

The trial is being run by Geneva University Hospitals, Basel University Hospital and the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute.

There are more than 60 approved research or clinical trials on Covid-19 underway in Switzerland.

This is one of five Phase 3 Trails being run at Swiss Hospitals, according to the Swiss Association of Research Ethics Committees.

(The positive aspect of using human beings as guinea pigs or lab rats is at least they can communicate how they feel…..)

Initial results from a serological antibody test in Canton Geneva has estimated that over 5% of the Geneva population – some 27,000 people – could have been infected by the novel corona virus.

That is more cases than counted by officials, but fewer than researchers had hoped for to achieve immunity.

The study released by the Geneva University Hospital on Wednesday is based on blood samples taken from 760 people in Geneva.

Serological tests were used to detect a specific antibody type G, which is directed against the pathogen.

The test confirms the presence of antibodies in the blood, but researchers caution that this does not indicate whether someone has any immunity against the virus.

(I do not know if any of my readers in Switzerland have been tested.

I know I have not, for at present the philiosophy – because of the expense and time required – in hospitals here seems to be you should not be tested unless you clearly look like you have the virus.

Meaning there is no telling how many of us have the disease but remain untested because we are asymptomatic.)

Based on the sample, the researchers estimate that the sero prevalence in the population to be 5.5% on 17 April 2020, which means that 27,000 people would have been exposed to the corona virus.

This is much higher than the official government estimates for canton Geneva, which is around 4,900 confirmed cases on Thursday.

Geneva has been one of the hardest-hit cantons in Switzerland.

The fact that the actual number of infected people was far higher than the official positive test was expected given testing for the virus (not the antibodies) has largely focused on people displaying symptoms or at high risk of serious illness.

Some experts say, however, that this is still far off from what they had hoped in order to achieve “herd immunity” whereby a significant portion of the population (upwards of 70%) are immune to infection.

“What is already emerging is that the proportion of infected people is smaller than hoped for,” Isabella Eckerle, virologist at Geneva University Hospital, told Swiss public television SRF.

(But why is this so?

Because Geneva borders France?

Or is there more involved than location?)

In a press release, the hospital stated that the results of the study indicate that the serological test platform at the hospital reliably confirms exposure to Covid-19 twenty days after the onset of symptoms.

Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche announced that it will be launching its own antibody test in May.

In an interview in Reuters on Wednesday, CEO Severin Schwan warned that some of the current tests marketed to tell people if they have been infected, are a “disaster”.

He told reporters, “these tests are not worth anything or have very little use”.

(No use to whom?

To the people being tested or the bottom line on Roche’s balance sheet?)

On Thursday, the Swiss School of Public Health – a consortium of 12 universities – announced the launch of a nationwide study to assess the proportion of the Swiss population with antibodies against the new corona virus.

The study called “Corona Immunitas” is a public-private partnership supported by the Federal Office of Public Health, private companies, and individual experts.

The study, which is scheduled to run for six months, will invite 25,000 residents in Switzerland to participate in antibody blood tests.

This is intended to provide reliable data on the number of antibody carriers in different regions and in specific population groups, as well as on the extent and duration of immunity against Covid-19.

A senior epidemiologist says it will take more than 12 months for daily life in Switzerland to go back to normal if a new wave of the corona virus pandemic is to be prevented.

Marcel Tanner, a member of the government’s Covid-19 task force, does not expect a vaccine against the infectious disease to be available within 15 to 18 months at the earliest.

“There won’t be any football matches with mass spectators or concerts this summer,” Tanner told the Neue Zürcher Zeitung newspaper in an interview published on Friday.

Tanner, a former professor of epidemiology at the University of Basel and director of the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, expects the government to ease restrictions on public and private gatherings of  more than five people sooner.

He also said he expected that most people can go back to work in June if the necessary safety precautions are respected, including in public transport.

“We can be pragmatic about this,” he said.

“Personally, I’d prefer to make the wearing of masks mandatory in public transport.”

Tanner is sceptical that it will be possible to resume our routines in daily life very soon.

He says it would take at least 60% of the population to develop an immunity against corona virus.

Tanner believes this could take up to the autumn of 2021.

Tanner also rejected criticism by various interest groups which want the government to ease the lockdown for the business community quickly.

The government strategy foresees a gradual relaxing of restrictions as of next Monday, followed by a further step on 11 June, depending on the number of new infections.

Details are to be announced next week.

(Here is where I am torn:

Of the national population the percentage of those infected by Covid-19 is very low.

And I understand it is as low as it is because of the health measures the nation has taken.

But I cannot deny that as commendable and wise as  these measures are, they nonetheless often feel excessive and paranoiac.

I cannot stop myself from thinking that we are so scared of dying that we have become terrified of living.)

Flights from India on Saturday and Africa next Wednesday will conclude the biggest repatriation operation ever mounted by the Swiss Foreign Ministry, in response to the corona virus crisis.

Nearly 7,000 people stranded abroad have been repatriated on 33 flights since the operation began on 22 March, the Ministry said on Friday.

Nearly 4,000 of these passengers are Swiss, while the rest are from other countries, mainly European.

About one third of these foreigners reside in Switzerland, according to the Ministry.

At the same time, more than 1,500 Swiss nationals have returned home on flights organised by other countries.

(I sometimes wonder if Canada could send me home…..)

The Foreign Ministry says the operation would not have been possible without the “professionalism and hard work” of Swiss representations around the world.

“The efforts of Swiss embassy and consulate staff, working in close cooperation with local authorities, proved decisive in obtaining the necessary flight permits, means of transportation and clearances to enable Swiss nationals scattered around the world, in some cases in remote areas, to reach the airports from which the flights departed”, says the statement.

The total cost of some CHF 10 million ($10.2 million) has been covered by the Swiss Foreign Ministry but “repatriated individuals will be expected to contribute to the operation by paying the equivalent of the market rate for a standard fare”, according to the press release.

(Because, God forbid, that government that takes your money should ever give you something in return for that money.)

Now that the operation is drawing to a close, the Ministry says its main focus will shift to “providing support for Swiss citizens who, for a variety of reasons, have been unable or unwilling to return to Switzerland”.

Almost 7,000 Swiss residents who were stuck abroad are being brought home.

A flight from India and one from Africa will conclude the largest repatriation operation ever mounted by the Swiss Foreign Ministry.

It was launched a month ago in cooperation with the airlines Swiss, Edelweiss und Helvetic.

In total, 35 flights have been organised from all parts of the world, including destinations which usually have no direct flights to Switzerland.

Once the flights have touched down, the next phase will be about providing support for Swiss citizens who have been unable or unwilling to return to Switzerland.

The repatriation flights needed a lot of diplomacy, security assessments and arranging of special flight permits.

Passengers will cover the main share of the costs by paying the equivalent of the market rate for a standard fare for their flight.

As many activities around the world have shut down because of the corona virus, diplomats have been working overtime to get their nationals home, often in difficult circumstances.

They stressed the unprecedented nature of this crisis and the need for solidarity.

“This global crisis is unprecedented and is therefore uncharted territory for everyone,” writes Swiss Ambassador to France Livia Leu Agosti.

In the past weeks, she has been dealing almost exclusively with the corona virus crisis, “on the one hand with its effects on our fellow citizens abroad, and on the other hand with the changes in bilateral cooperation across the border”.

At the same time, the embassy’s internal procedures have had to be continually adapted, she says.

Almost all embassy staff now work from home, except for her and a few other employees.

Switzerland’s western neighbour is home to the largest community of Swiss abroad.

In addition, “thousands of tourists” from Switzerland travel through France and its overseas territories every day.

“To reach all these people and provide them with the necessary information, an intensive communication campaign was necessary via social media, the Internet and the Embassy’s newsletter,” writes Leu.

She says Swiss consuls in Marseille, Lyon and Strasbourg as well as Paris have “worked with their teams seven days a week to answer the hundreds of inquiries and to facilitate the return journey of Swiss citizens”. 

Together with the French authorities, Ambassador Leu also had to clarify the situation of some 175,000 French cross-border workers who commute to Switzerland every day for their work.

“Their continued employment in Switzerland despite closed borders is very important because many of them work in Swiss hospitals in the border regions,” she told swissinfo.ch.

Leu also had to “intervene on various occasions to unblock the delivery of confiscated protective masks”. 

Asked about the importance of solidarity at this exceptional time, she says it is more important than ever.

“I am convinced that France will not forget Swiss solidarity, just as patients in Swiss hospitals will remain grateful to French healthcare staff.” 

“The pandemic is having a major impact on my daily life as an ambassador, but also on the lives of all embassy staff,” writes Swiss Ambassador Guillaume Scheurer in Morocco.

“It is almost like a revolution, in the sense that we have had to completely rethink our way of working and our way of communicating both internally and externally.” 

In dealing with the crisis and getting Swiss nationals home, diplomacy is more important than ever, he writes.

Contacts with the Moroccan government are more intense than ever “since we are in almost permanent contact, day and night” and “we are managing this crisis together with other local, Swiss and international actors”. 

There has been plenty of solidarity, he says.

“The foreign representations in Morocco are working together and trying to make it easier for all tourists to return home.

On several occasions, the Moroccan authorities have also shown a great deal of support, for example in authorising numerous repatriation flights or finding solutions for caravanners stuck in often deplorable circumstances.” 

Swiss nationals living in Morocco have also offered accommodation for stranded compatriots, since many hotels have closed their doors.

“It is heart-warming to see these beautiful expressions of solidarity,” Scheurer writes.

“Each successful flight, each problem solved, each passage on a ferry to France or Spain is felt as a real happiness, a personal and collective success.”

“I have already experienced several crisis situations, but never a crisis of this magnitude, of global dimension, with a completely open time horizon,” says Swiss Ambassador to India Andreas Baum.

The crisis has changed the life of the embassy overnight, with the focus now is on finding stranded Swiss nationals “in a country that is not only huge but is in a total lockdown” and somehow getting them home.

Except for the dedicated special flights team, embassy staff are now working from home, and all meetings take place by phone or online.

Baum says this is a completely new experience for him because he usually prefers to “meet face to face to discuss things or exchange written information”.

The Ambassador, a former doctor, likes to read at night to help him sleep, but sometimes that is also when the doubts come:

“Can we all stay healthy?

Have we taken all measures to protect ourselves as a team?”

Teamwork and solidarity are key, he says.

“This illness, the fear of infection, will distance us from each other and whoever gets sick is suddenly to be excluded.

Team spirit, humanity and solidarity are all the more important.” 

And for inner balance, he says he can sometimes enjoy a privilege that not many people in lockdown have, “jogging in the embassy garden, dahlias as big as plates, colourful as they can only be in India, green parrots, and the thought: what an absurdly beautiful and wonderful spring”.

Answers came from two ambassadors who job share:

• Pedro Zwahlen, who is responsible for Australia
• Yasmine Chatila Zwahlen, who is responsible for Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Nauru, Vanuatu and Kiribati.

Swiss travellers in these areas are often particularly adventurous, they write.

If travellers remain “blocked in the most remote areas of the world”, things can quickly become “somewhat complicated”.

“In mid-March we divided the Canberra team into two shifts, working alternately in the embassy offices,” they write.

“This increases the chance that not everyone will fall ill at the same time, should a colleague become infected.

Those who do not work in the office work online.

Apart from some chronic Internet problems, this works quite well, even if we miss the daily exchange during the coffee break.” 

They say the most complex task in recent weeks has been “to help Swiss people travel home because international air traffic has collapsed.

Countless fellow citizens have been seeking the advice of the embassy and consulate.

Together with other European diplomats, we try to assess the travel possibilities and coordinate special flights with the head office”.

Asked if they are sleeping, they reply only that “when night comes here, day begins in Bern”. 

But the crisis, they point out, has led not only to immediate operational challenges such as repatriating Swiss nationals and reorganizing embassy work.

It has changed many things in the world.

“We must also keep these in mind,” write the job share pair.

“What are the consequences of the rapid and fundamental shocks on geopolitics in our region?

What impact does the crisis have on power relations and political and social stability?

The wheel of history is turning faster.”

“I have experienced similar situations, for example during the war in Yugoslavia, but without Swiss tourists,” writes Ambassador Markus-Alexander Antonietti from Peru.

He says he sleeps “briefly, but with intense dreams”. 

Peru is also in strict lockdown.

A core team is working at the embassy and the rest from home, he says.

The size of the country and the severely reduced travel possibilities within Peru have led to “big practical problems in the repatriation of tourists, who are spread all over the country (3.5 times the size of Germany, but without the infrastructure of Germany)”.

The embassy has had to organise bus convoys to bring Swiss nationals and travellers from other European countries to the capital Lima.

In this situation, solidarity is extremely important, he writes.

“In Peru, it exists between the countries of the EU and us. I have been on EU chat and in EU Skype meetings.

We have already helped dozens of EU citizens with domestic transport and repatriation, and the EU has helped us.”

In times like these, all the contacts and network established in the past become particularly important, writes Ambassador Yves Rossier from Moscow.

Official meetings have become very rare, and conversations with the Russian authorities usually take place by telephone.

No online events are planned, because “a large part of non-verbal communication would be lost”. 

He also stresses the importance of solidarity.

“We communicate daily with other embassies, coordinating and comparing approaches.

Return flight options for Swiss citizens are also discussed with other diplomatic missions.

Swiss nationals in Russia are kept regularly informed of the situation, and we are in close contact with the Swiss Club of Moscow, which supports and informs Swiss people in Russia through a WhatsApp group.” 

The number of new corona virus infections continues to decline in Switzerland, but the population must remain disciplined, says the government’s delegate for Covid-19 Daniel Koch.

“The trend in the number of cases is good, but we do not want it to rise again,” Koch told a news conference on Friday.

He was speaking ahead of a first loosening of anti-corona virus measures link from Monday.

The ban remains on gatherings of more than five people, while social distancing and hygiene rules must be strictly observed, he said.

He appealed to the public’s sense of responsibility, stressing that a party in a park around a barbecue is “not on right now”.

Only if the numbers can be reduced further will it be possible to return to some kind of normality in the summer, said Koch.

Meanwhile, the armed forces command says it has begun demobilising about 1,000  soldiers taking part in support operations over the past 40 days.

In total, about 4,000 members of the militia army have been on duty at hospitals, the Swiss borders and outside foreign embassies since mid-March.

By mid-May the number is likely to be reduced further, according to a senior army commander.

Severin Schwan talks a lot about trust.

Trust in people you live with, socialise with, work with.

And trust is not won by being nice, says the chief executive of Roche, one of the world’s biggest pharmaceutical companies.

(There is something comforting in getting morality lessons from an industry that gets its income from the ill.)

“There are many components to building trust,” he tells the Financial Times.

“One is that you are honest.

That means sometimes you don’t make friends and  sometimes it’s uncomfortable.

It’s difficult to tell the truth and to receive the truth.”

(And the truth shall set you free?)

This week Schwan delivered an uncomfortable truth to the UK government, saying it lagged behind other countries in dealing with the corona virus crisis, because it had not invested enough in healthcare and testing.

(Nothing wins friends faster than telling them that they are suffering and it is their fault that they do so.)

Speaking from lockdown in Switzerland, Schwan is not apologetic.

“I am not saying the decision not to invest is right or wrong,” he says.

“But don’t wonder when a crisis like this comes and you don’t have the infrastructure that you are in a more difficult situation.”

(Don’t ask Schwan for sympathy?)

Silver haired, but still youthful-looking for his 52 years, Mr Schwan has found himself at the centre of industry efforts to battle the crisis.

As one of the world’s leading diagnostics companies, Switzerland-based Roche aims to launch a Covid antibody test next month, while Actemra, an arthritis drug, is also being trialled as a possible treatment.

Amid the global attention, the Roche boss has taken the opportunity to speak his mind, even if it prompts what he calls “a shitstorm”.

That was not always the Roche approach, according to one person who knows the company well.

“Roche used to be so secretive that you could not get anything from them,” the person says.

“But now they are doing things they wouldn’t have done before.

There has been a wind of change.”

It took time for the winds to shift after Schwan’s appointment as chief executive in 2008 — a surprise nomination given his age, at 40, and background.

With a degree in economics and a doctorate in law, he joined Roche in 1993 as a graduate trainee in the corporate finance team.

Schwan worked his way quickly up the ranks, including a stint in Asia, until he became head of Roche’s diagnostics division in 2006.

From there he was chosen over the group’s pharmaceuticals boss to take charge.

He was put to the test within a year, when Roche came under attack from some researchers over withholding trial data on its antiviral drug Tamiflu, which had been stockpiled by governments preparing for the swine flu pandemic.

The debate spiralled into a public and political controversy as Roche resisted releasing the data.

Roche “did not do themselves any favours”, says another industry veteran.

“They did not communicate right.”

Schwan admits he could have approached the critics “in a different way, perhaps more proactively”.

But he remains adamant that “we were on the right side”.

(Because being right matters more?)

The patent has expired on Tamiflu, but its value as an efficacious flu treatment continues to be validated by regulators, he says.

To question their findings would threaten lives, he insists, even as the world approaches a new flu season that could be made worse by the corona virus.

(So, best be silent and just accept what everyone says?)

For outsiders that debate was a watershed.

“Since then they have become much more open to sharing data and in communications,” the industry veteran says.

Schwan has also developed a reputation for being a solid helmsman, taking revenues from SFr 45.6bn in 2008 to SFr 61.5bn ($63bn) last year.

(For clearly the measure of a man’s worth is set by the standard by which he increase the bank balance?)

In its most recent results, Roche successfully offset the expiry of patents on blockbuster drugs with new treatments for multiple sclerosis and cancer.

It has arguably “the most exciting pipeline in pharma”, according to analysts at Jefferies Investment Bank, and is also building a business in gene therapy.

“Roche is successfully crossing its patent cliff.

That’s rather unexpected,” says one pharmaceuticals analyst.

Despite his SFr 11m pay packet last year, Schwan remains “a very down-to-earth person” — a product of a Roche culture that abhors flashy wealth, says another pharma veteran.

He is “lecturey but not arrogant”.

(I have to ask:

What in hell can make a man worth 11 million?)

The Roche boss, Austrian by birth, is now a fully fledged member of the Swiss elite.

(Should the accident of one’s birthplace determine one’s character assessment?)

As the lead independent director at Credit Suisse, he helped to steer the bank through the recent crisis which set the board against former chief executive Tidjane Thiam.

“Schwan’s very methodical.

No bullshit,” says a senior Swiss financier.

“With Tidjane, he kept quiet for a long time.

And then at a certain point, he thought ‘enough is enough’ and he acted.”

Schwan is not without his critics however.

“He can be simplistic and naive,” says a former colleague.

“At Credit Suisse, his big obsession was purpose, not banking.”

The pharma analyst suggests that despite the success of new drugs, “there has not been much transformation at Roche since the acquisition of biotech group Genentech”, in 2009.

The company is still benefiting from Genentech’s oncology expertise.

Schwan agrees that he has profited from decisions made by predecessors.

But planning for the very long term is one of the benefits of having the founding Hoffman-Oeri families pooled into a single 45% shareholder, he says.

Schwan is now looking to develop a business focused on personalised healthcare, bringing together digital technologies with the core pharmaceuticals and diagnostics businesses.

That is a longer-term objective, but he says that after 12 years at the helm, he has built the trust with investors and staff to try.

“I would be so glad if I am long retired and my successor tells you that back in 2020 they were one of the first companies to figure out how to bring pharmaceutical, diagnostic and digital insights together.

That would be a big satisfaction.”

Masks remain a major preoccupation in Switzerland as the country gears up for a gradual easing of corona virus-related restrictions.

As of Monday, the government will supply department stores with millions of hygienic masks, leaning on the army’s pharmacy to carry out the distribution, according to the French-language Swiss daily 24 heures.

An initial supply of 75 million is ready to go.

Masks will be distributed to Swiss supermarket chains Migros and Coop.

Migros and Coop will be charging CHF 19.7 for a batch of twenty pieces and CHF 39.90 for a set of 50 units, according to the report.

But not all stores are expected to have masks available on the first day and each customer will only be entitled to one package.

Retail stores Manor and Landi are also looking to stock up on textile masks by 11 May, which marks the re-opening of compulsory schools.

The Swiss government has been remiss to recommend the general use of masks by the population.

“Healthy people still do not need to wear masks in public spaces,” according to the health authorities.

The use of masks, however, may be warranted on public transport during rush hour traffic or similar settings in which socially distancing is difficult to maintain.

Switzerland has experienced a shortage of protective masks due to the coronavirus crisis.

Nonetheless, companies based in the countries exported 25 tonnes of mask in the first months of 2020.

This compares to just 13 kg for the whole of 2019, according to reports by Le Matin Dimanche and the Sonntags Zeitung, which cited statistics from the customs authority.

A French artist known for massive works of graffiti on grass best seen from the air presented his latest piece on Sunday in the Swiss Alps – a corona virus-related picture of a girl looking towards the horizon.

The artist Saype, whose real name is Guillaume Legros, has painted his temporary, biodegradable images on lawns from Yamoussoukro in Ivory Coast to the Champ de Mars next to the Eiffel Tower in Paris, often depicting children or a close-up of two people’s hands gripping each other’s forearms.

“Beyond crisis”, his new work on a clearing in the Swiss resort town of Leysin, shows a girl sitting, completing a chain of stick figures holding hands.

“The fresco of more than 3,000 square metres evokes the building of a world with more solidarity and more humanity,” Saype said in a statement quoted by Reuters news agency.

“There are several levels of reading but the main idea is to challenge the world that will follow after the crisis, on the importance of all looking in the same direction ”, Saype told the Swiss news agency Keystone-SDA.

“As with my other works, I want to convey an optimistic vision, a certain idea of living together.”

“Beyond Crisis” was carried out on the private land of a farmer at the Prafandaz pass, which overlooks Lake Geneva.

Saype used his usual paint, namely a 100% biodegradable product based ion chalk and charcoal.

The lifespan of his work will depend on the weather and the regrowth of the grass.

“I estimate it between two weeks to a month,” the artists told Keystone-SDA.

In 2019, Saype was listed by Forbes among the 30 most influential European personalities under the age of 30 in field of art and culture.

Switzerland documented a record 352 cases of discrimination in 2019, reflecting an increase in racist acts in public places and attacks spurred by far-right ideologies.

Xenophobia was the main driver for racist behaviour.

Black and Muslim people are the worst affected, with 132 and 55 cases respectively registered by counselling centres in 2019.

The number of cases with a right-wing extremist connotation also rose in 2019. Every tenth attack falls under this category, notes the Blick newspaper in its Sunday edition.

“The extreme right-wing scene is on the move,” says the president of the Federal Commission against Racism (EKR) Martine Brunschwig Graf, in remarks quoted by Blick.

“This must be taken seriously.

We must not underestimate it.”

Only a small number of victims of racism, she notes, seek help from an advice centre.

The number of unreported cases is believed to be higher than the number of reported cases.

Notable racist acts in 2019 included the spraying of Nazi symbols, people making the Hitler salute and attacks against black youth.

Racial profiling is another issue highlighted by the authorities, with 23 cases reported last year.

The 352 figure represents a 27% increase relative to 2018.

The government has already published some of its main findings for 2019 but is expected to release a full report on the issue on Monday.

In its 2020 report, the Council of Europe’s Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) urged Switzerland to boost the capacity of counselling centres for victims of racism.

Australia, Wednesday 22 April 2020

The horror crash that occured last night on the Eastern Freeway in Melbourne was the biggest single loss of police lives in one incident in Victorian history, the police commissioner said.

It is not yet known the cause of the truck crashing into the officers on the eastern freeway.

The driver is in hospital under police guard and police expect him to be there “for some time”.

Blood samples will been taken to test for alcohol or drug use.

Commissioner Ashton said it was believed the truck driver suffered a medical episode at the scene and after the crash.

“We don’t know at this stage what caused him to drive the truck into our police members,” he said.

“We just don’t know.

The truck has also made considerable contact with the Porsche.

“This is a real tragedy and so tonight will be spent notifying loved ones of our four officers.

“A very tragic night indeed we’re having to respond to.”

A witness told the Herald Sun the accident site was horrific.

“It was carnage,” they said.

“There were civilians trying to run around and help, it was horrible.”

The newspaper said about seven people and an off duty doctor and paramedic were the first on the scene to help.

Bangladesh, Saturday 25 April 2020

The Bangladesh government has refused to allow some 500 Rohingya refugees stranded on board two fishing trawlers in the Bay of Bengal to come ashore, drawing criticism from rights groups.

Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen told Al Jazeera on Saturday that the Rohingya refugees, who are believed to have been at sea for weeks, are “not Bangladesh’s responsibility.”

“Why you are asking Bangladesh to take those Rohingyas?

They are in the deep sea, not even in Bangladesh’s territorial water,” Momen said, adding that there are at least eight coastal countries surrounding the Bay of Bengal.

“It’s your duty to ask Myanmar government first because those are their citizens,” Momen told Al Jazeera.

The two trawlers – carrying an estimated 500 Rohingya women, men and children – are in the Bay of Bengal after being rejected by Malaysia, which has imposed restrictions on all boats in light of the corona virus pandemic.

According to the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, the stranded Rohingya might “have been at sea for weeks without adequate food and water.”

Momen said that just weeks ago, Bangladesh rescued a total of 396 Rohingya people from a vessel that had been adrift for about two months after also failing to reach Malaysia.

“Why should Bangladesh take the responsibility every time? Momen asked.

“Bangladesh has already taken more than a million of Rohingya.

We are running out of generosity now.”

On Saturday, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said the government of Bangladesh should immediately allow stranded refugees ashore and provide them with the necessary food, water, and healthcare.

“Bangladesh has shouldered a heavy burden as the result of the Myanmar military’s atrocity crimes, but this is no excuse to push boatloads of refugees out to sea to die,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at HRW.

“Bangladesh should continue to help those at grave risk and preserve the international goodwill it has gained in recent years for helping the Rohingya.”

Bangladesh’s coastal authorities meanwhile, denied the presence of any trawlers carrying Rohingya refugees in its territorial waters.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Lieutenant Commander Sohail Rana, Teknaf station head of Bangladesh coastguard said they had not seen any “boats carrying Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh’s territorial water in the past few days”.

“The areas that we patrol have no such boats,” Rana said.

A Bangladeshi fisherman, however, told HRW that on 20 April he saw “two trawlers full of Rohingya coming toward the shore while I was at sea in my fishing trawler with others”.

The same day, a local resident posted on Facebook:

“Again, trawlers full of Rohingya are heading to Baharchara Union in Cox’s Bazar.

They are waiting at sea to enter into Bangladesh.”

It is believed that most of the Rohingya refugees on board the trawlers had left refugee camps in Bangladesh in an attempt to reach Malaysia, according to HRW.

The organisation reported that it had spoken to 10 families who said their family members had left the camps and they had not heard from them since.

A mother from Kutupalong Extension Camp told HRW:

“One of my sons left the camp some two months ago.

Around 20 days back, I got a phone call from my son to pay money to smugglers.

We paid.

But we have not heard anything since.”

In a statement, HRW said:

“Bangladesh should continue to uphold its international obligations not to return refugees to places where they face persecution, and not to return anyone to where they would face a risk of torture or other ill-treatment.”

HRW also said that “all countries, including Malaysia and Thailand, have the responsibility under international law to respond to boats in distress, enact or coordinate rescue operations within their search and rescue operations, and not to push back asylum seekers risking their lives at sea.”

Amnesty International last week called on Southeast Asian governments to launch immediate search and rescue operations for potentially hundreds more Rohingya refugees languishing at sea.

The COVID-19 pandemic, Amnesty International said, cannot be a pretext for governments to abandon their responsibilities towards refugees.

“All countries in the region have a responsibility to ensure the seas do not become graveyards for people seeking safety.

Bangladesh cannot be left to address this situation alone.

The fact that it is upholding its own obligations is not an excuse for others to abandon theirs,” said Biraj Patnaik, South Asia director at Amnesty International.

The Bangladeshi foreign minister, however, pointed out that other countries need to come forward to help the Rohingya.

“Please ask the UN and other countries like the US, the UK and Canada to shoulder some responsibility.

We are ready to send Rohingya people to their country if they are willing to take them,” Momen told Al Jazeera.

Brazil, Friday 24 April 2020

Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro suffered the heaviest blow to his presidency so far as his popular Justice Minister quit on Friday and accused him of potentially criminal meddling in law enforcement, adding to the turmoil of a government struggling to confront a fast-growing corona virus outbreak.

Sergio Moro, who won broad public support for jailing corrupt politicians and businessmen as a judge, said he was resigning because Bolsonaro fired federal police chief Mauricio Valeixo for personal and political reasons.

The shocking exit and allegations from the so-called ‘super minister’ were a hammer blow for Bolsonaro, whose popularity had already slumped for downplaying the pandemic that has killed more than 3,600 Brazilians and shows signs of worsening.

Bolsonaro called Moro’s accusations “baseless”, denying he had interfered in investigations and insisting that he had the authority to replace federal police officials.

“The appointment is mine, the prerogative is mine and the day I have to submit to any of my subordinates I cease to be President of the Republic,” Bolsonaro said in a public address, flanked by most of his cabinet in the presidential palace.

Moro’s accusations spurred outcry from across Brazil’s political spectrum, with former President Fernando Henrique Cardoso urging Bolsonaro to step down.

Brazil’s chief public prosecutor Augusto Aras asked the Supreme Court to open an investigation into the allegations.

Brazilian financial markets tumbled, with stocks falling nearly 10% before paring losses to 5.5% and the exchange rate slipping to a record low.

Investors fear Economy Minister Paulo Guedes may be the next ‘super minister’ to exit.

Moro said Bolsonaro had expressed concern about Supreme Court investigations, without giving further details, and he wanted inside information from his top cop.

“The President emphasized to me, explicitly, more than once, that he wanted someone who was a personal contact, whom he could call, from whom he could get information, intelligence reports,” Moro said.

“And really, that’s not the job of the federal police to give that information.”

Capitao Augusto, head of the gun lobby in Congress that has been key to the President’s threadbare coalition, said this was the “beginning of the end” for Bolsonaro.

“His position is becoming more and more untenable,” Augusto told Reuters, adding that a parliamentary investigation was certain.

“I think that after this pandemic, the first topic that will be debated will be the question of the impeachment of the President.”

The head of the Brazilian bar association OAB, Felipe Santa Cruz, also said the organization would “analyze the alleged crimes highlighted by Moro.”

During the televised remarks by Moro and the president, protests rang out across Brazil, with people banging pots and pans from their apartments and shouting “Bolsonaro out!”

Moro’s exit may alienate voters who backed Bolsonaro for his anti-corruption campaign in 2018, leaving the President reliant on conservative social activists, lawmakers interested in pork-barrel politics, and current and former generals in his cabinet.

“The exit of Minister Sergio Moro from the government shows the Bolsonaro government distancing itself from the popular desire to fight corruption.

It is the defeat of ethics,” the centrist Podemos party said in a statement.

The crisis comes a week after Bolsonaro fired popular Health Minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta, following clashes over how to tackle the corona virus outbreak.

Mandetta, like most health experts, had supported social distancing orders by Brazilian governors, but Bolsonaro called the measures “poison” whose economic consequences could kill more than the virus.

Brazil has registered 357 corona virus deaths in the last 24 hours, the Health Ministry said on Friday, taking the death toll to at least 3,670 as confirmed cases rose to nearly 53,000.

“We’re seeing the government come apart,” said Fernando Bergallo, head of currency trading at FB Capital.

“There are rumors that the next to go is Paulo Guedes.

With that, the government is finished.”

The Economy Ministry did not respond to a request for comment.

Guedes appeared with other ministers alongside Bolsonaro during his address.

In his parting remarks on Friday, Moro said he had agreed to serve in Bolsonaro’s government as long as he had free rein to appoint personnel without political pressure.

However, he said Bolsonaro had been seeking to change the top federal police officer Mauricio Valeixo since the second half of 2019 without good reason.

Bolsonaro said he had offered his ministers autonomy, but that he had veto power over decisions in his government.

He had been open, he said, to a compromise with Moro about the police chief replacement.

“I don’t need to ask permission to change a director or anyone else in the hierarchical pyramid of the executive branch,” the President said, adding that he never made inappropriate inquiries or suggestions about police cases.

“I never asked the status of any case,” he said.

But Moro alleged he had never seen political interference of the kind sought by Bolsonaro over Brazil’s federal police, even under previous governments whose officials and allies were convicted of participating in sweeping corruption schemes.

For four years, Moro oversaw Brazil’s largest-ever corruption probe, which uncovered billions of dollars in bribes and jailed scores of powerful businessmen and politicians, including leftist former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

“The President is digging his pit.

Resign before being resigned,” former President Cardoso said on Twitter.

“Let the vice-president (Hamilton Mourao) take over.”

Canada, Tuesday 21 April 2020

Twenty-two people are now confirmed dead after the shooting rampage that began Saturday in Portapique, Nova Scotia, and ended Sunday almost 100 kilometres away in Enfield.

On 18 – 19 April 2020, Gabriel Wortman committed multiple shootings and set fires at 16 locations in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, killing twenty-two people and injuring three others before the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) shot and killed him in Enfield.

For part of the thirteen-hour crime spree, Wortman impersonated a police officer by driving a replica police car and wearing a police uniform.

Above: Gabriel Wortman

The killings were not an act of terrorism and an investigation into his motives is underway.

Police are determining how he obtained guns without a possession and acquisition licence

Police were criticized for not using Alert Ready to warn the public about the killings.

An investigation into the law enforcement response to the rampage, including the decision to not use Alert Ready, has also begun.

It is the deadliest rampage in Canadian history, surpassing the 1989 École Polytechnique massacre in which 15 people were killed.

Above: Portapique shooting victim Corrie Ellison (42)

RCMP gave the new death toll, which excludes the shooter, Tuesday night in a news release.

Above: Shooting victim RCMP officer Heidi Stevenson

The known victims include an elementary school teacher, two health-care workers, a family of three with a 17-year-old girl and an RCMP officer.

Above: Jamie and (G.B. Gas and Energy gas fitter) Greg Blair

It is not clear if police still expect the number of victims to rise.

Above: Portapique shooting victim Lisa McCully, elementary school teacher

They also confirmed the locations across the province where they have found victims — Portapique, Wentworth, Debert, Shubenacadie and Enfield.

“The investigative team is focused on learning more about this very tragic situation, including accurate victim information and whether others may have aided the suspect,” police said.

Above: West Wentworth shooting victims Sean McLeod (Corrections Canada, Springhill) and Alanna Jenkins (Corrections Canada, Nova Institution for Women, Truro)

As police investigators compile evidence from the 16 crime scenes scattered around those towns, the piles of flowers and mournful notes at memorials across Nova Scotia are growing.

Above: Portapique shooting victims Emily Tuck (17), waitress Jolene Oliver (40) and mechanic Aaron Tuck (45)

On Tuesday, police maintained a blockade at the top of Portapique Beach Road, where police were called to respond to a possible shooting and multiple structure fires around 11:30 p.m. Saturday.

They found “several” casualties at that time.

Above: Shubenacadie shooting victim denturist Gina Goulet (54)

But their pursuit of the gunman continued until almost noon the next day.

Only investigators and residents were allowed to pass through the roadblock on Tuesday, but mourners of the victims stopped just before the blockade to leave tributes.

Above: West Wentworth shooting victim Tom Bagley

Above: Wentworth shooting victim Lillian Campbell Hyslop

Gabrielle Sullivan-Sparks drove in from Great Village, a town 10 kilometres east, bringing a potted hydrangea and a solar-powered lamp to make sure the memorial would “have some light all the time, at night.”

Sullivan-Sparks said the events of the weekend were unimaginable, especially in the rural stretch of Nova Scotia where she lives.

People might get into “the odd scrap”, but they usually make up over a shared drink, in the end.

Above: Shooting victim nurse/wife/mother Kristen Beaton

Above: Shooting victims Dawn Madsen and Frank Gulenchyn

The rampage ended when police shot the gunman, Gabriel Wortman, 51, who later died.

His death has been referred to the Serious Incident Response Team (SIRT), Nova Scotia’s police watchdog, for investigation.

SIRT is investigating one other incident related to the shooting, but police will not provide details about the second investigation.

Above: Shooting victim Joey Webber, father of three daughters

Above: Masstown shooting victim Heather O’Brien, nurse / wife / mother

The gunman was driving a replica RCMP vehicle for part of his rampage.

He was also wearing an RCMP uniform, which police said was authentic, although they have not revealed how he acquired the clothing.

Nova Scotia RCMP Chief Supt. Chris Leather said the car and uniform are part of the reason the shooter was able to move so far and for so long without being captured.

More than five structures and cars were burnt in the course of the shooting, including homes in Portapique and Wentworth that were reduced to rubble, as firefighters were unable to tend to them while the shooting continued.

Police said some victims were recovered in the remains of some of those fires.

Beyond the police roadblock on Portapique Beach Road were three of the sites where homes once stood.

Above: Portapique shooting victims Elizabeth Joanne Thomas and John Joseph Zahl

Above: Shooting victims Joy and Peter Bond

Parked around the crime scene Tuesday were military and RCMP vehicles and an excavator.

People in blue and white forensic suits moved about.

Further along the path of the rampage, near Debert, Nova Scotia, two spots along the highway also had growing memorials.

One for each Kristen Beaton and Heather O’Brien, both nurses, killed by the gunman.

At Debert Elementary School, home-crafted hearts dot a chain-link fence in memory of Lisa McCully, who taught there.

Sullivan-Sparks said the grief being felt across the province was made all the more difficult by COVID-19.

Public health orders to maintain physical distancing made her contribution to the roadside memorial feel even more important, she said.

Dr. Robert Strang, Nova Scotia’s chief medical officer of health, said public gatherings cannot happen right now because they could contribute to further spread of Covid-19, which has killed 10 people in the province.

“Covid-19 is not going to pause because of our pain,” Strang said Monday.

Strang and Premier Stephen McNeil have asked the public to connect virtually as they grieve the victims of the shooting.

They have also denied national and international media outlets that want to send reporters to cover the shooting, and have requested exceptions to the order for travellers to self-isolate for 14 days.

For the past two days, McNeil has been pressed about why the province did not issue an emergency alert Saturday night or Sunday morning while the shooter moved about the province.

On Monday, at the Covid-19 news briefing, McNeil said the province would have only done so if RCMP had asked, and provided the necessary details to include in the alert.

“We had staff on hand in the morning to be able to do that.

But it was not requested,” McNeil said.

(It is difficult to speak rationally about the irrational.

It is difficult to believe in a God of love when someone acts out of hate.

It is difficult to find words to capture pain that cannot be expressed.

Words in the form of thoughts and prayers cannot fill empty homes and hearts and lives.

All we can do is offer help to those in pain and determine to live lives that add love to the world rather than extinguish it.)

Congo, Friday 24 April 2020

At least 17 people, including 12 rangers were killed on Friday in an attack in Virunga National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site in the restive east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, park authorities said.

Besides the 12 park rangers, a driver and four other civilians were killed in the attack which park authorities have attributed to a Rwandan rebel group.

“Initial investigations indicate that the rangers were on their way back to their headquarters when they encountered a civilian vehicle that had been attacked and subsequently came under a ferociously violent and sustained ambush,” park authorities said in a statement.

“We can confirm that the perpetrators of this attack were the armed group ‘FDLR-FOCA’,” it added, referring to the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, an armed rebel groups active in the DRC.

It said two civilians and three rangers were injured, one of whom was in critical condition.

Commenting on the wider context of the attack, Phil Clark, of the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, told Al Jazeera:

“FDLR is a Hutu-dominated rebel group.

The reason it is fighting the Congolese army at the moment is because the Congolese government is in the process of renewing relations with the Rwandan government.

And that is a Tutsi-dominated government.”

He added:

“Rwanda wants Congo to deal with the FDLR, which they see as a Hutu threat across the border – killing Tutsi civilians inside Congo.

The FDLR also has a history of going across the border into Rwanda.”

Virunga National Park is spread more than 7,800 square kilometres (3,011 square miles) over the borders of the DRC, Rwanda and Uganda.

The park is home to a world-famous population of mountain gorillas but has been hit by rising instability and violence.

Inaugurated in 1925, the park has witnessed repeated attacks by rebel groups, militias and poachers.

Visits to the park have been suspended since 19 March for at least 30 days as part of the DRC’s efforts to halt the spread of the new corona virus.

The park banned visitors between May 2018 and the start of last year after two British tourists were kidnapped there.

They were later released but a ranger was killed during the abduction.

Europe, Monday 20 April 2020

Several European countries took preliminary steps on Monday towards a return to normal pre-virus life, with some shops reopening in Germany and a resumption of school for pupils slotted to take place next month.

Bookshops, florists, fashion stores, bike and car outlets and other shops smaller than 800 square metres were permitted to reopen on Monday morning.

In Berlin a few schools allowed final-year students to sit exams.

Pupils arrived wearing face-masks and took their seats at widely spaced desks.

Angela Merkel, however, warned of a possible second wave of corona virus infection if lockdown measures were abandoned too rapidly.

The Chancellor urged citizens to stay “determined” and said it would be a “crying shame” if the country which has been praised for its deft handling of the crisis fell into a “relapse”.

In a video call with party colleagues Merkel said the “discussion orgies” taking place in some German federal states on relaxing curbs on were unhelpful.

She said she was “greatly concerned” the public might let its guard down.

Nonetheless, the clear trend across Europe is now towards some form of normalisation.

Norway’s government reopened nurseries on Monday after a month-long closure.

It said this was possible because children were less affected by Covid-19, adding that the virus was under control.

“Going to pre-school is safe,” Norway’s Education Minister, Guri Melby, declared.

Some parents, however, have criticised the move – a sentiment also seen in Denmark, where primary schools reopened last week.

A Norwegian Facebook group called “My child should not be a guinea pig for Covid-19” has gathered nearly 30,000 signatures.

Polls suggest around a quarter of Norwegian parents do not want to send their children back to pre-school.

 

 

In Poland parks and forests returned to normal on Monday, while in the Czech Republic open-air markets were allowed to resume as part of a six-week strategy to gradually lift restrictions.

“This is relief from the stress that we will have to throw away the harvest,” vegetable grower Milan Vystejn told Reuters, at his stand in Prague’s Tylovo Square.

 

(As I am about to lose my employment at Starbucks and work in my chosen profession remains scanty, harvesting suddenly seems worth considering…..)

(I understand the accusation, but I doubt any democracy wants to gain power through the death of others, especially not in Germany that learned hard lessons as to the folly and dangers of dictatorships.)

In France, meanwhile, there was unrest in the Paris suburb of Villeneuve-La-Garenne, after a motorcyclist collided with the open door of an unmarked police car during a pursuit.

Skirmishes lasted into the early hours of Sunday and resumed again on Monday.

Protesters burned cars and hurled fireworks at police, whom they accuse of heavy-handed behaviour.

In the Russian city of Vladikavkaz, meanwhile, demonstrators protested against the local authorities and the country’s continuing lockdown.

Video posted to social media appeared to show protesters pelting the police with rocks, and police making several arrests.

(Here is what I have never understood…..

If the point of protesting is to generate sympathy for your cause, can burning cars and throwing rocks be wise?)

On Monday France’s Prime Minister Édouard Philippe said nurseries, primary and secondary schools would reopen on 11 May.

Philippe said the French government was considering options to implement the policy, including having half a class in rotation, or first opening schools in areas where there had been few or no Covid-19 cases.

However, he warned the French not to plan too far ahead, saying weddings, parties, and travel outside of France were not immediately on the cards.

“I don’t have answers today, given the barrier rules, it doesn’t seem reasonable that a marriage of say 200 people gathered in a confined place is to be envisaged.

For how long I don’t know,” Philippe admitted.

In Spain, with nearly 200,000 confirmed cases and more than 20,000 deaths, the authorities have said they will hold off lifting restrictions.

The rate of infection appears to be going down.

The country reported 399 corona virus deaths over the past 48 hours, lower than Sunday’s figure of 410.

Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is expected to ask parliament on Tuesday to extend a national lockdown until 11 May.

He has proposed that from 27 April children under the age of 12 should be allowed out for exercise – but not teenagers.

Fiji, Tuesday 21 April 2020

Fiji’s National Federation Party (NFP) is demanding the release of its president who was taken into police custody overnight.

Pio Tikoduadua was arrested at his home after posting a video on social media.

Earlier Police Commissioner Sitiveni Qiliho said police officers were being investigated over the alleged assault.

Qiliho said he had directed the Criminal Investigations Department and the Internal Affairs to carry out simultaneous investigations into the alleged incident.

The commissioner also said he would ensure the investigations were conducted thoroughly and promptly.

NFP leader Biman Prasad condemned the arrest and said the heavy-handed tactics by police were uncalled for.

“What we are concerned about is the way in which police went to his house in the village soon after midnight.

Mr Tikoduadua is the President of a political party.

He’s a Member of Parliament.

He’s not going to run away.

We feel this is heavy-handed.

It is bullying.”

Prasad claimed police were upset about a video on Tikoduadua’s Facebook page.

He said in the video, Tikoduadua had set out allegations of police brutality in the village of Naqia in Tailevu.

“As a result of this, a young man is alleged to have been thrown off a bridge and is in hospital with serious injuries.”

Prasad said the incident had received wide publicity and police said they were investigating

“Mr Tikoduadua called on police to rein in their bad behaviour and the only response is to arrest him.”

Prasad said police should immediately release him.

“We are in the biggest health and economic crisis since our independence.

“Everyone should be focusing on their health and people are looking at the police to use more common sense and compassion in dealing with people and their complaints with their families and communities.

And not to bully people who are passing on these messages.”

Germany, Thursday 23 April 2020

Koblenz – The world’s first trial of a senior member of the Syrian military for war crimes got under way in Germany on Thursday, despite ongoing restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  

The accused – Anwar Raslan, a former colonel in the Syrian military, and co-defendant Eyad al-Gharib, who allegedly worked under Raslan, had been living in Germany as refugees and were arrested in February last year.

Because both are in custody, German law says it is important to proceed with the case quickly in the interests of justice and an efficient legal system, a spokeswoman from the Higher Regional Court in the southwestern German city of Koblenz told Al Jazeera.

“The conditions for the trial had to be adapted to current circumstances so that the schedule could be kept,” she said.

The trial began on Thursday in Koblenz, with benches carefully spaced out in the press and public galleries.

Witnesses, lawyers and translators sat at tables separated by transparent screens.

Above: Joint plaintiffs in the courtroom prior to the start of the trial

The process started with the indictment, about 100 pages long, being read aloud due to the German legal “principle of orality”, which requires oral evidence to be given live in an open court before the accused and judges.

It included stark details of what happened to anti-government, opposition activists after they were brought to Branch 251 of military intelligence in Damascus, where Raslan supervised investigations.

Reading testimony from 24 Syrian witnesses, it took two German prosecutors almost an hour to complete a list that repeatedly recounted similar methods of interrogation and torture, including being hung in stress positions from the wrists, being beaten by metal rods and electric cables, as well as electrocution and sexual violence.

Detainees were often denied medical treatment and food, and at least 58 people died at Branch 251 during that time.

German prosecutors accuse Raslan of complicity in crimes against humanity and allege he was well aware of the torture, inhumane conditions and resulting deaths of anti-government activists at the branch.

Besides being in charge of investigations, Raslan’s office was in the same building, they said.

Witnesses who were jailed at Branch 251 said they often heard the screams of those being tortured.

The case against Raslan is based on the period between April 2011 and September 2012, when at least 4,000 prisoners were tortured at Branch 251.

Detainees were often denied medical treatment and food and at least 58 people died there during that time.

Prosecutors expect to be able to prove the case by placing both defendants at the branch over those 17 months. 

“We believe that such crimes against civilians should not go unpunished,” Jasper Klinge, a senior public prosecutor from Germany’s Federal Supreme Court, told journalists afterwards.

“Our historical responsibility means that we Germans must pursue this kind of case, as far as it is possible for us to do so.”

There are no jury trials in Germany and the entire case, which is expected to take up to two years, will be decided upon by five specially appointed judges.

The panel – three women and two men – is presided over by senior Koblenz judge, Anne Kerber.

On the first day of the trial, the accused and their defence lawyers had a chance to make an opening statement to the court.

But Raslan’s lawyer declined the opportunity, saying his client was preparing a written statement which would be presented in the next few days.

Al-Gharib’s lawyer made a statement, questioning the admissibility of his client’s statements to German police, in which he admitted his own guilt.

Al-Gharib is accused of rounding up at least 30 anti-government demonstrators in the autumn of 2011 and bringing them to Branch 251, where he knew they would be tortured and mistreated.

In 2018, he had been invited to give federal police a statement about this, his lawyer told the court, but was told he would be a witness in a case to do with war crimes.

Al-Gharib was not told that the evidence he gave could be used against him, his lawyer argued.

The case marks the first time a high-ranking official in Syrian President Bashar al-Assad‘s administration has been held to account in court.

Germany is using a legal principle called universal jurisdiction to trial Raslan and al-Gharib.

This allows German prosecutors to work on war crimes cases, whether they have a close connection to Germany or not.

Universal jurisdiction could result in an alternative means for the international community to bring war criminals to account. 

“The trial will provide an overall picture of the crimes committed by the Syrian government,” Wolfgang Kaleck, a lawyer whose Berlin-based organisation, the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights, will represent 16 witnesses – Syrian survivors of torture and former detainees – said in a statement before the trial.

“This knowledge can then be used by others and in other trials, be it in Arab countries or on the international level.” 

Feras Fayyad, one of the witnesses in the trial, said after proceedings ended for the day:

“We need something like this to remind the people of Syria that there is justice, and there is law.

“I am 100% certain that this is a strong message to the al-Assad Regime and all the other dictatorships, elsewhere in the world.”

This first session of the trial continues until Wednesday next week, before adjourning until May.

India, Wednesday 21 April 2020

The Indian Council of Medical Research has advised all states to discontinue the usage of rapid test kits for the next two days after some of them were revealed to be defective.

The council is sending teams to validate kits already in use so they can assess which ones are faulty and trace them back to the manufacturers.

Raman R Gangakhedkar, the head of the council, said positive samples were showing “too much variation” and required investigating.

The rapid testing kits were deployed in India last week.

The health ministry has repeatedly said that the kits should be used only for surveillance and to determine epidemiological trends.

India had tested a total of 462,621 samples from 447,812 individuals as of 21 April, according to the council.

Indonesia, Friday 24 April 2020

An Indonesian court convicted six activists of treason for organising a protest demanding independence for the easternmost province of Papua, in a verdict slammed by rights groups.

The peaceful protest of about 100 people had been held outside the presidential palace and military headquarters on 28 August in the capital of Jakarta and followed a period of unrest in Papua.

In a sentencing hearing on Friday held online due to the corona virus outbreak, Judge Agustinus Setya Wahyu Triwiranto said he had found the six defendants “guilty of treason”.

Activists Ambrosius Mulait, Surya Anta, Charles Kossay, Dano Tabuni, and Arina Elopere were convicted and sentenced to nine months in prison, while Isay Wenda was given an eight-month sentence.

All six have been held in prison since August.

Prosecutors accused them in December of organising a rally demanding the Indonesian government allow a vote in Papua to let it separate from Indonesia.

International rights groups Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch criticised the convictions, stating that the activists had been attending a peaceful rally over perceived ethnic discrimination.

“The six who were sentenced today did nothing but attend a peaceful protest, enjoying their rights to freedom of expression and assembly,” said Amnesty International Indonesia director Usman Hamid.

Amnesty noted the six activists are part of 57 “prisoners of conscience” from Papua being held for peacefully expressing their views.

Resource-rich Papua was a Dutch colony that was incorporated into Indonesia after a controversial U.N.-backed referendum in 1969, which has since endured decades of mostly low-level separatist conflict.

Thousands of Papuans staged rallies in August to protest an incident that saw a racist slur against Papuan students who were hit by tear gas in their dormitory and detained in the city of Surabaya.

The resulting protests were the biggest in years and triggered some calls for independence.

Oky Wiratma, the lawyer for the activists, told Reuters on Saturday the verdict was disproportionate, and the Papuan activists had “protested peacefully against racism”.

He said the six activists were expected to be released in the coming weeks based on the time already served, barring a decision by prosecutors to appeal.

Prosecutors had originally sought 18-month sentences for the activists.

Prosecutors were not immediately reachable for comment.

The Transportation Ministry will restrict all passenger travel starting on Friday as the government attempts to prevent citizens from participating in the annual Idul Fitri tradition of mudik (exodus) to curb the spread of Covid-19.

The ban will not apply to cargo transportation or to vehicles serving special purposes, such as ambulances and fire trucks.

“The ban will apply to all types of public and private transportation by air, sea, land and railway, except for vehicles carrying leaders of state institutions, police and military vehicles, ambulances, fire trucks, hearses and vehicles transporting logistical supplies, staple goods and medicines,” Ministry spokesperson Adita Irawati said in a statement on Thursday.

She added that the ban would apply to vehicles entering and leaving regions that had imposed large-scale social restrictions (PSBB) and those that had been declared Covid-19 red zones.

The Ministry’s air transportation director general, Novie Riyanto, said all passenger transportation to domestic and overseas destinations – both commercial and chartered flights – would be suspended starting Friday at midnight until 1 June.

The ban does not apply to flights carrying leaders of state institutions or foreign envoys, nor does it apply to aircraft engaging in special repatriation operations for Indonesians or foreign nationals.

Air cargo transportation will also be permitted.

“Air navigation services will remain in operation.

Meanwhile, airports will stay open to serve aircraft as they take off and land,” said Novie.

The ministry’s land transportation director general Budi Setiyadi said toll, national and provincial roads would remain open.

However, checkpoints would be set up at several locations, guarded by police and military personnel as well as ministry officials.

The restriction on land transportation will apply until 31 May.

Zulfikri, the Ministry’s train director general, said all train service until 15 June would be canceled and that passengers who had already purchased tickets would receive full refunds.

Passenger transportation by sea will be suspended until 8 June.

Ships are permitted to transport only goods until that time.

Adita said anyone found breaking the mudik ban would be sanctioned, as the ministerial decree on the ban stipulated punishments for violators.

The punishments ranged from being ordered to return to the point of departure to fines.

Iran, Wednesday 22 April 2020

Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard on Wednesday said it had successfully launched a military satellite into orbit after months of failed attempts, just a week after a tense encounter with US warships in the Persian Gulf.

“The first satellite of the Islamic Republic of Iran has been successfully launched into orbit by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps,” the Guards’ Sepahnews website reported.

“This action will be a great success and a new development in the field of space for Islamic Iran,” it added.

The Guard said the satellite had reached an orbit of 425 kilometers (264 miles) above the Earth’s surface.

The two-stage launch took place in Iran’s Central Desert, it said, adding that it is the first military satellite Iran has ever launched.

The satellite was sent into orbit using a Ghased or “Messenger” satellite carrier, the Guard said, an as-of-yet unheard of system.

The claim could not be immediately confirmed by independent sources and the Guard did not provide any verifying images or footage.

Iran has made several failed attempts to launch satellites in the last months, most recently in February with the failed launch of the Zafar 1 communications satellite.

The country also experienced two failed launches in 2019, as well as a launchpad rocket explosion and a separate fire that killed three researchers at the Imam Khomeini Space Center, where Iran’s civilian space program operates.

The launch is the latest development in escalating military tensions between Iran and the US.

In recent years, the Middle Eastern power has broken all limitations agreed upon in a 2015 denuclearization agreement after US President Donald Trump withdrew his country from the deal in 2018 and reimposed sanctions on Iran.

Iran continues to allow UN inspectors to visit its sites.

According to the US, such satellite launches go against a UN Security Council resolution that calls on — but does not require — Iran to refrain from activity related to ballistic missiles capable of launching nuclear weapons.

US and European powers fear that such satellite launches could help Iran develop its nuclear capabilities.

Iran is not currently thought to be capable of building a nuclear weapon small enough for a ballistic missile.

But in the last decade the country succeeded advancing its space program, launching multiple satellites as well as a monkey into orbit.

Tehran has previously claimed it does not strive to develop its nuclear arsenal.

The Revolutionary Guard launching its own satellite raising questions about that position.

The Revolutionary Guard, which marked its 41st anniversary on Wednesday, operates its own military infrastructure alongside the country’s regular armed forces.

The hardline military group answers directly to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

It was not clear whether the country’s civilian government had been aware of plans for the launch.

President Hassan Rouhani gave a 40-minute speech before his Cabinet on Wednesday without making any reference to it.

On Sunday, Iran’s military confirmed it had experienced an encounter with US warships in the Persian Gulf last week.

The Guard alleged without evidence that the US had started the incident.

On Monday, the military group announced that it had significantly upgraded the range of its anti-warship missiles.

Israel, Monday 20 April 2020

Holocaust Remembrance Day in Israel will begin on Monday evening at 8 P.M. and continue through Tuesday.

Due to the ban on public gatherings as a result of the corona virus, the main ceremony at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem will be held in advance and recorded for broadcast on Monday evening.

The pre-recorded footage of the ceremony, where President Reuven Rivlin and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will speak, will be broadcast on television, radio and Facebook and on Yad Vashem’s website.

The ceremony will include the lighting of torches by Holocaust survivors in memory of the six million Jews killed in the Holocaust.

At 9 P.M., several organizations will hold programming that the public can view by video-conference via the Zoom computer application.

It will also be broadcast on the Facebook pages of a number of organizations including the website of the Dorot Hahemshech organization.

The website will have details of other Holocaust Remembrance Day events that are being held by video-conference.

On Tuesday at 10 A.M. there will be a nationwide siren in memory of the victims of the Holocaust, when the country’s population pauses and stands at attention.

Amcha, which provides support for Holocaust survivors, and the group Zikaron Basalon are calling on the large number of members of the public who will be at home then due to conora virus restrictions to stand on their balconies with signs reading:

“Remembering from up close, embracing from afar.”

Japan, Thursday 23 April 2020

Nearly 50 out of over 600 crew members on an Italian cruise ship docked for repairs in Japan’s Nagasaki have tested positive for the corona virus, raising concern about the strain on the city’s hospitals if conditions worsen for those infected.

Lebanon, Tuesday 21 April 2020

The Lebanese parliament legalized cannabis farming for medicinal use on Tuesday, a potentially lucrative export for an economy in dire need of foreign currency as it grapples with a paralyzing financial crisis.

Although growing the plant is illegal in Lebanon, cannabis has long been farmed openly in the fertile Bekaa Valley.

Parliament’s decision was “really driven by economic motives, nothing else”, said Alain Aouin, a senior MP in the Free Patriotic Movement founded by President Michel Aoun.

“We have moral and social reservations but today there is the need to help the economy by any means,” he told Reuters.

The move would bring revenue for the government and develop the agricultural sector while legalizing cultivation which was in any case going on illegally, he said.

“We don’t want to speculate on numbers, but let’s say it is worth a try”.

Hezbollah, a Shi’ite Islamist group backed by Iran, was one of the only parties to oppose the legislation approved in a session on Tuesday.

The idea of legalizing cannabis cultivation with the aim of producing high value-added medicinal products for export was explored in a report by consultancy firm McKinsey commissioned by Lebanon in 2018.

Last month, Lebanese police carried out the country’s biggest drug bust when they seized about 25 tonnes of hashish that were set to be smuggled to an African state.

A man slaughtered his wife and shot dead eight other people, including his brother, in a Lebanese town on Tuesday in the country’s worst mass shooting in years, a security source said.

The source said authorities caught the man, who had been on the loose after killing his wife with a knife and then going on a shooting rampage in Baakline, 45 km (30 miles) south of the capital Beirut.

The shooter had used a pump-action rifle, the source and state news agency NNA said. NNA said the motive remained unclear.

The security source said that it was a suspected “honour killing” and that five of those killed were Syrian, including two children aged 15 and 10, at the house under construction where the shooting took place.

Lesotho

Sunday 26 January 2020

Lesotho’s Prime Minister and his wife are caught up in a murder investigation involving allegations so sinister that they have the makings of a crime novel.

Pumza Fihlani tries to unpack the mystery from the capital of the southern African nation, Maseru.

People are going about their business in the city, vegetable vendors line the streets, taxis whizz past each rushing to the next passenger.

On the surface everything is in order but newspaper billboards plastered on shop windows and tied to lamp posts give the first indication that something is deeply wrong in Lesotho.

One headline reads in bold type:

“Police Hunt First Lady.”

Another says:

“Embattled PM agrees to quit.”

The country’s first couple – Prime Minister Thomas Thabane and his current wife Maesaiah Thabane – are wanted for questioning in connection with the 2017 murder of Mr Thabane’s then estranged wife, Lipolelo Thabane.

The 58-year-old, who had been living apart from her husband since 2012, was killed just two days before Mr Thabane was sworn in as prime minister.

One evening while returning home, she was ambushed, shot several times at close range and died on the side of a dirt road.

The murder shocked the nation.

At the time, Mr Thabane described it as a “senseless killing”.

At the time of her death, the attack was blamed on unknown armed men, but recent court papers filed by the country’s police commissioner, Holomo Molibeli, have raised further questions.

Among the court papers, seen by AFP news agency, was a copy of a letter, dated 23 December 2019, that the police chief wrote to the 80-year-old prime minister saying:

“The investigations reveal that there was a telephonic communication at the scene of the crime in question with another cell phone.

The cell phone number belongs to you.”

A warrant of arrest of was issued for 42-year-old Maesaiah Thabane on 10 January after she failed to present herself to the police for questioning.

She has not been seen publicly for two weeks and no-one seems to know where she is, well no-one willing to talk that is.

Mr Thabane, who is still in the country, has avoided any questions about his wife’s whereabouts.

The BBC contacted government officials for comment but they were unwilling to take questions on the matter.

A spokesman for the prime minister’s party said “the matter has not been addressed”.

Last week, he reluctantly agreed to be questioned by the police.

Neither Mr Thabane nor his wife have been charged.

It says something about the separation of judicial and political power in Lesotho that a prime minister can be wanted for questioning but the police investigation has not been easy.

The police commissioner, Mr Molibeli, said the Thabane investigation was one of the most complex and dangerous cases he had worked on in his 32 years as a policeman.

“It hasn’t been easy, there have been many attempts for this investigation to not continue.

“I believe what we are doing is right, as long as my conscience is clear.

The people of Lesotho want to know the truth and it is our job to investigate and get to that truth,” he said.

People have made threats on his life for pursuing the investigation, he adds, but he insists he is not scared.

“Not at all.

I have people who support me.

In the past the people who would’ve threatened me would be the army but no, I have a good relationship with them.

“We all just want to get Lesotho out of this quagmire.”

While the police will not say what evidence they have, Mr Molibeli said the case was “strong”.

Those who knew Lipolelo say she shied away from the limelight and preferred her slow village life in Ha Masana on the outskirts of the capital.

But the months prior to her death had been filled with turmoil.

News of her protracted divorce from Mr Thabane frequently made headlines, as did a counter-suit from her to continue to be recognised as Lesotho’s rightful First Lady.

After he had separated from Lipolelo, Mr Thabane was living with Maesaiah as if she was his wife and she was enjoying all the perks that came with the position.

Lipolelo, on the other hand, had been left high and dry.

In 2015, after a long legal wrangle, the High Court ruled in Lipolelo’s favour and ordered the government to stop using state funds to support Maesaiah.

It further ruled that she was to stop “performing any functions and exercising any rights vested on the applicant Lipolelo as the First Spouse”.

It was a humiliating loss for the Prime Minister.

The ruling meant that until the divorce was finalised, Lipolelo was still legally recognised as his spouse and his government was obliged by law to take care for of her.

The divorce was never finalised.

This small country is relatively peaceful, but does have a reputation for the killing of high-ranking officials.

In the past, these have been as a result of a dispute within the military or political classes.

Mr Thabane himself once fled to South Africa supposedly because there was a hit out on him.

Mme Lipolelo, as she was known here, was neither political nor someone who had political enemies.

For many her death was always suspicious.

“I was so shocked when she died,” Maseru resident Lebohang Liballo said.

“What happened to her was so strange – even now the secrecy around it is strange.

Mme Lipolelo deserves justice.”

Although people are intrigued by the case and are following each twist and turn, there is still a sense of fear.

“It’s been a big embarrassment for the country,” said Bakwena Mofoka.

“It paints us as something we are not.

The First Lady must come back.”

But Maesaiah does not appear to be backing down.

Her legal team have been trying to have her warrant of arrest set aside.

The court is yet to rule on the matter.

Her lawyers told the Maseru High Court that the First Lady had always been willing to cooperate with the police but was busy with official duties on the day she was due to be questioned.

They have not explained why she appears to have left.

She is no stranger to controversy – in the last couple of years she has repeatedly been accused of interfering in the running of government, something the people of Lesotho have termed a “bedroom coup”.

Mr Thabane has denied the claims but the accusations have lost her favour with some in the Party.

The scandal has also had political implications for the Prime Minister.

While his supporters have questioned the timing of the investigation, claiming that their leader was the victim of a smear campaign, he has been forced to agree to step down, although he has not said when.

He said he was resigning because of his age and made no link with the investigation.

The governing All Basotho Convention (ABC) is deeply divided but in the days since the scandal erupted its members have tried to present a united front – if only to keep opposition parties at bay and buy Mr Thabane time to plan his next move.

But he might not have too long.

Hundreds of people, calling themselves “concerned citizens of Lesotho”, marched in the capital last week, as part of what they promise will be a series of protests aimed at forcing the prime minister to leave immediately.

“We are determined to keep protesting until he goes.

“If that means that there is instability, so be it, it would have been brought on by the prime minister,” protest organiser Ramahoana Mathlosa said.

It was a sign of a people who are growing tired of Mr Thabane and perhaps one scandal too many.

But his resignation would not be an end to the mystery surrounding who killed Lipolelo Thabane.

Monday 20 April 2020

Lesotho’s government has agreed that Prime Minister Thomas Thabane, who is accused of murdering his estranged wife, will immediately resign.

The deal brokered with the help of South African mediators is said to promise the prime minister a “dignified and secure” exit from office.

Mr Thabane has been under pressure to resign over suspicions he was involved in the killing in 2017.

His current wife has been charged.

Both deny any involvement in the murder.

It is not yet clear if he will agree to stand down immediately, as the deal stipulates.

Gunmen shot and killed Mr Thabane’s then-wife Lipolelo Thabane on 14 June 2017.

Officials charged Mr Thabane’s current wife Maesaiah with the murder this year, and also named Mr Thabane as a suspect – although he has not yet been formally charged.

Lesotho has been plunged into a political crisis over the accusations.

On Saturday Mr Thabane deployed the army on the streets, accusing law enforcement agencies in the kingdom of undermining democracy.

A day later, South African diplomats stepped in to try and calm tensions.

Although the exact contents of the deal haven’t been published, the official statement appears to suggest that the 80-year-old leader would no longer be under investigation, BBC Africa regional editor Will Ross reports.

Mr Thabane appeared in court in February, where his lawyer argued that his position granted him immunity from prosecution.

The joint statement, signed by South African mediator Jeff Radebe and Lesotho Deputy Prime Minister Monyane Moleleki said:

“The coalition government of the Kingdom of Lesotho commits to effecting the implementation process or modalities for the dignified, graceful and secure retirement of the right honourable prime minister.”

Mr Radebe later told journalists that although Mr Thabane had pledged to step down in July, the timeline stipulated in the deal was “immediate”.

“There are one or two issues that need to be traversed in order to ensure that all political parties are of the same mind in terms of speeding up that parliamentary process,” he added.

Mr Thabane’s spokesman Relebohile Moyeye told Reuters news agency that he “can’t confirm if the PM agrees with all that’s in the communiqué. 

I will only know his take tomorrow”.

Wednesday 5 February 2020

The wife of the prime minister of Lesotho has been formally charged in court with murdering his previous wife.

It is the latest twist in a story that has garnered huge international interest with its mix of power and intrigue.

But who are the four characters at the centre of this drama?

Maesaiah Thabane – the accused

 

Many years ago, she gave up a village life to go and find work in the capital, Maseru.

This is where the 42-year-old met her future husband, Prime Minister Thomas Thabane, who is nearly twice her age.

Sometime after Mr Thabane had separated from his then-wife Lipolelo Thabane in 2012, Maesaiah began living with him and took on the duties of a first lady.

In 2017, a colourfully dressed Maesaiah accompanied him to his inauguration for a second term as prime minister.

This was just two days after Lipolelo was gunned down.

Two months later she became Mr Thabane’s third wife, marrying the prime minister in a Catholic ceremony held at a packed stadium in Maseru.

Since then, Maesaiah has been repeatedly accused of having undue influence over the government, accusations that her husband has denied.

Last month, her fortunes changed dramatically. She became a fugitive from justice, wanted in connection with the murder of Lipolelo.

Maesaiah had gone into hiding, and was believed to have spent most of her time in neighbouring South Africa, which completely surrounds Lesotho.

She eventually surrendered to police, and appeared in court on Wednesday.

She has not yet been asked to plead to the murder charge, and has been granted bail.

Lipolelo Thabane – the victim

 

According to a friend, she was the exact opposite of the woman accused of murdering her – a quiet and unassuming woman who played the role of a traditional housewife.

“She accommodated all the Thabane clan and family, and adopted the four children from the prime minister’s first marriage.

One child was autistic.

She raised all of them and gave them the best schooling,” said the friend, who spoke to the BBC on condition of anonymity.

Lipolelo proved to be a fighter when Mr Thabane filed for divorce, challenging the decision in court.

“She was prepared to accept that he had another woman, but divorce was out of the question because she did not want to lose the benefits that come with being a first lady,” the friend added.

Her life ended brutally on 14 June 2017 at the age of 58.

She was shot dead at close range on the side of a dirt road while returning to her home in the small village of Ha’Masana on the outskirts of Maseru.

At the time of her death, she was still fighting divorce proceedings, even though she had been living apart from her husband for five years.

Two years earlier, during her husband’s first term in office, she had won a court battle to continue to be recognised as Lesotho’s first lady.

A court overturned an instruction Mr Thabane gave to his officials to cancel Lipolelo’s spousal benefits and instead offer them to Maesaiah, who had been living with the prime minster as if she was his wife.

Thomas Thabane – the husband

 

Prime Minister Thabane, 80, is known as a strategic operator but did not anticipate this scandal that may spell the end of his political career.

He has also been questioned in connection with Lipolelo’s murder but has made no comment on the case.

He divorced his first wife, Yayi, before marrying Lipolelo and then Maesaiah.

Mr Thabane is one of the continent’s oldest leaders and has spent most of his working life as a politician.

No stranger to political rivalry, Mr Thabane once fled to South Africa, alleging a coup plot by the military and had to be escorted back by the police to the mountain kingdom.

But now his party, the All Basotho Convention, has called on him to step down in the wake of the murder investigation.

Mr Thabane has agreed to resign but said it was because of his age and made no link with the investigation.

The BBC contacted government officials for comment but they were unwilling to take questions on the matter.

A spokesman for the prime minister’s party said:

“The matter has not been addressed.”

Holomo Molibeli – the policeman

He is Lesotho’s most senior policeman, and it is his investigation that has placed the prime minister and his current wife at the centre of a murder case that could bring about their downfall.

He implicated the couple in court papers filed to stop Mr Thabane from removing him from his post.

But Mr Thabane has in turn accused Mr Molibeli of presiding over a brutal police force saying that was the reason he wanted him gone.

The court ruled in the commissioner’s favour.

Thursday 23 April 2020

Lesotho Prime Minister Thomas Thabane has said he will not be told when to leave office, a national newspaper reported on Thursday, resisting efforts to defuse a political crisis with the offer of a “dignified retirement.”

The independent weekly Lesotho Times — the most popular paper in the mountainous kingdom — quoted Thabane as saying he would not be pushed out before he is ready, apparently rejecting a deal between South African mediators and his own coalition government that he would step down.

“People who I don’t report to are setting the time for my departure.

They have no right to do so,” it quoted him as saying.

Thabane, 80, has been under pressure to resign owing to a murder case in which he and his current wife are suspected of assassinating his previous wife.

They both deny this.

Last Saturday Thabane ordered soldiers and armoured vehicles onto the streets of Maseru to restore order against what he said were “rogue national elements”, prompting neighbour South Africa to step in to try to defuse tensions.

Mediators said on Monday they had agreed with the government that Thabane would go into “a dignified, graceful and secure retirement” immediately.

Thabane’s spokesman, Relebohile Moyeye, declined to comment on Thursday on what the Prime Minister’s plans were.

Thabane has previously said he will step down at the end of July, but several senior figures in his own party and in the opposition want him out immediately.

In the interview, the paper quoted him as saying that he wanted to “ensure that all the plans that we have in motion are implemented before I leave” without detailing what those were.

Pro and anti-Thabane factions within the ruling ABC party are in conflict over his future, aggravating political tensions.

“We still wish that he could leave as soon as yesterday,” Montoeli Masoetsa, spokesman of Thabane’s ABC party, said.

Lesotho has experienced several coups since gaining independence from Britain in 1966, and its conflicts often suck in South Africa, whose central mountains encircle it and to which Lesotho supplies vital drinking water.

Gunmen shot and killed Thabane’s previous wife, Lipolelo, 58, on 14 June 2017, in a case that was never solved.

This year, police charged Thabane’s current wife, Maesaiah, with her murder, and also named Thabane himself — though he has yet to be formally charged in court — plunging Lesotho into its current crisis.

Mozambique, Tuesday 21 Tuesday April 2020

About 52 villagers in Mozambique’s troubled northernmost province were killed by Islamist insurgents on 7 April after they refused to be recruited to their ranks, police said on Tuesday.

“The young men were about to be recruited but they resisted, which provoked the ire of the bandits that killed the 52 indiscriminately,” police spokesman Orlando Modumane said.

The killings took place in the village of Xitaxi in Muidumbe district in the province of Cabo Delgado, home to multi-billion-dollar gas projects led by oil majors such as Total.

Last Wednesday, national police commander Bernardino Rafael said no parts of the troubled province were under the control of insurgents.

His comments came after an increase in the frequency of attacks in the province.

Security analysts say that in some cases insurgents have occupied parts of towns, villages or government buildings and hoisted a black-and-white flag.

Myanmar 

Tuesday 21 April 2020

A World Health Organization (WHO) driver has been killed in a conflict-riven region of Myanmar while out collecting Covid-19 monitoring samples.

Pyae Sone Win Maung was driving a well-marked United Nations vehicle when it was hit by gunfire in Rakhine State.

The UN says dozens of civilians have been killed as fighting between the military and the armed ethnic Arakan Army group escalated in recent weeks.

The two sides have blamed each other for the WHO driver’s death on Monday.

Both the military in Myanmar (also called Burma) and the Arakan Army deny being involved.

Myanmar’s Maj-Gen Tun Tun Nyi, a military spokesman, said his forces had no reason to attack the UN vehicle.

“They are working for us, for our country,” he told Reuters news agency.

“We have the responsibility for that.”

The UN office in Myanmar said it was “deeply saddened” by the 28-year-old driver’s death, near a military checkpoint in Minbya township.

According to a post on Facebook, the marked vehicle was travelling from Sittwe to Yangon bringing Covid-19 surveillance samples “in support of the Ministry of Health and Sports”.

The UN did not say who carried out the shooting, which also left a government employee injured.

The driver’s father, Htay Win Maung, said his heart was “broken”.

“I am trying to calm myself thinking he died in serving his duty at the frontline,” he added.

“He went there in the midst of fighting when many people didn’t dare to go.”

Countries including the UK and the US have called for an end to fighting amid the global corona virus pandemic.

More than 80 cases have been reported in Myanmar, along with four deaths.

The Arakan Army, ethnic Buddhists who have escalated their campaign for self-rule in the last two years, declared a month-long ceasefire, but this was rejected by the government.

Friday 24 April 2020

The headquarters of a local government-backed militia based in Muse, Shan State was attacked by unknown gunmen Thursday night, according to local sources in the town on the China-Myanmar border.

The Pan Say militia said the attack on their headquarters occurred after 7 p.m. when the gunmen opened fire with artillery and guns before driving away in cars and on motorbikes.

“Some artillery shells fell inside the headquarters area and some fell near the headquarters fence.

Some shells even fell down on the Chinese side of the border,” said a member of the Pan Say militia who asked to remain anonymous.

There were reportedly no causalities from the attack.

One militia member said that some artillery shells fell on a kindergarten school just over the Chinese border in the town of Ruili, reportedly damaging three cars at the school.

Chinese Central TV reported Friday that three artillery shells and many bullets fell inside Ruili.

One militia member said they did not know why the gunmen came to attack the headquarters but added that the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), an ethnic armed group active in the area, came to the headquarters to collect taxes recently.

U Al Soe Htan Htoo, a representative at the Muse Information Department, said authorities tried to chase the gunmen, but it was difficult to find them in the night.

The TNLA denied responsibility for the attack.

“We even tried to find out who attacked them.

For us, we have already announced a unilateral ceasefire for a month, so we were not involved in the attack,” said TNLA Major Tar Aike Kyaw.

The Major added that in this time of crisis, many people already have problems due to worries about infection from the corona virus.

“For us, we did not attack to create more problems for the people,” he said.

Muse is home to many militia and armed groups in addition to the Pan Say militia.

The militia groups are backed by the Myanmar army and many run illegal border trade businesses in the town, including open gambling operations.

Rebel ethnic armed groups, including the TNLA, the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, are also based outside the town and fighting has sometimes broken out between the Myanmar army and the ethnic armed groups.

Two weeks ago, a bomb went off at the Muse office of state-run telecom firm Myanmar Posts and Telecommunications (MPT).

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.

While the Myanmar army is primarily in control of the town, rebel groups also exert influence and often extort taxes from businessmen despite the military’s presence.

New Zealand, Monday 20 April 2020

New Zealand will extend the lockdown measures in place to beat the coronavirus by a week, after which it will move to a lower level of restrictions, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Monday.

“New Zealand will move out of Alert Level 4 lockdown at 11.59 p.m. on Monday 27 April, one week from today,” Ardern said in a news conference.

“We will then hold in Alert Level 3 for two weeks, before reviewing how we are tracking again, and making further decisions at Cabinet on 11 May,” she said.

North Korea, Tuesday 21 April 2020

South Korean and Chinese officials and sources familiar with US intelligence on Tuesday cast doubt on reports that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is gravely ill after a cardiovascular procedure, while the White House said it was closely monitoring the matter.

US President Donald Trump, who held unprecedented summits with Kim in 2018 and 2019 in an attempt to persuade him to give up his nuclear weapons, said the reports had not been confirmed and he did not put much credence in them.

“I just hope he’s doing fine,” Trump told a White House news conference.

“I’ve had a very good relationship with Kim Jong Un.

And I’d like to see him do well.

We’ll see how he does.

We don’t know if the reports are true.”

Asked whether he would try to reach out to Kim to check on his condition, Trump said:

“Well I may, but I just hope he’s doing fine.”

Daily NK, a Seoul-based website, reported late on Monday that Kim, who is believed to be about 36, was recovering after undergoing a cardiovascular procedure on 12 April.

It cited one unnamed source in North Korea.

Two South Korean government officials rejected a subsequent CNN report citing an unnamed US official saying that the United States was “monitoring intelligence” that Kim was in grave danger after surgery.

South Korea’s presidential Blue House said there were no unusual signs from North Korea.

Earlier, Trump’s national security adviser, Robert O’Brien, told Fox News the White House was monitoring the reports “very closely.”

Bloomberg News quoted an unnamed US official as saying the White House was told that Kim had taken a turn for the worse after the surgery.

However, authoritative US sources familiar with US intelligence questioned the report that Kim was in grave danger.

A Korea specialist working for the US government said:

“Any credible direct reporting having to do with Kim would be highly compartmented intelligence and unlikely to leak to the media.”

Kim is a third-generation hereditary leader who rules North Korea with an iron fist, coming to power after his father Kim Jong Il died in 2011 from a heart attack.

Reporting from inside North Korea is notoriously difficult, especially on matters concerning its leadership, given tight controls on information.

There have been past false reports regarding its leaders, but the fact Kim has no clear successor means any instability could present a major international risk.

Asked about how any North Korean political succession would work, O’Brien said:

“The basic assumption would be maybe it would be someone in the family.

But, again, it’s too early to talk about that because we just don’t know what condition Chairman Kim is in and we’ll have to see how it plays out.”

Trump said he had asked Kim about the succession in the past but declined to elaborate.

With no details known about Kim’s young children, analysts said his sister Kim Yo-jong and loyalists could form a regency until a successor is old enough to take over.

In recent years, Kim has launched a diplomatic offensive to promote himself as a world leader, holding three meetings with Trump, four with South Korean President Moon Jae-in and five with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

China is North Korea’s only major ally.

Speaking to Reuters, an official at the Chinese Communist Party’s International Liaison Department expressed the belief that Kim was not critically ill.

Daily NK said Kim was hospitalized on 12 April, hours before the cardiovascular procedure, as his health had deteriorated since August due to heavy smoking, obesity and overwork.

It said he was now receiving treatment at a villa in the Mount Myohyang resort north of the capital Pyongyang.

“My understanding is that he had been struggling (with cardiovascular problems) since last August but it worsened after repeated visits to Mount Paektu,” a source was quoted as saying, referring to the country’s sacred mountain.

Kim took two well-publicised rides on a stallion on the mountain’s snowy slopes in October and December.

Speculation about Kim’s health first arose due to his absence from the anniversary of the birthday of North Korea’s founding father and Kim’s grandfather, Kim Il Sung, on 15 April.

North Korea’s official KCNA news agency gave no indication of his whereabouts in routine dispatches on Tuesday, but said he had sent birthday gifts to prominent citizens.

Kim has sought to have international sanctions against his country eased, but has refused to give up his nuclear weapons, which pose a threat to the United States.

Joseph Yun, a former US envoy to North Korea under President Barack Obama and Trump, told Reuters he believes “something really is quite amiss, quite awry right now in North Korea”.

“It’s worrisome. If he’s seriously ill and he dies, there is no succession plan,” he said.

“You could see a huge power struggle, people jockeying for position.

Their lives would depend on it.”

Yun said for all its secrecy, North Korea in recent years had been quick to respond to significant foreign news reports and it was noteworthy that it had stayed silent so far.

Russia, Tuesday 21 April 2020

Russia reports 5,642 new confirmed cases and 51 more deaths from Covid-19, the highest daily death toll in the country to date, bringing Russia’s death toll to 456 and 52,763 total cases.

Saudi Arabia

Monday 20 April 2020

Saudi Arabia extended on Monday the suspension of praying in the Grand Mosque and Prophet’s Mosque during the fasting month of Ramadan to stem the spread of the coronavirus, the Presidency of the Two Holy Mosques’ Affairs said on Twitter.

The two mosques, which are considered the holiest places in Islam, will have Ramadan prayers but without worshippers as a precautionary measure and to intensify disinfection operations, the presidency added on Twitter.

Friday 24 April 2020

Saudi Arabia is ending flogging as a form of punishment, according to a document from the Kingdom’s top court seen by Reuters on Friday.

The decision by the General Commission for the Supreme Court, taken sometime this month, will see the punishment replaced by prison sentences or fines, or a mixture of both.

“The decision is an extension of the human rights reforms introduced under the direction of King Salman and the direct supervision of Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman,” the document said.

Flogging has been applied to punish a variety of crimes in Saudi Arabia.

Without a codified system of law to go with the texts making up sharia, or Islamic law, individual judges have the latitude to interpret religious texts and come up with their own sentences.

Rights groups have documented past cases in which Saudi judges have sentenced criminals to flogging for a range of offences, including public intoxication and harassment.

“This reform is a momentous step forward in Saudi Arabia’s human rights agenda, and merely one of many recent reforms in the Kingdom,” the president of the state-backed Human Rights Commission (HRC) Awwad Alawwad told Reuters.

Other forms of corporal punishment, such as amputation for theft or beheading for murder and terrorism offences, have not yet been outlawed.

“This is a welcome change but it should have happened years ago,” said Adam Coogle, Deputy Director of the Middle East and North Africa Division at Human Rights Watch.

“There’s nothing now standing in the way of Saudi Arabia reforming its unfair judicial system.”

Sunday 26 April 2020

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman has issued an order to partially lift the curfew in all regions of the Kingdom while keeping a 24-hour curfew in Mecca and in previously isolated neighbourhoods, state news agency (SPA) said early on Sunday.

The curfew will be lifted between 9 am and 5 pm from Sunday onwards, while malls, wholesale and retail shops will be allowed to reopen from the 6th day of Ramadan to the 20th day of the holy month – 29 April to 13 May 2020.

As of Sunday morning, Saudi Arabia recorded 16,299 infections and 136 deaths, the highest among the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

On 2 April, Riyadh imposed a 24-hour curfew in the Muslim holy cities of Mecca and Medina, extending measures to combat the novel corona virus.

Saudi Arabia also suspended the year-round Umrah pilgrimage over fears of the corona virus spreading to Islam’s holiest cities.

It is likely the larger Hajj pilgrimage, set for the end of July, will also be cancelled for the first time in modern history after Saudi Arabia urged Muslims to temporarily defer preparations.

Last year, about 2.5 million people travelled to Saudi Arabia to take part in the Hajj, which all Muslims must perform at least once in their lives if able.

Pilgrimage is big business for Saudi Arabia and the backbone of plans to expand visitor numbers under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman‘s ambitious economic reform agenda.

Cancelling the Hajj would be unprecedented in modern times, but curbing attendance from high-risk areas has happened before, including in recent years during the Ebola outbreak.

The Arab world’s biggest economy has also closed down cinemas, malls and restaurants and halted flights as it steps up efforts to contain the virus.

King Salman has warned of a “more difficult” fight ahead against the virus, as the Kingdom faces the economic double blow of virus-led shutdowns and crashing oil prices.

Saudi Arabia will no longer impose the death sentence on individuals who committed crimes while still minors, the state-backed Human Rights Commission (HRC) said in a statement, citing a royal decree by King Salman.

“The decree means that any individuals who received a death sentence for crimes committed while he or she is a minor can no longer face execution.

Instead, the individual will receive a prison sentence of no longer than 10 years in a juvenile detention facility,” HRC President Awwad Alawwad said in the statement.

It was not immediately clear when the decree, which was not immediately carried on state media, would take effect.

Saudi Arabia, whose human rights record came under intense international scrutiny after the murder of a prominent Saudi journalist in 2018 (Jamal Khashoggi), is one of the world’s biggest executioners after Iran and China, Amnesty International said in its latest annual report.

It said the Kingdom had executed 184 people in 2019, including at least one person charged with a crime committed as a minor.

“This is an important day for Saudi Arabia,” Alawwad said.

“The decree helps us in establishing a more modern penal code, and demonstrates the Kingdom’s commitment to following through on key reforms across all sectors of our country.”

The announcement came just two days after the Kingdom in effect scrapped the punishment of flogging, in a decision by the General Commission for the Supreme Court.

The punishment will instead be replaced by prison time or fines.

Capital punishment for crimes committed by people under the age of 18 runs contrary to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which Saudi Arabia has ratified.

In April 2019, the Sunni-ruled Kingdom beheaded 37 men convicted of terrorism charges.

The UN human rights chief said at the time that most of them were Shi’ites who may not have had fair trials and at least three were minors when sentenced.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has launched a series of social and economic reforms aimed at modernising the conservative kingdom, which has no codified system of law to go with the texts making up sharia, or Islamic law.

Spain, Tuesday 21 April 2020

The Festival of San Fermín, which for centuries has unleashed half-ton fighting bulls into the narrow streets of Pamplona, has been suspended indefinitely as Spain battles one of the world’s deadliest outbreaks of Covid-19.

“As expected as it was, it still leaves us deeply sad,” said Ana Elizalde, the acting mayor of Pamplona.

“As of today, it seems unlikely that the festival will be celebrated this year, but let’s wait and see how the events evolve.”

Spain has recorded more than 21,000 deaths from corona virus and more than 200,000 confirmed cases of infection.

In the northern region of Navarra, which includes Pamplona, more than 350 people have been killed by the virus.

“In this context, there’s no place for fireworks, bullfights or bull runs,” said Elizalde.

The fiesta, long a target for animal rights activists, has been called off only a handful of times in the past century, for reasons such as civil war or other political unrest. It typically draws around a million visitors for nine days of alcohol-fuelled partying.

“It seems our beloved fiesta is at odds with the corona virus,” Elizalde said.

“We’re supposed to wear masks, keep a social distance – measures that are incompatible with what San Fermín is.”

It’s a calculation that is playing out across the country as officials attempt to maintain physical distancing.

Adding to the pressure is the outsized role that tourism plays in the Spanish economy: more than 83 million people visited Spain last year, accounting for nearly 12% of the country’s GDP.

In the small town of Buñol, near Valencia, the mayor and town councillors will meet on Monday to debate what lies ahead for the world’s largest food fight.

Held each year in August, the Tomatina usually crams 20,000 people into the town to pelt each other with thousands of ripe tomatoes.

In the heart of the Rioja wine region – where the corona virus outbreak has taken a particularly deadly toll – June usually heralds Haro’s wine battle, in which participants drench each other in 70,000 litres of red wine.

The rapidly changing situation in Spain has left little room for concrete estimates on when tourism might return to normal.

“Our country will not start tourist activity until it is extraordinarily safe, both for those who live in Spain and who come to visit,” the government spokesperson María Jesús Montero said last week.

The government imposed strict lockdown measures in mid-March, and closed land borders to all but Spanish citizens and residents soon after.

The Labour Minister, Yolanda Díaz, recently suggested the tourism, culture and leisure sectors would not restart until after the summer and could expect to face “enormous difficulty”.

The Tourism Minister, Reyes Maroto, hinted that jam-packed festivals, beaches and plazas would not be seen anytime soon.

“Until there is a vaccine, nothing will be the way it was before.

Gatherings will have to be limited to maintain safe distances,” she told the newspaper El País.

“It is very important that we continue to follow health recommendations,” she added.

“We have to keep up what we are doing now; washing our hands, keeping social distance even on the beach.”

A former London rapper who stopped making music not long after his father’s extradition to face terror charges in the bombings of two US embassies was arrested Monday in southern Spain on suspicion of joining Islamic State fighters in Syria.

Two sources close to the investigation told The Associated Press that police arrested Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary and two other men at a rented apartment.

Abdel Bary is the son of an Egyptian operative of al-Qaeda who was convicted for events related to the 1998 bombings at US embassies in Africa that killed 224 people.

A media release from Spain’s National Police didn’t name Abdel Bary.

It described him as an Egyptian national who left Europe to fight in Syria and Iraq.

The police statement also called him “one of the most sought terrorists in Europe, both because of his criminal trajectory in the ranks of Daesh (Islamic State) and because of the high danger that he represented.”

He and the two other men were arrested overnight at the apartment in Almería, a port city in southeastern Spain, the AP learned from officials on the ground and interviews with local residents.

The three were being interrogated on Tuesday and were scheduled to appear before a National Court judge in Madrid on Wednesday, according to a spokesman for the court that usually handles terror-related case.

The spokesman who was not authorized to be named in media reports.

Police said the operation was the result of “international cooperation” between agents specialized in fighting terrorism who suspected that the Egyptian suspect might be traveling through Spain as he tried to return home from the Mideast.

Abdel Bary, who is believed to be 29, grew up in London to become a rapper known as Lyricist Jinn and L Jinny.

Music videos still available online show him performing raps with references to drug use, violence and his family’s experience as asylum-seekers in Britain.

His radicalization reportedly took place shortly after his father, Abdel Abdul Bary, was extradited in 2012 to the United States, where he was tried for the twin bombings of the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

The father was convicted in New York and sentenced in 2015 to a 25-year prison term.

In a 2013 post still viewable on what appeared to be his Facebook account, the younger Abdul Bary left a message for his fans:

“I have left everything for the sake of Allah,” he wrote.

One year later, in August 2014, a photo of him holding a man’s severed head was posted on Twitter

British investigators initially suspected Abdel Bary as being “Jihadi John”, the IS militant who spoke with a British accent in the video showing the execution of American journalist James Foley.

Foley, one of the Islamic State group’s early foreign victims, was decapitated.

The real “Jihadi John” turned out to be Mohammed Emwazi, who also grew up in London.

Britain’s Foreign Office declined to comment on Tuesday’s arrests, referring queries to the Spanish police.

Shiraz Maher, an expert on radicalization at London’s King’s College, described Abdel Bary as one of the better known among a cluster of Islamist extremists that emerged in west London in the early 2010s.

He was also one of the earliest so-called “foreign fighters” to become disillusioned with ISIS.

“Disillusionment kicked in at different stages for different people.

He was known to have been disillusioned for quite a while.

And he then just disappeared off the radar,” Maher said, suggesting that Abdel Bary’s early departure doesn’t necessarily signal that he was no longer a threat.

“He was a member of ISIS and clearly participated in all kinds of horrors the group was involved in and should face punishment for those crimes,” Maher said.

“But at this stage, he is more likely to be someone who was trying to save himself in Spain.”

Abdel Bary was no stranger to Spanish law enforcement.

In 2015, a Spanish woman was arrested at an airport terminal in Madrid when she tried to travel to Turkey with a fake passport in order to meet up with and marry Abdel Bary.

At her trial, María de los Ángeles Cala Márquez said she had fallen in love with Abdel Bary after chatting with the former rapper online.

In mid-2018 she was sentenced to two years of imprisonment with reprieve.

On Tuesday, Spanish police described Abdel Bary as having an “extremely violent” criminal profile.

His arrest took place in Cerro de San Cristóbal, a historic neighborhood in Almería known for its narrow streets dotted with nightclubs and a mix of old and new buildings leading to the city’s Alcazaba, a 10th-century fortress of Arabic origin.

Taxi driver Ángel Vílchez told the AP that at least six police vehicles and about 30 officers, including many in plainclothes, had blocked access to several streets for most of Monday.

Another neighbor, who asked not to be named in media reports, said police had showed up at 3 a.m. Monday and took away at least one person handcuffed from an apartment used for short stays by tourists.

Spain’s Interior Ministry says police have arrested nearly 400 people connected to extremist religious groups since 2012.

Many of the arrests have not led to judicial convictions.

United Kingdom

Wednesday 22 April 2020

A total of 18,100 patients have died in hospital after testing positive for corona virus in the UK, as officials report a further 759 virus-related deaths.

The update is an increase from the total death toll reported on Tuesday of 17,337.

The latest Department of Health figures come as the Health Secretary said the UK had reached “the peak” of the Covid-19 outbreak.

Speaking at the first virtual PMQs, Matt Hancock also confirmed a total of fifteen social care staff had died having contracted the corona virus.

Matt Hancock said experts have “high confidence” the peak of the outbreak in the UK has been reached, but added “obviously” the number of infections need to “come down”.

The Health Secretary warned against relaxing lockdown restrictions until “five tests” were able to be met by the government.

His comments come a day after another scientific study suggested the England and Wales had reached a peak in the number of coronavirus on 8 April.

A panel convened by the Science Media Centre pointed to the date based on data released by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) on Tuesday.

Of the latest UK death toll, 665 patients died in hospitals in England having tested positive for the virus.

The latest NHS England figures bring the total death toll there to 16,272.

Wednesday’s reported death toll includes 119 fatalities from April 21, 254 from April 20 and 108 from April 19.

The remaining deaths in Wednesday’s updated figures took place between April 1-18, while a further nine deaths that occurred in March.

The delay in reporting can be attributed to delays in obtaining positive results, post-mortem outcomes, and for testing data to be validated.

In Scotland, a further 77 virus-related deaths have been reported bringing the death toll there to 1,062.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said a total of 9,038 people have now tested positive for Covid-19 in Scotland, while 155 corona virus patients remain in critical care.

Of the latest UK figures, 15 of the deaths occurred in Wales where a total of 624 patients have now died after testing positive for the corona virus.

Wales’ Chief Medical Officer announced on Wednesday that lockdown measures there had “squashed the curve” and helped to maintain the outbreak.

Health authorities in Northern Ireland have reported a further eight deaths in patients who had tested positive for Covid-19.

The Public Health Agency says the death toll there now stands at 250.

Saturday 25 April 2020

Another 813 people have died with corona virus in UK hospitals, bringing the total to more than 20,000, the Department of Health has announced.

At the government’s daily briefing, the Home Secretary described the figure as a “tragic and terrible milestone”.

Last month, the government’s chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, said keeping deaths below 20,000 would be a “good outcome”.

Meanwhile, the PM will return to work in Downing Street on Monday morning.

It is just over two weeks since Prime Minister Boris Johnson was released from St Thomas’ hospital in London, where he was treated in intensive care for the corona virus.

He has been recuperating at his country retreat, Chequers.

According to the latest official figures, a total of 20,319 patients have died in hospital after testing positive for Covid-19.

The first virus-related death was announced in the UK 51 days ago.

At the Downing Street briefing, Home Secretary Priti Patel said:

“As the deaths caused by this terrible virus pass another tragic and terrible milestone, the entire nation is grieving.”

She warned that “we are not out of the woods yet” and said people must continue to follow social distancing measures to curb the spread of the virus.

The government’s figures do not account for deaths that have happened in care homes, at home, in hospices or elsewhere in the community.

These are measured separately by the Office for National Statistics, based on death certificates, and a weekly figure is announced each Tuesday.

Last week that figure indicated that there were at least 1,662 deaths, up to 10 April, that were above the hospital-based number.

The fact Britain has now passed the grim milestone outlined by Sir Patrick Vallance in less than two months is both a tragedy for the families affected and a worry to the rest of the country.

There are strong signs – at least in hospitals – that they have passed the peak of deaths.

The fact that may have happened without the Health Service being overwhelmed in the way Italy’s was is at least some good news.

However, the deaths in care homes, which the daily figures from government do not include, are rising rapidly and could prove very difficult to get under control.

In fact, if they included them they would have passed the 20,000 mark some time ago.

On 17 March, Sir Patrick told MPs “the hope” was to keep the death toll below 20,000.

At the time the number of deaths in UK hospitals stood at 71.

That ambition was later echoed by NHS England medical director Prof Stephen Powis, who said the UK would have “done very well in this epidemic” if deaths remained below that figure.

Speaking at Saturday’s briefing, Prof Powis said it was a “very sad day for the nation”, adding that his “heart goes out to families and friends of those loved ones”.

Asked about his and Sir Patrick’s previous comments, Prof Powis said:

“What we were emphasising is that this is a new virus, a global pandemic, a once-in-a-century global health crisis.

“And this was going to be a huge challenge not just for the UK, but for every country.”

He added that it was unlikely the UK and other countries would recover from the pandemic in the next few weeks.

“This is not a sprint, this will be a marathon,” he said.

Four other countries to date have announced an official number of coronavirus-related deaths exceeding 20,000 – the US, Spain, Italy and France.

Globally, more than 200,000 people have died with corona virus, according to Johns Hopkins University, with confirmed cases standing at more than 2.8 million.

Ms Patel said the government was working towards returning the UK to normal, but said five tests must be met before lockdown measures can be lifted.

“Quite frankly that is not right now,” she said.

The government’s five tests for ending lockdown are:

• Making sure the NHS can cope
• A “sustained and consistent” fall in the daily death rate
• Rate of infection decreasing to “manageable levels”
• Ensuring supply of tests and personal protective equipment (PPE) can meet future demand
• Being confident any adjustments would not risk a second peak

Prof Powis said the virus would start to “spread more” if social distancing measures were lifted.

He said it was clear that “gains” were being made by following social distancing rules and orders to avoid non-essential travel.

The latest UK figures include a further 47 deaths in Scotland, 23 in Wales and 16 in Northern Ireland.

Most of these were in hospitals.

Some 28,760 corona virus tests were carried out in the UK on Friday.

The government has set a target of 100,000 tests per day by the end of April.

At Saturday’s daily briefing, the home secretary also took the opportunity to speak about the impact the pandemic was having on crime.

Despite a fall in overall crime during the outbreak, Ms Patel said some criminals continued to “capitalise on this horrendous crisis”.

Praising the “outstanding frontline police officers”, she singled out a successful raid earlier in the week which uncovered cocaine with a street value of £1m concealed in a shipment of face masks.

She also revealed more than 2,000 online scams linked to coronavirus had been taken down.

She criticised some “extraordinary dangerous driving” witnessed by police during lockdown, with one London driver caught doing 134 mph in a 40 mph zone.

United States 

Monday 20 April 2020

The US Supreme Court ruled on Monday that the constitutional guarantee of trial by jury requires a unanimous verdict for serious crimes, siding with a Louisiana man convicted of murder and paving the way for potentially hundreds of defendants found guilty by divided juries to receive new trials.

Only two of the 50 states, Louisiana and Oregon, have permitted non-unanimous verdicts.

Writing for the court in the 6-3 ruling, conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch noted that the non-unanimous verdict requirement in both states traced back to past racist policies intended to reduce the power of non-white jurors to influence the outcome of trials.

The ruling, overturning a 1972 Supreme Court precedent, means that Evangelisto Ramos, who was convicted by a 12-member jury on a 10-2 vote, is likely to get a new trial.

Ramos, found guilty in the 2014 New Orleans murder of a woman named Trinece Fedison whose body was found in a trash can, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The justices concluded that the US Constitution’s Sixth Amendment, which guarantees the right to an impartial trial, requires that jurors be unanimous to convict in serious criminal cases.

Gorsuch noted that historically some minor crimes do not require a jury trial.

Louisiana updated its law to prohibit non-unanimous verdicts starting last year but that change did not apply retroactively.

The ruling could benefit hundreds of inmates convicted with non-unanimous verdicts in Louisiana and Oregon by leading to new trials.

“We are heartened that the court has held, once and for all, that the promise of the Sixth Amendment fully applies in Louisiana, rejecting any concept of second-class justice,” said Ben Cohen, a lawyer for Ramos.

The office of Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry said in a statement that the state’s priorities have not changed as a result of the ruling.

“Our law has since been changed and the Supreme Court has now issued this new ruling, yet our focus remains the same: to uphold the rule of law and protect victims of crime,” the statement said.

Gorsuch said there is evidence that when the Sixth Amendment was enacted, it was assumed there must be a unanimous verdict.

“This court has repeatedly and over many years recognized that the Sixth Amendment requires unanimity,” Gorsuch wrote.

Two other conservative justices, Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh, joined Gorsuch and three liberal justices – Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor – in the majority.

A 1972 Supreme Court ruling that state court juries did not have to be unanimous drove the divisions among the justices in the case.

The majority voted to overrule that precedent, but the three dissenting justices said there was not a compelling reason to overturn it.

Writing in dissent, conservative Justice Samuel Alito wrote that the ruling “imposes a potentially crushing burden on the courts and criminal justice systems” in Louisiana and Oregon.

Liberal Justice Elena Kagan and conservative Chief Justice John Roberts also were in dissent.

How the court addresses overturning its own precedents is a topic of contention, with high stakes for abortion rights.

Abortion rights activists fear that the court’s 5-4 conservative majority may seek to undermine or overturn its landmark 1973 ruling that legalized the procedure nationwide.

The court is currently weighing a challenge to Louisiana abortion restrictions that could indicate which way it is heading, with a ruling due by the end of June.

Police said they dispersed crowds violating social distancing guidelines during David Guetta’s corona virus relief concert in Miami.

There were no arrests made when police broke up groups on the sidewalks far below the two-hour rooftop concert played by the DJ on Saturday, The Miami Herald reported.

Florida has prohibited gatherings of more than ten people during the pandemic.

While some residents in downtown Miami were able to see the concert from their balconies, the relief benefit also drew in over nine million views on Facebook and nearly two million views on YouTube.

The concert raised $700,000, Guetta said in a Facebook post Sunday.

The money will go towards four organizations, including Feeding South Florida and the World Health Organization’s Solidarity Response Fund.

Florida’s corona virus caseload reached 26,314 with 774 deaths as of Sunday evening, the state’s Health Department said.

President Trump on Monday said he will sign an executive order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States amid the corona virus pandemic, an extraordinary move that prompted immediate questions about its timing and scope.

In light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens, I will be signing an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) 21 April 2020

The order would mark a stunning use of executive power by Trump, who hours earlier was speaking optimistically about the ability of certain states to begin reopening their economies despite the threat of the virus.

It is likely to draw swift legal challenges.

The suspension of all immigration would serve as an extension on the travel restrictions the Trump administration has already imposed on most of Europe, China, Canada, Mexico and Iran.

It’s unclear if Trump made other nations aware of the decision before tweeting it out, but his past attempts to clamp down on immigration have led to chaos abroad and at US airports.

Trump’s tweet also did not provide details on when the suspension would go into effect or how long it would last.

Trump has spent much of his presidency pushing to restrict immigration into the US.

He has pursued construction of a border wall, implemented policies that limit which migrants can apply for asylum and overseen the separation of families who cross into the country illegally.

The decision to suspend all immigration is sure to draw fury from Democrats and immigrant rights groups, some of whom argue the president has continued to push controversial parts of his agenda even as the coronavirus pandemic receives the bulk of public attention.

Democratic officials late Monday accused Trump of using the pandemic as justification to cater to his base with the hardline immigration policy.

“This action is not only an attempt to divert attention away from Trump’s failure to stop the spread of the corona virus and save lives, but an authoritarian-like move to take advantage of a crisis and advance his anti-immigrant agenda. We must come together to reject his division,” tweeted Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas), the chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

“Immigration has nearly stopped and the US has far more cases than any other country.

This is just xenophobic scapegoating,” Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) tweeted.

“This is Trump broadcasting to the world that he is seeing erosion in his base from massively fumbling the pandemic response,” tweeted Dan Pfeiffer, a former Obama aide, in a message that was shared by Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii).

The move was initially met with approval by some conservatives who viewed it as a way to protect Americans facing economic hardship from the pandemic.

“22 million Americans have lost their jobs in the last month because of the China virus.

Let’s help them get back to work before we import more foreigners to compete for their jobs,” tweeted Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), one of the most outspoken critics of China throughout the pandemic.

Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) praised Trump for putting “American citizens first.”

The corona virus has infected more than 2.4 million people around the world.

The US has by far the most confirmed cases at more than 786,000, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, though experts have cast doubt on China’s official total of just over 83,000 cases.

The President has in recent weeks described the US as past the peak in terms of number of deaths from the pandemic, making Monday night’s announcement even more jarring.

He has spoken approvingly of protesters who oppose stay-at-home orders and other measures meant to limit the spread of the virus and mused about some states lifting those restrictions quickly with an eye toward reviving the economy.

Roughly 22 million Americans have filed for unemployment in the last few weeks alone as the virus prompts businesses to close and states to essentially shut down.

The downturn has been a blow to Trump, whose reelection campaign centered on the strength of the economy.

Trump has throughout the pandemic made political declarations or threats unrelated to the virus that have drawn outsized coverage.

A week ago he played a campaign-style reel of video clips aimed at undercutting media coverage and later threatened to adjourn Congress so he could fill vacant positions with recess appointments.

The President has come under unrelenting criticism over the past few months for his handling of the corona virus outbreak.

He initially downplayed its severity for January and much of February, and the US response in March was hampered by the slow rollout of testing.

He has sought to shift blame for the lack of testing and other critical equipment onto governors and the previous administration.

Trump has frequently portrayed his late January decision to restrict travel from China as a courageous one that likely saved thousands of American lives.

While experts have debated its net impact, the suspension of immigration entirely may not have a significant effect given the existing restrictions that are in place and the diminished international travel taking place due to the virus.

Tuesday 21 April 2020

Thursday 23 April 2020

Facebook Inc has removed “pseudoscience” as an option for advertisers that want to target audiences, a category available until this week even as the world’s largest social media network vowed to curb misinformation about the Covid-19 pandemic.