GERMANY
Virtual memorials held
The nation yesterday held virtual commemorations for the liberation of two Nazi concentration camps 75 years ago, as long-planned anniversary events have had to be canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Before the outbreak, dozens of survivors had planned to attend the ceremonies. In a video message, Minister of Foreign Affairs Heiko Maas said more than 20,000 people died at Sachsenhausen concentration camp north of Berlin, which meant that a minute’s silence for each of the victims would take two weeks. Many of those killed at Sachsenhausen were Soviet soldiers. The camp was also used to intern Jews, political prisoners, gays and Jehovah’s Witnesses from more than 40 countries. The virtual ceremony also commemorated the liberation of nearby Ravensbrueck concentration camp. Minister of Education, Society and Culture Monika Gruetters said the current closure of memorial sites due to the pandemic made it particularly important to hold virtual ceremonies and recall the atrocities committed by the Nazis.
Photo: AFP
GREECE
Fire damages migrant camp
One of the nation’s largest migrant camps has been extensively damaged in a fire, hours after the death of an Iraqi woman living there sparked unrest, officials said yesterday. The fire late on Saturday at Vial camp on Chios Island destroyed the facilities of the European asylum service, a canteen, tents and many housing containers, Ministry of Migration Secretary Manos Logothetis said. “A large part of the camp’s administrative services was destroyed,” he said, but no injuries were reported. A local police source said three persons had been detained in relation to the unrest.
RUSSIA
Money over toilet paper
While consumers around the globe last month were hoarding toilet paper ahead of a wave of government-imposed lockdowns, Russians were stockpiling cash. About 1 trillion rubles (US$13.6 billion) have been issued from cash machines and bank branches since the beginning of last month, more than during the whole of last year, central bank data show. “People were afraid that banks will be unavailable during the quarantine,” said Denis Poryvay, an analyst at Raiffeisenbank in Moscow. “They withdrew money for the same reason as people hoarded food.” Daily spikes in withdrawals coincide with President Vladimir Putin’s regular televised briefings outlining measures being taken to fight COVID-19. There was a spike in money being taken out after Putin announced a tax on bank deposits of more than 1 million rubles, and more cash was hoarded after he extended self-isolation measures until at least next month.
ISRAEL
Hezbollah actions criticized
The government on Saturday accused the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah of “provocative” activity along the Lebanese-Israeli border and said it would complain to the UN Security Council. Minister of Foreign Affairs Israel Katz accused Hezbollah of multiple attempts to breach the border on Friday night. The military fired flares along the frontier after signs of a possible border breach, and later said that it had found damage to its security fence in three locations.
SOUTH KOREA
New infections decrease
Seoul yesterday reported fewer than 10 new COVID-19 cases for the first day in two months, with eight new infections. Of the new cases, five were imported from overseas, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. The death toll rose to 234. It was the first time since Feb. 18 that the nation reported a single-digit daily rise. The figure brings its total infections to 10,661. It has recently been reporting about 20 daily new cases. President Moon Jae-in said that the nation’s progress gave hope that the disease is “surmountable” in other parts of the world. “The government will prepare for new daily lives and the new world order ‘post-COVID’ with the unified power of the citizens,” he said.
SINGAPORE
Virus cases skyrocket
The Ministry of Health yesterday confirmed 596 new coronavirus infections, taking the total number of cases in the city-state to 6,558. The vast majority of the new cases are migrant workers living in dormitories and 25 are permanent residents, it said in a statement. Meanwhile, Indonesia has the most cases in Southeast Asia with 6,575 cases and the Philippines has 6,259.
THAILAND
Virus count rises to 2,765
The kingdom yesterday reported 32 new coronavirus cases, bringing its total to 2,765, a senior official said. Of the new cases, 28 were in Bangkok, Center for COVID-19 Situation Administration spokesperson Taweesin Wisanuyothin said. No new fatalities were reported. The nation has had 47 deaths from the coronavirus.
UNITED KINGDOM
Care deaths could top 7,500
The number of people killed by the coronavirus in care homes could be as high as 7,500 — five times the official estimate, said Care England, the nation’s largest representative body for care homes. “Without testing, it is very difficult to give an absolute figure,” the care home charity’s chief executive officer Martin Green told the Daily Telegraph. “However, if we look at some of the death rates since April 1 and compare them with previous years’ rates, we estimate a figure of about 7,500 people may have died as a result of COVID-19.” The figure is higher than the estimate of 1,400 suggested by the government earlier this week, and far in excess of the 217 care home deaths recorded by the Office for National Statistics up to April 3, the most recent date for which official data is available.
The Philippines yesterday said its coast guard would acquire 40 fast patrol craft from France, with plans to deploy some of them in disputed areas of the South China Sea. The deal is the “largest so far single purchase” in Manila’s ongoing effort to modernize its coast guard, with deliveries set to start in four years, Philippine Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Ronnie Gil Gavan told a news conference. He declined to provide specifications for the vessels, which Manila said would cost 25.8 billion pesos (US$440 million), to be funded by development aid from the French government. He said some of the vessels would
CARGO PLANE VECTOR: Officials said they believe that attacks involving incendiary devices on planes was the work of Russia’s military intelligence agency the GRU Western security officials suspect Russian intelligence was behind a plot to put incendiary devices in packages on cargo planes headed to North America, including one that caught fire at a courier hub in Germany and another that ignited in a warehouse in England. Poland last month said that it had arrested four people suspected to be linked to a foreign intelligence operation that carried out sabotage and was searching for two others. Lithuania’s prosecutor general Nida Grunskiene on Tuesday said that there were an unspecified number of people detained in several countries, offering no elaboration. The events come as Western officials say
A plane bringing Israeli soccer supporters home from Amsterdam landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Friday after a night of violence that Israeli and Dutch officials condemned as “anti-Semitic.” Dutch police said 62 arrests were made in connection with the violence, which erupted after a UEFA Europa League soccer tie between Amsterdam club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Israeli flag carrier El Al said it was sending six planes to the Netherlands to bring the fans home, after the first flight carrying evacuees landed on Friday afternoon, the Israeli Airports Authority said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered
Former US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi said if US President Joe Biden had ended his re-election bid sooner, the Democratic Party could have held a competitive nominating process to choose his replacement. “Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” Pelosi said in an interview on Thursday published by the New York Times the next day. “The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary,” she said. Pelosi said she thought the Democratic candidate, US Vice President Kamala Harris, “would have done