A World Health Organization “pandemic intelligence hub” launched by the UN agency’s director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, and Germany’s Angela Merkel in Berlin on Wednesday will try to help governments identify future pandemics at an earlier stage and improve monitoring of new variant strains of COVID-19. [Read more]. |
Hicham Benohoud, untitled from the series La Salle De Classe, 1994–2000. Photo courtesy of Galerie Katharina Maria Raab, Berlin.
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Berlin, Germany: Secondary school pupils sit on desks spaced apart ready to take an examination. Photo: Tobias Schwarz/AFP/Getty Images.
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Italy’s response to the coronavirus will bust Europe’s budget deficit rules, no question, leaving Europe’s policymakers with a choice. Do they take the opportunity to rebalance policy so that governments have greater leeway to borrow and the ECB is not required to provide all the stimulus? Or do they treat Italy the way they treated Greece and insist there is no alternative to austerity? Italy is much bigger than Greece and the consequences of making the wrong choice should be obvious. [Read more].
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A visitor photographs an artwork entitled Blue Europe by Chinese artist 劉勃麟 (Liú Bólín), as a part of his solo exhibitionon “Visible Invisible” which will be on display at the Museum of Cultures (Mudec) in Milan, Italy from May 15 to September 15, 2019. Photo: Miguel Medina/AFP/Getty Images.
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The fishing vessel that sank on April 18, 2015 trapping hundreds of migrants, is installed by artist Christoph Büchel in Venice’s former shipyards as part of the 58th Biennale. Photo: David Levene/The Guardian.
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Pedro Sánchez, Secretary-General of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE), will almost certainly continue as Spain’s Prime Minister after the PSOE won the most seats — but not a majority — in Sunday’s general election. That means that Sánchez will have to put together a governing coalition with the support of other parties. Photo: Pablo Blázquez Domínguez/Getty Images.
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MILAN – Tens of thousands of people have marched in Italy’s financial capital against policies by the populist government that they say promote racism.
The Milan city official in charge of migrant policy, Pierfrancesco Majorino, put the number of marchers under the banner “People First” at 200,000. [Read more]. |
DJ Simon Samaki Osagie, with throngs of protesters behind him, sings during an anti-racism rally, in Milan, Italy, on March 2, 2019. Photo: AP.
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German NGO rescue ship Sea Watch decided to file a case at the European Human Rights Court against Italy for refusing to allow its ship carrying 47 rescued migrants to dock. Sea Watch’s spokesman Ruben Neugebauer points the finger against Italy’s far-right interior minister, who would be “taking the people on board as political hostages”. The Po Valley strongman’s hardline attitude was also harshly contested by Italian Association for Infant Mental Health (AISMI): “As infant mental health workers we reiterate the urgency of immediately landing migrants, so as to help them with the necessary health and psychological care, especially children and adolescents. Their unwarranted and inadmissible detention onboard the Sea Watch represents a further abuse perpetrated against them — specifically by Italian authorities, which instead have the duty of safeguarding the physical and psychological health of anyone is found on Italian territory”, AISMI President Giampaolo Nicolais said.
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A street art graffiti by British artist Banksy. Credit: Philippe Huguen/AFP/Getty Images.
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Italy’s Democratic Party delegation finally climbed aboard the NGO rescue ship Sea Watch, which is anchored, with 47 asylum seekers (among them there are at least 13 minors), in waters close to the Sicilian city of Siracusa, Italy since a week ago, due to the refusal of the far-right interior minister to give it access to Italy’s ports.
All Italy’s parties apparently agree that for this, as for what occurred with the vessel Diciotti last August, the far-right interior minister should be prosecuted and put on trial. |
Málaga, Spain: Women are helped to disembark from a migrant rescue vessel. The Spanish Maritime Rescue Service saved 183 people from dinghies and brought them to the harbour, where they were assisted by the Cruz Roja Española (Spanish Red Cross). Photo: Jesús Mérida/Sopa Images/Rex/Shutterstock.
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Mediterranean Sea: A migrant takes a selfie with an NGO volunteer as he and others prepare to be transferred on to a Maltese vessel following the announcement that Malta has reached a deal with other EU member states to allow migrants onboard to disembark. Photo: Federico Scoppa/AFP/Getty Images.
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Málaga, Spain: A woman and her child disembark from a Spanish coastguard vessel after being rescued from an inflatable boat carrying 188 people. Photo: Jorge Guerrero/AFP/Getty Images.
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While cold weather was hitting, a right-wing deputy mayor in Italy’s northeastern city of Trieste — who is also a fellow member of the interior minister’s far-right party — boasted on his social media accounts about throwing a homeless man’s clothes and blankets into the trash. The boast by the “first citizen” in pectore caused severe indignation among most city residents, who hurried to bring warm clothing and bedding to the same spot, along with a sign reading: “Dear friend, we hope that tonight you will suffer less from the cold. We apologize on behalf of the city of Trieste”. Photo: Diego D’Amelio (@_damelio_).
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Mayor of London Sadiq Khan (centre left) amid a crowd of almost 700,000 people peacefully marching on parliament to demand “people’s vote” on Brexit deal on Saturday, October 20, 2018 in London, United Kingdom. It was the biggest outpouring of public opposition to government policy since the anti-Iraq war protest in 2003. Photo: Mayor of London (@MayorofLondon).
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Around a thousand of pro-EU dog owners and their pets gathered at Waterloo Place in London, United Kingdom on Sunday, October 7, 2018 to ask for a new “Wooferendum” on Brexit. Photo: AFP/Tolga Akmen.
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Bulgarian journalist Viktoria Marinova (pictured above) was raped and murdered in Ruse, Bulgaria last Saturday. She was host and director of Ruse’s TV station TVN. In her last reportage — focused on the so-called “GPGate” — she’d been investigating alleged corruption and fraud with EU funds linked to big bosses, oligarchs and politicians. Photo: Lily Linch (@lilyslinch)
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An aerial view showing French artist Saype’s giant land art painting Message From Future in Parc de la Perle du Lac, Geneva, Switzerland which he painted to support the cause of the NGO SOS Méditerranée, which specialises in the rescue of migrants at sea. Photo: AFP/Fabrice Coffrini.
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Member of European Parliament Judith Sargentini (centre) reacts after her report denouncing the rise of populism in Hungary was voted through parliament. Photo: AFP/Frederick Florin.
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Thousands of people had gathered in Piazza San Babila, Milan, Italy on August 28, 2018 to protest under the slogan “Europe Without Walls” against Italy’s far-right interior minister and Hungarian far-right prime minister, who were sitting in a closed room of the prefecture palace for allegedly holding a meeting aimed at forming a common anti-migration front. Quite surprisingly, after the rendez-vous, the two hard-right bosses praised each other with sincere camaraderie, and wished each other to share the same destiny. Photo: la Repubblica.
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