German police said demonstrators attacked them in Leipzig on Saturday, after the crowd was told to disperse, the Daily Mail reported. "There were numerous attacks against security forces," police tweeted while media broadcast images of projectiles and fireworks thrown at police who had established a security cordon near the city's main train station.     Italy and Germany have both introduced new measures in an attempt to fight the second wave of COVID-19 that is gripping Europe. Both countries reported their second highest ever number of new daily coronavirus cases today - for the second day running - although more tests are being done than during the first wave in the spring. Huge crowds took to the streets in Leipzig to protest against coronavirus restrictions after Germany entered a four-week partial lockdown on Monday. Demonstrators clashed with police as they threw firecrackers amid claims from a local journalist that police had lost control of the protest. The crowd in the eastern German city was estimated to number around 20,000 and German media reported that some of those who clashed with police were members of far-right groups. Some of the protesters also attacked journalists and people taking part in a counter-demonstration in Leipzig, a large student city. The police were out in force and made several arrests but the clashes continued into the evening. But ignoring the dispersal orders, hundreds of people marched up one of Leipzig's main streets shouting "Merkel must go!" and "peace, freedom, no dictatorship'" according to the German news agency DPA. Municipal authorities said the protesters had infringed the conditions under which they were allowed to hold their demonstration.        "Firecrackers on police officers. Corona demonstrators drive the security forces on the ring in front of them. Loss of control." Martin Heller tweeted. In a later tweet, he wrote: "The moment the police withdraw, Corona protesters force unauthorized march across the ring in #Leipzig." The four-week partial shutdown took effect in Germany on Monday, with bars, restaurants, leisure and sports facilities being closed and new contact restrictions imposed, but shops and schools remain open. German Chancellor Angela Merkel told Germans as she introduced the new measures: "We need to take action now. "Our health system can still cope with this challenge today, but at this speed of infections it will reach the limits of its capacity within weeks." If people respect the new measures, she said, "then we will be able to have the conditions for a tolerable December". Under the new measures, Germans will not be confined to their homes, but bars, cafes and restaurants must close, as well as theatres, opera houses and cinemas. Looking ahead to the festive season, Merkel has ruled out any "lavish New Year's Eve parties", but held out hope that families will be able to celebrate Christmas together. In Leipzig, protester Robert Koehn, 39, called the anti-virus measures "disproportionate". "I simply see the collateral damage that these measures cause: the isolation of people, the bankruptcy that threatens them", he said. Fellow protester Anne, 65, said that "for me there is no virus, they cite the coronavirus crisis as a motive, but there are other things behind this". Organizers of the protest called for "the immediate lifting of restrictions to fundamental rights" arising from measures taken to prevent the spread of the virus. Police ordered the demonstrators several times to respect a distance of 1.5 yards from each other and to wear protective masks. According to the regional public television MDR, flags recalling the German "Reich" or empire that collapsed after World War I were waved by some protesters, and members of the neo-Nazi group NPD were reportedly seen in the crowd. Saxony, the state where Leipzig is located, is considered a stronghold of far-right German nationalists, but the rally organizers consider themselves "free-thinkers" representing a range of political and social movements. The demonstrators are closely tracked by German authorities, especially since several hundred protesters forced their way past police barriers and onto the steps of the national parliament in late August. Germany recorded 23,399 new coronavirus cases on Saturday - a record high and breaking Friday's record of 21,506 - bringing the total since the outbreak of the pandemic to 642,488. The death toll in Germany rose by 130 to 11,226. Health minister Jens Spahn warned on Friday that "the situation is serious" after the number of COVID patients being treated in intensive care units doubled in the last 10 days. He said: "As of today, the health system can cope with this, but a doubling every 10 days is something the best health system in the world can't cope with in the long term." Laboratories in Germany are also near capacity, with scientists wanting stricter criteria for which people are tested. Protests were also seen in Rome after fresh restrictions, which include the new countrywide curfew from 10pm-5am as well as the early closure of bars and restaurants introduced late last month, came into effect. The latest decree signed by Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte divides Italy into three zones according to the level of risk, with a lockdown ordered for prosperous Lombardy, fellow northern regions Piedmont and Val d'Aosta, as well as one southern region, Calabria. In pictures from the Capital, people could be seen taking to the streets, letting off flares and shouting through megaphones to rally against the restrictions in the country that was the first European epicentre for the coronavirus. The protests come as more than 12 million cases of coronavirus have now been recorded in Europe, making it the hardest-hit zone in the world by infections. Italy has registered 39,809 new coronavirus infections over the past 24 hours, the health ministry said on Saturday, the country's highest ever daily tally and up from 37,802 just one day prior. The ministry also reported 425 COVID-related deaths, down from 446 the day before. A total of 41,063 people have now died because of COVID-19 in Italy, which has registered some 902,490 coronavirus infections since the start of its outbreak. In the northern city of Bergamo - the epicentre of the first outbreak - several hundred protesters demonstrated yesterday in front of the mayor's home Thursday night, hurling smoke bombs and shouting "Liberty". Mayor Giorgio Gori wrote on Facebook that unlike during the first quarantine - when images of army trucks in Bergamo transporting coffins from the overflowing morgue were seen around the world - "there is more tiredness and more distrust around." Austria warned on Friday that all its COVID-19 intensive care beds could be full within two weeks because of the "much stronger, more serious" second wave of coronavirus infections. There was a sharp drop to 6,464 new infections within 24 hours from a record 7,416 the day before, but Health Minister Rudolf Anschober said the number was still alarming. "The second wave is much stronger, more serious, more dynamic and more powerful," he told a news conference. Since Tuesday, a nighttime curfew has been in force and cafes, bars and restaurants are closed to all but take-away service. Factories, shops, kindergartens and primary schools remain open, while secondary schools and universities have switched to distance learning. The director general of the National Public Health Institute, Herwig Ostermann, said his projections indicated that, even with these measures in place, 750 of Austria's 800 intensive care beds reserved for COVID-19 patients were likely to be filled by November 18. Tracing the source of a coronavirus infection has become harder and is being achieved in only 27 per cent of cases, said Daniela Schmid, chief epidemiologist at Austria's Agency for Health and Food Safety (AGES). The average age of those infected is currently 43, she said. 

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"We have decided to significantly increase our border control within the Schengen area. We have decided to double the forces we had there as part of the control, from 2,400 to 4,800 police personnel, gendarmes, military," the president said. Macron added that these controls will target illegal immigrants. He stressed that illegal migrant-trafficking networks often have links to terrorist groups.   The French President said that Paris will make proposals to fellow EU member states concerning a reform of the Schengen zone. According to Macron, the threat presented by “Islamist” terrorism is a long-term threat. He went on to say that the latest attack in Austria has shown that terrorism danger can come from everywhere, including from agents sent from other countries. The French President also said on Thursday that he has a responsibility to defend the French population from the moment he took office, as the French leader fends off condemnation from Muslim world over his stance towards secularism and freedom of expression amid growing terrorist threat following recent attacks by motivated violent extremists. Earlier in the day, the Franceinfo broadcaster reported that France has launched 187 investigations into suspected violent extremism since the brutal killing of history teacher Samuel Paty in Paris in the middle of October. Paty was beheaded in a Paris suburb by an 18-year-old Chechen teenager after he had used cartoons depicting Prophet Mohammad [PBUH] during a freedom of speech lesson. The teacher's murder was followed by another terrorist attack in a catholic church in Nice on 29 October, where three people were stabbed by a 21-year-old radical of Tunisian origin.

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Earlier on Tuesday, Austrian Interior Minister Karl Nehammer said that four people died and twenty-two were injured as a result of the attack. He also disclosed the identity of the attacker, who was killed by the police. Identified as Kujtim Fejzulai, the perpetrator had roots in the Balkan nation of North Macedonia, and he had a previous conviction under a law that punishes membership in terrorist organizations, the minister said. In 2019, he was sentenced to 22 months in prison because he had tried to travel to Syria to join ISIL. In December, he was granted early release under juvenile law, Nehammer added. According to the police, at least 14 people have been arrested in Austria following raids on 18 properties after the gunman went on a shooting spree in central Vienna on Monday night. At least seven people were killed with several others injured in multiple gun and suspected suicide attacks near a synagogue in Vienna.

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The Turkish navy said in a message on the international maritime alert system NAVTEX that the Oruc Reis vessel would stay in the area until November 14. It had previously said the ship would remain until November 4, Wednesday. The latest deployment comes as Turkey and Greece had toned down some of their bellicose rhetoric in the aftermath of a deadly earthquake that hit both countries. However, Athens soon responded to the Turkish move, denouncing what it described as “Turkey’s illegal conduct,” and demanding that it withdraw from the area. The Greek foreign ministry said in a tweet that minister Nikos Dendias will inform the country’s allies and partners of the latest developments. “This (Turkish) action only increases tensions in a vulnerable region where attention is currently focused on aid and support and solidarity (after the earthquake),” the foreign ministry said. The Oruc Reis, escorted by military ships, has become the symbol of Ankara’s quest for natural gas in the eastern Mediterranean, where recent discoveries have triggered huge interest and competition. Athens says Ankara is breaking international law by prospecting in Greek waters. Turkey in August sent the ship into the disputed zone, alarming both Cyprus and Greece, which carried out military drills in response. Tensions subsided after Turkey withdrew the ship in mid-September for what it said was maintenance work and agreed to exploratory talks with Greece. But Ankara sent the ship back into the area on October 12, angering Greece which said there could be no talks until it is withdrawn.

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Armenia has denied carrying out the attacks on Tuesday, when four people were killed, and Wednesday, when 21 died, Al-Jazeera reported. Wednesday’s strike marked the deadliest reported attack on civilians in a month of fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh. Lala Ismayilova, an English-language teacher in Barda, lost her 31-year-old brother Fuad Ismayilov, on Wednesday. “My father passed away years ago, and Fuad was the man of our family. After the first shelling, he went out to see what happened. The second rocket landed when he went outside. He was young. How can I live without my brother?” Ismayilova noted. Barda-based activist Ulviyya Babasoy said decried the targeting of civilians. “I saw dead bodies, injured people, everything was ruined,” she told Al-Jazeera, adding, “After the the things l witnessed today, I don’t know how we will continue our normal lives, it is so hard after all of this. l believe that civilians should not be targeted in war. This is crime, terrorism. Stop it, Armenia.” According to a list seen by Al-Jazeera, victims ranged in age from 30 to 80. Barda MP Zahid Oruj told Al-Jazeera that Armenia was attempting to “create scenes similar to Syria and Libya, with people’s blood shed in the streets”. “It seems like they (Armenia) are intent on creating a picture of war that shows Azerbaijan suffering, inside Azerbaijan’s borders, rather than in the battlefields. Everyone should be convinced that peace in the region depends on Azerbaijan,” stated Oruj. Wednesday’s attack came despite a US-brokered truce agreed at the weekend, the third ceasefire attempt in a row to collapse just minutes after it took effect. Azerbaijani Presidential Aide Hikmet Hajiyev said Armenian forces fired cluster Smerch missiles against Barda, accusing them of using cluster munitions “to inflict excessive casualties among civilians”. Because of their power, more than 100 countries have banned cluster munitions, though Armenia and Azerbaijan have not. The attack on Wednesday hit a densely populated area and a shopping district. Meanwhile, Yerevan also accused Azerbaijani forces of deadly new attacks on civilian areas of Nagorno-Karabakh. Since the conflict restarted on September 27, each side has claimed the other is targeting civilians, and both regularly deny the claims. Ria Novosti news agency reported that Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan confirmed the deployment of Russian border guards along the Armenian border with Nagorno-Karabakh. “There is nothing special about this,” Pashinyan stated, adding, “Russian border guards have been on Armenia’s border with Turkey and Iran … Now, due to the latest developments, the Russian border guards are also on the Southeastern and Southwestern border of Armenia.” Armenia’s Defence Ministry, meanwhile, confirmed that Azerbaijan had seized the strategic town of Gubadli between Nagorno-Karabakh and the Iranian border, an military gain that could make a diplomatic solution more difficult. Nagorno-Karabakh is internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan but is populated and controlled by ethnic Armenians. About 30,000 people were killed in a 1991-1994 war in the region. Azerbaijan rejects any solution that would leave Armenians in control of the enclave, which it considers to be illegally occupied. Armenia regards the territory as part of its historic homeland and says the population there needs its protection. The Nagorno-Karabakh’s Defence Ministry has recorded 1,119 military deaths since fighting erupted on September 27. Azerbaijan has not disclosed its military casualties. Russia has estimated as many as 5,000 deaths in total.

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According to the Foreign Ministry’s statement published on its official website on Sunday, Azerbaijan "again showed its good will and based on the principles of humanism agreed to a humanitarian ceasefire since October 18." However, since the ceasefire's declaration, Armenia’s Armed Forces have violated the achieved agreements several times, the ministry said, TASS reported. "Azerbaijan was committed to humanitarian ceasefire but reserves the right to take retaliatory measures for protecting its civilian population and positions," the ministry stated.

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Greece announced on Thursday that a plane carrying its foreign minister back home from Iraq was forced to circle for 20 minutes before it received permission to cross into Turkish skies, RT reported. Ankara insists the aircraft had not properly registered a flight plan and was allowed to proceed once it had informed Turkish authorities where it was going. Turkish Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hami Aksoy said that a plane originally intended to transport the Greek Foreign Minister had malfunctioned in Iraq, and that Turkish authorities quickly granted permission to a back-up aircraft to make the journey instead, once it was made aware of the situation. However, Athens alleges that there were sinister motives behind the delay. A spokesman for the Greek government described the episode as “one more provocation in Turkey’s series of provocations”, and added the foreign ministry had relayed its displeasure over the incident to Ankara. The finger-pointing follows weeks of mounting hostility between the two longtime rivals, who are sparring over contested waters in the Eastern Mediterranean believed to be rich in oil and gas.   Tensions were briefly defused after Turkey announced it would return a survey vessel exploring the disputed area to port. However, the ship resumed operations earlier this week, prompting condemnation from Athens, as well as Washington and Berlin. Separately on Thursday, France and Germany called on Turkey to state its intentions in the disputed waters, accusing Ankara of provoking the European Union with its actions.

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"During the shelling from Armenia’s side in the Azerbaijani settlements since September 27 until October 11, 41 civilians were killed and 205 people were wounded," according to the Prosecutor-General’s Office. Some 1,165 private houses, 57 apartment buildings and 146 civilian facilities were damaged, the statement added. Renewed clashes between Azerbaijan and Armenia erupted on September 27, with intense battles raging in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The area experienced flare-ups of violence in the summer of 2014, in April 2016 and this past July. Azerbaijan and Armenia have imposed martial law and launched mobilization efforts. Both parties to the conflict have reported casualties, among them civilians. The conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, a disputed territory that had been part of Azerbaijan before the Soviet Union break-up, but primarily populated by ethnic Armenians, broke out in February 1988 after the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region announced its withdrawal from the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic. In 1992-1994, tensions boiled over and exploded into large-scale military action for control over the enclave and seven adjacent territories after Azerbaijan lost control of them. Talks on the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement have been ongoing since 1992 under the OSCE Minsk Group, led by its three co-chairs - Russia, France and the United States.

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The statement came as President Volodymyr Zelensky met UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson in London to sign a spate of bilateral cooperation agreements. Yermak claimed that recent mass protests in neighboring Belarus pose a possible threat to Ukraine, which he said is seeking assurances from the EU and the UK about their willingness to help Kiev maintain national security. In this vein, he also referred to a simmering military conflict in eastern Ukraine's Donbass region, touting the current truce as "a huge achievement". Kiev launched a special military operation in southeastern Ukraine in April 2014, after local residents refused to recognize the new central authorities, who had come to power as a result of a coup. This was preceded by the residents voting for the creation of the independent Donetsk [DNR] and Lugansk [LNR] People's Republics. In February 2015, the two sides reached a peace agreement after talks brokered by the leaders of Russia, France, Germany, and Ukraine – the so-called Normandy Four – in the Belarusian capital Minsk. The deal stipulates a full ceasefire, weapons withdrawal from the line of contact in Donbass, as well as constitutional reforms that would give a special status to the DNR and the LNR. The ceasefire regime has repeatedly been violated, with both sides accusing each other of multiple breaches, undermining the terms of the accord. Yermak's remarks come after the Pentagon reportedly signed off on an additional $125 million in its lethal military aid to Ukraine. The latter had earlier received batches of US military hardware, including patrol vehicles, fast boats, radar systems, and Javelin anti-tank missiles. The aid is part of a $250 million package appropriated by Congress in its 2020 National Defense Authorization Act, legislation that committed a whopping $738 billion to American defense spending, including tens of billions for US operations overseas. Russia has repeatedly warned the global community against supplying weapons to Ukraine, saying that such actions will escalate the military conflict in the Donbass region.

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European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen vowed Wednesday to "abolish" the existing rules, which require asylum seekers to file their claims in the first EU country where they set foot. Member states with external and sea borders, like Greece and Italy, complain that this leaves too much of the burden on them. "Everyone in Europe knows we have to get away from the legacy" of the Dublin rules, Koumoutsakos told radio broadcaster Skai. "The Dublin Regulation has failed and must be changed”. After several delays, the Commission will on September 23 unveil its plans for how to reform the system. The question was lent new urgency when a massive migrant camp on the Greek island of Lesbos burned down last week, leaving more than 12,000 people homeless including 4,000 children. But Koumoutsakos acknowledged that talks over how to update asylum rules "will be complicated and difficult", as "member states don't have the same interests". "Our interests are very different from those of the Visegrad group [of Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia], we want real solidarity between member states and fair sharing of the burden," he said. The Dublin Regulation came into force in 2013 as an agreement between the then-28 members of the EU including Britain, as well as Switzerland, Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein. But its weaknesses were quickly exposed by the migration crisis of 2015, stoking anger in Greece and Italy where governments felt they had been left to face the challenge alone.

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“It is up to Turkey to clarify its intentions,” Macron stated in Corsica where he will host seven Mediterranean littoral members of the EU for talks, RT reported. They will include the EU’s strained ties with Turkey. Macron has repeatedly demanded further EU sanctions against Turkey. The two NATO allies almost came to blows in June after a French warship attempted to inspect a Turkish vessel as part of a UN arms embargo on Libya. Last month, tensions between EU member states Greece and Turkey rose sharply after Ankara sent a survey vessel to the territory over which both countries claim jurisdiction. The vessel was to map out possible oil and gas drilling in the area. Ankara is also at loggerheads with Cyprus over exploration for hydrocarbons in the eastern Mediterranean. The EU must impose “meaningful” sanctions on Turkey unless Ankara pulls its maritime assets from disputed areas in the eastern Mediterranean, Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis noted on Thursday. “We do need dialogue, but not when held at gunpoint,” he wrote in an opinion piece published in The Times, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Le Monde newspapers.  “What threatens my country’s security and stability threatens the well-being and safety of all EU member states,” he added. Athens plans to acquire arms, boost its armed forces and revamp its defense industry, according to the Greek government spokesman.

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Worrying spikes in cases reported that in France, Italy, Spain and Germany showed the pandemic was rebounding across the continent -- often due to travel, summer holidays and parties. While Italy registered 845 new cases on Thursday, its highest daily tally since May, France reported 4,700 fresh infections -- a massive increase on the previous day. Spain's daily increases topped even those of France, and Germany was concerned about its own resurgence. Despite the rise in cases, a top World Health Organization [WHO] official said additional lockdowns should not be necessary. "With the basic nationwide and additional targeted measures, we are in a much better position to stamp out these localized virus flare-ups," the head of the WHO's European branch, Hans Kluge, told reporters. "We can manage the virus and keep the economy running and an education system in operation," he added.

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"Greece showed once again its enmity towards Islam and Turkey with the excuse of reacting to Hagia Sophia Mosque being opened to prayers," ministry spokesman Hami Aksoy said in a written statement. Greek criticism of the conversion of Hagia Sophia into a mosque after decades as a museum has been scathing, underlining tense ties between Greece and Turkey. Church bells tolled in mourning across Greece on Friday as Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan joined prayers at the building. In a message marking Greece's 46th anniversary of the restoration of democracy, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis called Turkey a "troublemaker", and the conversion an "affront to civilization of the 21st century". Friday's ceremony sealed Erdogan's ambition to restore Muslim worship at the ancient site, which most Greeks consider as central to their Orthodox Christian religion. The Turkish Foreign Ministry said it strongly condemned hostile statements by the Greek government and parliament members to stir up the public, and the burning of a Turkish flag in the Greek city of Thessaloniki. Hagia Sophia was opened to prayer as a mosque in line with the will of the Turkish people and belonged to Turkey like all cultural assets in the country, it added. Greece and Turkey disagree on a range of issues from airspace to maritime zones and ethnically split Cyprus. This week they also exchanged barbs over the delimitation of their continental shelves in the eastern Mediterranean, an area thought to be rich in natural resources.

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"By its current refusal to commit to conditions to open and fair competition, and to a balanced agreement on fisheries, the UK makes the trade agreement at this point unlikely," Barnier noted, according to RIA Novosti. In turn, British Brexit negotiator David Frost said that considerable gaps remain in the most difficult areas, that is, the so-called level playing field and on fisheries, but Britain can still reach an agreement with the European Union in September. "Despite all the difficulties, on the basis of the work we have done in July, my assessment is that agreement can still be reached in September, and that we should continue to negotiate with this aim in mind," Frost continued.  He added that it was clear that London's aim of striking a preliminary deal on the UK's exit from the EU will not be reached in July. "It is unfortunately clear that we will not reach in July the 'early understanding on the principles underlying any agreement'," Frost noted. The United Kingdom is set to finally exit the bloc's trade and customs regulations on December 31. Uncertainty yet remains, given the limited progress made between London and Brussels in concluding a comprehensive trade deal, with both sides now appearing to be set on keeping the December deadline regardless of the eventual outcome of the talks.

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"From the morning of July 16, the units of Armenia’s armed forces again attempted to attack the positions of the Azerbaijani army in the section of the Azerbaijan-Armenia border in the Tovuz district," the statement said, TASS reported. According to the agency, the villages of Agdam, Dondar Gushchu, and Vahidli were shelled by large-caliber weapons and mortars with no civilian casualties. "Currently the fighting is ongoing in that direction. The combat situation is under control of the units of the Azerbaijani army," the statement said. In turn, Armenia’s Defense Ministry reported that the Azerbaijani units began shelling of the villages of Aygepar and Movses. The situation on the Azerbaijan-Armenia border escalated on July 12. Azerbaijan reported attempts by the Armenian armed forces units to attack the positions of Azerbaijan’s army using artillery, while Yerevan reported that the border situation had aggravated after a breakthrough attempt on the part of Azerbaijan. Baku said eleven Azerbaijani servicemen have been killed over three days of clashes, including Major General Polad Gashimov. Yerevan reported four servicemen killed and ten wounded. The conflict between neighboring Armenia and Azerbaijan over the highland region of Nagorno-Karabakh, (a disputed territory that had been part of Azerbaijan before the Soviet Union break-up) broke out in February of 1988 after the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region announced its withdrawal from the Azerbaijani Soviet Republic. In 1992-1994, tensions boiled over and exploded into large-scale military action for control over the enclave and seven adjacent territories after Azerbaijan lost control of them. Talks on the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement have been ongoing since 1992 in the format of the so-called OSCE Minsk Group, led by its three co-chairs - Russia, France and the United States.

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Numerous migrants have been concentrating in Turkey’s western seaside towns, "as if ready to cross into neighboring Greece’s islands," the newspaper said on Saturday, citing anonymous sources linked to the Greek authorities. According to the sources, the Turkish police have been regulating the movement of migrants from remote inland areas to the Turkish shore, planning to push the coronavirus-infected migrants to cross into Greece and other parts of Europe. According to data from the Coronavirus Resource Center of the Johns Hopkins University, Turkey has over 52,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and the coronavirus death toll in the country stands at over 1,000. In Greece, more than 2,000 coronavirus cases have been registered, including over 90 deaths from COVID-19. In March, Syria’s Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad told Sputnik that Turkey must stop using the threat of millions of migrants and asylum seekers entering the European Union to blackmail Brussels. The deputy foreign minister stated that Ankara itself had created the conditions that led to migrants assembling on Turkey’s border with Greece by failing to facilitate the return of Syrian refugees.

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The toll announced by Italy’s civil protection service is higher than the 18,860 deaths estimated for the United States by Johns Hopkins University.

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“We need to make sense of the content of this signal. There is little specifics so far, but in any case, now is not the time to appeal to sanctions on any little occasion. We have spoken about this many times, we have done it nationally, and we will continue to do it. We did it and are doing it in cooperation with other countries, which are very many, and a number of international structures at the level of their leaders have spoken in a similar vein,” Ryabkov said. The official said sanctions in current circumstances would only harm ordinary people rather than anyhow change governments’ behaviours, as the US counts on. “With regard to this particular signal, we will look into it,” Ryabkov said. On Friday, Trump issued a decree under which countries delaying or obstructing repatriation of nationals during the coronavirus pandemic can be confronted with visa-related sanctions. Amid the spread of coronavirus, Russia proposed in early April a UN General Assembly resolution calling for solidarity and global sanctions relief. The US, the EU, Ukraine and Georgia, however, decided to block the resolution.

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“In my view… the European Union stands before the biggest test since its founding,” Merkel told reporters during a news conference on Monday. “Everyone is just as affected as the other, and therefore, it is in everyone’s interest, and it is in Germany’s interest for Europe to emerge strong from this test.” The comments came ahead of a key eurozone finance ministers’ conference aimed at drawing up an economic rescue plan for the bloc. Merkel also stressed that Germany is “ready to contribute” to boosting the bloc. She also reiterated that the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) bailout fund should be activated “with no senseless conditions” in order to help countries that have been hit hard by the coronavirus. The German chancellor further said that Europe needed to develop “self-sufficiency” in manufacturing of crucial medical gear such as masks. “Regardless of the fact that this market is presently installed in Asia… we need a certain self-sufficiency, or at least a pillar of our own manufacturing” in Germany or elsewhere in the European Union, she said. The novel coronavirus, known as COVID-19, initially emerged in China late last year and is now spreading across the globe. The global death toll from the coronavirus pandemic has now reached 70,567, and 1,288,319 people are diagnosed with the viral infection around the globe. Analysts say the world economy is headed for a sharp downturn, where several countries could plunge into recession this year. France is facing its deepest recession since the end of World War II because of the widespread lockdown to stem the coronavirus crisis, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire warns. “The worst growth figure in France since 1945 was -2.2 percent in 2009, after the financial crisis of 2008. We will probably be very far beyond -2.2 percent” this year, Le Maire told a Senate panel on Monday. That figure was subsequently revised to a drop of 2.9 percent, and France is likely to do even worse than that, the finance ministry clarified to AFP. It’s an indication of the amplitude of the economic shock we’re facing,” Le Maire said. France imposed a nationwide stay-at-home order from March 17 after shuttering all nonessential businesses. Officials have said the lockdown will last until at least April 15. Statistics office Insee said last month that the lockdown has slashed overall economic activity by 35 percent, and estimated that every month of shutdown would cut annual GPD by three percentage points. Services, heavy industry and construction are all taking big hits, Insee said, as factories are shut and only a handful of business sectors, such as supermarkets and pharmacies, remain open. A wave of French blue-chip companies have abandoned their profitability targets for the year, while employers’ associations have warned that hundreds of smaller firms and shops risk bankruptcy. The government has pledged 45 billion euros ($49 billion) in loan guarantees and other relief to help companies get through the crisis.

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