France surpasses 1 million confirmed virus cases amid spike

October 23, 2020

PARIS (AP) — French health authorities say France has recorded over 1 million confirmed coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic, becoming the second country in Western Europe after Spain to reach that number of known infections.

The national health agency released new figures showing that tests had confirmed at least 1,041,075 cases in France this year, including 42,032 new cases reported in the past 24 hours. Experts say the real numbers of infections are probably much higher than the ones governments around the world are reporting because of a lack of tests early in the pandemic, asymptomatic cases and other issues.

Like other countries in Europe, France has seen its daily case counts rise sharply in recent weeks as the virus rebounds in Europe. COVID-19 patients now occupy more than 42% of ICU beds nationally, and 64% in the Paris region.

More than 11,000 new COVID-19 patients have been hospitalized in the past week, including 1,714 who are in intensive care, according to the national health agency. Speaking earlier Friday after visiting a hospital in Pontoise, a suburb north of Paris, French President Emmanuel Macron said “the epidemic is very strongly accelerating.”

The French government has expanded an overnight curfew it imposed in eight urban areas of France last week to encompass 38 more regions and Polynesia. The 9 p.m.-6 a.m. curfews and other public health measures will last for “at least six weeks,” Macron said.

The extension means that 46 million of France’s 67 million people will be under curfews that prohibit them from being out and about during those hours except for limited reasons, such as walking a dog, traveling to and from work and catching a train or flight.

France has reported over 34,000 virus-related deaths, one of the highest tolls in Europe.

Restrictions tightened, but no new virus lockdown in Belgium

October 23, 2020

BRUSSELS (AP) — Belgian Prime minister Alexander De Croo stopped short Friday of imposing another full lockdown, as the country did in March, but introduced a series of new restrictive measures as the number of COVID-19-related hospital admissions and deaths continues to soar.

Already severely hit during the first wave of the pandemic, Belgium is now the second-worst country in the European Union in terms of coronavirus infections per 100,000 inhabitants. “We want to ensure that our doctors and hospitals can keep doing their work, that children can continue attending schools and that businesses can continue working while preserving as much as possible the mental health of our population,” De Croo said as he unveiled the new restrictions during a press conference.

Belgium had already introduced a list of measures aimed at slowing infections, including a night-time curfew and closing bars and restaurants. Visits at nursing homes have also been limited, but many health experts think the new curtailment won’t be enough to break the contagion chain.

“We were told strong and hard measures would be announced, we don’t see them,” epidemiologist Yves Coppieters told broadcaster RTBF. According to the latest official figures, some 10,000 new people are infected on a daily basis by the virus, which has already killed more than 10,500 people in the small nation of just 11.5 million. The health situation is so dramatic in nine out of 10 of Belgium’s provinces that authorities have recently warned intensive care units will hit their capacity by mid-November if new coronavirus cases continue to soar at the same pace.

To avoid a collapse of the health system, health minister Frank Vandenbroucke said that the number of beds available in ICUs will be increased to 2,300, while nonurgent operations will be postponed over the next four weeks.

Following government talks held via video conference after several ministers got infected by the virus, De Croo decided to reinforce the sanitary protocols mainly in the culture and sports sectors. Until Nov. 19, theaters and cinemas will be allowed to accommodate a maximum audience of 200, while sports fans are banned from attending matches. In amateur sports, competitions involving over-18 athletes are suspended.

“It's a tough blow, but the moment is serious and we need to show solidarity," said Mehdi Bayat, the president of the Belgian soccer union. Detailing the measures, Flemish Minister-President Jan Jambon said attendance at universities will be limited to 20 percent of capacity in lecture halls, while amusement parks will be closed from Friday.

De Croo also sent a message of support to business owners and workers affected by the measures who struggle financially and are losing their jobs. “We are putting everything in place to help them, we are going through a national crisis that requires national solidarity,” De Croo said.

Russia shuns tough restrictions even as infections soar

October 18, 2020

MOSCOW (AP) — It's Friday night in Moscow, and popular bars and restaurants in the city center are packed. No one except the staff is wearing a mask or bothers to keep their distance. There is little indication at all that Russia is being swept by a resurgence of coronavirus infections.

“I believe that everyone will have the disease eventually,” says Dr. Alexandra Yerofeyeva, an internal medicine specialist at an insurance company, while sipping a cocktail at The Bix bar in Moscow. She adds cheerfully: “Nothing ventured, nothing gained.”

The outbreak in Russia this month is breaking the records set in the spring, when a lockdown to slow the spread of the virus was put in place. But, as governments across Europe move to reimpose restrictions to counter rising cases, authorities in Russia are resisting shutting down businesses again. Some regions have closed nightclubs or limited the hours of bars and restaurants, but few measures have been implemented in Moscow, which is once again the epicenter of the surge.

On Friday, Russian authorities reported over 15,000 new infections, the highest daily spike so far in the pandemic. Moscow — with less than 10% of the population — accounts for up to 30% of new infections each day. The health minister says 90% of hospital beds for coronavirus patients have been filled. Three times this week, Russia's daily death toll exceeded the spring record of 232.

Even these soaring virus tolls are likely undercounts; experts have cautioned that official figures around the world understate the true toll, but critics have taken particular issue with Russia's death tolls, alleging authorities might be playing down the scale of the outbreak.

Right now, situation is “difficult” but “no restrictive measures for the economy are required,” Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova told President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday. The spring lockdown hurt the country’s already weakened economy and compounded Russians’ frustration with plummeting incomes and worsening living conditions, driving Putin’s approval rating to a historic low of 59% in April, according to the Levada Center, Russia's top independent pollster. Analysts say his government doesn't want to return to those darks days.

“They know that people have just come to the end of their tolerance of the lockdown measures that would be hugely unpopular if they got imposed again,” said Judy Twigg, a professor of political science at Virginia Commonwealth University, specializing in global health.

In fact, Putin's government appears to be moving in the opposite direction. Russian officials announced this week that air traffic would resume with three more countries. All international air traffic was stopped in the spring.

The announcement reminded people “about the necessity to take care of their health as much as possible” — a reflection of Russian authorities' new effort to shift much of the responsibility for how the outbreak unfolds onto the people.

Moscow has taken the necessary measures, "but without the people responding to these measures, helping themselves and the people around them, nothing will work,” warned Sergei Sobyanin, the mayor of the Russian capital of 12.7 million.

During the summer, authorities lifted most virus-related restrictions, and life in Russia started getting back to normal. Perhaps too quickly, some critics said, noting that the government was eager to ensure that people voted on constitutional amendments extending Putin’s rule.

Even as health officials still report several thousand new infections every day, restaurants and cinemas reopened, vacationers flocked to Black Sea resorts, and 17,000 took part in the Moscow Half Marathon in August. Russia’s Sports Minister Oleg Matytsin said the race “marked this victory” over the pandemic.

That same month, Putin announced regulatory approval of the first vaccine against coronavirus — although many scientists have cast doubt on the shot — and it is now being tested in a larger study. Authorities are offering it to doctors and teachers, but it's not widely available.

With Putin's approval ratings on the rise again, the government appears reluctant to do anything that might further weaken the economy and anger the public. The authorities understand that “the economic virus is worse than the biological one,” Boris Titov, Russia’s business ombudsman, told entrepreneurs this week. Nearly 70% of the country’s businesses “will not survive the second wave” and the accompanying restrictions, he said.

But doctors and experts are sounding the alarm that Russia's health system is being stretched. Just like in the spring, media report hourslong waits for ambulances and long lines for CT scans. People who have virus symptoms — who are supposed to call a visiting doctor service — report waiting days for anyone to arrive.

“When it comes to the regions (beyond Moscow), we see that they are already choking,” said Vasily Vlassov, public health expert with the Higher School of Economics in Moscow. Moscow hospitals, so far, appear to be coping.

“The hospital is full, but there are free beds for now, and we haven’t yet used all of the reserve beds,” said Dr. Alexander Vanyukov of the Moscow Hospital No. 52. Life outside hospitals remains largely normal. Moscow officials have recommended the elderly and those with chronic illnesses stay home. They ordered employers to make 30% of their staff work from home, extended the fall school vacation by a week and moved middle and high school students to online classes.

As at the national level, officials have focused on personal responsibility, at one point sending inspectors to theaters to look for retirees who are not self-isolating. Officials said they considered shutting bars and nightclubs, but on Thursday Moscow's mayor proposed “an experiment” instead: Employees and customers at establishments open between midnight and 6 a.m. must register for contact tracing purposes.

Margo Lankina, manager of The Bix bar, says operating during the pandemic isn't easy. Her staff must wear gloves and masks and their health is monitored. The venue is regularly cleaned. “But on the other hand, it's good that they allow us to work,” Lankina says.

“Our guests? Well, the distance is not being observed, that's true, what can I say?” Lankina admits. “But somehow we keep on living.”

Associated Press writer Kostya Manenkov contributed.

New virus restrictions in Europe; Merkel warns of hard days

October 17, 2020

BERLIN (AP) — Chancellor Angela Merkel urged Germans to come together like they did in the spring to slow the spread of the coronavirus as the country posted another daily record of new cases Saturday.

“Difficult months are ahead of us,” she said in her weekly video podcast. “How winter will be, how our Christmas will be, that will all be decided in these coming days and weeks, and it will be decided by our behavior.”

Meanwhile, new restrictions went into effect in several other European nations in an effort to staunch the resurgence of the pandemic. In Paris and eight other French cities, restaurants, bars, movie theaters and other establishments were being forced to close no later than 9 p.m. to try to reduce contact among people. The country was deploying 12,000 extra police officers to enforce the new rules.

Many restaurant owners have bristled at the order. An earlier months-long lockdown devastated the sector. “I have the right to question the government’s approach, I think it’s a catastrophic measure for the industry,” said Xavier Denamur, who owns Les Philosophes and several other bistros in Paris's chic Le Marais district, saying that if nothing else, the curfew should be 11 p.m.

“At least that would not destroy us,” he said. “There’s no evidence that this difference of a couple of hours will have any effect on the virus circulating.” In Britain, a three-tier regional approach to battle the pandemic introduced by Prime Minister Boris Johnson went into effect, with each level bringing progressively tighter restrictions.

On Saturday, tier-2 cities like London and York were subject to a ban on socializing with people from other households indoors, while the county of Lancashire joined Liverpool in tier 3 with the tightest restrictions.

Among other things, that means pubs have been forced to close and socializing with others is banned even in many outdoor settings. In Northern Ireland a lockdown lasting four weeks came into force Friday. All pubs and restaurants must close except for takeaway services, and schools will close for two weeks for an extended half-term holiday.

Data from Friday showed that a further 136 people died in the U.K. within 28 days of testing positive for coronavirus, bringing the total official toll to 43,429. The World Health Organization has warned that intensive care units in a number of European cities could reach maximum capacity in the coming weeks if the number of infections doesn't slow.

Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg joined the list of top politicians who have tested positive for the virus, and was quarantined though he showed no symptoms, his office told Austria's APA news agency.

The Vatican, meanwhile, said someone who lives in the same hotel as Pope Francis tested positive for the virus, adding to the 11 cases of COVID-19 among the Swiss Guards who protect him. German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the country's head of state, was quarantined after a bodyguard was infected, his office said. A first test came out negative.

Germany, which was widely lauded for rapidly slowing the spread of the virus when the pandemic first broke out, has seen rapidly climbing numbers in recent days. On Saturday, the country's disease control center, the Robert Koch Institute, reported 7,830 cases overnight, a new record.

Like most countries, Germany has been grappling with how to keep schools and businesses open while trying to prevent people from coming into close contact with one another. Germany has registered a total of 356,387 coronavirus cases and a relatively low 9,767 deaths.

Merkel urged Germans to avoid unnecessary travel, cancel parties and remain at home whenever possible. “What brought us so well through the first half year of the pandemic?” she asked. “It was that we stood together and obeyed the rules out of consideration and common sense. This is the most effective remedy we currently have against the pandemic and it is more necessary now than ever.”

In the neighboring Czech Republic, the number of new infections surpassed 10,000 for the first time, surging to 11,105 on Friday, the Health Ministry said. The country has now registered a total of 160,112 cases, including 1,283 deaths.

Despite new restrictive measures to slow the surge, Health Minister Roman Prymula said he still expects a rise in those testing positive for about two weeks. Next door, Slovakia said it was acquiring 13 million rapid antigen tests — enough to test each member of the population twice — and would establish 6,000 testing sites.

Prime Minister Igor Matovic said testing will take place over the next two weekends, starting with the three or four hardest hit counties. It was not immediately clear whether tests would be mandatory.

Italy’s northern Lombardy region, where the European outbreak began in late February, has taken new measures to contain rebounding infections, limiting bar service and alcohol sales, banning contact sports and closing bingo parlors.

The regional government late Friday called for high schools to adopt hybrid schedules, with students alternating in-person with online learning. The measures were taken after Lombardy, Italy’s most populous region, once again became the most affected, adding more than 2,000 infections a day. Hospitals are coming under strain and intensive care units are filling up.

The new measures allow only table service for bars from 6 p.m., ban takeout alcohol sales from that time and prohibit all consumption of booze in public spaces. Italy’s other hardest hit region, southern Campania, has taken similarly strict measures, including a shutdown of schools for two weeks. After parents protested, the regional governor backed off Friday and allowed daycare centers to remain open.

In the capital, Rome, residents grumbled as cases climbed, fearing a return to the strict country-wide measures that were imposed when the virus was spreading out of control. “The situation is critical thanks to the morons, because I call them morons, who have not respected the rules," said resident Mario Massenzi. "And if we fall back into the same situation as in March, we are finished.”

Thomas Adamson in Paris, Sylvia Hui in London, Nicole Winfield in Rome, Colleen Barry in Milan and Karel Janicek in Prague contributed to this report.

Finnish PM leaves EU summit as 'precautionary' measure

October 16, 2020

BRUSSELS (AP) — Another day at the European Union summit, another leader gone away. Finland's Prime Minister Sanna Marin said Friday that she had left the summit of heads of states and governments in Belgium on its final day “as a precautionary measure" after learning that a Finnish lawmaker she recently attended a meeting with tested positive for the coronavirus.

The move came one day after European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen left the summit venue in Brussels shortly after talks began because one of her close staffers tested positive for COVID-19.

Two other EU top officials, the bloc's top diplomat Josep Borrell and the commissioner for humanitarian aid Janez Lenarcic, went into isolation this week after coming into contact with people who tested positive for the virus during a trip to Ethiopia.

“I left the European Council meeting as a precautionary measure and asked the Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven to represent the Finnish end of the meeting time,” Marin wrote, adding that she was flying back home to undergo a coronavirus test.

She had attended a meeting Wednesday at the Finnish parliament together with lawmaker Tom Packalen who later had tested positive for the coronavirus and had mild flu symptoms. Since the pandemic first surfaced in Europe in February, EU leaders have held several summits via videoconference. Many have complained about the lack of privacy attached to video calls and welcomed restarting in-person meeting in July, when leaders agreed on the next long-term budget for the bloc during a marathon summit.

But they held their last summit just two weeks ago, and Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen questioned the need to meet again in person this week. “This summit should be held as a video conference," she told reporters on arrival in Brussels. “There are some discussions where one needs to be brought a little closer to each other. And then there are other meetings where you can do it as a video conference.”

Last month, a summit was postponed for a week after EU Council president Charles Michel went into coronavirus quarantine, also as a precaution after one of his security officers tested positive for COVID-19.

In light of the worsening virus situation across the continent, this week’s meeting could well be the last one in person for a while. On Thursday, the European Parliament said its upcoming plenary session scheduled next week would be held remotely.

Jan M. Olsen contributed to this story.

Swiss hospital chief: Europe at 'turning point' vs. COVID

October 16, 2020

GENEVA (AP) — Europe is at a “turning point” in the fight against the coronavirus, the head of Switzerland’s biggest hospital complex said, acknowledging growing public fatigue over anti-COVID measures but insisting people must buckle down as Switzerland grapples with record daily case counts.

Bertrand Levrat, CEO of Geneva University Hospitals, which counts 12,000 personnel, spoke to The Associated Press at a time when Switzerland — like many other European countries — is fighting a second wave of coronavirus cases that grew in large part out of a summertime lull in which people let down their guard about the highly infectious pandemic.

“The virus doesn’t spread alone — we are the ones who spread it. It’s a line that we don’t repeat enough,” Levrat said from his office overlooking Geneva, a surgical mask tucked into his jacket pocket. “Today, the stakes center on how much people are going to follow health measures that allow most people, and economies, and life in general to get through this.”

He added: “If we don’t get a handle on this, we run the risk of getting into a situation that’s harder to control,” he said. “We are really at a turning point — things can go both ways. Health services need to look for ways to keep up contact tracing (and) to succeed in getting a grasp on the chains of transmission.”

Swiss authorities, like their counterparts across Europe, are facing the increasingly tricky dilemma of calibrating a response that meets the urgent health care requirements at a time of growing public fatigue about COVID-19 restrictions and when doctors, nurses and other medical personnel are already beleaguered and dreading a new wave that would strain their work and personal lives.

“I think we are quite well prepared, even though it was a huge challenge to every one of us, and huge stress on the system,” Levrat said. “Yes, we are prepared but, yes as well, we are worried a bit because it's a challenge ... with teams that have been quite exhausted by the first wave.”

During that first phase, the hospital had a peak of 550 patients at the same time — all COVID patients. Other medical services were farmed out to private clinics. Today, hospitalizations are at more than 70, but that marks a four-fold increase from just a month ago.

Virus curbs widen England's north-south rift, stir animosity

October 16, 2020

LIVERPOOL, England (AP) — Liverpool, the English port city that gave the world the Beatles, weathered decades of industrial decline before becoming a celebrated symbol of urban renewal. Now, the coronavirus is putting the city’s hard-won revival in jeopardy, and raising tensions between the north of England and the wealthier south.

Scarred by abandoned buildings and government neglect during the 1980s, Liverpool made itself vibrant again by promoting local culture, nightlife, soccer and ties to the Fab Four. However, Liverpudlians retained their mistrust of London politicians, and the virus pandemic has brought it to the surface.

As the first area in England slapped with strict new restrictions to curb the resurgent coronavirus that have shuttered pubs and imperiled thousands of jobs, Liverpool again feels it’s being punished by policies made in Britain's capital, 180 miles (290 kilometers) to the south.

“At the beginning, when we all went into lockdown, it made sense. We were all doing it for a reason, and that was fine,” said pub owner Fiona Hornsby, who reluctantly shuttered her Bridewell bar in accordance with new curbs on business and socializing the government imposed this week.

With the complex localized restrictions, "it’s almost like we’re being separated, divided. It just doesn’t feel right at all,” she said. Liverpool is not alone. As a patchwork of city- and region-specific measures replaces Britain's nationwide lockdown, the pandemic has highlighted the gap in wealth and health between the relatively affluent south of England and the post-industrial north that also includes the cities of Manchester, Newcastle and Leeds.

Manchester — once an engine of the Industrial Revolution and now a hub for Britain’s music and creative industries — also is likely to fall under the government’s new restrictions. Mayor Andy Burnham is holding out for more financial support before consenting.

Burnham, a member of the left-of-center Labour Party that is in the opposition at the national level, accused the government Thursday of treating people in northern England as “second-class citizens” by imposing “a punishing lockdown without proper support for the people and businesses affected.”

When the coronavirus first hit the U.K. this year, the government told all but essential workers to stay home and ordered most businesses to close. The wide lockdown slowed the spread of the virus, but not before the country racked up Europe’s highest COVID-19 death toll. It currently stands at more than 43,200, though all such official figures are likely an underestimate.

The surge in new confirmed cases since shops, restaurants and other businesses reopened during the summer and students returned to schools and universities in the fall is more uneven than the U.K.'s first wave; infection rates currently are much higher in northern England than they are in the south.

In response, the U.K. government this week adopted a three-tier system that ranks cities and regions in England as medium, high or very high risk. Only the Liverpool region of 1.6 million people was immediately placed in the top tier, which requires pubs to shut and bars households from mixing.

Authorities in northern England agree on the need to act. With more than 600 cases per 100,000 people and its intensive care units 90% full, Liverpool is one of Europe’s worst-hit cities at this stage of the pandemic.

But there is also resentment over what many see as the government moving too quickly to lift the national lockdown restrictions and failing to create an efficient test-and-trace system to contain new outbreaks.

“The embers of the infection here were never extinguished and they burned brighter up here than they did elsewhere in the country," Paul Brant, a Labour Party member of the Liverpool City Council, said.

“Unfortunately, policy in this country is too often directed as a result of what happens in the capital rather than the local conditions that are taking place here in the north,” Brant said. Liverpool’s public officials want more say in controlling the city’s outbreak, an exit strategy for lifting the restrictions and money to make up for years of government spending cuts that have left public services in Britain’s less affluent areas threadbare.

The north-south tensions that the pandemic stirred up are never far from the surface. David Jeffrey, a lecturer in British politics at the University of Liverpool, said Liverpool's 1980s clashes over money and policy with the Conservative government of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher fostered a “‘them versus us’ narrative" toward London.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson, a Conservative like Thatcher, is especially unpopular in the city. Liverpool natives, commonly known as Scousers, still remember that years ago a magazine Johnson edited accused them of “wallowing” in victimhood.

“In Liverpool, this idea of ‘Scousers don’t trust Tories’ ties in to trust in the government and their corona message,” Jeffrey said. “So if there’s no trust in the competency of the government, people aren’t going to follow the rules.”

Video footage showing young revelers partying in the city's street with little regard for social distancing on Tuesday night, hours before the new restrictions took hold, drove home that point. Before the pandemic, that image would have been seen as a sign of the city’s success. Liverpool's docks on the River Mersey, left abandoned as ships moved elsewhere in the late 20th century, have been regenerated with restaurants and museums, including an international slavery museum and a Tate art gallery.

Four universities give the city a youthful, lively population, and Premier League soccer teams Liverpool and Everton support thousands of jobs. Tourists come from around the world to see the houses where the city’s most famous sons, the Beatles, grew up and the Cavern Club where they honed their craft.

All that is on hold now. “The football, the nightlife, people coming into town — it’s all gone,” said John Ambrose, a guide with the Beatles-themed Fab4 Taxi Tours. “We used to do about 4,000 tours a year. We probably only did about 12% of that this year.”

Government scientific advisers have suggested the current restrictions may not be enough and there will have to be even tougher measures, maybe a total lockdown, to bring the outbreak under control. Some fear that the gains of northern cities like Liverpool and Manchester could be undone.

"Liverpool fought, everyone fought, to get into a position now where we were all actually looking forward to 2020," John Hughes, the head of local industry group Liverpool Pubwatch, said. "But the situation we are in now is, we’re going to go back to them dark days of the ’80s.”

Local business owners say the support offered by the government — paying two-thirds of the salaries of workers in businesses forced to close — isn't enough to prevent widespread hardship this winter. “I think if they came up and spoke to us, actually came and talked to us, then maybe they’d understand and maybe think about things a little differently," said pub owner Hornsby, who has laid off 20 staff members. "But they don’t, do they?”

Virologist: Milan surge spreading to at-risk populations

October 16, 2020

MILAN (AP) — Italy has two weeks to stop the rising rate of transmission of coronavirus or it risks “following in the footsteps" of European neighbors where exponential spreads have ushered back harsh restrictions, a virologist on the front lines says.

Italian health officials have declared that the resurgence of COVID-19 has reached an “acute phase." Massimo Galli, the director of infectious diseases at Milan’s Luigi Sacco hospital, said Italy’s surge — which hit pandemic highs of new daily infections this week — is not the result of record testing, as policy makers have suggested, but a sign of a real return among the population most at risk.

It only takes a look at Sacco’s COVID-19 ward, a few steps from Galli's office, to raise the alarm. “We have a situation that reminds one quite distressingly of the one that we already have experienced,’’ Galli told The Associated Press, referring to the peak in March and April when the surge in infections resulted in a one-day record of 969 deaths.

Already in Milan, he said, the number of elderly patients or those with other risk factors is growing, indicating a spread beyond the expansion seen in late September, when most new positives were among people caught by contact tracing and screenings, for example people returning from vacation.

‘’The trend is already there, and it is frankly alarming,’’ he said, adding that “it is not a generalized situation, it is not all of Italy.” But he fears that new nationwide restrictions adopted over the past two weeks — including mandatory masks outdoors, a ban on pick-up sports and restaurant closures at midnight — are not enough.

“If we don’t in 15 days ... have an indication of being able to control all of the major outbreaks, there won’t be a choice but to enter another phase of limiting activities,’’ Galli said. On Friday, the region of Campania, which includes Naples and which has been under pressure since early September, closed schools until the end of the month — angering the government in Rome.

That came after Italy reported a new daily record of confirmed virus cases — 8,804 — on Thursday, including more than 2,000 in Lombardy and 1,000 in Campania. After hovering around 40 for days, the death toll surged to 83, one-third of those in Lombardy.

Newly confirmed cases have also reached record levels in the Czech Republic, which also shut schools, and Poland, which has limited restaurant hours and closed gyms and schools. France, meanwhile, has imposed a 9 p.m. curfew in Paris and other big cities.

London faces new restrictions as city sees higher virus risk

October 15, 2020

LONDON (AP) — London and seven other areas will face further restrictions after the British government on Thursday raised their coronavirus risk levels in an effort to slow the exponential rise in infection rates across the country.

The government's decision to move the communities into its second-highest coronavirus risk tier means that more than 11 million people will be barred from meeting with anyone indoors from outside their households and will be asked to minimize travel starting this weekend.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock told the House of Commons that he recognized these restrictions would be hard on individuals and businesses, but said tough decisions were needed now to keep people safe. The government is negotiating with the leaders of Manchester, Lancashire and other communities in northern England about moving into the top risk tier, which would require the closure of many businesses.

“Coronavirus is deadly and it’s now spreading exponentially in the U.K.,” Hancock said. “We must act to prevent more hospitalizations, more deaths and more economic damage.″ Prime Minister Boris Johnson this week introduced a three-tier regional approach to combating the coronavirus pandemic, with each tier bringing in progressively tighter restrictions. The government is trying to slow rising infection rates and prevent the National Health Service from being swamped with COVID-19 cases this winter while seeking to avoid a national lockdown that would ravage the U.K.‘s struggling economy.

The opposition Labor Party’s spokesman on health issues, Jonathan Ashworth, described the measures as inadequate to stem the exponential growth of the virus. He reiterated calls for the government to implement the recommendations of its scientific advisers and impose a two- to three-week national lockdown, or “circuit break,″ arguing it could save thousands of lives.

After Johnson on Wednesday refused to rule out such a move, Ashworth asked Thursday what the government’s criteria were for taking such action. “How many more hospital admissions? How much non-COVID care delayed? Dare I say, how many more deaths?″ Ashworth said. “Action is needed now.″

Hancock shrugged off the question, saying now was the time to work together. “That is the best way to defeat this virus,” he said. Britain already has Europe’s deadliest outbreak, with over 43,200 confirmed virus deaths.

The change for Londoners comes as millions of people in northern England are waiting to find out whether they will be placed under the government’s tightest COVID-19 restrictions, which the city of Liverpool already faces.

Hancock said discussions were continuing with Greater Manchester and Lancashire about moving those communities into the government’s highest risk tier. Local leaders, including members of Johnson’s Conservative Party, have opposed such measures unless financial support is given to their communities to limit the damage to businesses and individuals.

The government held discussions with Greater Manchester leaders on Thursday amid questions about whether the region of 2.8 million people would be classified as “very high risk,” which requires further restrictions such as closing bars.

Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham once again rejected government pressure to accept the higher risk rating without further financial support. He said any regional closure would require widespread business closures beyond the shutdown of pubs and would have to be done in tandem with neighboring regions.

“It is wrong to place some of the poorest parts of England in a punishing lockdown without proper support for the people and businesses affected,″ he told reporters in Manchester. “To do so will result in certain hardship, job losses. business failure. It will cause harm in a different way to people’s mental health and is not certain to control the virus.″

Burnham said the government's own scientific advisers aren't certain the regional lockdown strategy will work, and he argued that the government is asking his area's residents to gamble their homes, jobs and businesses and a chunk of their economy on an experiment.

“They are willing to sacrifice jobs and businesses here to try and save them elsewhere,″ a visibly furious Burnham said. “Greater Manchester, the Liverpool city region and Lancashire are being set up as the canaries in the coal mine for an experimental regional lockdown strategy as an attempt to prevent the expense of what is truly needed.″

The other U.K. nations — Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland — have also been tightening restrictions in recent weeks in light of the virus’ resurgence. There are growing indications that travel between the four nations will start to be restricted too, particularly to and from areas deemed to be high risk.

Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said Wednesday that she would ask Johnson for an urgent meeting on a four-nation strategy to restrict travel from high-risk areas to lower risk communities. Unilaterally, she asked people from central Scotland, including cities like Glasgow and Edinburgh that are facing the tightest restrictions, to avoid traveling to Blackpool, a seaside town in northwest England famous for its illuminated installations at this time of year.

Blackpool is an even bigger draw for Scots this year because pubs will be showing the soccer match between the country’s two biggest soccer teams, Rangers and Celtic — while pubs in Glasgow and Edinburgh are still closed.

EU chief self-isolates as virus makes its mark at a summit

October 15, 2020

BRUSSELS (AP) — As a fresh wave of the coronavirus sweeps across much of Europe, the reality of the disease struck a summit of European Union leaders on Thursday when one of the 27-nation bloc's top officials abandoned the meeting to go into self-imposed quarantine.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen left the summit venue in Brussels shortly after the meeting began because one of her close staffers tested positive for COVID-19. “I myself have tested negative,” von der Leyen, a doctor by training, tweeted. “However, as a precaution I am immediately leaving the European Council to go into self-isolation.”

In its latest update on Thursday, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said that more than 4.4 million cases of the virus have been reported in the 27 EU nations, plus Britain, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland since the pandemic began. More than 198,000 people have died. Several nations are tightening preventive measures.

Images from inside the venue, which is off limits to reporters, showed von der Leyen mingling with several other heads of government and officials, including the prime ministers of the Czech Republic, Luxembourg, Portugal and the Netherlands, and the president of the European Parliament.

Like the others, she mostly wore a mask except when sitting, and appeared to be observing adequate social distancing. The sprawling summit round table was generously spaced, and a few leaders could be seen washing their hands with gel as they entered. The usual hugs and kisses so common last year were replaced by elbow bumps.

French President Emmanuel Macron notably engaged in a close-contact talk with Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis, who is also representing Poland because its premier, Mateusz Morawiecki is under quarantine after coming into contact with a coronavirus-infected bodyguard. A first test showed Morawiecki was not infected. He was to take another test later Thursday.

Tackling the virus — which was due to be debated on Friday — tense post-Brexit trade talks with Britain, climate change and EU-Africa relations were the main items on the agenda. “The debate on Brexit today required a physical presence and a number of leaders were in favor of a physical presence," European Council President Charles Michel, who is chairing the two-day summit, told reporters. “We have to adapt in the case of COVID-19.”

“As far as the future goes, we will systematically assess and take into account the different elements and consult the delegations about what the best way of working is," Michel said. Since the pandemic first surfaced in Europe in February, EU leaders have held several summits via videoconference. But they held their last meeting in person just two weeks ago. Officials say it's often the only way to get really sensitive business done. However, not everyone was happy about traveling back to Brussels so soon.

“This summit should be held as a video conference. I have on several occasions proposed holding video conferences instead of meeting in person,” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told reporters on arrival in Brussels. “There are some discussions where one needs to be brought a little closer to each other. And then there are other meetings where you can do it as a video conference.”

The question remains whether this might be the last in-person meeting for a while if the coronavirus continues to spread at rates not seen for months. The next official summit in Brussels is scheduled for Dec. 10-11. On Thursday, the European Parliament said its next plenary session scheduled next week in the French city of Strasbourg would be held remotely.

Parliament President David Sassoli said the virus has already infected a number of EU lawmakers, staffers and their associates. “Traveling is very dangerous. The situation in Strasbourg is critical and in Brussels it’s very serious,” he said.

Samuel Petrequin in Brussels, Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen and Monika Scislowska in Warsaw contributed to this report.

Armenia's prime minister offers to discuss early election

December 25, 2020

YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) — Armenia's prime minister said Friday he was ready to discuss the possibility of holding an early parliamentary election, but rejected opposition demands to step down over his handling of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with Azerbaijan.

Opposition supporters have rallied for weeks, urging Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to step down over the Nov. 10 peace deal that saw Azerbaijan reclaim control over large parts of Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding areas. The Russia-brokered agreement ended 44 days of fierce fighting in which the Azerbaijani army routed Armenian forces.

Pashinyan has defended the peace deal as a painful but necessary move to prevent Azerbaijan from overrunning the entire Nagorno-Karabakh region. He argued Friday that his critics lack broad public support for their demand.

“I'm not clinging to the prime minister's seat, but I can't carelessly treat the post given to me by the people,” he said on Facebook. Pashinyan added that he was ready to hold consultations with the nation's political parties to discuss calling an early parliamentary election next year.

Opposition supporters on Friday continued blocking streets in the Armenian capital and engaged in occasional scuffles with police. Nagorno-Karabakh lies within Azerbaijan but was under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since a separatist war there ended in 1994. That war left Nagorno-Karabakh itself and substantial surrounding territory in Armenian hands.

Heavy fighting that erupted in late September marked the biggest escalation of the decades-old conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, killing more than 5,600 people on both sides. The Russia-brokered peace agreement stipulated that Armenia hand over control of some areas it holds outside Nagorno-Karabakh’s borders. Azerbaijan also retained control over areas of Nagorno-Karabakh it had taken during the conflict.

The peace deal was celebrated in Azerbaijan as a major triumph, and triggered outrage and mass protests in Armenia.

Associated Press writer Vladimir Isachenkov contributed to this report from Moscow.

Thousands protest in Armenia, demand PM's resignation

December 22, 2020

YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) — Opposition supporters in Armenia on Tuesday ramped up the pressure on the prime minister to resign over his handling of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with Azerbaijan, setting up a protest tent camp on the capital's main square.

Opposition politicians and their supporters have been demanding that Nikol Pashinyan step down over the Nov. 10 peace deal that saw Azerbaijan reclaim control over large parts of Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding areas. The Russia-brokered agreement ended 44 days of fierce fighting in which the Azerbaijani army routed Armenian forces.

Tens of thousands of demonstrators swarmed government buildings in Yerevan, chanting “Nikol, go away!” Several hours into the rally, opposition supporters erected tents on Yerevan's main square. “We have pitched the tents and intend to stay as long as possible, including overnight. Pashinyan needs to resign,” Ishkhan Saghatelyan, a member of the opposition Dashnaktsutyun party, was quoted by the Russian state news agency Tass as saying.

In several other parts of Armenia, local officials have joined the call for Pashinyan to resign and protesters were reported to have blocked several major roads. On Monday, Pashinyan was forced to cut short his trip to the southern Syunik province after a local mayor urged residents to deny entrance to his motorcade. Police arrested the mayor of Goris, but a court in Yerevan ruled Tuesday to release him from custody.

As protests spread, hundreds of lawyers joined the demonstrations in Yerevan on Tuesday to push for Pashinyan's resignation. The opposition also called on Pashinyan's My Step coalition, which currently has the majority of seats in the parliament, to sit down for talks on Tuesday. My Step so far has not commented on the proposal.

Nagorno-Karabakh lies within Azerbaijan but was under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since a separatist war there ended in 1994. That war left Nagorno-Karabakh itself and substantial surrounding territory in Armenian hands.

Hostilities flared up in late September and the Azerbaijani military pushed deep into Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding areas in six weeks of fighting involving heavy artillery and drones that left more than 5,600 people dead on both sides.

The Russian-brokered peace agreement obliged Armenian forces to surrender large parts of Nagorno-Karabakh and hand over the territories around the separatist region they had controlled for more than a quarter-century.

The peace deal was hailed in Azerbaijan as a major triumph, but sparked outrage and mass protests in Armenia where thousands repeatedly took to the streets. Pashinyan has defended the deal as a painful but necessary move that prevented Azerbaijan from overrunning the entire Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Associated Press writer Daria Litvinova and Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow contributed to this report.

Armenia honors Nagorno-Karabakh dead; some demand PM resign

December 19, 2020

YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) — Both opponents and supporters of Armenia's prime minister rallied Saturday as the nation paid tribute to the thousands who died in fighting with Azerbaijan over the region of Nagorno-Karabakh. Critics demanded that the leader resign and tried to pelt him with eggs.

The Azerbaijani army pushed deep into Nagorno-Karabakh in six weeks of hostilities that ended with a Russia-brokered peace deal on Nov. 10 that saw Azerbaijan reclaim large parts of the separatist region and surrounding territories.

The loss of lands that had been controlled by ethnic Armenian forces for more than a quarter-century has traumatized Armenians, triggering weeks of protests demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

On Saturday, thousands of protesters rallied near the Yerablur military memorial cemetery on the outskirts of the Armenian capital of Yerevan as Pashinyan visited it to honor the soldiers killed in the latest fighting. The nation is observing a three-day mourning period for the dead.

The prime minister's opponents, shouting “Nikol, you traitor!,” engaged in scuffles with his supporters and police. Police dispersed the protesters to clear the way for Pashinyan and his security guards covered him with shields and umbrellas as protesters attempted to hit him with eggs.

Later in the day, about 20,000 opposition supporters marched across Yerevan for a memorial church service for the victims of the conflict. Also on Saturday, 14 retired military generals issued a statement calling for the resignation of the government over its handling of the latest fighting.

Nagorno-Karabakh lies within Azerbaijan but was under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since a separatist war there ended in 1994. That war left Nagorno-Karabakh itself and substantial surrounding territory in Armenian hands.

In 44 days of fighting that began in late September and left more than 5,600 people killed on both sides, the Azerbaijani army fought its way deep into Nagorno-Karabakh, forcing Armenia to accept last month’s peace deal.

Russia has deployed nearly 2,000 peacekeepers for at least five years to monitor the peace agreement and facilitate the return of refugees.

Estonians erect statue and give home to beloved stray dog

December 17, 2020

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Zorik was never the tail-wagging or hand-licking type. But that didn't stop the free-spirited vagabond dog from winning many hearts. When the black-and-white mutt, long a presence in a Tallinn neighborhood, was taken from the Estonian capital to the countryside earlier this year to live out his days in the safe and restful surroundings of a family's back yard, he was missed so much that the residents immortalized him with a statue.

“People donated for the monument. They wanted it and they still follow his fate even though he is already old and frail,” said Heiki Valner, an animal rescue volunteer who thought up the idea of the statue of Zorik and organized the fundraising.

Donations were collected and a local artist was commissioned to create the likeness of Zorik, with his upright ears and shaggy hair around his muzzle, along with a cat nestled against him. The statue, now standing in front of a shopping center, is meant as a tribute both to Zorik and his animal companions, and to all strays. Zorik once had a dog companion who was killed in a car accident. He then took up with stray cats and was seen with them often, even while sleeping.

Residents say that Zorik first appeared as a pup about 12 years ago in a coal storage area in a nearby port, and had been a fixture ever since in Kalamaja, a working-class district that is transforming into a magnet for hipsters.

In a society where the divide between ethnic Estonians and ethnic Russians is acutely felt, Zorik managed to bridge the divide, winning over Russian-speaking old women who fed him, as well as Estonian hipsters, including a group now opening a cafe named “Zorik.”

“Zorik was a dog who was able to disappear, he was a dog whom everyone in Kalamaja knew, he touched everyone — young and old, Estonians and Russians,” Valner said. "He was a point of social integration.”

He was so well-liked that residents would sometimes feed him the best cuts of beef. But nobody could ever catch and domesticate him. “When people tried to regulate or restrict him, he just escaped,” Valner said. "He was just a free spirit.”

Viktoria Ger, who has given Zorik a new home, in an enclosure with a doghouse behind her own family home, describes him as a “peculiar dog.” “He doesn’t want to be close to people so he doesn’t like to be petted," she said. Nearby Zorik sat and shivered as a light dusting of snow covered the ground and pine trees dotting the yard.

"Probably he has been hurt by people during his life, so he doesn’t trust people,” she said. Valner said Zorik eventually had to be removed from the city for his own safety. “In the end he was so senile that he would just fall asleep on the railway or tram tracks or just here on the road, so that cars had to drive around him," Valner said, pointing to the area in Kalamaja that was long home to the dog. "We received several calls a day when he was on the road, so finally we had to get him away from the streets in his own interest.”

Initially he tried to escape and return to his old roaming territory, but now his frailty has finally won out over his free spirit. As is to be expected, there were also those over the years who did not want the dog around.

“This was a contest of good and evil," Valner said. "There were those who demanded he be captured and eliminated and others who protected and fed him. This time, kindness won.”

One Good Thing” is a series that highlights individuals whose actions provide glimmers of joy in hard times — stories of people who find a way to make a difference, no matter how small.

Downtown Nashville explosion knocks communications offline

December 26, 2020

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A recreational vehicle parked in the deserted streets of downtown Nashville exploded early Christmas morning, causing widespread communications outages that took down police emergency systems and grounded holiday travel at the city's airport.

Police were responding to a report of shots fired Friday when they encountered the RV blaring a recorded warning that a bomb would detonate in 15 minutes, Metro Nashville Police Chief John Drake said. Police evacuated nearby buildings and called in the bomb squad. The RV exploded shortly afterward, Drake said.

“This morning’s attack on our community was intended to create chaos and fear in this season of peace and hope. But Nashvillians have proven time and time again that the spirit of our city cannot be broken," Mayor John Cooper said at a news conference after issuing a curfew for the area.

Police believe the blast was intentional but don’t yet know a motive or target, and Drake noted that officials had not received any threats before the explosion. The chief said investigators at the scene “have found tissue that we believe could be remains, but we’ll have that examined and let you know at that time.” Police could not say whether it potentially came from someone inside the RV.

Three people taken to area hospitals for treatment were in stable condition Friday evening, Cooper said. Surveillance video published on a Twitter account Friday that appeared to be across the street from the blast captured the warning issuing from the RV, “... if you can hear this message, evacuate now,” seconds before the explosion.

The blast sent black smoke and flames billowing from the heart of downtown Nashville’s tourist scene, an area packed with honky-tonks, restaurants and shops. Buildings shook and windows shattered streets away from the explosion near a building owned by AT&T that lies one block from the company's office tower, a landmark in downtown.

“We do not know if that was a coincidence, or if that was the intention,” police spokesman Don Aaron said. He said earlier that some people were taken to the department’s central precinct for questioning but declined to give details.

AT&T said the affected building is the central office of a telephone exchange, with network equipment in it. The blast interrupted service, but the company declined to say how widespread outages were.

The AT&T outages site showed service issues in middle Tennessee and Kentucky. Several police agencies reported that their 911 systems were down because of the outage, including Knox County, home to Knoxville about 180 miles (290 kilometers) east of Nashville.

AT&T said that it was bringing in portable cell sites and was working with law enforcement to get access to make repairs to its equipment. The company noted that “power is essential to restoring” service.

The Federal Aviation Administration temporarily halted flights out of Nashville International Airport because of telecommunications issues associated with the explosion. The FBI will be taking the lead in the investigation, agency spokesman Joel Siskovic said. Federal investigators from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were also on the scene. The FBI is the primary law enforcement agency responsible for investigating federal crimes, such as explosives violations and acts of terrorism.

A Philadelphia man staying in a nearby hotel said that when he heard the blast, he was knew it wasn’t harmless. “We tried to rationalize it that it was an earthquake or something, but it was obvious it wasn’t an earthquake," Joseph Fafara said.

When he went to look at the damage, police barricades had already been put in place. Buck McCoy, who lives near the area, posted videos on Facebook that show water pouring down the ceiling of his home. Alarms blare in the background along with cries of people in distress. A fire is visible in the street outside.

McCoy said he heard gunfire 15 minutes before the explosion rocked his building, set cars in the street on fire and blew trees apart. “All my windows, every single one of them got blown into the next room. If I had been standing there it would have been horrible,” he said.

“It felt like a bomb. It was that big,” he told The Associated Press. President Donald Trump has been briefed, according to White House spokesperson Judd Deere. The U.S. Justice Department said Acting Attorney General Jeff Rosen was also briefed and directed all department resources be made available to help with the investigation.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee said on Twitter that the state would provide the resources necessary “to determine what happened and who was responsible.” The American Red Cross of Tennessee announced that it was working with officials to open a shelter for victims.

Associated Press writer Thalia Beaty in New York contributed. Balsamo and Tucker reported from Washington.

In a northern town brutalized by IS, Iraq tests its power

December 24, 2020

SINJAR, Iraq (AP) — One by one, the flags belonging to a patchwork of armed forces were lowered in a northern Iraqi town once brutalized by the Islamic State group. The territorial claims symbolized by each were replaced by the fluttering of just one: The Iraqi state’s.

The hoisting of the national flag in Sinjar, home to Iraq’s Yazidi religious minority, is the result of a deal months in the making for the federal government to restore order from a tangled web of paramilitaries, who sowed chaos in the district during the bedlam following liberation from IS three years ago.

This month, Iraq’s army deployed there for the first time since the 2003 fall of Saddam Hussein. Lt. Imad Hasan hiked up a rocky ascent overlooking the deserted ruins of Sinjar’s old town, vacant since IS was dislodged. His gaze fell on a lookout on the other side of the mountain — the last, he said, that belongs to a local affiliate of an outlawed Kurdish guerrilla group, known as the PKK.

“We have problems with them,” he said. “Their leaders have agreed to withdraw, but some of their fighters have not.” Sealing the deal was hard enough. Implementing it brings new problems. Critics say it will take more than a change of flags to cement rule of law in Sinjar.

The Yazidis, traumatized by the mass killing and enslavement that IS unleashed against them, have no trust in the Iraqi authorities they say abandoned them to the militants’ brutality. With the central government weak, they fear militias — including Iranian-backed Shiite factions — will gain sway over them.

The militias policing Sinjar the past three years are a mix. They include peshmerga fighters from Iraq’s Kurdish autonomy zone, as well as the PKK and its affiliate made up of local Yazidi fighters, called the Sinjar Resistance Units or YBS. There are also Yazidi units belonging to the Popular Mobilization Forces, an umbrella group of state-sanctioned paramilitaries created in 2014 to defeat IS.

There are signs of recovery of Sinjar. Its city center hummed with shoppers, merchants — and the odd Iraqi army tank. More of the 200,000 Yazidis displaced by the 2014 IS onslaught are coming back — some 21,600 returning between June to September, many times the rate of previous years.

But scratch the surface, and almost everyone harbors raw, unresolved trauma. Everyone vividly recalls the IS attack that murdered fathers and sons, enslaved thousands of women and sent survivors fleeing up Sinjar mountain.

In Sinjar’s market, a farmer, Zaidan Khalaf, introduced himself first by telling The Associated Press how many relatives he lost under IS: 18. Others in the market did the same. “We lost our dignity,” he said.

Communities remain deeply divided and bitterly resentful of one another. “What agreement?” scoffed Farzo Mato Sabo, an 86-year-old in the predominantly Yazidi village of Tal Binat, south of Sinjar. She and her three daughters were taken by IS militants and later saved by smugglers. Eleven of her family members are still unaccounted for.

“I lost everyone,” she sobbed. “Will it bring them back?” Neighboring Tal Binat is the Sunni Arab village of Khailo. “We used to be like brothers, but now the Yazidis stay away from us,” said a tribal elder, Sheikh Naif Ibrahim. “They can’t distinguish between civilians and IS members.”

Many Yazidis accuse local Sunni Arabs of supporting IS. Since the militants’ fall, Sunni Arabs have had frictions with Yazidi militias — and a number of Sunnis have been killed. At the same time, many Yazidis reject the Kurdish peshmerga, who consider the Sinjar area part of their domain.

“Seven flags ruled over us, you never knew who had power over you which day,” said Khalaf, the farmer. The U.N. has focused on the return of displaced Yazidis, but this is not the only criterion for success, said Sajad Jiyad, a fellow at The Century Foundation. “It’s about services, schools, security and the ability to move around without being shaken down by various groups,” he said.

“This is a test for the effectiveness of post-war governance and post-war liberation,” he said. “Is the government prepared enough to allow the return to normalcy?” The Iraqi military will secure the area for now, with other factions leaving their positions, although many remain in the Sinjar area. Under the plan, the Kurdish authority is to appoint a mayor — a prospect many Yazidis oppose — and local police are eventually to take over security, working under the government’s intelligence agency and National Security Adviser. The plan calls for 2,500 new security personnel to be hired locally.

Most Yazidi leaders and residents interviewed said they were irate the community was not consulted by the government in the making of the plan. “We are the ones who sacrificed, lost our lives,” said Fahed Hamed, Sinjar’s district mayor. “We should have been the main interlocutors.”

“We want a force from our own. We don’t trust anyone.” The force most trusted by locals is a faction the plan seeks to eject — the YBS, whose fighters are largely Sinjar Yazidis. While other forces retreated from the IS onslaught in 2014, many recall it was the YBS that fought to secure a safe route for civilians.

“They were the only ones who stayed to protect us,” said Sherko Khalaf, a Yazidi village mukhtar. Despite protests by locals, negotiations led to the withdrawal of YBS from Sinjar’s city center. YBS fighters interviewed said they expected to be subsumed as a unit of the Popular Mobilization Forces, providing them with much-needed political legitimacy. A portion of the 2,500-3,500 YBS fighters are already on the PMF payroll.

In theory, the plan calls for the PMF to end its presence in the city as well. To date, they are supporting forces and securing Sinjar's peripheries. But Khal Ali, the commander of the Lalish Brigades, a Yazidi unit of the group, told the AP, “The (PMF) will stay forever, we are kings over the heads of the security forces in Sinjar.”

That prospect has divided Yazidis. Some want Yazidi PMF factions included in the security arrangement. Others fear it will bring Sinjar under the influence of the Shiite Arab factions close to Iran that dominate the umbrella group.

“If the international community and central government don’t care about Sinjar, the PMF will take control,” one prominent Yazidi leader said, requesting anonymity to speak freely. “This is clear.”

Trump pardons 15, commutes 5 sentences, including GOP allies

December 23, 2020

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has pardoned 15 people, including a pair of congressional Republicans who were strong and early supporters, a 2016 campaign official ensnared in the Russia probe and former government contractors convicted in a 2007 massacre in Baghdad.

Trump's actions in his final weeks in office show a president who is wielding his executive power to reward loyalists and others who he believes have been wronged by a legal system he sees as biased against him and his allies. On Tuesday, Trump issued the pardons — not an unusual act for an outgoing president — even as he refused to publicly acknowledge his election loss to Democrat Joe Biden, who will be sworn in on Jan. 20.

Trump is likely to issue more pardons before then. He and his allies have discussed a range of other possibilities, including members of Trump's family and his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani. Those pardoned on Tuesday included former Republican Reps. Duncan Hunter of California and Chris Collins of New York, two of the earliest GOP lawmakers to back Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. Trump also commuted the sentences of five people, including former Rep. Steve Stockman of Texas.

Collins, the first member of Congress to endorse Trump to be president, was sentenced to two years and two months in federal prison after admitting he helped his son and others dodge $800,000 in stock market losses when he learned that a drug trial by a small pharmaceutical company had failed.

Hunter was sentenced to 11 months in prison after pleading guilty to stealing campaign funds and spending the money on everything from outings with friends to his daughter’s birthday party. White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said the pardons for Hunter and Collins were granted after “the request of many members of Congress.” She noted that Hunter served the nation in the U.S. Marines and saw combat in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

In the group announced Tuesday night were four former government contractors convicted in a 2007 massacre in Baghdad that left more a dozen Iraqi civilians dead and caused an international uproar over the use of private security guards in a war zone.

Supporters of Nicholas Slatten, Paul Slough, Evan Liberty and Dustin Heard, the former contractors at Blackwater Worldwide, had lobbied for pardons, arguing that the men had been excessively punished in an investigation and prosecution they said was tainted by problems and withheld exculpatory evidence. All four were serving lengthy prison sentences.

The pardons reflected Trump’s apparent willingness to give the benefit of doubt to American servicemembers and contractors when it comes to acts of violence in war zones against civilians. Last November he pardoned a former U.S. Army commando who was set to stand trial next year in the killing of a suspected Afghan bombmaker and a former Army lieutenant convicted of murder for ordering his men to fire upon three Afghans.

Trump also announced pardons for two people entangled in special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation. One was for 2016 campaign adviser George Papadopoulos, who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about a conversation in which he learned that Russia had dirt on Trump's Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton. The president also pardoned Alex van der Zwaan, a Dutch lawyer who was sentenced to 30 days in prison for lying to investigators during the Mueller probe.

Van der Zwaan and Papadopoulos are the third and fourth Russia investigation defendants granted clemency. By pardoning them, Trump once again took aim at Mueller’s inquiry and advanced a broader effort to undo the results of an investigation that yielded criminal charges against a half-dozen associates.

The pardons drew criticism from top Democrats. Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., the chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said the president was abusing his power. “Trump is doling out pardons, not on the basis of repentance, restitution or the interests of justice, but to reward his friends and political allies, to protect those who lie to cover up him, to shelter those guilty of killing civilians, and to undermine an investigation that uncovered massive wrongdoing," Schiff said.

Last month, Trump pardoned former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who had twice pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI, and months earlier commuted the sentence of another associate, Roger Stone, days before he was to report to prison.

Trump has granted about 2% of requested pardons in his single term in office — just 27 before Tuesday's announcement. By comparison, Barack Obama granted 212 or 6%, and George W. Bush granted 189 or about 7%. George H.W. Bush, another one-term president, granted 10% of requests.

Also among those pardoned by Trump was Phil Lyman, a Utah state representative who led an ATV protest through restricted federal lands. Lyman was serving as a Utah county commissioner in 2014 when he led about 50 ATV riders in a canyon where there are Native American cliff dwellings that officials had closed to motorized traffic. The ride occurred during a sputtering movement in the West pushing back against federal control of large swaths of land and came after an armed confrontation Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy had with Bureau of Land Management over grazing fees.

Lyman spent 10 days in prison and was ordered to pay nearly $96,000 in restitution. The Trump administration in 2017 lifted a ban on motorized vehicles in parts of the canyon but left restrictions in place through other areas where Lyman led his ride.

Two former U.S. Border Patrol agents were also pardoned, Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, convicted of shooting and wounding a Mexican drug smuggler near El Paso, Texas, in 2005. Others on the list included a Pittsburgh dentist who pleaded guilty to health care fraud, two women convicted of drug crimes, and Alfred Lee Crum, now 89, who pleaded guilty in 1952 when he was 19 to helping his wife’s uncle illegally distill moonshine.

Crum served three years of probation and paid a $250 fine. The White House said Crum has maintained a clean record and a strong marriage for nearly 70 years, attended the same church for 60 years, raised four children, and regularly participated in charity fundraising events.

Associated Press writers Zeke Miller, Jill Colvin and Michael Balsamo in Washington and Michelle Price in Las Vegas contributed to this report.

Volcano erupts on Hawaii's Big Island, draws crowds to park

December 22, 2020

HONOLULU (AP) — Kilauea volcano on Hawaii’s Big Island roared back to life Sunday night as lava went shooting into the air, boiling away a water lake and sending a massive plume of steam, gas and ash soaring into the atmosphere.

In the first hours of the eruption, lava mixed rapidly with water in the summit's crater lake to create steam. The sky above the eruption turned shades of orange and red as people lined up to watch the billowing column of gas and vapor rise above the volcano in the middle of the night.

Tom Birchard, a senior forecaster with the National Weather Service in Hawaii, said lava poured into the crater and mixed with the water to cause a vigorous eruption for about an hour. When lava interacts with water it can cause explosive reactions.

All the water evaporated out of the lake and a steam cloud shot up about 30,000 feet (9 kilometers) into the atmosphere, Birchard said. The water was the first ever recorded in the summit crater of Kilauea volcano. In 2019, after a week of questions about a mysterious green patch at the bottom of the volcano’s crater, researchers confirmed the presence of water. The lake had continued to fill since then.

The eruption began late Sunday within the volcano's caldera, the U.S. Geological Survey said. Because of the location of the erupting lava, no homes were evacuated and there was little risk to the public. The crater, named Halemaumau, is located within Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and was home to a longstanding lava lake that was present for years before a 2018 eruption caused it to drain.

The eruption continued throughout Monday and scientists said it's hard to know how long it will last. With the water gone, a lava lake was forming in the crater throughout the day. An advisory was issued by the National Weather Service in Honolulu, warning of fallen ash from the volcano. Excessive exposure to ash is an eye and respiratory irritant, it said. The agency later said the eruption was easing and a “low-level steam cloud” was lingering in the area.

Hawaii Volcanoes National Park spokeswoman Jessica Ferracane said in a telephone interview that the volcanic activity is a risk to people in the park and that caution is needed. “It’s pretty spectacular this morning," she said, "but there are high amounts of hazardous sulfur dioxide gas and particulates and those are billowing out of the crater right now and those present a danger to everyone, especially people with heart or respiratory problems, infants, young children and pregnant women.”

She also said cars are lining up at the park entrance to get a glimpse of the lava. “There is a lot of cars waiting on Crater Rim Drive to get out to Kilauea overlook. People should expect long waits for parking places,” she said.

Ferracane also said people should be mindful of the coronavirus pandemic and take measures to remain safe. “We’re not doing crowd control yet, but that could happen,” she said. "Right now, we’re urging people to wear a mask to reduce the spread of COVID-19. We did see quite a few visitors last night unmasked.”

By 1 a.m., USGS officials told Hawaii News Now that there were reported lava fountains shooting about 165 feet (50 meters) into the sky. David Phillips, a Hawaiian Volcano Observatory spokesman, said the agency was monitoring the “rapidly evolving” situation.

"We will send out further notifications on Kilauea and other Hawaiian volcanoes as we observe changes,” he said. A magnitude 4.4 earthquake hit about an hour after the volcano began erupting. The USGS said it received more than 500 reports of people who felt the earthquake but significant damage to buildings or structures was not expected.

Kilauea last erupted in 2018, destroying more than 700 homes and spewing enough lava to fill 320,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools. An area more than half the size of Manhattan was buried in up to 80 feet (24 meters) of now-hardened lava. The lava flowed over the course of four months.

The 2018 eruption occurred along a rift zone on the volcano's flank where many residential neighborhoods had been developed. Last night's eruption was contained to the summit caldera within the national park.

The volcano had not erupted since 2018 but before then had active lava flows for more than three decades. Kilauea is one of the most active volcanoes on earth.

Associated Press journalist Julie Walker in New York City contributed to this report.

'Big win for democracy': Bosnian city of Mostar gets a vote

December 19, 2020

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — Irma Baralija is looking forward to Sunday, when she intends to vote and hopes to win her race as the southern Bosnian city of Mostar holds its first local election in 12 years.

To make that vote possible in her hometown, the 36-year-old Baralija had to sue Bosnia in the European Court of Human Rights for letting a stalemate between two major nationalist political parties prevent her, along about 100,000 other Mostar residents, from voting or running in a municipal election for over a decade.

By winning in court in October 2019, Baralija believes she has “busted the myth (that nationalist parties) have been feeding to us, that an individual cannot move things forward, that we matter only as members of our ethnic groups.”

Parties representing only one ethnic group have dominated Bosnian politics since the end of the country’s devastating 1992-95 war, which pitted its three main ethnic factions — Serbs, Croats and Muslims — against each other after the break-up of Yugoslavia.

“I hope that my example will inspire citizens of Mostar, when they vote on Sunday, to be brave, to realize that as individuals we can bring positive change,” said Baralija, who is running for a city council seat on the ticket of the small, multi-ethnic Our Party.

Divided between Muslim Bosniaks and Catholic Croats, who fought fiercely for control over the city during the 1990s conflict, Mostar has not held a local poll since 2008, when Bosnia’s constitutional court declared its election rules to be discriminatory and ordered that they be changed.

The dominant nationalist Bosniak and Croat political parties, the SDA and the HDZ respectively, have spent over a decade failing to agree about how to do that. Meanwhile, Mostar was run by a de facto acting mayor, HDZ’s Ljubo Beslic, and his office, which included SDA representatives, with no local council to oversee their work or the allocation of nearly 230 million euros from the city’s coffers they have spent over the years.

Left without fully functioning institutions, Mostar — one of the impoverished Balkan country's main tourist destinations — has seen its infrastructure crumble, trash repeatedly pile up on its streets and hazardous waste and wastewater treatment sludge dumped in its only landfill, which was supposed to be for non-hazardous waste.

An agreement between the two parties, endorsed by the top European Union and U.S. diplomats in Bosnia, was finally reached in June — eight months after the court in Strasbourg had ruled in favor of Baralija and gave Bosnia six months to amend its election laws so a vote can be held in Mostar.

Mostar is divided in half by the Neretva River. During the war, Croats moved to the western side and Muslims to the east. Since the fighting stopped, the city has had two post offices, two electricity and water suppliers, two phone networks, two public hospitals and more — one crumbling set for each ethnic group.

On Sunday, several small, multi-ethnic parties will be vying for seats in the city council after campaigning on bread-and-butter issues. But the nationalist HDZ and SDA parties hope that, among them, they will secure a two-thirds majority in the council and keep their grip on power.

While acknowledging that the nationalists have armies of faithful voters whom they mobilize by stoking ethnic mistrust, non-nationalist election candidates in Mostar hope the past 12 years has shown that those two parties are too corrupt and incompetent.

“I think that many people finally realized that the abstract, ethnic interests are meaningless while their children are leaving (Mostar) in droves in search of decent jobs and a decent life” elsewhere in Europe, said Amna Popovac, a candidate from the multi-ethnic Platform for Progress party.

The nationalists are now promising to fix the city’s many problems as if “Martians and not they were running Mostar, unchecked, for the past 12 years,” she added. Miljan Rupar’s name will also be on the ballot. The 35-year-old, who is running as a candidate from the multi-ethnic Social Democrat Party, decided to get involved in politics after realizing that over 38 friends and relatives, including his sister, had left Mostar “for good” in search of a better life abroad.

Rupar wants his city focused on the future, just like the international school where he teaches physics, the United World College branch in Mostar. The school is one of 17 around the globe and run by a movement founded in 1962 with the aim of overcoming Cold War divisions by bringing high-achieving youngsters from all over to live and learn together.

“When I walk into the classroom or attend our bi-weekly assembly and see students and teachers from all over the world, including from various parts of Bosnia-Herzegovina, who share the same values and goals, it gives me hope,” he said.

Political journalist Faruk Kajtaz, however, thinks that hope could prove to be treacherous in the divided city, despite local voters’ well-justified grievances. He notes that not just Mostar but all of Bosnia has long been politically and administratively fragmented along ethnic lines.

“Maybe too much is expected from the people of Mostar,” he said. “(But) just the fact that citizens of Mostar will finally get a chance to vote for their local legislators is in itself a big win for democracy.”

Kemal Softic in Mostar, Bosnia, contributed to this report.

European Space Agency appoints Austrian scientist new chief

December 17, 2020

BERLIN (AP) — The European Space Agency said Thursday that Josef Aschbacher, an Austrian scientist who leads its Earth observation program, has been appointed as the organization's next head. The agency's 22 member states elected Aschbacher to be ESA's director general succeeding Jan Woerner, whose term ends on June 30.

Aschbacher currently oversees the ESA’s center for Earth Observation, near Rome, and has been deeply involved in some of the agency's most high-profile missions including the Copernicus fleet of satellites collecting environmental data about the planet from space.

The European Space Agency has lately begun discussing involvement in crewed missions beyond Earth's orbit, such as a possible return-to-the-Moon mission with NASA.

'With reservations': Trump voters grapple with Biden's win

December 16, 2020

WASHINGTON (AP) — Robert Reed says he will always believe the 2020 election was stolen from President Donald Trump. The retired police officer-turned-construction worker believes fraud marred the vote, no matter how many courts rejected that claim. Still, a day after the Electoral College made Joe Biden's win official, the ardent Trump supporter from the suburbs of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, was ready to move on.

“I think it’s pretty much over,” Reed said of Trump’s ongoing quest to overturn the results of the election. ”I trust the Electoral College.” For weeks, Trump has been on a mission to convince his loyal base that his victory was stolen and the contest was rigged. With help from conservative media, polls show he's had considerable success. But now that the Electoral College has formalized Biden's win and Republican officials, including Senate Leader Mitch McConnell, are finally acknowledging Biden as president-elect, many Trump voters across the country seem to be doing the same.

Interviews with voters, along with fresh surveys of Republicans, suggest their unfounded doubts about the integrity of the vote remain. But there is far less consensus on what should be done about it and whether to carry that resentment forward.

For some, like Reed, the Electoral College vote was the clear end of a process. Others have vowed to continue to protest with demonstrations like the one that turned violent in Washington, D.C., over the weekend. And some said they hoped GOP leaders would press for more investigations to put the doubts Trump sowed to rest.

They are people like Scott Adams, a retiree and Trump voter living in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, who said he accepts Biden’s victory — but “with reservations.” Adams said he's heard too much discussion about irregularities in the vote count on Fox News Channel and conservative talk radio to trust the election's outcome and doesn’t feel he’ll ever know the true margin of victory. (Biden won the Electoral College by a vote of 306 to 232.)

But Adams doesn’t think the election was rigged enough to change the outcome, even if he believes it was “rigged enough that it should be questioned more.” He'd like to see more investigations. Republicans across the country — from local officials to governors to Attorney General William Barr — have said repeatedly there is no evidence mass voter fraud affected the outcome. Trump and his allies brought a flurry of lawsuits, but nearly all have been dismissed by judges. The Supreme Court, which includes three Trump-nominated justices, denied requests to hear a pair of cases aimed at invalidating the outcome of the election in key battleground states.

Still, coming to terms with this pile of evidence has been difficult for many Trump voters. They expressed disbelief that Trump could have lost, given the huge crowds he drew to his rallies. Some said their suspicions were heightened by the mainstream media's reluctance to air Trump's baseless claims. And they repeatedly pointed to the slower-than-usual vote count as evidence something had gone awry.

“Something's not right here,” said Reed, 61, who lives in East Lampeter Township. The explanation is well known — in many states, an influx of mail-in ballots, overwhelmingly cast by Democrats, were tallied later than ballots cast in person. Still, Reed said he thought the courts should have spent more time investigating.

“I’ll always believe that it was stolen from him. I’ll really never be able to have peace of mind that it wasn’t,” he said. Others were less willing to go along. “I don’t trust that result. I think that the election was a fraud. I think the election was stolen. I don’t know how anybody could not think that. All you have to do is look at the results,” said Katherine Negrete, 55, a teacher living in Peoria, Arizona.

Negrete is among those who holds out hope that Trump can win if the Supreme Court intervenes (there is no indication that will happen) or Congress chooses to accept an “alternative slate” of Trump electors from several states. Election experts have said that scheme has no legal pathway and Republican Senate leaders have discouraged it.

Still, Negrete said, “hopefully Congress will do the right thing" and she expressed frustration with dwindling options. “I don’t know what we can do about that. If we don’t have the courts that stand up for us,” she said. "If we don’t have an attorney general that will stand up and say, ‘This was wrong and we need to investigate it.’ What are we supposed to do? Do we need to fight brother against brother? It’s crazy.”

Biden has vowed to bring Americans together and work across the aisle. His success on both fronts may depend on how many Republicans hold on to their election grievances. A Quinnipiac University poll from earlier this month found that 38% of registered voters, including 77% of Republicans, said they believe there was widespread fraud in the presidential election.

And a recent Fox News poll found 36% of voters, including 77% of Trump voters, believe the election was stolen from Trump. However, the same poll also found that about 8 in 10 voters overall, and about half of Trump voters, said they will at least give Biden a chance as president.

Matt Vereline, 52, a member of the pro-Trump group “Long Island Loud Majority” is not in the mood for reconciliation. Vereline, who lives in Bohemia, New York, is convinced “there was a lot more voter fraud than we know about,” though he's not sure whether it changed the outcome. But that won't keep him from rallying around what he thinks was an injustice. After all, that's what Democrats did to Trump, he says.

“Did they not cry for four years about Russian collusion, which wasn’t proven? So now I’m going to to cry about voter fraud for four years," he said. “They didn’t accept it. Why should I accept Biden? I know I can't do nothing about it. I know a rally is not going to change the course of who gets elected president. It’s whatever will be will be. But if my friends want to get together and complain about it in a peaceful way and voice our opinions, I’m going."

Others believe Biden won fair and square. Steve Volkman, a Republican who works in construction in Mesa, Arizona, said he made peace with Trump’s loss weeks ago. “I voted for Trump, but people gotta get over it,” Volkman said, while leaning against his pickup truck. “For sure, he (Biden) won the majority vote — landslide. To me, it’s already over.”

Catherine Templeton, a South Carolina Republican who served in former Gov. Nikki Haley’s administration, said that, despite the level of support for Trump in red states like her own, she felt sure voters would be willing to accept Biden as president.

“Obviously, South Carolina supports President Trump, but I think you’ll see when Republicans don’t get their way, they move on,” said Templeton, who lives in Charleston. “It’s time to move on.” It remains to be seen, for now, how lingering concerns over the integrity of the vote will affect turnout in future elections. Both parties have been focused on Georgia, where a pair of runoff elections will determine which party controls the U.S. Senate.

Denise Adams, 50, said she has her doubts about “questionable activity” in the general election. But she turned out to vote early on Monday in Kennesaw, a suburb northwest of Atlanta. “I don’t want to lose our freedoms,” she said, repeating misleading GOP claims that the Democrats would usher in “socialism.” “We’re losing our rights and freedoms in our country.”

“I’ve never had a problem before now trusting it, but now I feel like there may be something going on that I don’t trust,” echoed Melissa McJunkin, 40, who remains concerned about the integrity of her vote after hearing stories of voter fraud in the general election, but turned out anyway.

“I think it’s important for what’s going to happen next,” she said.

Cooper reported from Mesa, Arizona. Associated Press writers Emily Swanson in Washington, Nicholas Riccardi in Atlanta, Sophia Tulp in Rome, Georgia, and Meg Kinnard in Columbia, South Carolina, contributed to this report.