Fire at Russian retirement home kills 11

December 15, 2020

MOSCOW (AP) — A fire in a retirement home in Russia's southern Urals killed 11 people while three more were hospitalized with injuries, local officials said Tuesday. The fire broke out in the early hours in a wooden, one-story building of a private retirement home in a village in the Bashkiria region. A total of 16 people were in the building. It wasn't immediately clear what caused the fire.

Emergency officials said seven men and four women were killed in the incident. According to Russian media reports, they were bed-ridden residents of the retirement home. A criminal probe into the incident has been launched and the head of the facility has been detained.

Russia test-launches Angara A5 heavy lift space rocket

December 14, 2020

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia on Monday successfully test-launched its heavy lift Angara A5 space rocket for the second time, the country's military and space officials said. The rocket lifted off Monday morning from the Plesetsk cosmodrome in northwest Russia.

“It flies, damn it!” Dmitry Rogozin, head of Russia’s space agency Roscosmos, tweeted after the launch. Its first successful test launch took place in 2014 and was hailed by Russian President Vladimir Putin as “a major achievement for our space rocket industry and for Russia in general.”

Angara A5 is designed to replace the Proton M heavy lift rocket, but its development and manufacturing has been plagued by delays and technical problems. Roscosmos on Monday touted the increased environmental safety of the Angara rockets, as they “do not use aggressive and toxic propellants, significantly increasing environmental safety both in the areas adjacent to the launch complex and in the drop zones.”

Russian nuclear submarine test-fires 4 missiles

December 12, 2020

MOSCOW (AP) — A Russian nuclear submarine on Saturday successfully test-fired four intercontinental ballistic missiles in a show of readiness of Moscow's nuclear forces amid tension with the U.S. The Defense Ministry said that the Vladimir Monomakh submarine of the Pacific Fleet launched four Bulava missiles in quick succession from an underwater position in the Sea of Okhotsk. Their dummy warheads hit their designated targets on the Chiza shooting range in the Arkhangelsk region in northwestern Russia more than 5,500 kilometers (over 3,400 miles) away, the ministry said in a statement.

The Vladimir Monomakh is one of the new Borei-class nuclear submarines that carry 16 Bulava missiles each and are intended to serve as the core of the naval component of the nation's nuclear forces for decades to come. Another submarine of the same type performed a similar launch of four Bulava missiles in 2018 — a costly demonstration of the efficiency of the country's nuclear deterrent mimicking the conditions of a major nuclear conflict.

In a report to President Vladimir Putin, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said that Saturday's launch wrapped up large-scale drills of Russia's strategic nuclear forces that began Wednesday. As part of those maneuvers, another Russian nuclear submarine also performed a practice launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile from the Barents Sea, a ground-based ICBM was launched from the Plesetsk facility in northwestern Russia and Tu-160 and Tu-95 strategic bombers fired cruise missiles at test targets at an Arctic range.

Russia has expanded its military drills in recent years amid tensions with the West as relations have sunk to post-Cold War lows after Moscow's 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula. The series of missile launches comes less than two months before the New START U.S.-Russian arms control treaty expires in early February. Moscow and Washington have discussed the possibility of its extension, but so far have failed to overcome their differences.

New START was signed in 2010 by U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. It limits each country to no more than 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads and 700 deployed missiles and bombers, and envisages sweeping on-site inspections to verify compliance.

After both Moscow and Washington withdrew from the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty last year, New START is the only remaining nuclear arms control deal between the two countries still standing.

Arms control advocates have warned that its expiration would remove any checks on U.S. and Russian nuclear forces, in a blow to global stability.

Russia to establish navy base in Sudan for at least 25 years

December 08, 2020

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia has signed an agreement with Sudan to establish a navy base in the African nation for at least a quarter century, part of Moscow's efforts to expand its global reach. The deal published Tuesday on the official portal of government documents allows Russia to simultaneously keep up to four navy ships, including nuclear-powered ones, in Port Sudan on the Red Sea. The agreement lasts for 25 years and could be automatically extended for 10-year periods if none of the parties objects to it.

The document states that the Russian navy base should “help strengthen peace and stability in the region” and isn’t directed against any third parties. In exchange for Sudan's permission to set up the base, Russia will provide Sudan with weapons and military equipment.

The new agreement is part of Moscow's efforts to restore a regular naval presence in various parts of the globe. The Russian military footprint withered after the 1991 Soviet collapse amid economic woes and military funding shortages, but President Vladimir Putin has moved steadily to rebuild the nation's military might amid tensions with the West.

The Russian navy already has established a major presence in the Mediterranean, thanks to a naval base in the Syrian port of Tartus, currently the only such facility that Russia has outside the former Soviet Union.

Russia has waged a military campaign in Syria since September 2015, allowing President Bashar Assad’s government to reclaim control over most of the country following a devastating civil war. In 2017, Moscow struck a deal with Assad to extend its lease on Tartus for 49 years. After signing the agreement that allows Russia to keep up to 11 warships there, it has moved to modernize and expand the facility.

As part of Putin’s efforts to beef up the military, the Russian navy in recent years has revived the Soviet-era practice of constantly rotating its warships in the Mediterranean.

Iran new president backs nuclear talks but berates US

 By Shaun Tandon

United Nations, United States (AFP)

Sept 21, 2021

Iran's new ultraconservative president voiced support Tuesday in his international debut for reviving a nuclear accord even as he berated the United States, hailing what he described as its failures.

President Ebrahim Raisi, a hardline cleric who succeeded a government that sought better relations with the West, called on the United States to fulfill its promises to end sanctions under the 2015 nuclear accord.

"The Islamic Republic considers useful talks whose ultimate outcome is the lifting of all oppressive sanctions," Raisi said in a recorded speech to the UN General Assembly.

Indirect talks brokered by the European Union have been on hiatus since June after months of negotiations with the previous government failed to secure a path forward.

Raisi repeated the clerical state's stance that nuclear weapons are religiously prohibited, a position that has been met with skepticism notably by Israel, which has carried out a sabotage campaign to delay Iran's nuclear work.

Nuclear weapons "have no place in our defense doctrine and deterrence policy," Raisi said.

- Push for quick resumption -

Raisi is notorious among human rights advocates for his role as a judge during mass executions in 1988 when the Islamic republic was solidifying control, with some activists encouraging the West to shun him.

But Western powers, as well as China and Russia, say they see the value in restricting Iran's nuclear program peacefully under the 2015 agreement, from which US President Joe Biden's predecessor Donald Trump withdrew the United States.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said he will meet Tuesday at the United Nations with Iran's new foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, and push him to restart the talks in Vienna "soon."

Foreign Minister Heiko Maas of Germany, which remains in the nuclear accord, said it was urgent to resume negotiations, amid Western concerns that Iran could advance nuclear work.

"We're not going to wait two or three months for the Iranian delegation to return to Vienna. It has to be quicker," Maas told reporters.

Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh, traveling with Raisi, said he expected a resumption of the indirect talks "in the coming weeks," without giving an exact date.

President Biden, appearing in person in his own maiden UN speech, renewed his willingness to return the United States to the nuclear accord and lift sanctions.

"We're prepared to return to full compliance if Iran does the same," Biden said.

Iran has taken steps away from the accord to protest the sanctions and has insisted on a full lifting of economic pressure -- while the Biden administration says only measures imposed by Trump over the nuclear program are on the table.

- 'Failed miserably' -

Raisi devoted most of his speech to fiery denunciations of the United States, pointing to the collapse of the Western-backed government in Afghanistan, as well as the mob attack of the US Capitol on January 6 by Trump supporters seeking to overturn his defeat.

The two events show that "the US hegemonic system has no credibility, whether inside or outside the country."

"What is seen in our region today proves that not only the hegemonist and the idea of hegemony, but also the project of imposing Westernized identity, have failed miserably."

Aiming squarely at US domestic politics, Raisi cited the slogans of Trump and Biden: "Today, the world doesn't care about 'America First' or 'America is Back.'"

The language was a marked difference from his moderate predecessor Hassan Rouhani, a fellow cleric, who called for allowing greater freedoms and interaction with the outside world.

But Raisi stopped short of the inflammatory language of previous president Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, who isolated Iran on the international stage by calling for Israel's destruction and denying the Holocaust.

Raisi nonetheless denounced Israel in terms sure to anger the Jewish state, calling it the largest sponsor of "state terrorism, whose agenda is to slaughter women and children in Gaza and the West Bank."

Source: Space War.

Link: https://www.spacewar.com/reports/Iran_new_president_backs_nuclear_talks_but_berates_US_999.html.

Facebook seeks to defend itself after scathing reports

San Francisco (AFP)

Sept 21, 2021

Facebook on Tuesday fired back after a series of withering Wall Street Journal reports that the company failed to keep users safe, with the social media giant noting an increase in staff and spending on battling abuses.

The company has been under relentless pressure to guard against being a platform where misinformation and hate can spread, while at the same time remain a forum for people to speak freely. It has struggled to respond.

A series of recent Wall Street Journal reports said the company knew its Instagram photo sharing tool was hurting teenage girls' mental health, and that its moderation system had a double standard allowing VIPs to skirt rules.

One of the articles, citing Facebook's own research, said a 2018 change to its software ended up promoting political outrage and division.

But Facebook said Tuesday it has spent more than $13 billion in the past five years on teams and technology devoted to fighting abuses.

Some 40,000 people now work on safety and security for the California-based tech giant, quadruple the number in the year 2016, according to Facebook.

"How technology companies grapple with complex issues is being heavily scrutinized, and often, without important context," Facebook contended in a blog post.

The social network launched an about.facebook.com/progress website to showcase work done to counter abuses.

Facebook's Nick Clegg also attacked the reporting in a blog post on Saturday, saying the articles were unfair.

"At the heart of this series is an allegation that is just plain false: that Facebook conducts research and then systematically and willfully ignores it if the findings are inconvenient for the company," he wrote.

The Journal stories cited, in part, studies commissioned by the company and which contained disturbing revelations like: "We make body image issues worse for one in three teen girls."

Clegg said the stories selectively employed quotes in a way that offered a deliberately lop-sided view of the company's work.

"We will continue to ask ourselves the hard questions. And we will continue to improve our products and services as a result," he said in the closing lines of his post.

Facebook recently launched an effort targeting users working together on the platform to promote real-world violence or conspiracy theories, beginning by taking down a German network spreading Covid misinformation.

The new tool is meant to detect organized, malicious efforts that are a threat but fall short of the social media giant's existing rules against hate groups, said Facebook's head of security policy Nathaniel Gleicher.

Space Daily.

Link: https://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Facebook_seeks_to_defend_itself_after_scathing_reports_999.html.

As deaths rise, vaccine opponents find a foothold in Bosnia

September 30, 2021

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — Hospitals across Bosnia are again filling with COVID-19 patients gasping for air, and the country's pandemic death toll is rising. Yet vaccination sites are mostly empty and unused coronavirus vaccines are fast approaching their expiration dates.

When the European Union launched its mass vaccination campaign, non-member Bosnia struggled along with most other Balkan nations to get supplies. By late spring, however, hundreds of thousands of doses started pouring into the country.

But after an initial rush of people clamoring to get jabbed, demand for shots quickly slowed. It is now down to a trickle even though Bosnia has Europe's highest coronavirus mortality rate at 4.5%, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

Dr. Edin Drljevic, an infectious disease specialist at one of Bosnia’s largest hospitals, in Sarajevo, thinks the disconnect is partly a result of authorities failing to properly promote vaccination against COVID-19.

“At first, we only had negative publicity because of the failure to secure vaccines, but once the vaccines finally started arriving, mainly through donations, people became picky,” he said. So far, just under 13% of Bosnia’s 3.3 million people have been fully vaccinated, among the lowest shares in Europe. Even people willing to get inoculated are putting off shots so they can choose the vaccine they want instead of receiving whichever one is available.

Bosnia currently administers the Pfizer-BioNTech, Sputnik V, Sinopharm and AstraZeneca vaccines. AstraZeneca's product, while the most widely available, appears to enjoy the least trust because of extensive news coverage when numerous European countries temporary suspended its use due to concerns about possible, rare side effects.

“The bottom line is, people are poorly informed and lack up-to-date knowledge,” Drljevic said. With so few takers, over 50,000 AstraZeneca vaccine doses have already expired; an additional 350,000 doses are set to expire in October

The pandemic has amplified the many problems of the Balkan nation, which is still struggling to recover from a devastating interethnic war in 1992-95. Nearly half of Bosnia's people live under or close to the poverty line.

The country has an extreme shortage of doctors and nurses, as well as rampant public corruption. Several elected and appointed government officials are under investigation or on trial for suspected malfeasance in the procurement of needed medical equipment and supplies during the pandemic.

The high-profile cases make Bosnians susceptible to claims that their leaders are acting in concert with corrupt pharmaceutical companies and are “happy to sacrifice them” for personal gain, according to Slavo Kukic, a sociology professor at Mostar University in southern Bosnia.

“People in Bosnia generally distrust the authorities. They (have been) lied to and manipulated for the past 30 years, and it makes it easier (for the anti-vaccine movement) to convince them that it is wise to not protect themselves from the virus, that it is a risk worth taking,” Kukic said.

While vaccine hesitancy in Bosnia might be among the most extreme globally, the country is not the only one in Europe facing that problem. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies voiced concern Thursday at low immunization rates in parts of the continent, calling for urgent action to tackle vaccine hesitancy and misinformation.

In a press release, it warned that disinformation about vaccines’ side effects and potential risks, coupled with the introduction of vaccine passes was “sparking anger and violence” and has led to “concerning incidents against medical services, media and the general public” in the United Kingdom and numerous EU member including Italy, The Netherlands, Poland, Slovenia and France.

"Without addressing people’s concerns and fears, vaccines may not find their way into the arms of those most at risk, even where doses are available,” IFRC regional director for Europe Birgitte Bischoff Ebbesen said. “Increased community engagement is needed to tackle vaccine hesitancy, myths and disinformation.”

In Bosnia, health professionals and vaccine recipients note the absence of a coordinated, hard-hitting national campaign to counter vaccine hesitancy. There are no public service ads, billboards, incentives or mass mailings encouraging people to get vaccinated or advising them how to do it.

Meanwhile, activists with strong anti-vaccine opinions dominate the discussion on social networks and in the comment sections of news sites. An opposition lawmaker, Lana Prlic, announced on Facebook last week that she had received her second dose of AstraZeneca vaccine and urged followers to get their shots as soon as possible “to protect themselves and others." Her post attracted over 28,000 comments in 24 hours, most of them filled with insults and misinformation.

Jagoda Savic, Bosnia’s most vocal anti-vaccination activist for over a decade, asserts with pride that her profile has grown during the pandemic. “People stop me in the street to say hello, to congratulate me and ask me to keep up the good work,” she said. “I get so many messages (of support) on Facebook that I can no longer respond to all of them.”

Savic claims that coronavirus vaccines were not put through standard safety testing before being approved for use, and that they have caused severe adverse reactions in 1.2 million people in the European Union, the U.K. and the United States.

Similar claims have been made in other countries, and scientists and health authorities have repeatedly rejected them. Savic countered that information from reputable sources may cause doubts about the “dangers” of vaccines, but “in their heart and soul, people know the truth.”

Bosnia has reported close to 240,000 confirmed cases and more than 10,500 deaths in the pandemic. Savic asserts the figures are inflated, arguing incorrectly that that molecular PCR tests — the primary method for diagnosing COVID-19 — produce a huge number of false positives.

“Unfortunately, I have the impression that we are simply letting anti-vaccination lobbies and movements highjack the public debate and spread misinformation that discourages people from getting immunized,” Bakir Nakas, a retired infectious disease specialist, said.

While waiting to get her second coronavirus vaccine shot in Sarajevo last week, cancer patient Mirjana Golijanin said she thinks some fellow Bosnians are refusing because they perceive such behavior as a way of opposing the powerful and rich.

“I think it is simply an expression of the need to offer some sort of resistance, even if all they are resisting is a vaccine,” Golijanin said.

UK families see hard times ahead as COVID programs end

September 30, 2021

LONDON (AP) — Diana Gaglio has been in the economic crosshairs of the pandemic for the past 18 months. The 53-year-old from Bedfordshire, north of London, was furloughed from her job as entertainment manager for a holiday company when COVID-19 gutted the travel industry, then lost her job altogether just before Christmas. Now her temporary job at a virus testing center is coming to an end, just as the government scraps the emergency program that provided an income the last time she was out of work.

“The market is going to be flooded,’’ Gaglio said. “If it wasn’t hard already, it’s going to be harder.’’ Gaglio is one of millions of people across the U.K. who are facing a long, bleak winter as the rising cost of living coincides with the end of government programs that once shielded households from the economic fallout of COVID-19.

The biggest of those programs, which sought to preserve jobs by subsidizing the wages of workers whose hours were cut due to the pandemic, ends on Thursday. Some 1.6 million people were still supported by the so-called furlough program this month, down from a high of 8.9 million in May of last year.

Also, a temporary increase in welfare payments ends next week, cutting benefits by almost 1,100 pounds ($1,480) a year; and protections for renters squeezed by the pandemic are being phased out. All of this comes as 15 million households face a 12% jump in energy bills, adding to consumer price inflation that reached the highest level in more than nine years last month.

Adding to the sense of gloom, drivers are facing long lines to fill their tanks after a truck driver shortage curtailed fuel deliveries. Newspapers warn of a scarcity of everything from toys to turkeys this Christmas unless the crisis is resolved soon.

“The country and the labor market is in for a really bumpy autumn,’’ said Charlie McCurdy, an economist at the Resolution Foundation, a think-tank focused on improving living standards for those on low to middle incomes. “We can expect a living standard squeeze for families across the country.”

With front page headlines screaming “Prepare for winter of discontent” and “Boris in battle to save Xmas,” the bad news is fueling concerns about Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s leadership and heaping pressure on him to do more to help struggling consumers.

Keir Starmer, leader of the opposition Labor Party, on Wednesday mocked Johnson’s promise to “level up” incomes and economic opportunity. “Level up?’’ Starmer said during a speech at the party’s annual conference. “You can’t even fill up.”

The government has resisted calls to reverse course, saying the economy is rebounding from the pandemic and it is time to end emergency support programs. Treasury chief Rishi Sunak said Thursday that other programs, including job training, recovery loans for businesses and a recent increase in housing benefits would remain in place. The government has spent 400 billion pounds to support the economy during the pandemic.

“With the recovery well underway, and more than 1 million job vacancies, now is the right time for the scheme to draw to a close,’’ he said of the furlough program. “But that in no way means the end of our support.’’

The U.K. economy has recovered strongly since the depths of the pandemic, although gross domestic product remains about 2.1% smaller than it was in February 2020, according to the Office for National Statistics.

The recovery has pushed job vacancies to record levels as employers hire staff to meet increasing demand. But while the future may look bright for truck drivers and hospitality workers, things are a lot less hopeful for other professions.

The surge in vacancies has been driven by openings for low-paid workers, with more than two-thirds of unemployed jobseekers facing increased competition for jobs, according to the London-based Institute for Fiscal Studies.

The situation is particularly bad for older workers. Data released Thursday by the IFS showed that just 35% of workers over 50 had found work six months after being laid off during the pandemic, compared with 64% of younger workers.

Stuart Lewis, founder of Rest Less, a digital community for people over 50, said his members are anxious about the darkening financial situation. “We’re seeing there’s concerns around the pandemic and the health risks that are still lingering for some,” he said. “There’s additional concerns, as well, around affordability, around the financial impact as people run into Christmas. There’s a perfect storm of challenges that many people are concerned about in the coming months.”

Gaglio is one of them. Before the pandemic she was a respected manager, booking cabaret performers, comedians and singers for an international holiday company and spending much of her year abroad. Now she’s back in England, renting a room in someone else’s house to keep costs down as she tries to get her career back on track.

But she fears that recruiters and employers don’t look beyond her age to see the vivacious, curious and confident woman she remains. “Other people see your face and your skin and it's older — they have a perception of you,” she said. “Maybe they need to get to know me better.”

Employers are also in a bind. Take Tool Shop, a hardware chain that had 12 shops and 50 employees before high property taxes and the shift toward online shopping closed three stores in 2019. The pandemic added to those pressures, forcing Tool Shop to close five more outlets and merge two others last year, leaving it with just three shops and 11 staff members. The company used to draw up a multi-year strategy targeting growth and expansion. Now the planning horizon is three months.

Tool Shop is hoping customers will return as the pandemic eases and people return to their usual routines, said Sara Edmiston, the company’s human resources director. Tool Shop employee Martin Matio, 69, is betting people will recognize that personal service is valuable and seeing what you are buying is better than looking at a tiny picture on a website.

Matio quickly illustrates his understanding of the London household, together with instant recall on where items can be found in a shop packed to the rafters. Got a moth problem? He’s got just the thing. Mold? No problem.

Returns? No questions asked. Jokes? Part of the service. “I believe physical contact is the most important thing; customers want to know what they are buying’’ he said, comparing retail transactions to courtship. “If I’m going to get married, I want to see the girl.”

Associated Press Writer Khadija Kothia contributed.

Two Europes: Low vaccine rates in east overwhelm ICUs

September 28, 2021

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — In a packed intensive care unit for coronavirus patients in Romania’s capital, Bucharest, 55-year-old Adrian Pica sits on his bed receiving supplementary oxygen to help him breathe. “I didn’t want to get vaccinated because I was afraid,” he said.

Around 72% of adults in the 27-nation European Union have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, but a stubbornly low uptake of the shots in some eastern EU nations now risks overwhelming hospitals amid a surge of infections due to the more contagious delta variant.

“Until now I didn’t believe in COVID-19,” Pica, who said his early symptoms left him sweating and feeling suffocated, told The Associated Press. “I thought it was just like the flu. But now I’m sick and hospitalized. I want to get a vaccine.”

Bulgaria and Romania are lagging dramatically behind as the EU’s two least-vaccinated nations, with just 22% and 33% of their adult populations fully inoculated. Rapidly increasing new infections have forced authorities to tighten virus restrictions in the two countries, while other EU nations such as France, Spain, Denmark and Portugal have all exceeded 80% vaccine coverage and eased restrictions.

Stella Kyriakides, the EU’s health commissioner, said the “worrying gap” on vaccinations needs urgently addressing. Slovakia, Croatia and Latvia have vaccinated around 50% of all their adults. But jab uptake in many Central and Eastern European countries has remained weak or declined.

In Norway, where about 70% of the population has been vaccinated, authorities on Saturday scrapped restrictions that Prime Minister Erna Holberg called “the strictest measures in peacetime.” Nordic neighbor Denmark lifted virus restrictions on Sept. 10, while the U.K. has also abandoned most pandemic restrictions due to high vaccine rates.

In contrast, at Bucharest’s Marius Nasta Institute of Pneumology, the ICU's chief doctor, Genoveva Cadar, says the beds are now at 100% capacity and around 98% of all the virus patients are unvaccinated.

“In comparison to previous waves, people are arriving with more severe forms” of the disease, she said, adding that many patients in this latest surge are younger than in previous ones. “Very quickly they end up intubated — and the prognosis is extremely bleak.”

New daily coronavirus cases in Romania, a country of 19 million residents, have grown exponentially over the last month, while the number of people getting vaccinated has declined to worrying lows. Romanian officials reported 11,049 new cases on Tuesday, the highest daily tally since the pandemic started. Government data shows that 91.5% of COVID-19 deaths in Romania during Sept. 18-23 involved unvaccinated patients.

On Sunday, 1,220 of Romania's 1,239 ICU beds for virus patients were occupied. In many cases, only deaths freed up spaces. At the Marius Nasta Institute, a mobile ICU on hospital grounds that opened Monday already was full.

“I don’t know how we’re going to get over the next period, but we’re definitely going to be here,” hospital manager Beatrice Mahler told the AP. “We’re going to do everything we can (but) we don't have a winning recipe.”

Vlad Mixich, a Romanian public health specialist, told the AP that a “historic distrust of authorities” together with what he said was a very weak government vaccination campaign has contributed to the low vaccine uptake among his compatriots.

“During the vaccination campaign, unfortunately the politicians were the main communicators,” he said, adding that a frequent turnover in the country's health ministers has had a massive impact on efforts to inoculate Romanians.

In neighboring Bulgaria, an alarming 23% of people said they do not want to get vaccinated, compared with only 9% across the bloc, according to a Eurobarometer survey. Sabila Marinova, the ICU manager at a hospital in Bulgaria’s northern town of Veliko Tarnovo, says none of its COVID-19 patients is vaccinated.

“We are very exhausted," she said. “It seems that this horror has no end.” The vice president of Romania’s national vaccination committee, Andrei Baciu, said that fake news has been a key factor in keeping people from getting jabbed.

“There is and was a culture that promotes fake news. We are working with a team of specialists to combat (it) ... right now there is a high number of (infections) due to low vaccination rates,” he said, adding that the government is looking to increase ICU capacity.

Sometimes medical workers in Eastern Europe face additional risks. In September in Bulgaria’s port city of Varna, a group opposed to vaccines attacked a medical team at a mobile vaccination station. Health Minister Stoycho Katsarov condemned the attack, saying “we will not allow our medics to be insulted, publicly harassed and humiliated” for trying to save lives.

The implementation of vaccine passports, which allow people to show their vaccine status to carry out day-to-day activities, may be one of few options left for European governments at a loss on how to encourage their vaccine-hesitant citizens to get jabbed.

Experts say vaccine skeptics in parts of Europe could hamper the entire continent's efforts to end the pandemic. Back at the Marius Nasta Institute, Nicoleta Birtea, a 63-year-old unvaccinated COVID-19 patient who had previous health issues, says she woke up a month ago feeling dizzy and ill and called for an ambulance.

“I hope that I got here on time,” she said, adding “I understand very clearly that the vaccine can’t protect you.”

Polish protesters warn that health care crisis is looming

September 24, 2021

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — When a priest arrives at a hospital in Chorzow to perform the last rites, nurse Mariusz Strug can see the fear in dying patients' eyes. “After the sacrament, they knew what was happening,” he said.

But there have been no psychologists available to offer any consolation to the patients. Strug and another nurse would try to offer some kind words, but they were strained to the limit caring for 60 patients in their COVID-19 ward.

“People come to us and they want us nurses to perform a miracle," said Strug. Exhausted from working in such an understaffed system, he is among a group of health care workers who have come to Warsaw from across Poland for an around-the-clock protest outside the prime minister’s office that has gone on for nearly two weeks.

After a year and a half of the pandemic, and with Poland on the cusp of a fourth surge of COVID-19 infections, nurses, doctors, ambulance drivers and other health care workers have come to urge Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and other authorities to make deep reforms to the health care system, arguing that it is in danger of collapse.

“The pandemic showed us how bad the health care system is,” said Gilbert Kolbe, a nurse and spokesman for the protest movement. “This is the last chance to do something before it will be too late. We won’t be able to avert a crisis coming in five, ten years.”

While health care workers across the 27-nation European Union have been tested by the pandemic, Poland faced that test with fewer doctors and nurses than most. According to OECD statistics, Poland has the lowest number of working doctors in proportion to its population — just 2.4 to 1,000 inhabitants compared with 4.5 in Germany. Poland also has only 5 nurses to 1,000 inhabitants, below the EU average of 8 and far below richer countries like Germany, which has 14.

Poland’s health care sector has been strapped for resources for decades, a situation not rectified by a series of governments on the left, the center or now the right. The problems have been exacerbated by the thousands of doctors, nurses and others who left Poland for higher paid work in Western Europe after the country joined the EU in 2004.

Of the medical professionals who have stayed in Poland, many have also left the public sector for better-paying jobs in the private sector, leaving fewer to care for the poorest people, said Kolbe, a 25-year-old who left a public hospital to work for a private medical company but hopes to return to the public system one day.

Kolbe said 5,500 people complete their nursing studies on average each year in Poland, but only about 2,500 go to work in the public system. Some of those protesting say they are simply exhausted. With wages low, some work more than one medical job to support themselves.

Alicja Krakowiecka, a 56-year-old nurse from the southern city of Czestochowa, said her hospital is so short-staffed that during the height of the pandemic she would sometimes begin her day at 6 a.m. only to be asked to stay on because the night nurse was sick. She was then left alone with 30 patients for a 24-hour shift. Instead of getting two days off she would be asked to return the next evening.

“Do you refuse?” she asked, explaining that she agreed to the exhausting shifts out of a sense of obligation. The protest began Sept. 11, when tens of thousands from across Poland marched through Warsaw. Some stayed on in tents and held daily press conferences and lectures.

Last weekend the protesters were deeply shaken when a 94-year-old man who come been stopping by and giving them candies killed himself a few feet away. A shot rang out during a news conference and the medics ran to the man, but couldn't help him.

Since then they have protested silently, forgoing news conferences. Amid the pressure of the protests, and with talks between health care unions and the government going on for weeks, Morawiecki announced Tuesday that an additional 1 billion zlotys ($254 million) would be allocated this year to salaries and education in the health care sector.

In addition, Health Minister Adam Niedzielski said Wednesday that he had agreed to pay paramedics more. Still, the group organizing the protests said the rest of the health care community was not satisfied, meaning more talks between the government and the protesters are planned.

Kamila Maslowska, a medical intern, stopped by the protest tents with some friends Tuesday to show her solidarity. “I know two additional languages fluently, apart from Polish, so I think I could find a job abroad," she said "(But) I would not like to leave. I would like something to change for the better.”

Tunisia to lift covid curfews

September 24, 2021

Tunisia will entirely lift its nightly curfew against COVID-19 from Saturday, Reuters reported the presidency saying today, after about a year after the policy came into force.

In October 2020, Tunisia announced a night-time curfew in all governorates, shutting schools and banning inter-regional travel to halt the resurgence of coronavirus.

The government has also banned gatherings of more than four people in public places, except for on public transport, suspended congregational prayers in mosques and religious spaces until mid-November, and ordered restaurants and cafes to close at 4pm each day.

Tunisian COVID-19 cases spiked sharply in July but have since fallen as the country has carried out a vaccination campaign.

As of yesterday, 703,059 coronavirus cases had been registered in Tunisia, including 24,676 patients who died as a result of infection. To date, 7,342,484 people have received at least one shot of the vaccine, while 3,357,086 are now fully vaccinated, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Source: Middle East Monitor.

Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20210924-tunisia-to-lift-covid-curfews/.

Virus fallout, slow internet worry businesses in German vote

September 17, 2021

GOLSSEN, Germany (AP) — A mill owner in eastern Germany hopes the next government will restore supply chains disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic. A brewer in the country’s south wants a more predictable strategy for responding to the virus and a better cellphone network. A hotel owner in the west wants money, fast, to clean up after devastating floods.

A crowded race to succeed Chancellor Angela Merkel after she decided not to extend her 16 years in office has left many Germans uninspired and undecided ahead of the Sept. 26 parliamentary election. While some of the issues that voters say are most important to them — including climate change and the economy — are global or national in scope, many have local and personal priorities.

Looming over the election in Europe’s biggest economy, as elsewhere, is uncertainty over how much more disruption the pandemic will cause — and small business owners are especially hoping a new leader might help them avoid a repeat of the pain of the last 18 months.

But they are also interested in how the next chancellor will guide efforts to rebuild areas hit by flash floods in July and address unfinished business from the Merkel era — such as improving Germany's internet and cellphone service or reducing its onerous bureaucracy.

At the Kanow Mill in Golssen, in the rural, eastern state of Brandenburg, owner Christian Berendt is grateful for the financial support his seventh-generation family vegetable oil business has received as part of efforts by authorities to strengthen local business.

But, while he said that parts of the formerly communist east have developed well, many rural areas there and across the country still need help. “Rural structures have to be strengthened” in a coordinated, long-term way, he said.

In the shorter term, Berendt, 37, hopes the next government can ease the problems still being caused by the pandemic. His mill suffered because it missed out on business at local markets and trade fairs, but it has stepped up direct shipments to customers. Still, disruption to supply chains, for packaging and some seeds, continue to plague him.

“At the moment, you either have very, very long delivery times or you have to pay a horrendous price,” he said. A few hundred kilometers (miles) southwest in Salz, in the Rhoen hills in Bavaria, brewer Florian Rehbock is also worried about the pandemic — and hopes the next administration can soften its blows. When restaurants and bars, which make up 85% of Rehbock's business were shuttered during lockdowns, the brewer was forced to throw out large quantities of beer that takes weeks to prepare.

“There was no support for the beer that was destroyed — it was just gone. That's serious for a small company like me and can even endanger livelihoods,” he said. “I would like ... the new government to set itself up better strategically, that we don't just get day-to-day policies that go one way one week, another the next.”

Rehbock, who brews his beer in several small breweries, said some of his customers fear another lockdown after the election. Average daily deaths from the virus have more than doubled over the past two weeks, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, and the vaccination campaign has slowed to a crawl. Still, Germany has generally managed the pandemic better than many of its peers and its daily death toll remains below that of neighboring France, which has a smaller population, for instance. All three candidates for chancellor say no new lockdown will be needed, at least as things stand.

But the 41-year-old Rehbock, who has been self-employed since 2016, said his concerns go beyond the pandemic. “Germany is not the optimal location” for entrepreneurs, he said, citing problems that include complications in registering with tax authorities and getting construction permits.

He also bemoaned that in rural areas like his, a good internet connection is hard to come by and so is reliable cellphone coverage. "If you're on the phone with clients, you can expect that on at least a third of calls, the call drops out from time to time,” he said.

Rather than talking about grandiose plans for a state-of-the-art 5G network, “I'd say start with a normal cellphone network — that would be enough for me for the time being,” he said. Across the country in Gemuend, near the Belgian border, Manfred Pesch has no time to focus on national issues. He is still cleaning up at his waterside Hotel Friedrichs after the small Urft river swelled to a raging torrent in mid-July.

Germany's parliament last week approved a 30 billion-euro ($35 billion) rebuilding fund for the swath of the country's west affected by the flooding. Overseeing that long-term effort will fall to the next administration.

“The help must really come quickly,” said Pesch, 55. “At the moment, to be honest, what's really important is that we get our problems here solved. I don't have any time really to see the other problems, because I'm in such difficulty.”

The flood compounded the struggles he and others in the tourism business already faced because travel dried up during the pandemic and many staff left. “We have to hope that tourism will return and a lot of young people will again find their way into catering,” he said. “If we overcome the pandemic, and we can look to a positive future, that would be super.”

Moulson reported from Berlin. Associated Press journalists Christoph Noelting in Salz, Germany, and Daniel Niemann in Gemuend, Germany, contributed to this report.

Hospitalized Czech president to return to work next week

September 16, 2021

PRAGUE (AP) — Czech President Milos Zeman who was hospitalized this week has undergone medical checks that haven't revealed any problems or disease that would threaten his life, the presidential office said on Thursday.

Zeman’s office said doctors carried out CT scans, sonography checks and blood tests at Prague’s military hospital where the president was admitted Tuesday. It said the president was only dehydrated and slightly exhausted.

During his current hospitalization, Zeman will receive unspecified infusions and will fully return to his duties next week, his office said. Zeman, 76, is a heavy smoker who has suffered from diabetes and neuropathy linked to it. He has trouble walking and has been using a wheelchair.

His predecessor, Vaclav Klaus, who was in the same hospital to undergo checks after being diagnosed with high blood pressure might be discharged this week, his spokesman said.

Putin: Dozens in inner circle infected with coronavirus

September 16, 2021

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin says dozens of his staff have been infected with the coronavirus and that he will continue his self-isolation because of the outbreak. The Kremlin announced earlier this week that he would self-isolate after someone in his inner circle was infected although Putin had tested negative for the virus and he's fully vaccinated with Russia's Sputnik V. But Putin said Thursday the infections were extensive.

“Cases of coronavirus have been identified in my immediate environment, and this is not one, not two, but several tens of people. Now we have to observe the self-isolation regime for several days,” he said by video link to a summit of the Russia-led Collective Treaty Security Organization.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that those infected were “mainly those who take part in ensuring the work and activities of the head of state, his security.” None of the cases are severe, he said.

Although Russia was the first country to roll out a coronavirus vaccine, less than 30% of the country is fully vaccinated. The national coronavirus task force says about 7.2 million infections have been recorded in the country of 145 million, with 195,835 deaths.

Australia sets conditions for China joining Pacific pact

Sydney (AFP)

Sept 22, 2021

China must end a freeze on contacts with senior Australian politicians if it hopes to join a trans-Pacific trade pact, Canberra's trade minister said Wednesday, setting de facto preconditions for accession.

Dan Tehan linked China's bid to join an 11-nation trading alliance with steps to improve bilateral relations that are at their lowest ebb in decades.

China formally applied to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) last week, and is lobbying to gain the consensus support of members including Australia.

This comes after a war of words between the two countries, a string of sanctions on Australian goods and a months-long freeze on senior-level government contacts.

"When I became trade minister, I wrote to my Chinese counterpart in January setting out how we can work more closely together. I am still waiting for a reply," Tehan said in a Monday speech.

"One of the most important things about negotiating the accession process of any country into the CPTPP is that you have to be able to sit down at ministerial level, look your economic partner in the eye, and talk about that accession process."

Tehan also indicated China would have to resolve disputes at the World Trade Organization (WTO) stemming from a slew of politically driven sanctions on Australian imports.

"All parties will want to be confident that any new member will meet, implement and adhere to the high standards of the agreement as well as to their WTO commitments and their existing trade agreements," he said.

"It's in everyone's interests that everyone plays by the rules."

- 'Economic coercion' -

Australia this month asked the WTO to rule against China's imposition of crippling tariffs on Australian wine exports, after initial consultations failed to resolve the dispute.

Wine sales by Australia to China plummeted from over Aus$1 billion ($840 million) to a virtual trickle after Beijing imposed the tariffs, according to industry figures.

Australia is also challenging Chinese tariffs on barley at the WTO and has objected to sanctions on a string of other goods, which Canberra describes as "economic coercion."

The measures are widely seen in Australia as punishment for pushing back against Beijing's operations to impose influence in Australia, rejecting Chinese investment in sensitive areas and publicly calling for an investigation into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic.

But the Chinese embassy in Australia this month lobbied Canberra to join the CPTPP, telling an Australian parliamentary inquiry that China's accession "would benefit all CPTPP members and the rest of the world."

Signed by 11 Asia-Pacific countries in 2018, the partnership is the region's biggest free-trade pact and accounts for around 13.5 percent of the global economy.

Source: Terra Daily.

Link: https://www.terradaily.com/reports/Australia_sets_conditions_for_China_joining_Pacific_pact_999.html.

Activists, WHO in the frame as Nobel Peace guessing starts

October 01, 2021

STAVANGER, Norway (AP) — The annual Nobel Peace Prize shines the brightest of lights on the person or group thought to have done most to promote peace. But guessing who it will be is just a stab in the dark.

That’s because the secretive Norwegian Nobel Committee never drops any advance hints. In the past decade, winners have included diplomats, doctors, dissidents and presidents. Who were the other candidates? We can’t know for sure — the panel keeps their ruminations in a vault for 50 years.

Bookmakers have the World Health Organization as the most likely winner for 2021, for its work during the pandemic. But Rupert Adams at William Hill, one of Britain’s biggest bookies, jokes that picking a winner is “the world’s most difficult job,” adding he “can’t think of a harder market to price.” The company has nailed it only once this century — Malala Yousafzai in 2014.

Still, people like to make guesses. Henrik Urdal, director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo, says the pandemic is an important backdrop to this year’s prize. But he scrapped plans to make COVAX, the United Nations-sponsored vaccine equity organization, his top pick. Rollout of COVID-19 jabs to poor countries has been too slow, he says.

Instead, the Nobel tipster says “the problems of public disinformation” might be recognized by the panel. He picks Reporters Without Borders as his favorite, saying the committee could recognize an organization “focused on the importance of independent reporting and press freedom in the face of the dire risks.”

As much as the winner always makes the headlines, the delayed nomination process means the judging panel are often sifting through candidates from yesterday’s news. Nominations close at the end of February, meaning the longlist is dominated by movers and shakers from the previous year.

Black Lives Matter protests after the murder of George Floyd in 2020 pushed the pandemic off the front pages, and may impress the awards panel. Norwegian lawmaker Petter Eide has said he nominated the group for raising the issue of racial justice around the world.

Headline maker Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya led peaceful protests in Belarus in 2020, as President Alexander Lukashenko won what many saw as a rigged election. She is the bookmakers’ individual favorite. Alexei Navalny, the jailed Russian opposition leader, could also be a winner.

Less likely, thinks Urdal, is the selection of former foes who have come to the negotiating table, like 2016 winner Juan Manuel Santos, the Colombian president who cut a deal with rebels to end 50 years of civil war.

“The main reason we don’t have these kinds of conventional candidates is that there are no peace processes that are sufficiently mature,” Urdal said. He also noted that the panel burnt its fingers in 2019, when it awarded the prize to Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed “for his efforts to achieve peace and international cooperation.” Abiy’s image is today marred by a war that erupted in Ethiopia’s Tigray region in November, triggering a hunger crisis.

“They are wary of engaging too early with any process that could backfire,” says Urdal. Perhaps that is why winners are often named a year after they are most hotly tipped. Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani teenager who continued to campaign for girls’ and women’s rights after being shot in the head by the Taliban, was a favorite in 2013. But she only received the prize — alongside Indian children’s rights campaigner Kailash Satyarthi — in 2014.

Likewise, Dennis Mukwege, the Congolese doctor treating victims of wartime sexual violence, was tipped for several years before finally getting the award, alongside another longtime favorite, campaigner Nadia Murad, in 2018.

A similar cooling-off period might pave the way for climate activist Greta Thunberg in 2021. The Swedish teenager was hotly tipped in 2020 after dominating the news agenda for much of the previous year.

A report in August from a former Nobel winner, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which predicted fires and floods, helped force the climate back on the news agenda. In this atmosphere, a prize for Thunberg would electrify the world, said Urdal, even if he believes the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change would be a more worthy winner.

Unlike the other Nobels, which are handed out in Sweden, the Peace Prize is an all-Norwegian affair. Though the government has no say in the matter, this quirk put the whole country in hot water in 2010, when the independent panel enraged Beijing by awarding the prize to Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo.

China suspended a bilateral trade deal and restricted imports of Norwegian salmon. Relations were only fully normalized in 2017. If the five-person panel feels like stoking controversy in 2021, it could award the prize to Uyghur activist Ilham Tohti, who was jailed for life in 2014 on charges of promoting separatism. A prize to Nathan Law Kwun-chung would also likely upset Beijing. He is a leading figure in the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong.

The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded on Friday, Oct. 8. A week of Nobel Prizes kicks off on Oct. 4 with “Physiology or Medicine.” Physics is on Oct. 5, Chemistry Oct. 6, Literature Oct. 7, and Economics Oct. 11.

Hawaii's Kilauea volcano erupts, lava fountains form in park

September 30, 2021

HONOLULU (AP) — One of the most active volcanos on Earth is erupting on Hawaii's Big Island. Officials with the U.S. Geological Survey confirmed Wednesday that an eruption has begun in Kilauea volcano's Halemaumau crater at the volcano's summit.

Webcam footage of the crater showed lava fountains covering the floor of the crater and billowing clouds of volcanic gas were rising into the air. The same area has been home to a large lava lake at various times throughout the volcano's eruptive past.

The eruption is not in an area with homes and is entirely contained within Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. "All signs indicate that it will stay within the crater," said Ken Hon, the USGS scientist in charge of Hawaii Volcano Observatory. "We’re not seeing any indications that lava is moving into the lower part of the east rift zone where people live. Currently all the activity is within the park.”

The volcano's alert level has been raised to "warning” and the aviation code changed to red. Earlier Wednesday, officials said increased earthquake activity and ground swelling had been detected, and at that time raised the alert levels accordingly.

Kilauea had a major eruption in 2018 that destroyed more than 700 homes and displaced thousands of residents. Before that eruption, the volcano had been slowly erupting for decades, but mostly not in densely populated residential areas.

Before the major 2018 eruption, Kilauea had been erupting since 1983 and streams of lava occasionally covered rural farms and homes. During that time, the lava sometimes reached the ocean, causing dramatic interactions with the water.

Over four months in 2018, Kilauea spewed enough lava to fill 320,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools, burying an area more than half the size of Manhattan in up to 80 feet (24 meters) of now-hardened lava. The molten rock reduced landmarks, streets and neighborhoods to a vast field of blackened boulders and volcanic shard.

After the 2018 eruption the summit lava lake stopped erupting and for the first time in recorded history began to fill with water, raising concerns about the possibility of an explosive interaction between lava and groundwater.

The same area of the volcano that began erupting Wednesday also erupted in December and lasted until May. Hon said these types of eruptions could be happening for years as the volcano fills up. “We do know that one thing that happens is that the magma keeps coming in to Kilauea at a pretty constant rate and so it’s either filling the inside of the volcano and repressurize it or it’s coming out to the surface.”

Hawaii Volcanoes National Park spokesperson Jessica Ferracane told The Associated Press that she had not yet arrived at the park, but that colleagues reported seeing some lava spatter and glow within the summit crater.

“He saw that from Volcano House, which is at least 2 miles away from the eruption site, so I suspect ... we'll be able to see a pretty glow, and who knows what else,” she said. The Volcano House is a hotel and restaurant within the national park adjacent to the visitor center. The park is open to visitors.

Ferracane said the area that is erupting is not close to where people can hike or drive. Trails downwind from the eruption have been closed for years. "The park is open and there are no road closures at this time," Ferracane said.

Ferracane added that officials are expected tens of thousands of visitors to flock into the park and that people need to be very careful both in terms of natural hazards and COVID-19. “This eruption is going to draw many people to the park, we're already seeing people come into the park, drive in after dark tonight,” Ferracane said. “Really need people to remember that we are in the middle of a pandemic and they need to stay safe and to keep us safe, too.”

She said people must maintain six feet of distance and wear masks. “If you're sick, please don't come. Come visit another day. Enjoy the views from the webcam,” she said. “We really want to not have these current eruption conditions increase the spread of COVID.”

Lava from La Palma eruption finally reaches the Atlantic

September 30, 2021

LOS LLANOS DE ARIDANE, Canary Islands (AP) — A bright red river of lava from the volcano on Spain’s La Palma island finally tumbled over a cliff and into the Atlantic Ocean, setting off huge plumes of steam and possibly toxic gases that forced local residents outside the evacuation zone to remain indoors on Wednesday.

The immediate area had been evacuated for several days as authorities waited for the lava that began erupting Sept. 19 to traverse the 6½ kilometers (four miles) to the island's edge. On the way down from the Cumbre Vieja volcanic ridge, the lava flows have engulfed at least 656 buildings, mostly homes and farm buildings, in its unstoppable march to the sea.

The meeting of molten rock and sea water finally came at 11 p.m. on Tuesday. By daybreak, a widening promontory of newborn land could be seen forming under plumes of steam rising high into the area. Even though initial air quality reading showed no danger in the area, experts had warned that the arrival of the lava at the ocean would likely produce small explosions and release toxic gases that could damage lungs. Authorities established a security perimeter of 3½ kilometers (about two miles) and asked residents in the wider area to remain indoors with windows shut to avoid breathing in any gases.

No deaths or serious injuries have been reported from the island’s first eruption in 50 years, thanks to the prompt evacuations of over 6,000 people after the ground cracked open following weeks of tremors.

The flattening of the terrain as it approached the coast had slowed down the flow of the lava, causing it to widen out and do more damage to villages and farms. The local economy is largely based on agriculture, above all the cultivation of the Canary plantain.

Just before it poured down a cliff into the sea at a local point known as Los Guirres, the lava rolled over the coastal highway, cutting off the last road in the area that connects the island to several villages.

“We hope that the channel to the sea that has opened stops the lava flow, which widened to reach 600 meters (2,000 feet) at one point, from continuing to grow, because that has caused tremendous damage,” Ángel Víctor Torres, president of the Canary Islands regional government, told Cope radio.

Torres said his government is working to house those who have lost their dwellings. Authorities have plans to purchase over 100 currently unoccupied homes. Torres cited one village, Todoque, home to 1,400 people, which was wiped out.

La Palma, home to about 85,000 people, is part of the volcanic Canary Islands, an archipelago off northwest Africa. The island is roughly 35 kilometers (22 miles) long and 20 kilometers (12 miles) wide at its broadest point.

Cleaning crews swept up ash in the island’s capital, Santa Cruz, while more small earthquakes that have rumbled under the volcano for weeks were registered by geologists. Favorable weather conditions allowed the first flight in five days to land at airport on La Palma, an important tourist destination along with its neighboring Canary islands, despite a huge ash cloud that Spain’s National Geographic Institute said reached up to seven kilometers (nearly 4½ miles) high.

Laura Garcés, the director of Spain's air navigation authority ENAIRE, said she doesn't foresee any major problems for other airports on the archipelago because of the ash. While the red tongue of lava lolled off the coast, the two open vents of the volcano continued to belch up more magma from below.

Experts say it's impossible to determine how long the eruption will last. Previous eruptions in the archipelago have lasted weeks, even months. “We don’t know when this will be over,” volcano scientist Stavros Meletlidis of Spain’s National Geographic Institute told state broadcaster TVE. “Volcanos are not friends of statistics.”

'My whole life in a van': islanders flee Spanish volcano

September 22, 2021

TODOQUE, Canary Islands (AP) — A wall of lava up to 12 meters (40 feet) high bore down on a Spanish village Wednesday as islanders scrambled to save what they could before the molten rock swallowed up their homes following a volcanic eruption.

The lava still spewing from Sunday’s eruption in the Canary Islands off northwest Africa advanced slowly down hillsides to the coast, where Todoque was the last village between the molten rock and the Atlantic Ocean.

The lava could take several days to cover the remaining 2 kilometers (1.25 miles) to the sea, experts said, but authorities and locals were taking no chances amid the unpredictable seismic activity. Residents hoping to save some belongings queued up so they could be escorted into the village. The lava was advancing in the distance at around 120 meters (400 feet) an hour, with smoke coming from its leading edge as it destroyed everything it touched.

Javier López said his house for the past three decades appeared to be in the lava’s path. He and his relatives had been staying at a friend’s house with the few documents, photos and basic belongings they had been able to take when they were evacuated on Monday.

“I’ve put my whole life in a van,” López told The Associated Press as he waited for his turn to try to recover a vehicle he had left behind and other valuables. “This is probably going to be the last time I see my home,” he said. “Or, in the best-case scenario, the house will remain isolated by the lava and inaccessible for who knows how long.”

Firefighting crews trying to save as many houses as possible from being entombed by lava worked nonstop overnight to open a trench to divert the lava flow. Melisa Rodríguez, another Todoque resident, was trying to stay positive and calm.

“It’s hard to think straight about what you want to save, but we are only allowed in for one hour and you don’t want to take longer because that would be taking time away from others,” she said. As the lava headed toward the island’s more densely populated coast, 1,000 people were evacuated late Tuesday from Todoque, bringing the total number of evacuated on the island of La Palma to over 6,800.

Authorities say more dangers lie ahead for residents, including more earthquakes, possible new lava flows, toxic gases, volcanic ash and acid rain. The lava, whose temperature exceeds 1,000 degrees Celsius (more than 1,800 F), could cause explosions, trigger landslides and produce clouds of toxic gas when it hits the ocean.

As volcanic ash fell over a wide area, authorities advised people to keep children inside as much as possible due to possible breathing difficulties. The volcanic eruption and its aftermath could last for up to 84 days, the Canary Island Volcanology Institute said, basing its calculation on the length of previous eruptions on the archipelago, which like the latest eruption were followed by heavy lava flows and lasting seismic activity.

Tuesday night saw a sharp increase in the number of smaller eruptions that hurl rocks and cinders high into the air, it said. The rivers of lava have swallowed up around 320 buildings so far, mostly homes in the countryside, and now cover 154 hectares (380 acres), the institute said. The lava has also ruined banana groves, vineyards and other crops. Prompt evacuations have helped avoid any casualties.

The volcano has also been spewing out between 8,000 and 10,500 tons of sulfur dioxide — which also affects the lungs — every day, it said. Life on the rest of La Palma, which is roughly 35 kilometers (22 miles) long and 20 kilometers (12 miles) wide at its broadest point, has been largely unaffected, with undeterred tourists landing for previously scheduled holidays. Air traffic remained normal.

The Canary Islands are a popular destination for European tourists due to their mild year-round climate.

Barry Hatton contributed from Lisbon, Portugal.

Lava from Spanish volcano heads toward sea; no injuries

September 20, 2021

EL FUERTE, Spain (AP) — Giant rivers of lava tumbled slowly but relentlessly toward the sea Monday after a volcano erupted on a Spanish island off northwest Africa, destroying everything in their path while prompt evacuations helped avoid casualties.

The eruption occurred Sunday on the island of Palma, in the volcanic Canary Islands, along a ridge called Cumbre Vieja, where two fissures belched bright red magma into the air and set the glowing lava rivers in motion.

Scientists had been monitoring the area in recent days amid a surge in mostly small earthquakes, and authorities evacuated around 5,000 people. The lava was moving at 700 meters (2,300 feet) per hour, according to the Canary Islands Volcanology Institute. Officials said they expected it to reach the Atlantic Ocean around sunset.

The lava left black swathes of destruction through the sparsely populated, green countryside and destroyed around 100 houses, officials said. Authorities told people in areas where volcanic ash was falling to stay indoors with their doors and windows closed.

The lava crept into the town of Los Llanos de Aridane, which lies close to the volcano. Town Mayor Noelia García said people had been evacuated from houses all the way down to the shoreline. Mariano Hernández, head of the island’s government, described the scene in the area affected by the lava as “bleak.”

He said a wall of lava six meters (20 feet) high “is consuming houses, infrastructure, crops in its path to the coast,” state news agency Efe reported. Scientists monitoring the lava measured it at more than 1,000 C (more than 1,800 F). When it hits the Atlantic Ocean, explosions and clouds of acidic steam were expected. Merchant shipping was halted around La Palma.

Scientists say the lava flows could last for weeks or months, but the immediate danger to local people appeared to be over. Daniel Álvarez, a bar owner in Las Manchas, one of the closest villages to the volcano, was evacuated with his family on Sunday and was staying at the El Fuerte military barracks with some other 300 evacuees. He didn’t know whether the lava had consumed his home.

“For now,” he said, “it seems like it’s safe, but the lava is opening many paths. We have all of our lives inside (our house). We would need to start over again.” Canary Islands government chief Ángel Víctor Torres said officials weren't expecting any more eruptions, adding that air traffic in the area wasn't affected.

“There will be considerable material damage,” Torres told SER radio. “We hope there won’t be any personal injuries.” No further evacuations were expected, officials said. “The lava probably won’t take any lives, but it will destroy everything it encounters,” Nemesio Pérez, scientific coordinator at the Canary Islands Volcanology Institute, told SER.

The eruption opened two fissures, about 200 meters (650 feet) apart. Officials said the lava streams would likely merge before reaching the sea. The Military Emergencies Unit was increasing its deployment on La Palma to 180 soldiers and 57 vehicles, backed up with three water-dropping aircraft due to arrive later Monday.

People on La Palma largely live from farming. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez visited the affected area Monday after canceling his trip to New York to attend the U.N. General Assembly. He praised scientists for monitoring the eruption, saying their work was “fundamental” in avoiding casualties, and promised that his government would help local people rebuild their lives.

The Canary Islands Volcanology Institute reported the initial eruption shortly after 3 p.m. Sunday near the southern end of the island, which saw its last eruption in 1971. A 4.2-magnitude quake was recorded before the eruption, which took place in an area known as Cabeza de Vaca on the western slope as the ridge descends to the coast.

Huge red plumes topped with black-and-white smoke shot out along the Cumbre Vieja ridge, which scientists had been monitoring following the accumulation of molten lava below the surface and days of small earthquakes.

La Palma, with a population of 85,000, is one of eight volcanic islands in Spain’s Canary Islands archipelago off Africa’s western coast. At their nearest point, the islands are 100 kilometers (60 miles) from Morocco.

Authorities closed seven roads. Hernández, the head of the island’s government, asked people to stay away from the eruption. “People should not come near the eruption site where the lava is flowing,” he said. “We are having serious problems with the evacuation because the roads are jammed with people who are trying to get close enough to see it."

The last eruption on La Palma 50 years ago lasted just over three weeks. The last eruption on all the Canary Islands occurred underwater off the coast of El Hierro island in 2011. It lasted five months.

Barry Hatton reported from Lisbon, Portugal.

A previous version of this story was corrected to show that Mariano Hernández is the head of the island’s government, not the mayor.

Volcano erupts on Atlantic island; lava destroys some homes

September 19, 2021

LOS LLANOS DE ARIDANE, Spain (AP) — A volcano on Spain’s Atlantic Ocean island of La Palma erupted Sunday after a weeklong buildup of seismic activity, prompting authorities to evacuate thousands as lava flows destroyed isolated houses and threatened to reach the coast. New eruptions continued into the night.

The Canary Islands Volcanology Institute reported the initial eruption shortly after 3 p.m. near the southern end of the island, which saw its last eruption in 1971. Huge red plumes topped with black-and-white smoke shot out along the Cumbre Vieja volcanic ridge, which scientists had been closely watching following the accumulation of molten lava below the surface and days of small earthquakes.

Víctor Torres, president of the Canary Islands, said that by 11 p.m. some 5,000 people had been evacuated from their homes. Most, he said, had found family or friends to take them in. The rest were in shelters.

La Palma, with a population of 85,000, is one of eight volcanic islands in Spain’s Canary Islands archipelago off Africa’s western coast. At their nearest point, the islands are 100 kilometers (60 miles) from Morocco.

A 4.2-magnitude quake was recorded before the eruption, which took place in an area known as Cabeza de Vaca on the western slope as the ridge descends to the coast. As the eruptions continued, at least two open mouths belched bright red magma into the air that then flowed in tight streams down the mountain slope.

Shortly after the initial explosion rocked the area, one black lava flow with a burning tip immediately slid toward houses in the village of El Paso. Mayor Sergio Rodríguez said 300 people in immediate danger were evacuated, roads were closed and authorities urged the curious not to approach the area.

The lava eventually destroyed at least eight homes, according to local officials, causing at least one chalet with a tower to crumble. Authorities warned that the lava flows could also threaten the municipalities of El Paraíso, Alcalá and surrounding areas.

Carlota Martín was at an agricultural plot her family has in Todoque, just downhill from the eruption site, when she heard a huge explosion. “When we saw the column of smoke, we thought it could not be real, but it kept growing and we knew we had to get out of there,” she told The Associated Press. “You leave, but you are also looking back because you want to see what will happen. Nobody knows how the lava flows will descend, but our plot and lots of houses in the area could be in the way.”

Mariano Hernández, president of La Palma island, said there were no immediate reports of deaths or injuries but the lava flows made him concerned “about the populated areas on the coast.” “People should not come near the eruption site where the lava is flowing,” Hernández said. “We are having serious problems with the evacuation because the roads are jammed with people who are trying to get close enough to see it.”

Itahiza Dominguez, head of seismology of Spain’s National Geology Institute, told Canary Islands Television that although it was too early to tell how long this eruption would last, prior “eruptions on the Canary Islands lasted weeks or even months.”

The last eruption on La Palma 50 years ago lasted just over three weeks. The last eruption on all the Canary Islands occurred underwater off the coast of El Hierro island in 2011. It lasted five months.

Volcanologist Vicente Soler of Spain’s Higher Council said "the material appears to be very fluid, the lava flows will reach the sea sooner or later.” The scientific committee of the Volcano Risk Prevention Plan said part of the island’s southwest coast was at risk for landslides and rock falls.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez cancelled his trip to New York to attend the U.N. General Assembly so he could travel from Spain’s mainland to the Canary Islands. “The people of La Palma should rest assured that we have all the resources and emergency personal necessary,” Sánchez said after meeting with local officials on the island.

Joseph Wilson reported from Barcelona. Renata Brito contributed to this report from Barcelona.