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World

Alexey Navalny to remain in detention ahead of hearing next month, Russian court rules

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Navalny appeared by video link at the court in the city of Khimki, on the outskirts of Moscow. He continues to be held at the Matrosskaya Tishina detention center, in the northeast of the capital.

He’d been detained a day earlier following his arrival from Germany, where he spent five months recovering from Novichok poisoning he blamed on the Russian government. The Kremlin repeatedly denied any involvement.

Navalny was placed on the country’s federal wanted list last month for breaching the terms of probation related to the 2014 fraud case, which he dismisses as politically motivated.

His next court date is currently scheduled for February 2, when a court will decide whether his three-and-a-half-year suspended sentence on fraud charges should be converted into a jail term due to what Russian authorities say is the violation of the terms of his suspended sentence.

The judge in Thursday’s appeal hearing ruled that Navalny’s detention was lawful and that the opposition leader would remain in detention.

Navalny’s reaction on hearing the decision suggested he was expecting it. “Everything was clear to me even before the hearing,” he told the court.

The politician had earlier complained about violations of legal procedures and a lack of opportunity to communicate with his lawyers since his detention on January 17.

“Everything is so amazing here that I don’t even know where to start. As usual it works: you take a court decision, look for violations of the law and speak about them when appealing. And here everything is one big violation of the law,” Navalny said.

In his final statement, Navalny urged protesters to keep coming out.

“They are the last barrier that prevents those in power from stealing everything. They are the real patriots,” he said. “You will not be able to intimidate us — we are the majority.”

Russian law enforcement conducted searches Wednesday at Navalny’s Moscow apartment and his team’s headquarters, according to his aides.

The raids came as Navalny’s allies called for a second round of unsanctioned nationwide demonstrations, planned for Sunday, to demand the activist’s release from detention.

Last weekend, tens of thousands of Russians took to the streets, resulting in nearly 4,000 detentions, according to monitoring group OVD-Info.

Tycoon urges US pressure on Putin

Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a former oil tycoon who was once Russia’s richest man, spent more than 10 years in a Russian jail after falling out with Putin.

Speaking to CNN from exile in London, he urged US President Joe Biden to put pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle to help save Navalny from a similar fate.

“Personal sanctions must be imposed by President Biden and others in the West on those closest to Putin,” he told CNN. “This would be extremely painful for Putin’s entourage and will affect the stability of his power.”

Khodorkovsky ran Russian oil giant Yukos until 2003. He was later convicted of tax evasion and fraud — charges he argued were politically motivated — and jailed.

“Looking back, I was one of the lucky ones. I lost a decade of my life in prison but others who challenge Putin have paid a far higher price,” he told CNN.

That list includes Anna Politkovskaya, one of Russia’s most prominent journalists and Kremlin critics. She was shot dead in 2006. There have been numerous arrests, two trials and five convictions, including of three Chechen brothers, but it is still unknown who ordered her murder. The Kremlin denies any connection with the killing.

In 2015, Russia’s former deputy prime minister Boris Nemtsov, then the most visible leader of the Russian opposition, was gunned down on a Moscow bridge within sight of the Kremlin. Five Chechen men were jailed for his killing in 2017.

Former Russian agent Alexander Litvinenko died in 2006 after being poisoned with a rare radioactive isotope, polonium-210. A UK inquiry concluded in 2016 that Putin probably approved the operation by two Russian agents to kill the ex-spy. Russia dismissed the UK inquiry as politically motivated.

US has ‘deep concern’ for Navalny’

The US State Department has called on Russia to free all those arrested at protests in the country over the weekend and for the immediate and unconditional release of Navalny.

US Secretary of State Tony Blinken said Wednesday that the Biden administration was conducting a review of Russian “actions that are of deep concern to us, whether it is the treatment of Mr. Navalny and particularly the apparent use of a chemical weapon in an attempt to assassinate him.”

Biden spoke to Putin on Tuesday for the first time since becoming US President, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said, and raised the poisoning of Navalny, among other issues.

“I don’t want to get ahead of where we are on those reviews,” said Blinken. “But as I say, we have a deep concern for Mr. Navalny’s safety and security, and the larger point is that his voice is the voice of many, many, many Russians, and it should be heard, not muzzled.”

Blinken told reporters he was “not ruling out anything but we want to get this full review done, and then we’ll take it from there.”

He also reiterated his comments from his Senate confirmation hearing that “it remains striking to me how concerned, and maybe even scared the Russian government seems to be of one man, Mr. Navalny.”

CNN’s Mary Ilyushina reported from Moscow and Laura Smith-Spark wrote in London. Anna Chernova contributed to this report.

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World

More rules for returning New Zealand travelers

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WELLINGTON, New Zealand — Travelers returning to New Zealand will face stricter rules at quarantine hotels as health authorities investigate how up to three people got infected with the coronavirus while isolating at Auckland’s Pullman Hotel.

The people were released before testing positive and were potentially contagious, but so far testing has shown no evidence the virus has spread in the community. New Zealand has managed to stamp out community transmission of the virus.

COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said Thursday that as an interim measure, travelers would need to stay in their hotel rooms for the final days of their 14-day mandatory quarantine, and would also face stricter controls around leaving their rooms at other times.

Health authorities believe the three people at the hotel caught the virus from another returning traveler, who had the South African variant.

Meanwhile, Australia has extended its suspension on quarantine-free travel from New Zealand for another three days. Australia is requiring New Zealanders to quarantine for 14 days in hotels upon arrival.

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THE VIRUS OUTBREAK:

The Biden administration is projecting as many as 90,000 Americans will die from the coronavirus in the next four weeks. The 27-nation EU is coming under criticism for the slow rollout of its vaccination campaign. AstraZeneca and EU to meet in Brussels to talk over vaccine production delays. U.S. boosting vaccine deliveries amid complaints of shortages. IOC, Tokyo Olympics to unveil rule book for beating pandemic.

— Follow all of AP’s pandemic coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic, https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak

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HERE’S WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:

BEIJING — China saw a slight drop in cases of domestic transmission, although clusters remain stubbornly persistent in the country’s frigid northeast.

The World Health Organization experts who have been in quarantine since their arrival in Wuhan two weeks ago are expected soon to conduct field visits as part of a worldwide investigation into the origins of the coronavirus that was first detected in the central Chinese industrial center in late 2019.

The National Health Commission said Thursday that 41 new cases of domestic transmission had been reported over the previous 24 hours, down from 55 on Wednesday 69 the day before.

A total of 1,820 people were in treatment for COVID-19 and another 988 being observed in observation after testing positive but displaying no symptoms of the virus. China has reported a total of 4,636 COVID-19 deaths from among 89,326.

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Note this version has been corrected with details on the WHO team’s quarantine.

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BOGOTA, Colombia — Colombia will ban flights from Brazil effective Friday over concerns of a variant of the coronavirus that is circulating in that country.

Colombia President Ivan Duque on Wednesday announced the 30-day measure. No flights will take off from Colombia to Brazil either.

In addition, anyone who arrived from Brazil to Colombia between Jan. 18 and Wednesday will have to quarantine for 14 days.

The Brazil P.1 variant was first identified in four travelers who were tested at an airport outside Tokyo. It contains a set of mutations that may affect its ability to be recognized by antibodies, according to the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The emergence of variants is linked to ongoing surges since infections give viruses the chance to mutate and spread. It’s another reason experts stress the importance of mask wearing and social distancing.

Colombia has recorded more than 2 million cases and over 52,100 deaths of COVID-19.

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MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Alabama health officials said Wednesday that the more highly transmissible COVID-19 variant seen in the United Kingdom has been found in the state.

The Alabama Department of Public Health said the variant is thought to be more contagious. It is the first time the variant has been identified in the state, although it has been detected in at least 24 other states, including Tennessee, Georgia, Florida, and North Carolina.

The variant was first detected in the United Kingdom in late 2020.

Health officials said the variant was found in two children and one adult in Alabama. Two cases are in Montgomery County and one is in Jefferson.

This variant is associated with increased person-to-person transmission of COVID-19, but state health officials said it “has not definitively been linked to worse outcomes of the disease.”

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SANTA FE, N.M. — Health officials in New Mexico said Wednesday that schools may have to make do with aggressive virus testing and limited vaccinations for elderly teachers, if they want to begin reopening soon.

New Mexico Health Secretary Tracie Collins said that schools can find some safety assurances by adding rapid-result tests that look for COVID-19 proteins, called antigens.

“Regarding schools reopening, you know we’re going to prioritize teachers getting a vaccine who are 75 and older,” Collins told a panel of state legislators Wednesday. “As far as the testing piece, we do have options for rapid antigen testing that we can combine. … We’ve got some things we can do to reopen these schools with a little more security behind us.”

She and Human Services Secretary David Scrase say the vaccine bottleneck is at the federal level in the supply chain, as local hospitals clamor for doses to inject at mass inoculation clinics.

“All schools can still open but if you’re in what we’re calling a red county, you would be tested much more often than you would in a yellow or green,” Scrase said, referring to color codes for infection rates.

New Mexico’s governor announced this week that all schools have the option to reopen classroom teaching on Feb. 8. The vast majority of students are confined to online learning currently.

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TORONTO — Canadian Prime Minister says the President of the European Commission has reassured him any vaccine export controls the EU enacts won’t impact shipments of Canada’s doses from Europe.

Trudeau says he spoke to EU President Ursula von der Leyen who he says told him transparency measures taken by the EU will not affect Canada’s Pfizer and Moderna vaccine deliveries from Europe.

The EU has threatened to impose export controls on vaccines produced within its borders, and warned pharmaceutical companies that have developed coronavirus vaccines with EU aid that it must get its shots on schedule. All of Canada’s Pfizer and Moderna vaccines come from Europe.

Canada isn’t getting any deliveries of the Pfizer vaccine made in Europe this week, shipments are set to resume next week.

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OKLAHOMA CITY — The Oklahoma State Department of Health will receive an approximately 16% increase in coronavirus vaccine per week during the next three weeks, deputy state health commissioner Keith Reed said Tuesday.

The announcement comes on the same day the health department reported a new one-day record of 65 deaths due to COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus.

The increase in vaccines is in line with President Joe Biden’s announcement that the U.S. is ramping up deliveries of the vaccine to provide enough doses for 300 million Americans by the end of the summer or early fall. Oklahoma expects to receive just more than 103,000 doses per week from the federal government, an increase from just under 85,000 last week, Reed said.

“This allows us to take a look at what’s going to happen the next three weeks, it helps us to understand how much vaccine supply we have that we can support bringing on some other pandemic providers,” such as local pharmacies, to provide vaccinations, Reed said.

The record increase of 65 deaths is three more than the previous one-day record reported on Jan. 6, according to health department records. The health department also reported 2,686 new virus cases Wednesday for totals of 3,388 deaths and 379,110 cases since the pandemic began.

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RALEIGH, N.C. — Gov. Roy Cooper on Wednesday extended a trio of executive orders allowing for curbside alcohol sales, a halt to evictions and a requirement for people to remain at home from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m.

North Carolina’s modified stay-at-home directive that was set to expire on Friday will now remain in place until Feb. 28, while the eviction moratorium and allowance for the sale of “to-go” or delivery of mixed beverages remains in place through March 31.

The Democratic governor’s extensions come as prominent state Republicans expressed their frustrations over a new coronavirus vaccine distribution strategy from Cooper’s administration that critics argue has prioritized speed over equity.

During a news conference, Cooper reiterated his desire to distribute the doses received by President Joe Biden’s administration quickly and equitably.

“The top priority in our state is getting vaccines to people as quickly and as equitably as possible,” Cooper said. “As of today, North Carolina has administered 99.8% of all the first doses that we have received from the federal government.”

Top Republican lawmakers on Wednesday signaled more scrutiny of the vaccine rollout.

Senate leader Phil Berger told reporters it makes no sense why state officials couldn’t distribute doses to ensure vaccine appointments occur as scheduled. Instead, Berger said, some older residents whose appointments were canceled may have to wait a month longer to obtain a shot.

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ANN ARBOR, Mich. — The University of Michigan and the Washtenaw County Health Department asked students Wednesday to avoid leaving their residences to slow the spread of COVID-19 and a more contagious variant.

There have been 175 COVID-19 cases in the student population since the new semester started on Jan. 19 and 14 of those cases have been a variant, according to a news release from the Washtenaw County Health Department.

The stay-in-place recommendation is effective immediately and will run through Feb. 7. The university and county health department are asking students to limit leaving their residence to going to classes, getting food, work and other necessary in-person activities.

The health department said in the news release that if the case counts continues to rise, stricter measures will have to be applied.

The recommendation came just days after the state health department recommended the university pause all athletics after several individuals linked to athletics tested positive for COVID-19 and the university complied.

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MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin will become one of only 10 states without statewide mask mandates if the Assembly votes as scheduled Thursday to overturn Gov. Tony Evers’ order, but masks will still be required in some of its largest cities thanks to local ordinances.

More than two dozen public health organizations, as well as state and local health officials, have urged the Republican-controlled Legislature to reconsider the scheduled vote. Wearing masks is one of the pillars of recommendations from health experts worldwide to slow the spread of the coronavirus, along with physically distancing and avoiding crowds.

The move comes as Wisconsin lags in distribution of coronavirus vaccines, health officials warn about the spread of contagious new variants and total deaths due to COVID-19 near 6,000.

Republican lawmakers contend that Evers exceeded his authority by issuing multiple health emergencies, and mask orders, rather than coming to the Legislature for approval every 60 days.

TORONTO — Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the President of the European Commission has reassured him any vaccine export controls the EU enacts won’t impact shipments of Canada’s doses from Europe.

Trudeau says he spoke to EU President Ursula von der Leyen who he says told him transparency measures taken by the EU will not affect Canada’s Pfizer and Moderna vaccine deliveries from Europe.

The EU has threatened to impose export controls on vaccines produced within its borders, and warned pharmaceutical companies that have developed coronavirus vaccines with EU aid that it must get its shots on schedule. All of Canada’s Pfizer and Moderna vaccines come from Europe.

Canada isn’t getting any deliveries of the Pfizer vaccine made in Europe this week, shipments are set to resume next week.

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O’FALLON, Mo. — Republican Gov. Mike Parson’s spokeswoman said Wednesday that the state plans to divert thousands of unused doses of coronavirus vaccine from CVS and Walgreens pharmacies to other state-enrolled vaccinators in Missouri to help the slower-than-expected vaccination process.

Spokeswoman Kelli Jones said the administration has requested the return of 25,000 doses from CVS and Walgreens, which would then be re-routed to county health departments, medical hospitals and clinics and hundreds of other state-approved vaccinators.

CVS and Walgreens were tasked with providing vaccinations at long-term care facilities under a Trump administration plan unveiled in December. Jones said Missouri’s new plan won’t affect shots for workers and residents at those facilities that have been ravaged by COVID-19.

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WASHINGTON — The Biden administration is projecting as many as 90,000 Americans will die from the coronavirus in the next four weeks.

That warning came Wednesday as the administration held its first televised science briefing on the COVID-19 pandemic. In the briefing, experts outlined efforts to improve the delivery and injection of vaccines.

The administration is examining additional ways of speeding vaccine production, a day after President Joe Biden announced the U.S. plans to have delivered enough doses for 300 million Americans by the end of summer.

Top infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci says there’s concern about virus variants. But he says vaccines provide a “cushion” of effectiveness, adding the government was working with pharmaceutical companies on potential “booster” shots for the new variants.

The Biden administration is asking citizens to recommit to social distancing measures and mask-wearing, pointing to scientific models that suggest those practices could save 50,000 lives over the coming months.

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LONDON — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has indicated that the coronavirus lockdown in England will remain in place until at least March 8.

In a statement to lawmakers, Johnson also confirmed new restrictions for travelers arriving in England from countries deemed to be high-risk. He says the U.K. remains in a “perilous situation” with more than 37,000 patients hospitalized with COVID-19, nearly double the number during the previous peak in April.

While dashing any hopes that students would return to classrooms after a mid-February school break, Johnson says the March 8 aspiration is based on progress on the vaccination front.

On Tuesday, the U.K. became the fifth country to record more than 100,000 coronavirus-related deaths.

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JOHANNESBURG — South Africa is preparing to roll out its first vaccines to the country’s frontline health care workers.

Health Minister Zweli Mkhize says a delivery of 1 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine is expected to arrive at Johannesburg’s international airport on Monday. There are plans for shots to be given to doctors and nurses starting in mid-February. Mkhize says South Africa intends to vaccinate 67% of its 60 million people in 2021, starting with the most vulnerable health care workers.

South Africa has 1.4 million confirmed cases and 41,797 deaths, representing about 40% of the cases reported by all of Africa’s 54 countries.

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OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma has reported a new one-day record of 65 deaths from COVID-19.

The previous one-day record of 62 was reported Jan. 6, according to the Oklahoma State Department of Health.

The department also reported 2,686 new cases Wednesday for totals of 3,388 confirmed deaths and 379,110 cases since the start of the pandemic.

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NEW ORLEANS — Coronavirus restrictions on public gatherings are easing a bit in New Orleans, but bars in the city will stay closed through the Mardi Gras season. City officials say a ban on public events will be eased Friday. Indoor gatherings of up to 10 people and outdoor gatherings of up to 25 people will be allowed. Capacity limits on restaurants — and bars that provide restaurant food service — will go from 25% to 50%.

Also, New Orleans education officials said students in kindergarten through eighth grade will begin returning to class on Monday. Most high school students will continue online learning until later in February.

The easing of restrictions comes as local authorities report that the percentage of positive COVID-19 tests has dropped below 5%. Statewide hospitalization numbers also have been falling in recent weeks.

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Business

Sanofi to help produce 100 million Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine doses

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The French company will aim to help supply more than 100 million doses of the vaccine this year from its German plant in Frankfurt, CEO Paul Hudson told Le Figaro newspaper on Tuesday.

Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech are, like other Covid-19 vaccine manufacturers such as AstraZeneca, struggling to meet the huge demand for shots that are the world’s best bet for overcoming the pandemic.

Last month, Sanofi and Britain’s GlaxoSmithKline said a Covid-19 vaccine they are jointly developing had showed an insufficient immune response in older people, delaying its launch to late this year.

The company has been under pressure since to seek ways of helping with Covid-19 vaccines devised by other drugmakers as the pandemic intensifies again in Europe and elsewhere.

“Since our main vaccine is a few months late, we asked ourselves how we could be of assistance now,” Hudson was quoted as saying.

Sanofi is also working on another Covid-19 vaccine candidate with U.S. firm Translate Bio which uses mRNA technology, similar to the approach of Pfizer/BioNTech. Phase I trials are expected to start this quarter.

Hudson confirmed in the interview that Sanofi remains committed to its two vaccines projects.

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Science

Global ice sheets melting at ‘worst-case’ rates: UK scientists | Climate News

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Rate of loss rose from 0.8 trillion tonnes per year in the 1990s to 1.3 trillion tonnes per year by 2017, with potentially disastrous consequences.

The rate at which ice is disappearing across the world matches “worst-case climate warming scenarios”, UK scientists have warned in new research.

A team from the universities of Edinburgh, Leeds and University College London said the rate at which ice is melting across the world’s polar regions and mountains has increased markedly in the last 30 years.

Using satellite data, the experts found the Earth lost 28 trillion tonnes of ice between 1994 and 2017.

The rate of loss has risen from 0.8 trillion tonnes per year in the 1990s to 1.3 trillion tonnes per year by 2017, with potentially disastrous consequences for people living in coastal areas, they said.

“The ice sheets are now following the worst-case climate warming scenarios set out by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC),” said Thomas Slater, a research fellow at Leeds University’s Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling.

“Sea level rise on this scale will have very serious impacts on coastal communities this century.”

Input from the United Nations’ IPCC has been critical to forming international climate change strategies, including the 2015 Paris Agreement under which the majority of greenhouse-gas emitting nations agreed to take steps to mitigate the effect of global warming.

The universities’ research, published in the European Geosciences Union’s journal The Cryosphere, was the first of its kind to use satellite data.

It surveyed 215,000 mountain glaciers around the globe, polar ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica, ice shelves floating around Antarctica and sea ice drifting in the Arctic and Southern Oceans.

Losses in Artic, Antarctic

The survey found the largest losses in the last three decades were from Arctic Sea ice and Antarctic ice shelves, both of which float on the polar oceans.

While such ice loss does not directly contribute to sea rises, its destruction does stop the ice sheets reflecting solar radiation and thus indirectly contributes to rising sea levels.

“As the sea ice shrinks, more solar energy is being absorbed by the oceans and atmosphere, causing the Arctic to warm faster than anywhere else on the planet,” said Isobel Lawrence, a research fellow at the University of Leeds

“Not only is this speeding up sea ice melt, it’s also exacerbating the melting of glaciers and ice sheets which causes sea levels to rise,” she added.

An earlier study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal based in the United States estimated that global sea levels could rise by two metres (6.5 feet) by the end of this century due to global warming and greenhouse emissions.

The report also said that in the worst-case scenario, global temperatures would warm by more than five degrees Celcius (nine degrees Fahrenheit), causing the water to rise, displacing millions of people living in coastal areas.

Another study, published in 2019 by the US-based Climate Central said that up to 300 million people may be affected by devastating flooding by 2050, about three times more than previously estimated. The number could go up to 630 million by 2100.

The study warned that key coastal cities such as India’s Mumbai, China’s Shanghai and Thailand’s Bangkok could be submerged over the next 30 years.

An estimated 237 million people threatened by rising sea waters live in Asia alone, the research said.



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World

Italy Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte will resign amid pandemic and political turmoil

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“The Council of Ministers is convened for tomorrow morning at 9 am, during which the Prime Minister, Giuseppe Conte, will communicate to the ministers his will to go to the (Presidential Palace) and hand in his resignation,” the statement read. He will then see the President Sergio Mattarella, it added.

The resignation is a calculated move that could ultimately afford him another chance at forming a government.

Conte survived two confidence votes in Parliament last week. But he lost his governing majority in the Senate after his predecessor, Matteo Renzi, decided to withdraw the small Italia Viva party from Conte’s ruling coalition over frustrations with the government’s management of the Covid-19 pandemic and attendant economic recession.

President Mattarella can choose whether to accept Conte’s resignation, and is likely to invite him to try to build a new governing majority. If Conte receives the mandate to form a new majority, he would need to add five more senators to his existing coalition.

Conte’s coalition, which was formed in 2019, is led by the center-left Democratic Party (PD) and the anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S). Despite vast political differences, the unusual alliance prevented snap elections which could have favored the far-right League Party.

Conte has enjoyed high approval ratings after Italy imposed Europe’s first lockdown last spring, in response to spiraling number of Covid-19 cases and deaths. Despite not having any political affiliation or party behind him, he remains Italy’s most popular politician with an approval rating above 50%, Reuters reports.

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World

Navalny protests: EU to consider ‘next steps’ after Russia carries out mass arrests | World news

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European Union foreign ministers will consider potential “next steps” against Russia after western nations condemned the Kremlin’s harsh treatment of demonstrators calling for the release of opposition politician Alexei Navalny.

The United States, Britain and EU countries criticised Vladimir Putin’s government on Sunday, with the French foreign minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, describing the mass arrest of thousands of protesters in several Russia cities as “an intolerable affront” and a “slide towards authoritarianism”.

Clashes broke out in Moscow, St Petersburg, Vladivostok and other cities on Saturday and some protesters clashed with riot police in body armour and helmets. Dozens of people were injured.

Poland’s president, Andrzej Duda, has called for the EU to step up sanctions against Russia over the treatment of Navalny, who was arrested on 17 January as he returned to Russia from Germany for the first time since being poisoned with a nerve agent.

“The only way to [avoid conflict] is to force international law to be observed. The only way to do this without rifles, cannons and bombs is via sanctions,” Duda told the Financial Times.

The Polish leader also said EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell should reconsider plans to visit Russia next month unless Navalny is released.

EU foreign ministers were expected to discuss their response to Navalny’s detention on Monday, with Borrell saying the “next steps” will be discussed.

Manfred Weber, a senior German conservative and head of the centre-right EPP grouping in the EU parliament, told Germany’s RND newspaper group that the arrest of protesters should not be tolerated and that Russia should face financial sanctions.

“It’s unacceptable that the Russian leadership is trying to make short work of the burgeoning protests by arresting thousands of demonstrators.

“The EU foreign ministers are not allowed to dodge this once again and stop at general appeals,” Weber said. “The EU has to hit where it really hurts the Putin system – and that’s the money,” Weber said, adding that the bloc should cut financial transactions from Putin’s inner circle.

In addition, a threat to stop the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which is meant to double natural gas deliveries from Russia to Germany, must remain on the table, Weber added.

A German government spokeswoman declined to comment when asked whether Berlin was willing to support new sanctions against Russia following Navalny’s arrest.

EU lawmakers passed a resolution on Thursday calling for the bloc to stop the completion of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline as a response to Navalny’s arrest.

Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel, who has continued to back the project despite criticism elsewhere in the EU, said on Thursday her view of the project had not changed despite the Navalny case.

During the protests, a spokeswoman for the US embassy in Moscow, Rebecca Ros, said on Twitter that “the US supports the right of all people to peaceful protest, freedom of expression. Steps being taken by Russian authorities are suppressing those rights”. The embassy also tweeted a state department statement calling for Navalny’s release.

Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said comments by the US were “inappropriate,”, and accused Washington of “interference in our internal affairs”.

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World

Dutch police clash with anti-lockdown protesters in 2 cities

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URK, Netherlands (AP) — Rioters set fires in the center of the southern Dutch city of Eindhoven and pelted police with rocks Sunday at a banned demonstration against coronavirus lockdown measures, while officers responded with tear gas and water cannons, arresting at least 30 people.

Police in the capital of Amsterdam also used a water cannon to disperse an outlawed anti-lockdown demonstration on a major square ringed by museums. Video showed police spraying people grouped against a wall of the Van Gogh Museum.

It was the worst violence to hit the Netherlands since the pandemic began and the second straight Sunday that police clashed with protesters in Amsterdam. The country has been in a tough lockdown since mid-December that is due to continue at least until Feb. 9.

In Eindhoven, 125 kilometers (78 miles) south of Amsterdam, a central square near the main railway station was littered with rocks, bicycles and shattered glass. The crowd of hundreds of demonstrators also was believed to include supporters of the anti-immigrant group PEGIDA, which had sought to demonstrate in the city.

Eindhoven police said they made at least 30 arrests by late afternoon and warned people to stay away from the city center amid the clashes. Trains to and from the station were halted and local media reported plundering at the station.

There were no immediate reports of injuries.

The violence came a day after anti-curfew rioters torched a coronavirus testing facility in the Dutch fishing village of Urk.

Video from Urk, 80 kilometers (50 miles) northeast of Amsterdam, showed youths breaking into the coronavirus testing facility near the village’s harbor before it was set ablaze Saturday night.

The lockdown was imposed by the Dutch government to rein in the spread of the more transmissible variant of the coronavirus.

Police said they fined more than 3,600 people nationwide for breaching the curfew that ran from 9 p.m. Saturday until 4:30 a.m. Sunday and arrested 25 people for breaching the curfew or for violence.

The police and municipal officials issued a statement Sunday expressing their anger at rioting, “from throwing fireworks and stones to destroying police cars and with the torching of the test location as a deep point.”

“This is not only unacceptable, but also a slap in the face, especially for the local health authority staff who do all they can at the test center to help people from Urk,” the local authorities said, adding that the curfew would be strictly enforced for the rest of the week.

On Sunday, all that remained of the portable testing building was a burned-out shell.

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Associated Press writer Mike Corder in Otterlo contributed.

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Follow all of AP’s pandemic coverage at:

https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic

https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine

https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak

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World

Protests in support of jailed opposition leader Navalny sweep across Russia

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The demonstrations kicked off in Russia’s far east city of Vladivostok and spread to the west as the day progressed. Videos posted on social media showed crowds of people gathered in Vladivostok and a number of cities across Siberia and central Russia.

One video showed a small protest in the city of Yakutsk, where temperatures dropped to -53 degrees Celsius (- 63 Fahrenheit) on Saturday.

The demonstrations have not received an official government permit and the authorities have warned people not to attend them.

Several allies of Navalny have been detained this week for inciting the protests, including his spokesperson Kira Yarmysh, Anti-Corruption Foundation investigator Georgy Alburov and opposition activist Lyubov Sobol.

The coordinator of Navalny’s Moscow office, Oleg Stepanov, was detained on Saturday, according to a tweet from Navalny’s Moscow team. A protest in the Russian capital was due to start at 2 p.m. local time (6 a.m ET).

The Russian Ministry of Foreign affairs has accused the United States of encouraging the protests after the US Embassy in Russia posted an alert on its website advising US citizens to avoid the demonstrations.

In a tweet posted on Saturday, the ministry said that posting information about the rallies was “in line with Washington’s provocative policy of encouraging protests in countries whose governments are seen by US as undesirable.”

Under Russian law, an official appeal for approval of a protest has to be made to local authorities at least 10 days before the event. Navalny was only arrested less than a week ago, so the organizers had insufficient time to launch an appeal.

Navalny was detained at a Moscow airport late Sunday, just moments after arriving from Germany, where he spent five months recovering from Novichok poisoning he blamed on the Russian government. The Kremlin repeatedly denied any involvement.
On Monday, he faced an unexpected hearing where a judge ordered Navalny to remain in custody for 30 days ahead of a court hearing to determine whether he had violated the terms of his suspended sentence in a 2014 embezzlement case, which he claims was politically motivated.

Russian internet regulator said Thursday it was planning to fine major social networks, including Twitter, Facebook and TikTok, for “spreading information prohibited by law and aimed at attracting minors to participate in unauthorized mass public events.”

CNN’s Fred Pleitgen, Zahra Ullah and Anna Chernova in Moscow contributed reporting.

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US

Russia welcomes US proposal to extend nuclear treaty

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MOSCOW (AP) — The Kremlin on Friday welcomed U.S. President Joe Biden’s proposal to extend the last remaining nuclear arms control treaty between the two countries, which is set to expire in less than two weeks.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said that Russia stands for extending the pact and is waiting to see the details of the U.S. proposal.

The White House said Thursday that Biden has proposed to Russia a five-year extension of the New START treaty.

“We can only welcome political will to extend the document,” Peskov said in a conference call with reporters. “But all will depend on the details of the proposal.”

The treaty, signed in 2010 by President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, 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. It expires on Feb. 5.

Russia has long proposed to prolong the pact without any conditions or changes, but President Donald Trump’s administration waited until last year to start talks and made the extension contingent on a set of demands. The talks stalled, and months of bargaining have failed to narrow differences.

“Certain conditions for the extension have been put forward, and some of them have been absolutely unacceptable for us, so let’s see first what the U.S. is offering,” Peskov said.

Mikhail Ulyanov, the Russian ambassador at the international organizations in Vienna, also hailed Biden’s proposal as an “encouraging step.”

“The extension will give the two sides more time to consider possible additional measures aimed at strengthening strategic stability and global security,” he tweeted.

Biden indicated during the campaign that he favored the preservation of the New START treaty, which was negotiated during his tenure as U.S. vice president.

The talks on the treaty’s extension also were clouded by tensions between Russia and the United States, which have been fueled by the Ukrainian crisis, Moscow’s meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and other irritants.

Despite the extension proposal, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Biden remains committed to holding Russia “to account for its reckless and adversarial actions,” such as its alleged involvement in the Solar Winds hacking event, 2020 election interference, the chemical poisoning of opposition figure Alexei Navalny and the widely reported allegations that Russia may have offered bounties to the Taliban to kill American soldiers in Afghanistan.

Asked to comment on Psaki’s statement, Peskov has reaffirmed Russia’s denial of involvement in any such activities.

After both Moscow and Washington withdrew from the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty in 2019, New START is the only remaining nuclear arms control deal between the two countries.

Arms control advocates have strongly called for New START’s preservation, warning that its lapse would remove any checks on U.S. and Russian nuclear forces.

Last week, Russia also declared that it would follow the U.S. to pull out of the Open Skies Treaty allowing surveillance flights over military facilities to help build trust and transparency between Russia and the West.

While Russia always offered to extend New START for five years — a possibility envisaged by the pact — Trump asserted that it put the U.S. at a disadvantage and initially insisted that China be added to the treaty, an idea that Beijing flatly rejected. Trump’s administration then proposed to extend New START for just one year and also sought to expand it to include limits on battlefield nuclear weapons.

Moscow has said it remains open for new nuclear arms talks with the U.S. to negotiate future limits on prospective weapons, but emphasized that preserving New START is essential for global stability.

Russian diplomats have said that Russia’s prospective Sarmat heavy intercontinental ballistic missile and the Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle could be counted along with other Russian nuclear weapons under the treaty.

The Sarmat is still under development, while the first missile unit armed with the Avangard became operational in December 2019.

The Russian military has said the Avangard is capable of flying 27 times faster than the speed of sound and could make sharp maneuvers on its way to a target to bypass missile defense systems. It has been fitted to the existing Soviet-built intercontinental ballistic missiles instead of older type warheads, and in the future could be fitted to the more powerful Sarmat.

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World

World leaders cheer US return to climate fight under Biden

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BERLIN (AP) — World leaders breathed an audible sigh of relief that the United States under President Joe Biden is rejoining the global effort to curb climate change, a cause that his predecessor had shunned over the past four years.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and French President Emmanuel Macron were among those welcoming Biden’s decision to rejoin the the Paris climate accord, reversing a key Trump policy in the first hours of his presidency Wednesday.

“Rejoining the Paris Agreement is hugely positive news,” tweeted Johnson, whose country is hosting this year’s U.N. climate summit.

Macron said that with Biden, “we will be stronger to face the challenges of our time. Stronger to build our future. Stronger to protect our planet.”

The Paris accord, forged in the French capital in 2015, commits countries to put forward plans for reducing their emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, which is released from burning fossil fuels.

As president, Donald Trump questioned the scientific warnings about man-made global warming, at times accusing other countries of using the Paris accord as a club to hurt Washington. The U.S. formally left the pact in November.

“The United States departure from it has definitely diminished our capacities to change things, concretely to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions,” said Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo.

“Now we are dealing with an administration that is conscious of what is at stake and that is very committed to use the voice of the United States, a voice that is very powerful on the international level,” she said.

Biden put the fight against climate change at the center of his presidential campaign and on Wednesday immediately launched a series of climate-friendly efforts to bring Washington back in step with the rest of the world on the issue.

“A cry for survival comes from the planet itself,” Biden said in his inaugural address. “A cry that can’t be any more desperate or any more clear now.”

Experts say any international efforts to keep global warming well below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit), ideally 1.5C (2.7F), as agreed in the Paris accord would struggle without the contribution of U.S., which is the world’s second biggest carbon emitter.

Scientists say time is running out to reach that goal because the world has already warmed 1.2 C (2.2 F) since pre-industrial times.

Of particular importance is deforestation in the vast Amazon rainforest. Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has faced criticism from global leaders, including Biden before his election victory, and non-profit organizations for rising deforestation.

Bolsonaro has been dismissive of international efforts to steer Brazil’s management of the huge rainforest, saying its resources must be harnessed to support growth and economic development. Still, he sent a letter to Biden on Wednesday urging that the two countries continue their “partnership in favor of sustainable development and protection of the environment, especially of the Amazon.”

“I stress that Brazil has shown its commitment with the Paris Accord after the introduction of its new national goals,” Bolsonaro added in the letter, which he published on his social media channels.

Italy said the U.S. return to the Paris accord would help other countries reach their own climate commitments. “Italy looks forward to working with the U.S. to build a sustainable planet and ensure a better future for the next generations,” Premier Giuseppe Conte tweeted.

The Vatican, too, was clearly pleased given the decision aligns with Pope Francis’ environmental agenda and belief in multilateral diplomacy. In a front-page editorial in Wednesday’s L’Osservatore Romano, Vatican deputy editorial director Alessandro Gisotti noted that Biden’s decision to rejoin Paris “converges with Pope Francis’ commitment in favor of the custody of our common home.”

German Chancellor Angela Merkel was more muted in her reaction, noting on Thursday that her government would “probably have a more similar opinion” with Biden on issues such as the Paris climate accord, migration and the World Health Organization.

Youth activists who have been at the forefront of demanding leaders take the threat of global warming seriously said they now want to see concrete action from Washington.

“Many countries signed the Paris Agreement and they are still part of the Paris Agreement, but they make very free interpretations of what that implies,” said Juan Aguilera, one of the organizers of the Fridays for Future movement in Spain. “In many cases, signing it has become a show, because at the end of the day the concrete measures that are being taken, at least in the short term, are not satisfactory.”

Biden has appointed a large team to tackle climate change both on the domestic and international front. Former Secretary of State John Kerry, named as the president’s special climate envoy, on Thursday took part in a virtual event with Italian industry at which he touted the ‘green economy’ as an engine for jobs and said the U.S. planned to make up for time lost over the past four years.

Organizers of a meeting Monday on adapting to climate change said they hoped Kerry would take part, too, and Biden himself has talked about inviting world leaders to a summit on the issue within his first 100 days in office.

Over the coming months the U.S. allies and rivals will closely watch to see by how much the administration offers to cut its emissions in the coming decade. A firm number is expected to be announced before the U.N. climate summit taking place in Glasgow, Scotland, in November.

Veterans of such gatherings noted the formidable diplomatic clout that the U.S. has managed to bring to them in the past.

Farhana Yamin, a British lawyer who served as adviser to the Marshall Islands in the Paris negotiations, said she left the climate talks in 2018 feeling “disillusioned” not only by the U.S. withdrawal but also by how other countries, including her own, were failing to live up to the agreed goals.

“I wish there were more progress here in the UK,” she said, adding she hoped that the change in the White House would mean others would increase their ambition on climate, too. “The U.S. always has massive influence on its allies.”

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Associated Press writer Karl Ritter and Nicole Winfield in Rome, Oleg Cetinic in Paris, Aritz Parra in Madrid and David Biller in Rio de Janeiro contributed to this report.

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Follow AP’s climate coverage at https://www.apnews.com/Climate

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