Month: December 2020

Philippines: Boxer Pacquaio is head of ruling party

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Philippine boxing world champion Manny Pacquiao has been appointed the new leader of the ruling party PDP-Laban by President Rodrigo Duterte. The 41-year-old, who became world champion in eight weight categories and thus set a record that is still unbeaten today, was sworn in yesterday evening (local time), the party announced today. Pacquiao took office about one and a half years before the next presidential election in the Southeast Asian country. Pacquiao is a popular hero in the Philippines. In addition to his boxing successes, he went into politics in…

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Italy severely restricts travel over Christmas

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In the fight against the coronavirus, Italy severely restricts freedom of movement over Christmas and into the New Year. This was decided by the cabinet of Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte in the night to today. With the tightened travel restrictions, Rome wants to prevent a renewed increase in the number of infections. The approximately 60 million Italians are to be prevented from setting off in large numbers for Christmas vacation or visiting distant relatives. Specifically, the cabinet decided to ban travel between the various Italian regions as of December 21.…

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Snow fall in all parts of Austria

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All provincial capitals were covered in snow on Thursday, as reported by the Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics (ZAMG). The last time this happened was on January 24, 2019, and the fact that it was already white in all provincial capitals in the first half of December is already eight years ago: 2012 from December 10 to 13. In Vienna last winter it was white for a short time only on 19 January and 12 February 2020. In 2018 there was already a thin blanket of snow in the…

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Again almost 4,000 new infections in Austria

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On Thursday, almost 4,000 new infections were again reported in Austria. Since Wednesday, 3,969 new cases were added – on average, 3,913 new infections were recorded daily during the past week. Health Minister Rudolf Anschober (Greens) said in a statement that intensive care units are still heavily overloaded and the number of deaths is too high. Since the beginning of the pandemic, 3,538 people have died as a result of Covid 19 infection. In the past 24 hours, 92 coronavirus deaths were reported, according to figures from the Ministry of…

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EU warns: risk of renewed COVID 19 spread

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The topic of Christmas during the Corona crisis is polarizing within Europe. The EU Commission sees this as a particular risk of renewed spread and urges caution. In general, the Brussels authority recommends that the member states do not relax the rules for meetings in the first place. And if they do, then only with strict quarantine conditions for at least seven days before and after, it says. Contacts should always be limited and reduced to the same people during the holidays. Residential community may not be leftItaly’s government is…

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Germany extends partial lockdown until 10 January

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The partial lockdown in Germany with closed restaurants, museums, theaters and leisure facilities will be extended until January 10. This was decided by the German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the Minister Presidents of the federal states during their consultations yesterday, as the CDU politician subsequently announced. “In principle, the situation will remain as it is now,” Merkel said. Merkel made it clear that the federal government had made it clear that closed businesses would no longer be compensated according to turnover, unlike in November and December. “The federal states have…

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“Baby elephant” is word of the year

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“Baby elephant” is the Austrian word of the year 2020, and by a large margin the symbol for the minimum distance to avoid SARS-CoV-2 infection. The second place was already taken by “Corona” itself. The expert jury, headed by Rudolf Muhr from the “Gesellschaft für Österreichisches Deutsch” (GSÖD – Society for Austrian German language), justified the choice, which was made in cooperation with the APA – Austria Press Agency. In third place was the ambiguous “verblümeln”, according to the jury an “ironic play on words with the name of the…

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UNO warns of massive poverty caused by pandemic

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According to the United Nations, the long-term consequences of the pandemic could bring the number of people living in extreme poverty to more than one billion by 2030. However, this development could still be averted, according to a study published today by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). The paper outlines three possible future scenarios: In the worst case, more than 200 million additional people would suffer from extreme poverty by 2030 – and thus more than one billion worldwide. In the “basic scenario”, the figure would be 44 million…

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Spain tightens restrictions for Christmas

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In Spain, coronavirus restrictions will be tightened for the Christmas holidays: between 23 December and 6 January, the country’s 47 million citizens will only be allowed to leave their respective home regions in exceptional cases. This was decided today by the central government and the 17 autonomous communities of the country, as Health Minister Salvador Illa announced after the video conference in Madrid in the evening. According to the agreement, however, people in Spain will be allowed to cross regional borders during the cordoning off for meetings with close family…

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