Britain’s health minister Matt Hancock quit on Saturday after he was caught breaking Covid-19 rules by kissing and embracing an aide in his office, enraging colleagues and the public who have been living under lockdown.

In the latest scandal to rock a government that has overseen one of the highest official death tolls from the pandemic, Hancock wrote to Prime Minister Boris Johnson to resign, saying he had let people down.

An increasing number of his fellow Conservative lawmakers had privately called for him to go after the Sun newspaper published photos on Friday of the married minister embracing a woman whom he had appointed to a taxpayer-funded role to scrutinise his department.

“Those of us who make these rules have got to stick by them and that’s why I’ve got to resign,” the 42-year-old said in a video on Twitter.

Hancock had been at the centre of the government’s fight against the pandemic, routinely appearing on television to tell people to follow strict rules and to defend his department against criticism of its response to the crisis.

He will be replaced by Sajid Javid, a former finance minister with widespread government experience but new to health. Javid was forced out of the Treasury in early 2020 when he lost a power battle with Johnson’s then most senior ally, Dominic Cummings.

He will be tasked with helping the state-run health service recover from the pandemic and to deal with any future infection waves. Cases have started to rise in the last month.

Hancock’s departure also marks an embarrassment for Johnson after he said on Friday that he had accepted Hancock’s apology and considered the matter to be closed.

He said on Saturday he was sorry to receive the resignation.

“You should be immensely proud of your service,” he wrote in reply to Hancock. “I am grateful for your support and believe that your contribution to public service is far from over.”

The Sun had shown Hancock kissing the aide in his office last month, at a time when it was against the rules for people to have intimate contact with a person outside their household.

Time to go

Conservative lawmakers said many of them had told the party they could no longer support him.

The opposition Labour Party had also questioned whether Hancock had broken the ministerial code: the woman, a long-time friend, was appointed as a non-executive director to scrutinise the running of his department.

Media reports said on Saturday she had now quit.

Labour leader Keir Starmer said on Twitter that Hancock was right to resign, but added: “Boris Johnson should have sacked him.”

With 128,000 deaths and one of the deepest economic contractions on record, Britain has been convulsed by the pandemic and Hancock had been heavily criticised. In the early months his department struggled to deliver testing and protective equipment for hospital staff treating patients.

However, the government has been boosted by a rapid rollout of vaccines, with 84% of adults having had one dose and 61% both, well ahead of most countries.

While cases have started to rise – up 18,000 on Saturday – vaccines appear to have weakened the link between infections and deaths and most restrictions could be dropped by July 19.

Despite the improving situation, the revelations around Hancock had sparked accusations of hypocrisy. They also reignited the charge that Johnson’s government is beset by cronyism.

Hancock had last year welcomed the resignation of a senior scientist who broke restrictions in a similar manner. He had also been faulted for awarding Covid contracts to companies with close ties to government. He had said there was a need to act fast.

His case also had echoes of an incident last year when Cummings broke lockdown rules. Johnson’s decision to retain him sparked fury across the country and damaged the government’s standing.

On that occasion, ministers and lawmakers voiced their support for Cummings in a coordinated effort. In contrast, few if any defended Hancock on Saturday.

A source in Downing Street said Hancock had not been pressured to resign. He said in his letter to Johnson he wanted to apologise to his family and spend time with his children.

(REUTERS)

Several people were killed and others injured on Friday in the southern German city of Wuerzburg, police said, with media reporting a knife attack.

“The attacker was overpowered after the police used firearms. There are several injured as well as fatalities,” said police on Twitter, without giving details on the suspect’s motives.

German news outlets reported that the suspect had attacked people in the city-centre with a knife.

Police were able to arrest the man after shooting him in the leg, the Bild newspaper reported, adding that at least three people were killed and six others injured.

While the motive and full identity of the perpetrator have not yet been established, Germany has been on high alert after several deadly Islamist extremist attacks.

Suspected Islamists have committed several attacks in Germany in recent years, the deadliest being a truck rampage at a Berlin Christmas market in December 2016 that killed 12 people.

The Tunisian attacker, a failed asylum seeker, was a supporter of the Islamic State jihadist group.

More recently, one man was killed and another seriously injured in an Islamist knife attack in the city of Dresden in October.

A 20-year-old Syrian jihadist in May received a life sentence for the homophobic attack.

In August, six people were injured in a series of motorway accidents in Berlin in what prosecutors described as a suspected Islamist attack.

The number of Islamists considered dangerous in Germany rose sharply between 2015 and 2018, according to security services.

But numbers have declined since then, with just 615 considered dangerous by the latest count — compared with 730 in January 2018.

On top of that, there are also 521 people “who have attracted the attention of the security services but have not yet reached the stage of being considered dangerous”.

Chancellor Angela Merkel has allowed in more than one million asylum seekers since 2015 — a decision that has driven the rise of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which charges that the influx spells a heightened security risk.

But beyond Islamist attacks, there have been other assaults by knife-wielding people.

In October 2017, a knife-wielding man randomly attacked passersby in central Munich, lightly injuring eight people. Police excluded terrorism as a motive after detaining the suspected perpetrator.

(AFP)

Thousands of people in Madrid are protesting the Spanish government’s plan to issue pardons to a dozen separatist leaders who were convicted for their roles in a failed push for the Catalonia region’s independence, the biggest challenge to the country’s unity in recent history.

The demonstration on Sunday was organized by a civil society group to promote a united Spain and took place at a central square that has become a symbol for far-right political rallies.

Leaders of the center to far-right political opposition to Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez planned to join the protest at Colón Square, which boasts one of Spain’s largest national flags.

Sánchez hasn’t announced pardons for the 12 political and civil society leaders who in October 2017 pushed ahead with a banned referendum on Catalonia breaking away from Spain and then declared the northeastern region’s independence based on the vote.

But the prime minister has defended taking such a move as a way to bring Catalans and Spaniards closer together after the divisive prosecutions that put most of the Catalan leaders behind bars.

Sánchez is also facing criticism in his own Socialist camp, where the potential pardons are seen as a risky political gamble. While more than 60% of Spaniards oppose the pardons and only 29.5% back them, according to a recent poll for El Mundo newspaper, surveys conducted in Catalonia show support of 60% to 70%.

Detractors say the separatists have not shown any remorse for their defiance of the Spanish Constitution and that Sánchez is making concessions to them in exchange for support from Catalan lawmakers in the national parliament.

Tensions over secession grew in earnest a decade ago amid the economic hardship of the Great Recession and discontent over Spain’s opposition to more autonomy for the Catalan-speaking region of 7.5 million people.

The issue has also dominated the political debate at the national level and contributed to the rise of the nationalist Vox party, which has become the third-largest political force in the Spanish Congress.

Source: AP

Prosecutors called Thursday for a 18-month jail sentence for a man who slapped French President Emmanuel Macron across the face this week as he appeared for a fast-track court hearing in southeast France.

Damien Tarel, a 28-year-old medieval history enthusiast, has been in custody since the assault on Tuesday and risks a maximum three-year jail sentence and a fine of 45,000 euros ($55,000).

Speaking at court in the town of Valence, prosecutor Alex Perrin called for an 18-month prison term after describing the slap as “absolutely unacceptable” and “an act of deliberate violence”.

Under French law, prison sentences of less than two years can be converted into non-custodial punishment, meaning it is unlikely that Tarel would spend time behind bars even if the court followed the prosecution’s plea.

The long-haired history buff and board games enthusiast told investigators that he “acted instinctively and without thinking” after waiting for Macron outside a school in the village of Tain-l’Hermitage.

In court, he expressed sympathy for the anti-government “yellow vest” movement and said that he and two friends had considered throwing an egg or a cream pie at the head of state during his visit to the Drome region, according to the BFM news channel.

“Macron represents the decline of our country,” he told the court.

Tarel, unemployed and living on benefits with his disabled girlfriend, said he had been annoyed by Macron’s decision to come to greet him — “an electoral tactic that I didn’t appreciate”, BFM reported.

In a video of the incident, a smiling Macron can be seen striding towards a crowd of onlookers including Tarel who are being kept behind a barrier.

– Social media –

Macron has shrugged off the assault, calling it an “isolated event”, and he has vowed to continue meeting voters despite concerns for his personal security.

Asked about it again during an interview on Thursday with BFM, he called it a “stupid, violent act” and suggested it was a consequence of the poisonous atmosphere found on social media.

“You get used to the hatred on social media that becomes normalised,” he said. “And then when you’re face-to-face with someone, you think it’s the same thing. That’s unacceptable.”

Leaders across the political spectrum have united in condemning the slap, with many seeing it as a symptom of the fraught political climate and declining standards of public debate just weeks from regional elections and 10 months from presidential polls.

“The political climate is turning to vinegar. It’s dangerous what’s happening,” senior leftist MP and regional election candidate Clementine Autain told France Info.

Others saw the assault as a sign of how Macron, a reformist former investment banker, continues to inspire visceral rejection from many French people.

His presidency was rocked by the anti-government “yellow vest” protests in 2018-2019, which were driven in part by anger at his economic reforms as well as his abrasive personality.

Macron, 43, whose personal ratings have risen recently, is expected to seek a second term next year.

Polls show him holding a narrow lead over his main rival, far-right leader Marine Le Pen.

Other modern French presidents have been targeted in shootings, including post-war leader Charles de Gaulle and Jacques Chirac.

In 2011, right-winger Nicolas Sarkozy had a security scare in southwest France when he was grabbed violently by the shoulder by a 32-year-old local government employee.

Source: AFP

French President Emmanuel Macron was slapped in the face by a man on Tuesday during a visit to a small town in southeastern France, an incident that prompted a wide show of support for French politicians from all sides.

The French president was greeting the public waiting for him behind barriers in the town of Tain-l’Hermitage after he visited a high school that is training students to work in hotels and restaurants.

A video shows a man slapping Macron in the face and his bodyguards pushing the man away as the French leader is quickly rushed from the scene.

A bodyguard, who was standing right behind Macron, raised a hand in defence of the president, but was a fraction of a second too late to stop the slap. The bodyguard then put his arm around the president to protect him.

Macron just managed to turn his face away as the attacker’s right hand connected, making it seem that he struck more of a glancing blow than a direct slap.

French news broadcaster BFM TV said two people have been detained by police.

The man, who was wearing a mask, appears to have cried out “Montjoie! Saint Denis!”, a centuries-old royalist war cry, before finishing with “A bas la Macronie”, or “Down with Macron”.

In 2018, the royalist call was cried out by someone who threw a cream pie at far-left lawmaker Éric Coquerel. At the time, the extreme-right, monarchist group Action Française took responsibility for that action. Coquerel on Tuesday expressed his solidarity with Macron.

‘Isolated event’

In an interview with the Dauphiné Libéré newspaper later Tuesday, Macron played down the incident, which had made nationwide headlines, calling it an isolated incident perpetrated by an “ultra-violent” individual.

“I am doing fine. We must put this incident, which I think is an isolated event, into perspective,” he said, and added: “Let’s not let isolated events, ultra-violent individuals… take hold of the public debate: they do not merit it.”

Speaking at the National Assembly, Prime Minister Jean Castex was more forceful in his reaction. “Through the head of state, that’s democracy that has been targeted,” he said in comments that prompted loud applaud from lawmakers from all ranks, who stood up in a show of support.

“Democracy is about debate, dialogue, confrontation of ideas, expression of legitimate disagreements, of course, but in no case it can be violence, verbal assault and even less physical assault,” Castex said.

Far-right leader Marine Le Pen firmly condemned on Twitter “the intolerable physical aggression targeting the president of the Republic”.

Visibly fuming, she said later that while Macron is her top political adversary, the assault was “deeply, deeply reprehensible”.

Former President François Hollande of the Socialist Party tweeted that the assault is a “unbearable and intolerable blow against our institutions … The entire nation must show solidarity with the head of state”.

 Looming elections

Less than one year before France’s next presidential election and as the country is gradually reopening its pandemic-hit economy, Macron, a centrist, last week started a political “tour de France”, seeking to visit French regions in the coming months to “feel the pulse of the country”.

Macron has said in an interview he wanted to engage with people in a mass consultation with the French public aimed at “turning the page” of the pandemic – and preparing his possible campaign for a second term.

The attack follows mounting concerns in France about violence targeting elected officials, particularly after the often-violent Yellow Vest economic protest movement that repeatedly clashed with riot officers in 2019.

Village mayors and lawmakers have been among those targeted by physical assaults, death threats and harassment.

But France’s well-protected head of state has been spared until now, which compounded the shockwaves that rippled through French politics in the wake of the attack.

Macron, like his predecessors, enjoys spending time in meet-and-greets with members of the public. Called “crowd baths” in French, they have long been a staple of French politics and only very rarely produce shows of disrespect for the head of state.

A bystander yanked then-President Nicolas Sarkozy’s suit during a “crowd bath” in 2011 and his successor, Hollande, was showered with flour the next year, months before winning the presidential election.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP and AP)

More than 6,500 migrants out of the approximately 8,000 who had entered Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta earlier this week have been sent back to Morocco, Spanish Interior Minister  Fernando Grande-Marlaska said on Friday.

Marlaska told the Radio COPE the situation was now “normal” compared with the previous days, and hoped that the recent diplomatic spat with Morocco “will be as short as possible”.

Morocco had appeared to loosen its border controls with Ceuta on Monday as thousands of migrants poured into the enclave, a move widely interpreted as retaliation for Spain’s hosting of Western Sahara independence leader Brahim Ghali.  Ghali has been in a Spanish hospital since last month.

“It is inconceivable that a humanitarian gesture triggers a situation like the crisis in Ceuta,” said the minister.

Source: REUTERS

Spain has stepped up diplomatic pressure on Morocco after a record number of refugees reached Ceuta, a tiny Spanish territory in North Africa, amid political tensions between the two countries over Western Sahara.

On Tuesday, Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez flew to Ceuta, vowing to “restore order” in the Spanish enclave, after some 8,000 refugees, including 1,500 minors, reached its seashores by swimming or walking at low tide from beaches in neighboring Morocco a day earlier.

“We will restore order in the city and along our borders as quickly as possible,” he said, adding, “This sudden arrival of irregular migrants is a serious crisis for Spain and Europe.”

Sanchez said Madrid would deploy an extra 50 law enforcement officials to strengthen the 200 troops already stationed across the enclave to patrol the border with Morocco.

On Tuesday, armored vehicles were guarding Ceuta, and soldiers and police used batons to clear refugees from the beach and threw smoke bombs to discourage others from crossing.

The number of arrivals by sea had slowed, and some refugees were voluntarily returning to Morocco, a Reuters reporter on the ground said. A few others could be seen being carried away by soldiers. Footage of the beach at around 8 p.m. local time showed that nearly all the refugees had been cleared.

Spain said approximately 4,000 refugees had already been sent back to Morocco, under a readmission deal.

European Commission Vice-President Margaritis Schinas also said in a post on Twitter that the enclave’s frontier was a European border, expressing his “full solidarity with Spain.”

Spain also summoned Morocco’s ambassador to express displeasure at the mass arrivals in Ceuta.

Immediately afterwards, Morocco’s Foreign Ministry said it had recalled its ambassador from Spain.

Analysts say Morocco is intentionally looking the other way as the refugees arrive in Ceuta to place diplomatic pressure on Spain to recognize its sovereignty over Western Sahara.

Early on Tuesday, another 300 refugees attempted to cross into Spain’s Northern African enclave of Melilla by climbing over a border fence, with 86 being able to force their way into the territory.

Spain’s two North African enclaves, Melilla and Ceuta, have the European Union (EU)’s only land borders with Africa. They are often used as entry points into Europe for African refugees, who either climb over their border fences or try to swim along the coast.

The latest surge in arrivals came after Rabat expressed anger last month over Spain’s decision to admit the leader of the Polisario Front, Brahim Ghali, to a Spanish hospital for COVID-19 treatment.

In a strongly-worded statement, Morocco’s Foreign Ministry accused Spain of admitting Ghali under a false identity without informing Rabat and warned of consequences for the ties between the countries.

Isaias Barrenada, a world relations professor on the Complutense College of Madrid, said Morocco had sent a “strong message” to Spain by permitting the refugee surge into Ceuta.

However, Spain’s foreign minister insisted that Rabat had “assured” Madrid there was no connection between the surge and Ghali’s presence in Spain.

Morocco annexed Western Sahara — a former Spanish colony — in 1975, and has since been in conflict with the Algeria-backed Polisario Front. The movement has been fighting for the independence of the Sahrawi people in Western Sahara and a referendum on their self-determination.

Source: Presstv

The French army’s chief of staff on Tuesday called on a group of soldiers who signed an open letter warning about the risk of “civil war” in France to quit the armed forces.

“The most reasonable step is certainly to leave the institution in order to freely express their ideas and convictions,” General Francois Lecountre said in a letter to military personnel that contained no threat of sanctions.

The letter by the soldiers had warned of unrest in the country because of what they called “concessions” to Islamism by French President Emmanuel Macron.

The document, posted on the website of the right-wing Valeurs Actuelles magazine late Sunday, echoes a letter published by the same publication last month but appears to have been written by an unknown number of younger troops still in active service.

“Over the past several weeks …, the obligation of discretion for members of the armed services has been largely violated,” Lecointre said in his message.

He said those who had signed the letter “in order to defend personal convictions” had dragged the army into political debates it should steer clear of.

“Every soldiers enjoys freedom of thought but must unambiguously distinguish between civic and military duties,” the general added.

Those who signed the letter described themselves as soldiers from the younger generation of the military, a so-called “generation of fire” that had seen active service.

“They have offered up their lives to destroy the Islamism that you have made concessions to on our soil,” they wrote.

The latest letter as well as the previous one have prompted political uproar in France with Defence Minister Florence Parly dismissing them as part of a “crude political scheme” and reminding soldiers of their obligation of neutrality.

Last month an open letter by retired generals in Valeurs Actuelles warned Macron the country was headed for “civil war” unless he cracked down on Islamists, anarchists and anti-racism activists.

A number of serving defence force members also signed the dramatically-worded letter which warned that “laxist” policies would result in chaos requiring “the intervention of our comrades on active duty in a perilous mission of protection of our civilisational values”.

Failure to act against the “suburban hordes” — a reference to residents of the mainly immigrant tower blocks that ring French cities — and other unnamed groups who “scorn our country, its traditions and its culture” will lead to “civil war” and deaths “in the thousands”, the signatories warned.

Source: AFP

German police said Monday they had shut down “one of the biggest darknet child pornography platforms in the world” and arrested four of its members in a series of raids in mid-April.

The platform, named as “Boystown”, had existed since 2019, counted over 400,000 members and was “set up for the worldwide exchange of child pornography”, federal police said in a statement.

The darknet forum allowed users to communicate with others and share graphic image and video content which included “serious sexual abuse of toddlers”, the statement said.

Three men between the ages of 40 and 64 were arrested in seven raids in Germany, while a further suspect was detained in Paraguay on the request of German authorities.

The suspect in Paraguay’s Concepcion region, also a German citizen, is to be extradited back to Germany on the basis of an international arrest warrant issued by a court in Frankfurt.

Three of the men are accused of having managed the platform as administrators, providing technical support and advice to members on how to avoid being discovered by the authorities, while another was “one of the platform’s most active users”, police said.

Investigators added that the months-long, German-instigated operation had been coordinated by Europol and supported by law enforcement in the Netherlands, Sweden, the United States and Canada.

Both “Boystown” and other chat platforms were taken offline following the raids.

(AFP)

The bodies of three Europeans killed in Burkina Faso were flown to Spain on Friday, with Madrid pledging to keep up a “relentless” fight against the jihadist insurgency raging in Africa’s Sahel region.

The two Spanish journalists and an Irish wildlife activist were ambushed during an anti-poaching patrol in the impoverished West African nation which has been struggling with a surge in Islamist attacks since 2015.

Journalists David Beriain and Roberto Fraile were with Rory Young, head of the Chengeta Wildlife group, in the Arly National Park in eastern Burkina Faso when the attack occurred on Monday.

They were with a group that included soldiers and forest rangers when the assailants turned up in pickup trucks and on motorbikes, with the three Europeans initially reported missing.

The Burkina authorities said they had been “executed by terrorists”, becoming the latest victims of the ruthless Islamist insurgency gripping one of the poorest countries in the world.

Spanish Foreign Minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya and Defence Minister Margarita Robles were on the tarmac at Torrejon de Ardoz airbase as three wooden coffins were carried off the plane by 24 air force officers.

“These are the heroes of the day: David and Robert, who have done so much to give a voice to those who do not have one, who have done so much to shed light on the realities that surround us and that are sometimes invisible,” Gonzalez Laya said.

The pair had been working on a documentary on conservation in Burkina Faso.

The Irish ambassador to Spain, Sile Maguire, was also at the airbase.

Young’s body was to be flown back to Ireland later on Friday, the Spanish foreign ministry told AFP, without giving further details.

‘We will be relentless’

Hailing the pair for “doing so much to give a voice to the voiceless,” Gonzalez Laya said the government was posthumously awarding them the Order of Civil Merit “for their work in pursuit of a journalism that enhances our democracy”.

The violence had highlighted the importance of Spain’s continued involvement in “efforts for peace and stability” in the war-torn Sahel region, she said.

Extending condolences to the families who were also at the airport but not on the tarmac, Robles said Spain would do “everything possible to find out who was behind these appalling acts”.

She vowed that Spain would press ahead with efforts to help those fighting the Islamist insurgency in the region.

“The fight against terror in these areas is not going to stop, we will be relentless,” she said.

Hotbed of lawlessness

Burkina, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger have joined forces in a French-backed alliance called the G5 Sahel to fight jihadism on the southern edge of the Sahara, with the initiative also backed by Spain, Germany and Italy.

In a joint statement on Friday, Spain, France, Germany and Italy pledged continued security support for nations in the Sahel region which stretches from Senegal to Sudan and has turned into a hotbed of lawlessness over the past decade.

“We will continue existing initiatives to support the armies of the region, as well as the gendarmerie and internal security forces in their operations, training and capacity building,” they said.

Since 2015, more than 1,300 people have been killed and one million have fled the violence in Burkina Faso, which has ravaged this land-locked nation’s once-vibrant tourist industry

(AFP)