AstraZeneca vaccine safe and effective in new trial data | Reuters

More evidence that the AstraZeneca vaccine is safe, so why is the EU continually coming out against this vaccine and not any of the others.

First we had Macron and Merkel then the blood clot scare followed by 17 European countries suspending use of the vaccine all of this without any reliable justification.

Is all this because of the AstraZeneca connection with the UK or do they wish their populations to catch COVID-19? If it is the latter this will be very disturbing. For while blood clots are not registered as one of the side effects of the vaccine, blood clots are down as one of the possible consequences of contracting COVID-19.

No wonder the take up rates of having the vaccines in Europe are very disappointing and while this is a very real cause of concern within Europe, it is also a very real concern in the rest of the World, including the UK. As by not having an effective take up rate this is leading to possible more mutations, some, which could well reduce the effectiveness of the vaccines, leaving those of us who have been vaccinated open to contracting COVID-19 with maybe serious consequences.

This, I feel is the EU playing with politics and a further punishment for the UK leaving the EU.

The EU need to get over themselves for they are the reason for Europe starting a possible 3rd wave of Coronavirus, due to their shambolic dealings with measures to combat COVID-19. Slowing in vaccine approvals, slow in placing vaccine orders, having less effective contracts of purchasing of COVID vaccines.

On the face of it the best thing the UK did was coming out of the EU, as the EU is much too bureaucratic.

Now the EU is threatening to stop companies exporting Vaccines, especially to the UK, when they have many supplies of vaccines in storage in the EU.  This is showing the EU in their true colours.

 

Source: AstraZeneca vaccine safe and effective in new trial data | Reuters

Explainer: Europe’s coronavirus smartphone contact tracing apps – Reuters

BERLIN (Reuters) – More than 20 countries and territories in Europe have launched or plan smartphone apps that seek to break the chain of coronavirus infection by tracking encounters between people and issuing a warning should one of them test positive.

 

Source: Explainer: Europe’s coronavirus smartphone contact tracing apps – Reuters

Trump asks NATO allies for help with Iran after years of bashing the alliance : The Conversation

President Trump’s speech about Iran wasn’t just aimed at that country or the US. He also targeted NATO allies, urging members of the alliance to step up and help US efforts in the Middle East.

Source: Trump asks NATO allies for help with Iran after years of bashing the alliance : The Conversation

Ryan Shorthouse and Anvar Sarygulov: We need more migrants to become citizens | Conservative Home

Doing so would improve social integration, enhance the contribution that migrants make, and allay public discontent over immigration.

Source: Ryan Shorthouse and Anvar Sarygulov: We need more migrants to become citizens | Conservative Home

If Germany atoned for the Holocaust, the US can pay reparations for slavery

The idea of paying reparations for slavery is gaining momentum in the United States, despite being long derided as an unrealistic plan, to compensate for state violence committed by and against people long dead.

The topic saw substantive debate in the July 30 Democratic primary debate, with candidate Marianne Williamson calling slavery “a debt that is owed.” Some Democratic congressional representatives are also pushing for financial recompense for the descendants of enslaved people.

Calls for reparations in the U.S. are generally met with skepticism: What would reparations achieve? Who should receive them, and under what conditions?

Other countries have tackled these questions. In 1995, South Africa established its Truth and Reconciliation Commission and paid reparations to the victims of apartheid. Eight years before, the United States apologized to 82,000 Japanese Americans unduly imprisoned during World War II and paid them US$20,000 each to compensate for their suffering.

Even Germany, birthplace of the worst racism ever institutionalized and elevated to official policy, has some lessons for the United States as it considers reparations.

Compensating victims of Nazi enslavement

I am a professor of political science who studies the relationship between democracy, citizenship and justice. My recent work on Germany examines how the country dealt with the horrors of the Holocaust.

Nazi Germany not only killed millions of Jews between 1933 and 1945. It also forced over 20 million people into slave labor, working them to their death in German industries. By 1944, a quarter of the German workforce was enslaved laborers.

 

Source: If Germany atoned for the Holocaust, the US can pay reparations for slavery

If Germany atoned for the Holocaust, the US can pay reparations for slavery : The Conversation

The idea of paying reparations for slavery is gaining momentum in the United States, despite being long derided as an unrealistic plan, to compensate for state violence committed by and against people long dead.

The topic saw substantive debate in the July 30 Democratic primary debate, with candidate Marianne Williamson calling slavery “a debt that is owed.” Some Democratic congressional representatives are also pushing for financial recompense for the descendants of enslaved people.

Calls for reparations in the U.S. are generally met with skepticism: What would reparations achieve? Who should receive them, and under what conditions?

Other countries have tackled these questions. In 1995, South Africa established its Truth and Reconciliation Commission and paid reparations to the victims of apartheid. Eight years before, the United States apologized to 82,000 Japanese Americans unduly imprisoned during World War II and paid them US$20,000 each to compensate for their suffering.

Even Germany, birthplace of the worst racism ever institutionalized and elevated to official policy, has some lessons for the United States as it considers reparations.

Compensating victims of Nazi enslavement

I am a professor of political science who studies the relationship between democracy, citizenship and justice. My recent work on Germany examines how the country dealt with the horrors of the Holocaust.

Nazi Germany not only killed millions of Jews between 1933 and 1945. It also forced over 20 million people into slave labor, working them to their death in German industries. By 1944, a quarter of the German workforce was enslaved laborers.

 

Source: If Germany atoned for the Holocaust, the US can pay reparations for slavery : The Conversation

Donald Trump falsely claims, again, that his father was born in Germany | Euronews

US President Donald Trump once again falsely claimed on Tuesday that his father was born in Germany when he was in fact born in New York in 1905.

Trump made the comments from the White House where he was meeting with the head of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), Jens Stoltenberg, and admonishing Germany for “not paying its fair chair” in defence spending.

“I have great respect for Angela (Merkel, the German Chancellor) and I have great respect for the country. My father is German, right. Was German and born in a very wonderful place in Germany. So I have great feeling for Germany,” Trump said.

According to a tally by the Washington Post and Buzzfeed News, it is the fourth time the American leader has publicly made the erroneous claim. He appears to confuse his father with his grandfather.

Friedrich Trumpf (later known as Frederick Trump) arrived in the US from his native Germany in 1885 at 16, US immigration records show.

His son – Donald’s father, Fred Trump – was however born in the Bronx, New York, in 1905.

Trump’s mother, Mary Anne MacLeod, was born in Europe. She acquired the American nationality in 1942, twelve years after leaving her native Scotland for the US.

 

Source: Donald Trump falsely claims, again, that his father was born in Germany | Euronews

EU economic slowdown: Germany and France DRAG down Europe amid euro PLUNGE | World | News | Express.co.uk

Economists in the European Union are scrambling to fix an impending economic meltdown following a shock plunge in Germany and France. The two leading EU countries suffered a dramatic economic slump after a business survey of the two countries was released. Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel were hit by weaker than expected figures, with fears that the two so-called “engines of Europe” could in fact drag down the bloc.

 

Source: EU economic slowdown: Germany and France DRAG down Europe amid euro PLUNGE | World | News | Express.co.uk

Brexit Latest: Germany CAVES IN – Merkel drops demands in MAJOR deal breakthrough | Politics | News | Express.co.uk

Germany has asked for less detail on the UK’s future economic and trade ties with the EU, according to Bloomberg.

It comes as European Commission officials attempted to block EU27 diplomats from joining UK government “technical seminars”.

The EU is concerned that any bilateral talks could derail the bloc’s Brexit negotiating strategy and allow Brussels to be sidelined at a time when both sides have admitted that a no-deal Brexit is a real possibility.

The UK’s Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab has said that if there were to be a breakdown of talks, there would be various mini-deals to mitigate the seriousness of a no-deal Brexit.

A diplomat from the European Commission told Politico: “We’ve explained everything that you should know, if you have more questions we’re always ready to provide answers. There’re absolutely no need to go to these seminars.”

 

Source: Brexit Latest: Germany CAVES IN – Merkel drops demands in MAJOR deal breakthrough | Politics | News | Express.co.uk

~Christmas Customs Around Europe~

Life Plan

Christmas is a unique time of the year. You understand it right when you spend these festive days in a European city. Each country has its own traditions and is a good time to travel to different parts of the old continent. The cities are decorated with every Christmas details the human mind has captured, while we are full of emotions.

December 25th is the most Christmas day and is surrounded by great religiousness. Both family and social or religious customs imposed by the time can lead you a step closer to God, to a festive meal, to a song, and a variety of other commonplace activities for some places. With the sound of the festive bells ringing in our ears, we will travel to the European countries with the most interesting Christmas customs.

The customs of  Netherlands

The great Christmas enthusiasm of the Dutch revolves around Santa Claus and…

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