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The week of the European Parliament session in Strasbourg, France, has been canceled due to the corona pandemic. Instead, next week’s September meeting will take place in Brussels, Parliament Speaker David Sassoli said on Tuesday after a phone call with Strasbourg Mayor Jeanne Barseghian.
The department of Bas-Rhin, in which Strasbourg is located, has been reclassified by the French authorities as an area in which the coronavirus is actively circulating since last weekend. That also contributed to the decision to cancel the meeting there, Sassoli said. According to the President of Parliament, MPs and employees should have entered quarantine after their return to Brussels.
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The session’s week-long cancellation in France was preceded by a debate on whether MEPs and their staff should travel for the session, given current developments in the coronavirus pandemic. The speech by the head of the EU Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, on the state of the Union scheduled for next Wednesday will be the first of its kind that will not be given in Strasbourg.
Since March, meetings of the EU Parliament have been held in a smaller format online and in the plenary room in Brussels. The European Parliament has two seats. The Strasbourg seat is established in the EU treaties, and France insists that important decisions are only made there. The so-called two-day mini-plenaries usually take place only occasionally in Brussels.
Concern about the situation in the Czech Republic
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the latest development of corona infections in the Czech Republic is “worrying”. This was announced by the WHO representation in Prague. “There is no alternative to testing, tracking and isolating to control Covid-19, not here or elsewhere,” emphasize the experts.
The UN health organization contradicts Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš. He had said that the chains of infection can only be traced back to severe cases of disease. A decision could be made at the end of the week. Babiš reacted with irritation to the current criticism from international experts. “This is the WHO, which initially neither recommended a mask nor knew that a pandemic was happening; in my opinion, they should keep silent,” the billionaire wrote on Twitter.
The number of new infections each day in the country of nearly 11 million people has reached new record levels in the past two weeks. There were 563 cases on Monday, bringing the total number of active infections to 8,424, the Czech Ministry of Health announced on Tuesday. Therefore, 214 patients were in the hospital. 437 people have died so far.
From September 1, masks are again mandatory in Czech stores and shopping centers. The capital is particularly affected by the pandemic. In view of the increasing number of infections, there is growing concern that the German federal government may identify Prague as a risk zone. The German ambassador to the Czech Republic, Christoph Israng, warned several days ago on Twitter: “We all have to be careful to avoid damage to society and the economy.”
More than 100 Austrians receive a Trump crown check
Checks signed by US President Donald Trump to combat the economic consequences of the Corona crisis have also reached a number of Austrians. More than 100 checks of this type for $ 1,200 each (about 1,000 euros) have been cashed at banks, according to the ORF. One of the beneficiaries is a pensioner from Linz in Upper Austria who once worked for a brief period in the US At first he believed it was a bad joke, said the man from the ORF newscast. ZiB2. The bank had verified the authenticity of the check and, shortly after, had the money in the account.
The reason for the cash blessing could be a data breach with the US authorities. The US government had sent checks to countless people with the intention of helping with the coronavirus crisis. U.S. citizens with an annual salary of up to $ 75,000 received checks for $ 1,200, while working couples with salaries of up to $ 150,000 received $ 2,400. Payments to more than a million deaths were also made in error. Apparently, the Ministry of Finance and the tax authorities had not compared her data with the death reports of the social security authorities before sending the aid checks.
In the case of the pensioner from Linz, a good part of the money will go back to the United States. If travel restrictions drop again, she will eventually vacation there again, she announced.
India has the second highest number of corona cases worldwide
India has now replaced Brazil as the country with the second highest rate of corona infection. On Monday, the Indian Ministry of Health recorded 90,802 new infections in 24 hours, a total of more than 4.2 million cases. Only the United States, with its more than six million cases, is even more affected by the pandemic. In terms of the number of deaths from a virus infection, India remains in third place with 71,642 victims; the ministry reported 1,016 more deaths in one day.
In the past four weeks, India has discovered more than two million new cases and for almost a month it has been announcing the highest daily values of new corona infections. The virus is now gradually spreading to smaller cities and communities. However, the Indian government remains on track to loosen the crown’s restrictions to stimulate the economy again.
On Monday, for example, the Delhi Metro resumed operations after five months, a high-speed network connecting the capital New Delhi with the surrounding areas. Only people with no symptoms were allowed to board the trains. Masks, authorization from other travelers and temperature controls were mandatory. Before closing in March, the trains carried an average of 2.6 million passengers a day, making it the largest express transportation system in the country.
