GENEVA (AP) � Swiss authorities are preparing to lift a freeze on tens of millions of dollars’ worth of assets linked to former Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, a decade after the longtime autocrat was driven from power in an uprising that set off the so-called “Arab Spring” movement.The release that could benefit relatives of Ben Ali, who fled with his family to Saudi Arabia in 2011 and died in 2019, has drawn the fury of advocacy groups in Tunisia who say the stash in Swiss banks should go to the Tunisian people.The assets, totaling 60 million Swiss francs at the time (about $67 million today), were frozen for a maximum of 10 years as part of a Swiss government order that targeted the funds of Ben Ali and nearly 50 of his relatives. The value of the assets has changed over time based on exchange rates, investment and other factors, the Swiss Department of Foreign Affairs said. The department said Swiss authorities repeatedly reached out to Tunisian counterparts before the expiration of the freeze at midnight from Monday to Tuesday. Many of the assets faced two levels of freeze -- one under the federal 10-year order, and another based on pending criminal proceedings and judicial cooperation agreements, the department said. A coalition of non-governmental organizations appealed to Tunisian President Kais Saied seeking an extension of the freeze. Ben Ali, who served as president for more than 23 years, fled with his family to Saudi Arabia after mass protests erupted across the north African country � partly out of anger over systemic state corruption and the large wealth that his inner circle had accumulated. He was survived by his wife, Leila Trabelsi, and children.Global Finance Integrity, a U.S.-based think tank that tracks illicit financial flows, has estimated that Ben Ali’s total wealth could amount to roughly $9 billion in countries including Canada, Saudi Arabia and Switzerland.Calls for the return of the assets have risen as Tunisia’s economic crisis has deepened. Economic output shrank 9% last year, while unemployment levels and attempts by Tunisians to migrate by sea to Europe have soared. “These are ill-gotten goods which have to be relocated to Tunisia and be invested in the Tunisian economy” said Khayem Chemli of the international legal aid group Avocats Sans Frontieres, or Lawyers Without Borders. Tunisian politician Abdellatif El Mekki wrote on Facebook: “Most importantly, it’s a cause of national honour.”In a press release, the Tunisian presidency said Saied had raised the issue in meetings with Prime Minister Zichem Mechichi and the governor of Tunisia’s Central Bank with the view of restoring assets “looted” by the old guard � but gave no further details.___Ebel reported from Tunis, Tunisia. Bouazza ben Bouazza in Tunis contributed to this report.

這篇文章 Swiss to lift freeze on millions linked to ex-Tunisia leader 最早出現於 The China Post, Taiwan。

JERUSALEM (AP) � The World Health Organization has raised "concerns" about the unequal distribution of coronavirus vaccines in Israel, which has given shots to more than 20% of its population, and the occupied territories, where Palestinians have yet to receive any, an official said Monday.Rights groups say Israel has the responsibility as an occupying power to provide vaccines to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. Israel says it has no such obligation and that its own population � including Arab citizens � is the priority, but that at some point it might consider sharing its supplies.The Palestinian Authority has accused Israel of “racism” for not sharing its vaccines, but it has made no formal request to Israel and says it is procuring its own supplies through a WHO program and agreements with private companies.The dispute reflects global inequality in access to vaccines, as wealthy countries vacuum up the lion's share of doses, leaving poorer countries even farther behind in combating the public health and economic effects of the pandemic. It has also emerged as another flashpoint in the decades-old Mideast conflict, even as the virus has wreaked havoc on both sides.“We’ve raised a number of public health concerns and equity concerns about this unequal distribution of vaccines or unequal access to vaccines," Dr. Gerald Rockenschaub, head of the WHO office for the Palestinian territories, told The Associated Press.“We have discussions with the Israelis on a number of levels, also from higher levels of our organization, trying to explore the option, whether Israel could consider to allocate vaccines" to the Palestinians, he said, adding that the “primary target” would be front-line health workers.Israel boasts one of the earliest and most successful vaccination campaigns in the world, with some 2 million doses administered since late December in a population of more than 9 million. The campaign includes Arab citizens of Israel and Palestinians living in annexed east Jerusalem.Israel captured east Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza in the 1967 war, territories the Palestinians want for their future state. Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, and two years later the Islamic militant group Hamas seized power from rival Palestinian forces. The Palestinian Authority administers parts of the occupied West Bank and helps coordinate health care in Gaza. Israeli Health Minister Yuli Edelstein said last week that Israel has been “closely cooperating” with the Palestinian Authority since the beginning of the crisis and might consider sharing vaccines at some point. “But we do have to understand that our first and foremost responsibility is to vaccinate the citizens of the state of Israel,” he told the AP.Israeli and international rights groups say Israel is required to provide vaccines under international law related to military occupation. Critics point to the fact that hundreds of thousands of Jewish settlers in the West Bank are eligible for the vaccine because they are Israeli citizens, while the 2.5 million Palestinians living in the territory are not.“Nothing can justify today’s reality in parts of the West Bank, where people on one side of the street are receiving vaccines, while those on the other do not, based on whether they’re Jewish or Palestinian,” Omar Shakir of Human Rights Watch said in a statement. “Everyone in the same territory should have equitable access to the vaccine, regardless of their ethnicity.”Under the Oslo accords signed in the 1990s, the Palestinian Authority is responsible for health care in the territories it administers, while both sides are to work together to combat epidemics.The Palestinian Authority hopes to get its first doses in the coming weeks through a WHO program known as COVAX, which aims to procure vaccines for needy countries but has been slow to get off the ground. Rockenschaub said the Palestinians would receive their first doses from the program as early as the beginning of February “under ideal circumstances.” The Palestinian Authority's reluctance to publicly ask Israel for help could reflect concerns that doing so would open it up to allegations from Israel and others that it was unable to provide for its own people or that it is not ready for statehood. Rockenschaub declined to weigh in on the political dispute, but said that from a public health standpoint Israel has an interest in the Palestinians being vaccinated.“It will be very difficult to ensure full protection of the Israeli population while not ensuring also that adequate vaccinations are done on the Palestinian side," he said, pointing to the estimated 140,000 Palestinians who regularly cross into Israel for work.He added that it's important to ensure that Palestinian medical workers are adequately protected “so that their health system doesn't collapse.”

這篇文章 WHO raises 'concerns' about Mideast vaccine inequity 最早出現於 The China Post, Taiwan。

Volg hier alle recente ontwikkelingen over de coronacrisis.

Kort corona ons lontje in? Zo lijkt het toch als je de zure reacties leest op de Open VLD-nieuwjaarsreceptie van afgelopen weekend. De partij van de premier zou de coronaregels aan haar laars gelapt hebben, zo schreeuwden de criticasters. Onterecht trouwens. Nog dit weekend twitterde Jacques Vermeire een filmpje van een man die door zijn dak ging omdat er gaan Jonagolds meer waren in de Aldi. “We wisten dat deze fase eraan kwam, maar we moeten erdoor”, zeggen psychologen.

De coronacrisis heeft Eurostar in een “zeer kritieke toestand” gebracht. Dat meldt Christophe Fanichet, de CEO van SNCF Voyageurs, de tak van het Franse spoorbedrijf dat de Eurostar mee beheert.

In 2020 werd 10,9 procent van de Belgische bevolking geconfronteerd met een situatie van materiële en sociale deprivatie. Dat blijkt uit de voorlopige resultaten van de EU-SILC-enquête die werd afgenomen door het statistiekbureau Statbel. Daarmee blijven de cijfers, ondanks de coronacrisis, ongeveer op dezelfde hoogte als in 2019.

The Bank’s £20bn corporate bond portfolio puts it outside the goals of the Paris Agreement, says James Moore

The EIB Group, made up of the EIB and EIF, and BNP Paribas have announced the signature of a synthetic securitisation to support French small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and mid-caps hit by the consequences of an unprecedented pandemic crisis.

Source

Source

De provincie Fryslân zet € 5 miljoen extra in om bedrijven en organisaties te ondersteunen die getroffen zijn door de coronacrisis.

Crisisperiode of niet, in maart komt er gewoon weer een nieuwe tent in de stad. Bij de Soup & Salad Foodbar Leeuwarden krijg je waarschijnlijk vooral veel soep en salades. Alles wat momenteel hip is, is verzameld in deze tent, die qua naam trouwens al een hele mond vol is. Dus daarom gaan wij het […]

The post Foodbar Leeuwarden opent in maart de deuren voor al je soep en salade appeared first on Suksawat.

Fr Fabio Attard, a Maltese priest who lives in Rome, describes the situation in Italy as ‘surreal’, saying that uncertainty looms across the nation, yet there are lessons to take from this experience, he believes.  

Fr Attard is a Salesian – a member of the Society of St. Francis de Sales, which is a congregation that engages chiefly in missionary and educational work – who is currently residing in Rome, Italy. He is well-known for the work he has contributed to the Salesian community in Malta and abroad. The Malta Independent spoke with him in order to get a glimpse into the life of a Maltese person in Italy during the pandemic.

“I have been living in Rome for a number of years. The situation, especially in the last 12 or 13 months, has been surreal. The situation here is always changing, there is a sense of fluidity; everyone expects something new every day,” he remarked.

“I was in Turin up until the middle of March, where we were going to hold an international meeting but had to cancel 3 weeks before it commenced. I went back to Rome where there was a total lockdown up until the first weekend of May.”

Fr. Attard spoke about just how much the first few months of the pandemic surprised everyone – especially in Italy, given that it had the first major outbreak of Covid-19 in the whole of Europe.

“The first impact surprised us – we weren't expecting it. Then things calmed down, but at the end of August—beginning of September, things changed for the worse again,” he said. 

Fr Attard recalled that because we were hearing about the pandemic everyday it seemed as if we had become impervious to the way it changed our lives; it was now starting to be seen as the ‘new normal’.    

“Since the news was flooding us with issues surrounding Covid-19 day in day out, it seemed as if we had become anesthetised to the situation. However, it appears as if the situation right now is worse than it was back in the famous weeks of March and April.”

He also said that in Rome, things are relatively less critical than they are in the north-east of Italy.

“The situation in Rome is not as critical as much as it is in Milan and Veneto – the north-east of Italy. In the first period, they seemed to control it, but now they are not managing to,” he noted. 

Regarding how the pandemic has affected his own life, due to the state of the world and Europe right now, he said that he decided to opt against coming down to Malta for the festive holidays as he usually does.

“I usually come down to Malta during the Christmas festivities but decided against it this time.” 

Even in terms of his ecclesiastical work, he did remark that, as like much of the rest of the world, “a lot of work is being shown online.”

“I had a lot of meetings at a European level due to the work that I have right now, as I was supposed to travel to all the European countries but of course I cannot move from here, so we're doing a lot of work online,” he said.

Fr Attard said that more compassions and “more conscious solidarity with elderly people” needs to be shown, as “statistics show that one out of five elderly people who contract Covid-19 end up dying.”

However, he did note that a lot of solidarity and generosity is being shown, something which impressed him and which he truly appreciates.

“What I'm noticing is in this time of crisis, a lot of solidarity is being shown. Those who work as front liners, educators, those who work in supermarkets... these are all showing a lot of generosity. These are the protagonists ... when the system failed, they were there. Without them, I don't know where we would have ended up.”

The sense of uncertainty during this time, as well as how Covid-19 has affected younger adults and adolescents, is something which he highlighted as major issues the world is facing and that we need to tackle.

“If you had to ask the word that is constantly coming up again and again in my mind is ‘uncertainty’. Total uncertainty,” he mused.

“The word struck me because when I was in contact with the younger generation, you see that they have lost the sense of day to day living that give them the sense of being close together. We need to study this in the future, as we have to see the impact it will leave on them. We need to show compassion with this generation.”

Fr Attard also called for vigilance and caution even after Covid-19 passes, as there will certainly be no return to the past, he said.

“When this passes, we can't close this event in brackets – definitely not... There is not going to be a return to the past. The past is gone,” he reflected. 

“As a person, I used to give a lot of attention to planning... I was giving too much importance to everything that is a human contribution. To organise society and life. A virus came, and it completely demolished the system. It made it null.” 

On a final ruminating note, Fr Attard remarked how the pandemic has thought us that we have been taking the very simplest of things in our daily lives for granted – especially human relationships and connections.

“We are trying to find human relationships that have inert value in them... these are not big things, but they are so small, and we have taken them so for granted that we lost the perception of their value,” he said.

“This experience has obliged me to give value to the simplest of things that when the virus came like a tsunami, those things were the things that we searched for.”

Empathy, then, is the solution to this maelstrom that Covid-19 has hurled us into – but which has also thought us, he believed.

“The sense of listening and the attitude of listening, the fact a person you know is going through a very hard time, has lost his job, doesn't know how he is going to pay his rent if they have a mortgage ... these are really dire situations.”

“We need to develop these values not only as if we are forced to, but as they would benefit us if we cultivate them,” Fr Attard meditated.  

Former Italian Premier Matteo Renzi is testing his already low popularity by provoking a political crisis that could bring down Italy's coalition government at a critical juncture in the coronavirus pandemic.

Renzi orchestrated the resignations of two ministers from his tiny but key Italia Viva party. The outcome of his power play will become clearer this week, when Premier Giuseppe Conte addresses both houses of Parliament. If Conte makes a successful bid for support, he could remain in power, possibly heading would be his third coalition government since Italy's 2018 election.

RENZI’S POWER PLAY

This is not Renzi’s first foray as an iconoclast shaking up Italian politics. He became premier in 2014 by out-maneuvering and unceremoniously deposing then-fellow Democratic Party member Enrico Letta as Italy's leader. Renzi himself fell from power nearly three years later after gambling his popularity on a constitutional referendum that failed.

Now, the 46-year-old former Florence mayor might bring down Conte. He broadly accuses the premier of not properly managing the coronavirus crisis. Renzi says he is only following his conscience, at great political cost.

“Italia Viva did not start the crisis. It has been going on for months,’’ he asserted during a press conference last week.

Renzi, a senator for the Italia Viva party, supported Conte during an earlier, failed power grab by Matteo Salvini, the leader of the right-wing League party that was part of Conte's first government.

New polls show junior coalition partner Italia Viva has the support of just 2.4% of survey respondents, down from a high of 6.2% at the party’s inception. Italia Viva was created in September 2019 when Renzi bolted the Democratic Party he once ran. He brought with him two Cabinet members, giving himself the kind of leverage he employed last week.

CONTE’S NEXT MOVE

With the resignation of the Italia Viva ministers, Conte is working to shore up support in parliament among independent lawmakers. He still has the backing of the Democratic Party and the 5-Star Movement, which have criticized Renzi’s move as irresponsible.

Conte will make his case in the lower house on Monday and to the Senate on Tuesday. A voice vote will take place after each appearance, tantamount to a vote of confidence.

If he fails to secure enough backing, Conte would likely submit his resignation to Italian President Sergio Mattarella. In that case, a technical government could be put in place. Analysts believe an early election is the least likely outcome, due to the difficulty of holding a political campaign and election during the pandemic. There are also concerns that the right-wing opposition would gain strength, and possible lead a new government. The current majority would like to hold on at least until January 2022, when a new president must be chosen.

Conte may survive to lead what would be his third government by cobbling together enough support in both houses. And it is still possible that Italia Viva will restore its backing.

WHAT'S AT STAKE

Italy expects to have 222 billion euros ($268 billion) in European Union economic recovery funds to manage, money that is crucial to modernizing the country and its limping economy.

While Conte had wide support during Italy's devastating go-round with the coronavirus in the first half of 2020, cracks in his popularity have appeared during the even more deadly fall resurgence. Four months into the government's system of tiered restrictions, new confirmed daily infections remain stubbornly high, and Italy's pandemic death toll of 81,800 is the second-highest in Europe after Britain.

Conte's government also is under fire for not keeping high schools open during the pandemic, a decision mostly tied to inadequate transportation to allow for social distancing. And there are concerns that Italy does not have enough medical personnel to carry out the country's vaccination campaign.

But the crisis was ultimately spurred when Conte presented a plan that would have put himself in charge of managing the EU recovery funds. Political analyst Wolfgang Piccoli called it “the ultimate mistake,’’ setting up Renzi’s move to reassert his own “prominence.”

Italians are showing little patience for the political infighting when the nation’s priority is getting the coronavirus pandemic under control and rolling out the vaccines that many hope will end the nation's long coronavirus nightmare. In a new poll, 42% of Italians said they didn't understand what provoked the latest government divisions.

The U.K. government plans to offer a first dose of COVID-19 vaccine to every adult by September as the nation’s health care system battles the worst crisis in its 72-year-history.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said Sunday that the government will soon begin a trial of round the clock injections at some locations as it continues to add more vaccination sites to increase the pace of delivery. The National Health Service opened a mass vaccination center on Saturday at the historic Salisbury Cathedral, where injections were accompanied by organ music.

“Our target is by September to have offered all the adult population a first dose,’’ he told Sky News. “If we can do it faster than that, great, but that’s the road map.”

Britain has more than 51 million adults in its population of 67.5 million people.

The ambitious vaccination program comes amid crushing pressures on the National Health Service. Already beleaguered hospitals are admitting another COVID-19 patient every 30 seconds, putting the service in its most precarious situation ever, said Simon Stevens, chief executive of NHS England.

“The facts are very clear and I’m not going to sugarcoat them, hospitals are under extreme pressure and staff are under extreme pressure,’’ he told the BBC. “Since Christmas Day we’ve seen another 15,000 increase in the in-patients in hospitals across England. That’s the equivalent of filling 30 hospitals full of coronavirus patients.”

Britain’s health care system is staggering as doctors and nurses battle a more contagious variant of the coronavirus coupled with cold, wet winter weather that drives people inside, where infections spread more easily.

The surge in infections has pushed the number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 to a record 37,475, more than 73% higher than during the first peak of the pandemic in April. Britain has reported 88,747 coronavirus-related deaths, more than any other country in Europe and the fifth-highest number worldwide.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Jan. 2 ordered England into its third national lockdown in an effort to slow the spread of the virus and protect the NHS, which Stevens said now has some 50,000 employees off work due to COVID-19 infections and exposure quarantines.

The government says it won’t review the lockdown measures until mid-February, by which time it plans to offer at least one dose of vaccine to everyone over 70, as well as to frontline health care workers and others who are especially vulnerable to COVID-19.

Once that goal has been reached, the U.K. will offer the vaccine to everyone over 50 before finally moving on to everyone over 18.

Unlike other nations, Britain has chosen to stretch out the time between vaccine doses from 21 days to up to 12 weeks — a decision that means more people will get at least one dose more quickly.

Britain has approved three vaccines — ones by Pfizer-BioNTech, Oxford-AstraZeneca and Moderna. The first two are already being used, while the Moderna doses are not expected until spring.

Meanwhile, vaccination centers are being opened in England at some of the country's great cathedrals. Salisbury Cathedral, which also houses a copy of the Magna Carta, opened its great nave to the public. Others will follow as the rollout continues.

Organ music played as the jabs were delivered at Salisbury. Requests were taken.

“I doubt that anyone is having a jab in surroundings that are more beautiful than this, so I hope it will ease people as they come into the building,” said the Very Rev. Nicholas Papadopulos, Dean of Salisbury.

We’ve been told several times that the government is moving as one on the way the pandemic should be tackled.

We’ve been told many times that Prime Minister Robert Abela and his deputy, Health Minister Chris Fearne, are on the same page on how Covid-19 should be addressed.

They both want us to believe that they share common ideas on the matter, and that all decisions that are announced and implemented have the backing of both, and that of the Cabinet of Ministers in what is known as shared responsibility. They say that all decisions are based on the advice of the health authorities.

But this is what they would like us to think – because the facts as they happened since the first case was registered last March show us otherwise. And the more time passes, the more the differences between the top two government figures emerge.

PL leadership

That the two happen to be the ones who contested the election for the Labour Party leadership and the post of head of government just before the pandemic broke did not help in their relationship, even because the wounds were still too fresh for them to be considered healed.

Fearne, let us remember, was the first to put his name forward as a replacement to Muscat when the latter announced his resignation in December 2019, and he appeared to be the ideal candidate. Many Nationalists considered him as a step in the right direction after Muscat, at least until he passed insensitive comments about their party. “When I die, they can write on my tombstone that the PN were never elected. Instead of RIP, they can write RIPN,” he had told a crowd of supporters during his campaign for the leadership.

It is probable that he wanted to endear himself with the Labour diehards, those who were ultimately going to vote in the leadership election. Maybe he was realising that he was moving from being the favourite to win the contest to being second choice, given that Robert Abela had thrown in his hat and was being tacitly supported by the party machine, then still led by Muscat.

Abela had come out of nowhere, first by launching a scathing attack on what he described as a “devilish” pact which he thought was being put in place to have Fearne take over from Muscat, and then submitting his nomination for the election, which he eventually won.

There was no love lost between the two, as Fearne saw Abela as the one who knocked down his ambition to become head of government, and Abela had to remain on the alert as his strongest rival was the second in command. Fearne first thought he would be uncontested, then thought he was going to win, but the Labour delegates chose Abela.

Fearne did not attend the rally the Labour Party organised for Abela to deliver his first address as leader. Then he needed some persuasion to retain his position as Health Minister, the one he had occupied under Muscat and which he thought put him on a launching pad to Castille. There were moments in which Fearne seemed to be considering his political future, before he finally agreed to stay on.

Perhaps Fearne stayed on reluctantly. We’ll never know and he will never admit it. But the relationship with his boss who, it must be remembered, had been elected for the first time in the last election and had never held a ministerial job, was not idyllic and did not improve after the leadership contest.

Health vs economy

The disagreements started to emerge as soon as the Coronavirus hit our shores in March, starting a long battle with a stubborn disease that has caused havoc, not only in Malta.

That Abela is a lawyer and Fearne is a doctor is already a strong indication of differences in character and approach. By tradition, lawyers tend to be cold, calculating and detached, whereas doctors are more homely, empathetic and amiable. This is perhaps why, in our political history, we’ve had many more lawyers who made it to the top than doctors. Because lawyers know their way around more than doctors do.

In this case, it was clear right from the start that Abela and Fearne wanted to deal with the pandemic in different ways. Abela was more inclined to see the economic consequences of the crisis; maybe it’s because, as prime minister, he was seeing the overall picture and he carries more responsibility than just health. On the other hand, Fearne tended to focus more on the complicated medical circumstances brought about by the virus.

And so the battle between health and economy began.

Fearne, backed by the health authorities and their advice, wanted to give priority to the medical aspect of the pandemic, knowing and understanding that the effects on people’s health were devastating, in particular the more vulnerable members of our society.

Conversely, Abela wanted to limit the effects of the pandemic on the economy. He was initially against the closing down of the airport, retail outlets and restaurants but he later had to succumb to the idea. Still, as soon as the numbers of the first wave began to decline, he immediately pushed for a reopening which turned out to be too early and one which led to a second, bigger wave.

In July, we were close to having zero active cases. But Abela moved too quickly, and the easing of the restrictions – and the irresponsible behaviour of some – opened the floodgates, with the number of new and active cases multiplying in days and the list of victims growing by the day.

Mixed messages

In all of this, people were getting mixed messages. Abela was pulling one way, and Fearne was pulling the other.

Abela was telling people to enjoy summer, that waves are only in the sea and that this is not the plague, clearly encouraging the people to live normally when these are not normal times.

Fearne, for his part, was being more cautious in his words, urging the people to make sacrifices because, at the end of the day, they were for their own good.

Then Abela came up with the famous “all is under control” quote, which he kept repeating even when more and more people were dying.

To appear to be doing something to limit the spread of the virus in the latter part of last year, when the second wave was in full swing, Abela chose to single out bars and clubs in fresh restrictions issued by the government, closing them down indefinitely and making them the sacrificial lamb of the situation. This was the only sector that suffered total closure in the past weeks and it is not known when they will reopen.

When Christmas was approaching, there were warnings that social and family gatherings would have possibly led to another surge of the virus. But these calls went unheeded by Abela who, unlike other European leaders who were busy ordering lockdowns and stricter restrictions, chose to leave things as they were.

Now we are facing the consequences of that decision, as the number of active cases reached record levels over the past week. What experts were predicting, and what Abela chose to ignore, has come true. Fearne reacted to this by saying that, if the numbers continue to grow, then there would be no other option than to issue more measures. Abela did not say a word about this, but since the numbers did continue to grow and no new restrictions have been put into place, then it is clear that, for now, the PM has had the last say on the matter.

The coming months

No one knows when this pandemic will be over. No-one, it seems, except Robert Abela. The Prime Minister has said that he wants the economy to start recovering by March and that it will be business as usual by May. Is he being bold and arrogant? Is he being optimistic and forward-looking?

Some would say yes, if they are blinded by political passion. But it is sheer presumptuousness on Abela’s part to say that all will be over by May. He’s raising expectations when he knows that the situation is too volatile to predict. And his obsession that he wants Malta to be the first to recover from the pandemic will possibly lead to hasty decisions that he will regret.

Elsewhere, leaders are reaching decisions on a day-by-day basis, but Abela thinks he knows more.

In another instant that speaks volumes on the discord that exists, Fearne is not following Abela on this one either. He is saying that one will know more when the vaccination campaign goes through and, even here, the timeline is uncertain. It is said that the frontliners and vulnerable people will all be vaccinated by May, but given that the rate of inoculation is slower than anticipated, this will probably take longer.

Fearne is saying that the vaccination campaign will be over by the end of summer but, again, this is too early to forecast.

Dates and more dates – what is sure is that Abela and Fearne have different views on what’s to come, and when it will come.

Voorlopig hoeven zorgverleners nog niet hun BIG-nummer te vermelden. Door de coronacrisis en de samenhangende vertraging van een voorlichtingscampagne zal het ministerie van VWS nog niet controleren of artsen het nummer vermelden. 

Het ministerie van VWS nam eerder dit jaar een besluit over de verplichte vermelding van het BIG-nummer. Zorgverleners moeten patiënten over hun BIG-nummer informeren wanneer zij daar om vragen, het nummer vermelden bij het gebruik van hun naam op hun website (of website van werkgever) en in de e-mail ondertekening van e-mailberichten die zij beroepsmatig verzenden. 

Zorgverleners krijgen minimaal een half jaar de tijd om de verplichting te implementeren. Dit hebben beroeps- en brancheorganisaties eerder met VWS afgesproken. Officieel gaat deze regelgeving in op 1 januari 2021, maar VWS geeft aan dat zij handhaving uitstellen door de coronacrisis. Om misverstanden te voorkomen daarom dit bericht: zorgverleners mogen wel, maar hoeven nu nog niets te doen.

Zodra er duidelijkheid is over het verdere verloop van de coronacrisis maakt VWS bekend wanneer het half jaar om aan de verplichting te voldoen ingaat. Ook geeft het ministerie dan meer uitleg over de verplichting met een voorlichtingscampagne.

Al die jaren van waarschuwingen, voorbeelden van hoe ze het zouden kunnen gaan doen, dat de media op grote schaal zal worden ingezet en dat geen middel geschuwd zal worden om het uiteindelijke doel te bereiken, absolute controle, tevergeefs?

Eén virus was er nodig om alle jaren van hard werken en informatievoorziening teniet te doen. Angst, deze keer niet voor een oorlog of financiële crisis, neen, deze keer werd de gezondheid van iedereen gebruikt om mensen bang te maken, ik zou het zelfs een bijna achterlijke angst willen noemen voor een tot nu toe onbewezen gevaar.

Het demissionaire kabinet tast dieper in de buidel dan verwacht om ondernemers tegemoet te komen in de coronacrisis.

Roland van der Vorst is head innovation van Rabobank en hoogleraar aan de TU Delft. Hij bedenkt een nieuw internationaal verdienmodel voor zijn bank. 'Het is de verbeelding aan de macht: de boeren en wij verdienen eraan. En de wereld wordt er beter van.'

Dit artikel verscheen op DuurzaamBedrijfsleven. Bezoek DuurzaamBedrijfsleven.nl voor al het nieuws over innovatie, cleantech en de business case van duurzaam ondernemen. Of volg ons via social media.

Met 2,5 miljoen bezoekers per jaar draait het businessmodel van Jaarbeurs om het bij elkaar brengen van grote groepen mensen. De coronacrisis raakt het bedrijf dan ook in de kern. Toch blijft CEO Albert Arp boven alles optimistisch. “Omdat we nu stilliggen, kunnen we meer gas geven op het stimuleren en integreren van duurzaamheid en technologische innovatie in ons bedrijf.”

Dit artikel verscheen op DuurzaamBedrijfsleven. Bezoek DuurzaamBedrijfsleven.nl voor al het nieuws over innovatie, cleantech en de business case van duurzaam ondernemen. Of volg ons via social media.

De coronacrisis raakt de hele samenleving maar vitale processen zoals afvalinzameling moeten doorgaan. Dat is een hele opgave, maar tot dusver gaat het goed. Wieger Droogh, algemeen directeur van Suez, is wel bezorgd door de afnemende vraag naar gerecycled plastic. Wat als ingezameld afval straks geen kant meer op kan?

Dit artikel verscheen op DuurzaamBedrijfsleven. Bezoek DuurzaamBedrijfsleven.nl voor al het nieuws over innovatie, cleantech en de business case van duurzaam ondernemen. Of volg ons via social media.

Landen moeten dringend meer maatregelen nemen om zich aan te passen aan de klimaatcrisis, zeggen de Verenigde Naties.

Het bericht VN: Landen moeten zich sneller wapenen tegen gevolgen klimaatverandering verscheen eerst op Duurzaamnieuws.

Tijdens deze Corona-crisis zijn creativiteit, innovatie en verbinding een waardevol goed. Nederlandse Fablabs en Makersplaatsen dragen hier aan bij door onze kennis over makerseducatie te delen via Webinars.  www.makerstream.nl Een spontaan initiatief van Makersclub Eindhoven werd opgevolgd door Makersbase Breda; het concept bleek verrassend simpel te verwezenlijken! Zo is de wens ontstaan om in samenwerking…

Het bericht Webinars op Makerstream.nl – leer het nu voor straks verscheen eerst op FabLab BeNeLux.

‘How to make (almost) anything’ was het devies van Fablab. Dan komt er nu werk aan de winkel. Maken van dingen tegen de COVID-19 crisis. Wat te maken ? Weten we nog niet, maar in de startblokken! Wij hebben lasersnijders, 3Dprinters, CNC, naaimachines en meer. Ga naar projectopenair.nl , de NL tak van projectopenair.org. Een…

Het bericht FabLab en Project Open Air verscheen eerst op FabLab BeNeLux.

Limburg pompt extra geld in een fonds dat de energietransitie moet aanjagen. Dat is volgens de provincie juist nu nodig omdat door de coronacrisis ontwikkeling van duurzaamheid door de markt moeilijker is geworden. Door de economische crisis is de wens vanuit het bedrijfsleven om energieprojecten medegefinancierd te krijgen met hulp van de provincie groter geworden, […]