Tag: Western Europe

German government seeks to ease rules for naturalization

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BERLIN — Germany’s socially liberal government is moving ahead with plans to ease the rules for obtaining citizenship in the European Union’s most populous country, a drive that is being assailed by the conservative opposition.

Chancellor OIaf Scholz said in a video message Saturday that Germany has long since become “the country of hope” for many, and it’s a good thing when people who have put down roots in the country decide to take citizenship.

“Germany needs better rules for the naturalization of all these great women and men,” Scholz said.

The overhaul of citizenship rules is one of a series of modernizing reforms that the three-party coalition of Scholz’s center-left Social Democrats, the environmentalist Greens and the pro-business Free Democrats agreed to tackle when it took office last December. The Interior Ministry said on Friday that draft legislation is “as good as ready.”

Last year’s coalition agreement calls for people to be eligible for German citizenship after five years, or three in case of “special integration accomplishments,” rather than eight or six years at present. German-born children would automatically become citizens if one parent has been a legal resident for five years.

The government also wants to drop restrictions on holding dual citizenship. In principle, most people from countries other than European Union members and Switzerland currently have to give up their previous nationality when they gain German citizenship, though there are some exemptions.

Interior Minister Nancy Faeser argued that reducing the waiting time to be eligible for citizenship is “an incentive for integration.”

The aim is to reflect reality, she said Friday. “We are a diverse, modern country of immigration, and I think legislation must reflect that.”

Official statistics show that about 131,600 people took German citizenship last year, a quarter of them citizens of other EU countries. The number was 20% higher than the previous year, in part because an increasing number of Syrians were naturalized. Germany’s total population is around 84 million.

The main center-right opposition Union bloc rejects the plans to liberalize naturalization laws.

“Selling off German citizenship cheap doesn’t encourage integration — it aims for exactly the opposite and will trigger additional ‘pull effects’ for illegal migration,” senior conservative lawmaker Alexander Dobrindt told Saturday’s edition of the Bild daily.

“Five years is a very, very short time” for people to be eligible for citizenship, Union chief whip Thorsten Frei told ZDF television.

Among other liberalizing plans, the government has removed from Germany’s criminal code a ban on doctors “advertising” abortion services. It has reduced the minimum age for voting in European Parliament elections from 18 to 16 and wants to do the same for national elections.

It also wants to scrap 40-year-old legislation that requires transsexual people to get a psychological assessment and a court decision before officially changing gender, and replace that with a new “self-determination law.” And it aims to decriminalize the possession of limited quantities of cannabis and allow its sale to adults for recreational purposes in a controlled market.

Some of the plans may run into difficulty in parliament’s upper house, which represents Germany’s 16 state governments and where Scholz’s coalition doesn’t control a majority. It had to water down elements of an overhaul of unemployment benefits to get that passed this week.

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November 26, 2022
Lionel Messi and Argentina look to revive World Cup campaign | CNN

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CNN
—

All eyes will be on Lionel Messi and his Argentina side on Saturday as they look turn around a dreadful start to the World Cup.

La Albiceleste were humiliated when they threw away the lead to lose 2-1 to Saudi Arabia in their opening Group G match at the World Cup.

The seven-time Ballon d’Or winner, who has yet to lift the World Cup trophy, didn’t hide from the embarrassment of Argentina’s defeat.

When asked about the team’s morale Messi replied: “Dead.”

It is not the first time that Argentina have lost their opening game unexpectedly.

In 1990, Argentina was on the receiving end of the one of the greatest shocks in World Cup history, losing to Cameroon.

However Argentina recovered to reach the final, before losing to West Germany.

If Argentina is to emulate that 1990 run, La Albiceleste will have to get past a stubborn Mexico, led by World Cup icon Guillermo Ochoa.

The Mexican keeper rose to fame over the last two World Cups, winning the Man of the Match award twice in 2014 with his superb shot-stopping.

Ochoa added to his mythic status this tournament when he saved a penalty from Robert Lewandowski in Mexico’s 0-0 draw with Poland.

Because Mexico and Poland drew, it is not quite do-or-die yet for Messi and Argentina, but they cannot afford to lose again if they want to progress from the group.

Having beaten Argentina, Saudi Arabia has become the story of the tournament.

The Green Falcons caused the biggest upset in the history of the World Cup by beating Argentina and after footage emerged of coach Hervé Renard’s impassioned half-time speech, they have become a surprise fan-favorite at the competition.

The Saudis beat the biggest team in the group, but the job is certainly not done.

Without injured midfielder Yasser Al-Shahrani their task will be much harder against a Poland side knowing it needs to pick up points, especially with a fixture against Argentina still to come

Poland themselves are desperate to make it out of the group, not least because that hasn’t happened since 1986.

No one wants that more than Robert Lewandowski. The striker will go down as one of the greatest goalscorers of his generation and is already both Poland’s most capped player and top scorer with 76 goals.

However, the Barcelona forward has remarkably never scored a World Cup goal. He played in all three games in Russia 2018 but struggled as the team ended bottom of their group.

He had a perfect chance to score in Poland’s opening Group G game against Mexico, but failed to convert his penalty.

France take on Euro 2020 semifinalist Denmark in the most intriguing encounter of the day.

After a sluggish start against Australia, France moved through the gears to thrash the Socceroos as Olivier Giroud equaled Thierry Henry’s record as the all-time top scorer for Le Bleu.

Questions hung over France before its campaign due to a number of with injuries, but Les Bleus quickly dispelled any anxiety as Kylian Mbappé and co. were at their terrific best.

Denmark won’t be a pushover, having already beaten France home and away in 2022.

The Danes, led by a fit-again Christian Eriksen, are touted by many as “dark horses” for the World Cup. But the team struggled against Tunisia despite coming inches wide from winning when Andreas Cornelius managed to miss the ball when he had a tap-in.

Saturday’s first match is between Tunisia and Australia.

The Socceroos got off to a terrific start against France taking the lead, before falling apart against the world champion.

And they will back themselves to get a win against Tunisia in a match where both teams need victory if they want to make it out of the group.

Tunisia vs. Australia: 5 a.m. ET

Poland vs. Saudi Arabia: 8 a.m. ET

France vs. Denmark: 11 a.m. ET

Argentina vs. Mexico: 2 p.m. ET

US: Fox Sports

UK: BBC or ITV

Australia: SBS

Brazil: SportTV

Germany: ARD, ZDF, Deutsche Telekom

Canada: Bell Media

South Africa: SABC

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November 25, 2022
The US-China chip war is spilling over to Europe | CNN Business

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Hong Kong
CNN Business
—

Two European chip deals have run into trouble over their links with China, a sign of concern spreading in the West over potential Chinese control of critical infrastructure.

Last week, the new owner of Britain’s biggest chipmaker was ordered to unwind its takeover, just days after another chip factory sale was blocked in Germany. Both transactions were hit by national security concerns, and had involved acquisitions by Chinese-owned companies.

In the United Kingdom, Nexperia, a Dutch subsidiary of Shanghai-listed semiconductor maker Wingtech, was told by the government to sell at least 86% of its stake in Newport Wafer Fab, more than a year after taking control of the factory. Staffers have since been protesting the decision, saying it puts nearly 600 jobs at risk.

In Germany, the economic ministry barred Elmos Semiconductor, an automotive chipmaker, from selling its factory in the city of Dortmund to Silex, a Swedish subsidiary of China’s Sai Microelectronics.

Chipmaking was already emerging as a new front in US-China tensions. Now the two troubled deals illustrate how the pressure is also rising in Europe, particularly as Western officials face calls for key sectors to be kept out of Chinese control.

“These decisions mark a shift towards tougher stances regarding Chinese investment in critical industries in Europe,” said Xiaomeng Lu, director of geo‑technology at Eurasia Group.

“US pressure definitely contributed to these decisions. [A] growing sense of technology sovereignty also likely prompted these moves — governments around the world are increasingly [viewing the] semiconductors industry as a strategic resource and seek to protect them from foreign takeovers.”

Legal experts said the two decisions were notable because each deal was initially thought to have been cleared.

The Newport Wafer case is “the first completed acquisition” that needs to be unwound under a UK national security and investment (NSI) act, which took full effect in January, according to Ian Giles, head of antitrust and competition for Europe, the Middle East and Asia for Norton Rose.

Nexperia said last week that it was “shocked” by the decision, and that “the UK government chose not to enter into a meaningful dialogue with Nexperia or even visit the Newport site.”

The company added that it had offered to avoid “activities of potential concern, and to provide the UK government with direct control and participation in the management of Newport,” a 28-acre site in south Wales.

The factory makes silicon wafers, the basis for making computer chips. Many of its products eventually power cars and medical equipment. Nexperia has indicated that workers at the facility now face an uncertain future.

In an open letter to the UK government last Thursday, the Nexperia Newport Staff Association said that it was “in disbelief” that employees’ livelihoods had been “put in jeopardy in the run-up to Christmas.”

“This is clearly a deeply political decision,” the group wrote, rejecting the idea that the deal would undermine British security. “You must see sense and protect our jobs by allowing Nexperia to keep their Newport factory.”

For Elmos, German authorities had initially indicated that they would issue a conditional approval, and even shared a draft approval after an intense review process lasting about 10 months, the company said in a statement following the injunction.

Tim Schaper, head of antitrust and competition for Germany at Norton Rose, said government intervention was also significant given that “Elmos’ technology is said to be quite old, state of the art in the 1990s, and allegedly not of great industrial importance.”

“The transaction became the plaything of a public debate about Chinese investors’ acquiring stakes in key German technologies,” he said.

It’s possible that regulators were concerned about an outflow of technical know how, according to Alexander Rinne, the Munich-based head of international law firm Milbank’s European antitrust practice.

“Elmos is known for making chips for the automotive sector, which is Germany’s core industry and the pride of the country,” he said in an interview.

Elmos and Nexperia both declined interview requests. A Nexperia spokesperson told CNN Business on Tuesday that it was “considering its options regarding the UK government’s decision.”

Chips are a growing source of tension between the United States and China. Washington has declared a shortage of the materials a national security issue, and highlighted the importance of remaining competitive in advanced technology capabilities.

This year, the United States ramped up its own restrictions and pressed allies to enact their own, according to Lu. In August, the US government ordered two top chipmakers, Nvidia

(NVDA) and AMD

(AMD), to halt exports of certain high-performance chips to China.

Two months later, the Biden administration unveiled sweeping export controls that banned Chinese companies from buying advanced chips and chip-making equipment without a license. The rules also restricted the ability of American citizens or US green card holders to provide support for the development or production of chips at certain manufacturing facilities in China.

The pressure is mounting. On Monday, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg urged the West to “be careful not to create new dependencies” on China. Speaking at a NATO parliamentary assembly in Madrid, Stoltenberg said he was seeing “growing Chinese efforts” to control Western critical infrastructure, supply chains, and key industrial sectors.

“We cannot give authoritarian regimes any chance to exploit our vulnerabilities and undermine us,” he said.

China has pushed back on the handling of the two European semiconductor cases.

“We firmly oppose the UK’s move, and call on the UK to respect the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies and provide a fair, just, and (a) non-discriminatory business environment,” Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning told a press briefing last Friday when asked about the Newport Wafer order. “The UK has overstretched the concept of national security and abused state power.”

Zhao Lijian, another Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, called on Germany and other countries to “refrain from politicizing normal economic and trade cooperation” at a press conference earlier this month, without addressing Elmos specifically.

Germany has shown greater scrutiny of Chinese buyers this year. Last month, a bid by Chinese state shipping giant Cosco for a stake in a Hamburg port terminal operator sparked similar controversy. Under pressure from some members of the government, the size of the investment was later limited.

Attorneys say if the chipmakers appeal, they could face an uncertain battle that may drag on for years.

In each case, they would need to file a challenge in court within roughly a month of regulators’ decisions, barring exceptional circumstances, according to Norton Rose.

Both Britain and Germany have recently added rules that expand government oversight over such decisions, making outcomes harder to predict. In Germany, a change to foreign direct investment rules in 2020 meant the government can intervene in prospective deals “if there is a ‘probable impairment of public order and security,’” said Schaper.

Previously, by contrast, it could only impose restrictions “if there was an ‘actual, sufficiently serious threat to public order and security,’” he told CNN Business.

In the UK, the ability of the government to retroactively review deals under the NSI Act “was really something that was considered surprising and far-reaching,” said Andrea Hamilton, a London-based partner at Milbank.

“If challenged, as Nexperia apparently intends, it will also become a test case as to [the] extent of the NSI Act’s limits,” she said.

Elsewhere, attention is shifting to the Netherlands. The Dutch government is currently facing pressure from the United States to limit exports to China, particularly from ASML

(ASML), a semiconductor equipment maker that holds a dominant position in the lithography machine market, according to Lu at Eurasia Group.

“It will become the next case study,” she told CNN Business.

The Netherlands has made clear it will form its own position.

Asked about the issue this month, Dutch Minister for Foreign Trade Liesje Schreinemacher said the country would “not copy the US export restrictions for China one-to-one.”

“We make our own assessment,” she said in an interview with Dutch newspaper NRC.

— CNN’s Zahid Mahmood, Rose Roobeek-Coppack and Laura He contributed to this report.

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November 25, 2022
IEA chief sees energy crunch for Europe next winter

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BERLIN — Europe should be able to cope with the natural gas supply crunch in the coming months thanks to considerable reserves although the continent could face a bigger energy crisis next winter, the head of the International Energy Agency said Thursday.

Fatih Birol said that, barring unforeseen events, “Europe will go through this winter with some economic and social headaches, bruises here and there” as a result of efforts to wean itself off Russian gas and the wider increase in energy costs resulting from the war in Ukraine.

“Next winter will be more difficult than this winter” he said.

Birol cited the fact that Russian gas supplies to Europe may end completely next year, while China’s demand for liquefied natural gas looks set to rebound as its economy recovers from the pandemic.

Meanwhile, the IEA projects new gas capacity coming online in 2023 to be the lowest in two decades, he said.

“(This) is the reason Europe needs to prepare today for next year,” Birol said, adding that solidarity among European nations was key.

Speaking at an energy symposium in Berlin hosted by the German government, the IEA chief said Russia can also expect to feel some costly effects of its falling out with European energy buyers over Ukraine.

With 75% of Russia’s gas exports and 55% of its oil going to Europe before the war, Moscow needs to find new markets for its output, he said.

Birol called it “completely wrong” to assume Russia will simply deliver to Asia, noting that pipelines through Siberia would take a decade to build and oil tankers need ten-times longer to reach clients in the East than in Europe.

Additionally, the departure of specialized oil and gas technology companies from Russia due to the sanctions means production at challenging extraction sites is likely to fall.

“Russia is set to lose the energy battle big time,” Birol said, adding that the IEA has calculated Moscow will lose about $1 trillion in revenue by 2030 because of its war in Ukraine.

While noting that the energy crisis also has severe impacts on developing nations, Birol said it would help speed up the transition to alternatives to fossil fuels.

“When I look at the (efforts to ensure) energy security, climate commitments and industrial policy drivers, I am optimistic that the current energy crisis will be a turning point in the history of energy policy making,” he said.

Still, this will require a five-fold increase in clean energy investments compared to today, said Birol.

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November 24, 2022
Poland upsets some by rebuffing German air defense system

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WARSAW, Poland — Poland’s government says an anti-missile system which Germany offered to send to Poland should instead go to Ukraine, a proposal that is a likely non-starter for Berlin because it would significantly ratchet up NATO involvement in Ukraine.

Poland’s surprising response to Berlin’s offer was welcomed by Ukraine, which is desperate to protect its airspace as barrage upon barrage of Russian missiles have knocked out power across the country.

But Germany’s Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht stressed that use of NATO defense systems outside its territory needs to be agreed by all member states.

“It is important to us that Poland can rely on allies to stand by each other, even in difficult times, and especially Poland in its exposed position,” Lambrecht told reporters in Berlin.

“That’s why we have offered to support air policing and Patriots, but these Patriots are part of an integrated air defense of NATO, that is, they are intended for NATO territory,” the minister said. “If they are used outside the NATO area, then it has to be agreed with NATO and with the allies beforehand.”

In Poland, critics of the populist ruling party accused it of sacrificing the country’s security with a war next door in Ukraine for the sake of a domestic political struggle which exploits anti-German sentiment for short-term gain.

The Rzeczpospolita daily called the new proposal by Poland’s leaders “shocking,” arguing that it would require sending German soldiers operating the system to Ukraine, and “that, in turn, would involve NATO in a direct clash with Russia, something the alliance has been trying to avoid from the beginning.”

“This proposal affects Poland’s credibility and, worst of all, its security. The Germans get a clear signal that we do not want their help, so the defense potential of the Polish sky will be lower,” deputy editor Michal Szuldrzynski wrote. “In the worst war in Europe since 1945, this is an unforgivable mistake.”

Poland’s populist ruling party, facing elections next fall with its popularity dented by 18% inflation, has been ratcheting up its anti-German messaging, long a staple of the party’s campaign rhetoric. Party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski has also been trying to link his domestic opponents, particularly Donald Tusk, a former European Union leader, to Germany, saying Sunday that if Tusk’s party wins next year, Poland would find itself “under the German boot.”

When Germany recently offered Warsaw Eurofighter planes and Patriot air defense missile batteries, Poland’s Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak initially said it was an offer he would accept with “satisfaction.” The offer came after two men were killed when an apparently stray Ukrainian defense projectile fell in Poland near the border with Ukraine on Nov. 15.

But Poland’s tune changed after Kaczynski gave an interview to the state news agency PAP on Wednesday, saying that the offer is “interesting,” but that “it would be best for Poland’s security if Germany handed the equipment to the Ukrainians.”

Since then, both Blaszczak and Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki have repeated the position of Kaczynski, the country’s most powerful leader.

After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, NATO beefed up its defenses along its eastern flank, including Poland, while Warsaw has worked to strengthen the nation’s own military with massive armaments purchases.

NATO deployed U.S. Patriot batteries to Poland, and German Patriot batteries to Slovakia, as well as a French equivalent system to Romania.

NATO’s policy is to not get directly involved in the war and to deploy the batteries only to protect member countries.

Tapping into anti-German feelings has long been a political strategy to win votes in Poland. Older Poles still carry the trauma of the atrocities inflicted on Poland by Germany during World War II. With the election campaigning underway, Poland has been demanding $1.3 trillion in wartime reparations from Germany — a bill Berlin says it won’t pay.

Kaczynski also blames Germany for supporting EU efforts to defend the rule of law in Poland and reverse changes to the judiciary, by withholding funding.

Meanwhile, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has created new strains. Poland was long a critic of Germany’s gas deals with Russia and has also been critical of Berlin’s initial hesitancy to arm Ukraine.

In Poland, some critics pointed out that the government was not only refusing higher military protection but also turning its back on critical EU funding, billions of euros that have been held up by the government’s refusal to follow EU guidelines on safeguarding the independence of judges.

Marcin Kierwinski of the opposition Civic Platform party said Kaczynski “has gone mad” for “rejecting” the Patriot missiles and EU funding “during war and crisis.”

————

Associated Press writers Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin and Lorne Cook in Brussels contributed to this report.

—————

Follow all AP stories about the impact of the war in Ukraine at

https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine.

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November 24, 2022
EU nations work on rift over gas price cap as cold sets in

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BRUSSELS — On winter’s doorstep, European Union nations have not been able to surmount bitter disagreements as they struggle to effectively shield 450 million citizens from massive increases in their natural gas bills as cold weather sets in.

An emergency meeting of energy ministers Thursday only shows how the energy crisis tied to Russia’s war in Ukraine has divided the 27-nation bloc in almost irreconcilable blocs.

A massive August spike in natural gas prices stunned all but the wealthiest in the EU, forcing the bloc to look for a cap to contain volatile prices that are fueling inflation. Following several delays, energy ministers are back trying to break a deadlock between nations that are demanding cheaper gas to ease household bills — including Greece, Spain, Belgium, France and Poland — and those like Germany and the Netherlands that are insisting a price cap could cut supplies.

A solution was nowhere near the horizon — to the frustration of many.

“It’s already minus 10 (Celsius) in Poland,” said the nation’s energy minister, Anna Moskwa. “It’s winter now.”

Natural gas and electricity prices have soared as Moscow has slashed gas supplies to Europe used for heating, electricity and industrial processes. European officials have accused Russia of energy warfare to punish EU countries for supporting Ukraine.

So finding a deal is not only about providing warmth to citizens but also about showing a united front to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Talks have dragged on for months and even if a summit of EU leaders proclaimed some sort of breakthrough last month, nothing has been visible on the ground. Nations had been waiting for a proposal from the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, to set a threshold for a price cap, and when it came Tuesday, there was dismay and accusations it could never work.

The commission set a threshold for a “safety price ceiling” to kick in if prices exceed 275 euros per megawatt hour for two weeks and if they are 58 euros higher than the price for liquefied natural gas on world markets.

In political language, it means that such a system might not even have averted hikes as high as in August.

“Setting a ceiling at 275 euros is not actually a ceiling,” said Greek Energy Minister Konstantinos Skrekas, who called for a cap that could go as low as 150 euros.

“We are losing valuable time without results,” he added.

In comparison, the price stood at 125 euros per megawatt-hour on Europe’s TTF benchmark Thursday. Since the price has fallen since the summertime peaks, diplomats have said the urgency has abated somewhat, even though it could pick up quickly again if the weather is colder than normal and supplies get tight.

Some 15 nations are united around these views, but Germany and the Netherlands lead another group wanting to ensure that gas supply ships would not bypass Europe because they could get better prices elsewhere.

“Security of supply is paramount. Europe still has to be an attractive gas market,” Estonian Economy Minister Riina Sikkut said.

No decisive breakthrough was expected at Thursday’s meeting.

Czech Industry Minister Jozef Síkela, who chaired the emergency meeting, said he was well aware of the “emotional reactions” the commission proposal had sparked and predicted that talks would be “rather spicy.”

As a result of trade disruptions tied to Russia’s war in Ukraine, EU nations have reduced the overall share of Russian natural gas imports to the EU from 40% before the invasion to around 7%. And gas storage has already far exceeded targets and stand nearly at capacity.

The EU has relied on increased imports of liquefied natural gas, or LNG, including from the United States, to help address the fall in Russian supplies.

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November 24, 2022
UK lecturers, teachers join postal workers in strikes

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LONDON — Thousands of postal workers, university lecturers and schoolteachers in the U.K. were going on strike on Thursday to demand better pay and working conditions amid the country’s cost-of-living crisis.

Picket lines will be set up outside postal offices, universities and schools in one of the biggest co-ordinated walkouts this year.

Britons have faced travel misery and overflowing garbage bins in recent months as unions representing multiple industries launched successive strikes. Lawyers, nurses, posties and many others have walked out of their jobs to seek pay rises that match soaring inflation. Domestic energy bills and food costs have skyrocketed this year, driving inflation to a 41-year high of 11.1% in October.

In Scotland, most schools will close Thursday as teachers there take the first large-scale strike action in decades.

In universities, some 70,000 academic staff will strike on Thursday and again on Nov. 30 in the biggest action of its kind in higher education. The action will affect an estimated 2.5 million students.

Meanwhile, workers at the Royal Mail will walk out on Thursday and again on Black Friday and Christmas Eve.

The latest walkouts come after the Rail, Maritime and Transport union announced Tuesday that more than 40,000 rail workers will stage fresh strikes in December and January, disrupting travel for scores of people during the busy festive season. The union said members will walk out for four days from Dec. 13 and in the first week of January.

Pubs, bars and other hospitality businesses have expressed dismay at the latest train strike announcement.

“Continued rail strikes have had a huge impact on our hospitality sector; preventing staff from making it into work and disrupting consumers’ plans, meaning a huge drop in sales for venues across the sector,” said Kate Nicholls, chief executive for the UKHospitality trade body.

“Further strikes during the busiest time of the year for hospitality will be devastating, just as everyone was anticipating an uninterrupted Christmas period for the first time in three years,” she added.

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November 24, 2022
Teen Gavi leads Spain to 7-0 rout of Costa Rica at World Cup

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DOHA, Qatar — Not since Pelé in 1958 had someone as young as Gavi scored a goal at the World Cup.

The 18-year-old midfielder led the way Wednesday as Spain pulled off the biggest World Cup victory in its history, routing Costa Rica 7-0.

“I could never have imagined it,” said Gavi, who was named the game’s most valuable player. “I know I’m the youngest in the team and I respect everyone, but on the field it’s different and I bring out my best.”

Pelé scored two goals in the 1958 final, when Brazil won its first World Cup by beating Sweden 5-2.

“I’m proud to be in that podium,” he said. “Not even in my dreams I had imagined this.”

Gavi only managed to score one goal on Wednesday, but his teammates added plenty of others.

Not long after Japan surprised Germany 2-1 in the other Group E match, Spain’s young squad avoided any chance of an upset with Dani Olmo, Marco Asensio and Ferran Torres scoring a goal each in the first half. Torres, Gavi, Carlos Soler and Álvaro Morata added to the lead in the second half.

In addition to Gavi’s mark, Olmo’s goal was the 100th at World Cups for “La Roja,” which became the sixth nation to score more than 100 times in the tournament.

It was the first time Spain scored seven goals in a World Cup match, and the first time a team completed 1,000 passes in a 90-minute game at the tournament.

“Our only goal is to control the game continuously, and to do that you need to have the ball,” Spain coach Luis Enrique said.

With Gavi and 19-year-old Pedri starting, Spain also became the first European nation with two teenagers in the starting lineup of a World Cup match in 60 years, according to statistics platform Opta.

Gavi and Pedri were among the many youngsters picked by Luis Enrique in a revamped squad in Qatar — the third-youngest team among the 32 nations, after the United States and Ghana.

The young duo helped Spain control the pace of the match from the start at Al Thumama Stadium. The 22-year-old Torres, who is dating the daughter of coach Luis Enrique, scored his first World Cup goal from the penalty spot in the 31st minute. The others came during the run of play.

“When things go your way like this, soccer becomes wonderful,” Luis Enrique said. “We played exceptionally well with and without the ball.”

Costa Rica looked overwhelmed throughout the game in its third straight World Cup campaign, failing to even get a single attempt on goal. The team came to Qatar hoping to repeat its surprise run to the quarterfinals in 2014 in Brazil, and avoid a repeat of its winless showing four years ago in Russia.

“We didn’t hold on to the possession as we should have done it,” Costa Rica coach Luis Fernando Suárez said. “We couldn’t complete three or four passes.”

Spanish players made it look easy with the ball on their feet, finishing the match with 72% of possession.

Spain, which didn’t get past the round of 16 in Russia, is trying to break through with a major title after making it to the final of the Nations League and the semifinals of last year’s European Championship. This year the team also qualified for the Final Four of the Nations League for a second straight time. Spain’s last major triumph came at Euro 2012, two years after it won its lone World Cup title in South Africa.

Only five countries have scored more goals than Spain at the World Cup — Brazil, Germany, Argentina, Italy and France.

Spain next faces four-time World Cup champion Germany on Sunday in one of the most anticipated matches of the World Cup.

———

AP World Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/world-cup and https://twitter.com/AP—Sports

———

Tales Azzoni on Twitter: http://twitter.com/tazzoni

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November 23, 2022
Official: Organized crime likely behind Celtic gold heist

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FILE — Coins of the Celtic Treasure are on display at the local Celtic and Roman Museum in Manching, Germany, May 31, 2006. A senior official said Wednesday that organized crime groups were likely behind the theft of a huge horde of ancient gold coins stolen from a museum in southern Germany this week. (Frank Maechler/dpa via AP, file)

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November 23, 2022
Kurdish forces preparing to repel Turkish ground invasion

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QAMISHLI, Syria — The commander of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in northeast Syria said his group is prepared to repel a ground invasion by Turkey.

SDF head Mazloum Abdi told the The Associated Press that his group has been preparing for another such attack since Turkey launched a ground offensive in area in 2019 and “we believe that we have reached a level where we can foil any new attack. At least the Turks will not be able to occupy more of our areas and there will be a great battle.”

He added, “If Turkey attacks any region, the war will spread to all regions…and everyone will be hurt by that.”

Turkey has carried out a barrage of airstrikes on suspected Kurdish militant targets in northern Syria and Iraq in recent days, in retaliation for a deadly Nov. 13 bombing in Istanbul that Ankara blames on the militant groups. The groups have denied involvement in the bombing.

On Wednesday, Turkey’s military struck infrastructure facilities in northeast Syria, including a telecommunication tower and oil and gas fields, according to SDF spokesman Farhad Shami. He added that one of the strikes hit near Jerkin prison near Qamishli where scores of members of the Islamic State group are held. Another strike destroyed a school in the village of Kuran near border town of Kobani, Shami said.

The strikes came a day after shelling the town of Azaz, which is controlled by Turkey-backed opposition fighters, killing five people and wounding five others. The shelling came from positions of the SDF and Syrian government forces, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor.

On Wednesday, the bodies of three people killed in Azaz were brought to the northwestern province of Idlib for burial. Local officials in the area said that the dead were displaced by Syria’s 11-year conflict that has killed hundreds of thousands and displaced half the country’s pre-war population of 23 million.

Following the weekend’s airstrikes from Turkey, Turkish officials said that suspected Kurdish militants in Syria fired rockets Monday across the border into Turkey, killing at least two people and wounding 10 others. Abdi denied that SDF had struck inside Turkish territory.

Turkey has threatened to escalate from airstrikes to a ground invasion. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday, “We have been on top of the terrorists for the past few days with our planes, artillery and drones. As soon as possible, we will root out all of them together with our tanks and soldiers.”

Erdogan added that the measures were for “the safety of our own country, our own citizens. It is our most legitimate right to go where this security is ensured.”

Turkey’s allies have attempted to dissuade such measures. Russian presidential envoy in Syria Alexander Lavrentyev said that Turkey should “show a certain restraint” in order to prevent an escalation in Syria and expressed hope that “it will be possible to convince our Turkish partners to refrain from excessive use of force on Syrian territory.”

Mazloum called on Moscow and Damascus, as well as on the U.S.-led coalition fighting against the Islamic State group in Syria, with which the SDF is allied, to take a stronger stance to prevent a Turkish ground invasion, warning that such an action could harm attempts to combat a resurgence of IS.

The Turkish airstrikes, which have killed a number of Syrian army soldiers operating in the same area as the SDF forces, have also threatened to upset a nascent rapprochement between Damascus and Ankara. The two have been on been on opposing sides in Syria’s civil war but in recent months have launched low-level talks.

————

Associated Press writer Abby Sewell in Beirut and Ghaith Alsayed in Idlib, Syria contributed to this report.

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November 23, 2022
Magnitude 5.9 quake hits northwest Turkey, 50 injured

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ANKARA, Turkey — A magnitude-5.9 earthquake hit a town in northwestern Turkey early Wednesday, causing damage to some buildings and widespread panic. Around 50 people were injured, mostly while trying to flee homes.

The earthquake was centered in the town of Golkaya, in Duzce province, some 200 kilometers (125 miles) east of Istanbul, the Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency said.

It struck at 4:08 a.m. (0108 GMT) and was felt in Istanbul, in the capital Ankara and other parts of the region. Dozens of aftershocks were reported, including one with a magnitude of 4.3.

The quake woke people from their sleep and many rushed out of buildings in panic in the province that experienced a deadly earthquake 23 years ago.

At least 50 people were treated in hospitals for injuries in Duzce and nearby regions, mostly sustained during the panic, including from jumping from balconies or windows. One of them was in serious condition, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu told private NTV television.

Power was cut in the region as a safety measure, the minister said.

The quake demolished the exterior cladding and parts of the roof of a courthouse in Duzce, HaberTurk television reported. Among other damage, a two-story shop collapsed on a narrow street, it said.

In Golkaya, people gathered in a main square, some wrapped in blankets distributed by the emergency management agency, television footage showed.

Duzce Gov. Cevdet Atay said schools in the region were being closed as a precaution.

Around 800 people were killed in a powerful earthquake that hit Duzce on Nov. 12, 1999. In August of that year, 17,000 people were killed by another powerful temblor that devastated nearby Kocaeli province and other parts of northwest Turkey.

Officials said around 80% of the buildings in the area were rebuilt or fortified following the 1999 earthquakes, which helped minimize damage.

Turkey sits on top of major fault lines and is frequently shaken by earthquakes.

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November 22, 2022
Turkey hints new Syria offensive; Russia urges restraint

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ANKARA — Turkey’s president again hinted at a possible new ground offensive in Syria against Kurdish militants on Tuesday, as Syrian forces denounced new airstrikes and Russia urged restraint and called on Ankara to avoid an escalation.

Russian presidential envoy in Syria Alexander Lavrentyev said that Turkey should “show a certain restraint” in order to prevent an escalation in Syria, where tensions heightened over the weekend after Turkish airstrikes killed and wounded a number of Syrian soldiers.

Lavrentyev — whose country is a strong ally of the Syrian government — expressed hope that “it will be possible to convince our Turkish partners to refrain from excessive use of force on Syrian territory.”

Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces later said fresh Turkish airstrikes on Tuesday struck a base the group shares with the U.S.-led coalition in the fight against the Islamic State group. The base is just outside the town of Qamishli, 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the Turkish border. Two SDF fighters were killed and three were wounded, the group said.

Turkey carried out airstrikes on suspected Kurdish militant targets in northern Syria and Iraq over the weekend, in retaliation for a deadly Nov. 13 bombing in Istanbul that Ankara blames on the militant groups. The groups have denied involvement in the bombing.

The airstrikes also hit several Syrian army positions in three provinces along the border with Turkey, and killed and wounded a number of Syrian soldiers, Syrian officials said.

“We will, of course, call on our Turkish colleagues to show a certain restraint in order to prevent an escalation of tension, and an escalation of tension not only in the north, but also in the entire territory of Syria,” Lavrentyev was quoted as saying by the Russian state news agencies in the Kazakh capital, Astana, ahead of talks on Syria.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said Turkey’s actions would not be limited to aerial strikes, suggesting a possible new incursion — a position he reiterated on Tuesday.

“We have been on top of the terrorists for the past few days with our planes, artillery and drones,” Erdogan said. “As soon as possible, we will root out all of them together with our tanks and soldiers.”

Erdogan continued: “From now on, there is only one measure for us. There is only one border. (And that is) the safety of our own country, our own citizens. It is our most legitimate right to go where this security is ensured.”

Turkey has launched three major incursions into northern Syria since 2016 and already controls some Syrian territory in the north.

Following the weekend’s airstrikes from Turkey, suspected Kurdish militants in Syria fired rockets Monday across the border into Turkey, killing at least two people and wounding 10 others, according to Turkish officials. Three more rockets were fired on Tuesday, but caused no damage or injuries, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

While Kurdish-led forces in Syria have not claimed responsibility for the attacks, the SDF on Monday vowed to respond to Turkish airstrikes “effectively and efficiently at the right time and place.”

The Turkish warplanes attacked bases of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, and the Syrian People’s Protection Units, or YPG on Saturday night and on Sunday. Turkish officials claimed that 89 targets were destroyed and many militants were killed.

A Syria war monitoring group said 35 people were killed in Turkish airstrikes over the weekend — 18 Kurdish fighters, 16 Syrian government soldiers and a journalist.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday that Moscow views Turkey’s security concerns “with understanding and respect” but also urges Ankara to “refrain from steps that could lead to a serious destabilization of the situation in general.”

“It can come back as a boomerang,” Peskov said.

Also Tuesday, German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser reiterated during a joint news conference with her Turkish counterpart that Berlin stands with Turkey in the fight against terrorism, but said Turkey’s response to attacks must be “proportionate” and mindful of civilian populations.

Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu, however, defended Turkey’s actions.

“They want to establish a terror state around us, we cannot allow that. It is our duty to protect our borders and our nation,” he said.

Turkey’s defense minister meanwhile, renewed a call for the United States and other nations not to back the Syrian Kurdish militia group, YPG, which Turkey regards as an extension of the PKK.

“We express at every level that ‘PKK equals YPG’ to all our interlocutors, especially the United States, and constantly demand that all support to terrorists be cut,” Hulusi Akar told a parliamentary committee.

Ankara and Washington both consider the PKK a terror group, but disagree on the status of the YPG. Under the banner of the Syrian Democratic Forces, the YPG has been allied with the U.S. in the fight against the Islamic State group in Syria.

——

AP reporters Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut and Dasha Litvinova in Tallinn, Estonia, contributed to this report.

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November 22, 2022
Europe seeks bigger piece of space market with new launchers

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PARIS — France, Germany and Italy announced an agreement Tuesday for a new-generation European space launcher project as part of apparent efforts to better compete with Elon Musk’s SpaceX and other rocket programs in the U.S. and China.

A statement from the three governments announced an unspecified amount of public funding for the plan, saying it would be based on market prices and economic conditions for each element of the project. The European Space Agency would award contracts to the companies involved.

The next-generation Ariane and Vega launchers will be used to boost Europe’s role in the commercial and government satellite markets, the French Finance Ministry said.

The governments also agreed to support development of European-made mini and micro rocket launch systems.

European government ministers are meeting with ESA in Paris this week. The agency is scheduled to announce its first new team of astronauts in more than a decade on Wednesday, with a focus on more diversity and what are expected to be the first disabled astronauts.

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November 22, 2022
5 rules for watching a complicated World Cup | CNN Politics

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A version of this story appears in CNN’s What Matters newsletter. To get it in your inbox, sign up for free here.

CNN
—

The men’s 2022 FIFA World Cup has started, but controversies abound. There are reasons to skip this year’s tournament.

For example, stadiums erected for the occasion in host nation Qatar were built on the backs of workers from Asia and Africa.

The conditions endured by those migrant workers have stirred controversy – from the intense heat they had to endure while building Qatar’s World Cup infrastructure to how many of them may have died. World Cup organizers vehemently dispute expert estimates that thousands died.

RELATED: ‘Our dreams never came true.’ These men helped build Qatar’s World Cup, now they are struggling to survive

The former Obama administration official Tommy Vietor and the soccer pundit Roger Bennett count the ways this World Cup is problematic in a piece for CNN Opinion. Read their take.

There’s also the issue of LGBTQ rights. FIFA threatened sanctions against the captains of teams who planned to wear armbands to promote inclusion and oppose discrimination, one of a number of last-minute changes the international soccer governing body and Qatar made to the tournament. Homosexuality is against the law in Qatar, although the country’s Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy told CNN the tournament would be inclusive. Read more.

If you’re taking Qatar at their word for inclusivity, imagine having shelled out the coin for game tickets, travel and accommodation for a World Cup in the desert only to learn days before it started that stadiums would not sell beer after all. That’s clearly offside.

There’s a new documentary, “FIFA Uncovered” – which doesn’t paint world soccer’s governing body in an altogether flattering light given the organization’s recent history of wrongdoing – streaming just in time for the World Cup. The allegations against FIFA are not new – the US government made them years ago – but they are worth considering again.

Watch closely for signs of protest. Iranian players appeared to show solidarity with those protesting against the regime back home. The players stood silent as the Iranian national anthem played out around the Khalifa International Stadium before kickoff on Monday in their game against England.

With journalists’ access in Qatar limited, some teams may take up the role of protest against the tournament, such as with Denmark’s jerseys, designed to respect the stadium workers.

Qatar has a close soccer relationship with France, notably investing in the Paris Saint-Germain football club.

French President Emmanuel Macron told journalists during a recent international summit that questions about Qatar should have been raised years ago, during the bid process. He said the event itself provides a path to openness and has worth.

“The vocation of these big events is to allow athletes of all countries, including sometimes of countries at war, to allow sport to exist and sometimes find, through sport, ways of discussing when people no longer manage to talk,” he said.

Qatar’s ambassador to the US, Sheikh Meshal bin Hamad Al Thani, argues the tournament will help change misconceptions about his country, which he says worked with a United Nations organization to improve working conditions.

“Qatar is not opposed to scrutiny,” he wrote in a CNN Opinion piece responding to the Bennett and Vietor commentary. “In fact we have embraced it – but too often platforms have been used to present one-sided, factually inaccurate arguments that go beyond what some other countries awarded major events have faced, despite each having their own unique set of challenges to overcome.” Read the whole piece.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino also defended the tournament in an hourlong explosive tirade in front of journalists Saturday. He hit back at Western criticisms of human rights issues.

“What we Europeans have been doing for the last 3,000 years, we should be apologizing for the next 3,000 years before starting to give moral lessons,” he said.

Assuming you do watch, here are the informal rules I’ve developed, with help from fellow fans on text chains, for my own enjoyment of the World Cup.

And by the way, these rules often contradict each other, so you have to weigh the importance of one over the other. That’s up to you. Or make up your own rules.

That means root for the US over England when the two countries play in the group stage. Root for conquered Wales over England, even though Wales isn’t exactly a colony and England will be the heavy favorite.

Root for Brazil over Portugal, or Argentina over Spain. There’s something satisfying, at least to this American, about the idea of New World conquering Old World, or an African team defeating France or Belgium.

Asterisks to the colony rule. When I mentioned this rule to one friend, he pointed out the US, while it sprang from former British colonies, has occupied territories in the Atlantic and Pacific, so it’s not always an easy rule to apply.

Another complication to the colony rule is the large number of immigrants on many teams. Much of the French team that won in 2018, for example, was born outside France, and most of the players had some roots in Africa – including the young star Kylian Mbappe. Here’s an interesting report from the Migration Policy Institute about the rise of immigrant players on World Cup teams.

There’s a sliding scale of freedom in the world, according to Freedom House, the independent watchdog that gets funding from the US government.

Qatar, for instance, scores a paltry 25 on Freedom House’s 0-100 scale that combines access to political rights and civil liberties. But it’s not the lowest-scoring country taking part in the World Cup: Saudi Arabia scores a 7 and Iran scores a 14.

Nor is the US, at 83, the freest. Canada gets a 98, and Uruguay and Denmark both get a 97.

Here’s a list of the World Cup countries batched alphabetically into their World Cup group stage assignments, alongside their Freedom House scores.

Group A:

Ecuador (71), Netherlands (97), Qatar (25), Senegal (68)

Group B:

England (93 for the UK as a whole), Iran (14), United States (83), Wales (93 for the UK)

Group C:

Argentina (84), Mexico (60), Poland (81), Saudi Arabia (7)

Group D:

Australia (95), Denmark (97), France (89), Tunisia (64)

Group E:

Costa Rica (91), Germany (94), Japan (96), Spain (90)

Group F:

Belgium (96), Canada (98), Croatia (85), Morocco (37)

Group G:

Brazil (73), Cameroon (15), Serbia (62), Switzerland (96)

Group H:

Ghana (80), South Korea (83), Portugal (95), Uruguay (97)

It’s fun to root for the underdog, and the difference in access to facilities and paychecks varies a lot by country. What a European or North American country can offer its squad is a lot different than what an African or Central American team can offer.

The US gross domestic product amounts to more than $69,000 per capita, according to World Bank data, and Qatar’s oil-rich figure is more than $61,000. Senegal’s per capita GDP, the tournament’s lowest, is less than $1,700. Ecuador, Iran, Tunisia, Ghana and Morocco all have per capita GDPs under $6,000.

Note on combining rules No. 1 and No. 2. Teams that rate relatively high on the freedom score despite relatively low capita GDPs are Ecuador, Ghana and, to a lesser extent on the GDP front, Croatia, a World Cup finalist in 2018.

Thirty-two countries participate in the World Cup. Only eight countries have ever won the World Cup trophy. It’s getting repetitive, and all but one are in the tournament this year.

You can tell by the number of stars players wear on their jerseys. Brazil has won five and Germany has triumphed four times. Italy has also won four but didn’t make the tournament this year. Argentina, France and Uruguay have won two, and Spain and England have each won one.

That still leaves a wide-open field of 25 teams looking for their country’s first World Cup title.

If you do watch, expect exciting upsets, sublime goal-scoring and human drama, all replayed and rehashed with the help of a video assistant referee, or VAR.

Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. This World Cup probably offers the final opportunity to see two masters who have both failed to win the tournament. Now in the extreme twilight of their careers, neither is an odds-on favorite this year to win the trophy for their country (Argentina and Portugal, respectively).

RELATED: Messi and Ronaldo’s last dance

Curses. Every World Cup provides England with yet another, probably doomed, opportunity to excise the curse of failure that has followed it since winning the 1966 tournament. Their agony makes for compelling television.

Brazil can exert its otherworldly dominance upon European teams. Or not, depending on which Brazil shows up. Anything but victory will be a crushing loss for them.

And finally, the United States can come to grips with why it is so mediocre at the international men’s level in a sport so many American children adore and in which its national women’s team has dominated for so long.

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November 21, 2022
European teams abandon plan to wear armbands at World Cup

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DOHA, Qatar — FIFA’s threat of on-field punishment for players forced World Cup teams to back down Monday and abandon an anti-discrimination campaign aimed at host nation Qatar.

The captains of seven European nations won’t wear armbands supporting the “One Love” campaign in games after FIFA said the players would be shown yellow cards. The decision came three days after beer sales at stadiums was suddenly banned under pressure from the Qatari government and two days after FIFA president Gianni Infantino delivered an extraordinary tirade defending the host nation’s human rights record.

“As national federations we can’t put our players in a position where they could face sporting sanctions, including bookings,” the seven soccer federations said in a joint statement.

The climbdown after threats from FIFA came hours before England’s Harry Kane, the Netherlands’ Virgil van Dijk and Wales’ Gareth Bale were due to wear the armbands in Monday’s games. The captains of Belgium, Switzerland, Germany and Denmark had also pledged to wear the armbands in the coming days.

“Our number one priority at the World Cup is to win the games,” the Dutch soccer federation said in a separate statement. “Then you don’t want the captain to start the match with a yellow card.”

Monday’s decision shows the political situation surrounding the first World Cup in the Middle East — even after Infantino asked all 32 national teams to keep politics off the soccer field.

Since being awarded the World Cup hosting rights in 2010, Qatar has faced years of criticism regarding its treatment of low-paid migrant workers as well as it’s criminalization of gay and lesbian sex.

FIFA raised the prospect of yellow cards on Sunday during a testy meeting with European soccer federations, including the seven teams that pledged to wear the armband.

The One Love campaign was started in the Netherlands and its symbol is a heart-shaped multi-colored logo aimed at promoting inclusion and diversity in soccer and society.

However, the European plans were in clear breach of World Cup regulations and FIFA’s general rules on team equipment at its games.

“For FIFA final competitions, the captain of each team must wear the captain’s armband provided by FIFA,” the soccer body’s equipment regulations state.

The armband dispute flared two months ago when 10 European teams said they had joined the longer-standing campaign in Dutch soccer, but it was still not resolved when the seven teams arrived in Qatar.

FIFA offered its own compromise Monday by saying captains of all 32 teams “will have the opportunity” to wear an armband with the slogan “No Discrimination” in the group games.

FIFA’s original offer Saturday was that “NoDiscrimination” — the only one of its chosen slogan aligned with the European teams’ wish — would appear only at the quarterfinal stage.

———

AP World Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/world-cup and https://twitter.com/AP—Sports

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November 21, 2022
Suspected Kurdish militants fire at Turkish border town

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ANKARA, Turkey — Suspected Kurdish militants in Syria fired five rockets into a border town in Turkey Monday, killing at least two people and injuring six others, an official said.

The rockets struck a high school and two houses in the town of Karkamis, in Gaziantep province, as well as a truck near a Turkish-Syria border gate, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

Gaziantep’s Gov. Davut Gul said at least two of the injured were in serious condition.

The rocket attacks came days after Turkey launched deadly airstrikes over northern regions of Syria and Iraq, targeting Kurdish groups that Ankara holds responsible for a Nov. 13 bomb attack in Istanbul. The Turkish warplanes attacked bases of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, and the Syrian People’s Protection Units, or YPG, officials said.

Syrian Kurdish officials have reported civilian deaths from the airstrikes.

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November 21, 2022
Man dies at UK migrant center criticized over conditions

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LONDON — A man being held at a much-criticized center for migrants in Britain has died after falling sick, bringing renewed criticism to the Conservative government over its treatment of asylum-seekers.

The Home Office said a man who was staying at the Manston migrant center in southeast England died in a hospital on Saturday after “becoming unwell.”

Authorities are trying to contact next of kin of the man, who is believed to have arrived in England in a small boat on Nov. 12.

“We take the safety of those in our care extremely seriously and are profoundly saddened by this event,” the Home Office said. “A post-mortem examination will take place so it would not be appropriate to comment further at this time.”

It said there was “no evidence at this stage to suggest that this tragic death was caused by an infectious disease.”

Cases of diphtheria, scabies and other communicable diseases have been reported at Manston, where people who have arrived by boat across the English Channel are sent for security and identity checks before moving to longer-term accommodation.

A surge in arrivals and a bureaucratic backlog has seen people, including children, languishing for weeks. A facility intended to house at most 1,600 people had more than 4,000 occupants last month, after hundreds were moved there from another site that was firebombed by a far-right attacker. The number has since dropped.

Independent government inspectors who visited the site said they saw families sleeping on floors in prison-like conditions that presented fire and health hazards.

Enver Solomon, chief executive of the Refugee Council, called for “a thorough and speedy investigation” of the death.

“Every person in Manston must be looked after with the care and attention they need, so when a tragic death likes this takes place it is always a matter of serious concern,” he said.

The U.K. receives fewer asylum-seekers than many European nations, including Germany, France and Italy, but thousands of migrants from around the world travel to northern France each year in hopes of crossing the channel. Some want to reach the U.K. because they have friends or family there, others because they speak English or because it’s perceived to be easy to find work.

In recent years there’s been a sharp increase in the number of people attempting the journey in dinghies and other small craft as authorities have clamped down on other routes such as stowing away on buses or trucks.

More than 40,000 people have arrived in Britain after making the hazardous Channel trip so far this year, up from 28,000 in all of 2021 and 8,500 in 2020.

Dozens have died in the attempt, including 27 people almost exactly a year ago when a packed smuggling boat capsized.

The small-boat crossings are a longstanding source of friction between Britain and France. Last week the British government agreed to pay France 72.2 million euros ($75 million) in 2022-2023 in exchange for France increasing security patrols along the coast by 40%.

In another attempt to deter the crossings, Britain’s government has announced a controversial plan to send people who arrive in small boats on a one-way journey to Rwanda, to break the business model of smuggling gangs. Critics say the plan is immoral and impractical, and it is being challenged in the courts.

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November 20, 2022
Eurovision winner Ruslana leads Ukrainians in Athens march

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Ukrainian pop singer and former Eurovision song contest winner Ruslana, center, shouts slogans as she takes part in a protest to condemn the Russian strikes against multiple cities across Ukraine, in Athens, Greece, Saturday, Nov. 19, 2022. AP Photo/Yorgos Karahalis)

The Associated Press

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November 19, 2022
Pope visits immigrant father’s hometown for birthday party

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PORTACOMARO, Itatly — Pope Francis returned to his father’s birthplace in northern Italy on Saturday for the first time since ascending the papacy to celebrate the 90th birthday of a second cousin who long knew him as simply “Giorgio.”

The two-day visit to Francis’ ancestral homeland to renew family ties touched on keystones of his papacy, including the importance of honoring the elderly and the human toll of migration. Francis’ private visit Saturday will be followed by public one Sunday to celebrate Mass for the local faithful, where he could well reflect on his family’s experience migrating to Argentina.

The pope’s father, Mario Jose Francisco Bergoglio, and his paternal grandparents arrived in Buenos Aires on Jan. 25, 1929 to reach other relatives at the tail end of a mass decades-long emigration from Italy that the pope has honored with two recent saints: St. Giovanni Batista Scalabrini and St. Artedime Zatti.

The future pope, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, was born nearly eight years later in Buenos Aires, after the elder Bergoglio met and married Regina Maria Sivori, whose family was also of Italian immigrant stock, hailing from the Liguria region. Francis grew up speaking the Piedmont dialect of his paternal grandmother Rosa, who cared for him most days.

The elder Bergoglio was born in the town of Portacomaro, 10 kilometers (6 miles) east of Asti, an agricultural town that lost population not only to emigration abroad but also to nearby Turin as it became an industrial center.

Today, the town has 2,000 residents, but it numbered more than 2,700 a century ago, and dropped as low as 1,680 in the 1980s.

The pope’s family emigrated after the peak, which saw 14 million Italians leave from 1876 to 1915 — a movement that made Italy the biggest voluntary diaspora in the world, according to Lauren Braun-Strumfels, an associate professor of history at Cedar Crest College in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

Often citing his own family story, Francis, now 85, has made the welcoming and integration of migrants a hallmark of his papacy, often facing criticism as Europe in general, and Italy in particular, are consumed with the debate over how to manage mass migration.

The pope has recognized the historic significance of the emigrant experience with the recent canonizations of St. Giovanni Battista Scalabrini, an Italian bishop who founded an order to help Italian emigrants at the end of the 19th century, and Artemide Zatti, an Italian who emigrated to Argentina in the same period and dedicated his work to helping the sick.

He used the occasion to again denounce Europe’s indifference toward migrants risking their lives to cross the Mediterranean Sea and what they hope will be better futures.

Francis began his visit to Portacomaro on Saturday with lunch at the home of a cousin, Carla Rabezzana. Photographs released by the Vatican showed Francis clearly enjoying himself, hugging Rabezzana and sitting at the head of the table.

“We have known each other forever,’’ Rabezzana told the Corriere della Sera newspaper in the runup to the visit. “When I lived in Turin, Giorgio — I always called him that — came to stay because I had an extra room. That is how we maintained our relationship.

“We always would joke. When he told me he would come to celebrate my 90th birthday, I said it made my heart race. And in response I was told: ‘Try not to die.’ We burst out laughing.’’

The pope has many more third and fourth cousins still in the area.

“It was a large family, and in the area there are still many distant cousins,’’ said Carlo Cerrato a former mayor of Portacomoro. He said it was a “big surprise” for everyone in the town when Francis was elected pope nearly a decade ago.

“Everyone knew there was a prelate who had become the cardinal of Buenos Aires, but it was something that the relatives knew, not everyone in town,’’ Cerrato said.

After nearly 10 years as pope, Francis has yet to return to his own birthplace in Argentina . He hasn’t really explained his reasons for staying away. He recently confirmed that if he were to resign as pope, he wouldn’t go back to Buenos Aires to live but would remain in Rome.

———

Barry reported from Milan.

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November 19, 2022
New measures for size, as world’s people surpass 8 billion

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PARIS — What is bigger: A ronna or a quetta?

Scientists meeting outside of Paris on Friday — who have expanded the world’s measuring unit systems for the first time this century as the global population surges past 8 billion — have the answer.

Rapid scientific advances and vast worldwide data storage on the web, in smartphones and in the cloud mean that the very terms used to measure things in weight and size need extending too. And one British scientist led the push Friday to incorporate bold new, tongue-twisting prefixes on the gigantic and even the minuscule scale.

“Most people are familiar with prefixes like milli- as in milligram. But these are prefixes for the biggest and smallest levels ever measured,” Dr Richard Brown, head of Metrology at the U.K.’s National Physical Laboratory who proposed the four new prefixes, told The Associated Press.

“In the last 30 years, the datasphere has increased exponentially, and data scientists have realized they will no longer have words to describe the levels of storage. These terms are upcoming, the future,” he explained.

There’s the gargantuan “ronna” (that’s 27 zeros after the one) and its big brother the “quetta” – (that’s 30 zeros).

Their ant-sized counterparts are the “ronto” (27 zeros after the decimal point), and the “quecto” (with 30 zeros after the decimal point) — representing the smaller numbers needed for quantum science and particle physics.

Brown presented the new prefixes to officials from 64 nations attending the General Conference on Weights and Measures in Versailles, outside of Paris — who approved them on Friday.

The conference, which takes place every four years in France, is the supreme authority of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures. The new terms take effect immediately, marking the first time since 1991 that any new additions have been made.

Brown said the new terms also make it easier to describe things scientists already know about — reeling off a list of the smallest and biggest things discovered by humankind.

Did you know that the mass of an electron is one rontogram? And that a byte of data on a mobile increases the phone’s mass by one quectogram?

Further from home, the planet Jupiter is two just quettagrams in mass. While, incredibly, “the diameter of the entire observable universe is just one ronnameter,” Brown said.

He explained how the new names were not chosen at random: The first letter of the new prefixes had to be one not used in other prefixes and units.

“There were only the letters ‘r’ and ‘q’ that weren’t already taken. Following that, there’s a precedent that they sound similar to Greek letters and that big number prefixes end with an ‘a’ and smaller numbers with an ‘o,’” he added.

“It was high time. (We) need new words as things expand,” Brown said. “In just a few decades, the world has become a very different place.”

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November 18, 2022