Welcome to Monday, where AMLO gets COVID, Chinese miners are rescued, and King Kong finds a worthy opponent. Les Echos also takes us to Syria, where coronavirus and a crumbling economy are wreaking havoc in a country already devastated by 10 years of civil war.
Viktor Orban, Xi Jinping and a simple question for the West
The basic precepts of democracy, recently on the line in Washington, have long been discarded by Europe Union member country Hungary. But, columnist Mattia Feltri asks in Italian daily La Stampa: Is anyone pure on such questions these days?
As the world watches Joe Biden's first days in the White House, Viktor Orbán is going strong in Hungary. You may remember he forced the liberal Central European University, founded by his favorite super-villain, George Soros, to leave Budapest between 2017 and 2018, in his quest to create an "illiberal democracy." Now Orbán has recently welcomed a new university to its capital: the Chinese University of Fudan.
It's a prestigious university, as international rankings attest. It will finally have a seat in Europe: a beautiful campus that is expected to house some 6,000 students in economics, international relations, medicine — all trained according to academic criteria that exclude freedom of thought, expunged from the statute and replaced with loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party led by Xi Jinping. Orbán may be a right-wing populist, but when given the chance, he sure knows how to open borders. Orbán had also borrowed money from Beijing to renovate the Budapest-Belgrade railway line.
Now, he is negotiating the purchase of a million doses of the vaccine produced by the state-owned giant Sinopharm, too — because, apparently, Europe is not fast enough. The European Medicines Agency has not approved the Chinese vaccine, but these are trivial details: Orbán told the Hungarian drug agency to speed up with it, and to hell with everyone.
No, it's not just a matter of money: It is that delightful dictatorial approach to life of the Chinese that fascinates him. In fact, Orbán suspended the labor code and canceled collective agreements in his country. Every worker will now be required to observe the hours that the company assigns him or her — without discussion, without going through the fuss of involving a union.
But the real irony of it all is that the West seems confused. Take Italy, for example. Our center-left government led by Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has very solid ties with China, while our right-wing opposition has excellent relations with Orbán. They're always arguing, but who knew they actually have so much in common.
— Mattia Feltri
• COVID-19 latest: Mexican President Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador tests positive for coronavirus, with mild symptoms and plans to continue working from home. Dutch police forces and protesters clashed in several cities over new lockdown measures, while Australia suspends travel bubble with New Zealand after a South African variant case was detected.
• Biden's first full week: U.S. President Joe Biden is planning a new wave of executive orders this week, with expectations that he will continue to repeal former President Donald Trump's policies such as the ban on transgender individuals serving in the military.
• Chinese miners rescue: Eleven miners trapped in a gold mine in eastern China for 15 days were rescued yesterday. Of the group of 22, ten are confirmed dead and one is still missing.
• Bobi Wine freed: Ugandan court has lifted house arrest of presidential challenger Bobi Wine, ruling the move was illegal. The opposition leader has been blocked by security forces in his house since the Jan. 14 election where he had run against incumbent Yoweri Museveni.
• Monday markets: Global stocks rise as optimism over Joe Biden's proposed $1.9 million rescue package offsets worries about rising COVID cases and delays in vaccine supplies.
• Chinese drug lord arrested: 56-year old billionaire Tse Chi Lop, sometimes nicknamed "Asia's El Chapo" was arrested at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport over the weekend. Tse's drug syndicate is said to be responsible for up to 70% of all narcotics entering Australia.
• Godzilla vs. Kong: Warner Bros has released a trailer for its upcoming beast of a movie: Godzilla vs. Kong, out March 26.
Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta features the violent protests in support of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny held in more than 100 cities across the country — an unprecedented geographic scale for opposition rallies.
10 years of war and one of COVID, Syria facing economic abyss
The economic crisis in neighboring Lebanon, coupled with COVID-19 travel restrictions, are causing the already war-ravished nation to drown in even greater misery, reports Laura-Mai Gaveriaux in French daily Les Echos.
For many Syrian residents, the 375 km-long border between Syria and Lebanon has always been an ecosystem where they earned their income. Back and forth trips between the two countries were common. But today, 10 years since the war that ravaged Syria began, the area is now mainly an observation post for all the upheavals that these two interlinked economies are experiencing — even if movements of goods and people have never been fully interrupted.
In recent months, the confluence of crises has increased poverty in Syria to an unprecedented level and has brought Lebanon's economy closer to the point of no return. One symptom of this tragedy: smuggling activities are surging in these traditionally porous border areas, and crime has never fared better. As Samir Aita, president of the Arab Economists Circle, explains: "Syria is on the brink of a massive humanitarian catastrophe."
On top of the war came travel restrictions, starting last March, to contain the spread of COVID-19. That's had the unintended consequence of preventing new currency from entering the country, leading to another fundamentally destructive effect: Essential goods are being diverted and stored, for speculative purposes. This includes flour, which is a huge problem when bread has become the primary food commodity — if not the only one — in some governorates.
➡️ Read more on Worldcrunch.com
3,324
According to protests monitor OVD Info, Russian police arrested a record 3,324 people who took part in weekend protests across dozens of cities in support of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.
"We recognize that getting vaccines to people is a complex problem to solve, and we're committed to doing our part."
— Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai announces that Google Maps will begin to display vaccination locations.
