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Borders are shut, schools are closed and mass gatherings banned as 26 states battle the virus.

Un collectif d'Européens appelle à une "réponse européenne" au coronavirus, afin de protéger un maximum les populations.

Joe Biden, a jelenleg legesélyesebb pályázó az amerikai Demokrata Párt elnökjelöltségének elnyerésére a vasárnapi televíziós vitán bejelentette, ha ő lesz a jelölt, női alelnökjelöltet választ maga mellé.

Islamic fundamentalist group Isis has warned its people to avoid Europe due to coronavirus. "The healthy should not enter the land of the epidemic and the afflicted should not exit from it," al-Naba, the group's news weekly newsletter, said in its last edition, according to US publication Homeland Security Today. Isis is based in the Middle East and Africa. "Cover the mouth when yawning and sneezing," al-Naba also said.

Former Nato secretary general and EU foreign affairs chief, Javier Solana, 77, was hospitalised with coronavirus in his native Spain last Wednesday, Spanish newspaper ABC reported Friday. Solana was doing well and was in hospital for observation only, sources told the Reuters news agency. Solana himself, who now works with several think-tanks, also continued to tweet about macroeconomics and climate change over the weekend in a sign of health.

Spain's King Felipe IV was a beneficiary of an offshore fund called the Lucum Foundation which held €65m in donations by Saudi Arabia to his father, Juan Carlos, British newspaper the Sunday Telegraph reports. The news prompted Felipe IV to renounce his father's inheritance and abolish Juan Carlos' state stipend of some €194,000 a year. Juan Carlos abdicated in 2014 due to corruption scandals, with Felipe IV promising a clean-up.

Le ministre du commerce Kamel Rezzig a appelé les « consommateur », hier via sa page Facebook, de ne pas céder à la panique, et a assuré que les produits alimentaires sont disponibles sur le marché. Face à la ruée des citoyens vers les produits alimentaires, sur fond de panique en raison de la propagation de l’épidémie […]

The post Coronavirus en Algérie : Kamel Rezig appelle à ne pas céder à la panique appeared first on .

Après le rejet des dossiers de candidature du Mouvement Populaire de Libération (MPL) à la CENA, Sabi Sira Korogoné a adressé un recours à la Cour suprême ce samedi 14 mars 2020.

Le Mouvement Populaire de Libération (MPL) de Sabi Sira Korogoné conteste la décision de la Commission électorale nationale autonome (CENA) qui a recalé le parti à cause de plusieurs anomalies relevées dans son dossier. Selon la CENA, le parti MPL a présenté une déclaration de candidatures aux élections communales du 17 mai 2020 comportant des postes de candidats anormaux.
Contrairement aux dispositions de la loi, le MPL a présenté 3682 candidats au lieu de 3630 au total. La CENA a également constaté des doublons de candidats sur la liste. A cela s'ajoute le mélange des dossiers de candidats par arrondissement ; ce qui ne facilite pas l'examen de complétude.
Sur les 09 partis ayant déposé de dossiers de candidatures le mercredi 11 mars dernier, 08 ont pu obtenir leurs récépissés provisoires. Il s'agit du Bloc républicain (BR), de l'Union progressiste (UP), des Forces cauris pour un Bénin émergent (FCBE), Forces cauris pour le développement du Bénin (FCDB), du Mouvement des élites engagées pour l'émancipation du Bénin (MOELE-Bénin), du Parti du renouveau démocratique (PRD), de l'Union démocratique pour un Bénin nouveau (UDBN), et du Parti pour l'éveil et la relève (PER).
Ce dimanche 15 mars, la CENA a commencé l'étude approfondie des dossiers des 08 formations politiques.

Akpédjé AYOSSO

The coronavirus pandemic will plunge the European Union into recession this year, the EU’s internal market Commissioner Thierry Breton said, estimating the bloc’s economy risked a 2-2.5% hit.

Le coronavirus, qui se propage à toute vitesse, menace le modèle économique mondial largement dépendant de la production chinoise. Cette crise sanitaire, additionnée au changement climatique et à la révolution numérique, appelle à une refonte du système, indique Isabelle Durant.

The Capitals versorgt Sie mit Nachrichten aus ganz Europa – dank des EURACTIV Netzwerks. Heute erneut mit den wichtigsten Entwicklungen in Sachen Coronavirus.

By Haider A. Khan*
DENVER, Colorado, Mar 16 2020 (IPS)

The panic resulting from the events starting with the deaths in Wuhan keeps spreading globally faster than the spreading of the virus itself. Quite apart from the immediate health dangers, now a new economic danger looms large globally. We are facing the prospects of a deep and lasting global recession regardless of the health policy and economic policy measures taken by China, the US and other countries unless there is timely global cooperation and coordination. What will be the global economic impact of COVID-19 if swift and effective action is not taken globally? Is there a way to find out through some kind of rigorous model-based economic analysis?

Haider A. Khan

Indeed there may be a sober reality-based way of looking at the possible economic consequences. In work that is still ongoing, I have used the best available data from the World Bank, the IMF and other national and international sources about the Global Economy to do precisely this exercise. My preliminary results pertain to the overall effects for the World economy, China, the US, the Middle East as well as for specific sectors. More importantly, they also give us some rough insights into what the panic might mean for the major regions unless we take effective global action quickly.

In order to assess the impact, I have derived several sets of model-based counterfactual results. My work which is ongoing can be seen as a first step in analyzing the impact of COVID-19 rigorously. Aggregate consequences for the Global, Middle-Eastern(ME), EU and US economies in terms of output and employment losses are estimated from several models for several scenarios. These are both the containment costs and costs stemming from global panic with higher and lower bounds and an in-between scenario. Finally, a more complex economic systems model with explicit banking and financial sectors is used to analyze the financial systems scenarios.

It is clear that China will suffer the most. But so will Japan, the Middle East, the US and EU economies along with many other smaller economies. Hence there is no reason for the rivals of China to rejoice.With maximal containment costs and panic, Chinese GDP will decline by several percentage points. EU will lose about two percentage points and US about between one and one and a half per cent.But some of the model results already at hand should give thoughtful ME, US and EU citizens pause. With declining oil prices, the oil producing economies are already experiencing economic downturns. The direct and indirect effects of COVID-19 will worsen this trend.

As a first approximation, my current modeling results show that the easing of monetary policy and implementing expansionary fiscal policies—even if they are imposed immediately and coordinated globally— will take about six months to kick in and will lead towards the very low loss scenario, especially for China. But for EU and the US financial firms, the loss will be considerably more than what we have seen so far. The corresponding loss in global employment in these and other sectors should also give all countries pause.

While medical and public health professionals struggle to understand the nature of the virus and devise antidotes, strong economic measures need to taken globally and within countries to protect vulnerable groups. A coordinated interest rate cut will most probably happen; but monetary policy can not by itself help increase global investment and output. Tax cuts will help but will take time even if they are wisely designed to help not just the global rich but the middle class and the low income groups. Fiscal policies through direct government expenditures targeted to specific sectors and groups will be necessary.

Furthermore, trade policies are important too. If trade barriers go up because of this panic reinforcing earlier hostilities then all countries will be losers. The hostilities against China may well be heading in that direction. Likewise, some countries might try to counteract the loss in exports by devaluing their currencies. Such moves can rapidly expand through the international system creating a competitive devaluations scenario where no one will ultimately win.

Consider also the role that trading networks have always played. Clearly, with globalization these networks of firms across the globe are even more important than before. With a large scale disruption the dynamics of network trade may easily break down. Since networks require time to build up again, such large scale disruptions will result in longer term malfunction of the global trading system.

The world leaders must act quickly and resolutely before it is too late. We are facing the possibility of a vicious downward cycle in the global economy. Single countries can act and indeed have acted unilaterally, for example the US by cutting interest rates citing an emergency situation. But global coordination of monetary, fiscal, trade and exchange rates policies is sorely needed. If there was ever a time to devise globally coordinated policies through cooperation among US and China(G-2), the G-7 and more broadly, the G-20, it is now.

*John Evans Distinguished University Professor and Professor of Economics, Josef Korbel School of International Studies, University of Denver

Distinguished Senior Fellow, Policy Research Institute

Distinguished International Advisor, BRAC University and North-South University

Contributor: Conversations, Huffington Post, Christian Science Monitor, European Economic and Social Committee, Current History, Cosmopolis, Al-Jazeera Online

The post Global Economic Consequences of COVID-19 appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Nagyon fertőző vírusról van szó, mi is tanulunk más országok tapasztalataiból - jelentette ki Donald Trump amerikai elnök vasárnapi sajtókonferenciáján az országban már mintegy háromezer embert megfertőző új koronavírusról.

A szigorított intézkedésekkel összhangban hétfőtől rövidített nyitvatartást vezettek be az ügyfélközpontokban. Minden hétköznap reggel 8:00 és 11:00 óra között tartanak nyitva. (tasr)

Après avoir monopolisé l'attention depuis un an, les élections municipales ont fait un flop. L'abstention  l'a largement remporté, même si les Verts et les maires sortants s'en sortent bien.

Országos vesztegzárat rendelt el a cseh kormány március 16-tól március 24-ig - jelentette be Andrej Babiš cseh miniszterelnök a kormány vasárnapi rendkívüli ülése utáni sajtótájékoztatón.

Betroffen sind unter anderem Pauschalreisen, Kreuzfahrten und der Hotelbetrieb. Mit der Einstellung des "größten Teils" der Reiseaktivitäten wolle das Unternehmen einen Beitrag dazu leisten, die Ausbreitung des Virus einzudämmen.

Ouest-France - Pour tenter de freiner la progression de l’épidémie de Covid-19, l’Afrique du Sud ferme ses frontières aux citoyens des pays...

Credit: (Lee Woodgate/Science Source)

By Siddharth Chatterjee
NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 16 2020 (IPS)

The number of coronavirus cases in Kenya has jumped to three after the government confirmed two more cases. President Uhuru Kenyatta has announced a raft of proactive measures to prevent the spread of the virus.

Barely three months into the COVID-19 outbreak, stock markets have plummeted, and global supply and production systems have wobbled. Across the world panicked shoppers have cleared shelves of hand sanitizer, soap and tinned food, as if preparing for a siege.

The message by UN Secretary-General António Guterres that ‘as we fight the virus, we cannot let fear go viral’ is absolutely pertinent. And the people of Kenya can count on the United Nations Country team as an ally in this fight.

Global pandemics are the new threat to humanity. The number of new diseases per decade has increased nearly fourfold over the past 60 years, and since 1980, the number of outbreaks per year has more than tripled.

Factors such as climate change, rising populations and increased travel have made humans more vulnerable today than they were 100 years ago. An infection in one corner of the world can make its way to the most distant corner within a day.

In sub-Saharan Africa, there are genuine fears over how health systems will cope. Most are ill-prepared and ill-equipped to implement public health measures such as surveillance, exhaustive contact tracing, social distancing, travel restrictions and educating the public on hand hygiene and respiratory etiquette.

These are the basic steps that will delay the spread of infection and relieve pressure on hospitals, even as support is sought for costlier solutions such as personal protective equipment, ventilators, oxygen and testing kits.

For countries in Africa and other areas where health resources are limited, a little-understood pandemic such as COVID-19 is a challenge that requires a whole-of-society response. While science creates the tests and will eventually develop a vaccine, the most effective immediate responses to pandemics depend more on simple actions we can all carry out than on pharmaceutical-based solutions.

Flattening the COVID-19 curve will also be aided by accurate information. Rising public panic and hysteria is stoked by the difficulty in sifting fact from rumour, speculation and inaccurate information. One of the problems of the age of social media and citizen journalism is that it provides a forum for everyone, and enables the dangerous fiction that anyone with an opinion is an expert. In such circumstances a rational, science-driven narrative is difficult to sustain.

Getting ahead of COVID-19 by ensuring that only accurate information and scientific guidance takes control of the narrative is crucial. It is for this reason, the United Nations Country Team in Kenya is offering communications support – amongst other initiatives – to the Ministry of Health in its current commendable response to the problem. Everyone will benefit if they heed the wise counsel of CS Mutahi Kagwe. For example he emphasizes the importance of frequent and thorough hand washing. Hand washing saves lives and is the best defence against communicable diseases.

Though microbes are evolving millions of times as fast as humans, and humans have little or no immune protection against new flu strains, the scientific understanding of the risk of pandemics, and our ability to predict the next pandemic before it even happens, is better than ever.

It is now known, for instance, that most new infectious diseases originate in animals, including SARS from bats and some strains of influenza from birds. Factors that include close proximity to live animals, poor hygiene in relation to meat and live animals at markets, overcrowding, and bushmeat consumption can allow pathogens to jump the species barrier to humans.

These scientific advances are being deployed to find more comprehensive solutions such as vaccines. Widespread access to such vaccines confer immunity to individuals and even ‘herd immunity’ for populations. Vaccines work and have saved countless lives.

Countries in Africa must also take the fight to the pandemic through simple but effective measures for detecting, testing, isolating and mobilizing their people to mitigate transmission.

With simple, fact-informed hygiene measures as the main weapon, the continent can slow the virus’s spread and flatten the curve. And the UN family in Kenya is in lockstep with the Government of Kenya to fight COVID 19 on all fronts.

Siddharth Chatterjee is the United Nations resident coordinator to Kenya.

The post Fight, Not Flight, Must Be the Strategy for Flattening the COVID-19 Curve appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Laut Prognosen vom Sonntagabend gingen nur rund 44 bis 46 Prozent der Wähler zu den Urnen. Die Grünen konnten zulegen, Macron erlitt einen Dämpfer.