The Netherlands: Former Dutch queen Beatrix tests positive for coronavirus

Princess Beatrix, the 83-year-old former Dutch queen, has tested positive for the coronavirus, the royal house announced Saturday.

In a statement, the royal house said Beatrix got tested after feeling “mild cold symptoms.” It said she is in isolation at home and abiding by rules for people who have tested positive. The princess lives in a castle in the central Netherlands.

Read more at: Former Dutch queen Beatrix tests positive for coronavirus - ABC News

North Korea says it successfully tested a new long-range cruise missile

North Korea says it successfully test fired what it described as newly developed long-range cruise missiles over the weekend, its first known testing activity in months that underscored how it continues to expand its military capabilities amid a stalemate in nuclear negotiations with the United States.

The Korean Central News Agency said Monday the cruise missiles, which had been under development for two years, successfully hit targets 1,500 kilometres away during its flight tests on Saturday and Sunday.

Read more at: North Korea says it successfully tested a new long-range cruise missile | CBC News

The Netherlands: A pricey rapid-testing programme rings alarms in the Netherlands

SIPPING A BEER on a pub terrace may be the Netherlands’ holiest rite of spring. But the country’s grim incidence of covid-19, currently far higher than in Germany or Italy, has kept its pubs shut. As the weather has warmed, cries of “open the terrasjes!” have sounded ever louder in Dutch politics, and this week the government gave in. From April 28th cafés may open outdoor seating (two people per table, maximum) between noon and 6pm. Meanwhile the state is eyeing a more permanent solution. It is funding pilot programmes to explore whether rapid testing of patrons can allow reopening of restaurants, museums, cultural events and the like.

The budget is huge: €1.1bn ($1.3bn) through August, more than 0.1% of GDP. Of that, €2.7m goes to experiments this spring with large-scale events such as theatre performances and football matches. But critics say these are so flawed that they may prove useless. Participants are asked to get follow-up tests and report the results, but only about four-fifths do, spoiling the results for epidemiologists. Oddly, the researchers say they are not even trying to study whether the events lead to more infections, but only whether participants follow social-distancing rules. Public documents do not specify the trials’ research questions, as would be expected for a scientific Process.

Read More at: A pricey rapid-testing programme rings alarms in the Netherlands | The Economist

US FDA releases detailed data on Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine- by Noah Manska

Pfizer’s experimental coronavirus vaccine is highly effective and poses no safety risks that would prevent it from being cleared for emergency use, Food and Drug Administration scientists said Tuesday.

FDA staffers detailed their findings in a 53-page report ahead of a Thursday meeting at which the agency’s vaccine advisory committee will consider Pfizer’s application for an emergency use authorization, which could pave the way for millions of high-risk Americans to be inoculated by the end of the year.

Read more at: FDA releases detailed data on Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine

The Netherlands : Passengers out of Schiphol airport need to produce a useless certificate costing € 180 they have been tested Coronavirus negative

Need to travel somewhere by plane? On top of your ticket cost, also count on dishing out an additional € 180.00, to do a coronavirus test at a KLM approved Healthcare Services Center.

Inquiries, however, made with Government authorities (RIVM) show it is completely pointless to undergo a corona test if you have no symptoms. There is no proven validity to be linked to the result of these tests, because the results can vary from day to day.

The GGD -"Dutch Government municipal health organisation for preventive healthcare", will perform this Coronavirus test for free at local municipality health centers in the Netherlands,in case a local resident believes he or she has the symptoms of the virus. Unfortunately this free test is not considered acceptable by the KLM ticketing services at Schiphol.

Hopefully the government authorities will be looking at this absurd procedure, which looks more like a money making scam by the KLM Schiphol authorities.

Almere-Digest

The Netherlands: could require travelers to show coronavirus test results at border

Minister Hugo de Jonge of Public Health wants to oblige travelers arriving in the Netherlands to prove that they tested negative for the coronavirus no more than 48 hours prior to arrival, he said in a letter to parliament.

Due to the rules around free travel in the European Union and Schengen area, a legislative amendment is needed to require that travelers from these areas show their test results at the Dutch border. De Jonge expects that this requirement will therefore only be implemented for them in the spring at the earliest. For non-European travelers exempted from the entry EU ban, a test statement can be requested from mid-December, he said.

Read more at: Netherlands could require travelers to show coronavirus test results at border | NL Times

USA : The Impeachment drama : a challenge that puts to the test the very foundation of American democracy

When White House lawyer Pat Cipollone sent a letter to Democrats this week, informing the House of Representatives that Donald Trump would not co-operate with their impeachment inquiry, it was a challenge that puts to the test the very foundation of American democracy, some constitutional scholars say.

Read more at:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/constitutional-crisis-us-impeachment-trump-for-against-1.5318651

EU Democeacy Requirements: Could The U.S. Pass The EU’s Democracy Test?

US Democracy: for sale to the highest Bidder

You’ve probably read that the European Union, after years of trying to duck the plain reality of Poland and Hungary ceasing to be democracies, has taken the first step towards denying Poland a vote in the European Commission. The EU’s basic treaty requires its members first and foremost to be democracies.

Here’s the backstory. Since Poland’s Law and Justice Party took power in 2015, the Polish ultra-nationalist leader, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, has felt stymied by the independent judiciary. In July 2017, the government drafted legislation to give Kaczynski control of the courts.

Other EU leaders warned of dire consequences, and Poland’s President, Andrzej Duda, a close ally of the government, surprised all by refusing the sign the law. Cynics said this was just a ploy to buy some time for a kinder, gentler version of the same scheme ? and they were right.

The government went back the drawing board and drafted new legislation. The original law vetoed by Duda simply got rid of the entire Supreme Court. The new law requires judges to retire at 65, which effectively gives the governing party control of a majority of all judges. The new law also revises the process for selecting judges, giving more control to the lower house of Parliament, which is controlled by the governing party. This time, Duda signed it.

The EU, which has repeatedly violated the sovereignty of member nations for the sin of running deficits, and extracted severe punishments that resulted in deeper economic collapse, has been extremely timid about enforcing Article 7 of the EU’s founding treaty, which requires all members to be democracies. This kind of tells you where the EU’s real priorities are.

And in Hungary, when the ruling Fidesz party gerrymandered legislative districts, giving the governing party a two-thirds majority in parliament and effectively making it impossible for the opposition to come to power, the EU leadership did nothing (apparently, killing democracy is less of a crime than running deficits.)  Hungary’s leader, Viktor Orban, also expanded the size of the Supreme Court, so that he could control it.

Up until now, the EU has not moved against either Hungary or Poland. But last week the EU’s leaders took the first step towards invoking sanctions under Article 7, the most serious of which would be to deprive Poland of a vote. Poland would continue to have all of the other benefits of EU membersh

This new courage on the part of Brussels, however belated and tentative, is an important step. But I wonder: If the United States were subjected to these tests, could it pass?

Take the case of gerrymandering. In 2012, states controlled by Republican legislatures and governors resorted to extreme gerrymandering, so that Republicans begin with a head start of 20 to 25 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, relative to their share of the popular vote. Hungary, in rendering democracy purely formalistic, could learn a trick or two from the GOP.

And where courts are concerned, the Polish government is pretty tame compared to Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell. For the last six years of President Obama’s administration, when Republicans controlled the Senate, McConnell slow-rolled Obama’s judicial appointees, leaving a federal bench that will be controlled by Republican judges for a generation or more.

McConnell disgracefully blocked consideration of Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland, an ideological moderate, to the Supreme Court. Thanks to this strategy of total blockage, when Trump took office there were 105 vacancies on the federal judicial bench, compared to just 54 when Obama took office.

So courts and legislative districts are increasingly rigged, just as in Poland and Hungary. The United States is still a democracy ? but a narrowed one.

The revulsion against Trump is so broad and deep, that we have a good shot at repairing the several elements that the Republicans have sought to destroy.

Trump gets most of the attention as a would-be dictator. But the “mainstream” Republican Party properly deserves most of the blame.

Read more: Could The U.S. Pass The EU’s Democracy Test? | HuffPost