Новости за 01.03.2021

Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy was sentenced to jail by a court on Monday, after being found guilty of corruption and influence-peddling. Sarkozy received a three-year term, of which two are suspended. He is expected to appeal, and is unlikely to spend any time in prison, given he can wear an electronic bracelet or remain confined at home. Sarkozy was president from 2007 to 2012.

China used coronavirus prevention measures, intimidation and visa curbs to limit foreign reporting in 2020, ushering in a "rapid decline in media freedom," the Foreign Correspondents' Club of China (FCCC) said on Monday, Reuters reports. "All arms of state power - including surveillance systems introduced to curb coronavirus - were used to harass and intimidate journalists, their Chinese colleagues, and those whom the foreign press sought to interview," it said.

More than 20m people in the UK have been given at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, the country's health secretary, Matt Hancock, has announced, Deutsche Welle reports. The UK will begin vaccinating people over 40 in March, as the country pushes ahead with first doses. The British government is aiming to give the entire adult population at least one dose of vaccine by the end of July.

Serbian president Aleksandar Vučić has attacked EU proposals to issue 'vaccine passports' enabling people who had had the jab to travel freely, following EU leaders' talks last week. The passports were "meaningless" and "anti-European", he said, because they would force people to take the drug and would create discrimination. France and Germany "were against that in the beginning, but obviously the pressure is huge", Vučić told TV Prva Saturday.

Germany has added France's eastern Moselle region to its list of "variant of concern" areas, triggering tougher entry requirements at the border between the two neighbours, Deutsche Welle writes. Under the new restrictions, almost all travel will be banned. There are only a few exemptions, including lorry drivers and certain key workers. Anyone crossing the border will have to provide a valid negative Covid-19 test.

Italian researchers have discovered that healthcare workers with obesity produced only about half the amount of antibodies in response to a second dose of the jab compared with healthy people, The Guardian writes. Although it was too soon to know what this means for the efficacy of the vaccine, it might imply that people with obesity need an additional dose to ensure they are adequately protected against coronavirus.

The Iranian foreign ministry has announced it is not willing to attend EU-brokered talks with the US over the future of the Iran nuclear deal because Washington has not done enough to lift sanctions against Tehran, The Guardian writes. The new US administration committed to returning to the 2015 nuclear deal, had said it was willing to attend talks, and might lift sanctions at the negotiating table, but not before.

Three policemen were injured, one of them needing hospital care, and 23 people were arrested in anti-lockdown protests in Dublin on Saturday. Taoiseach Micheál Martin said the demonstration had "posed an unacceptable risk to both the public and gardaí [police]". "It is utterly horrifying to see our members being placed under incredible ... danger," a police spokeswoman said, after some protesters had discharged fireworks at police at point-blank range.

The EU has asked its ambassador to Cuba to explain why he signed a letter asking US president Joe Biden to stop being "hostile" to Havana.

The increased regulatory scrutiny of tech giants such as Google, Facebook and Microsoft has triggered a rise in lobbying activities by these companies in Brussels, and, accordingly, an exponential grow of their budget for these activities.

To help bridge the stubborn gender pay gap, the EU Commission will present pay transparency measures so that differences in wages and salaries do not remain hidden from employees.

The Embassy of Ethiopia would like to set the record straight to the esteemed readership by stating the following facts about the situation in Ethiopia particularly in Tigray.

I hope that the sanctions from the Foreign Affairs Council will increase the likelihood of seeing Alexei Navalny and his supporters leaving Russian prisons alive, unharmed, and in the nearer future than otherwise.