After comfortably handling the start of the pandemic, Germany is now lagging behind its neighbors and faces increasing pressure to tighten restrictions days before Christmas.
The German chancellor is within touching distance of a historic budget settlement that would underpin the recovery from Covid, but it is threatening to slip through her fingers.
Bars, gyms and cinemas to remain closed until 10 January & govt will reconvene with regional leaders on 4 January to reassess the restrictions, said Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Merkel & the leaders of Germany’s 16 states agreed to tighten rules. Her Chief of Staff said there’s a chance that curbs will stay until March if the disease isn’t reined in.
Merkel will hold talks with 16 regional leaders in Berlin, when they’re expected to agree on an extension of the country’s partial shutdown until at least 20 December.
Countries in EU, where over 210,000 people have died and nearly 6.5 million infected by Covid, have begun to impose new round of restrictions to stem the crisis.
The trial of a Russian man charged with murdering a Georgian of Chechen descent in Berlin is the latest in a series of issues that have soured ties between Berlin and Moscow.
Tightening foreign-investment rules, coordinating response to China & challenging Russia over poisoning of Alexei Navalny are telling examples of Germany's power.
Finance ministry says the proposed revamp will focus on structural reforms, rate rationalisation & ease of living, & will be deliberated upon in the coming weeks.
The project is meant to be a ‘protective shield that will keep expanding’, the PM said. It is on the lines of the ‘Golden Dome’ announced by Trump, it is learnt.
Standing up to America is usually not a personal risk for a leader in India. Any suggestions of foreign pressure unites India behind who they see as leading them in that fight.
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