Why Western Balkans is Europe’s weak point in its coronavirus defense

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Serbia declared a state of emergency on March 15, shutting down many public spaces, but there are concerns that it and other Western Balkan countries failed to coordinate to counter the virus. (AFP)
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Updated 27 April 2020
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Why Western Balkans is Europe’s weak point in its coronavirus defense

  • Low rate of testing for infection could be concealing region’s actual coronavirus picture
  • Risks heightened by poor medical systems and presence of large migrant communities

ABU DHABI: In an interdependent world, no country is an island where the whims and fancies of politicians can substitute for coherent policy and rule of law.

Few events in living memory have driven home this point more forcefully than the global coronavirus pandemic.

Yet in a forgotten corner of the world called the Western Balkans, the pre-coronavirus-era rules still apply. At least that is the impression one gets from the goings-on there.

The countries belonging to the Western Balkans include Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia.

Given their historical commonalities, Slovenia and Croatia are included in the expanded definition following their entry — in 2004 and 2013, respectively — into the EU.

In retrospect, as much of Western Europe found itself confronting life-threatening challenges, the Western Balkan states failed to get their act together.

The coronavirus calamities that befell the public-health systems of Italy and Spain were clear omens of things to come.

But instead of responding to the approaching crisis in a coordinated manner, Western Balkan governments allowed old divisions to hold sway and business as usual to prevail.

With the second-largest number of COVID-19 cases in the region, Serbia declared a state of emergency in mid-March.

President Aleksandar Vucic turned the crisis into an opportunity to cement ties with China by turning to it for assistance.

He justified his decision by claiming that the EU, the longstanding partner of the Western Balkans, had put a ban on the export of medical equipment.

While Brussels may have sent conflicting messages, countries in the region remain eligible to order shipments of medical and protective equipment.

Another cause for concern is the rash of restrictions that Western Balkan governments have imposed on freedom of expression.

Harsh penalties have been introduced in a rush, ostensibly to counter the spread of fake news and panic among the population.

The fines range from €500 ($542) to €2,500 — two to five times an average adult’s monthly salary.

FASTFACTS

Total cases in Western Balkans surpassed 15,422 on April 26.

No confirmed cases yet among refugee, migrant populations.

Insufficient testing among vulnerable populations.

UAE sent medical gear to Croatia, Serbia in late March.

Medical gear bought with private donations sent to Montenegro from UAE.

In Serbia, journalist Ana Lalic was arrested for writing a report on the shortage of medical equipment and poor crisis management by one of the largest hospitals in the Vojvodina region.

“I am convinced that I am doing the right thing regardless of my arrest, and I can attest to that based on the positive feedback from medical practitioners I have gotten following the publishing of my article,” Lalic told the local N1 media outlet after her release.

“People wrote to me with testimonies that the real situation is actually worse than what I wrote, which is the saddest thing.”

It is doubtful if foreign assistance can compensate for poor governance or shield the region from the pandemic’s worst impact. But at least the support of donors has been unstinting in the Western Balkans’ hour of need.

Regrettably some governments are using the need to combat coronavirus disinformation as a pretext to introduce disproportionate restrictions to press freedom.

Dunja Mijatovic, Council of Europe commissioner for human rights

In addition to Serbia, China has shipped protective medical equipment to Croatia, Bosnia and Montenegro. Croatia alone has received 20 tons of Chinese medical equipment.

From the Middle East, the UAE sent a plane with 10 tons of medical gear to Serbia in late March in response to Vucic’s appeal. The cargo included protective suits, gloves, shoe protectors, masks, sanitizers and ventilators.

Separately, the UAE donated 11.5 tons of medical equipment, including protective face masks, to Croatia after the country was struck by the strongest earthquake in 140 years.

Turkey, which has strong historical ties to the region, has offered to support procurement of essential goods, and sent a plane loaded with medical gear to Bosnia, Montenegro and Serbia, according to government officials.

The EU special representative to Bosnia announced a donation of €7.5 million to the country, to which Norway’s government will add another €640,000 via the UN Development Programme.

In fairness, Bosnian authorities have enforced precautionary measures such as curfews, school closures and restrictions on movement of people.

But hope is in short supply, with many people pinning their faith on over-the-counter “wonder drugs” such as hydroxychloroquine.

To make matters worse, medical assistance has predictably been divided up among the federation and the Serb-dominated Republic of Srpska — the two entities that make up Bosnia and Herzegovina.

This politically convenient arrangement is likely to leave the most vulnerable sections of Bosnian society without the necessary protective gear.




Dunja Mijatovic

Thus far, the lockdowns on public life have not translated into measurable success in any of the Western Balkan countries, whose collective coronavirus caseload has been increasing at an alarming rate.

Equally troubling is the prospect of the relatively low rates of testing for infection masking the actual coronavirus picture.

The region’s creaky public-health infrastructure, to say nothing of its crisis-handling capacity, is in no shape to “flatten the curve” of infections in the near future.

What the lockdowns have achieved for sure is to add to the misery of the most vulnerable people, including migrants and refugees who are stranded in border areas with virtually no permanent housing or access to basic health care.

In Serbia, for instance, migrants and asylum-seekers housed in state-run “reception centers” can only go out with special permission.

“We fled from home to save our lives, to escape war, and now we’re faced with this new coronavirus,” said Rozhan, who together with her husband Ibrahim and her three children made the long and arduous journey from Iraq to the region in the hope of finding asylum in a European country.

UN agencies have been working around the clock with Serbian authorities to ensure the protection of the roughly 5,500 migrants and refugees hosted in the reception centers.

According to the International Organization for Migration, no COVID-19 cases have been detected among the thousands of migrants and refugees in its reception centers across Bosnia and Herzegovina.

If the overall public-health outlook is gloomy, the portents for the region’s economy, especially the three countries that rely heavily on tourism — Croatia, Montenegro and Albania — are even more so.

The pandemic has spelled the end of the summer tourist season before it could even begin, thus delivering a body blow to their fragile economies.

The spillover effect of the tourism industry’s collapse on other economic sectors is expected to decimate small- and medium-sized enterprises, leaving large numbers of people without jobs.

“It’s obvious that certain categories of economy and population will seek the state’s support in order to recover from the damage caused by the epidemic,” Nemanja Nenadic, Transparency Serbia’s program director, told a local news outlet.

“Since there won’t be money for everyone, nor a completely objective criteria for determining who should be helped, this will open a large field for trade in influence and corruption.”

Even if some day a vaccine is found for COVID-19 and life returns to normal across the world, there is no guarantee that the Western Balkans’ body politic will be able to rid itself of the pre-existing virus of corruption and favoritism.

In the worst-case scenario, the looming public-health disaster in the Western Balkans will be followed by economic, humanitarian and governance crises rolled into one.


Senate GOP pushes ahead with budget bill that funds Trump’s mass deportations and border wall

Updated 19 February 2025
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Senate GOP pushes ahead with budget bill that funds Trump’s mass deportations and border wall

  • This is the first step in unlocking Trump’s campaign promises — tax cuts, energy production and border controls — and dominating the agenda in Congress

WASHINGTON: Senate Republicans pushed ahead late Tuesday on a scaled-back budget bill, a $340 billion package to give the Trump administration money for mass deportations and other priorities, as Democrats prepare a counter-campaign against the onslaught of actions coming from the White House.
On a party-line vote, 50-47, Republicans launched the process, skipping ahead of the House Republicans who prefer President Donald Trump’s approach for a “big, beautiful bill” that includes $4.5 trillion in tax cuts that are tops on the party agenda. Senate Republicans plan to deal with tax cuts later, in a second package.
“It’s time to act,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., on social media, announcing the plan ahead as the House is on recess week. “Let’s get it done.”
This is the first step in unlocking Trump’s campaign promises — tax cuts, energy production and border controls — and dominating the agenda in Congress. While Republicans have majority control of both the House and Senate, giving a rare sweep of Washington power, they face big hurdles trying to put the president’s agenda into law over steep Democratic objections.
It’s coming as the administration’s Department of Government Efficiency effort is slashing costs across government departments, leaving a trail of fired federal workers and dismantling programs on which many Americans depend. Democrats, having floundered amid the initial chaos coming from the White House, emerged galvanized as they try to warn Americans what’s at stake.
“These bills that they have have one purpose — and that is they’re trying to give a tax break to their billionaire buddies and have you, the average American person, pay for it,” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer told AP. “It is outrageous.”
Schumer convened a private weekend call with Democratic senators and emerged with a strategy to challenge Republicans for prioritizing tax cuts that primarily flow to the wealthy at the expense of program and service cuts to US health care, scientific research, veterans services and other programs.
As the Senate begins the cumbersome budget process this week — which entails an initial 50 hours of debate followed by an expected all-night session with dozens if not 100 or more efforts to amend the package in what’s called a vote-a-rama — Democrats are preparing to drill down on those issues.
The Senate GOP package would allow $175 billion to be spent on border security, including funding for mass deportation operations and to build the wall along the US-Mexico border; a $150 billion boost to the Pentagon for defense spending; and $20 billion for the Coast Guard.
Republicans are determined to push ahead after Trump’s border czar Tom Homan and top aide Stephen Miller told senators privately last week they are running short of cash to accomplish the president’s mass deportations and other border priorities.
The Senate Budget Committee said the package would cost about $85.5 billion a year, for four years of Trump’s presidency, paid for with new reductions and revenues elsewhere that other committees will draw up.
Eyeing ways to pay for the package, Senate Republicans are considering a rollback of the Biden administration’s methane emissions fee, which was approved by Democrats as part of climate change strategies in the Inflation Reduction Act, and hoping to draw new revenue from energy leases as they aim to spur domestic energy production.
While the House and Senate budget resolutions are often considered simply statements of policy priorities, these could actually become law.
The budget resolutions are being considered under what’s called the reconciliation process, which allows passage on a simple majority vote without many of the procedural hurdles that stall bills. Once rare, reconciliation is increasingly being used in the House and Senate to pass big packages on party-line votes when one party controls the White House and Congress.
During Trump’s first term, Republicans used the reconciliation process to pass the GOP tax cuts in 2017. Democrats used reconciliation during the Biden presidency era to approve COVID relief and also the Inflation Reduction Act.
 

 


Brazil prosecutor charges Bolsonaro over failed coup bid

Updated 19 February 2025
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Brazil prosecutor charges Bolsonaro over failed coup bid

  • Bolsonaro has denied the accusations and said he was the victim of “persecution”

BRASÍLIA: Brazil’s attorney general on Tuesday formally charged far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro and 33 others over an alleged coup attempt after his 2022 election loss.
Bolsonaro, 69, and his co-accused were hit with five charges over the alleged bid to prevent President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking office after a bitter election race.
Attorney General Paulo Gonet Branco filed the charges at the Supreme Court “based on manuscripts, digital files, spreadsheets and exchanges of messages that reveal the scheme to disrupt the democratic order,” his office said in a statement.
“They describe, in detail, the conspiratorial plot set up and executed against democratic institutions.”
One of the charges is for the crime of “armed criminal organization,” allegedly led by Bolsonaro and his vice presidential candidate Walter Braga Netto.
“Allied with other individuals, including civilians and military personnel, they attempted to prevent, in a coordinated manner, the result of the 2022 presidential elections from being fulfilled,” read the statement.
The prosecutor’s office based its decision on a federal police report of over 800 pages, released last year after a two-year investigation which found Bolsonaro was “fully aware and actively participated” in the plot to cling to power.
Bolsonaro has denied the accusations and said he was the victim of “persecution.”
According to the statement from Branco’s office, the plot began in 2021, with “systematic attacks on the electronic voting system, through public statements and on the Internet.”
During the second round of the presidential election in October 2022, security agencies were mobilized to “prevent voters from voting for the opposition candidate,” said the statement.
Those involved at this stage worked to facilitate “the acts of violence and vandalism on January 8, 2023,” when Bolsonaro supporters stormed the presidential palace, Congress and Supreme Court.
The attorney general’s office said the criminal organization headed by Bolsonaro had pressured army chiefs “in favor of forceful actions in the political scene to prevent the elected president from taking office.”
Investigations also showed a plot to assassinate Lula, vice president Geraldo Alckmin and a high-profile judge with “the approval of” Bolsonaro.
According to the statement, the January 8 riots by Bolsonaro supporters urging the military to intervene were “the final attempt.”
The Supreme Court will now weigh the charges and decide whether to initiate proceedings against Bolsonaro.
Hours before the charges were filed, Bolsonaro told journalists in the capital Brasilia that he had “no concern” about the possibility of being indicted.


Israel-Gaza war fuels record level of anti-Muslim hatred in Britain, monitoring group says

Police officers stand near a cordon at Manchester Victoria Station, in Manchester. (AFP)
Updated 19 February 2025
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Israel-Gaza war fuels record level of anti-Muslim hatred in Britain, monitoring group says

  • The surge in hate incidents against Muslims due to Islamophobia has also been linked to the killing of three young girls in the northern English town of Southport last summer, Tell MAMA said

LONDON: The number of anti-Muslim incidents in Britain rose to a new high in 2024, according to data compiled by monitoring organization Tell MAMA, which said the war in Gaza had “super-fueled” online hate.
Tell MAMA said it verified 5,837 anti-Muslim hate cases — a mix of both online and in-person incidents — last year, compared with 3,767 cases the year before and 2,201 in 2022.
The organization’s data goes back to 2012 and is compiled using data-sharing agreements with police forces in England and Wales.
“The Middle East conflict super-fueled online anti-Muslim hate,” the group said in a statement, adding that “the Israel and Gaza War, the Southport murders and riots ... created a surge in anti-Muslim hate cases reported to Tell MAMA from 2023-2024.”
Its director Iman Atta described the surge as unacceptable and deeply concerning for the future.
Tell MAMA (Measuring Anti-Muslim Attacks) describes itself as an independent, non-governmental organization which works on tackling anti-Muslim hatred.
Separate data last week showed levels of hatred toward Jews across Britain have also rocketed to record levels in the wake of the October 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas on Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza.
The surge in hate incidents against Muslims due to Islamophobia has also been linked to the killing of three young girls in the northern English town of Southport last summer, Tell MAMA said.
False reports spread on social media that the killer, who has since been sentenced to at least 52 years behind bars, was a radical Islamist migrant, leading to racist riots involving far-right and anti-immigration groups across the country.
“We urge the public to stand together against hatred and extremism, and we urge those in positions of influence and public authority to consider how their language risks stereotyping communities,” Atta said, calling for coordinated government action to tackle anti-Muslim hate.

 


US Catholic bishops sue Trump administration for halt in funding for refugee settlement

President Donald Trump speaks at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2025. (AP)
Updated 19 February 2025
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US Catholic bishops sue Trump administration for halt in funding for refugee settlement

  • The lawsuit said the government is attempting to “pull the rug out” from under the program, causing it longstanding damage

WASHINGTON: Catholic bishops sued the Trump administration on Tuesday over its abrupt halt to funding of refugee resettlement, calling the action unlawful and harmful to newly arrived refugees and to the nation’s largest private resettlement program.
The US Conference of Catholic Bishops says the administration, by withholding millions even for reimbursements of costs incurred before the sudden cut-off of funding, violates various laws as well as the constitutional provision giving the power of the purse to Congress, which already approved the funding.
The conference’s Migration and Refugee Services has sent layoff notices to 50 workers, more than half its staff, with additional cuts expected in local Catholic Charities offices that partner with the national office, the lawsuit said.
“The Catholic Church always works to uphold the common good of all and promote the dignity of the human person, especially the most vulnerable among us,” said Archbishop Timothy Broglio, president of the USCCB. “That includes the unborn, the poor, the stranger, the elderly and infirm, and migrants.” The funding suspension prevents the church from doing so, he said.
“The conference suddenly finds itself unable to sustain its work to care for the thousands of refugees who were welcomed into our country and assigned to the care of the USCCB by the government after being granted legal status,” Broglio said.
The conference is trying to keep the program going, but it’s “financially unsustainable,” he said, adding that it’s trying to hold the US government to its “moral and legal commitments.”
The conference is one of 10 national agencies, most of them faith-based, that serve refugees and that have been sent scrambling since receiving a Jan. 24 State Department letter informing them of an immediate suspension of funding pending a review of foreign-aid programs.
The lawsuit, filed in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, notes that the resettlement program isn’t even foreign aid. It’s a domestic program to help newly arrived refugees — who arrive legally after being vetted overseas — meet initial needs such as housing and job placement.
“USCCB spends more on refugee resettlement each year than it receives in funding from the federal government, but it cannot sustain its programs without the millions in federal funding that provide the foundation of this private-public partnership,” the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit said the government is attempting to “pull the rug out” from under the program, causing it longstanding damage.
The lawsuit names the departments of State and Health and Human Services as well as their respective secretaries, Marco Rubio and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Both departments have roles in delegating resettlement work to the bishops conference.
There was no immediate reply in court from those departments.
The USCCB said it is still awaiting about $13 million in reimbursements for expenses prior to Jan. 24.
As of Jan. 25, it said, there were 6,758 refugees assigned by the government to USCCB’s care that had been in the country less than 90 days, the period of time for which they’re eligible for resettlement aid.
The conference said suspending the resettlement effort will only prolong the time it takes for refugees to find employment and become self-sufficient.
 

 


Trump moves to widen IVF access, risking conservative fury

Updated 19 February 2025
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Trump moves to widen IVF access, risking conservative fury

PALM BEACH, United States: US President Donald Trump moved Tuesday to increase access to in vitro fertilization, a move likely to be welcomed by many Americans but which risks a backlash from conservatives and the religious right.
The Republican leader signed an executive order giving his advisers 90 days to find recommendations for protecting IVF access and “aggressively” reducing out-of-pocket and insurance costs for the treatment.
“My Administration recognizes the importance of family formation, and as a Nation, our public policy must make it easier for loving and longing mothers and fathers to have children,” the order stated.
“Americans need reliable access to IVF and more affordable treatment options,” it continued.
Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, shortly after signing the order, that “I think the women and families, husbands, are very appreciative of it.”
The president — whose billionaire top donor and ally Elon Musk has had several children by IVF — has long held conflicting stances on reproductive rights.
He frequently boasts about appointing Supreme Court justices who ended federal protections for abortion access in 2022, a seismic move that made him a hero to the anti-abortion movement, which has driven conservative voters to the polls for decades.
But he drew fury from that same movement when, during last year’s presidential campaign, he announced that in a second term he would ensure free IVF, and claimed to be the “father of IVF.”
At the time Trump voiced worries that Republicans were out of step with voters on the issue.
Republicans are divided on fertility treatments such as IVF, with many hailing them as a boost to American families.
Others, with strong beliefs that life begins at conception, oppose IVF because the procedure can produce multiple embryos, not all of which get used.
Almost every Senate Republican voted against assuring IVF access in a vote in June last year — including then-Ohio senator JD Vance, now Trump’s vice president.
Reproductive rights activists had feared that the Supreme Court decision on abortion threatened IVF, especially after a court in Alabama last year ruled that frozen embryos could be considered people, leading to several clinics briefly pausing treatments.
Trump’s Democratic rival Kamala Harris had put reproductive rights at the heart of her election platform, warning that Trump’s moves on abortion also jeopardized access to fertility treatments.