Zeta expected to hit US
Tourists walk past debris littering the street early Tuesday after Hurricane Zeta’s landfall in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. Tropical Storm Zeta is expected to strengthen again into a hurricane and hit the U.S. Gulf Coast at or near hurricane strength tonight, according to the National Hurricane Center. Zeta was a Category 1 hurricane when it made landfall in Mexico overnight Monday, but it dropped to a tropical storm after interacting with land.
MILAN— Protesters set trash bins afire and police responded with hydrant sprays in downtown Rome on Tuesday night, part of a day of public outpouring of anger against virus-fighting measures like evening shutdowns of restaurants and bars and the closures of gyms and theaters — a sign of growing discontent across Europe with renewed coronavirus restrictions.
Pedestrians and motorists returning home from work in Rome were taken by surprise when protesters, some of them hooded and members of an extreme-right political group, set fire to trash bins in Piazza del Popolo, overturned parked motor scooters and mopeds, and hurled smoke bombs, state TV reported.
Police vans unleashed torrents of water to disperse them.
It was a fifth consecutive night of violent protests in Italy, following recent local overnight curfews in metropolises including Naples and Rome.
After protests Monday night turned violent in the financial capital of Milan, police arrested 28 people.
And in Italy’s industrial northern city of Turin, at least 11 were arrested, including two who smashed the window of a Gucci boutique and stripped a mannequin of its yellow trousers.
All of Europe is grappling with howto halt a fall resurgence of the virus before its hospitals become overwhelmed again.
Nightly curfews have been implemented in French cities. Schools must close at 6 p.m.
Schools have been closed in Northern Ireland and the Czech Republic. German officials have ordered de facto lockdowns in some areas near the Austrian border and new mask-wearing requirements are popping up weekly across the continent, including a nationwide requirement in Russia.
“We would all like to live like before, but there are moments where you have to make tough decisions,” French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said Tuesday.
Yet in this new round of restrictions, governments are finding a less compliant public, even as the continent has seen more than 250,000 confirmed deaths in the pandemic.
Over the weekend, police used pepper spray against protesters angry over new virus restrictions in Poland. Spanish doctors staged their first national walkout in 25 years Tuesday to protest poor working conditions. In Britain, anger and frustration at the government’s uneven handling of the pandemic has erupted into a political crisis over the issue of hungry children.
Scrambling to ease some of the financial pain caused by the latest restrictions on businesses, Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte’s Cabinet approved $5.8 billion in economic relief.
The measures included extending unemployment benefits for unionized workers through January, financial aid for restaurants, cafes, hotels, gyms and ice cream parlors, taxi drivers and other sectors already hit hard by the lockdown earlier this year, and now reeling under the new restrictions.
Also allocated were onetime payments of nearly $1,200 to freelancers in the entertainment industry, pummeled by the cinema and theater closure, which lasts at least amonth.
Conte said the alternative was another national lockdown to avoid overwhelming the national health service.