Europe at a glance

Paris

Prison suicide: A former French model agent who was suspected of procuring more than 1,000 women and young girls for his friend Jeffrey Epstein has been found dead in the Paris prison where he was awaiting trial for the rape of a minor. Jean-Luc Brunel, 76, is reported to have hanged himself. He was arrested in December 2020 – a year and a half after Epstein’s death by suicide – at Charles de Gaulle airport, where he was attempting to board a flight to Senegal. This week, his alleged victims expressed anger that they had been robbed of justice. His lawyers said he was innocent, and had been driven to suicide by the injustice he faced.

Zurich, Switzerland

Fugitive found: One of Europe’s most wanted fugitives – a Belgian drug lord known as the “finger cutter” – has been arrested in Switzerland. Flor Bressers, 35, went on the run in 2020 after being convicted of the 2016 kidnapping and torture of a Dutch florist who’d failed to get a 40kg heroin shipment past British customs. In 2010, he had been charged with using pruning shears to slice off the finger of another trafficker, hence his nickname. On that occasion, however, he was acquitted for lack of evidence. Experts have warned that the ultra-violent tactics of the Mexican cartels are increasingly being replicated by organised crime gangs in Europe. Dutch prosecutors recently said that the discovery of a soundproofed torture chamber in a shipping container used by a drugs gang should give recreational drug users pause for thought about the broader cost of their habit.

Madrid

Party row: A simmering power struggle at the top of Spain’s People’s Party (PP) erupted this week, when the president of Madrid publicly accused her own party leader of plotting to destroy her. Isabel Díaz Ayuso, whose popularity soared during the pandemic, is now being investigated over allegations that she helped her brother profit from a s1.5m face mask contract awarded by her administration. She denies wrongdoing – and says she is the victim of a smear campaign orchestrated by the PP’s leader, Pablo Casado. On Sunday, thousands of PP supporters gathered in Madrid to call for Casado’s resignation.

The Hague, Netherlands

Eunice hits: Storm Eunice battered countries across northern Europe last Friday, killing at least 12 people in addition to the four who lost their lives in Britain and Ireland (see page 21). Millions of people were left without power, with northwestern Poland particularly badly affected, and transport was disrupted across the region. In Germany, where the storm was named Zeynep, the national rail company Deutsche Bahn halted longdistance and regional rail services; it later reported that more than 1,000km of track had been damaged. Rail services were also suspended in the Netherlands, and schools were closed. In the Belgian town of Ypres, a 79-year-old British man died after being blown from his boat by the strong winds; in Tournai, the storm sent a crane crashing into the roof of a hospital. Its operator, who was in his cab, was badly injured, and there were reports of casualties from the hospital too.

Vienna

Covid curbs eased: Austria has announced that it will lift almost all Covid restrictions from 5 March, meaning that Covid certificates will no longer be required to enter shops, restaurants, cinemas and other public places (masks will still be required on public transport). Earlier this month, Austria became the first European country to make vaccinations against Covid-19 mandatory for all adults. The law is due to come into force from 15 March – once all households have been formally notified by letter – but it is unclear the extent to which police will fine people for non-compliance. Austria is one of several European countries where restrictions are being lifted as the Omicron wave eases. The Netherlands and Switzerland dropped almost all restrictions this week. In Germany, where Omicron arrived relatively late, the government is aiming to drop most restrictions by 20 March.

Warsaw

EU face-off: The European Court of Justice – the EU’s highest court – has dismissed a challenge to a new rule that allows the bloc to deny funding to member states that fail to comply with common standards. Hungary and Poland, whose populist governments have been repeatedly accused of violating democratic rights and the rule of law, had brought the legal challenge; and as soon as the court’s landmark ruling was issued, the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, started to come under renewed pressure to use the measure against the two countries. The EC has already denied them s43bn in Covid recovery funds; in total, hundreds of billions are at stake over the next five years.

Corfu, Greece

Ferry fire: At least ten people are missing presumed dead following last Friday’s fire on a ferry in the Ionian Sea. The Italianowned Euroferry Olympia caught fire at around 4am on Friday, three hours after it left the Greek port of Igoumenitsa bound for Brindisi in Italy. It was carrying more than 290 passengers and crew, as well as 153 trucks and 25 cars. About 280 people were successfully evacuated to the nearby island of Corfu. Search and rescue operations continued for several days, and one survivor, a 21-year-old Belarusian truck driver, was found alive on the ship on Sunday. Those now presumed dead were nationals of Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey and Lithuania. All are believed to have been hauliers. Witnesses said that the fire broke out on the vehicle deck, and that many drivers had been sleeping in the cabs of their vehicles, owing to the poor state of the cabins on board the ageing vessel.

Ottawa

Protests cleared: More than 190 people were arrested in Ottawa last week, and dozens of vehicles seized, as police cleared protests that have paralysed the city centre since late January. The crackdown – thought to be one of the largest police operations in Canadian history – began on Friday, when police used pepper spray and stun grenades to clear blockades in downtown Ottawa. Meanwhile, at least 76 bank accounts linked to the occupation have been frozen. On Monday night, Canada’s parliament approved PM Justin Trudeau’s decision to impose emergency powers to deal with the protests. Trudeau said the measures would not be kept in place for “a single day longer than necessary”, but insisted the police crackdown was necessary as the situation was “still fragile”.

Washington DC

Covid emergency extended: President Biden has formally extended the US state of national emergency initiated by the Trump administration two years ago in response to the coronavirus crisis. The declaration, which gave the federal government a range of powers to deal with the crisis, had been due to expire on 1 March. But even though the Omicron wave is easing in the US – daily cases have fallen from more than 800,000 a day in mid-January to around 80,000 a day – and many states are now easing restrictions, there is still much anxiety about the lethality of the disease. Deaths are continuing to rise in more than 14 states, and nationwide the daily death toll from Covid is close to 2,300. When the state of emergency was introduced on 13 March 2020, the virus was known to have infected 1,645 people in the US. Today that number is 79 million; around 940,000 people are thought to have died from it.

Michoacán, Mexico

Cartels muscle in: The US authorities have lifted a ban on avocado imports from Mexico that was imposed earlier this month in response to the growing involvement of organised crime in the avocado business, which is so lucrative it has been dubbed “green gold”. US agricultural inspectors working in Mexico have apparently been subjected to various, as yet unspecified, threats. Mexico exported about $3.2bn worth of avocados last year – the US accounting for about $2.8bn of that figure – and prices have risen sharply in recent months. And as the value of avocado exports has grown, a slew of Mexican cartels, notably the brutal Jalisco New Generation, have battled for control of the trade and for possession of the most fertile land in Michoacán, the only Mexican state licensed to export avocados to the US. There have been many cases of farmers being kidnapped and killed.

Petrópolis, Brazil

Killer mudslides: Catastrophic mudslides and flash flooding in the Brazilian city of Petrópolis have killed at least 176 people, with a further 110 still missing. Repeated downpours in the days since the disaster have hampered the work of emergency teams, and the authorities now say it is unlikely anyone else will be found alive. Petrópolis is a popular tourist destination about 30 miles north of Rio de Janeiro. It’s known as the “Imperial City” for its colonial-era buildings, and as the summer home of Brazil’s 19th century kings and emperors. President Jair Bolsonaro, who flew over the disaster zone on Friday, compared the “enormous destruction” to “scenes of war”. Several parts of Brazil have suffered unusually heavy rains this year, which have triggered a series of deadly floods and landslides.

Santo Domingo

Border wall: The Dominican Republic has started building a fortified border wall that will eventually stretch 122 miles along its frontier with Haiti. The Spanish-speaking republic shares the island of Hispaniola with Creole-speaking Haiti, from which it won independence in 1844 – but it is far more prosperous than its troubled neighbour, with a thriving tourist industry and relative political stability. Its GDP per capita is $7,268. Haiti’s is just $1,272, making it the poorest nation in the western hemisphere. The concrete wall with metal-mesh top, which is designed to stem the flow of drugs, weapons and undocumented immigration from Haiti, will be 3.9 metres high. It will have movement sensors, cameras, radars, 70 watchtowers and 41 access gates. The wall will cover almost half the land border between the two countries, and according to Dominican president Luis Abinader, it will “benefit both nations”.

Corrientes, Argentina

Wildfires rage: The wildfires that have been ravaging northern

Argentina since mid-January have now destroyed 800,000 hectares (1.98 million acres) of land in the Corrientes province. That amounts to almost 10% of the entire area of a region heavily dependent on agriculture. The province, bordering Paraguay, normally sees plentiful rainfall, but has suffered from a prolonged period of drought and low humidity, made worse by strong winds. As well as laying waste to the region’s farmlands – which produce citrus fruits, rice, tobacco, yerba mate and cotton, as well as livestock and forestry – the fires have killed protected animals and plants in the Iberá National Park, an important and protected wetland area.

Bameza, Ethiopia

Dam opens: The largest dam in Africa, on the Blue Nile in Ethiopia, has begun generating electricity after ten years of construction. The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, or GERD, is central to Ethiopia’s economic development, and is already a symbol of national pride, with songs and poems written in its honour. However, it is bitterly controversial, and the focus of regional disputes that have been going on for years. Ethiopia says that the $4.2bn project will transform the lives of many of the 65 million Ethiopians who still live without electricity. However, Sudan and Egypt – Ethiopia’s downstream neighbours – view it as a threat, owing to their own dependence on Nile waters. Only one of the GERD’s 13 turbines has been opened so far; the dam will become fully operational over the next two years.

Bamako

France withdraws:

France is to close its three military bases in Mali and withdraw all its forces from the country, marking the end of a nine-year mission. France first sent troops to its former colony in 2013 at the request of the Malian government. Its soldiers helped beat back the jihadists who had taken over northern cities including Timbuktu. However, they did not defeat them, and as terror attacks continued many Malians started to resent the French presence, which was described as an “occupation”; meanwhile Paris has had a series of arguments with the military government that seized power in a coup in 2020. Last month, France’s foreign minister described it as “illegitimate” and “out of control”, leading to the immediate expulsion of the French ambassador.

Mecca, Saudi Arabia

Jobs for women: A job advert for 30 female drivers for a bullet-train service between Medina and Mecca has attracted 28,000 responses, revealing the pent-up demand for work in Saudi Arabia. Until recently, women were restricted to working in certain sectors such as education and health, with strict gender segregation in place; they were only allowed to drive cars in 2018. However, in the past five years, the proportion of women in the workforce has doubled to 33%, as Crown Prince Mohammed has sought to open up the economy. Some commentators greeted the rush of applications for the train jobs as a positive sign. Others suggested the level of interest merely highlighted how closed-off most of the job market still is for women, who remain under male guardianship controls.

Hong Kong

Mass testing: Hong Kong is to begin regularly testing all its 7.5 million residents, as it struggles with the worst outbreak of Covid in China since the start of the pandemic. The territory’s chief executive, Carrie Lam, said that Hong Kong’s hospitals and quarantine facilities had been overwhelmed by the Omicron wave, and announced that elections for her post were being postponed from March to May. A study by the University of Hong Kong predicts tens of thousands of cases a day within weeks, and that – if current rules continue – up to a third of the population will be in self-isolation.

Dodoma

Political trial: The leader of Tanzania’s main opposition party has been ordered to stand trial on charges of “terrorism”, prolonging a case that is regarded by government critics as evidence of the country’s slide into dictatorship under President Samia Suluhu Hassan. Freeman Mbowe was arrested last July along with several other senior officials from his Chadema party, shortly before they were due to hold a public meeting to demand constitutional reforms. Mbowe, 60, says he has been tortured in custody.

Pyongyang

Amnesty: Thousandsof North Korean prisoners were released early last week as part of an amnesty to mark the “Day of the Shining Star” – the anniversary of the birth of the late dictator Kim Jong Il. The amnesty was presented as a “tremendous show of mercy” by his son Kim Jong Un, according to sources cited by Radio Free Asia. However, with some prisoners reportedly so malnourished they could scarcely walk, it also drew attention to the dire conditions in the country’s

jails.

Canberra

Billionaire investment: A new right-wing populist party funded by a billionaire mining magnate, known as Australia’s Donald Trump, has revealed that it has budgeted A$100m (£54m) for campaign advertising ahead of May’s general election – far more than any party in the country’s history. In the past six months, the United Australia Party has already spent A$31m, 100 times more than the governing Liberal party or the opposition Labor party, which polls suggest stands a good chance of returning to power. Its backer, Clive Palmer, 67, is worth around A$13bn.