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Dutch government eyes new Covid curbs despite riots

AFP

The Netherlands could announce tougher Covid-19 restrictions this week, just days after four nights of riots against the existing partial lockdown, the country’s health minister said on Wednesday.

A “gloomy and worrisome” rise in cases meant a cabinet meeting over coronavirus measures scheduled for December 3 had been brought forward by a week, said Health Minister Hugo de Jonge.

Ministers will consider advice from the Dutch outbreak management team before Prime Minister Mark Rutte announces the decisions in a press conference, de Jonge added.

He said he would not “anticipate” what new curbs were under consideration, but Dutch media have reported they could include school closures as infections soar, particularly among children.

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New measures risk inflaming an already tense situation in the Netherlands after police fired bullets and wounded five people during violent riots in Rotterdam last Friday.

The trouble spread to The Hague on Saturday, with protesters hurling fireworks and stones at police and burning bikes, and to other cities including Groningen in the north on Sunday and Monday.

In total 173 people were arrested and at least 12 people injured nationwide.

Rutte’s last two coronavirus press conferences have also seen demonstrators clash with police in The Hague outside government ministries.

Coronavirus curbs brought in on December 13 include bars, restaurants, cafes and supermarkets closing at 8pm, sports matches being played behind closed doors, and limits on visitors to people’s homes.

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The government warned earlier this week of “lockdown-like” measures if people did not start sticking to the rules, with new infections currently running at more than 23,000 a day.

It is also planning to introduce so-called “2G measures” that would bar unvaccinated people from bars and cafes.

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International

Trump to sign over 200 executive orders, declaring National Emergency at U.S.-Mexico Border

Donald Trump will sign over 200 executive orders this Monday, including declaring a national emergency at the southern U.S. border and designating Mexican drug cartels as terrorists on his first day as president, according to U.S. network Fox News.

A senior administration official familiar with the executive actions Trump will sign, and who was authorized to inform the media according to Fox News, said that the president will sign multiple “omnibus” executive orders, each containing dozens of significant actions.

The source indicated that Trump will declare a national border emergency, order the U.S. military to work with the Department of Homeland Security to fully secure the southern border, and make it a national priority to eliminate all criminal cartels operating on U.S. soil. This version of the emergency declaration had previously been reported by CNN News and was also confirmed to The Wall Street Journal on Sunday.

According to Fox News, Trump will close the border to all undocumented foreign nationals through a proclamation. He will also create task forces for national security protection, working with officials from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and other agencies to “completely eradicate the presence of criminal cartels.”

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International

Trump appoints Stallone, Voight, and Gibson as special ambassadors to Hollywood

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump announced on Thursday the appointment of actors Sylvester Stallone (‘Rocky’) and Jon Voight (‘Midnight Cowboy’), as well as actor and director Mel Gibson (‘Braveheart’) as special ambassadors to the “very problematic” Hollywood.

“They will help me as special envoys to make Hollywood, which has lost many overseas businesses in the last four years, COME BACK BIGGER, BETTER, AND STRONGER THAN EVER,” he posted on his social media platform, Truth Social.

The Republican lamented all the “problems” he claims Hollywood faces and created this role with the aim of improving the situation from a business perspective.

“These three talented men will be my eyes and ears. I will do whatever they suggest,” he said.

Stallone had previously described Trump as the second George Washington, the first U.S. president (1789–1797) and one of the nation’s founding fathers, during a dinner after his victory in the November presidential elections, where he served as the master of ceremonies.

Meanwhile, Gibson attacked Trump’s rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, accusing her of having “the IQ of a fence.”

The Republican leader will be sworn in as president on January 20 on the steps of the U.S. Capitol, succeeding Democrat Joe Biden.

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International

Latin American and Caribbean diplomats voice concern over U.S. mass deportation plan

Diplomatic chiefs from ten Latin American and Caribbean countries expressed their “serious concern” over the announcement of a mass deportation of migrants, a measure they consider incompatible with human rights, according to a joint statement released this Friday.

The statement, which does not attribute the measure to any specific country, refers to the announcement made by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, who has promised to carry out the largest foreign deportation operation in the history of the nation once he takes office next Monday. “The announcements of mass deportations are a serious cause for concern, especially due to their incompatibility with the fundamental principles of human rights and their failure to effectively address the structural causes of migration,” the statement said, released by Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE).

The signing countries—Brazil, Belize, Colombia, Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, and Venezuela (almost all migrant-sending nations)—also committed to “defend the human rights of all migrants.”

This includes “rejecting the criminalization of migrants at all stages of the migration cycle” and “protecting them as a priority from transnational organized crime that profits from migration,” the document adds.

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