Bank Blocks Donations Supporting Cuban Effort to Vaccinate World

"A European bank, established in the Netherlands, has decided to put the interests of the U.S. government above the lives of millions of people."


A worker finalizes details to start the production at the recently inaugurated CIGB Industrial Biotechnological Complex in Mariel, Cuba, on November 5, 2021. (Photo: Yander Zamora/AFP via Getty Images)

KENNY STANCIL

January 19, 2022

Progressive International recently asked for contributions so they can send a delegation to Havana next week to promote Cuba's effort to vaccinate the world against Covid-19.

But in an apparent genuflection to the illegal U.S. embargo against the island, Dutch multinational bank ING has blocked all donations supporting the trip, the group said Tuesday.

"This is scandalous," said Progressive International (PI) general coordinator David Adler.

"The U.S. wields unparalleled power over our global financial system," Adler continued. "Yesterday, a message received by our supporter revealed the far-reaching consequences of the U.S. embargo on Cuba: a European bank, established in the Netherlands, has decided to put the interests of the U.S. government above the lives of millions of people."

He added that "the embargo seeks not only to suffocate Cuba, but also to stifle our solidarity with it."

In his message on Wednesday, Adler lamented that "it looks like others are following suit."

According to Pawel Wargan, coordinator of PI's Secretariat, PayPal has joined ING in blocking donations meant to help delegates travel to Havana. "We have a duty to end this genocidal embargo," said Wargan.

Anti-war activists at CodePink responded to the news by saying that "some of the most powerful people in the world would rather prolong a global pandemic than allow the Cuban people some relief from U.S. imperialism. What awful, deadly priorities."

As the coronavirus crisis enters its third year, new infections have reached record levels globally. Meanwhile, access to lifesaving vaccines remains starkly unequal. Several countries are administering booster shots—hundreds of millions of which are set to be thrown away in the coming weeks—before most of the world's poorest inhabitants have been given their first jab.

Nearly 9.8 billion Covid-19 vaccine doses have been administered globally to date. More than 70% of people in high-income nations have been fully inoculated, but just 9.6% of people in low-income countries have received at least one shot due to dose hoarding by wealthy governments and knowledge hoarding by pharmaceutical corporations, whose profit-driven refusal to share publicly funded vaccine formulas has generated artificial scarcity.

According to a recent analysis, billions of additional Covid-19 vaccine doses are required to end the pandemic—meaning that global vaccine manufacturing must be ramped up significantly.

As PI said Monday when sharing its plan to send representatives to Havana "for a special showcase of the Cuban vaccines":

President Joe Biden could easily help fill this shortfall by compelling U.S. pharmaceutical corporations to share their vaccine technology with poorer nations. But he has so far refused to do so. A new production hub in Africa—where only 3% of people are vaccinated—is now trying to replicate the Moderna vaccine. But without Moderna's help, or Joe Biden's executive action, production could take more than a year to begin.

By contrast, PI continued, "Cuba has emerged as a powerful engine of vaccine internationalism."

That's precisely why PI is sending a delegation to Havana: to draw attention to "the promise of the Cuban vaccine and the perils of the U.S. embargo against it," with the goal of forging "connections between Cuba's public biotech sector and manufacturers who might produce the vaccine and help the Cuban government recuperate the costs of its development."

Despite the added challenges created by a six decade-long U.S. blockade, Cuba's public biotech sector has developed two highly effective vaccines. And its universal healthcare system has fully inoculated more than 86% of its population, quickly surpassing many wealthier nations, including its northern neighbor.

Moreover, the island has already started exporting its homegrown doses and plans to share its recipes with impoverished nations abandoned by Big Pharma and wealthy countries.

"We are not a multinational where returns are the number one reason for existing," said Vicente Vérez Bencomo of the Finlay Vaccines Institute in Cuba. "For us, it's about achieving health."

Related Content

Cuba's Homegrown Covid-19 Vaccines Poised to Protect Millions in Poor Nations


Unlike the mRNA vaccines produced by Pfizer and Moderna, Cuba opted to develop protein-based vaccines, a move that experts say comes with multiple advantages.

First, Cuba's vaccines, Abdala and Soberana 02, can be stored at room temperature, making distribution easier, especially in developing countries and remote areas lacking electricity. And second, they have a proven track record of safety across age groups, whereas mRNA technology has not yet been used on children under five.

Arguably the most important aspect of Cuba's vaccines, proponents say, is that their development demonstrates the existence of an alternative model for scientific research that puts people over profits.

However, PI noted, "the U.S. and its allies continue to oppress and exclude Cuba from the global health system."

"The U.S. blockade forced a shortage of syringes on the island that endangered its vaccine development and hindered mass production," PI explained. As Jacobin's Branko Marcetic reported two months ago, "international solidarity efforts have been vital... groups from the United States alone sent 6 million syringes to Cuba, with the Mexican government sending 800,000 more, and more than 100,000 on top of that coming from Cubans in China."

PI added that "U.S. medical journals 'marginalize scientific results that come from poor countries,' according to Vérez Bencomo. Meanwhile, the WHO refuses to accredit the Cuban vaccines, despite approval from regulators in countries like Argentina and Mexico."

"The Progressive International is sending a delegation to Havana to combat misinformation, to defend Cuban sovereignty, and to help vaccinate the world," the group announced Monday, adding:


Bringing delegates from the Union for Vaccine Internationalism, founded in June 2021 to fight the emerging apartheid, the Progressive International will convene Cuban scientists and government representatives to address international press and members of the scientific community in a showcase of the Cuban vaccine on January 25.

In response to ING's decision to block donations supporting the delegation's efforts, Varsha Gandikota-Nellutla, coordinator of PI's Blueprint project, denounced Washington. The U.S. failed to deliver on its promise to "share its vaccines with the Global South," said Gandikota-Nellutla. "Neither will it let us make our own."

Adler, meanwhile, asked people to "help us fight back."

"We are undeterred in our mission to help vaccinate the world," he said. "On January 25, we will convene Cuban scientists and government representatives in Havana to address the international press and members of the scientific community in a showcase of the Cuban vaccine."

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Top 10 US Billionaires Got $1 Billion Richer Every Day of Pandemic

"Each made about the same in a single minute as the average American household earns in an entire year. This can't continue," said Americans for Tax Fairness.

JAKE JOHNSON

January 19, 2022

The 10 wealthiest billionaires in the U.S. have added roughly $1 billion to their collective fortune every day—or around $12,600 per second—since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed millions of people across the globe and thrown countless lives into chaos.

"The pandemic has been very good to American billionaires, especially the top 10," said ATF executive director Frank Clemente, who noted that billionaires' pandemic profits will likely not be taxed because they consist largely of unrealized capital gains.The billionaire wealth update comes courtesy of the progressive advocacy group Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF), which released an analysis Wednesday estimating that the combined net worth of the 10 richest people in the U.S. has more than doubled since March 2020, reaching $1.35 trillion this week.

Sen. Ron Wyden's (D-Ore.) proposal to subject the unrealized capital gains of the mega-wealthy to taxation has gone nowhere in Congress.

"Their obscene rise in wealth—all of it potentially untaxed—stands in stark contrast to the lot of America's working families, who've struggled through almost two years of a health crisis and economic uncertainty including most recently, rising prices," Clemente said. "Chairman Wyden's Billionaires Income Tax would better align the fortunes of America's richest of the rich with the needs of average Americans."

ATF's analysis is the latest in a series of new studies highlighting the extent to which the coronavirus pandemic has accelerated the decades-long trend of soaring wealth inequality in the U.S. and worldwide.

Earlier this week, as Common Dreams reported, Oxfam International released an analysis showing that the 10 richest men in the world have doubled their combined wealth since the pandemic began. Meanwhile, the anti-poverty group noted, "the incomes of 99% of humanity are worse off because of Covid-19."

On Tuesday, a coalition of progressive organizations including the Fight Inequality Alliance and the Institute for Policy Studies estimated that a modest annual wealth tax on global millionaires and billionaires would raise $2.52 trillion dollars a year, enough money to lift 2.3 billion people out of poverty.

In an open letter published Wednesday morning, a group of more than 100 rich individuals voiced support for such a tax, warning that "history paints a pretty bleak picture of what the endgame of extremely unequal societies looks like."

"For all our well-being—rich and poor alike—it's time to confront inequality and choose to tax the rich," reads the letter, which was addressed to political and economic elites. "If you don't, then all the private talks won’t change what's coming—it's taxes or pitchforks. Let's listen to history and choose wisely."


100+ Ultra-Rich People Warn Fellow Elites: 'It's Taxes or Pitchforks'
"History paints a pretty bleak picture of what the endgame of extremely unequal societies looks like," reads an open letter signed by millionaires and billionaires calling for higher taxes on people like themselves.

Amoako Boafo: Ghana's rising art star

International collectors are snapping up his paintings. Amoako Boafo is Ghana's rising star.

But how did a fisherman's son from Accra become one of the world's most sought-after contemporary artists?

Spain: Pets receive divine blessing

Pets are considered "living beings with their own sensibility" according to a new law in Spain that took effect at the start of the year. The day of St. Anthony comes just in time to solemnly bless these beloved animals.



Special blessings

Every year on the day of St. Anthony, people bring their pets to church to have them blessed. The streets are filled with barking dogs, hissing cats and all sorts of birds and reptiles who take part in the solemn custom together with their owners. According to legend, Saint Anthony was a real animal lover and was even considered to be the patron saint of animals.

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Jayapal, Lee Resolution Promotes More Peaceful US Foreign Policy

"It's far past time we take our foreign policy into the 21st century," said Rep. Barbara Lee. "We should be leading with diplomacy and human needs as the path to global security."

Congressional Progressive Chair Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) walks ahead of Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) after leaving the White House in Washington, D.C. on October 19, 2021. (Photo: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

BRETT WILKINS

January 19, 2022

Peace campaigners on Wednesday cheered a resolution introduced by progressive U.S. congresswomen Pramila Jayapal and Barbara Lee calling for a new American foreign policy that centers nonviolent solutions and eschews militarism and bloated Pentagon spending.

"It's time to put diplomacy and peace over militarism and war."

Speaking at a Wednesday online forum hosted by the peace group Win Without War, Japayal (D-Wash.), who chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said the Foreign Policy for the 21st Century Resolution—which is co-sponsored by 17 House Democrats—"lays out a comprehensive framework for a U.S. foreign policy that emphasizes statecraft and diplomacy over military intervention."

In a statement, Lee (D-Calif.) said: "It's far past time we take our foreign policy into the 21st century. We should be leading with diplomacy and human needs as the path to global security."

Lamenting that half of the Pentagon's annual budget—which is $778 billion for 2022—goes to private contractors, Jayapal said that U.S. military spending "should not be for the purpose of enriching the shareholders of some of the largest corporations in the world."

Win Without War executive director Sara Haghdoosti welcomed the resolution with a statement asserting that "it's time for a new approach to foreign policy."

"Our foreign policy is broken," she continued. "For the past 20 years, we have waged multiple catastrophic wars, poured near-limitless resources into the bloated coffers of the Pentagon, sold billions of dollars in weaponry to repressive human rights abusers, and suffocated entire countries through broad-based sanctions."


According to Jayapal, the 21st-century foreign policy outlined in the new resolution:
Centers human dignity, social justice, and cooperation in United States foreign policy;
Supports the United Nations and other international institutions in responding to the most pressing needs of the global community;

Focuses domestic and international investments on equitable and inclusive solutions that empower individuals, workers, and communities while safeguarding human rights;

Prioritizes mitigating and resolving the harms created by historical security challenges through locally informed, locally led solutions and investments in diplomacy,

 development, and conflict prevention;

Puts forth a quick, bold, and effective response to the ongoing climate crisis that is threatening communities at home and abroad; and

Creates formal and informal processes to ensure that United States foreign policy is informed by poor people; racial, religious, and ethnic minorities; Indigenous people; women; people with disabilities; LGBTQ+ individuals; and youth.

Additionally, the measure calls for ending the use of economic sanctions, a practice that "too often feeds authoritarianism and corruption while disproportionately harming the most vulnerable" people in targeted nations.



"For decades, the military-industrial-think tank complex has succeeded in forging an American foreign policy based on military might, violence, and defense of multinational corporate interests," said Robert Weissman, president of the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, which supports the resolution.

"This approach has been a miserable failure, for the United States and even more for the rest of the world," he added. "The Foreign Policy for the 21st Century Resolution would—finally—redirect American foreign policy to meeting people's needs, not those of military contractors and oil companies."

Lee, who in 2001 was the only member of Congress to vote against authorizing the so-called War on Terror, said that "the post 9/11 wars taught us that perpetual war takes countless lives, wastes trillions of dollars, and does not make us any safer."

She added that "to combat the challenges we face around the globe—like climate change, global health, and poverty—we should be investing our resources away from tanks and drones and towards the needs of people."

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Navy will let Wisconsin keep badger statue for 50 more years

By TODD RICHMOND

FILE - A Badger and Shield statue is displayed outside the governor's Capitol office in Madison, Wis., on, Jan. 27, 2021. The Navy has decided to let Wisconsin keep its beloved badger statue for another 50 years, scrapping plans to move the sculpture to an East Coast museum.

 (AP Photo/Todd Richmond File)


MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Navy will let Wisconsin keep its beloved badger statue for 50 more years, scrapping plans to move the sculpture to an East Coast museum.

The statue, sculpted from melted-down cannons seized from Cuba during the Spanish-American War, was affixed to the first USS Wisconsin before World War I. The U.S. Naval Academy Museum lent it to the state in 1988. It has sat outside the governor’s office in the state Capitol since 1989, delighting thousands of tourists who rub its nose for good luck.

The academy museum contacted state officials in March 2020 asking for the statue’s return so it could be lent to the nonprofit Nauticus Museum in Norfolk, Virginia, where the second USS Wisconsin is berthed as an exhibit.

State historians balked, and U.S. Rep. Mike Gallagher, a Wisconsin Republican and former Marine, joined the effort to keep the statue in Madison. The Navy last February agreed to extend the loan for two more years.

Democratic Gov. Tony Evers sent Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro a letter in November asking that the Navy transfer ownership of the statue to the state permanently.

“The Badger should remain in Wisconsin where it is seen by tens of thousands of visitors each year and is one of the most popular and beloved attractions in our beautiful state Capitol building,” Evers wrote. “The Badger is not only part of the USS Wisconsin ... history, but it is now a part of the history of the Wisconsin State Capitol and a piece of pride for the Badger State and of residents from every corner of Wisconsin.”

Del Toro sent Evers a letter Tuesday saying the Navy is happy to extend the loan for the next 50 years.

“I prize the strong affinity that the citizens of Wisconsin have developed toward the badger statue; it reflects the state’s proud maritime heritage and deep ties to the U.S. Navy,” Del Toro wrote. “The Navy feels those ties, too, and we thank the people of Wisconsin for their ongoing interest in and support of our Navy and our nation’s maritime history.”

Marinette Marine manufactures battleships for the Navy. In 2020 the company won a $5.5 billion contract in 2020 to build a guided missile frigate and was selected to develop a prototype for a new unmanned ship capable for attacking land and sea targets.

A call to the Nauticus Museum rang unanswered late Wednesday afternoon.

LGBTQ athletes in China: Tolerated at best

You could count the number of Chinese star athletes who have dared to come out on one hand. Sexual diversity is tolerated in China — but only if LGBTQ people keep their sexual orientation to themselves.

Li Ying is back with the Steel Roses. New national team coach Shui Qingxia, the first woman at the helm of the Chinese women's national footall team, has named the 29-year-old striker to the squad for the AFC Women's Asian Cup in India, which kicks off on January 20.

At first glance, this should come as no surprise. After all, at the 2018 tournament, Li scored seven goals in five matches to win the Golden Boot. The forward also scored the Steel Roses' only goal at the 2019 World Cup in France, getting the winner in their 1-0 group-stage victory over South Africa.

However, Li, who has scored 30 goals in her more than 100 games for the national team, was dropped for last summer's Tokyo Olympics. There was much speculation that this had to do with her having come out. 

In a post that went viral just weeks before the Games' opening ceremony, Li Ying had made her love for influencer Chen Leilei public on the Chinese portal Weibo. 

"You are the source and target of all my tenderness," she wrote shortly after the first anniversary of the start of their relationship.

"It's no secret that there are homosexuals in women's football," wrote Zhao Zen, a football journalist and blogger with more than five million followers. "But Li Ying is the first to dare to publicly announce her sexual orientation and her girlfriend. I congratulate her for her courage."

But not all the responses were positive, and some were outright homophobic. Shortly after having posted the message, it disappeared from Li's account. Could this have been due to outside pressure?  

'Yes, I am gay' 

The number of female or male elite athletes in China who come out as gay can still be counted on one hand. After Li Ying, volleyball star Sun Wenjing dared to come out last September, but only two years after she had ended her playing career.

In 2018, professional surfer Xu Jingsen became the first gay athlete in China to come out when he used Weibo to announce his intention to participate in the Gay Games in Paris.

"Yes, I am gay," Xu wrote, posting a photo montage showing him on a surfboard in front of a rainbow flag. "We have the right to choose love and to be loved. Sex, age and skin color are not shackles."

Xu went on to carry the flag for the 69-strong contingent from mainland China at the opening ceremony in Paris. The next Gay Games were originally scheduled to be held in Hong Kong in 2022 but were postponed until November 2023 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Gay athletes from Taiwan have already announced that they will not participate in the Games due to concerns about their safety.

Social media accounts blocked 

In 2019, Taiwan became the first Asian country to legalize same-sex marriage, but it remains banned in mainland China. Sexual diversity is tolerated by the communist rulers, but only as long as people keep their orientation to themselves.

Any public expression of sexual diversity is bound to run into resistance. Shanghai Pride, which was the oldest and largest LGBTQ event in China, with bicycle parades, Pride runs, parties, forums and exhibitions, was shut down in 2020. Even before that, the event's organizers were subjected to harassment from government censors.

Shanghai Pride started in 2009 but was shut down in 2020

 

In July 2021, the Ministry of Civil Affairs blocked and removed hundreds of LGBTQ websites and social media user accounts, especially at universities. 

"It is impossible for China to get to the forefront of the world on this issue," Hu Xijin, editor-in-chief of the state-run "Global Times", wrote on his blog, defending the authorities' actions. "Our certain conservativeness is inevitable and reasonable."

Last September, "sissy men" were banned from television on the instructions of President Xi Jingping.

LGBTQ community becomes more cautious 

The LGBTQ community has adjusted to the harder line. 

"Since authorities in China launched a crackdown on organizations supporting LGBTQ rights on college campuses, we have been very careful about not making any event too LGBTQ-oriented," a Chinese LGBTQ activist who asked to remain anonymous, told DW. 

"While the government has certainly tightened their control over LGBTQ organizations, members of the community will still find ways to organize activities that put less emphasis on the queer elements," he said. "We are all adapting to the new climate in China, which is being more discreet."

According to a documentary by "Dao Insights", the number of people in China who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer is estimated at around 70 million. The country of 1.4 billion people is still a long way from openly embracing sexual diversity.

"Sexual and gender minority people in China still live in the shadows, with only 5% of them willing to live their diversity openly," a 2016 study by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) stated.

Discrimination, the UNDP wrote, continued to "cost LGBTI people jobs, lower their career prospects and their learning potential in schools. Sexual and gender minorities suffer from lower job stability and higher unemployment rates."

Three players recalled for Women's Asian Cup

The fact that Li Ying was dropped from the national football team for the Tokyo Olympics may or may not have had to do with her coming out.

Six months prior to her Weibo post she had already made her love for Chen Leilei public on Facebook. Access to the US-based social media network has been blocked in China for more than a decade, but it's hard to imagine that it would have escaped the attention of state censors – who in turn would have brought the post to the attention of the national FA and coaching staff. 

Li Ying (left) seen here in a World Cup match against Italy, is one of China's most prolific goal scorers

Still, weeks later, in February, the striker did feature in three Olympic qualifying matches, and scored three goals – before being dropped for the playoff games against South Korea in April. Also dropped from the Olympic squad were Tang Jiali, who plays for Tottenham Hotspur, and midfielder Shen Mengyu of Celtic.

In the absence of the three, China's Olympic experiment went completely off the rails, with the young, inexperienced team only able to earn a draw out of their three preliminary round matches – while being outscored 17 to 6. National team coach Jia Xiuquan was forced to resign. 

Shui Qingxia, his successor, has brought all three back into the fold, and Li Ying is part of the squad for the Women's Asian Cup. And while the striker is active on Weibo again, now she is largely limiting herself to writing posts about football – and she's made no mention of her relationship.

This article was translated from German.

THUMBNAIL Li Ying was the first elite-level female athlete in China to come out as lesbian

NBC not sending announcers to the Beijing 2022 Olympics

BY JOSEPH CHOI - 01/19/22 

NBC Sports on Wednesday confirmed it will not be sending any announcing teams to the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games, citing COVID-19 concerns.

“The announce teams for these Olympics, including figure skating, will be calling events from our Stamford (Conn.) facility due to COVID concerns,” Greg Hughes, NBC Sports senior vice president communications, told USA Today.

"We’ll still have a large presence on the ground in Beijing and our coverage of everything will be first rate as usual, but our plans are evolving by the day as they are for most media companies covering the Olympics," said Hughes.

NBC broadcasting teams had been scheduled to travel to Beijing in order to cover figure skating, Alpine skiing and snowboarding, but they will no longer be going. However, NBC's Olympic host Mike Tirico will still be travelling to China to cover the first few days of the games before heading to Los Angeles to call the Super Bowl, USA Today reported.

The newspaper noted that NBC's strategy of covering the Olympics from Stamford was also employed to cover the delayed 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics last year.

“The Beijing model is going to be very similar to Tokyo in that the heartbeat of our Olympic operation will actually be in Stamford, Conn., at our NBC Sports headquarters. We’ll have more personnel there than in the host city,” Molly Solomon, president of NBC Olympics Production, told the outlet.

“With COVID’s changing conditions and China’s zero-tolerance policy, it’s just added a layer of complexity to all of this so we need to make sure we can provide the same quality experience to the American viewers," she added. "That’s why we are split between the two cities.”

Beijing official warns athletes not to violate 'Olympic spirit'

China detains high-profile activists ahead of Olympics

While Team USA will be participating in the games this year, U.S. government officials will not be in attendance, with President Biden having announced a diplomatic boycott last month in protest of China's alleged human rights abuses in Xinjiang province and other regions.

“The athletes on team USA have our full support, we will be behind them 100 percent as we cheer them on from home," White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said at the time. "We will not be contributing to the fanfare of the games. U.S. diplomatic or official representation would treat these games as business as usual in the face of the PRC's egregious human rights abuses and atrocities in Xinjiang and we simply can’t do that.”

Though no high-level U.S. officials will attend, some consular and security officers will travel to China to assist the athletes and coaches.

A DIALECTICAL CRITIQUE IN ACTION

Dutch museums open as salons to protest COVID rules

Famed museums and Amsterdam's concert hall offered haircuts and manicures, as the cultural sector protested lockdown measures that allow shops, hairdressers and gyms to open — but not cultural venues.

Nail artists offered manicures at the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam

Museums and concert halls in the Netherlands opened briefly on Wednesday to protest their continued closure. 

Cultural venues, including famous museums and Amsterdam's historic concert hall, offered yoga sessions, haircuts and manicures. 

Last weekend, the Netherlands eased a month-long lockdown, by allowing gyms, hairdressers and shops to reopen. However, cultural venues were ordered to remain closed to the public.

On Wednesday, authorities handed out enforcement notices to a number of the 70-odd venues that took part in the day-long protest.

Haircut with a symphony

Some 50 visitors were welcomed to the "Kapsalon Concertgebouw (hairdresser concert hall)" performance, in which people were given haircuts during an orchestra rehearsal at the 130-year-old building. 

The resident orchestra, conducted by Susanna Malkki, played American composer Charles Ives' 

Symphony Number 2, while two hairdressers cut hair in the historic venue

"We do not understand and there is no reasoning for it because we have shown over the last two years that it's very, very safe to go to a concert or to go to a museum,'' said Simon Reinink, director of the Concertgebouw.

"Actually, it's our profession — crowd management. We know how to deal with large crowds. And we've done it in a very, very safe way," Reinink added.

'You need a mental gym too'

Across the street from the Concertgebouw, a barber cut the hair of 10 visitors and 10 more people got manicures at the Van Gogh Museum. 

A 3-year-old gets a haircut at the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam

"It's definitely a first for us at the Van Gogh Museum," the museum's director, Emilie Gordenker, told the AP news agency.

"I understand that the government has opened gyms but... you need a mental gym, too, and a museum is a place where people are increasingly coming to find a little depth or reason for their life," Gordenker said.

"And the theme of mental health is particularly relevant to our museum, obviously, because of Vincent van Gogh's own mental situation,'' she added.

Meanwhile, at the Amsterdam Museum in the city center, people took a yoga class

'Culture is high on the agenda'

Gunay Uslu, the junior culture minister, voiced understanding for the protest but urged caution.

"The cultural sector is drawing attention to their situation in a creative way. I understand the cry for help and that artists want to show all the beautiful things they have to offer us," she wrote on Twitter. "But the opening of society must go step by step. Culture is high on the agenda." 

The government has said it will look at a possible further easing of COVID measures on January 25.

Dutch protests against COVID measures

Wednesday's protests followed similar civil disobedience measures by bars and restaurants in the Netherlands against COVID restrictions. 

During the weekend, cafes opened in several cities, defying government orders that they must stay closed until at least February 25.

While some protests against COVID measures remain peaceful, some have devolved into violent riots, most notably in The Hague and Rotterdam.

fb/msh (AFP, AP, Reuters)

Why Germany refuses weapons deliveries to Ukraine

Germany has declined to join allies such as the US and UK in shipping weapons to Ukraine. The country faces an unpredictable buildup of Russian troops on its borders — and there is precedent for armed aggression.


Foreign Minister Baerbock says weapons exports to Ukraine aren't a good idea right now

It hasn't taken long to put the new German government's talk of a bolder and more values-based foreign policy to the test. After just six weeks in power, it finds itself confronted by Russia's military moves against Ukraine, which fears another attack from its bigger and more powerful neighbor.

Germany and its allies are struggling to agree on a response to Russia's unclear intentions. German policymakers, including within the three-party coalition government, are also debating among themselves.

On Tuesday, Chancellor Olaf Scholz, of the Social Democrats (SPD), said Russia would pay a "high price" in the event of an invasion of Ukraine. On Wednesday, Scholz reiterated that silence on the issue of Ukraine was not an option. His foreign minister, the Greens' Annalena Baerbock, has made similar expressions of solidarity with Ukraine but rejected its latest request for weapons deliveries.

"We are prepared to have a serious dialogue with Russia to defuse the highly dangerous situation right now because diplomacy is the only viable way," Baerbock told reporters on Monday during a visit to Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital.

Symbolic or strategic

Both the United States and the United Kingdom have announced arms deliveries, mostly handguns, ammunition and anti-tank weapons. A group of US senators visiting Ukraine earlier this week promised more weapons would be on the way.

German government officials have expressed concern that such deliveries could push tensions higher and make negotiations more difficult.

In their coalition agreement, the center-left SPD, the Greens and the neoliberal Free Democrats (FDP) agreed on a restrictive arms export policy that does not allow any weapons deliveries to crisis regions.

Baerbock said her government's decision on weapons had a historical dimension — a reference to Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during the Second World War.

"The idea that Germany delivers weapons that could then be used to kill Russians is very difficult to stomach for many Germans," Marcel Dirsus, a nonresident fellow at the Institute for Security Policy at Kiel University (ISPK), told DW.

Germany remains one of the world's top arms producers and exporters, with sales increasing 21% from 2016 to 2020, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Its largest customers were South Korea, Algeria, and Egypt.

Ukraine is also a buyer. In 2020 and through the first half of 2021, Germany approved 97 exports totaling 5.2 million euros ($5.8 million), according to government reporting. These were mostly sidearms, diving equipment, and communications devices.

Ukrainian officials want to go bigger, most recently asking for warships and air defense systems. While Germany often cites its own belligerent history as grounds for sidestepping the military question, Ukraine is leaning into it.

"This responsibility should apply to the Ukrainian people, who lost at least 8 million lives during the Nazi occupation of Ukraine," Ukraine's ambassador to Germany, Andrij Melnyk, told the DPA news agency.

Though weapons would be a strong show of support, Dirsus doubts that they would change Ukraine's prospects against a bigger and better-equipped foe.

"The Russian government would be more impressed by the threat of heavy economic consequences than 2,000 anti-tank weapons," he said.

Defensive weapons

Talk of weapons and military intervention can be politically dangerous in Germany. The Greens' Robert Habeck found that out last year when he supported sending "defensive" weapons to Ukraine. The current vice-chancellor and economics minister was widely criticized at the time and later claimed he meant demining equipment.

What makes a weapon "defensive" can be in the eye of the beholder, and at least some members of the governing parties have begun to express interest in defining what that is. Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, the FDP chair of the defense committee and an opponent of weapons deliveries to Ukraine, told the Bild tabloid that the current stance should be "reconsidered."

Critics argue that, in wars and conflicts, arms developed for defensive purposes, such as anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons, have also been used offensively. What seems to be decisive here is not the original design idea for a weapon, but the will of the user for the respective application.

Germany's previous government, led by the Christian Democrats (CDU), made a vague commitment to the United States to punish Russia for any aggression. Now in opposition, some CDU members are criticizing the new government for "hiding behind" its restrictive arms control policy.

"We cannot reject Ukraine's request for defensive weapons that could fend off a possible Russian attack," Henning Otte, who sits on the Bundestag's defense committee, told Bild.

Norbert Röttgen, the CDU's parliamentary foreign policy spokesman, told CNN's Christiane Amanpour on Monday that "nothing must be taken off the table," but acknowledged that military force was not standing behind diplomatic efforts.

"We will not fight militarily, but, short of military tools, we will be ready to apply any tool we are able to have control of," he said.

Gas deliveries as a weapon?

When it came to power, the SPD-led government made big promises to boost the country's role on the world stage, especially in defense and security matters. With a particular nudge from the Greens side of the coalition, the new government has pledged to take human rights and democratic values more into account when setting relations with countries like China and Russia, which have been long viewed through a largely economic lens.

Most recently, Scholz appeared to indicate that the Kremlin's aggression would also have consequences for the already-completed Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which is ready to pump more Russian gas to Germany once the German regulatory body gives the go-ahead.

"Everything is up for discussion if it comes to a military intervention against Ukraine," Scholz told reporters on Tuesday.

So far the SPD has largely upheld the previous government's position that the pipeline is a commercial project that needs to be protected from political turmoil. However, the Greens and FDP have long opposed the project.

Edited by: Rina Goldenberg

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