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Italy reported 261 coronavirus-related deaths Saturday against 459 the day before, the health ministry said.The daily tally of new infections increased by 10,407 from 19,037 the day before, taking the total number of cases since Italy’s epidemic began to 2,010,037. Heath Agency: British Coronavirus Variant Found in Traveler to SwedenHealth Agency official Sara Byfors told a news conference the traveler, who was not identified, had kept isolated after arrival to Sweden and that no further positive cases had so far been detectedItaly Thursday became the eighth country in the world to exceed 2 million officially recorded cases.
 
The number of swab tests carried out in the past day was 81,285 from a previous 152,334, the health ministry said. The first Western country hit by the virus, Italy has reported 70,909 deaths since its outbreak came to light on February 21, the highest toll in Europe and the fifth highest in the world.
 
Patients in hospital with COVID-19 stood at 23,304, down by 98 from the day before.
 
The current number of intensive care patients decreased by two to 2,582, reflecting those who died or were discharged after recovery.
 
When Italy’s second wave of the epidemic was accelerating fast in the first half of November, hospital admissions were rising by about 1,000 per day, while intensive care occupancy was increasing by about 100 per day.
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France on Saturday received its first batches of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine, which were delivered to the Paris hospital pharmacy network.Inoculations are planned to begin in two nursing homes Sunday, the same day the rest of Europe is set to begin vaccinations.France has reported more than 2.6 million COVID-19 infections and over 62,500 deaths. French health officials said they recorded the first case of the new COVID-19 variant that has led to new lockdowns in Britain and global travel restrictions on British residents.The first batch of Pfizer-BioΝTech vaccines also arrived in the Romanian capital, Bucharest, on Saturday and is being stored at a military-run facility. The country, like the rest of Europe, will begin injections on Sunday in nine hospitals across the country.On Saturday, Russia approved its main coronavirus vaccine, Sputnik V, for use in people over 60 years old, Russian media quoted the health ministry as saying.According to Russian official data, the country crossed the 3 million mark of infections on Saturday, with over 29,200 new cases and 560 death in the previous 24 hours.COVID-19 infections in Japan’s capital, Tokyo, recorded a new daily high on Saturday.Japan, like France and some other countries, has also reported cases of the new coronavirus variant. Japan’s health ministry said five people who arrived between Dec. 18 and Dec. 21 tested positive for coronavirus and were sent to quarantine straight from the airports. Officials said further analysis showed they had contracted the new variant of the coronavirus.British authorities have said the new coronavirus variant appears more contagious and may have led to a spike in COVID-19 cases, leading countries around the world to restrict travel from Britain.U.S. authorities announced Thursday that passengers arriving from Britain must test negative for COVID-19 before departure. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the new requirement is effective beginning Monday.In another development Friday, Pope Francis said in his Christmas message that COVID-19 vaccines must be available to all and called on political and business leaders to “promote cooperation, not competition” in the distribution of them.In Israel, the government announced it would impose its third nationwide lockdown beginning Sunday to try to stop the spread of the coronavirus. The new restrictions will last for two weeks.Health officials in China’s northeastern port city of Dalian are testing millions of residents after seven new coronavirus cases were reported there in the previous 24 hours. Authorities there have ordered anyone except essential workers to stay home.South Korea, Japan and Indonesia recorded their highest daily increases in coronavirus cases Friday as a third wave of COVID-19 hit the countries.
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George Blake, who died Saturday in Moscow aged 98, was a British Cold War spy and Soviet double agent who spent half his life in Russia after dramatically escaping jail in London.The last surviving member of a notorious generation of British defectors, Blake was seen as one of the West’s most damaging traitors and claimed to have betrayed hundreds of agents to the KGB.   The bearded spy, however, trod a very different path to becoming a Soviet agent than that taken by the establishment insiders of the infamous Cambridge spy ring: Kim Philby, Donald Maclean and Anthony Burgess, all recruited while at the British city’s prestigious university.Born George Behar in the Netherlands in 1922 to a Dutch mother and Egyptian Jewish father, who was a British subject, he led a peripatetic youth that took him through Cairo and into the Dutch World War II resistance before joining Britain’s MI6.  Ex-British Double Agent Says Russian Spies Must Save World

        A former British intelligence officer who once worked as a double agent for the Soviet Union said Russian spies now have "the difficult and critical mission" of saving the world, according to a statement released Friday.

George Blake has lived in Russia since his escape from a British prison in 1966.

Conversion to communism  Blake — a practicing Calvinist Protestant — said he willingly offered to work for the KGB after witnessing the bombing of innocent civilians by U.S. forces during the Korean war, when he spent a harrowing period as a North Korean captive.”I viewed communism as an attempt to create the kingdom of God in this world. The communists were trying to do by action what the church had tried to achieve by prayer,” Blake told one interviewer.”I came to the conclusion I was no longer fighting on the right side.”After returning to London from captivity, Blake’s first major coup for his new handlers was the exposure of a secret tunnel to spy on Soviet communications in East Berlin.At the same time as he was becoming enmeshed ever deeper in his perilous work, handing over troves of secret information to the Russians, he married a woman named Gillian, who knew nothing of his double life, and they went on to have three sons. Soon he moved to Berlin where he claimed to have betrayed all of the “maybe 500, 600” agents operating for the British in Germany. Later Blake repeatedly denied accusations that those he gave up were executed by the Soviet secret police. “I said to them I will only give you this information if you can assure me these people will not be executed,” he said.Escape to the USSR  Eventually, however, the tide turned on the traitor and the net finally closed when information from a turncoat Polish intelligence officer unmasked Blake.Summoned to London for questioning, he admitted that he was a Soviet agent and was sentenced at a closed trial in 1961 to an unprecedented 42 years in prison. But just five years into his sentence in 1966, Blake clambered up a rope ladder and over the wall of London’s high-security Wormwood Scrubs jail to freedom with the help of an Irish petty thief and two anti-nuclear campaigners whom he had met inside. Smuggled by his co-conspirators to the border with East Germany, he walked across the Iron Curtain and turned his back on the West for the last time. In Moscow, Blake was celebrated as a hero with a string of medals and the rank of colonel from the KGB, and a flat in the center of the Soviet capital. He married a Russian woman Ida after his first wife divorced him and had one son with her. Eventually he was also reconciled with his British children.Blake, however, came to realize that communism in Russia did not live up to his hopes and he watched the system — and finally the Soviet Union — disintegrate. Disappointment  “One of the main things, which to me was a disappointment, was that I believed that a new man was born here,” he told The Times newspaper. “I realized very quickly that this was not so. They were just ordinary people like everyone else and that the same human passions, and greed and ambitions, which governed the lives of most people also governed their lives.”In 1990 he published his autobiography entitled “No Other Choice”.Blake lived out the final years in a wooden dacha on the edge of Moscow — with his eyesight and hearing failing, he seemed a relic of another era.While he kept his opinion of the rampant consumerism of modern Russia to himself, on his 90th birthday he was hailed by ex-KGB agent President Vladimir Putin as one of “a constellation of strong and courageous people, brilliant professionals.”In rare interviews, Blake insisted he had no regrets, despite the failure of the system that he dedicated his life to.”I think it is never wrong to give your life to a noble ideal, and to a noble experiment, even if it doesn’t succeed,” he said. 
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The European Union agreement with Britain on how to handle affairs post-Brexit has been widely celebrated, yet another of the bloc’s tentative deals – that of a comprehensive investment agreement with China – is creating new headaches for European leaders.The negotiations between the EU and China are being closely watched in Washington, as elsewhere.The EU and China are in their seventh year of talks aimed at a comprehensive investment treaty. Last week, reports surfaced that the 27-nation bloc, currently led by Germany, had entered the final stage of negotiations with Beijing, with a goal of concluding the pact by the end of 2020.Those reports have caught the attention of Jake Sullivan, U.S. President-elect Joe Biden’s nominee for national security adviser.“The Biden-Harris administration would welcome early consultations with our European partners on our common concerns about China’s economic practices,” Sullivan said in a tweet on Dec. 21, citing a Reuters story with the headline, “China, EU aim for investment pact by year-end.”The Biden-Harris administration would welcome early consultations with our European partners on our common concerns about China’s economic practices. https://t.co/J4LVEZhEld— Jake Sullivan (@jakejsullivan) December 22, 2020Sullivan’s choice of words – such as “early consultations,” “European partners,” and “common concerns” – has been read by analysts as signaling frustration within the incoming administration that EU leaders are not showing a serious intent to work with the United States.A key message the Biden team has been its commitment to reverse President Donald Trump’s “America First” doctrine and work more closely with U.S. allies to confront common challenges.“Any agreement now would be a slap in the face to the Biden team given Sullivan’s comment,” Stephen F. Szabo, a senior fellow at the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies, said in an interview with VOA.“They [the EU] have been critical of the Trump approach of trade wars with both China and the EU simultaneously, arguing that the U.S. needs the EU to have a joint Western approach, something which is essential to a successful Western policy,” Szabo said.“If China splits the West, it can pursue a divide-and-conquer strategy,” he added.Kasper Zeuthen, an EU spokesperson in Washington, told VOA this week that “the EU-China investment talks are intensive. Progress has been achieved in a number of areas. There are still some important outstanding matters and talks are continuing this week. The EU remains committed to the end-of-year deadline for conclusion of the negotiations, provided we have a deal worth having. We will not put speed over substance.”On Friday, Wang Wenbin, spokesperson for the Chinese foreign ministry, said at a routine news briefing held in Beijing that China will “conduct negotiations with external parties in accordance with its own pace” while “striving to achieve a comprehensive, balanced, high-quality investment treaty with the EU.”Wang’s remarks reiterated a similar statement released less than 24 hours earlier by China’s Commerce Department.The latest remarks made in Beijing were picked up by news media and China-EU-U.S. watchers.A day after declaring that investment talks with the EU were going smoothly, China suggests otherwise, saying it will conduct the talks “at its own pace” https://t.co/YSlB8N2bK8— Noah Barkin (@noahbarkin) December 25, 2020In the days leading up to the talked-about conclusion of negotiations between the EU and Beijing, a group of EU scholars issued a strongly worded joint statement opposing any such deal.“Why the fast track, the hurry, and the sidestepping of a public debate, why play into China’s hand? What message is Europe, so proud of its deepening integration, so talkative about its open strategic autonomy, so insistent on its respect for values, sending to the rest of the world? Member states should think twice,” urged a large group of prominent scholars specializing in EU-China-U.S. ties.“This has been a year in which China has rescinded its international treaty over Hong Kong. It has been a year during which China clashed on the border with India, engaged in military coercion of Taiwan, and economic coercion against Australia,” the group of French, German, Italian, Czech, Polish, Belgian, Dutch, Greek and Slovakian scholars wrote.“From Beijing’s perspective, having the EU sign an investment treaty after this sequence of events and in the phase of power transition in the U.S., amounts to a strong endorsement of its political trajectory, if not an encouragement to behave more assertively.”One of the signers, Mathieu Duchâtel, an analyst at the French think tank Institut Montaigne, tweeted on Thursday, “What China would have gained strategically: the neutralization of Europe as a values-oriented international player and as a transatlantic partner.”What China would have gained strategically: the neutralization of Europe as a values-oriented international player and as a transatlantic partner. That forced labor in Xinjiang killed this Christmas phase is really a bad scenario for Beijing https://t.co/UJbzbkV748— Mathieu Duchâtel (@mtdtl) December 24, 2020  
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French health officials say the country has recorded its first case of the new COVID-19 variant that has led to new lockdowns in Britain and global travel restrictions on British residents.The French health ministry said a Frenchman who had been living in England and returned to France tested positive for the new variant in the central French city of Tours. It said the man had no symptoms and was isolating in his home.Some other countries have also reported cases of the new variant, including Japan, which announced its first cases Friday. Japan’s health ministry said five people who arrived between Dec. 18 and Dec. 21 tested positive for coronavirus and were sent to quarantine straight from the airports. Officials said further analysis showed they had contracted the new variant of the coronavirus.British authorities have said the new coronavirus variant appears more contagious and may have led to a spike in COVID-19 cases, leading countries around the world to restrict travel from Britain.France banned all passengers and cargo from Britain for two days, leading to major traffic problems around the British port of Dover. British transport minister Grant Shapps said more than 4,500 trucks crossed the Channel on Friday after more troops were deployed to speed up coronavirus testing.Russia announced Friday that travelers from Britain must quarantine for two weeks after entering the country. Russia had previously suspended direct flights from Britain.U.S. authorities announced on Thursday that passengers arriving from Britain must test negative for COVID-19 before departure. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the new requirement is effective beginning Monday.In another development Friday, Pope Francis said in his Christmas message that COVID-19 vaccines must be available to all and called on political and business leaders to “promote cooperation, not competition” in the distribution of them.A mother and child look at the line of trucks parked up on the M20, part of Operation Stack in Ashford, Kent, England, Dec. 25, 2020.In Israel, the government announced it would impose its third nationwide lockdown beginning Sunday to try to stop the spread of the coronavirus. The new restrictions will last for two weeks.Health officials in China’s northeastern port city of Dalian are testing millions of residents after seven new coronavirus cases were reported there in the past 24 hours. Authorities there have ordered anyone except essential workers to stay home.South Korea, Japan and Indonesia recorded their highest daily increases in coronavirus cases Friday as a third wave of COVID-19 hit the countries.In South Korea 70% of the more than 1,200 new cases were in the greater Seoul area, where half the country’s 52 million people live.In Japan, with 884 cases reported Friday nationwide, Tokyo had the largest number of infections.Indonesia reported its biggest daily rise in deaths, with 258 fatalities and 7,259 infections, bringing the country’s total numbers to 20,847and 700,097, respectively.
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More than 4,500 lorries, among a huge backlog of trucks stranded for days in the British port of Dover, crossed the Channel on Friday after extra troops were deployed to step up coronavirus testing, a minister said.Ferry services between Dover and the French port of Calais resumed on Thursday, ending a blockade France had imposed for several days following the discovery of a new coronavirus variant in England.British Transport Minister Grant Shapps said on Twitter on Friday that more than 10,000 coronavirus tests had been carried out on lorry drivers and only 24 of them had tested positive.Britain deployed additional troops to help clear the queues of lorries waiting for COVID-19 tests before being allowed to board cross-channel ferries. British media said 800 extra soldiers were sent to support 300 initially deployed.Soldiers checked vehicles and drivers’ documents at the entrance to the port. In one case, French officials, who were in Dover to help clear the backlog, were seen administering a nasal swab to a driver.The French and British governments agreed to end the blockade on Tuesday but the British authorities had said it would take days to clear the long lines of trucks.
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The fast-track ratification of the post-Brexit trade deal between the U.K. and the European Union got underway on Christmas Day as ambassadors from the bloc’s 27 nations started assessing the accord that takes effect in a week.At Friday’s exceptional meeting, the ambassadors were briefed about the details of the draft treaty by the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier.They are set to reconvene again on Monday and have informed lawmakers at the European Parliament that they intend to take a decision on the preliminary application of the deal within days.While voicing their sadness at the rupture with Britain, EU leaders are relieved that the tortuous aftermath of the Brexit vote had come to a conclusion in Thursday’s agreement about future trade ties.All member states are expected to back the agreement as is the European Parliament, which can only give its consent retrospectively as it can’t reconvene until 2021. British lawmakers have to give their approval, too, and are being summoned next week to vote on the accord.European Union chief negotiator Michel Barnier carries a binder of the Brexit trade deal during a special meeting at the European Council building in Brussels, Dec. 25, 2020.Both sides claim the agreement protects their cherished goals.British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said it gives the U.K. control over its money, borders, laws and fishing grounds. The EU says it protects its single market of around 450 million people and contains safeguards to ensure the U.K. does not unfairly undercut the bloc’s standards.Johnson hailed the agreement as a “new beginning” for the U.K. in its relationship with European neighbors. Opposition leaders, even those who are minded to back it because it’s better than a no-deal scenario, said it adds unnecessary costs on businesses and fails to provide a clear framework for the crucial services sector, which accounts for 80% of the British economy.In a Christmas message, Johnson sought to sell the deal to a weary public after years of Brexit-related wrangling since the U.K. voted narrowly to leave the EU in 2016. Although the U.K. formally left the bloc on Jan. 31, it remains in a transition period tied to EU rules until the end of this year.Without a trade deal, tariffs would have been imposed on trade between the two sides starting Jan. 1. Both sides would have suffered in that scenario, with the British economy taking a bigger hit at least in the near-term, as it is more reliant on trade with the EU than vice versa.British Prime Minister Boris Johnson holds a news conference in Downing Street in London, Dec. 24, 2020.”I have a small present for anyone who may be looking for something to read in that sleepy post-Christmas lunch moment, and here it is, tidings, glad tidings of great joy, because this is a deal,” Johnson said in his video message, brandishing a sheaf of papers.”A deal to give certainty to business, travelers and all investors in our country from Jan. 1. A deal with our friends and partners in the EU,” he said.Though tariffs and quotas have been avoided, there will be more red tape because as the U.K. is leaving the EU’s frictionless single market and customs union. Firms will have to file forms and customs declarations for the first time in years. There will also be different rules on product labeling as well as checks on agricultural products.Despite those additional costs, many British businesses who export widely across the EU voiced relief that a deal was finally in place as it avoids the potentially cataclysmic imposition of tariffs.”While the deal is not fully comprehensive, it at least provides a foundation to build on in future,” said Laura Cohen, chief executive of the British Ceramic Confederation.One sector that appears to be disappointed is the fishing industry with both sides voicing their discontent at the new arrangements. Arguments over fishing rights were largely behind the delay in reaching an agreement.Under the terms of the deal, the EU will give up a quarter of the quota it catches in U.K. waters, far less than the 80% Britain initially demanded. The system will be phased in over 5 1/2 years, after which quotas will be reassessed.”In the end, it was clear that Boris Johnson wanted an overall trade deal and was willing to sacrifice fishing,” said Barrie Deas, chief executive of the National Federation of Fishermen’s Organizations.The French government, which had fought hard for fishing access, announced aid for its fishing industry to help deal with the smaller quota, but insisted that the deal protects French interests.The president of the French ports of Calais and Boulogne-sur-Mer, Jean-Marc Puissesseau, said no matter what is in the Brexit trade deal, life for his port will become more difficult because “there will no longer be free movement of merchandise.”Some 10,000 jobs in the Boulogne area are tied to fishing and its seafood-processing industry, he said, and about 70% of the seafood they use comes from British waters.”Without fish, there is no business,” he told The Associated Press.
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About 1,000 British soldiers were spending Christmas Day trying to clear a huge backlog of truck drivers stuck in southeast England after France briefly closed its border to Britain, then demanded coronavirus tests from all amid fears of a new, apparently more contagious, virus variant.
Even as 4,000 international truck drivers spent yet another day cooped up in their cabs, some progress was evident Friday, with traffic around the English Channel port of Dover moving in an orderly fashion toward the extra ferries that were put on to make the short crossing across to Calais in northern France.
 
The military personnel were directing traffic and helping a mass testing program for the drivers, who must test negative to enter France. French firefighters also have been drafted to help the military test drivers for coronavirus.
Officials from Britain’s Department for Transport said all but three of the 2,367 coronavirus tests conducted so far have been negative.
France closed its border for 48 hours to Britain last Sunday after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said a variant of the virus that is 70% more transmissible is driving the rapid spread of infections in London and surrounding areas. As a result, the capital and many other parts of England have seen lockdown restrictions tightened and family holiday gatherings canceled.
Most of the testing is being conducted at a disused airfield at Manston Airport, 33 kilometers from Dover. Free food and drink was being sent to the stranded truck drivers and more than 250 portable toilets were put in at Manston, with 32 others placed along the gridlocked M20 highway.
“The most reassuring thing is that food is getting through at Manston, and I have to say a big thank you to everyone who volunteered to help drivers stick it out in cold conditions in the days leading up to Christmas,” said Duncan Buchanan of Britain’s Road Haulage Association.
The mood among the stranded drivers appeared to be mostly sanguine, especially compared to their anger earlier this week at the situation and the lack of facilities.
“I know it’s been hard for many drivers cooped up in their cabs at this precious time of year, but I assure them that we are doing our utmost to get them home,” said British Transport Secretary Grant Shapps.
The virus has been blamed for over 1.7 million confirmed deaths worldwide, including nearly 70,000 in Britain, the second-highest death toll in Europe behind Italy.  
On Saturday, Britain is extending tighter lockdown restrictions to more areas as authorities try to stem the spread of the new variant. Over the past two days, Britain has recorded its two highest daily infection numbers, at just below 40,000. That is stoking fears that the country’s beloved National Health Service will face acute capacity issues in its hospitals soon and thousands more people will die from the virus.
In a video message to the nation, Johnson said this Christmas was “not about presents, or turkey, or brandy butter” but about hope, in the form of coronavirus vaccine shots being delivered and more vaccines being developed.
“We know there will be people alive next Christmas, people we love, alive next Christmas precisely because we made the sacrifice and didn’t celebrate as normal this Christmas,” the prime minister said.
Johnson said Thursday that more than 800,000 people in Britain have received the first dose of the vaccine developed by American pharmaceutical firm Pfizer and German biotechnology company BioNTech. Britain was the first country in the world to approve the vaccine and began inoculations for health workers and those over 80 on December 8. 
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The United States will require airline passengers from Britain to get a negative COVID-19 test before their flight, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced late Thursday.
The U.S. is the latest country to announce new travel restrictions because of a new variant of the coronavirus that is spreading in Britain and elsewhere.
Airline passengers from the United Kingdom will need to get negative COVID-19 tests within three days of their trip and provide the results to the airline, the CDC said in a statement. The agency said the order will be signed Friday and go into effect on Monday.
“If a passenger chooses not to take a test, the airline must deny boarding to the passenger,” the CDC said in its statement.
The agency said because of travel restrictions in place since March, air travel to the U.S. from the U.K. is already down by 90%.
Last weekend, Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the new variant of the coronavirus seemed to spread more easily than earlier ones and was moving rapidly through England. But Johnson stressed “there’s no evidence to suggest it is more lethal or causes more severe illness,” or that vaccines will be less effective against it.
This week, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said three airlines with flights from London to New York — British Airways, Delta and Virgin Atlantic — had agreed to require passengers to take a COVID-19 test before getting on the plane. United Airlines on Thursday agreed to do the same for its flights to Newark, New Jersey.
Britain has been under considerable pressure since the word of the new variant of the virus was made public. Some 40 countries imposed travel bans on Britain, leaving the island nation increasingly isolated.
France relaxed its coronavirus-related ban on trucks from Britain on Tuesday after a two-day standoff that had stranded thousands of drivers and raised fears of Christmastime food shortages in the U.K.
French authorities said delivery drivers could enter by ferry or tunnel provided they showed proof of a negative test for the virus.
 
But the French restrictions were particularly worrisome, given that Britain relies heavily on its cross-Channel commercial links to the continent for food this time of year.
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Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and his supporters said that police raided the apartment of an associate Friday morning and detained her for questioning.”Today, police came to Lyubov Sobol’s apartment at 7 am,” Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Fund chairman Ivan Zhdanov said in a tweet.Zhdanov and Navalny’s spokesperson, Kira Yarmyash, said that the phone of Sobol was turned off and they did not know anything of her whereabouts.Sobol has announced her plans to run in parliamentary elections next year.Navalny said on Twitter that the police raid was a response to a telephone call he made Monday to a poisoning expert with the FSB. On the call he said he impersonated an official with the Kremlin’s Security Council and got the expert to admit that Navalny was poisoned back in August.According to Navalny, Sobol, a lawyer by training, attempted to speak to the FSB agent, who he named as Konstantin Kudryavtsev.The FSB has denied Navalny’s allegations of poisoning.However, Western governments have said Navalny was poisoned with Novichok, a Soviet-designed nerve agent.
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Britain and the European Union finally agreed to a free trade deal Thursday, just days before the Brexit transition period comes to an end. As Henry Ridgwell reports, the deal is yet to be ratified – and there could be more surprises ahead.
Camera: Henry Ridgwell 
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For the first time since a fire that nearly destroyed it, the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris played host to a Christmas Eve choral concert, an annual tradition in France.In a concession to the fact that the Gothic cathedral is still being rebuilt, the choristers wore construction hard hats and boiler suits, and there was no audience.The concert was recorded at the cathedral earlier this month and was broadcast on French television just before midnight Thursday.The choristers performed classical pieces by composers Mozart and Schubert, but also a more light-hearted repertoire, including Jingle Bells.”It was very moving,” said cellist Gautier Capucon, describing the experience of recording the concert. Along with an organist, he provided the musical accompaniment for the choir.”It was the first time we had all been back at Notre Dame cathedral since the fire, so it was a moment full of emotion,” he said in an interview with television station franceinfo.The cathedral, a landmark of Gothic architecture dating to the 13th century and a major tourist attraction, caught fire on April 15, 2019. The blaze destroyed the spire and roof.French President Emmanuel Macron undertook to restore the cathedral within five years.But to date, most work on the site has focused on making the building safe, including clearing up toxic lead from the roof and spire that melted in the fire.In the meantime, Notre-Dame is closed to the public and masses are canceled.In April this year, seven people were allowed to attend a religious ceremony in the cathedral to mark Good Friday, when Christians commemorate the death of Jesus Christ.
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Pope Francis celebrated a low-key Christmas Eve Mass made somber by the coronavirus pandemic and said people should feel obliged to help the needy because Jesus himself was born a poor outcast.The Mass was celebrated Thursday in a rear section of St. Peter’s Basilica with fewer than 100 participants and only small number of cardinals and bishops. It is usually held in the main section of the basilica and attended by up to 10,000 people, including the diplomatic corps representing nearly 200 countries.Everyone except the pope and the small choir wore a mask during the Mass, which began two hours earlier than usual so that even the limited number of people who attended could return home by a 10 p.m. curfew.”The Son of God was born an outcast, in order to tell us that every outcast is a child of God,” Francis said in his homily.Francis said Christmas should make everyone reflect on “our injustice towards so many of our brothers and sisters” instead of pursuing “our endless desire for possessions” and ephemeral pleasures.”God came among us in poverty and need, to tell us that in serving the poor, we will show our love for him,” said the 84-year-old pope, celebrating the eighth Christmas of his pontificate.In his Christmas messages, Francis promised to visit Lebanon and South Sudan as soon as he could.The pope traditionally mentions countries in his Christmas Day message, but he singled out those two nations with Christmas Eve messages because of difficulties each has faced this year.”I am deeply troubled to see the suffering and anguish that has sapped the native resilience and resourcefulness of the Land of the Cedars,” Francis said, referring to Lebanon, which has been struggling with a deep economic crisis and the aftermath of the Beirut port explosion on Aug. 4 that killed about 200 people.In a separate message written jointly with Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, who is the spiritual leader of the worldwide Anglican communion, and Church of Scotland moderator Martin Fair, the three church leaders committed to making a previously delayed trip to majority Christian South Sudan “as things return to normalcy.”He is scheduled to visit Iraq March 5-8.On Friday, the pope will read his “Urbi et Orbi” (to the city and the world) message from a hall inside the Vatican instead of from the central balcony of St. Peter’s Square, an event that usually attracts tens of thousands of people.Italians are under a nationwide lockdown for much of the Christmas and New Year holidays. Non-essential shops will be shut between Dec. 24-27, Dec. 31-Jan. 3 and Jan. 5-6. On these days, people are allowed to travel only for work, health or emergency reasons.The restrictions mean people will not be able to go to St. Peter’s Square or the basilica. All papal events between Dec. 24 and Jan. 6 are taking place indoors with little or no public participation and being livestreamed on the internet and broadcast on television.
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Aside from the occasional miniature tree and paper chains hung from cabs, there was little festive cheer for the thousands of truckers stuck on an old airfield in southeast England on Christmas Eve.Several thousand cargo trucks have been trapped for days around the southern English port of Dover since France closed borders with Britain in a bid to stop the spread of a new coronavirus strain.Army personnel were going from truck to truck, conducting rapid coronavirus tests that give results in 40 minutes as part of measures to try to start up travel again.Pawel, 34, a driver from Poland, had just been tested and said his plan was to go to Folkestone 42 kilometers (26 miles) away, take the Eurotunnel and go home to his family.”It’s impossible,” he told AFP of his three days at the Manston airfield, on the outskirts of Ramsgate, where many trucks have been parked while the travel crisis is sorted out.”I’ve no words to describe what we’re feeling here. All of our families are waiting for us. Heartbreaking.”He said drivers were furious with France for shutting their borders in response to the emergence of a new, potentially more contagious variant of the coronavirus. On his way back, he said, he will retaliate by not stopping there “for the food, for petrol, for anything.””Ninety percent of people here are also not going to stop in France,” he said.French officers give a COVID-19 test to a trucker at Dover, England, Dec. 24, 2020. Some freight from Britain and passengers with negative virus tests have begun arriving in France, after France relaxed a two-day blockade over a virus variant.Hot food and hornsOn the airfield, a cold December wind blew in from the Channel.The poorly lit site, run by the Department of Transport with the help of the armed forces, was a bewildering maze of trucks.Drivers were hoping to get to ports after spending days going nowhere but said it was unclear which ferries would run to clear the backlog, both on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.At one point, they sounded their horns together in frustration.There were free catering vans offering items ranging from burgers to Thai food. Some said they were unhappy about the food, but others said it was plentiful, with volunteer groups bringing around hot fare, including from the Polish community.”That was very nice. We were so thankful for this,” Pawel said.There were also mobile toilets that seemed clean, though drivers complained they were full.”We got stuck. It’s been three days,” said Valery, 37, a driver from Kyiv, who had not been tested yet.”They herded us in here and told us to stay. We need to get home already. Maybe we will make it for New Year’s?”There are no facilities, no showers, nothing,” he complained.Long waitOther drivers said there were showers, but it was a long walk to find them.Radko Ivanov, 56, from Bulgaria, angrily asked troops to be tested and complained that other drivers in smaller trucks were maneuvering to jump the queue.”The situation is terrible,” he said, complaining of a lack of organization. “I must guess what I got to do.”As of lunchtime on Christmas Eve, there were still 3,200 trucks at the site and at least 1,800 drivers had been tested, according to the armed forces.Altogether, 320 military personnel were conducting tests at Manston, at the port of Dover and on the M20 motorway.At Manston there were three army units including a deployment of engineers from nearby Maidstone.Two Sikh volunteer groups were distributing food in the evening on the M20, where many other stranded drivers were parked.
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When Britons voted in 2016 to leave the European Union after 47 years of membership, Brexiters said striking a free trade deal with the Eu would be simple and “one of the easiest in human history.” It didn’t turn out that way. But Thursday, after four years of talks marked by fractiousness and ill-temper and amid accusations of bullying, delusions and bad faith, there was some holiday cheer after London and Brussels finally struck a deal that will limit the economic damage both Britons and Europeans would have suffered in the absence of any agreement.  Both sides compromised and moved away from frequently emphasized ‘red lines’ to reach the deal. Britain formally exited the EU last January but had a year-long transition period allowing for free trade and free movement of people to continue uninterrupted until December 31. Pro-Brexit headline writers immediately announced “Merry Brexmas” and praised Prime Minister Boris Johnson for delivering what he said he would. “The war is over,” beamed Nigel Farage, Brexit Party leader.  He added: “It’s not perfect, but goodness me, it’s still progress.”  The pound rallied modestly on the news of the deal, but then slipped back.Johnson proclaimed the deal, with an estimated overall value of $900 billion, the biggest trade agreement ever signed by the EU. “Everything that the British public was promised during the 2016 referendum and in the general election last year is delivered by this deal,” a Downing Street official said. Using similar language to what Brexiters promised more than four years ago during the Brexit referendum campaign, he added: “We have taken back control of our money, borders, laws, trade and our fishing waters.” 
 
Johnson tweeted a photograph of himself in Downing Street with two thumbs up. “The deal is done,” he announced.The deal is done. pic.twitter.com/zzhvxOSeWz— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) December 24, 2020Later at a press conference in London Johnson appeared triumphant, saying: “We have taken back our laws and destiny.” He added the deal will “protect jobs across this country” by allowing goods to be sold “without tariffs and quotas” in the EU. He said Britain will now control every “jot and tittle of our regulations.” 
 
The European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen dubbed the deal “fair and balanced,” as she announced, with obvious relief at a press conference in Brussels, “we have finally reached a deal.”European Union’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen are seen on a computer screen while giving live a statement on the outcome of the Brexit negotiations, in Brussels, Belgium, Dec. 24, 2020.She said the EU and Britain also will cooperate when it comes to climate action and security. She said the negotiations had been a “long and winding road” but added, “we have a good deal to show for it.” Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, said he was happy the clock is “no longer ticking.” He added that today is a “day of relief” but one tinged by “some sadness.” British politicians who opposed Brexit said they were relieved a deal had been struck, but they warned Britain would be losing a lot from exiting the bloc.  Scotland’s First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, tweeted: “Before the spin starts, it’s worth remembering that Brexit is happening against Scotland’s will. And there is no deal that will ever make up for what Brexit takes away from us. It’s time to chart our own future as an independent, European nation.” Before the spin starts, it’s worth remembering that Brexit is happening against Scotland’s will. And there is no deal that will ever make up for what Brexit takes away from us. It’s time to chart our own future as an independent, European nation.— Nicola Sturgeon (@NicolaSturgeon) Britain’s chief Brexit negotiator David Frost gives a thumb up as he arrives at the British Embassy during negotiations, in Brussels, Dec. 24, 2020.For days both sides had indicated they were on the verge of a breakthrough. And starting Saturday, diplomats were telling reporters a deal was “imminent.” An announcement had been planned for Wednesday, and then early Thursday morning, only for hours to pass and diplomats to say some tweaks in the 2,000-page agreement were still necessary. The delay in announcing a deal in the past 24 hours was mainly because of fishing quota numbers when it emerged the European Commission had been using out of date figures to calculate the reduction in the amount of fish stocks that EU fishermen will be permitted to catch in British waters as part of the trade deal. The deal gives British exporters “zero-tariff, zero-quota” access to Europe’s Single Market. Any future disputes between Britain and the EU will not be adjudicated by the European Court of Justice (ECJ), a key point for Brexiters, who said if the ECJ policed the agreement it would undermine British sovereignty.  FILE – Trucks queue to embark aboard the freight shuttle at Eurotunnel terminal in Coquelles near Calais, France, Dec. 16, 2020.But British firms will have curtailed rights to sell services to the EU after January, affecting the banking and insurance sectors. Service industries account for 80 percent of total British economic output. Some international banks likely will shift more of their operations to EU countries because of the deal, analysts say. Beginning in January there also will be additional customs checks on food, chemicals and medicines exported to the EU by Britain, which will add red tape and costs for British firms, likely reducing their price competitiveness, say analysts. FILE – Fishing boats are moored adjacent to the South Pier of Bridlington Harbour fishing port in Bridlington, north east England, Dec. 11, 2020.On fishing in British waters, Britain made major concessions allowing the EU fishing industry to give up only 25 percent of its current quota, a change that will be phased in over the next five and a half years, meaning that the EU fishing catch in British waters will decline 4.5 per cent annually. Even though politicians breathed a sigh of collective relief on both sides of the English Channel, the “deal is far from the deep and ambitious relationship” both sides said they were aiming for shortly after the 2016 Brexit referendum, according to Sally Jones, a trade expert at Ernst & Young, an Anglo-American multinational professional services consultancy. The hugely complex deal now will be pored over by trade lawyers and businesses. The agreement runs to more than 1,000 pages, plus hundreds of pages of annexes that cover future arrangements for trade, security and fishing, as well as scientific cooperation and regulatory alignment The biggest sticking points in the haggling during the last few years between London and Brussels have been over regulatory alignment and fishing. Both sides were at loggerheads over shared regulatory rules, competition and safety standards, workers’ rights and environment laws and restraints on state subsidies to private businesses.  Europeans were determined to ensure British firms did not secure an unfair competitive edge over EU rivals. Lower standards and watered-down regulations mean lower costs and lower prices for finished goods. FILE – British Union flag waves in front of the Elizabeth Tower at Houses of Parliament containing the bell know as “Big Ben” in central London, March 29, 2017.The British Parliament will have to ratify the deal, but it already has recessed for Christmas. British lawmakers are likely to be recalled on December 30 to approve the last-minute agreement. 
 An EU official told Reuters news agency a provisional application of the deal will need to be approved by member states because there’s not enough time for the EU Parliament to ratify the agreement before the December 31 deadline, when Britain’s transition period.  
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