1.The European Commission launched a 750 billion euro reconstruction plan

"Le Monde": European Commission Chairman Ursula Von Der Leyen announced on the 27th that the EU planed to launch a 750 billion euro package of reconstruction plans. Of these, 500 billion euros will be allocated as non repayable grants to severely damaged countries, while the remaining 250 billion will be loan. Such a huge amount of money will be borrowed by the European Union in the capital market and repaid by all Member States within decades. However, Austria, the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark and other "thrifty four countries" objected that there should be no "grant". According to official forecasts, the EU economy will shrink by 7.4% this year due to the impact of the epidemic, with Italy, Spain, Greece and other countries particularly hit hard.

(Via.GermanReport)

2. More than a quarter of French people are reluctant to receive the new vaccine for reasons of income, age, gender and political opinions 

According to a study published in the British Medical Journal The Lancet, more than a quarter of French people are reluctant to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, French media reported on May 23. Research shows that people resistant to vaccination are distributed into three kinds: 37% of the low-income groups with "higher risk of infectious diseases", 36% of the young women between 18 and 35 years old and 22% of the high-risk groups over 75 years old. The study also shows that political stance has an impact on the acceptance of vaccines. In the 2017 French general election, 32% of the people who voted for the "far left" candidates refused to be vaccinated, which increased to 35% of the people who gave up voting.

(Via. Nouvelles d'Europe on Weibo)

3. Some Chinese shops in Naples, Italy, have been permanently closed

There are about 4,000 Chinese enterprises in the Campania region with about 50% in or around Naples. The outbreak has left many Chinese shops in the area permanently closed.

"It's hard to count how many people choose to suspend their business permanently (but as far as I know) some Chinese have lost confidence in the Italian government and decided to return to China," said IL Mattino, the head of the Chinese Association, in an interview with Naples local media. 

Photo:Nouvelles d'Europe 

(Via.oushitalia)

4. British Prime Minister's adviser: no resignation considered

Bild: Dominic Cummings, a senior adviser to Prime Minister Johnson, and his wife violated the stay-at-home order after suffering from the COVID-19 infection. The behaviour caused furious controversy in the UK. He left London in defiance of the stay-at-home order and went to the parents' home in Durham, northern England, to arrange for the care of children. Johnson expressed support for Cummings and stressed his legal compliance. Cummings gave an explanation at the press conference, but did not apologize, and indicated that he did not consider resigning, which caused many criticisms.

(Via.GermanReport)

5.The German government plans to save Lufthansa with 9 billion euros

The WSF set up by the German government for epidemic prevention and control, agreed to the Lufthansa group's assistance program. According to the southern Deutsche Daily, the total amount of various aid and measures is about 9 billion euros.

After lengthy negotiations, the federal government and Lufthansa reached an agreement that the company would issue an interim notice in accordance with the rules governing the stock exchange of publicly traded companies. However, the plan still needs to wait for the approval of the European Commission, as well as the two-thirds majority vote of the board of supervisors and the shareholders' meeting of Lufthansa. The general meeting of shareholders will be held at the end of June.

Photo:Arne Dedert / dpa

(Via.GermanReport)

6. Car parades was held in Spain

At 12 o'clock on the 23rd, a car parade was held in several cities in Spain, 20 Minutes reported. The leader of the Vox argued, “The demonstration defends people’s freedom.” He claimed that the government of Sanchez could not guarantee the freedom of the people, and asked the government to resign collectively.

With flags waving in hands, Demonstrators chanted slogans, requiring a resignation of the government. Most people didn’t follow a safe distance of two meters. Masks and safe distance were promised in the original plan of the march and the parade should have been ran from 12 to 12:30. According to the live streaming from ABC, the parade vehicles were still marching at 13:50.

A massive car parade in Madrid.(Photo:20 Minutes)

(Via.SpainZone)

7. The employment situation in Austria continues to improve

Austrian News: Economy Minister Schramberg and labor minister Ashbach held a press conference to show that the employment situation in Austria continued to improve. Those who are unemployed and received employment training reached about 523,000, 9,000 fewer than last week. Since mid April, 65,000 people have been reemployed while the number of short-term employees remained basically unchanged. As of May 25, 109,300 short-term subsidy applications had been approved, with a passing rate of 96%. The total amount of subsidy was 10.1 billion euros, involving 1.3 million employees. At present, 447 million euros have been distributed to 42,000 enterprises.

(Via.GermanReport)

8. Russia considers inviting Macron to participate in the Victory Day military parade on June 24

According to French media reports on May 28, a Kremlin spokesman said that contacts had been made with the French side and President Macron was expected to attend the Victory Day military parade on June 24.  At present, only the leaders of the former Soviet Union have been formally invited, and it is difficult for leaders of other countries to set a schedule in a short time.  Sources close to the French president said they were not informed of the invitation.

In previous years, the Victory Day parade was held on May 9. This year it was postponed due to the epidemic.  The report pointed out that before the outbreak, French President Macron and other national leaders had accepted the invitation and agreed to attend the military parade on May 9.  Macron hopes to seize this opportunity to push forward the relations between France. Victory Day parade is seen as an opportunity for Russia to demonstrate its military and diplomatic strength and return to the international stage.

(Via. Nouvelles d'Europe on Weibo)

9. Belgian license plate number "COVID-19" becomes an Internet hit

According to a report by French media on May 28, recently, a photo of the back of a car spread through social networks. The highlight is the license plate number "COVID-19" (Novel coronavirus pneumonia). Charlotte van den Branden, spokesman for Belgium's Federal Department of Motor Vehicles and Transportation Public Services, said the license plate was registered through legal channels and has been approved by the authorities. "It does not involve any defamation, racism or homophobia, and is a personal choice.  If someone wants to register the license plate as GRIPPE, there is absolutely no problem. " It is reported that Belgium allows residents to customize personalized license plates at a cost of 1,000 euros per car. Once the license plate is successfully registered, the authorities guarantee its uniqueness.

(Via. Nouvelles d'Europe on Weibo)

10. Deutsche Post to provide virus tests for 10,000 employees

During the stay at home due to the epidemic, the courier and the delivery men became the kind of people we most expect to see every day. However, many people are worried about whether they can ensure their own safety because they have contacts with so many customers every day and whether they will become the "poison source" of cross-infection.

A few days ago, Deutsche Post reported the news of a collective infection among couriers. At that time, it frightened countless amateur hands to suspend "self-mutilation" shopaholics out of shopping online. Considering the situation can’t go like this anymore, Deutsche Post recently announced that it is going to provide nucleic acid testing for more than 10,000 of its employees as a "preventive strategy".

Photo：Oliver Berg/ dpa

(Via.GermanReport)

11.Polls show that most Germans are worried about the coming year.

Der Spiegel: According to a latest survey by the German polling agency IfD Allensbach, the fear of getting infected with COVID-19 has decreased in Germany in recent weeks, with only 30% of the interviewees worried about getting infected.  However, the public's outlook for the next 12 months is full of pessimism.  Only 22% of the interviewees are optimistic about the next 12 months, while 71% of the people are full of doubts and worries about the coming year.  According to the results of the survey, 75% of the citizens believe that Germany's economic trend will not improve in the next 12 months, while another 40% of the Germans believe that their economy will fall into a long-term recession.

 (Via.GermanReport)

12.Mannheim became the first German city to use app to track COVID-19 cases

South Germany News (Süddeutsche Zeitung): Mannheim becomes the first German city to track COVID-19 cases with mobile APP.  The application, developed for 8 weeks, can help local health departments to better manage infected persons and their contacts.  Quarano association made the above statement on wednesday.  Quarano's application of the same name was hatched in the "Hacker Marathon" innovation competition initiated by the federal government in March this year. It can store important information and action tracks of infected persons and their contacts. Infected persons and their contacts use this application to record their physical symptoms and new contacts.  At present, other cities have expressed interest in this application, which does not rule out the possibility of large-scale use in the future.

13.Italian scientific community confirmed: the toxicity of covid-19 is weakening, and new infected people are almost asymptomatic!

Italian scientific community has confirmed that the toxicity of COVID-19 is weakening. Recently, Arnaldo Caruso, chairman of the Italian Virology Association (Siv-Isv) and head of the Microbiology Department of Brescia Hospital, successfully isolated a COVID-19 variant and observed that the toxicity of the new coronavirus is very weak. Arnaldo Caruso said, "The (current) degree of virus infection is very light, the nucleic acid test is weak positive, and even those infected with high viral load are asymptomatic."

(Via.oushitalia)

14.France's senate and the national assembly passed the draft of stopping COVID-19 mobile phone application 

According to a report by French media on May 28, France's senate and the national assembly passed a proposal to terminate the COVID-19 mobile phone tracking application, with 186 votes in favor and 127 votes against in the Senate. The House of Representatives voted 338 in favor and 215 against. French Secretary of State for Digital Affairs, Cédric, said in "le figaro" on May 26, "Once the vote is passed, the application may be launched on Android and Apple systems by the end of this week." The proposal was developed by France, aiming at further slowing down the epidemic and informing all people who have had close contact with infected persons within two weeks so that they can take corresponding measures as soon as possible. Although the application was based on the principles of voluntariness and anonymity of data, the government decided to draft the bill and submit it to the national assembly for debate and vote under the pressure of the public to point out that personal freedom and privacy were violated.

(Via. Nouvelles d'Europe on Weibo)