FRIDAY, JANUARY 1, 2021 10

US alarmed as Pandemic made my last Russia expands British PM Johnson’s father year in office the hardest, rules on ‘foreign says emotional Merkel agents’ applying for French citizenship Stanley Johnson said he wanted to become a French citizen to maintain his ties with the European Union after

Prime minister’s father Vladimir Putin campaigned• to remain in AFP | Moscow the EU in 2016 while his son led the leave movement he United States yes- Angela Merkel Tterday voiced alarm af- AFP | London Reuters | Berlin ter Russia expanded rules against NGOs and media considered “foreign agents,” ritish Prime Minister Boris ngela Merkel said in her last New Year’s accusing Moscow of stifling Johnson’s father Stanley con- Aaddress to the nation as German chancel- free expression. Bfirmed plans yesterday to seek lor that 2020 was by far the most difficult of her “Deeply troubled by Rus- French citizenship as the free move- 15-year leadership, yet the start of vaccinations sia’s intensifying repression ment of Britons in the EU comes to an against COVID-19 made 2021 a year of hope. of its civil society,” Cale end under the Brexit pact delivered In a rare show of emotion, Merkel, who Brown, the State Depart- by his son. steered Germany and the European Union ment’s deputy spokesman, Speaking to ’s RTL radio in through the 2008 financial crisis, the Greek wrote on . French, Stanley Johnson said: “It’s debt crisis a year later and the migrant crisis “Changes to the ‘foreign not a question of becoming French. If five years ago, condemned a protest movement agents law’ are particularly I understand correctly I am French! (R) and his dad Stanley are seen in a tube (file photo) opposed to lockdowns and said she would get troubling, allowing author- My mother was born in France, her was not well received in some quar- vaccinated when the shot is widely available. ities to selectively apply mother was completely French as ters of British society. “Let me tell you something personal in con- onerous registration and was her grandfather. Chris Rennard, a Liberal Democrat clusion: in nine months a parliamentary elec- labeling requirements, veto “For me it’s a question of obtaining If I understand it member of the House of Lords, said tion will take place and I won’t be running an organization’s activities, what I already have and I am very correctly, I am French. Stanley Johnson deserved the “brass again,” said Merkel, 66. “Today is therefore in and imprison those found in happy about that,” the 80-year-old My mother was born in neck of the year award... for being all likelihood the last time I am able to deliver violation,” he wrote. added. France, her mother was able to preserve his personal benefits a New Year’s address to you.” “We call on Russia to re- The father of the politician who of EU citizenship through a French She added: “I think I am not exaggerating spect its citizens’ rights.” ended Britain’s 47-year-old member- totally French as was her passport application. when I say: never in the last 15 years have we Russian President ship of the EU was among the first grandfather. So for me it “This is something which his son found the old year so heavy and never have we, Vladimir Putin has broad- civil servants appointed to Brussels is about reclaiming what Boris is denying from tonight to 67 despite all the worries and some scepticism, ened the labeling of after Britain joined the EU in 1973. I already have. And that million UK citizens.” looked forward to the new one with so much non-governmental groups He worked for the European Com- makes me very happy Billy Kelleher, a member of the Eu- hope.” and media outlets as “for- mission and served as a member of ropean parliament for Ireland, which Her message will resonate with most people STANLEY JOHNSON eign agents,” a term that the . has the EU’s only land border with in a country struggling with a rise in coronavi- harks back to the Soviet era. He initially campaigned against Britain, linked Stanley’s Johnson’s rus infections and deaths and where a majority Russia this month ex - leaving the EU before changing his the single market, it’s more than the decision to the UK’s withdrawal from support lockdown measures and vaccination as panded legislation first mind a year after Britain voted to European Union.” the continent-spanning Erasmus the best weapons against the virus. passed in 2012. Among leave the union in 2016. “That said, to have a link like that student exchange programme. Praise for Merkel, a trained physicist whose other provisions, “foreign “I will always be European, that’s with the EU is important,” he said, “So when Mr Stanley Johnson is management of the pandemic has been guided agents” will now face up for sure,” he told RTL. apparently referring to an EU pass- enjoying a glass of wine in France no by scientific advice, for having tamed the first to five years in prison for “You can’t tell the English: you’re port. British students will enjoy studying wave has however turned to criticism of her failing to comply with rules. not European. Europe is more than Johnson senior’s announcement there,” Kelleher tweeted. perceived failure to tackle the second.

Vaccinated US nurse contracts COVID-19, expert Woolly rhino remains found in French PM says Pfizer shot needed more time to work melting Siberian permafrost in talks with Reuters | Washington Chad’s Deby over

nurse in California test- jihadism fight Aed positive for COVID-19 more than a week after receiv- ing Pfizer Inc’s vaccine, an ABC News affiliate reported, but a medical expert and the U.S. drug maker said the body needs more time to build up protection. Pfizer “will review all available information on this French PM Jean Castex (L) and case and all reports of any Chadian President Idriss Deby Itno confirmed diagnosis follow- ing vaccination,” the drug AFP | Paris maker said in a statement to Reuters. A carcass of a juvenile woolly rhinoceros, found in permafrost in Yakutia rench Prime Minister “Based on our Phase 3 safe- FJean Castex, arriving ty and efficacy study, the vac- A woman receives the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine at a clinic Reuters | Moscow in Chad yesterday to spend cine provides some protection New Year’s Eve with French against COVID-19 within about the report added. He got the ussian scientists are poring troops, said he met Chadian 10 days of the first dose and chills and later came down with Rover the well-preserved President Idriss Deby Itno substantially boosted after the muscle aches and fatigue. remains of a woolly rhinoceros for talks on “stepping up” second dose, supporting the He went to a drive-up hospi- that likely roamed the Siberian 11,700 the fight against jihadism. need for a 2-dose vaccination tal testing site and tested posi- hinterland more than 12,000 years have passed since “We had a very fruitful, series”, it said. tive for COVID-19 the day after years ago after it was found in very deep exchange,” Castex KNOW WHAT the Pleistocene era in “Individuals may have con- Christmas, the report said. the diamond-producing region which the woolly rhino told reporters, after meet- tracted disease prior to or right Christian Ramers, an infec- of Yakutia. may have lived ing Deby at Amdjarass, near after vaccination”, the state- tious disease specialist with Similar finds in Russia’s vast Chad’s eastern border with ment added. Pfizer said the vaccine Family Health Centers of San Siberian region have happened Sudan. Matthew W., 45, a nurse at provides some protec- Diego, told the ABC News affil- with increasing regularity “We talked about ways two different local hospitals, tion against COVID-19 iate that this scenario was not as climate change, which is nikov, a scientist, was quoted of stepping up (bilateral) said in a Facebook post on De- within about 10 days unexpected. warming the Arctic at a fast- as saying by Yakutia 24, a local cooperation, with a com- cember 18 that he had received “We know from the vaccine er pace than the rest of the media outlet. mon goal, which is fighting the Pfizer vaccine, telling the of the first dose and clinical trials that it’s going to world, has thawed the ground Plotnikov said the woolly terrorism, be it in the Sahel ABC News affiliate that his arm substantially boosted take about 10 to 14 days for you in some areas long locked in rhino may have lived in the or in the Lake Chad area,” was sore for a day but that he after the second dose, to start to develop protection permafrost. late Pleistocene era, which he told reporters. had suffered no other side-ef- supporting the need from the vaccine,” Ramers said. The rhino was found at a riv- ended 11,700 years ago. The Chad is one of the so- fects. for a 2-dose vaccina- “That first dose we think gives er in August complete with all beast appeared to use its tusk called G5 Sahel countries Six days later on Christmas tion series you somewhere around 50 per its limbs, some of its organs, its to gather food, judging by the that are fighting a bloody Eve, he became sick after work- cent, and you need that second tusk - a rarity for such finds - erosion marks found on it, the jihadist campaign on the ing a shift in the COVID-19 unit, dose to get up to 95pc.” and even its wool, Valery Plot- scientist said. southern rim of the Sahara.