Europe
January 8, 2022 — John Hinderaker
Covid mortality is hard to measure, in part because different states and countries count covid deaths differently. Many people who died and who also happened to be diagnosed with covid–likely most–actually died primarily from something else, and the covid was more or less coincidental. Therefore, the most meaningful statistics are those relating to total mortality. If more people have died during the covid years than would have been predicted by
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January 3, 2022 — John Hinderaker
The European Union has led the way in transitioning from fossil fuels to “green” energy, i.e. wind and solar. But that effort has hit a snag: wind and solar don’t work, and energy costs in the EU are skyrocketing. Now a Reuters report suggests that the EU may be thinking about jumping ship: The European Union has drawn up plans to label some natural gas and nuclear energy projects as
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December 28, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
The estimable Henry Olsen thinks so. He writes: Many anti-Trump Republicans long for the day when they can retake their party and expel the populist deviations from orthodoxy that vex them so. Evidence from around the world shows this is a pipe dream. Olsen explains: The same fissures in the old conservative coalition that plague the GOP appear in virtually every other modern democracy. Nationalist and populist parties have grown
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December 22, 2021 — John Hinderaker
Remember when Americans couldn’t afford to heat their homes in the late 1970s, and President Jimmy Carter urged everyone to buy cardigan sweaters and burn wood in their fireplaces? That is pretty much where Europe is today, as reported in the Telegraph: “‘Unprecedented’ gas price surge threatens national crisis, suppliers warn.” Energy chiefs have warned that Britain is facing a deepening national crisis after gas prices soared to record levels
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November 12, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
With winter approaching, Europe is facing an energy crisis. To a significant degree, Vladimir Putin is orchestrating it. Josh Rogin observes that Putin has been refusing to respond swiftly to requests by Europeans for more gas. He is also probably behind the migrant crisis along the Belarus-Poland border. As a result of that crisis, as John noted yesterday, the Belarus president has threatened to close down a key gas pipeline
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November 11, 2021 — John Hinderaker
In a crisis that is, in some ways, reminiscent of our own disaster at the southern border, Poland is facing what amounts to an invasion across its border with Belarus. The London Times reports: The EU has accused Belarus of acting like a “gangster” by luring migrants from the Middle East, Afghanistan and Africa and helping them to storm the border, which is the EU’s eastern edge, into Poland. The
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July 20, 2021 — Steven Hayward
I am quickly learning why the New York Times and the left (but I repeat myself) are so spun up about Hungary : the government here actually wants to defend Western civilization—and religion—from its enemies. Whether they are doing this well or badly I cannot fully judge yet, but that they mean to do it seriously is clear. So I guess I shouldn’t be surprised to find out that my visit
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July 12, 2021 — John Hinderaker
In Austria, a 13-year-old girl was raped and murdered. Four Afghan immigrants were arrested for the crime. The alleged rape and murder of 13-year-old Leonie has shocked much of Austria as it was revealed that several of the four Afghans arrested or wanted for arrest in the case had prior, years-old deportation orders against them, as well as prior criminal convictions. This kind of story recurs over and over again
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May 8, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
Spain has suffered from the Wuhan coronavirus to about the same extent (measured by per capita deaths) as the nations it makes the most sense to compare it with — France and Portugal. Spain has been slightly less hard hit than Italy, the UK, and U.S., though I doubt the difference between per capita deaths in Spain and the U.S. is statistically meaningful. When it comes to vaccinations, however, Spain
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March 16, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
The New York Times acknowledges that, whereas the U.S., the UK, and Israel are getting their populations vaccinated and seeing sharp declines in Wuhan coronavirus cases, the EU is a “mess” in this regard. David Leonhardt writes: Across most of the European Union, vaccine rollout has been slow, and new cases are surging. Europe — the first place where the coronavirus caused widespread death — is facing the prospect of
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November 2, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
CNN reports that gunmen with automatic weapons opened fire at six locations in central Vienna this evening. They killed at least one person (now at least two) and injured 15. One of the gunmen has been shot dead by the police, but others remain at large. When I was in Vienna last year, I spent an enjoyable hour or two with one of our readers. He sends me this report.
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October 16, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
Europe is experiencing a major spike in new cases of the Wuhan coronavirus. Fortunately, that spike has not yet been accompanied by a major increase in deaths from the virus. Nonetheless, some European leaders have imposed stringent new measures in response to the spike in new cases. Let’s look at the five major Western European nations — Spain, France, the UK, Italy, and Germany. I’ll start with Spain, the first
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September 15, 2020 — Scott Johnson
A reader kindly forwarded the September 8 Viral Issue Crucial Update posted on YouTube by Ivor Cummins. I have found the video both entertaining and instructive. Indeed, even though I have lost my sense of humor on the subject, I found Cummins’s understated contrarian take on the epidemic hugely entertaining. Focusing on COVID-19 in Europe, Cummins places the relevant data “in context,” as they say. I asked my friend and
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September 14, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
Some are touting Sweden as a success story, relatively speaking, when it comes to dealing with the Wuhan coronavirus. For example, this story in the British press claims that “Sweden got the last laugh on coronavirus.” Unfortunately, Sweden’s high number of per capita fatalities attributed to the virus is no laughing matter. Per capita fatalities number 578 per one million people. That’s comparable to the U.S., the UK, and Italy,
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September 9, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
The Trump administration has helped broker a deal between Serbia and Kosovo, two former arch-enemies that were part of the former Yugoslavia. The agreement is receiving scant attention from the mainstream media for reasons I’ll address below. However, it’s an important deal — more so, I think, than the agreement between Israel and the UAE, which mostly ratified existing realities. The main significance of the Serbia-Kosovo agreement is its potential
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July 28, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
Not everywhere in Europe. Germany, Italy, and the UK seem to doing fine right now. However, it’s a different story in Spain, France, and Belgium. Let’s start with Spain. Throughout June, reported new cases were about 500 per day. Daily deaths attributed to the virus were practically nil, if one believes the data. (The numbers cited herein come from Worldometer.) Now, in late July, reported new cases are about 2,000
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May 20, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
The Wuhan coronavirus is waning in Europe. A month ago, new reported cases in Italy were running at about 3,500 per day, down from a peak of around 6,000. Now, they are averaging around 800. A month ago, Italy was averaging around 500 reported deaths from the virus per day, down from a peak of more than 800. Now, the daily average is around 150. Moreover, the number of reported
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