Germany's COVID-19 death toll passes 100,000

FRANKFURT—Germany announced record coronavirus fatalities and infections Thursday as its total death toll passed 100,000, with its most severe virus wave yet breaking just as a new government prepares to take the reins.

Germany weathered earlier bouts of the pandemic better than many other European countries, but has seen a recent resurgence, with intensive care beds rapidly filling up. 

Europe's largest economy recorded 351 fatalities in the past 24 hours, bringing the total death toll since the start of the pandemic to 100,119, according to figures from the Robert Koch Institute, a public health agency. 

The weekly incidence rate also hit an all-time high of 419.7 new infections per 100,000 people, RKI announced. 

The escalating health crisis poses an immediate challenge to the new coalition government set to take over from Angela Merkel's cabinet next month. 

The spike in Germany comes as Europe has re-emerged as the pandemic's epicenter, with the continent battling sluggish vaccine uptake in some nations, the highly contagious Delta variant, colder weather moving people indoors and the easing of restrictions. 

Last week, more than 2.5 million cases and almost 30,000 COVID-related deaths were recorded in Europe, making it by far the region currently worst hit by the virus, according to AFP's tally. 

'ACUTE OVERLOAD'

In a sign of the severity of the virus wave hitting Germany, its health sector has had to call on hospitals elsewhere in the EU for help.

Some hospitals are already facing an "acute overload" that has made it necessary to transfer COVID-19 patients abroad, according to Gernot Marx, head of the German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine.

Germany last week announced tougher restrictions, including requiring people to prove they are vaccinated, have recovered from COVID-19 or have recently tested negative for the virus before they can travel on public transport or enter workplaces. 

Several of the worst-hit areas have gone further, cancelling large events like Christmas markets and barring the unvaccinated from bars, gyms and leisure facilities.

The spike has ignited a fierce debate about whether to follow Austria's example and make vaccination mandatory for all citizens.

Incoming chancellor Olaf Scholz has voiced support for compulsory vaccinations for health staff, and said that his government would "do everything necessary to bring our country safely through this time". 

"The situation is serious," said Scholz's Social Democrats after announcing a coalition agreement with the Greens and the FDP liberals on Wednesday.

Earlier this week, outgoing Chancellor Merkel, who is retiring from politics after 4 terms, summoned the new center-left-led alliance's top brass for pandemic talks. 

Scholz said his new government would invest one billion euros in bonuses for health-care workers on the frontlines of the pandemic. 

But his critics accused him of lacking the urgency needed to tackle the national catastrophe. 

"It sounded like he wanted to be the leader of the Hamburg health authorities," snapped Spiegel online. 

Germany's COVID-19 crisis has in part been blamed on its relatively low vaccination rate of about 69 percent, compared to other Western European countries such as France, where it is 75 percent.

The country has urged all inoculated adults to get a booster to combat waning efficacy after 6 months.

Agence France-Presse

Germans to be fined up to 500 euros for breaking distancing rules

BERLIN - Germans risk being fined up to 500 euros (P27,000) for standing too close to each other starting Friday as officials crack down on people flouting rules brought in to control coronavirus.

Chancellor Angela Merkel's government has ordered people not leave their homes unless they have an exceptional reason such as grocery shopping, exercise or medical appointments.

Gatherings of more than 2 people are banned and a distance of at least 1.5 meters (5 feet) must be kept from others at all times.

Local governments have the power to set fines for transgressors, with city officials in Berlin saying their fines would be as high as 500 euros. 

Similar announcements have come from across Germany's 16 states.

Hesse, home to finance hub Frankfurt, and North Rhine-Westphalia both promised penalties of up to 200 euros for people who gather in groups of more than 2.

Bavaria, Germany's largest state, has been the worst affected by the coronavirus so far, with more than 18,000 cases.

There, people who stand less than 1.5 meters apart risk being fined 150 euros. 

Queues of people standing far apart have become a common sight outside German supermarkets and pharmacies, with many sticking down tape to mark where people should stand on the pavement.

However, German police have also reported numerous violations of the rules.

Germany has recorded over 79,000 cases of the novel coronavirus, according to the Robert Koch Institute for disease control.

A total of 1,017 people have died.

Agence France-Presse

German, 20, confesses ‘annoyance’ spurred massive data hack

German authorities on Tuesday said a 20-year-old hacker had confessed to stealing and leaking private data from hundreds of politicians, including Chancellor Angela Merkel, because he was "annoyed" by some of their public statements.

The young German, who lives with his parents, was taken into custody after police searched the family home in the western state of Hesse on Sunday. 

The suspect was not remanded in custody however because he was fully cooperating with the enquiry and not deemed a flight risk, said Georg Ungefuk, a spokesman for the Frankfurt prosecution service's internet crime office ZIT.

"The accused said he published the data because he had been annoyed by certain statements made by those affected," Ungefuk told a press conference in Wiesbaden.

The suspect, who because of his young age falls under juvenile law in Germany, told police he acted alone.

Ungefuk added that the young man had shown "clear remorse" about the stunning cyber security breach which affected around 1,000 German politicians, journalists and celebrities and piled political pressure on the government.

The information leaked online comprised home addresses, mobile phone numbers, letters, invoices and copies of identity documents. The data was first released via Twitter in December but its spread gathered pace last week.

Among those hit were members of the Bundestag lower house of parliament and the European Parliament as well as regional and local assemblies.

Deputies from all parties represented in the Bundestag were targeted with the exception of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), the largest opposition group in parliament.

Speaking at the same press conference, the head of cyber security at Germany's Federal Police Office (BKA), Heiko Loehr, said it was too soon to say whether the suspect was acting out of far-right sympathies.

"We are still investigating his motives and whether they may have been criminal or politically motivated," he told reporters, adding that police were also working to confirm whether the suspect did indeed work alone.

Investigators have seized computers and hard drives from the scene that were now being combed over by experts, Ungefuk added.

He confirmed media reports that the suspect had tried to destroy a computer before the raid, but said investigators were still able to retrieve data from the damaged device. 

- 'Attack on democracy' -

Although the leak was sweeping, there is no evidence that sensitive information reached the public, investigators and the interior ministry have said.

In the vast majority of cases, only basic contact information was made available. 

The leak has nevertheless been deeply embarrassing for the political class, exposing a naive and sometimes reckless use of computer networks, and turned up the heat on the unpopular interior minister, Horst Seehofer.

Critics said the ministry and relevant authorities were slow in informing affected politicians of the leak and moving to stop it. 

Seehofer is due to speak to reporters in the afternoon. 

Beyond politicians, the leak also exposed the private data of celebrities and journalists, including chats and voicemail messages from spouses and children of those targeted.

The information derived both from social media and private "cloud" data.

The Twitter account @_0rbit published the links last month, along the lines of an advent calendar with each link to new information hidden behind a "door".

The account, which calls itself G0d and has now been suspended by Twitter, was opened in mid-2017 and purportedly has more than 18,000 followers. 

It described its activities as "security researching", "artist" and "satire and irony" and said it was based in Hamburg.

Justice Minister Katarina Barley, who last week had labelled the data dump an attack on "our democracy and its institutions", called on internet service providers and social networks "to shut down accounts as soon as they have been hacked".

German politicians and lawmakers have repeatedly fallen victim to cyberattacks in recent years.

In 2015, the Bundestag network was hit by a malware attack later blamed on Russian hackers.

In March last year, computer networks belonging to the German government came under sustained attack and data from foreign ministry staff was stolen.

At the time, Moscow denied that Russian hackers were involved.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Oil slump sends stocks, bond yields sliding

LONDON - A renewed slump in oil prices to seven-month lows dragged down world stocks on Wednesday and flattened bond curves as bets that inflation and interest rates will stay lower for even longer began to build again.

Signs of a growing glut of supply sent Brent crude futures skidding back to $45.50 a barrel as European trading gathered momentum. Poorly performing banking stocks also made for a weak start for London, Paris and Frankfurt's stock markets.

The slide in energy costs boosted bond prices and flattened yield curves as investors priced in lower inflation for longer, while safe-haven flows underpinned the Japanese yen.

The spread between yields on U.S. five-year notes and 30-year bonds shrank to the smallest since 2007 as investors wagered the Federal Reserve might have to delay further rate hikes.

Thirty-year German debt yields bonds also tumbled back towards two-month lows, adding to a more than 20-basis-point drop over the past month and ahead of what will now be a closely watched sale of 30-year debt in Berlin later.

"The plunge in oil prices ignited a bull flattening on the German and U.S. curve," analysts at UniCredit said in a note adding that it suggested "reflation trades are finally deflated."

The recent setback for crude and commodity prices as well some equity markets is partly down to doubts over U.S. President Donald Trump's promised multi-trillion dollar stimulus program, which had raised hopes of boosted inflation and growth.

"Brent now the lowest since mid-November: remember that whole reflation thing? No, neither does the market," Rabobank analysts told clients in a reference to Brent crude futures, which have slid almost 10 percent this month.

Oil had shed 2 percent on Tuesday, taking U.S. crude futures 20 percent off recent highs and thus into official bear territory, a red flag to investors who follow technical trends.

In Asia there had been muted reaction to global index provider MSCI's decision to add the first batch of mainland Chinese stocks to its popular emerging equity benchmark.

Indexes in Shanghai and Shenzen moved around 0.5 percent higher after the decision, which could ultimately bring $340 billion of foreign capital to the so-called A-share market.

The commodity and bond market turbulence and falls in Europe pushed MSCI's all-country share index down 0.3 percent after its 0.7-percent slide on Tuesday compounded by a weak close on Wall Street .

JOINING THE CLUB

The acceptance of some Chinese "A" shares into MSCI's Emerging Markets Index was seen as a symbolic win for Beijing after three failed attempts. Yet the step is still a small one.

Only 222 stocks are being included and, with a weighting of just 5 percent, they will account for only 0.73 percent of the Emerging Markets Index.

MSCI estimated the change, due around the middle of next year, would drive inflows of between $17 billion and $18 billion. China's market cap is roughly $7 trillion.

The index provider set out a laundry list of liberalization requirements before it would consider further expansion.

"We suspect that it will be a long time before this happens," wrote analysts at Capital Economics in a note.

"While China's weighting in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index may ultimately rise to 40 percent or so, this rise is likely to be slow," they added. "The upshot is that any initial boost to equities is likely to be small."

The initial reaction was indeed restrained, with China's CSI300 index up 0.5 percent.

MSCI also said it would consult on adding Saudi Arabia to the emerging markets benchmark and that Nigeria will remain a frontier market, but it shocked many emerging market investors by declining to upgrade Argentina from the frontier market category.

In currency markets, the flight from oil and into long-dated government bond benefited the safe-have yen which climbed to 111.120 per dollar. The U.S. currency was holding its own elsewhere though - oil and the greenback often move inversely. Against a basket of currencies, it was steady at 97.736 having touched a five-week peak overnight.

The euro stood at $1.1131 after hitting a three-week low, while the dollar eased a touch on the yen to 111.27.

Sterling was still in the firing line sliding back under $1.26 and towards 90 percent per euro.

It took a spill after Bank of England Governor Mark Carney hosed down speculation that he might soon back higher interest rates, saying he first wanted to see how the economy coped with Brexit talks.

(Reporting by Wayne Cole; Editing by Eric Meijer and Andrew Heavens)

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Fears of eurozone credit crunch grow

FRANKFURT - Fears of an emerging credit crunch in the eurozone increased on Friday as data showed a sharp slowdown in bank lending to the private sector, despite recent unprecedented injections of liquidity.

The European Central Bank calculated in regular monthly data that growth in loans to the private sector slowed substantially to just 1.0 percent in December from 1.7 percent in November.

Last month, in a series of special liquidity measures precisely to avert a credit crunch in the 17 countries that share the euro, the ECB launched its longest-ever liquidity operations, lending eurozone banks as much as they wanted for a period of three years at super-cheap rates.

And banks in the region queued up in their hundreds to borrow nearly half a trillion euros in the first-ever such operation.

Nevertheless, there have been concerns that banks are simply hoarding the cash, rather than lending it to businesses and households as the ECB hoped they would.

Ever since then, daily ECB data show that banks are parking record amounts of cash in the central bank's overnight storage facility.

In normal times, banks shy away from depositing cash at the ECB, preferring to lend any overnight surplus to other banks, where they win a higher return.

But analysts say the eurozone debt crisis has spawned a lack of trust between banks, meaning that institutions are opting to store the money at the ultra-safe ECB rather than take the riskier route of lending it to their peers.

Analysts therefore viewed the latest loan data with some degree of concern.

"The sharp moderation in annual growth in loans to the private sector in December, particularly the appreciable monthly fall in loans to businesses, will reinforce concern that credit conditions are now increasingly tightening and posing a mounting risk to already struggling eurozone economic activity," said IHS Global Insight's chief economist Howard Archer.

Christian Schulz, senior economist at Berenberg Bank, agreed.

"Signs of a modest credit crunch in the eurozone are amplifying," he said.

Analysts noted, however, that it would take some time yet for the liquidity measures to feed through into the ECB data.

"The moderation in loans to the private sector also likely reflects corporates becoming more cautious in their behaviour and in their investment plans in the current weakened and uncertain economic environment, and cutting back their demand for credit," said Archer at IHS Global Insight.

"It remains to be seen to what extent the 489 billion euros loaned to European banks in the three-year unlimited tender in December ultimately feeds through to support bank lending to businesses and households," he said.

The ECB also calculated that growth of the eurozone money supply, a key indicator of demand in the economy, slowed again in December, possibly opening up room for further interest rate cuts.

The M3 indicator rose 1.6 percent last month, following a gain of 2.0 percent in November.

The slowdown was unexpected: analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires had been pencilling in growth of 2.1 percent for December.

The ECB regards the M3 figure as a key guide to inflation pressures and uses it to set interest rates accordingly.

The central bank seeks to keep eurozone inflation below but close to 2.0 percent but it stood at 2.7 percent in December.

The central bank cut its benchmark interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point to 1.00 percent in December, arguing that future inflation is likely to slow as the eurozone debt crisis puts the brakes on economic growth in the single currency area.

source: interaksyon.com