Europe at aglance NEWS 717 August 2019 THE WEEKHamburg
SS guard trial:A92-year-old former SS
private is to go on trial as an accessory
to the murder of more than 5,000 people.
Bruno Dey wasaguard at the Stutthof
concentration camp near Danzig (now
Gdansk) in Poland, where at least 60,
prisoners died–5,230 of them, it is
estimated, during the nine months Dey was
stationed there. Stutthof was mainly used
as aprison for Jews, but also asa“work
education camp” for political prisoners,
homosexuals and criminals. Dey claims
that he served there only because he was
medically unfit to go to the front, and
denies playingapart in the killings.
Prosecutors are relying on the argument
–first used successfully at the trial of John
Demjanjuk in 2011–that simply to have
beenaguard inadeath camp constitutes
guilt, even if there is no specific evidence of
acrime. Because Dey was only 17 when he
arrived at the camp, the case is being tried
in ayouth court in Hamburg.
Arkhangelsk, Russia
Missile accident:At least five people were
killed inanuclear explosion ataRussian
missile site in the Arkhangelsk region last
week. The victims are believed to have
been standing onaplatform in the
White Sea to testanew type of cruise
missile, the SSC-X-9 Skyfall, which is
partially powered byasmall nuclear
reactor. Radiation readings in nearby
cities briefly reached 16 times the normal
level, and the authorities have closed
Dvinsky Bay, the site of the test, for a
month. President Putin has boasted that
the Skyfall will be able to evade existing
American anti-missile defences and reach
anywhere in the world, but even before
the explosion there were doubts about its
core technology.Berlin
Fall in nudism:
Germany’s
tradition of
naturism is in
decline, with
membership
of the national
Freikörperkultur
(“free body
culture”)
association
down to 32,
people–half of
what it was in
the 1980s. Skinny-dipping is no longer
allowed in most of Berlin’s lakes, reported
The Times, andathird of Berliners
consider the practice to be “revolting”.
The decline, which is most pronounced
among 18- to-30-year-olds, is largely due
to the “reign of terror” of modern ideals
of beauty, according toanew book by a
Leipzig sexologist, Kurt Starke.
Paris
Seagull invasion:Although nearly 200km
from the sea, Paris has become home to a
growing number of seagulls, with residents
complaining of the “hellish” noise that
they make. The gulls, which have found
foraging on the coast increasingly difficult
as aresult of overfishing, are attracted by
the easy pickings in the capital, with the
Belleville fish market among their favourite
haunts. They also enjoy the safe nesting
opportunities afforded by the city’s
rooftops. “The only predators they need
to watch out for are cats and foxes, which
rarely make it to those heights,” explained
Jean-Philippe Siblet, an ornithologist at the
city’s Natural History Museum. As well as
annoying the locals, the gulls have
disrupted the surveillance ofgilets jaunes
demonstrations by attacking police drones.
Scientists are now planning to equip
drones with speakers playing recordings of
birds of prey, in order to drive them away.
Rome
Salvini demands
election:Italy’s
deputy prime
minister, Matteo
Salvini, called for
asnap general
election last
week, arguing
that the 14-
month coalition
between his
far-right League
party and the anti-establishment Five-Star
Movement (5SM) was no longer viable.
Salvini (pictured) is keen to take advantage
of the League’s strong showing in opinion
polls–now at around 40% compared to
5SM’s 15%–and has been informally
campaigning on Italy’s beaches. However,
both 5SM and the centre-left Democratic
Party have said they will vote against the
no-confidence motion he has proposed.Moscow
Protests grow:Up to 50,000 people
turned out on Saturday for the largest
protest rally in Moscow for years,
voicing anger over the disqualification
of opposition candidates from municipal
elections and arrests at previous
demonstrations. Some 256 people were
detained by police, although the rally was
officially authorised; many of the arrests
were made when protesters tried to gather
outside President Putin’s offices in the city
centre. Several celebrities took part,
including the rappers Oxxxymiron and
Face. Lyubov Sobol,alawyer who has led
the opposition movement since the jailing
of Alexei Navalny, and who has been on
hunger strike for four weeks, was arrested
to prevent her from joining the protest;
she accused the authorities of “running
amok”.Afurther 79 people were detained
at ademonstration in St Petersburg, and
13 at another in Rostov-on-Don.Bærum, Norway
Mosque shooting:Ayoung man opened
fire on worshippers atamosque in the
Oslo suburb of Bærum on Saturday. Philip
Manshaus, 21, is thought to have been
inspired by white supremacist attacks:
he posted online messages praising the
Christchurch and El Paso massacres,
adding: “You gotta bump the race-war
threat in real life.” However, on arriving
at the Al-Noor Islamic Centre armed with
two shotguns, he found only three people
present, one of whom–Mohammad Rafiq,
a65-year-old retired Pakistani air force
officer–managed to overpower him.
Rafiq suffered minor injuries. Police have
charged Manshaus with terrorism, as well
as the murder of his 17-year-old stepsister,
whose body was found at his home nearby.
Norway’s domestic security agency said
that it had receiveda“vague” tip-off
about Manshausayear ago, but had
no information regarding “concrete
plans” for an attack.Catch up with daily news at theweek.co.uk