Netherlands willing to contribute €1 billion to EU coronavirus fund no strings attached

The Dutch government is willing to contribute up to 1 billion euros to a yet-to-be-established European fund aimed at dealing with the coronavirus, Minister Wopke Hoekstra of Finance said. Countries hit hard by Covid-19 and that are not in good financial health can turn to the fund to finance medical aid. "I am thinking roughly of a few hundred million to 1 billion euros," Hoekstra said to NU.nl on Wednesday.

The Finance Minister stressed that this is not a loan, but a gift, and the Netherlands' "substantial contribution to public health in Europe". Countries who call on this fund must clearly need help, Hoekstra said. Figuring out exactly how the control and release of the funds will work, and the conditions attached, is the next step, he said.

Unlike the still contested European Stability Mechanism (ESM), contribution to this fund is not mandatory for EU Member States. The member states are free to decide if and how much they want to contribute. According to Hoekstra, there is "broad enthusiasm" among his European colleagues for this fund.

Hoekstra stressed that the Netherlands is and will remain vehemently against so-called coronabonds, where the funds raised from selling such bond instruments would be used to help all member states overcome economic hurdles during the ongoing health crisis. The money could then be invested in supporting any EU member state, while repayment obligations would be the responsibility of the entire EU. Italy and Spain, both very hard hit by the coronavirus, insist on such bonds, the Netherlands and other countries including Germany, France and Belgium are against it.

The Dutch resistance to coronabonds resulted in fierce criticism from Italy. Especially after Hoekstra said that countries should first pull out all the stops to recover from the economic downturn themselves.

This statement prompted indignation, given that the Netherlands has far less public debt than Italy and therefore has much more financial room.

Read more: Netherlands willing to contribute €1 billion to EU coronavirus fund | NL Times

Middle East - Iran: President Trump Tweets About Possible Iran Strike After Saudi Arabia Oil Bombing

In this edition of America First, the President of the United States tweeted that we're "locked and loaded" to go to war with Iran and we're just waiting for Saudi Arabia to tell us what to do. This really is not an exaggeration. "Saudi Arabia oil supply was attacked," Donald Trump said on the Tweet Machine. "There is reason to believe that we know the culprit, are locked and loaded depending on verification, but are waiting to hear from the Kingdom as to who they believe was the cause of this attack, and under what terms we would proceed!"

Yes, we are waiting for word from Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman—the guy who allegedly orders journalists critical of him chopped up and thrown in an oven in the backyard of one of his ambassadors, who leads the regime that is helping to perpetuate a human-rights catastrophe in Yemen using American-made weapons, the same regime that just happens to be spending a fortune at Trump's hotels. If the crown prince gives us the go-ahead, we're bombing Iran! America First.

You would think that, having just marked the 18th anniversary of September 11—a reminder we're now poised to send kids to Afghanistan who were not born when the attacks happened—we'd be a little more worried about getting pulled into another quagmire of death and suffering. You would think that, at this point, we would be re-evaluating our strategy in the region, including our unbreakable bond with Saudi Arabia. And yet you could flip on Fox News this morning and find a Democratic senator from a solid-blue state mongering the war.

How many times are we going to do this? What is the best-case scenario if we enter armed conflict with Iran, which has missiles that can reach deep into Europe and a standing army of well over half a million people? Will we just bomb them and run? Will we try to topple the regime? Who will rise to power in the vaccuum? What would victory even look like? Can anyone tell us what it will look like in the multiple armed conflicts we're already engaged in nearby?

Have we learned fucking anything? How many American kids have to die in the sand and rock before we learn the United States cannot win when it starts blowing things up in the Middle East?

Read more: President Trump Tweets About Possible Iran Strike After Saudi Arabia Oil Bombing
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Middle East: EU Offers Support after Quake Hits Iran, Iraq

In a message on Monday, November 13,  Mogherini extended condolences to the people and governments of Iran and Iraq over the earthquake, offering the EU’s “support in anyway considered useful”.

At least 348 people have been killed and 6,000 injured in the quake measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale.

Iranians, fighting time, hurried early Monday to dig out survivors trapped in dozens of collapsed buildings in the quake, whose epicenter was near Halabjah, southeast of Iraq’s Sulaymaniyah.

Hospitals in the western cities of Eslamabad-e-Gharb, Sarpol-e-Zahab, and Qasre-e-Shirin are packed with the injured people as the death toll is expected to rise.

 Read more: EU Offers Support after Quake Hits Iran, Iraq - Tasnim News Agency