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Port workers gather outside the entrance of the major port of Trieste to protest against the implementation of the COVID-19 health pass, the Green Pass, in the workplace, in Trieste, Italy, October 15, 2021. REUTERS/Borut Zivulovic - 

Italy made COVID-19 health passes mandatory for all workers from Friday (Oct 15) in a test case for Europe, with the measure being applied mostly peacefully across the country despite scattered protests.

Prime Minister Mario Draghi's cabinet approved the rule - one of the world's strictest anti-COVID measures - in September, making it obligatory from Oct. 15 for all workers either to show proof of vaccination, a negative test or recent recovery from infection.

Under the rule, effective until year-end, workers without the so-called Green Pass will be suspended without pay and face a fine of up to 1,500 euros (US$1,730) if they try to work on regardless.

The largest demonstrations were at the major northeastern port of Trieste, where labour groups had threatened to block operations and around 6,000 protesters, some chanting and carrying flares, gathered outside the gates.

"The Green Pass is a bad thing, it is discrimination under the law. Nothing more. It's not a health regulation, it's just a political move to create division among people...," said Fabio Bocin, a 59-year old port worker in Trieste.

Around 40per cent of Trieste's port workers are not vaccinated, said Stefano Puzzer, a local trade union official, a far higher proportion than in the general Italian population.

Vaccine hostility is also higher in the city than in most of Italy, with an "anti-vax" party taking 4.5per cent of the vote at mayoral elections this month.

Regional governor Massimiliano Fedriga told SkyTG24: "The port (of Trieste) is functioning. Obviously there will be some difficulties and fewer people at work, but it's functioning."

In Genoa, Italy's other main port, around 100 protesters blocked access to trucks, a Reuters witness said.

In Rome, police in riot gear stood by during a small rally where people shouted "No Green Pass". Small protests also took place in Turin and Bologna.

In some towns pharmacies opened earlier than usual for people to get their swab.

Outside the Rinascente department store in central Rome small lines of sales assistants and shoppers formed as employees' health certificates were checked by security staff.

"I think it's a fair measure towards all those Italians who have tried to get out of this pandemic by getting vaccinated... I don't see where the problem is," said Rome resident Fabio Bonanno.

Most Italians support the mandatory Green Pass, opinion polls show, but protests turned violent in Rome last Saturday when demonstrators stormed the offices of the country's largest trade union.

Some 15 per cent of private and 8 per cent of public sector workers have no Green Pass, an internal government document seen by Reuters estimates.

The government hoped making the Green Pass mandatory would convince unvaccinated Italians to change their minds, but with over 80 per cent over the age of 12 already fully inoculated and infection rates low, that surge has not materialised.

The rightist League and Brothers of Italy parties and some unions say that, to address the risk of staff shortages, the validity of COVID tests should be extended from 48 to 72 hours, and they should be made free for unvaccinated workers.

But the government has so far resisted those calls. The centre-left Democratic Party, which is part of Draghi's ruling coalition, says that making swabs free would be the equivalent of an amnesty for tax dodgers.

However, some firms are offering free swabs to their staff. Motorcycle maker Ducati for example, said it would give free COVID tests to all employees until Nov 15//CNA

FILE PHOTO: Chinese President Xi Jinping delivers a speech addressing the COP15 biodiversity summit in Kunming, China October 12, 2021. SECRETARIAT OF THE CONVENTION ON BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY/Handout via REUTERS - 

Chinese President Xi Jinping will not attend the COP26 climate summit in person, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been told, The Times newspaper reported.

Britain, which hosts the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties, or COP26, in Glasgow on Oct. 31-Nov 12, is seeking to get big power support for a more radical plan to tackle climate change.

"It is now pretty clear that Xi is not going to turn up and the PM has been told that," The Times quoted an unidentified British source as saying. "What we don’t know is what stance the Chinese are going to take."

The Times said British organisers fear that Xi's decision to stay away could be a prelude to China refusing to set new climate change goals amid an energy crunch.

The Chinese embassy in London could not be reached for immediate comment.

Xi, China’s most powerful leader since Mao Zedong, has not left the People's Republic since the beginning of the novel coronavirus pandemic. He has joined video calls with global leaders.

China is the world's largest greenhouse gas emitter so Xi's absence from discussions - either in person or via video calls - would mark a setback for Johnson's hopes of getting world leaders to agree a significant climate deal.

Xi, 68, who has served as General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party since 2012, attended the 2015 Paris climate conference.

Britain's Queen Elizabeth has been overheard saying that she was irritated by world leaders who talk about climate change but then do very little or nothing to address the crisis.

"Extraordinary isn’t it. I’ve been hearing all about COP," the 95-year-old monarch told Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, the wife of her son, Charles, Prince of Wales and the presiding officer of the Welsh assembly. "Still don’t know who is coming..."

"It's really irritating when they talk, but they don't do," Elizabeth said in a conversation picked up by a microphone//CNA

Olaf Scholz will scramble for coalition partners after his SPD party beat the conservatives - 

German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz on Friday (Oct 15) took a step toward succeeding Angela Merkel as chancellor, as his Social Democrats, the Greens and liberal FDP announced a preliminary deal to form a new government.

The three parties have been holding talks since Scholz's centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) won the general elections on September 26 with Merkel's conservatives in second place as she prepares to leave politics.

"We can sense here that a new beginning is possible, brought about by the three parties that have come together here," Scholz told reporters.

He said the preliminary agreement "clearly shows that a government that aims to ensure we achieve progress can be formed in Germany".

Greens co-leader Annalena Baerbock said the initial deal heralds a "coalition of progress" to "really use the next decade as a decade of renewal".

The agreement that will form the basis of formal coalition talks all but means that Merkel's CDU-CSU alliance is headed for the opposition benches after scoring their worst post-war election result.

CDU leader and chancellor hopeful Armin Laschet had recently said his party remains open to forming a governing coalition, but even his own job is hanging on a thread.

Facing their worst crisis in decades, the conservatives are planning a clean sweep of their leadership, with a congress by December to elect their new bosses.

In Brussels on an official visit, Merkel herself said the new government "will be one that is pro-European (and) which knows what Europe means for us in terms of peace and freedom".

"That is an important message for the other member states of the European Union," she added.

- 'No dramatic shift' -

Scholz, who is also Merkel's vice chancellor, this week voiced confidence that the three-way talks involving his party will produce Germany's next government before Christmas.

A coalition of SPD, Greens and FDP has found favour with Germans, with 62 percent supporting it as the next federal government, according to a poll published Friday.

Scholz's approval rating was even higher, with three in four saying it was "good" for him to become chancellor.

The imminent shift in Germany's leadership to the centre-left comes as Europe's biggest economy is grappling with the complex challenge of securing the country's post-pandemic recovery.

Raw material and component shortages are already crimping growth, with factories of Germany's vital automotive industry idled because of the supply issues.

And a planned zero-emissions target by 2045 will require huge investments, including building more sustainable energy capacity and greener transport options.

In their initial agreement, the three parties pledged massive investments and less red tape to prepare Germany for a greener and more digital future.

But they vowed not to introduce any tax hikes and to maintain Germany's cherished no-new-debt rule, something the FDP had signalled was a red line for them.

The Greens meanwhile secured a pledge to bring forward Germany's exit from coal energy by eight years to 2030.

And the Social Democrats took the prize of raising minimum wage to 12 euros -- a campaign promise pushed by Scholz.

During the formal negotiations, possibly starting next week, the parties will examine the finer details on how to finance Germany's path towards a no-emissions future.

All sides are eager to avoid a repeat of the 2017 election aftermath, when the FDP dramatically walked out of coalition talks with the conservatives and the Greens and it took months for a new government to take shape.

Analysts believe that compromises likely to be made between the parties mean that Germany is unlikely to see a sharp lurch to the left.

Based on Friday's outline, a Scholz-led coalition "promises modest changes but no dramatic shift in policies", said Berenberg Bank's analyst Holger Schmieding.

"Whether cuts in tax subsidies and a general pruning of expenditures will do the trick to finance significant extra spending remains a very open question," he added//CNA

A healthcare worker waits in front of a booth where people receive doses of Pfizer's coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine at Belgrade Fair vaccination center in Belgrade, Serbia, Oct 15, 2021. (Photo: REUTERS/Marko Djurica) - 

Russian businessman Pavel Grigoriev and his wife are filling out forms at a vaccination centre housed in a huge exhibition hall in Belgrade, some 1,700km from their home in Moscow.

The couple has come all this way to get the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine because it, unlike the four vaccines on offer in Russia, is approved by the World Health Organisation and the European Union.

"We have decided to get the Pfizer vaccine because, we think, it will allow us more frequent travels to Europe," the 50-year-old Grigoriev said.

Russia's Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine, used in over 70 other states, has yet to be approved by the WHO, and no foreign-made vaccines have been approved in Russia.

Grigoriev and his wife are part of a new phenomenon which, much to the delight of the local tourism industry, first emerged in Serbia after it launched its COVID-19 inoculation campaign last December.

While countries across the Balkans struggled with hold-ups and shortages, Serbia was trumpeting its success at securing vaccines from a clutch of different suppliers, prompting an influx of 'vaccine tourists'.

Serbia approved vaccines made by Pfizer/BioNtech, China's Sinopharm, AstraZeneca/Oxford and Russia's Sputnik V for its inoculation programme, but so far only around 50 per cent of Serbia's population received two shots, mainly due to strong anti-vaccine sentiment.

However, many foreigners, including Russians, have flocked to the Balkan country for a shot this year. According to official data, around 160,000 foreigners, mainly from the Balkans, have so far received their COVID-19 vaccines in Serbia.

Local and Russian tourist agencies reeling from the effects of the pandemic, sought to profit from vaccination tourism, said Predrag Tesic, owner of the Belgrade-based BTF agency.

"There are many businessmen among them (Russians) and they must get a vaccine to travel," he said.

A three- or four-day of stay in Belgrade would cost a Russian visitor between US$500 and US$700, Tesic said.

Russian firm Petrovax has said it requested approval for a vaccine manufactured by Sinopharm, although a decision has yet to be made. The Russian health ministry did not respond to a request for comment on whether other foreign manufacturers have submitted requests for approval.

Earlier this month, the Russian health minister said there were enough free vaccines available in Russia//CNA