New protests in Europe over virus restrictions

A medical staffer gets ready to perform swabs to test for coronavirus, in the Military barracks of Cecchignola in Rome, Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2020. As Italy faces a new wave of COVID-19 infections, the Italian military is helping healthcare services in the effort to contain infection. Defense minister Lorenzo Guerini has signed an agreement with the Ministry of Health Ministery to provide temporary drive-through structures in to perform nose and throat swabs  to increase the daily Covid-19 testing capacity of the country.  (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
A medical staffer gets ready to perform swabs to test for coronavirus, in the Military barracks of Cecchignola in Rome, Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2020. As Italy faces a new wave of COVID-19 infections, the Italian military is helping healthcare services in the effort to contain infection. Defense minister Lorenzo Guerini has signed an agreement with the Ministry of Health Ministery to provide temporary drive-through structures in to perform nose and throat swabs to increase the daily Covid-19 testing capacity of the country. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

MILAN - Protesters set trash bins afire and police responded with hydrant sprays in downtown Rome Tuesday night, part of a day of public outpouring of anger against virus-fighting measures like evening shutdowns for restaurants and bars and the closures of gyms and theaters - a sign of growing discontent across Europe with renewed coronavirus restrictions.

Pedestrians and motorists returning home from work in Rome were taken by surprise when protesters, some of them hooded and members of an extreme-right political group, set afire to trash bins in Piazza del Popolo, overturned parked motor scooters and mopeds and hurled smoke bombs, state TV reported. Police vans unleashed torrents of water to disperse them.

It was a fifth straight night of violent protest in Italy, following recent local overnight curfews in metropolises including Naples and Rome.

After protests Monday night turned violent in the financial capital of Milan, police arrested 28 people. And in Italy's industrial northern city of Turin, at least 11 were arrested, including two who smashed the window of a Gucci boutique and stripped a mannequin of its lemon yellow trousers.

All of Europe is grappling with how to halt a fall resurgence of the virus before its hospitals become overwhelmed again.

Nightly curfews have been implemented in French cities. Schools must close at 6 p.m. Schools have been closed in Northern Ireland and the Czech Republic. German officials have ordered de-facto lockdowns in some areas near the Austrian border and new mask-wearing requirements are popping up weekly across the continent, including a nationwide requirement in Russia.

"We would all like to live like before, but there are moments where you have to make tough decisions," French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said Tuesday as the government held emergency meetings on the pandemic.

Yet in this new round of restrictions, governments are finding a less compliant public, even as the continent has seen over 250,000 confirmed deaths in the pandemic and last week recorded 46% of the world's new infections, according to the World Health Organization.

Over the weekend, police used pepper spray against protesters angry over new virus restrictions in Poland. Spanish doctors staged their first national walkout in 25 years on Tuesday to protest poor working conditions.

In Britain, anger and frustration at the government's uneven handling of the pandemic has erupted into a political crisis over the issue of hungry children.

Scrambling to ease some of the financial pain caused by the latest restrictions on businesses, Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte's Cabinet approved 5 billion euros ($5.8 billion) in economic relief.

The measures included extending unemployment benefits for unionized workers for up to six weeks, through January, financial aid for restaurants, cafes, hotels, gyms and ice cream parlors, taxi drivers and other sectors already hit hard by the lockdown earlier this year, and now reeling under the new restrictions with some businesses in danger of folding.

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