EuropeBoard

Welcome, everyone, to the fifteenth edition of Europe’s very own EuroNews! A lot of effort has been put into this issue, so it would be great if you could take some time out of your day to explore the good work our team of staff has put into this newsletter (and let’s face it, many of us are in quarantine and have too much time on our hands, so you don’t have an excuse to not check it out)!

The flag of Regnum Italiae who won
the election

Nardin would have used his position in the Commission to bolster Europe’s defence against trolls and spammers, potentially by forming a Defence Office for our region. He also wanted to create a mentorship program that fosters newcomers to the region, and a reform of the ambassadorial positions to nurture stronger relations between Europe and the wider NationStates community. While he has run purely to act as a second candidate in the past, Nardin affirmed that this campaign was a serious attempt at winning the election.

Herbshire was very concerned with the electoral system in Europe and wished to reform it, introducing a two-round system instead of the current first-past-the-post system. Hersbhire would also like to establish a “European Radio Network” on Eurocord (Europe’s Discord server) that, in future, election candidates could also use to campaign, so as to not be restricted to the telegram format.

One of Gor Nacho’s major reasons for re-running was to implement a mentorship program that has been one of his flagship policy ideas for a few elections now. However, his first term was also cut short due to a series of unfortunate events that led to his temporary suspension from the Commission in early January (which is explored further in our January Issue. Due to that mishap, Gor also desired to serve a full term.

Regnum Italiae brought three main policy areas to his campaign: defence, community, and diplomacy. Like Nardin, Regnum believes that more security is needed in our region and proposed the creation of a fourth position in the Cabinet, a Defence Secretary, who would be solely tasked with dealing with trolls and spammers. For the community, Regnum wanted to foster roleplay events in the hopes of bringing Europeans together even more. Finally, diplomacy; Regnum wanted to open more embassies and subsequently nurture friendly relations with the wider NationStates world, while maintaining our neutrality.

Alienage’s platform was the same as previous elections, he wanted to promote the ideals of the European Leftist Movement (solidarity, neutrality, to name a couple). He also spent most of the election adamant that it should have been postponed because of the current COVID-19 pandemic.

The election started off exciting with Gor and Regnum immediately racing ahead of the pack, neck and neck. Their desperate battle for first continued for a day before Regnum gained momentum and rocketed into the lead, eventually finishing with almost twice as many votes as the rest of the four candidates combined.

The Results
Regnum Italiae: 58
Gor Nacho: 15
Of Herbshire: 9
Nardin: 4
Alienage: 3

Total votes cast: 89

For a more detailed breakdown of the March election and events surrounding it, The Satherlandic Times has a great edition on the election which can be found here.

Written by Yahlia

Austranesi is a relatively new nation here in Europe, but that hasn’t stopped them from throwing themselves into the community and roleplay. They were very quick in filling out their own Wikipedia-style factbook, their template borrowed from The Poland-Lithuania Commonwealth. Austranesi’s factbook covers everything from Java Man and the human settlement of Indonesia to the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami with plenty of their own alt-history weaved in, alongside their demographics and geography. As a New Zealander myself, it is somewhat annoying to see us united with Australia in yet another piece of roleplay, but the inclusion of the Austronesian region in the country has pacified me somewhat. It’s a great looking factbook, Austranesi, you should be proud! :)
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Estonesia recently published a factbook focusing upon their religion’s pantheon of gods. The main deity in Ööselskia is Öösele, the god of night, space, forgiveness, and knowledge. Öösele is the creator of all and “parent” of all the other deities. Estonesia explores the rest of their gods in the factbook, and, if I’m not wrong, draws some inspiration from the Elder Scrolls universe. Either way, it’s a cool exploration of a fictional pantheon of gods and something I’ve rarely seen in other nations’ roleplay.
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Rivierenland has done a lot of work on his Wikipedia-style factbook as well. He has written extensively on his nation’s history and political system, creating one of the longer overview factbooks that I have seen. Riv explores everything from his nation’s founding in 1697 until the modern-day, covering everything from the colonial period to the Industrial Revolution, from the World Wars to the Cold War. History and politics aside, Riv also discusses his economy, culture, healthcare and education, and even the country’s infrastructure. It’s obvious that Riv put a lot of effort into this wonderful factbook!
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If I had to say who in Europe is the most prolific producer of pretty and impressive pieces of lore, it would be St Scarlett, and last month she created yet another high-quality factbook. This addition to her universe is a page on her capital city, Rubin. Overview factbooks are very common, but I haven’t seen many for cities which makes an awesome change. Scarlett explores Rubin’s history, administration, and economy, but also explores distinctly city-related aspects, such as the centre’s transport, local sporting history, and even goes so far as to twin her capital with other cities around the world. Polished off nicely with a collage of Rubin’s cityscape, typical of Wikipedia, a flag, and even a web address for the fictional metropolis, Scarlett’s covered it all.
page=dispatch/id=1326928
I would urge you all to explore these featured factbooks, they’re all very interesting. If you’re struggling for inspiration, these pages may be exactly what you need to get the juices flowing! Keep being creative, Europe!

Written by Yahlia

The award for Newcomer of the Month goes to... Elisabethshagen!
Elisabethshagen arrived here somewhat recently but over the course of last month, they have become an RMB regular and fit right in with our community! Welcome to Europe Elisabethshagen!

The award for RMBer of the Month goes to... Yahlia!
With the RMB full of nothing but football talk for a long time, Yahlia was one of those who tried to keep it fun and fresh for those not interested in the sport. He’s also been doing some trivia for the quarantine. This, combined with his persistent reading of every post, makes him the RMBer of March!

The award for Flag of the Month goes to... Pilipinas and Malaya!
I’ve seen Pilipinas use a number of different flags since we first met on the RMB a couple of years ago; this current flag is fresh and unique and perhaps the best he’s had so far. It’s a fun combination of the Nordic cross and the flag of the Philippines, I also like how technically the Dutch flag appears within it.

The award for Motto of the Month goes to... The Kingdom of Denmark!
“Let Denmark be your home, your inspiration, your nation”
This is a nice positive and patriotic message for a nation and I like it!

The award for Factbook of the Month goes to... Estonesia!
page=dispatch/id=1328931
I have yet to see a factbook like this, detailing the nation’s deities. As a result, this factbook by Estonesia is unique, interesting, and well worth a read.

And last but definitely not least, the award for General Excellence this month goes to... Miharr!
These are trying times for us all and it’s nice to see Miharr constantly sending kind thoughts to those who are affected by the current pandemic, thanks for keeping us all happy and positive Miharr!

Written by St Scarlett

A graph showing Thaecia’s recent growth in population

But why did Korsinia decide to revamp the recruitment system? The previous administrations dropped the “aimed“ program used at the time as it was practically ineffective. In fact, the region’s population passed from more than 300 nations during the summer to barely 200 this winter (Northern Hemisphere seasons). The necessity for a new system for recruitment was felt by the whole region. The new recruitment system that Thaecia adopted provided “monthly and WA-wide recruitment telegrams” and “consisting of both telegram stamps and manual recruitment targeting new, refounded, and WA nations”. To support this new initiative, a Stamp Donation Program was started to let residents help the region, as well as continuing “manually inviting people” to join Thaecia.

Unfortunately, this particular effort was not well received by the community, as many regions expressed their disapproval for this new policy. WA recruitment in User-Created Regions is seen as misconduct and abuse by most people on the platform, even though some of the biggest regions, like The East Pacific, supported Thaecia and its decision. To spice up the whole debate, a couple of nations from Thaecia, namely Cerdenia and Brototh, started to ravage the NationStates Forum and NSGP Discord server to “avenge” the pride of their region.

To try to cool the situation down, on 18 March the Thaecian administration released a press statement where they condemn the actions of Cerdenia and Brototh and promising that “[we] shall refrain from WA recruiting and shall use recruitment of new and refounded nations unless this proves ineffective, in which case the administration reserves the right to use WA recruitment once more”. Furthermore, a poll conducted by The Thaecian Journal on the same day, revealed that 81.8% of the residents approve of Korsinia’s recruitment policy and 63.6% of them thinks that this new system should be continued. Yet, as the Journal itself declares, “it appears that Thaecians are much more divided in their evaluation of the government's handling of the backlash” as only 40.9% approve.
Also, as shown by The Shift on 25 March, Thaecia increased its WA population by 27.4% and currently, as of 29 March, attests its total population to 306 nations. Korsinia declared that “all proved to be extremely successful in getting new citizens to the region”. The new recruitment system is very effective and the region stands by their Prime Minister in this, but most of the community doesn't approve of their recruitment policy and this may hurt Thaecia’s diplomatic relations. In the end, we should ask ourselves, what matters the most? The judgement of your own citizens or of the rest of the interregional community?

Written by Regnum Italiae

The IDU’s current server

It all started on 16 March, when the regional forum and the wiki went down because of an “issue with the provider” as Sanctaria, WA Minister and administrator of their Discord server, regional forum, and wiki, said later that day. After four days trying to contact the server provider for support, Sanctaria communicated to the rest of the region the possibility of having lost the server and all of its content for good. Some of the residents tried to look for an alternative, like a backup on the Wayback Machine, but the outlook was grim for them and, as the days passed by, the situation did not seem to improve.

The significance of the loss of their forum may be foreign to many Europeans, we barely use ours as we rely more on NS’ proper site. We, in fact, only go on the forum to read our regulations or to send our transparency requirements for elections. But they do their whole governmental and parliamentary activity on the forum, they store all of their laws on the forum, their regional roleplay is very participated and hosted on that forum. To lose their forum would be like losing half, if not more, of their region, and this is without taking the wiki into account.

Fortunately, on March 23rd Sanctaria succeeded in finding a backup of the server, dated to March 15th, and restored both the wiki and the forum. He has also set up an automatic backup on his PC every week and changed the server’s provider to ensure a better service. The residents cheered and thanked Sanctaria for his efforts. Finally, all’s well that ends well.

Written by Regnum Italiae

The COVID-19 outbreak has sparked
panic-buying, leaving many supermarkets
understocked

Well, once 2020 hit, the virus suddenly began popping up across the city of Wuhan and other cities inside the province of Hubei. Before this, the virus mainly flew under the radar. Now, the virus was definitely noticed by major news outlets. Cases were then reported in countries like South Korea, Thailand and Japan. The world now looked for explanations about exactly what caused this virus to leak. China immediately responded with closing off and quarantining multiple cities and entire provinces were put on high alert. The world applauded this action, but the Chinese Communist Party definitely reacted too late. Their aim was to distract attention from the virus and make it look like business was going as usual, and to continue the rapid expansion of the Chinese economy. Now, the world looked at China and their next move against the virus.

Days after the closure of Wuhan and neighbouring cities, the number of cases still began to climb upwards. As many as 1,500-2,000+ were infected daily. More cases were now appearing worldwide, people in China began to panic as more and more got infected. Streets became empty as everyone barricaded themselves inside their homes. Stores quickly sold out all of their wares, as many began to hunker down and get supplies that would last them for a while. Shanghai, Beijing, Tianjin and many other cities looked like massive ghost towns.

As the statistics progressively got even larger, many countries decided to evacuate citizens from the outbreak epicentre. They also advised all people to stop non-essential travel to China. Companies began closing their stores and production outlets, leading to decreases in both revenue and the Chinese economy.

As observed here, the effects of China’s suppression of vital information about the virus did not help them. Instead, it hurt them even more. Internal threats were now seen on Weibo as locals began calling for more freedom in general. Companies began to move operations away from China after workers became exposed to the virus. People online in many countries then began advocating the disposal of any Chinese products or to avoid any Chinese people altogether, which hurt Chinese companies’ sales even more and created distrust between consumer and producer, as well as fostering anti-Chinese/anti-East Asian racist sentiment.

Then, Dr Li Wenliang died. May he rest in peace. I mark this a significant turning point in the development of the outbreak. Around this time is when I would consider the effective containment to have ended. After Dr. Li’s death, we heard of the cruise ship Diamond Princess which soon reported 700 cases. This also coincided with a spike in both local and international cases.

Now, we have outbreak centres across the world: Lombardy in Italy, North Gyeongsang in South Korea, and New York City in the United States. All because Xi Jinping and company decided to withhold important information on the virus and chose to continue life as normal. Their actions resulted in the opposite of what they wished to happen, and now the world has been thrown into a state of panic and fear. Even some major officials have been afflicted with the coronavirus, take Iran’s Deputy Minister of Health, for example.

In summary, this is a result of the Chinese Communist Party putting money over human lives once more. But that decision ended up hurting them on three sides: economically, politically, and socially.

Part 2: Donald Trump
Now, about Donald Trump, this man tried to politicize the coronavirus outbreak. He initially called the virus a big “Democratic hoax” to bolster his own re-election campaign, and now he’s essentially forcing multiple Democratic governors to withhold their criticisms to acquire medical supplies required to fight the pandemic. If anything’s going to hurt his election chances, it’s this.

He spread misinformation when he told everyone that chloroquine was safe to use when in fact, the Food and Drug Administration was still testing it for efficiency, leading to a man’s death. Earlier on, he tried to “put a deadline” on the coronavirus pandemic; 15 April would be the cap he proposed. Many experts warned him against this move, saying it would only threaten Americans even more, putting lives at risk. Thankfully, he pushed back on this when news hit that America had surpassed 100,000 cases (much more than China had). What he should have done earlier was to impose a nationwide lockdown, but he left this task entirely to the governors and said that the White House would be there to back the governor’s actions. It should be the federal government taking charge in this time of emergency, rather than the president following along behind the states.

How about Dr. Fauci (a prominent American doctor in the White House Coronavirus Taskforce), you ask? I think Fauci should be the spearhead of this whole response (instead of Trump or Pence), with Trump and company backing him up, supplying the required executive orders and political moves that would help. It’s so sad to see a man with the actual expertise to handle this pandemic being put on the sidelines by President Trump, who clearly lacks the initiative to do something and was only prompted by the rising number of cases. This was essentially what China did when they let the virus run amok inside the country for almost a whole month.

In summary, Trump shouldn’t be the one leading this whole pandemic containment operation, as evidenced by the administration’s rather messy response. Fauci and other people with the qualifications should. Trump should not ever politicize anything in crises either. Partisanship and internal bickering is the last thing the United States needs right now.

Written by Pilipinas and Malaya

The Colosseum, Italy’s most famous monument,
is almost deserted

But that was just the beginning, the government closed the universities and schools, then halted sports events, then every commercial activity except for supermarkets, pharmacies, and other essential stores. Furthermore, the government prohibited leaving your house except for medical reasons, to work, or to buy food. #IoRestoACasa, I Stay At Home, is the slogan that the government and a vast number of celebrities spread on the internet, through social networks, and on television. Even in tourist areas, like where I’m living, you can now see empty roads and barely a car going around… and the few people who have to go outside, to buy food or other necessities, wear masks and/or gloves to avoid catching the coronavirus.

But before the enlargement of the red zone and the enforcement of the quarantine to the whole of Italy, many people from the northern regions (those from the south) fled to the southern areas to avoid the virus. This proved to be very dangerous; the hospitals and the medical infrastructure in southern Italy are worse than in the north, adding more strain to the south’s already subpar services. That, together with the shortage of medical equipment has accentuated and emphasised the under-preparedness of southern Italy’s healthcare.

Of course, even entrepreneurs and store owners are going through hard times because of the forced closure, but thankfully the government established some funds to help the economy. Yet, as our Prime Minister said, “our priority is to stop the infection and then, later, to support and help enterprises and industries”. Also, while the EU is trying to help us by sending money and allowing a deficit in expenses, China too has sent us some medical equipment and a team of medics. Though not everyone in Europe is so willing to assist, especially those in the north of the continent, every bit of help is welcomed.

This crisis also proved that in times of need, the government knows how to act, though the noisiest parties (Lega, Fratelli d’Italia, and so on) continue making noise and nothing more. The situation now seems to be stabilizing, although, according to experts, we have not yet reached the peak of the infection. Most of us have already come to terms with the idea that this situation will last, at least, until May. To lighten up the quarantine, some people started to sing or play instruments on their balcony to cheer up the neighbours. I'm pretty sure it will end happily ever after, in the meanwhile I’ll stay home.

Written by Regnum Italiae

Current Democratic front-runners Bernie Sanders
and Joe Biden

The earliest candidate of the current primaries was John Delaney, a Maryland politician. He announced his candidacy on 28 July 2017. Soon, on 8 November, Andrew Yang, an entrepreneur, threw his hat into the ring. More candidates followed in 2018 and 2019, most announcing their campaigns in 2019, including the likes of Elizabeth Warren (Massachusite senator), Tulsi Gabbard (Hawaiian congresswoman), Kamala Harris (Californian senator), Pete Buttigieg (Mayor of South Bend, Indiana), Bernie Sanders, and Joe Biden, just to name a few out of many. In 2019, the first candidates began to drop out, Tim Ryan (Ohioan congressman) and Beto O'Rourke (former Texan congressman) as examples.

The campaigns seemed to be relatively amicable until the televised debates began, and then the candidates were not afraid to get messy. A few candidates began to launch attacks at each other in the hopes of undermining their opponents and boosting their own popularity. When Michael Bloomberg (former Mayor of New York City) announced that he was going to run, the entire stage of Democratic nominees rallied against the billionaire, ripping him apart in his first televised debate. He was broadly disliked by the public and several candidates who accused him of buying the election, with millions being poured into his own campaign, much more than every other candidate. Bloomberg later dropped out after Super Tuesday, a day in which 14 states voted for their nominee in the primaries when he failed to win the nomination of any state (though he did win American Samoa).

Almost every candidate did very poorly in securing delegates from states and one by one they dropped out until only two horses remained in the race, Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders. Although Sanders started strong, the tides quickly changed and Biden surged into the lead off the back of the South Carolina primary and subsequent domination Super Tuesday vote. How? Well, Biden was already expected to have the highest approval out of all candidates even after he had lost several states to candidates like Buttigieg and Sanders. He also received many endorsements from candidates that dropped out as he's more moderate Sanders who describes himself as a “democratic socialist”.

The future of the Democratic primaries is uncertain given the current COVID-19 pandemic, which makes voting and debates with live audiences dangerous, but either way, despite Sanders’ significant support, it’s looking more and more likely that it will be Biden who challenges Trump in the presidential election later this year.

Written by Rivierenland

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced the
postponement of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic
Games

In the UEFA Champions League, many games have been played behind closed doors in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak before its inevitable postponement. In the round of 16 games that managed to be played, RB Leipzig defeated Tottenham, Atalanta defeated Valencia, PSG beat Dortmund, but Atletico is the biggest winner as they defeat reigning Champions League winner, Liverpool. The Europa League has also been postponed and the Euro 2020s will be held next year.

The Tokyo 2020 Olympics will be postponed to 2021 as the coronavirus takes down another major sporting event.

In the US, the NBA, NHL, and MLS have all suspended their seasons in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak. The MLB has delayed the start of the season and expects to play on a shortened season. The NFL will still schedule the draft but not in their planned Las Vegas venue.

Even college sports in the US aren’t spared as the NCAA decided to cancel all remaining men’s and women’s tournaments, including March Madness. Looks like we won’t have the chance to complete our brackets this year.

The first EuroNews sports column has been wacky considering that all sports competitions are being cancelled left and right due to the coronavirus. We will see in the coming months how all these leagues will be impacted, and I will continue to track all the developments in sporting leagues across the world.

Written by Outer Sparta

China
As one of the oldest civilisations, China has achieved a great number of things. One of the more impressive things China has produced is the Great Wall of China. This wall runs from the Pacific Ocean to a point 21,000 km into China and has stood in some form for 2,300 years.

China, as a large area of land crossing many different types of geographical region, has a diverse range of wildlife. Though the Chinese government can be criticized for many things and the country is not the greenest in the world, it cannot be criticized for its work on protecting these animals and plants with over 1,200 reserves created across the country. The nation is most famous for its Giant Panda which is exclusively found in the central mountains of the nation and nowhere else in the world.

The Great Wall of China

There are only three nations in the world entirely surrounded by just one country (Discounting those that also have a coastline, such as the Gambia) and two of those are both located entirely inside Italy’s borders, San Marino and the Vatican City, while the third, Lesotho, is located within South Africa. The Vatican was formerly the Papal States taking up most of Central Italy and has now shrunk down to become the smallest country in the world, located entirely within the borders of the city of Rome.

Central African Republic
Like South Africa, this nation’s flag breaks the generally accepted rule of not using more than 3 colours on your national flag, containing a total of 5; just 1 less than South Africa’s. This flag has been in use since 1958 and represents the four territories of French Equatorial Africa (Republic of Congo, Gabon, Chad and CAR) as well as France itself and symbolises their friendship as Francophone nations guided by France.

The country was briefly known as the Central African Empire from 1976-1979, when its president, Marshal Jean-Bédel Bokassa, a military dictator, declared himself Bokassa I, Emperor of Central Africa. He did not have much success however and was overthrown by David Dacko in late 1979 with help from France, who returned the nation to its republican roots.

Written by St Scarlett

Welcome, everyone, to the fifteenth edition of Europe’s very own EuroNews! A lot of effort has been put into this issue, so it would be great if you could take some time out of your day to explore the good work our team of staff has put into this newsletter (and let’s face it, many of us are in quarantine and have too much time on our hands, so you don’t have an excuse to not check it out)!

The flag of Regnum Italiae who won
the election

Nardin would have used his position in the Commission to bolster Europe’s defence against trolls and spammers, potentially by forming a Defence Office for our region. He also wanted to create a mentorship program that fosters newcomers to the region, and a reform of the ambassadorial positions to nurture stronger relations between Europe and the wider NationStates community. While he has run purely to act as a second candidate in the past, Nardin affirmed that this campaign was a serious attempt at winning the election.

Herbshire was very concerned with the electoral system in Europe and wished to reform it, introducing a two-round system instead of the current first-past-the-post system. Hersbhire would also like to establish a “European Radio Network” on Eurocord (Europe’s Discord server) that, in future, election candidates could also use to campaign, so as to not be restricted to the telegram format.

One of Gor Nacho’s major reasons for re-running was to implement a mentorship program that has been one of his flagship policy ideas for a few elections now. However, his first term was also cut short due to a series of unfortunate events that led to his temporary suspension from the Commission in early January (which is explored further in our January Issue. Due to that mishap, Gor also desired to serve a full term.

Regnum Italiae brought three main policy areas to his campaign: defence, community, and diplomacy. Like Nardin, Regnum believes that more security is needed in our region and proposed the creation of a fourth position in the Cabinet, a Defence Secretary, who would be solely tasked with dealing with trolls and spammers. For the community, Regnum wanted to foster roleplay events in the hopes of bringing Europeans together even more. Finally, diplomacy; Regnum wanted to open more embassies and subsequently nurture friendly relations with the wider NationStates world, while maintaining our neutrality.

Alienage’s platform was the same as previous elections, he wanted to promote the ideals of the European Leftist Movement (solidarity, neutrality, to name a couple). He also spent most of the election adamant that it should have been postponed because of the current COVID-19 pandemic.

The election started off exciting with Gor and Regnum immediately racing ahead of the pack, neck and neck. Their desperate battle for first continued for a day before Regnum gained momentum and rocketed into the lead, eventually finishing with almost twice as many votes as the rest of the four candidates combined.

The Results
Regnum Italiae: 58
Gor Nacho: 15
Of Herbshire: 9
Nardin: 4
Alienage: 3

Total votes cast: 89

For a more detailed breakdown of the March election and events surrounding it, The Satherlandic Times has a great edition on the election which can be found here.

Written by Yahlia

Austranesi is a relatively new nation here in Europe, but that hasn’t stopped them from throwing themselves into the community and roleplay. They were very quick in filling out their own Wikipedia-style factbook, their template borrowed from The Poland-Lithuania Commonwealth. Austranesi’s factbook covers everything from Java Man and the human settlement of Indonesia to the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami with plenty of their own alt-history weaved in, alongside their demographics and geography. As a New Zealander myself, it is somewhat annoying to see us united with Australia in yet another piece of roleplay, but the inclusion of the Austronesian region in the country has pacified me somewhat. It’s a great looking factbook, Austranesi, you should be proud! :)
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Estonesia recently published a factbook focusing upon their religion’s pantheon of gods. The main deity in Ööselskia is Öösele, the god of night, space, forgiveness, and knowledge. Öösele is the creator of all and “parent” of all the other deities. Estonesia explores the rest of their gods in the factbook, and, if I’m not wrong, draws some inspiration from the Elder Scrolls universe. Either way, it’s a cool exploration of a fictional pantheon of gods and something I’ve rarely seen in other nations’ roleplay.
page=dispatch/id=1328931

Rivierenland has done a lot of work on his Wikipedia-style factbook as well. He has written extensively on his nation’s history and political system, creating one of the longer overview factbooks that I have seen. Riv explores everything from his nation’s founding in 1697 until the modern-day, covering everything from the colonial period to the Industrial Revolution, from the World Wars to the Cold War. History and politics aside, Riv also discusses his economy, culture, healthcare and education, and even the country’s infrastructure. It’s obvious that Riv put a lot of effort into this wonderful factbook!
page=dispatch/id=1331360

If I had to say who in Europe is the most prolific producer of pretty and impressive pieces of lore, it would be St Scarlett, and last month she created yet another high-quality factbook. This addition to her universe is a page on her capital city, Rubin. Overview factbooks are very common, but I haven’t seen many for cities which makes an awesome change. Scarlett explores Rubin’s history, administration, and economy, but also explores distinctly city-related aspects, such as the centre’s transport, local sporting history, and even goes so far as to twin her capital with other cities around the world. Polished off nicely with a collage of Rubin’s cityscape, typical of Wikipedia, a flag, and even a web address for the fictional metropolis, Scarlett’s covered it all.
page=dispatch/id=1326928
I would urge you all to explore these featured factbooks, they’re all very interesting. If you’re struggling for inspiration, these pages may be exactly what you need to get the juices flowing! Keep being creative, Europe!

Written by Yahlia

The award for Newcomer of the Month goes to... Elisabethshagen!
Elisabethshagen arrived here somewhat recently but over the course of last month, they have become an RMB regular and fit right in with our community! Welcome to Europe Elisabethshagen!

The award for RMBer of the Month goes to... Yahlia!
With the RMB full of nothing but football talk for a long time, Yahlia was one of those who tried to keep it fun and fresh for those not interested in the sport. He’s also been doing some trivia for the quarantine. This, combined with his persistent reading of every post, makes him the RMBer of March!

The award for Flag of the Month goes to... Pilipinas and Malaya!
I’ve seen Pilipinas use a number of different flags since we first met on the RMB a couple of years ago; this current flag is fresh and unique and perhaps the best he’s had so far. It’s a fun combination of the Nordic cross and the flag of the Philippines, I also like how technically the Dutch flag appears within it.

The award for Motto of the Month goes to... The Kingdom of Denmark!
“Let Denmark be your home, your inspiration, your nation”
This is a nice positive and patriotic message for a nation and I like it!

The award for Factbook of the Month goes to... Estonesia!
page=dispatch/id=1328931
I have yet to see a factbook like this, detailing the nation’s deities. As a result, this factbook by Estonesia is unique, interesting, and well worth a read.

And last but definitely not least, the award for General Excellence this month goes to... Miharr!
These are trying times for us all and it’s nice to see Miharr constantly sending kind thoughts to those who are affected by the current pandemic, thanks for keeping us all happy and positive Miharr!

Written by St Scarlett

A graph showing Thaecia’s recent growth in population

But why did Korsinia decide to revamp the recruitment system? The previous administrations dropped the “aimed“ program used at the time as it was practically ineffective. In fact, the region’s population passed from more than 300 nations during the summer to barely 200 this winter (Northern Hemisphere seasons). The necessity for a new system for recruitment was felt by the whole region. The new recruitment system that Thaecia adopted provided “monthly and WA-wide recruitment telegrams” and “consisting of both telegram stamps and manual recruitment targeting new, refounded, and WA nations”. To support this new initiative, a Stamp Donation Program was started to let residents help the region, as well as continuing “manually inviting people” to join Thaecia.

Unfortunately, this particular effort was not well received by the community, as many regions expressed their disapproval for this new policy. WA recruitment in User-Created Regions is seen as misconduct and abuse by most people on the platform, even though some of the biggest regions, like The East Pacific, supported Thaecia and its decision. To spice up the whole debate, a couple of nations from Thaecia, namely Cerdenia and Brototh, started to ravage the NationStates Forum and NSGP Discord server to “avenge” the pride of their region.

To try to cool the situation down, on 18 March the Thaecian administration released a press statement where they condemn the actions of Cerdenia and Brototh and promising that “[we] shall refrain from WA recruiting and shall use recruitment of new and refounded nations unless this proves ineffective, in which case the administration reserves the right to use WA recruitment once more”. Furthermore, a poll conducted by The Thaecian Journal on the same day, revealed that 81.8% of the residents approve of Korsinia’s recruitment policy and 63.6% of them thinks that this new system should be continued. Yet, as the Journal itself declares, “it appears that Thaecians are much more divided in their evaluation of the government's handling of the backlash” as only 40.9% approve.
Also, as shown by The Shift on 25 March, Thaecia increased its WA population by 27.4% and currently, as of 29 March, attests its total population to 306 nations. Korsinia declared that “all proved to be extremely successful in getting new citizens to the region”. The new recruitment system is very effective and the region stands by their Prime Minister in this, but most of the community doesn't approve of their recruitment policy and this may hurt Thaecia’s diplomatic relations. In the end, we should ask ourselves, what matters the most? The judgement of your own citizens or of the rest of the interregional community?

Written by Regnum Italiae

The IDU’s current server

It all started on 16 March, when the regional forum and the wiki went down because of an “issue with the provider” as Sanctaria, WA Minister and administrator of their Discord server, regional forum, and wiki, said later that day. After four days trying to contact the server provider for support, Sanctaria communicated to the rest of the region the possibility of having lost the server and all of its content for good. Some of the residents tried to look for an alternative, like a backup on the Wayback Machine, but the outlook was grim for them and, as the days passed by, the situation did not seem to improve.

The significance of the loss of their forum may be foreign to many Europeans, we barely use ours as we rely more on NS’ proper site. We, in fact, only go on the forum to read our regulations or to send our transparency requirements for elections. But they do their whole governmental and parliamentary activity on the forum, they store all of their laws on the forum, their regional roleplay is very participated and hosted on that forum. To lose their forum would be like losing half, if not more, of their region, and this is without taking the wiki into account.

Fortunately, on March 23rd Sanctaria succeeded in finding a backup of the server, dated to March 15th, and restored both the wiki and the forum. He has also set up an automatic backup on his PC every week and changed the server’s provider to ensure a better service. The residents cheered and thanked Sanctaria for his efforts. Finally, all’s well that ends well.

Written by Regnum Italiae

The COVID-19 outbreak has sparked
panic-buying, leaving many supermarkets
understocked

Well, once 2020 hit, the virus suddenly began popping up across the city of Wuhan and other cities inside the province of Hubei. Before this, the virus mainly flew under the radar. Now, the virus was definitely noticed by major news outlets. Cases were then reported in countries like South Korea, Thailand and Japan. The world now looked for explanations about exactly what caused this virus to leak. China immediately responded with closing off and quarantining multiple cities and entire provinces were put on high alert. The world applauded this action, but the Chinese Communist Party definitely reacted too late. Their aim was to distract attention from the virus and make it look like business was going as usual, and to continue the rapid expansion of the Chinese economy. Now, the world looked at China and their next move against the virus.

Days after the closure of Wuhan and neighbouring cities, the number of cases still began to climb upwards. As many as 1,500-2,000+ were infected daily. More cases were now appearing worldwide, people in China began to panic as more and more got infected. Streets became empty as everyone barricaded themselves inside their homes. Stores quickly sold out all of their wares, as many began to hunker down and get supplies that would last them for a while. Shanghai, Beijing, Tianjin and many other cities looked like massive ghost towns.

As the statistics progressively got even larger, many countries decided to evacuate citizens from the outbreak epicentre. They also advised all people to stop non-essential travel to China. Companies began closing their stores and production outlets, leading to decreases in both revenue and the Chinese economy.

As observed here, the effects of China’s suppression of vital information about the virus did not help them. Instead, it hurt them even more. Internal threats were now seen on Weibo as locals began calling for more freedom in general. Companies began to move operations away from China after workers became exposed to the virus. People online in many countries then began advocating the disposal of any Chinese products or to avoid any Chinese people altogether, which hurt Chinese companies’ sales even more and created distrust between consumer and producer, as well as fostering anti-Chinese/anti-East Asian racist sentiment.

Then, Dr Li Wenliang died. May he rest in peace. I mark this a significant turning point in the development of the outbreak. Around this time is when I would consider the effective containment to have ended. After Dr. Li’s death, we heard of the cruise ship Diamond Princess which soon reported 700 cases. This also coincided with a spike in both local and international cases.

Now, we have outbreak centres across the world: Lombardy in Italy, North Gyeongsang in South Korea, and New York City in the United States. All because Xi Jinping and company decided to withhold important information on the virus and chose to continue life as normal. Their actions resulted in the opposite of what they wished to happen, and now the world has been thrown into a state of panic and fear. Even some major officials have been afflicted with the coronavirus, take Iran’s Deputy Minister of Health, for example.

In summary, this is a result of the Chinese Communist Party putting money over human lives once more. But that decision ended up hurting them on three sides: economically, politically, and socially.

Part 2: Donald Trump
Now, about Donald Trump, this man tried to politicize the coronavirus outbreak. He initially called the virus a big “Democratic hoax” to bolster his own re-election campaign, and now he’s essentially forcing multiple Democratic governors to withhold their criticisms to acquire medical supplies required to fight the pandemic. If anything’s going to hurt his election chances, it’s this.

He spread misinformation when he told everyone that chloroquine was safe to use when in fact, the Food and Drug Administration was still testing it for efficiency, leading to a man’s death. Earlier on, he tried to “put a deadline” on the coronavirus pandemic; 15 April would be the cap he proposed. Many experts warned him against this move, saying it would only threaten Americans even more, putting lives at risk. Thankfully, he pushed back on this when news hit that America had surpassed 100,000 cases (much more than China had). What he should have done earlier was to impose a nationwide lockdown, but he left this task entirely to the governors and said that the White House would be there to back the governor’s actions. It should be the federal government taking charge in this time of emergency, rather than the president following along behind the states.

How about Dr. Fauci (a prominent American doctor in the White House Coronavirus Taskforce), you ask? I think Fauci should be the spearhead of this whole response (instead of Trump or Pence), with Trump and company backing him up, supplying the required executive orders and political moves that would help. It’s so sad to see a man with the actual expertise to handle this pandemic being put on the sidelines by President Trump, who clearly lacks the initiative to do something and was only prompted by the rising number of cases. This was essentially what China did when they let the virus run amok inside the country for almost a whole month.

In summary, Trump shouldn’t be the one leading this whole pandemic containment operation, as evidenced by the administration’s rather messy response. Fauci and other people with the qualifications should. Trump should not ever politicize anything in crises either. Partisanship and internal bickering is the last thing the United States needs right now.

Written by Pilipinas and Malaya

The Colosseum, Italy’s most famous monument,
is almost deserted

But that was just the beginning, the government closed the universities and schools, then halted sports events, then every commercial activity except for supermarkets, pharmacies, and other essential stores. Furthermore, the government prohibited leaving your house except for medical reasons, to work, or to buy food. #IoRestoACasa, I Stay At Home, is the slogan that the government and a vast number of celebrities spread on the internet, through social networks, and on television. Even in tourist areas, like where I’m living, you can now see empty roads and barely a car going around… and the few people who have to go outside, to buy food or other necessities, wear masks and/or gloves to avoid catching the coronavirus.

But before the enlargement of the red zone and the enforcement of the quarantine to the whole of Italy, many people from the northern regions (those from the south) fled to the southern areas to avoid the virus. This proved to be very dangerous; the hospitals and the medical infrastructure in southern Italy are worse than in the north, adding more strain to the south’s already subpar services. That, together with the shortage of medical equipment has accentuated and emphasised the under-preparedness of southern Italy’s healthcare.

Of course, even entrepreneurs and store owners are going through hard times because of the forced closure, but thankfully the government established some funds to help the economy. Yet, as our Prime Minister said, “our priority is to stop the infection and then, later, to support and help enterprises and industries”. Also, while the EU is trying to help us by sending money and allowing a deficit in expenses, China too has sent us some medical equipment and a team of medics. Though not everyone in Europe is so willing to assist, especially those in the north of the continent, every bit of help is welcomed.

This crisis also proved that in times of need, the government knows how to act, though the noisiest parties (Lega, Fratelli d’Italia, and so on) continue making noise and nothing more. The situation now seems to be stabilizing, although, according to experts, we have not yet reached the peak of the infection. Most of us have already come to terms with the idea that this situation will last, at least, until May. To lighten up the quarantine, some people started to sing or play instruments on their balcony to cheer up the neighbours. I'm pretty sure it will end happily ever after, in the meanwhile I’ll stay home.

Written by Regnum Italiae

Current Democratic front-runners Bernie Sanders
and Joe Biden

The earliest candidate of the current primaries was John Delaney, a Maryland politician. He announced his candidacy on 28 July 2017. Soon, on 8 November, Andrew Yang, an entrepreneur, threw his hat into the ring. More candidates followed in 2018 and 2019, most announcing their campaigns in 2019, including the likes of Elizabeth Warren (Massachusite senator), Tulsi Gabbard (Hawaiian congresswoman), Kamala Harris (Californian senator), Pete Buttigieg (Mayor of South Bend, Indiana), Bernie Sanders, and Joe Biden, just to name a few out of many. In 2019, the first candidates began to drop out, Tim Ryan (Ohioan congressman) and Beto O'Rourke (former Texan congressman) as examples.

The campaigns seemed to be relatively amicable until the televised debates began, and then the candidates were not afraid to get messy. A few candidates began to launch attacks at each other in the hopes of undermining their opponents and boosting their own popularity. When Michael Bloomberg (former Mayor of New York City) announced that he was going to run, the entire stage of Democratic nominees rallied against the billionaire, ripping him apart in his first televised debate. He was broadly disliked by the public and several candidates who accused him of buying the election, with millions being poured into his own campaign, much more than every other candidate. Bloomberg later dropped out after Super Tuesday, a day in which 14 states voted for their nominee in the primaries when he failed to win the nomination of any state (though he did win American Samoa).

Almost every candidate did very poorly in securing delegates from states and one by one they dropped out until only two horses remained in the race, Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders. Although Sanders started strong, the tides quickly changed and Biden surged into the lead off the back of the South Carolina primary and subsequent domination Super Tuesday vote. How? Well, Biden was already expected to have the highest approval out of all candidates even after he had lost several states to candidates like Buttigieg and Sanders. He also received many endorsements from candidates that dropped out as he's more moderate Sanders who describes himself as a “democratic socialist”.

The future of the Democratic primaries is uncertain given the current COVID-19 pandemic, which makes voting and debates with live audiences dangerous, but either way, despite Sanders’ significant support, it’s looking more and more likely that it will be Biden who challenges Trump in the presidential election later this year.

Written by Rivierenland

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced the
postponement of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic
Games

In the UEFA Champions League, many games have been played behind closed doors in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak before its inevitable postponement. In the round of 16 games that managed to be played, RB Leipzig defeated Tottenham, Atalanta defeated Valencia, PSG beat Dortmund, but Atletico is the biggest winner as they defeat reigning Champions League winner, Liverpool. The Europa League has also been postponed and the Euro 2020s will be held next year.

The Tokyo 2020 Olympics will be postponed to 2021 as the coronavirus takes down another major sporting event.

In the US, the NBA, NHL, and MLS have all suspended their seasons in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak. The MLB has delayed the start of the season and expects to play on a shortened season. The NFL will still schedule the draft but not in their planned Las Vegas venue.

Even college sports in the US aren’t spared as the NCAA decided to cancel all remaining men’s and women’s tournaments, including March Madness. Looks like we won’t have the chance to complete our brackets this year.

The first EuroNews sports column has been wacky considering that all sports competitions are being cancelled left and right due to the coronavirus. We will see in the coming months how all these leagues will be impacted, and I will continue to track all the developments in sporting leagues across the world.

Written by Outer Sparta

China
As one of the oldest civilisations, China has achieved a great number of things. One of the more impressive things China has produced is the Great Wall of China. This wall runs from the Pacific Ocean to a point 21,000 km into China and has stood in some form for 2,300 years.

China, as a large area of land crossing many different types of geographical region, has a diverse range of wildlife. Though the Chinese government can be criticized for many things and the country is not the greenest in the world, it cannot be criticized for its work on protecting these animals and plants with over 1,200 reserves created across the country. The nation is most famous for its Giant Panda which is exclusively found in the central mountains of the nation and nowhere else in the world.

The Great Wall of China

There are only three nations in the world entirely surrounded by just one country (Discounting those that also have a coastline, such as the Gambia) and two of those are both located entirely inside Italy’s borders, San Marino and the Vatican City, while the third, Lesotho, is located within South Africa. The Vatican was formerly the Papal States taking up most of Central Italy and has now shrunk down to become the smallest country in the world, located entirely within the borders of the city of Rome.

Central African Republic
Like South Africa, this nation’s flag breaks the generally accepted rule of not using more than 3 colours on your national flag, containing a total of 5; just 1 less than South Africa’s. This flag has been in use since 1958 and represents the four territories of French Equatorial Africa (Republic of Congo, Gabon, Chad and CAR) as well as France itself and symbolises their friendship as Francophone nations guided by France.

The country was briefly known as the Central African Empire from 1976-1979, when its president, Marshal Jean-Bédel Bokassa, a military dictator, declared himself Bokassa I, Emperor of Central Africa. He did not have much success however and was overthrown by David Dacko in late 1979 with help from France, who returned the nation to its republican roots.

Written by St Scarlett