Spain’s prime minister flew to the country’s North African enclave Tuesday to contain a migration crisis with neighboring Morocco after 6,000 migrants swam or walked over the border.  Spain deployed troops and extra police to repel crowds who were trying to get around security fences from Morocco into the tiny Spanish territory after a huge incursion of migrants the day before.   Videos emerged that appeared to show Moroccan soldiers opening security gates to let migrants through to the Spanish port city.  “This sudden arrival of irregular migrants is a serious crisis for Spain and Europe,” said Pedro Sanchez in a televised address to the nation before travelling to Ceuta and Melilla, another Spanish enclave bordering Morocco.   European Union leaders backed Spain, saying the mass incursion in Ceuta was a breach of the bloc’s borders.  European Commission Vice President Margaritis Schinas called for a “strong protection of our borders.”  Experts suggested this huge influx, which included entire families, was an attempt by Morocco to pressure Spain to alter its policy toward Western Sahara, the disputed territory to which Rabat lays claim.   Morocco and Spain have been mired in a diplomatic dispute over the presence in Spain of a Polisario Front leader, whose movement has fought for the independence of Western Sahara.  The leader, Brahim Ghali, is receiving treatment at a hospital in Logroño in northern Spain, after he was diagnosed with COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.    FILE – Brahim Ghali attends celebrations marking the 45th anniversary of the creation of the SARD, on Feb. 27, 2021, at a refugee camp, near Tindouf, Algeria.The Polisario Front fought a long war against Morocco to win the independence of the disputed Western Saharan territory, which was a Spanish colony until 1975.   Rabat claims the territory as part of Morocco partly as it contains important deposits of phosphates, but the Polisario Front has demanded an independence referendum.  Ignacio Cembrero, a Spanish journalist who writes frequently on Morocco, said Rabat had relaxed security measures on the border with Ceuta to try to force Madrid to change its stance on Western Sahara.  “The Moroccan foreign minister, Naser Burita, said in January that Rabat wanted Spain to change its policy to support Moroccan claims over Western Sahara. This is how it puts pressure on Madrid,” he told VOA.  Spain has long maintained a solution to the dispute can only come from an agreement brokered by the United Nations.  Moroccan Foreign Minister Naser Burita asked last week whether Spain wanted to “sacrifice relations with Morocco” by failing to inform Rabat of Ghali’s presence in Spain.    Analysts said it appeared Morocco was playing a familiar game by relaxing its border controls to prove a political point against its neighbor Spain.  “What has happened in Ceuta is another example of how Morocco plays with migration as a manner to pursue its own interests. The EU should not give ground faced with this pressure,” Estrella Galan, director of the non-profit Spanish Commission to Aid Refugees, told VOA.  Spain’s foreign minister, Arancha González Laya, dismissed claims the arrival of thousands of Moroccans in Ceuta was linked to the row over Ghali.  “I cannot speak for Morocco, but what they told us a few hours ago, this afternoon, is that this is not due to the disagreement over Ghali,” she told Cadena Ser, a Spanish radio station.  “Spain has been very clear and detailed about the (Ghali) case. It is simply a humanitarian issue.”  
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The International Energy Agency (IEA) issued a report Tuesday outlining what it calls a “viable but narrow” path to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by the year 2050, a plan that boldly calls for no new investment in fossil fuel projects and the end of the internal combustion engine by 2035.
 
The Paris-based agency’s report, “Net Zero by 2050: A Roadmap for the Global Energy Sector,” says current climate pledges by countries to achieve the net-zero goal “even if fully achieved would fall well short of what is required to bring global energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions to net zero by 2050” and limiting the global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius, the goal established by the Paris climate accords.
 
In a statement, IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said the report “shows the priority actions that are needed today to ensure the opportunity of net-zero emissions by 2050 — narrow but still achievable — is not lost.” The plan lays out more than 400 milestones to guide the global journey to net zero by 2050.  
 
They include no investment in new fossil fuel supply projects, and no further final investment decisions for new unabated coal plants; no sales of new internal combustion engine passenger cars by 2035; and for the global electricity sector to have already reached net-zero emissions by 2040.
 
The IEA plan requires the immediate and massive deployment of all available clean and efficient energy technologies, combined with a major global push to accelerate innovation. The pathway calls for annual additions of solar photovoltaic (PV) generation to reach 630 gigawatts by 2030, and those of wind power to reach 390 gigawatts. Together, that is four times the record level set in 2020. For solar PV, it is equivalent to installing the world’s current largest solar park roughly every day.
 
Birol said such a historic surge in clean energy investment would “create millions of new jobs” and lift global economic growth.
 
The report comes out with an eye toward the November global climate summit in Glasgow in six months, when world leaders will meet to outline climate measures.
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Following a lull in arrivals of migrants in Italy due to the pandemic, hundreds have now resumed risking their lives in search for a better future in Europe. As weather conditions improve and with the easing of COVID-19 restrictions in Italy, traffickers are taking advantage and overcrowding vessels with migrants from the Libyan coastline.
Rescue missions to save hundreds of migrants have resumed in the Mediterranean waters between Libya and the small Italian island of Lampedusa as calm seas and warmer temperatures have seen a significant rise in vessels attempting to make the crossing. 
  
Human traffickers are also taking advantage of a drop in COVID-19 infections and lifting of restrictions to travel between regions in Italy. The improving situation is raising concerns that the surge in migrant crossings will continue during the summer.   FILE – Migrants return to the Lampedusa reception center after they were unable to board quarantine ship GNV Azzurra due to strong winds, in Lampedusa, Italy, May 11, 2021.Aid workers aboard the German charity ship Sea Eye 4, which began its first mission to help migrants in distress at the beginning of this month, say the vessel has already rescued more than 400 people. They are calling on EU officials to give the ship access to a safe port. 
  
A spokeswoman on board the ship, Sophie Weidenhiller, says the migrants were from different African nations, some from Syria and Bangladesh, and were rescued in various operations. 
  
In one case it reached a boat after receiving a distress call but instead of finding the expected 50 migrants on board, it found the boat empty. Many migrants are attempting the crossing in vessels that are deemed far from seaworthy.   
 
“In less than 72 hours our crew was able to rescue more than 400 people in distress at sea. Among them we have pregnant women, we have children, we have babies, we have many unaccompanied minors and everybody aboard here is exhausted. And that is why we need a port of safety as soon as possible so that we can bring those people who have suffered so much to safety,” said Weidenhiller. 
  
The German charity has warned that the crew is nearing the limit of their capacity to care for its migrant passengers. It is still awaiting a response from the EU on its request for permission to dock as it heads towards Italy.    Malta refused it entry to its port. 
  
Commenting on the matter following the Maltese decision, Matteo Salvini, head of Italy’s right wing League party, said his country has a duty to defend its borders. 
  
The latest rescues come a week after more than 2,000 migrants landed on Lampedusa, overwhelming its reception center, which was then emptied so as to make space for new arrivals.   
 
Migrants have continued to arrive on the island.  
 
The Libyan coast guard has also been intercepting vessels and returning the migrants. 
U.N. and other agencies have said that over the past week they managed to take 1,000 migrants back to Libya. International Organization for Migration spokesman in Libya Safa Msehli said it provides support to the Libyan coast guard on the condition that no one is arbitrarily detained or otherwise subjected to human rights violations.  
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Spain faced a humanitarian and diplomatic crisis Tuesday after thousands of Moroccans took advantage of relaxed border controls in their nation to swim or paddle in inflatable boats onto European soil. By Tuesday morning, around 6,000 people had crossed the border into the Spanish city of Ceuta since the first arrivals began early Monday, the Spanish government said, including 1,500 thought to be teenagers. The city of 85,000 people lies in North Africa on the Mediterranean Sea, separated from Morocco by a double-wide, 10-meter (32-feet) fence. The sudden influx of migrants has deepened the diplomatic row between Rabat and Madrid in the wake of Spain’s decision to allow in for medical treatment the chief of a militant group that fights for the independence of Western Sahara. Morocco annexed the sprawling nation on the west coast of Africa in 1975. Migrants soaked with seawater still kept reaching Ceuta on Tuesday although in smaller numbers than the day before due to heightened vigilance on the Spanish side of the border, where additional police and military were deployed. “It’s such a strong invasion that we are not able to calculate the number of people that have entered,” said the president of Ceuta, an autonomous city of barely 20 square kilometers (7.7 square miles). “The army is in the border in a deterrent role, but there are great quantities of people on the Moroccan side waiting to enter,” Juan Jesús Vivas told Cadena SER radio. Vivas, a conservative, said the residents of Ceuta were in a state of “anguish, concern and fear.” He linked the sudden influx to Rabat’s shift on controlling migration after Spain gave compassionate assistance to Brahim Ghali, the head of the Polisario Front that has fought Morocco over control of Western Sahara. The Spanish government itself officially rejects the notion that Morocco is punishing Spain for a humanitarian move. Interior Minister Fernando Grande Marlaska said Tuesday that authorities had processed the return of 1,600 migrants by Tuesday morning and that the rest would follow soon, because Morocco and Spain signed an agreement three decades ago to return all those who swim into the territory. Many African migrants regard Ceuta and nearby Melilla, also a Spanish territory, as a gateway into Europe. In 2020, 2,228 chose to cross into the two enclaves by sea or by land, often risking injuries or death. The year before the figure peaked at 7,899, according to Spain’s Interior Ministry. On Tuesday, another 80 Africans also crossed into Melilla, 350 kilometers (218 miles) east of Ceuta on the North African coast, by jumping over the enclave’s double fence. 
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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has arrived in Reykjavik, Iceland, where he will join talks on climate change and take part in an Arctic Council Ministerial meeting.The State Department said Blinken will meet with Icelandic President Gudni Johannesson and Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir to discuss “U.S.-Icelandic priorities related to climate change, human rights, bilateral cooperation, and the Arctic.”Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov attends a news conference in Moscow, Russia, April 16, 2021.On the sidelines of the Arctic Council Ministerial meeting, Blinken will hold his first face-to-face encounter with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Wednesday. The meeting comes at a time of heightened tensions between the United States and Russia and will set the stage for a planned summit next month between U.S. President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin.The State Department said the meeting between Blinken and Lavrov is an opportunity to discuss building a “more predictable relationship with Russia” and areas of mutual interest. Before traveling to Iceland, Blinken was in Denmark where he held talks about economic, security and climate issues, as well as the Biden administration’s ongoing push to boost ties with U.S. allies. “Looking forward to deepening our partnership on mutual goals, including combating the climate crisis, enhancing defense cooperation, ensuring energy security and partnering in the Arctic,” Blinken said after meeting with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen.Great visit today with @Statsmin Danish Prime Minister Frederiksen. Looking forward to deepening our partnership on mutual goals including combatting the climate crisis, enhancing defense cooperation, ensuring energy security, and partnering in the Arctic. pic.twitter.com/g5D9tRVGUn— Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) May 17, 2021 After the meeting, Frederiksen said the Biden administration is taking a different approach from the Trump administration.”That means a desire for cooperation around the Arctic region, where changes are taking place,” she said.Danish Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod said, “Today, America is back. … And let me tell you, America has been missed.”Blinken said the United States has a determination “to reinvigorate its alliances and partnerships and also our engagement with international institutions.”The Biden administration has put a renewed emphasis on international organizations, including rejoining the World Health Organization, the Paris climate agreement and reengaging with the U.N. Human Rights Council.The top U.S. diplomat Monday also had an audience with Queen Margrethe II and toured a quantum materials lab at the University of Copenhagen. His trip has been overshadowed by the violence between Israelis and Palestinians, which forced Blinken to cancel a scheduled event Monday to make calls related to the situation.
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About 3,000 Moroccans, a third of whom were presumed to be minors according to Spanish authorities, swam and used inflatable boats Monday to cross into Ceuta, the largest number of migrant arrivals in a single day into Spain’s enclave in northern Africa.A young male drowned attempting the crossing and others, including toddlers, were rescued suffering from hypothermia, health authorities said.The influx followed the souring of Spain’s relations with Morocco, its southern partner and key ally on controlling migration flows, over Madrid’s decision to allow the leader of a militant group fighting for independence from Morocco to receive hospital treatment.Ceuta and nearby Melilla are regarded as a steppingstone into Europe for African migrants. Hundreds of them risk injuries or death every year while trying to jump over fences, hide inside vehicles or swim around breakwaters that extend several meters into the Mediterranean Sea.But 3,000 people making the crossing in just one day strained police and emergency workers in the city of 84,000. The figure is nearly three times the total arrivals so far this year in the two Spanish territories and more than in 2020, when 2,228 people arrived by both land and sea.Footage published by El Faro de Ceuta, a local newspaper, showed people climbing the rocky wall of the breakwaters and running across the Tarajal beach, in the southeastern end of the city.Other videos verified by The Associated Press showed long rows of young men lining up at the gates of a warehouse managed by the local Red Cross, waiting to get registered by Spanish Civil Guard officers.Spain was deploying 200 more law enforcement officers to Ceuta, including anti-riot police and officers specialized in border control to speed up the return of those who arrived, the Interior Ministry said in a statement late Monday. Spain doesn’t grant Moroccans asylum status. It only allows unaccompanied migrant children to legally remain in the country under the government’s supervision.The influx of Moroccans came at the end of the Muslim celebrations of Ramadan, when many residents in Europe return home after visiting relatives in the northern African country. It also followed Madrid’s decision to host Brahim Ghali, the head of the Polisario Front that disputes Rabat’s claim on Western Sahara, who is recovering from COVID-19 in a hospital in northern Spain.The Spanish government, which allowed Ghali to enter the country under a disguised identity, has justified its decision to give him shelter on humanitarian grounds.The Moroccan foreign ministry said last month that Madrid’s move was “inconsistent with the spirit of partnership and good neighborliness.” In May, the ministry also said that Spain’s move would have “consequences.”Mohammed Ben Aisa, head of the Northern Observatory for Human Rights, a nonprofit group that works with migrants in northern Morocco, said that the influx was a mix of the seasonal attempts to reach Europe, the arrival of good weather and the recent tensions between Rabat and Madrid.”The information that we have is that the Moroccan authorities reduced the usually heavy militarization of the coasts, which come after Morocco’s foreign ministry statement about Spain’s hosting of Brahim Ghali,” Ben Aisa told The Associated Press.”The area is heavily monitored by security forces, and attempts there, whether to climb the fence or swim, are usually stopped,” he added.Spain has strong but complicated diplomatic ties with its southern neighbor. The two countries often cite their decades-old cooperation on controlling migration flows, which includes recurring payments to Rabat from Spain and the European Union as well as training to Morocco’s police and army, as the blueprint for the EU’s migration policies in the Central and Eastern Mediterranean.Cooperation with Moroccan intelligence on fighting extremism is also key for Europe.Asked by reporters whether the government of Rabat was deliberately relaxing controls on departing migrants, Spain’s foreign minister simply said she had no information.”We are not aware,” Arancha González Laya said before concluding brief media remarks. The ministry later declined to further elaborate.In a statement, the interior minister said that Spain “has been working tirelessly on a migration policy that concerns the whole of the European Union and Morocco, the country of origin of the people who have arrived swimming today.”A spokesman with the Spanish government’s delegation in Ceuta said that the crossings began at 2 a.m. in the border area of Ceuta known as Benzú and were then followed by a few dozen people near the eastern beach of Tarajal.The daylight didn’t stop the crossings from the nearby Moroccan town of Fnideq, as entire families with children swam or boarded inflatable boats, said the spokesman, who wasn’t authorized to be identified by name in media reports.A 10-meter-high (32-foot-high) double fence surrounds the eight kilometers (five miles) of Ceuta’s southwestern border with Morocco, with the rest of the tiny territory facing the Strait of Gibraltar and the European mainland across the sea.Several gates along the perimeter have been closed for over a year as Morocco has banned all travel by land in an attempt to avoid coronavirus infections. The decision has left jobless many locals who rely on work in Ceuta and Melilla or cross-border trade for a living.More than 100 young Moroccans also swam into the Spanish territory at the end of April. Authorities said most of them were returned to their country in less than 48 hours after being confirmed as adults.
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Britain lifted many of its coronavirus lockdown restrictions Monday as infection rates have fallen to their lowest level since August. But as Henry Ridgwell reports from London, there are growing concerns over the spread of a new mutation of the virus first seen in India.Camera: Henry Ridgwell    
 
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German Health Minister Jens Spahn announced Monday the nation would end its COVID-19 vaccination prioritizing and open inoculations to all adults who want them, effective June 7.Speaking to reporters in Berlin, Spahn said the current system of prioritization, in which the most vulnerable people — usually the elderly — are eligible for vaccines first, will have run its course by then. He said 70% of those above the age of 60 had received at least one shot — and about one quarter of them is fully vaccinated.A student tests himself on the coronavirus with a rapid test at the Freiherr vom Stein school in Bonn, western Germany, on May 17, 2021.He said 40 million vaccine doses have been given and around nine million people are fully vaccinated in the country of 83 million. But Spahn said the pace was accelerating and by the end of the month he expects about 40% of all people in Germany will have received at least one shot.Spahn defended the prioritization of the elderly and other vulnerable groups as “a moral obligation” and epidemiologically necessary. He said, “That was not bureaucracy; it has been saving lives.”Spahn also asked for patience, saying not all those seeking shots will be vaccinated immediately as of June 7 or even in the month of June. But he promised the vaccination campaign will continue as planned and that everyone in Germany who wants to be inoculated will have access to shots by the end of the summer.Spahn said the special COVID-19 measures implemented last month have worked, with the latest figures from the Robert Koch Institute’s Department of Infectious Diseases indicating the national infection rate has dropped below the key benchmark of 100 cases per 100,000 people over the past week. 
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France announced Monday that it will grant Sudan a $1.5 billion loan to help the north African country pay off its debt to the International Monetary Fund.Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire made the announcement in Paris at the start of an international summit hosted by President Emmanuel Macron. The loan aimed at helping Sudan erase its total external debt of $50 billion and attract foreign investment to rebuild its economy. Sudan’s economy was shattered by decades of autocratic rule of former President Omar al-Bashir. Al-Bashir was ousted in 2019 by the military after a popular uprising and his regime replaced with a transitional civilian-military council.Khartoum is $1.3 billion in arrears to the IMF, while about half of its debts are with members of the Paris Club, a group of major creditor countries which helps other countries come up with an easier method of paying its debts.  
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Doubts are mounting about the efficacy of Russia’s Sputnik vaccine. Drug regulators in the Czech Republic and Brazil have withheld approval and counterparts in Slovakia have also expressed doubts.   FILE – The exterior of the European Medicines Agency is seen in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Dec. 18, 2020.European Union regulators are still assessing Sputnik for its effectiveness and safety but a former executive director of the European Medicines Agency, EMA, told the Politico.eu news site that objections raised about Sputnik by Brazil’s regulatory authority, Anvisa, would likely be taken seriously by their counterparts in Brussels. “It’s a very mature authority,” said Rasi, who added that its flagging of quality and safety issues are worrisome. Anvisa announced on April 28 that it was withholding approval because of “flaws in product development” which deviate from the quality standards recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).  The authority also noted “an absence or insufficiency of quality control, safety and efficacy data.” It raised concerns also with the vaccine’s efficacy for people “with low immunity and respiratory problems, among other health problems.” The Slovak medicines authority has also expressed worries about quality control and insufficient data. Irena Storová, head of SÚKL, told Slovakia’s Radiožurnál recently that the regulator received “only a fraction of the documentation that is submitted by default for the registration or assessment of a drug or medicine.” FILE – A scientist works inside a laboratory of the Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology during the testing of a coronavirus vaccine, in Moscow, Russia, Aug. 6, 2020. (Russian Direct Investment Fund / Handout via Reuters)Sputnik was the first coronavirus vaccine to be registered, albeit only by the Russians and not by an authoritative international regulator. Funded by the state and developed by the Gamaleya Research Institute in Moscow, the rapid Russian approval last year in August of the vaccine, which was named for the satellite from half a century ago, was met with skepticism in the broader international scientific community.  Experts expressed their disapproval of Russian authorities for approving distribution before the completion of trials, suggesting the rapidity of authorization was done so as to be able to tout Russian scientific prowess.   Europeans Divided Over Sputnik Diplomacy COVID vaccine diplomacy is proving as divisive as vaccine nationalism — especially when it comes to Russia’s Sputnik Doubts about the vaccine’s efficacy dissipated somewhat last year within the Western scientific community due to a study by Russian scientists published by the authoritative British medical journal The Lancet, which suggested the vaccine has a 91.6% efficacy rate against COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus.   Geopolitical motives 
Nonetheless, some Central European and Baltic governments have been trading barbs with the Kremlin for what they see as a “Sputnik diplomatic offensive” designed to foment political splits in the Western alliance.FILE – Workers take care of the shipment of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine at the airport in Caracas, Venezuela, March 29, 2021.Officials in Kyiv and Warsaw identify geopolitical motives behind Russia’s touting of the vaccine, especially in light of what they say has been a Russian disinformation campaign casting doubt on Western-developed vaccines. Russian officials say politics is behind Western skepticism of Sputnik. Lithuania’s prime minister has labeled the vaccine “another hybrid weapon” for the Kremlin to wield to try to “divide and rule” Europe. Ingrida Šimonytė says altruism isn’t what motivates the aggressive marketing by Russia of Sputnik. “Sputnik comes packed with many layers of propaganda and even not-hidden ambition to divide the EU countries and their partners in the South and in the East,” she said earlier this year. Facing shortfalls for Western vaccines amid the EU’s contentious rollout, other European states, though, started to buy Sputnik with Hungary first up followed by Serbia. Austria struck a deal and officials in Berlin and in several German regions expressed enthusiasm for the Russian vaccine. But with a boost in supplies of Western vaccines, appetite for Sputnik has dissipated and last week Germany’s Bild newspaper reported that the deal to sell the Sputnik V vaccine to Germany is dead.   Meanwhile, outside Europe, the Russian vaccine has been bought by more than 50 countries including Argentina, Mexico, and Turkey.  India, where the pandemic has spiraled out of control, has signed a deal for nearly 400 million doses.     Growing doubts But scientific doubts about Sputnik remerged last week when The Lancet published a paper by a team of scientists drawn from Europe, the U.S. and Russia questioning the 2020 study of the vaccine the medical journal published and flagging significant discrepancies in the data from the phase two and three trials conducted by the Gamaleya Research Institute, the vaccine’s developer. “Restricted access to data hampers trust in research,” the scientists said in last week’s study.  “Access to data underpinning study findings is imperative to check and confirm the findings claimed. It is even more serious if there are apparent errors and numerical inconsistencies in the statistics and results presented,” they said. The team included Enrico Bucci of Temple University in the U.S., Gowri Gopalakrishna from Amsterdam University and Raffaele Calogero from the University of Turin.  In reply, scientists from the Gamaleya Research Institute say data discrepancies occurred because of typing errors and they point to the approval of Sputnik by 51 countries showing they have been “fully transparent and comply with all regulatory requirements.” FILE – Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a video conference meeting with members of the Security Council at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence outside Moscow, Russia, May 14, 2021. (Sputnik/Sergey Ilyin/Kremlin via Reuters)Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday during a video conference praised Russia’s vaccine, saying it as “reliable as a Kalashnikov assault rifle.”  Sputnik isn’t the only non-Western vaccine prompting reservations. Despite approval by WHO of China’s Sinopharm, some scientific researchers have expressed worries about the lack of data on that vaccine’s efficacy, too, and likewise with Sinovac, another Chinese vaccine.FILE – Health officials guard Zimbabwe’s donation of 200,000 Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine doses, which arrived at Mugabe International Airport in Harare on Feb. 15, 2021. The vaccines were a donation by Beijing. (Columbus Mavhunga/VOA)According to researchers outside China, Sinovac’s efficacy rate is around 50%, and Sinopharm’s 79%, much lower than that of the rates for U.S.-developed vaccines like Moderna and Pfizer, both of which are above 90%. 
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Germany’s Health Minister Jens Spahn said Friday the nation’s average COVID-19 infection rate over the past week has fallen below 100 per 100,000 residents for the first time in two months, a key threshold for lifting restrictions in the European nation.
Speaking to reporters while visiting a vaccine storage and distribution center in Quakenbruck, a city in Lower Saxony state, Spahn said the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases reported the national average infection rate fell to 96.5 per 100,000, its lowest level since March 20.  
He also said Germany’s vaccination program is gaining speed, with almost 36 percent of the population having received at least one shot, and more than 10 percent fully vaccinated. He said the nation set a record for vaccinations on Wednesday, with 1.35 million delivered.
A COVID-19 infection rate of 100 infections per 100,000 people is used as the threshold for imposing a nationwide “emergency brake,” imposing restrictions that include night-time curfews and limits on private gatherings. Should cases remain below this level, restrictions can be relaxed.
But Health Minister Spahn urged caution, saying care must be taken “to secure what has been achieved and not want too much too quickly, because that could backfire.” He said not all regions are rebounding evenly. He urged regional officials to wait for rates to fall below 50 per 100,000 before opening restaurants for indoor dining.  
Spahn also said that, as the weather is warming and people are thinking about travel, they should prioritize going to areas with low infection rates.
Last month, the German parliament approved temporary emergency powers for the federal government, allowing it to implement nationwide restrictions like curfews in response to a third wave of infections that was sweeping the nation. 
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The decision by India and the European Union to restart stalled talks on a free trade pact comes amid growing unease on both sides about China’s rise, according to analysts.   
 
The decision was announced following a summit of EU leaders in Portugal last week, which Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi joined via video conference.    
   
The meeting was held days after the EU suspended efforts to ratify an ambitious investment agreement with China following tensions that have grown between the 27-member bloc and Beijing about its treatment of the Uyghur population in Xinjiang province.   
 
Although reviving trade negotiations that were abandoned by India and Europe in 2013 will not be easy, the move is being seen as part of efforts by both sides to build closer ties in what analysts call a new “geopolitical and geo-economic environment.”   
 
“The kind of questions that have been raised recently about China have propelled Europe and India to look at each other with a different set of priorities,” according to Harsh Pant, head of Strategic Studies at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi and Professor of International Relations at King’s College, London.   
   
“Also post the pandemic, many countries are looking closely at the issue of overreliance on China in trade and Europe, in particular, has been over dependent on China. And from India’s perspective, the West is going to be a very important partner as it re-evaluates every aspect of its foreign policy from the standpoint of the China equation,” says Pant.   
 
India has been moving to build deeper partnerships with countries like the United States, Japan and Australia following an eight-month military standoff with China along their disputed Himalayan borders. Although the standoff eased in March, tensions are still running high over several undemarcated stretches where both countries have deployed tens of thousands of troops.   
 
Both India and the European Union struck an optimistic note after the summit. Indian foreign ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup said there was a strong economic rationale for relaunching trade talks as the European Union was India’s largest trading partner in 2019-20 with bilateral trade of about $ 90 billion. President of the European Council Charles Michel called it a “new important chapter” in ties.  
 
“We agreed to resume negotiations for a balanced, ambitious, comprehensive and mutually beneficial trade agreement which would respond to the current challenges,” according to a joint statement by both sides.   
 
A study by the European Parliament last year before Britain’s departure from the bloc had estimated the potential benefits of a trade deal with India for the EU at around 10 billion dollars. India is also due to start trade negotiations with Britain later this year.    
 
The bid to deepen ties with Europe goes beyond trade – a “connectivity partnership” launched by the two sides that aims at building joint infrastructure projects in third countries including Africa, Central Asia and the Indo-Pacific is also seen as a pushback against China’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative.    
 
However, hammering out a trade deal will be challenging with some analysts warning that India has turned even more protectionist in recent years.   
 
India and the EU had halted seven years of negotiations in 2013 after hitting a roadblock over key differences – Europe wanted India to lower levies on its major exports, such as wines, spirits and auto components, while New Delhi wanted greater access for Indian professionals to work in Europe.   
 
“India is in a worse situation than in 2013 when trade talks were abandoned. Last year the government’s signal to industry was that they will be protected if they ramp up domestic production,” points out Biswajit Dhar, a professor at New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University and an expert on international trade relations. “Now the question is whether they can accommodate Europe’s demands to open up the market. It’s going to be a tall ask – for example the Indian automobile industry which is one of the country’s important industries will resist any suggestion of tariff cuts.”   
 
But navigating the trade deal with Europe will be a key test for New Delhi as it seeks alternatives to China. In 2019 it abandoned a China-led regional trade pact – the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, after it failed to address Delhi’s concerns over market access.  
 
“For India it is a moment to underscore its credentials as a credible economic player because there are lots of questions about India’s ability to finalize trade deals,” points out Pant. “It has to show that it can walk the talk and can move forward on trade and economic matters with countries with which it has a strategic convergence.”  
 
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After dark months struggling with the coronavirus pandemic, Europe is finally hitting its stride, with vaccinations and economies picking up, countries emerging from lockdowns, and even opening their borders to foreign tourists.For Maison Nomade, the recent journey under France’s lockdown has been tough.Now, this vegetarian restaurant in northern Paris is finally reopening. Staff members idled by the pandemic are scrambling to get things ready.Staff at Maison Nomade restaurant prepare for its reopening next Wednesday. The EU has notched up the region’s growth predictions for this year. (Lisa Bryant/VOA)“It’s been pretty hard to be closed for that long, but we’re very excited, a little bit stressed, and we’re really looking forward to opening the restaurant again,” said Allison Lamotte, the restaurant’s co-owner.”And we hope this time it will last forever, and we won’t have to close again, because it’s been hard.”That’s a sentiment shared by many other French businesses, as coronavirus restrictions start easing. Next Wednesday, outdoor terraces of restaurants and bars are reopening for the first time in months — although at half capacity — along with museums and shops.Other European countries are reopening even faster … sparking celebrations in Spain … and preparations in Greece to welcome vaccinated international tourists starting Saturday.Parisians walk past the Louvre Museum which will soon be open to visitors. (Lisa Bryant/VOA)That’s a big change from earlier this year. As the United States and Britain saw COVID-19 cases fall as they ramped up their vaccination campaigns, European Union numbers kept growing.Vaccine delivery delays left EU governments struggling to put shots into citizens’ arms, sometimes fighting over supplies. The 19-member eurozone slipped into a double-dip recession.With the vaccine bottleneck easing, Brussels predicts it will meet its goal of inoculating 70% of European adults this summer. EU economic growth forecasts also are also rosier — at 4.2% this year, up from previous estimates.Overall, says Rosa Balfour, director of the Carnegie Europe policy institute, things are looking better.“The economy is opening up — this has been partly a consequence of the acceleration of the vaccine drive, but also because some Mediterranean states in particular have been pushing very hard to get tourism back on track,” Balfour said.The EU hopes to facilitate travel within the bloc through special COVID-19 certificates for citizens who are vaccinated, recovered from the virus or test negative for it.Christophe Decloux, Managing Director of the Paris Region Tourism Board, is confident Americans and other tourists will be back. But it might take time. (Lisa Bryant/VOA)France’s international borders are set to reopen June 9. But reclaiming its spot as the world’s leading tourist destination may take time. Christophe Decloux, managing director of the Paris Region Tourism Board, says the Paris area alone lost 33 million visitors last year—more than two-thirds of its usual numbers.“Tourists will come back — I don’t know how many and how much time — but at the end, the Eiffel Tower always attracts,” Decloux said. “But at the end, the big issue is the business travelers. And why should they choose Paris rather than London, Berlin or Milan or whatever—that’s the issue.”The message to travelers, he says: France is a safe destination. People here are hoping that stays true.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
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After dark months struggling with the coronavirus pandemic, Europe is finally hitting its stride with vaccinations and economies picking up and countries emerging from lockdowns and reopening their borders to foreign tourists. But as Lisa Bryant reports from Paris, there is still a lot of uncertainty.
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Hungary has announced plans to open a branch of a Chinese University in Budapest. Critics fear the development — the first of its kind in Europe — will be used by Beijing to spread Chinese Communist Party propaganda and could pose a threat to national security.   The so-called “Student City” will be built on the site of a former wholesale market outside the nation’s capital, with its centerpiece a branch of the prestigious Shanghai-based Fudan University.   Hungary said it will raise the standard of higher education, offer courses to 6,000 students from Hungary, China and further afield, while bringing Chinese investment and research to the country.
For China, it’s a significant milestone, said professor Steve Tsang, director of the SOAS China Institute at the University of London. “Until relatively recently, China was importing foreign universities onto Chinese soil, having branches in China. Now, they are exporting a Chinese university branch on European soil, a member of the European Union. This is, I think, tremendously important from their perspective in how it shows that China has risen,” Tsang told VOA.  
   FILE – A view of the site where the construction of a top Chinese university, the Fudan’s campus, is planned, in the 9th district of Budapest, Hungary, Apr. 23, 2021.Two years ago, Hungary’s famous Central European University, which is backed by Hungarian-born, U.S.-based financier George Soros, was effectively forced out of the country through changes to education law and has since relocated to Vienna.Hungary’s government accuses Soros of political interference in the country, which he denies.
Budapest Mayor Gergely Karacsony, a member of the opposition Dialogue for Hungary Party, said Hungarians are being betrayed.   “Let’s put the two [universities] next to each other,” he said. “There was something which has offered an open education, did not cost a penny for Hungarian taxpayers, was a well-established university in Hungary and was exiled. And now, the government brings in another one which represents the ideology of the [Chinese] Communist Party and costs the Hungarian taxpayers billions,” he told The Associated Press.   Leaked government documents published by the Hungarian investigative journalism organization Direkt36 estimate the cost at $1.8 billion, which is more than Hungary spent on its entire higher education system in 2019. The documents suggest most of the funding will come from a Chinese bank loan, and construction will be carried out using mostly Chinese materials and labor.   FILE – A man sits front of the building of the Central European University, a school founded by U.S. financier George Soros, in Budapest, Hungary, Apr. 9, 2018.Fudan ranks among the top 100 universities in the world. Its expansion into Europe is part of Beijing’s efforts to control the narrative on China, Tsang said.   “When we are dealing with the humanities and social sciences side of the curriculum, it is clear that the Communist Party will keep control of it. It was only in the last two years that Fudan University changed clearly its instructions on its relationship with the [Chinese] party state, now clearly declaring that its first mission is not to uphold academic integrity but to follow the leadership of the party,” Tsang said.   Hungary’s government has pursued a strategy it calls “Eastern Opening,” seeking increased cooperation and trade with countries such as China and Russia. It has taken a $2 billion loan from China’s Exim Bank to build a railway line between Budapest and Serbia’s capital, Belgrade, as part of China’s global Belt and Road initiative.   Hungary is also the only country in the European Union to have approved the Chinese-made “Sinopharm” COVID-19 vaccine.   Karacsony is among many who fear the Fudan University development could pose a threat to national security through Chinese espionage. “While the Hungarian government visibly enjoys the benefits of European Union membership — since, for example, it will receive an astronomical amount of EU support in the coming months — it is meanwhile a kind of advanced bastion of eastern great powers,” he said. FILE – Local district mayor Krisztina Baranyi walks across the site where the construction of a top Chinese university, the Fudan’s campus, is planned, in the 9th district of Budapest, Hungary, April 23, 2021.In an email to VOA, a Hungarian government spokesperson said, “According to the prestigious QS World University Ranking, Fudan is the 34th best university in the world. … The Ministry of Innovation and Technology of Hungary and the Chinese Ministry of Education concluded an interministerial agreement finalized in February this year to support Fudan University in establishing a world-class, research-oriented, multidisciplinary university in Budapest. “From George Soros to President Obama, a lot of people have given lectures at Fudan University, and it is one of the best universities in the world that will not be engaged in ideological education but will provide economic courses,” the spokesperson said.   The EU has yet to officially respond to the university plans. Meanwhile, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas criticized Hungary Monday for what he called an “absolutely incomprehensible” decision to block an EU statement criticizing Beijing for the crackdown on the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong.   “I think everybody can work out for themselves what the reasons are, because there are good relations between China and Hungary,” Maas told reporters, following a meeting of the EU’s Foreign Affairs Council. In a statement, the U.S. Embassy in Budapest expressed concerns over the plans to open a branch of Fudan University in Hungary, “given Beijing’s proven track record of using academic institutions to advance a malign influence agenda and stifle intellectual freedom.”  The Fudan University branch is expected to be completed by 2024. 
 
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The Champions League final between Manchester City and Chelsea on May 29 has been moved from Istanbul to Porto to allow English fans to travel under COVID-19 restrictions, European soccer’s governing body UEFA said on Thursday.
The final was scheduled for Istanbul’s Ataturk Olympic Stadium, but Turkey was last week put on Britain’s travel ‘red list’, meaning that no English fans would be able to attend the game. It will now be held in FC Porto’s Estadio do Dragao.
UEFA said that each club would receive 6,000 tickets which are expected to go on sale from today. The final capacity for the match has yet to be confirmed.
There had been discussions over moving the final to London’s Wembley Stadium but UEFA said that despite “exhaustive efforts on the part of the (English) Football Association and the authorities, it was not possible to achieve the necessary exemptions from UK quarantine arrangements.”
“I think we can all agree that we hope never to experience a year like the one we have just endured,” said UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin.
“Fans have had to suffer more than twelve months without the ability to see their teams live and reaching a Champions League final is the pinnacle of club football.
“To deprive those supporters of the chance to see the match in person was not an option and I am delighted that this compromise has been found,” he added.
Portugal was placed on the UK government’s “green list” from May 17, which means fans of the English clubs will be free to travel to the game.
The country is in the last phase of easing a lockdown and expects to lift travel restrictions from May 17.
Turkish Football Federation officials told Reuters on Wednesday they expected to host the 2023 Champions League which would be part of the Republic’s centenary celebrations
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A joyful Pope Francis greeted a group of about 300 faithful in a Vatican courtyard Wednesday as he resumed his in-person weekly general audience with members of the public for the first time in six months. The COVID-19 pandemic shut down the pope’s public audiences last year as the pandemic swept through Italy. He instead taped his weekly message in a Vatican library. He attempted to resume them again in September, only to be forced back into the library when infection rates rose in November. Pope Francis holds the weekly general audience while coronavirus disease restrictions are eased at the Vatican, May 12, 2021.The crowd of about 300 cheered as the pope stepped out of a car that drove him into San Damaso Courtyard at the Vatican. He removed his mask and smiled and waved at the social-distanced group, all of whom had their temperatures checked as they entered the area. As he made his way to the front of the courtyard, the pope greeted a baby, signed a book and put on a red knit Filipino hat given to him by an audience member. In his opening remarks, the pope told the audience how happy he was to be back, face to face, with them. “I will tell you something — it is not nice to speak in front of nothing, to a camera. It is not nice,” he said. Later in the day, he held a private audience with German Foreign Minister Heiko Mass. The 84-year-old pope has been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, as have all residents of the Vatican. 
 
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Twenty-three people remain hospitalized Wednesday in the Russian city of Kazan following a school shooting that killed nine people, seven of whom were children.  The attack occurred Tuesday morning when a gunman opened fire on a school there.”We have lost seven children … four boys and three girls,” Rustam Minnikhanov, the president of the Republic of Tatarstan, told state TV, according to Reuters.Authorities have said all 23 wounded remain in stable condition and at least eight — three adults and five children — will be transferred to Moscow for further treatment.Men carry a coffin with the body of Elvira Ignatieva, a teacher who was killed in a shooting at a school on Tuesday, in Kazan, Russia, May 12, 2021.Russian officials have promised to pay 1 million rubles to each of the families of those killed and said the payments will be wired by the end of day Wednesday.Wednesday was declared a day of mourning in Tatarstan, the region where Kazan is the capital.The attacker has been identified as a 19-year-old and has been arrested. No details were given by authorities regarding a motive.Russian media has said the gunman was a former student at the school, who called himself “a god” on his Telegram messaging account and promised to “kill a large amount of biomass” on the morning of the shooting. Russian lawmaker Alexander Khinshtein said on Telegram that the suspect received a permit for a shotgun less than two weeks ago, and the school he targeted had no security besides a panic button.Attacks on schools are rare in Russia, and Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the head of the country’s National Guard to revise regulations on the types of weapons available for civilian use.  
 
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German Health Minister Jens Spahn said Wednesday the nation is prepared to roll out a digital “immunity app” to show proof of vaccination for Germans by the end of June.
 
Spahn told reporters the digital certificate is designed to allow people to more easily prove they have been vaccinated and travel to different areas and countries. He said all the standards, interfaces and “technical terms” for the certificate have been agreed to, and after regional testing is complete next month, he expects it to be ready for distribution.
 
The health minister said the goal is for the certificate to be compatible with the certification system currently being developed and debated by the European Union.
 
“If we manage to do this for the EU in the coming weeks, then we’ll likely set a global benchmark,” Spahn said, noting that no other countries have agreed to a system at the national level.
 
Tuesday, the European Parliament began discussing how the certificate could be used. While EU officials want it to allow unconditional entry to member states, some members are balking at surrendering the power to control their own borders.  
 
Spahn said the good news is that COVID-19 infection rates have been dropping for all age groups throughout the country and that vaccinations continue at a steady pace, with at least one-third of the German population having received at least one shot and about 10% fully vaccinated.
 
Speaking at the same news briefing, Robert Koch Institute for Infectious Diseases (RKI) President Lothar Wieler told reporters that schoolchildren and young adults remain the group with the highest infection rates, with over 150 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people.
 
RKI reports that as of Tuesday, Germany’s national average infection rate was 115 per 100,000 people.
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An independent panel released a report Wednesday saying the coronavirus pandemic was a “preventable disaster,” exacerbated by a slow and weak World Health Organization (WHO) and lack of global political leadership.
The panel, formed to examine the cause of and response to the pandemic, said that while there had been years of warnings about the threat of pandemics, initial signs of the threat from clinicians in Wuhan, China were not acted on. It said coordinated, global leadership was absent, and global tensions undermined efforts by international, multilateral institutions to take cooperative action.  
The panel also concluded that the international threat warning could have been declared at least a week earlier than it was on January 30, 2020.
Close to 160 million cases have been recorded globally, along with more than 3.3 million deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University’s Coronavirus Resource Center.
The independent panel faulted countries worldwide for their “wait and see” approach, rather than enacting aggressive containment strategies that might have slowed or prevented the crisis. The group also criticized restrictive international health laws that hindered the WHO’s response.
The independent panel was formed last year by WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at the request of the organization’s membership. Former Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark led the panel.
In its final report, the panel made a series of recommendations, such as creating a global health threats council through the United Nations. It would include heads of state, giving the WHO more power and financial independence and have it work with the World Trade Organization with vaccine-producing countries and manufacturers to quickly reach deals to boost the world’s global supply of coronavirus shots.
The panel also suggested that Tedros, WHO’s current director-general, should be limited to a single seven-year term. As it stands, the WHO chief is elected to a five-year term that can be renewed once.
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Paris begins reopening next week, bringing relief to residents missing its long-shuttered shops, museums, theaters and cafes that make France’s iconic capital so special. Not to mention something more basic—easily accessible toilets. Cecile Briand ducks into a small cement building, tucked inside a northern Paris square. The toilet she’s inspecting is a bit dirty, but no nasty surprises—nothing a little tissue can’t fix. Number one advice walking this city: always bring toilet paper.  Briand is a writer and artist. Also possibly this capital’s best resource on restrooms. Her guidebook Ou Faire Pipi a Paris? — or Where to Pee in Paris — is now in its second edition.   She earned her expertise firsthand— spending hours on the streets researching a separate Lonely Planet guide on Paris walks. Discovering its hidden and not-so-hidden toilets, she says, is another way of discovering the city.Briand checks out a restroom in a small square and pronounces it “correct.” (VOA/Lisa Bryant)Some of Briand’s top picks include the 5th-floor restrooms at the Galeries Lafayette department store —over a terrace with a stunning view of the capital. There’s also the red-carpeted Drouot auction house, and Josephine Baker swimming pool on the Seine River.  Lockdown has shuttered these and many other places — like this public library we pass by.  For the desperate — and less choosy — there are always the city’s 435 sanisettes, elegant-looking steel structures that—despite their automatic cleaning— aren’t always so elegant inside.  Peeing in Paris has been problematic long before coronavirus. The city hall has long been at war against what it calls ‘wild pipi’ — mostly by men — in public spaces. Residents and tourists mocked the environmentally friendly urinals it set up a few years ago— and this public service announcement featuring actors singing through toilet seats. Meanwhile, critics recently launched an online campaign hash tagged #saccageaparis, or “trashed Paris,” blaming the municipal government, fairly or unfairly, for unkempt streets.   Pere Lachaise cemetery, the next stop on Briand’s tour, offers a respite from the controversy. It’s here Frederic Chopin, Honore de Balzac, Jim Morrison and many other famous people are buried. Equally important is its restroom in a little chalet. Visitors Elena and Rosa Marie, from the northern city of Reims, are hunting for the entrance.One of the restrooms at the Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris. (VOA/Lisa Bryant)Elena says it’s very complicated spending time outside in big cities these days. Either you hold off peeing, or you stay at home.  The lockdown has brought Briand’s guide more media attention. She’s now waiting to assess its impact on the city’s toilet landscape — before working on the third edition of Where to to Pee in Paris.  
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Under Kremlin orders, the U.S. Embassy has stopped employing Russians, forcing the embassy to cut its consular staff by 75% and limit many of its services. The order went into effect on Wednesday, bringing the sharply deteriorating U.S.-Russia relationship to an intensely personal level. Because of the cuts, the embassy can offer only very limited services, such as considering “life-and-death” visa applications. That leaves Russian businessmen, exchange students and romantic partners adrift because they won’t be able to obtain visas. Even Americans will be unable to register their newborns or renew their passports. For Anastasia Kuznetsova, a 20-year-old engaged to marry a Californian, it’s a crushing blow. She had already spent about two years seeking a fiancee’s visa. The notoriously laborious process for Russians to get U.S. visas had already been slowed by COVID-19. “I felt destroyed, much more depressed than I was before,” said Kuznetsova, who last saw her fiance in January on a trip to Mexico. “We have no idea when it’s going to continue working and if we will be able to see each other even during these years.” Thomas H V Anthony, an American living in Russia, was already frustrated because of a delay in registering the birth of his daughter, a record of the child’s claim to U.S. citizenship. “My expectation was as things get better with the situation with the pandemic, gradually the consulate would open more and more and more,” he said. “It was a big shock to suddenly get an email from them, about two weeks ago, saying effective on the 11th we will no longer be offering any consular services.” For Anthony, this means his daughter, who was born before the pandemic, will not be able to travel to visit her grandparents in the United States in the foreseeable future. The embassy has made no statements on whether it is taking measures to beef up the consular staff with new employees from the United States. Embassy spokespeople could not be reached for clarification on how the mission will handle other jobs also filled by locals, such as security. An order signed last month by President Vladimir Putin called for creating a list of “unfriendly” countries whose missions could be banned from hiring Russians or third-country nationals. The list includes the United Kingdom, Ukraine, Poland and several other European countries, but the United States is the first for which the ban is being enforced. The move followed U.S. sanctions imposed over Russian interference in the 2020 U.S. presidential election and involvement in the SolarWind hack of federal agencies. Each country expelled 10 of the other’s diplomats. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the ban on local employees is in line with convention. “We rarely employ any local personnel in the country where our diplomatic mission is. And thus we have the full right to transfer this practice onto the regulations which manage the work of the U.S. Embassy and their general consulate in the Russian Federation,” he said last month. Yulia Kukula, a university student who was accepted for a PhD program in sustainable energy at Arizona State University, may have found a laborious and costly way around the problem of getting her visa to attend university. After searching online for advice from others in her situation, Kukula was able to sign up for an interview for a visa at the U.S. consulate in neighboring Kazakhstan. But that’s a 2,300-kilometer (1,400-mile) trip from Moscow, and the interview isn’t until October. The United States once had three other consulates in Russia — in Yekaterinburg, Vladivostok and St. Petersburg — which somewhat eased the travel burden for people seeking visas. But those consulates have closed or stopped providing visas amid diplomatic spats in recent years, in what Alexis Rodzianko, head of the American Chamber of Commerce in Russia, called “a visa war.” That had already placed a burden on the companies in his chamber whose executives needed to travel. “Now it looks like it’s impossible for the indefinite future,” he said. The travel restrictions of the pandemic have shown that videoconferencing can’t entirely replace the in-person contact of business travel, he said. “They’re especially good for people who already know each other and they’re much less effective for people getting to know each other,” he said. He also sees a larger problem if the visa halt lasts for long. He worries that because the U.S. and Russian governments are adversaries, a lack of contacts between people on both sides could lead to “dehumanization,” adding, “which is very dangerous because that’s what you need to fight a war.” Kuznetsova, who had hoped to celebrate her wedding in the United States this year and had even quit her university in Russia in preparation for the move, feels trapped as a small piece in a large geopolitical dispute. “I understand that there can be problems between countries, it’s normal, it’s happened throughout all of history, but it’s not normal to divide people and separate them, especially when it’s families and the lives of people,” she said. 
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Russia has denied involvement in the cyberattack that crippled Colonial Pipeline, a critical artery for almost half of the U.S. East Coast’s fuel supply. While the Biden administration has taken steps to address gasoline shortages, drivers are beginning to see higher prices at the pump. White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has this report.  
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Among the many stories of World War Two, Nazi Germany’s Siege of Leningrad —  the Soviet city now known as Russia’s Saint Petersburg —  stands among the most harrowing. It also helped shape the world we live in today, as Charles Maynes reports for VOA, from St. Petersburg.Camera: Ricardo Marquina Montañana
 
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