In his first public appearance since May 9, Russian President Vladimir Putin Friday expressed confidence that “an absolute majority” of Russian citizens support constitutional reforms that include allowing him to stay in office until 2036.Putin, speaking at a Russia Day Celebration at Moscow’s Victory Park on Poklonnaya Hill, offered holiday greetings to Russian citizens and their compatriots abroad.In his comments, Putin spoke of the common “historical code and moral foundations,” culture and traditions that all Russians share, such as respect for the working man, parents and family.  He said “There have been frequent requests to include these fundamental, core principals into the Russian constitution. I’m sure that the absolute majority of our citizens share and support such a position.”Russians go to the polls July 1 to vote on a series of constitutional reforms, including a change that would allow Putin to run for two more six-year terms, after his current term expires in 2024.Other ballot measures include deepening presidential powers over parliament, establishing the ruble as Russia’s official currency and defining marriage as between a man and a woman, effectively banning gay marriage.Observers speculate the gay marriage ban was added to the ballot to drive voter turnout.  Russia Day began in 1992 to mark Russia’s declaration of sovereignty from the Soviet Union, paving the way to the country’s independence.
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French police defied a ban on mass gatherings to protest what they see as a lack of government support, marching shoulder to shoulder on Friday on the Champs-Elysees to show their anger against new limits on arrest tactics and criticism of racism in their ranks.
France this week announced a ban on chokeholds is part of government efforts to stem police brutality and racism in the wake of global protests over George Floyd’s death in the U.S. But police have especially taken issue with any implication of systemic racism among French police.
Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said earlier this week any “strong suspicion” of racism would be punished, in response to investigations into racist comments on closed Facebook and WhatsApp groups for police.
Friday’s protest was small but highly visible, with honking, flags and blue smoke blowing under rainy skies. As officers marched close together, with hardly a mask in sight, Paris police issued a bulletin confirming that anti-police protests planned this weekend were banned because of the coronavirus pandemic.  
Friday’s group walked unimpeded to the interior ministry, which is next to the presidential palace and has been barricaded against demonstrators since the 2018 yellow-vest protests that frequently ended in violent clashes. Uniformed guards appeared startled at the arrival of the protest but did not intervene. After a minute of silence for dead police officers, they sang the French national anthem, spoke briefly and dispersed.
“French police are the most controlled in the world, so when there are certain lapses by a tiny minority, don’t stigmatize all police,” said Fabien Vanhemelryck of the Alliance union. He accused politicians of responding hastily to a crisis in the United States “that has nothing to do with us.”Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 11 MB480p | 15 MB540p | 22 MB720p | 51 MB1080p | 91 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioPolice unions met Thursday and Friday with Castaner to discuss changes to police tactics after the minister announced Monday that police would no longer be taught to seize suspects by the neck or push on their necks. Castaner stopped short of banning another technique — pressing on a prone suspect’s chest — that also has been blamed for leading to asphyxiation and possible death.
Such immobilization techniques have come under growing criticism since Floyd’s death. But French police say the new restrictions go too far.  
“He doesn’t even know what he’s talking about,” said Jean-Paul Megret, another police union leader. “Sometimes you can’t just ask people to follow you to be arrested. Every day, you’re dealing with people who are completely insane.”
Unions floated the idea this week of widening the use of stun-guns, which are only available to a handful of specialized officers.  
France has seen several anti-police protests sparked by Floyd’s death, and another is planned Saturday. Friday’s protest began on the Champs-Elysees avenue, which was repeatedly the scene of violence between police and the “yellow vest” protesters last year.  
Last week, the Paris prosecutor’s office opened a preliminary investigation into racist insults and instigating racial hatred based on comments allegedly written in a private police Facebook group.
Website Streetpress published a string of offensive messages that it said were published within the group, though acknowledged that it is unclear whether the authors were officers or people pretending to be police. Some of the reported comments mocked young men of color who have died fleeing police.
Separately, six police officers in the Normandy city of Rouen are under internal investigation over racist comments in a private WhatsApp group. Both incidents have prompted public concerns about extreme views among French police.
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Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte announced Thursday night that all professional sport competition in the country will resume starting Friday — but without fans attending, to prevent the risk of spreading the coronavirus.Conte also announced that amateur contact games may restart beginning on June 25 as Italy emerges from the COVID-19 outbreak and regional authorities confirm that the rate of infection continues to decline.Some entertainment activities will resume, and others will remain suspended.”Shows with public in concert halls and movie theaters will also resume, as well as those in other spaces, including those outdoors, but with some precautions,” Conte said. “All those activities that take place in ballrooms, discos and similar clubs, may them be indoors or outdoors, will remain suspended.”Italy is also limiting arrivals for tourism from most of Europe but allowing people to enter Italy from Asia or North or South America for work or other essential reasons for a short period of time.Conte urged Italians to download a new contact tracing app, known as the Immuni app, which will become available all over the country for the first time next week. Immuni uses Bluetooth technology to notify users they have come into close, prolonged contact with an app user who has tested positive.Technological Innovation and Digitalization Minister Paola Pisano said Thursday that 2 million people have downloaded the Immuni app so far.  
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Like many countries, France is witnessing a public awakening on the issue of police violence and racial profiling, sparked by the death of George Floyd in the United States. In northern Paris, one group of judicial experts and activists is working with minority youngsters, teaching them their rights and how to interact with the police and the communities they live in. Lisa Bryant in Paris has the story.
Camera: Lisa Bryant, Agencies
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A Turkish court on Thursday convicted a local U.S. Consulate employee in Istanbul of aiding an armed terror organization and sentenced him to eight years and nine months in prison, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.Metin Topuz, a translator and assistant for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, has been jailed since 2017, accused of links to U.S.-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen. The Turkish government blames Gulen for the 2016 coup attempt and considers his network to be a terrorist organization.Topuz’s arrest and subsequent prosecution caused tensions between Ankara and Washington, and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a statement criticizing the conviction.The accusations were based on his contacts with police officers believed to be members of Gulen’s network of followers. Topuz has maintained his innocence throughout his trial and is expected to appeal the verdict.In his statement, Pompeo said: “U.S. officials observed every hearing in the trial of Mr. Topuz in Istanbul, and we have seen no credible evidence to support this decision. As a result, this conviction undermines confidence in Turkey’s institutions and the critical trust at the foundation of Turkish-American relations.”Pompeo added that the U.S. officials “reiterate our call on the Turkish government to resolve his case in a just manner.”In his concluding words in his own defense before the verdict, Topuz told the court that he had been in contact with Turkish police, paramilitary police and customs officials as part of his job with the DEA and had no way of knowing that these officials were involved in criminal acts.”As part of my duty with the DEA, under the instructions and observation of my superiors, I had thousands of contacts with 309 law enforcement officials to prevent crime,” the state-run Anadolu Agency quoted Topuz as saying.”I committed no crime and had no relations with (Gulen’s network),” he said.The U.S. Embassy said: “For nearly three decades, Mr. Topuz performed outstanding work appreciated and lauded by officials and citizens of both countries. Under our direction, he promoted law enforcement cooperation between Turkey and the U.S., contributing to the safety of people in both nations.”Gulen, who has been in self-imposed exile in the U.S. since 1999, denies involvement in the coup attempt, which killed about 250 people and injured around 2,000 others. 
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A British political insider says there is no longer any doubt that the London government will abandon plans to incorporate technology from Chinese tech giant Huawei in the rollout of its 5G telecommunications network.The government will make an official announcement in the coming weeks of its plans to “sunset” Huawei’s involvement in the network, said Nile Gardiner, a onetime aide to former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and now the chair of a center named for Thatcher at the Washington-based Heritage Foundation.Word of the decision has already been leaked to British media outlets quoting Downing Street sources, “which is usually how it works,” Gardiner said in an interview.For months, the British government has been under pressure from the United States to pull out of its deal with Huawei, but Gardiner said domestic considerations are at least equally responsible for the decision.He attributes the reversal in part to strong opposition among senior members of the governing Conservative Party, as well as widespread public disillusionment with Beijing resulting from the coronavirus pandemic.“There has been a very significant rebellion against Prime Minister [Boris] Johnson’s earlier decision” to allow Huawei a 35% stake in Britain’s telecommunications market, Gardiner told VOA.Vote to amend soughtDuring a parliamentary debate on the issue in March, former Conservative Party leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith questioned Johnson’s decision and called for a vote to amend the government’s Telecommunications Infrastructure Bill.Duncan Smith accused the Chinese government of spending 20 years underbidding other tech firms until Huawei could emerge as the dominant player in the telecom market. He said going ahead with the deal would make Britain “nationally dependent on Huawei,” which has been classified by British authorities as a “high-risk vendor.”Gardiner said the revolt within party ranks has gained sufficient support that the Johnson government must amend its proposed 5G legislation or risk a parliamentary defeat when the issue next comes to a vote this summer.FILE – Mobile network phone masts are visible in front of St Paul’s Cathedral in London, Jan. 28, 2020. A political insider says Britain will abandon plans to incorporate Huawei in the rollout of the nation’s 5G telecommunications network.While Duncan Smith and other lawmakers have warned against Beijing’s increasing involvement in British society for years, the turnaround in British public opinion has been shaped by China’s handling of the coronavirus, including early efforts to suppress reporting on the contagion.This “has significantly hardened the view of the British government and the British people,” Gardiner said, adding that recent moves to extend China’s security control over Hong Kong have been “extremely unhelpful” to Beijing’s cause.Analysts also speculate that Johnson’s personal battle with COVID-19, which brought him close to death in April, contributed to his new, tougher view of China. “A healthy growth is his backbone,” said Fraser Howie, a Scottish-born expert on Britain’s relations with the Asia Pacific region and co-author of Red Capitalism.Huawei campaignHuawei, meanwhile, has not given up on the British market. The company launched a high-profile ad campaign this week in the form of a “Dear Britain” letter published in major media outlets, touting its two-decade-long investment history in the country and reiterating its “commitment to helping bring fast reliable mobile and full fiber broadband networks to every part [of] the country.”The ad campaign follows announcements in April and May that a prominent member of British industry had joined the company’s board, and that it had entered a “new five-year collaboration” agreement with Imperial College London, “aimed at growing the U.K.’s data science and innovation ecosystem.”Washington, too, is keeping up the pressure. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a statement Wednesday denouncing “the Chinese Communist Party’s coercive bullying tactics,” citing reports that Beijing has issued threats toward Britain’s landmark banking institution, the HSBC.“The United States stands with our allies and partners” and “stands ready to assist our friends in the U.K. with any needs they have, from building secure and reliable nuclear power plants to developing trusted 5G solutions that protect their citizens’ privacy,” Pompeo said.“Free nations deal in true friendship and desire mutual prosperity, not political and corporate kowtows.”
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The British government is facing strong criticism for its response to the coronavirus pandemic, as latest forecasts suggest the economy could be the worst-hit globally. Britain has the world’s second-highest death toll from the virus and is emerging from its lockdown later than most of Europe. Henry Ridgwell reports from London.
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Turkey has turned into a surprising coronavirus success story, despite fears that its outbreak — at one time one of the fastest growing in the world — would spin out of control and leave the country overwhelmed.Even though its official death toll of 4,729 is disputed by some doctors, who say the real tally is likely higher because authorities include only those who test positive for the virus, the country appears to have averted the bigger disaster some epidemiologists predicted. This has happened despite early missteps and equivocations that allowed a surge in cases, particularly along the Black Sea, which could have been prevented, say analysts.“It’s a fairly small club of countries that have been quite effective in reducing the viral spread,” said Jeremy Rossman, a virologist at Britain’s University of Kent.  
He told the BBC that Turkey is among the countries that responded quickly enough with testing and tracing to slow the transmission of the coronavirus without following the example of some European neighbors that opted for total lockdowns. The confirmed case tally is just over 170,000.President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced Tuesday the lifting of stay-at-home orders for people over 65, as well as for children, part of a further easing of restrictions imposed to curb the spread of the new coronavirus.FILE – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, left, wearing a face mask to protect against the new coronavirus, and Basri Bagci, the new member of Turkey’s Constitutional Court, greet each other during a ceremony, in Ankara, June 9, 2020.Turkey lifted restrictions on intercity travel and allowed restaurants, cafes, parks and sports facilities to reopen on June 1 after a big reduction in new cases. However, case numbers are still rising in southeast Turkey.The government has been lauding its anti-coronavirus strategy — amplified by a pro-Erdogan press. Last month, Fahrettin Altun, the president’s spokesman, tweeted: “Turkey under Recep Tayyip Erdogan invested billions in health care infrastructure, let top scientists devise a strategy and treated all COVID-19 patients for free. The result? Our recovery rate is almost 75 percent. The pandemic has been contained. #MissionAccomplished.”
 
The coronavirus came later to Turkey than it did to many of its neighbors. “As the virus raged on in China, many in Turkey wrongly believed that the country would not be affected by the spread of the virus,” said Kemal Kirişci, an analyst for the Brookings Institution, a Washington research group.Time was lost
 
“As late as mid-March,” Kirişci said,” the Turkish president even predicted economic gains for Turkey emerging from the crisis. Precious time was lost until the WHO [World Health Organization] officially declared a pandemic, coincidentally on the same day that Turkey’s first case was reported, and the country’s vulnerability was finally recognized. Two weeks later, the severity of the situation had still not completely dawned on the president.”Analysts say that at the start, the president had two overriding priorities: to placate his conservative religious base, which led him not to impose an effective quarantine on returning pilgrims from Mecca nor to ban communal gatherings at mosques; and to keep an already badly ailing economy running.FILE – Relatives of Munevver Kaya, who died of COVID-19, wearing face masks for protection against the coronavirus, offer their prayers during a funeral at a special section of Baklaci cemetery in Istanbul dedicated to COVID victims, May 11, 2020.The failure to shutter borders quickly and to quarantine returning pilgrims earned the government a public rebuke from the Turkish Medical Association, which said the early response to the coronavirus was “inadequate.”Contradictions, say analysts, marked early steps in trying to curb the pandemic. In mid-March, the government ordered people to stay at home but also announced tax cuts on flights and hotels to encourage business. Eventually as infection numbers surged, stricter isolation measures were introduced, with cities placed under weekend curfew orders. New cases then started to plateau at around a thousand a day. Senior experts at the WHO have praised Turkey’s subsequent performance.
 
Its official death toll is 10 times lower than Britain’s — partly thanks, say Erdogan supporters, to the massive investment in the health care system the past few years and the building of new hospitals. The infrastructure has not come close in the pandemic to being overstretched.Science-based response
 
Much of the credit, though, for averting a disaster is being laid at the door of Erdogan’s health minister, Fahrettin Koca, who, far from the start, urged a science-based response. Highly proactive mayors in Istanbul and Ankara, both opponents of Erdogan, also have been praised.
 
But the pandemic response, however effective it has been after early missteps, has prompted political alarm. Doctors in Turkey’s southeast and eastern regions, who have disputed the official toll, have found themselves reprimanded and placed under investigation, and reporters and ordinary social media users have been charged with disseminating “fake news” for questioning the rate of infections.“The Turkish authorities’ criminally investigating medical chamber officials is not only an outrageous attack on free speech but impedes the fight against the deadly COVID-19 pandemic and obstructs their legitimate work,” said Hugh Williamson of the NGO Human Rights Watch. “The investigations should immediately be dropped, and all conditions imposed on the doctors, including travel bans, lifted.”FILE – Turkish police officers, wearing face masks to protect against the coronavirus, arrest a demonstrator during May Day protests against the government lockdown, in Istanbul, May 1, 2020.Rights campaigners say the government has used the pandemic to muzzle and lock up even more Erdogan opponents. On Tuesday, as the Turkish president announced further easing of coronavirus restrictions, hundreds of people were detained on the ground they are adherents of the faith-based Gülen movement, led by cleric Fethullah Gülen, who Erdogan claims was behind a 2016 coup attempt against him. Gulen, a former ally of the Turkish president, who lives in self-imposed exile in the United States, denies any involvement.Since 2016, more than 80,000 people have been detained,  many of them civil servants or members of security forces. Western governments and rights campaigners accuse the government of using the coup attempt as a pretext to silence Erdogan’s opposition in the country.
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The United States is urging Turkey to stop drilling in contested waters of the Mediterranean Sea out of concern the move will hurt diplomatic relations with Greece. Tension is rising among the NATO neighbors and others in the region trying to control energy-rich zones.  The warning from U.S. Under Secretary of State Matthew Palmer marks Washington’s strongest diplomatic intervention yet in a long-running energy feud between Greece and Turkey.“The United States remains deeply concerned by drilling activities in waters off Cyprus,” said Palmer. “The actions raise tensions in the region and we again urge Turkish authorities to halt all drilling operations off Cyprus.”Palmer’s warning, at an international conference in Greece, follows threats by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to proceed with the drilling, including plans to send a new exploratory vessel well within Greece’s territorial waters, off the coast of the Greek islands.No specific location has been revealed but Turkey has been threatening to drill since Erdogan signed a maritime agreement with Libya, allowing Ankara to explore for natural gas and oil and exploit hundreds of kilometers of Mediterranean seabed from its southeast coast to northern Libya.With Greek islands in between, Turkey maintains that the deal also gives it the right to survey Greek waters. Geoffrey Pyatt, the U.S. ambassador to Greece, says that reading is wrong.“It is unhelpful and provocative in any term but most importantly it can take no rights away from Greece,” said Pyatt.Tensions, though, continue to escalate between Greece and Turkey.In recent days, the leaders of the two countries have challenged each other’s sovereign rights, saying they are prepared to go to war to defend themselves.Palmer is advising both sides to pull back from any semblance of confrontation.“As an ally, the U.S. is concerned that the increasing tensions between Greece and Turkey could result in an incident or accident that leads to unintended consequences,” said Palmer. “In the past we have seen incidents in the regions escalate quickly. We urge Greece and Turkey to ensure that the channels of communication remain open between these two NATO allies.”Greece and Turkey have had no diplomatic contact on the issue so far.
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The European Union is planning on filing formal antitrust charges against Amazon.com Inc over its treatment of third-party sellers, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.The EU has been building its case and circulating a draft of the charge sheet for a couple of months and could officially file the charges as early as next week or the week after, the report added. 
Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
 
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France is prepared to lift the special government powers granted to cope with the coronavirus pandemic on July 10 but will continue to restrict gatherings and freedom of movement for the next four months, the prime minister’s office said.In March, as the coronavirus outbreak spread across the globe, France implemented “state of health emergency” legislation, extending the government’s power to restrict civil liberties without parliamentary approval.Since France lifted its nationwide lockdown on May 11, hospital and mortality data have been on a steady downward trend, raising officials’ confidence to roll back the emergency legislation.  “In view of the positive evolution of the health situation at this stage, the government wishes to put an end to the state of health emergency, which must remain an exceptional case,” Prime Minister Edouard Philippe’s office said. Despite the end of the emergency power, France’s Council of Ministers was presented with a new bill on Wednesday that would allow the government to restrict freedom of movement, make face masks compulsory on public transport, close businesses and ban large gatherings for another four months. The bill will be voted on by the National Assembly on June 17. While France’s advisory Scientific Council has confirmed that there will be no return to a nationwide lockdown, the bill would allow for local measures in the event of an outbreak such as lockdowns, travel bans or school closures.France’s coronavirus death toll has reached 29,296, the fifth highest in the world and third highest in Europe, after the United Kingdom and Italy. On Tuesday, the number of people in intensive care fell below 1,000 for the first time since March 19.
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London’s mayor announced Tuesday that more statues of imperialist figures could be removed from Britain’s streets after protesters knocked down the monument to a slave trader, as the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis continued to spark protests — and drive change — around the world. On the day Floyd was buried in his hometown of Houston, Texas, London Mayor Sadiq Khan said he was setting up a commission to ensure the British capital’s monuments reflected its diversity. It will review statues, murals, street art, street names and other memorials and consider which legacies should be celebrated, the mayor’s office said. “It is an uncomfortable truth that our nation and city owes a large part of its wealth to its role in the slave trade and while this is reflected in our public realm, the contribution of many of our communities to life in our capital has been willfully ignored,” Khan said. Even before the new commission got underway, officials in east London removed a statue of 18th-century merchant and slave owner Robert Milligan from its place in the city’s docklands.  Joe Biggs, mayor of London’s Tower Hamlets borough, said that following the toppling of a statue of slave trader Edward Colston by demonstrators in the city of Bristol on Sunday, “we’ve acted quickly to both ensure public safety and respond to the concerns of our residents, which I share.” It was the latest sign that international protests of racial injustice and police violence that Floyd’s May 25 death spurred are already creating change. A white police officer who pressed a knee on Floyd’s neck for more than eight minutes has been charged with murder. Statues, as long-lasting symbols of a society’s values, have become a focus of protest around the world. On Sunday, protesters in Bristol hauled down a statue of Colston, a 17th-century slave trader and philanthropist, and dumped in the city’s harbor. That act revived calls for Oxford University to remove a statue of Cecil Rhodes, a Victorian imperialist in southern Africa who made a fortune from mines and endowed Oxford University’s Rhodes scholarships. Several hundred supporters of the Rhodes Must Fall group gathered near the statue at the university’s College on Tuesday, chanting “Take it down” before holding a silent sit-down vigil in the street to memorialize Floyd. Protesters call for the removal of the statue of 19th century imperialist, politician Cecil Rhodes from the Oriel college in Oxford, England, June 9, 2020.Oxford city officials urged the college to apply for permission to remove the statue so that it could be placed in a museum. Another large statue of Rhodes that had stood since 1934 was removed from South Africa’s University of Cape Town in April 2015, after a student-led campaign that also urged the university to increase its numbers of black lecturers and to make the curriculum less Eurocentric. In 2003, the Rhodes Scholarships started a new program in South Africa, the Mandela Rhodes Scholarships in partnership with the Nelson Mandela Foundation. The Rhodes Scholarships continue to operate in South Africa and around the world. In Antwerp, authorities used a crane on Tuesday to remove a statue of Belgium’s former King Leopold II that had been splattered with red paint by protesters, taking it away for repairs. It was unclear whether it would be re-erected. Leopold took control of Congo in 1885 and enslaved much of its people to collect rubber, reigning over a brutal regime under which some 10 million Congolese died. In Edinburgh, Scotland, there are calls to tear down a statue of Henry Dundas, an 18th-century politician who delayed Britain’s abolition of slavery by 15 years. The leader of Edinburgh City Council, Adam McVey, said he would “have absolutely no sense of loss if the Dundas statue was removed and replaced with something else or left as a plinth.”  British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has acknowledged that it was “a cold reality” that people of color in Britain experienced discrimination, but said those who attacked police or desecrated public monuments should face “the full force of the law.” Some historical figures have complex legacies. At weekend protests in London, demonstrators scrawled “was a racist” on a statue of Winston Churchill. Britain’s wartime prime minister is revered as the man who led the country to victory against Nazi Germany. But he was also a staunch defender of the British Empire and expressed racist views. Khan suggested Churchill’s statue should stay up. “Nobody’s perfect, whether it’s Churchill, whether it’s Gandhi, whether it’s Malcolm X,” he told the BBC, adding that schools should teach children about historical figures “warts and all.” “But there are some statues that are quite clear-cut,” Khan said. “Slavers are quite clear-cut in my view, plantation owners are quite clear-cut.” Protests continued Tuesday in cities around the world. In Britain, where more than 200 demonstrations have been held so far, people gathered in London’s Parliament Square for a vigil timed to coincide with Floyd’s funeral. France has seen nationwide protests calling for greater law enforcement accountability, and more demonstrations were being held Tuesday evening. Floyd’s death has resonated especially strongly in France’s banlieues, or suburbs, where poverty and minority populations are concentrated. Protesters marching in solidarity with U.S. demonstrations over Floyd’s death have also called for justice for Adama Traore, a young man of Malian origin whose death in French police custody in 2016 is still under investigation. Thousands of people gathered in Paris once again Tuesday evening to denounce police violence in the United States and in France. Participants knelt and observed silence in George Floyd’s memory. “It’s unacceptable that young people, when they’re in contact with the police, see their life expectancy melt like snow in the sun,” a 42-year-old artist who goes by the professional name Fhemann said. French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe has met police and citizens’ groups. He said Tuesday that the code of police ethics would be reviewed. The French government has also announced that the chokehold would no longer be taught in police training.  
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The German government Wednesday said it has received official confirmation from the U.S. of plans to reduce the number of American forces in Germany. German government spokeswoman Ulrike Demmer told reporters in Berlin the government had been informed the U.S. is considering reducing its forces in Germany but said there is no final decision. There has been no U.S. confirmation. Last week, The Wall Street Journal newspaper first reported that U.S. President Donald Trump wanted to pull some 9,500 of about 34,500 U.S. troops from Germany. Earlier this week, Germany’s defense minister, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, suggested that plan could weaken not only the NATO alliance but the U.S. itself. A White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss internal matters, confirmed to The Associated Press that there were plans to move troops, saying some could go to Poland while others could go elsewhere. Poland had expressed interest in having some of the troops stationed there.  But some former U.S. military officials have strongly criticized the idea. Retired U.S. Army European commander general Ben Hodges called the move “a colossal mistake” in media interviews and on his Twitter feed this week. He said troops are not in Germany to defend Germans, but to help stabilize NATO. He said Poland would be better served with a stable NATO than U.S. troops stationed there. Hodges told the New York Times the move does not “seem attached to any kind of strategy.” The White House official told AP the decision is part of the president’s and Department of Defense’s effort to review combatant commands around the globe.  
 
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After getting off to a strong start Wednesday, European markets are falling as investors wait to hear what steps the U.S. Federal Reserve will take to ensure a post-pandemic recovery.  London’s FTSE index is down 0.5%, the CAC-40 in Paris is 0.8% lower, and the DAX index in Frankfurt is down one percent.   Asian markets were mixed Wednesday, with Tokyo’s Nikkei index gaining 0.1%.  Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was essentially unchanged, while Shanghai’s composite index was down 0.4%.  In Sydney, the S&P/ASX was trading flat, the Sensex in Mumbai gained 0.8%, Taiwan’s TSEC was 0.7% higher, and the KOSPI in Seoul was up 0.3%. In oil trading, U.S crude is selling at $37.90 per barrel, down 2.6%, while Brent crude is going for $40.27 per barrel, down 2.2%. The Dow Jones and the S&P 500 are trending down in futures trading, while the NASDAQ is trending higher hours before the opening bell on Wall Street.   
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Pope Francis called George Floyd by name, twice, and offered support to an American bishop who knelt in prayer during a Black Lives Matter protest.
Cardinals black and white have spoken out about Floyd’s death, and the Vatican’s communications juggernaut has shifted into overdrive to draw attention to the cause he now represents.
Under normal circumstances, Floyd’s killing at the hands of a white police officer and the global protests denouncing racism and police brutality might have drawn a muted diplomatic response from the Holy See. But in a U.S. election year, the intensity and consistency of the Vatican’s reaction suggests that, from the pope on down, it is seeking to encourage anti-racism protesters while making a clear statement about where American Catholics should stand ahead of President Donald Trump’s bid for a second term in November.
Francis “wants to send a very clear message to these conservative Catholics here who are pro-Trumpers that, ‘Listen, this is just as much of an issue as abortion is,'” said Anthea Butler, a presidential visiting fellow at Yale Divinity School.
Butler, who is African American, said the Vatican is telling Catholics “to pay attention to the racism that is happening and the racism that is in your own church in America.”
The Vatican has long spoken out about racial injustice, and popes dating to Paul VI have voiced support for the civil rights movement and Martin Luther King Jr.’s message of nonviolent protest. History’s first pope from the global south is no different. He quoted King at length during his historic speech to the U.S. Congress in 2015 and met with King’s daughter, as his predecessor had done.
But the degree to which Francis and the Vatican have seized on Floyd’s killing is unusual and suggests a coordinated messaging strategy aimed at a national church that Francis has long criticized for its political and ideological partisanship, said Alberto Melloni, a church historian and secretary of the John XXIII Foundation for Religious Studies in Bologna, Italy.
“It’s not like seven people had the same type of reaction” by chance, Melloni said.  
Last week, Francis denounced the “sin of racism” and twice identified Floyd as the victim of a “tragic” killing. In a message read in Italian and English during his general audience, Francis expressed concerns about violence during the protests, saying it was self-destructive.
He also said, “We cannot close our eyes to any form of racism or exclusion, while pretending to defend the sacredness of every human life.”
It was a clear effort to call out some conservative Catholics for whom the abortion issue is paramount, while other “life” issues dear to Francis — racism, immigration, the death penalty and poverty — play second fiddle at the ballot box.
Francis has firmly upheld the church’s opposition to abortion. And polls show a plurality of American Catholics support significant restrictions on legal abortion.
But Francis has also lamented that the U.S. church is “obsessed” with abortion, contraception and gay marriage to the detriment of its other teachings. Trump is staking his outreach to Catholic voters largely on his anti-abortion platform.
Francis spoke out June 3 after Trump posed in front of an Episcopal church near the White House, Bible in hand, after law enforcement aggressively forced protesters away from a nearby park.  
A day later, Trump visited the St. John Paul II shrine, a visit denounced by the highest-ranking African American prelate in the U.S., Archbishop Wilton Gregory of Washington, D.C., whom Francis appointed to the politically important position last year. Gregory said he found it “baffling and reprehensible that any Catholic facility would allow itself to be so egregiously misused and manipulated.”
In that vein, the pope’s phone call to Texas Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso last week appeared quietly significant. Seitz has taken a leading role in demanding fair treatment for migrants attempting to cross the southern U.S. border, a cause Francis has championed in ways that have fueled tensions with Trump.
Francis called Seitz unexpectedly after he was photographed kneeling in prayer at a Black Lives Matter protest. Seitz said the pope thanked him without mentioning the demonstration, but the context was clear: “My recent words and actions on the events that are taking place in the country now” after Floyd’s killing.
Francis was not alone in making the Vatican’s views known.  
While the Holy See would be loath to be seen as picking sides prior to the U.S. election, its media operation has made clear its backing for peaceful protests, denouncing injustices suffered by black Americans and underlining its longtime support of King’s message.
Sunday’s L’Osservatore Romano newspaper featured three Floyd-related stories on its front page. The first was that 1 million people were expected to protest that day in Washington.
A second story was about a video showing two U.S. police officers shoving 75-year-old Martin Gugino, a white Catholic protester, to the ground in Buffalo. “Go watch it, please,” the article said.
Its third story was about a prayer service presided over by the highest-ranking American at the Vatican, Cardinal Kevin Farrell, who decried how America’s constitutional ideals were failing its black citizens.
In an interview, Farrell said he has spoken to Francis in the past about America’s race problems, which he saw up close as an auxiliary bishop in Washington. Farrell said Francis is well versed in King and American history.
Francis “knows what the principle was and he knows what the struggle was,” Farrell said.
Natalia Imperatori-Lee, a professor of religious studies at Manhattan College, said the Vatican’s message is having an effect on American Catholics.
“We are starting to see a kind of fissure emerge,” she said. “Whether that’s going to be long lasting or whether it is a sign of a paradigm shift, I think it’s too early to tell.”
A poll from the nonprofit Public Religion Research Institute last week found that the share of white Catholics holding favorable views of Trump had dropped by double digits since last year, registering 37% in the last week of May compared with 49% across 2019.  
The test, Imperatori-Lee said, will be if priests are still preaching about racism in six months. And beyond that: “I guess we’ll know if this works when Catholics go to the polls in November.”
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Global markets are on the rise Wednesday as investors wait to hear what steps the U.S. Federal Reserve will take to ensure a post-pandemic recovery.  In Asia, Tokyo’s Nikkei index finished the trading session up 0.1%.  In late afternoon trading on, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was essentially unchanged, while Shanghai’s composite index was down 0.4%.  In Sydney, the S&P/ASX was trading flat, the Sensex in Mumbai and Taiwan’s TSEC were both 0.7% higher, and the KOSPI in Seoul was 0.3% higher. European markets are off to a good start, with London’s FTSE index up 0.6%, the CAC-40 in Paris trading 0.8%, and the DAX index in Frankfurt up 0.9%.  In oil trading, U.S crude is selling at $38.10 per barrel, down 2.1%, while Brent crude is going for $40.48 per barrel, down 1.7%. The Dow Jones, S&P 500 and the Nasdaq are all trending upward in futures trading.   
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After more than 2 months of shutdown due to the coronavirus, Russia’s capital sprung back to life this week —  with city authorities lifting restrictions on most business closings and stay at home rules for Moscow’s 12 million plus residents.   Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin announced the policy shift Monday — arguing the city had made great progress against the virus, with the pandemic “slowly but surely” on the decline over the past few weeks.  “The struggle isn’t over. But nonetheless, I want to congratulate you with our latest victory and big step towards a return to normal life,” added Nail technicians wearing face masks and gloves perform manicure and pedicure for their clients in a nail bar in Moscow, Russia, June 9, 2020.“Why is it too fast? Some restrictions are in place, others will be lifted in the course of a week or two. It’s not a full cancellation,” said Peskov.   “Sobyanin used his authority and analyzing the situation on the ground…made the decision,” added Peskov.The Mayor’s Shift   The new rules mark a distinct turnaround for Mayor Sobyanin, who became — or was made — the face of the government effort to fight the pandemic early on.   It was left to Sobyanin — rather than President Putin — to introduce unpopular measures such as self-isolation requirements and a digital pass system strictly limiting movement around the city.    Supporters credited the mayor with keeping fatalities lower than comparatively large metropolises like New York and London — even as western media organizations have raised serious doubts over how accurately Russia counts its dead.  And there were plenty of gaffes, too.  An intrusive city tracking app went haywire and randomly fined residents. Sobyanin’s attempt to schedule walks for residents building by building was mocked widely as out of touch with reality.   Yet few could argue Sobyanin was not at least trying to stop the virus.  As recently as late May, Sobyanin insisted on strict guidelines for easing the coronavirus lockdown, arguing public safety could only be assured once new infection rates had fallen dramatically.  But by this week all that had changed.  The digital passes were gone. Beaty salons and barber shops were open.  Crowds were on the sidewalks.  Traffic was back at its usual hum. “Yesterday these roads were empty. Now look at all these people,” grumbled Roman, a taxi driver, who admitted he had largely ignored city requirements to wear a mask and gloves. “Why bother? They do it just to scare people,” he tells VOA. Indeed, Sobyanin may have simply have bowed to the inevitable: with summer weather temperatures arriving over the weekend, the mayor was in effect lifting restrictions that increasingly few were bothering to follow.  Either way, Muscovites appeared to welcome the change in policy and weather — with many ignoring ongoing requirements to wear a mask in public as they strolled city streets and gathered in groups outside.    Only surveying the crowds, some observers predicted an inevitable second wave of infections to come. “Hold this damn parade and damn vote at any price. And how many of you get sick or die, makes no difference,” wrote Echo of Moscow Radio’s ombudsman Anton Orekh in a scathing post about Moscow’s sudden return to normal. “There’s nothing to celebrate or be happy about,” added Orekh.  “If you can — stay home and take care of yourself three times more than before.” 
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One of Copenhagen Zoo’s giant pandas escaped from its enclosure early Monday and roamed the park before staff were able to sedate it and bring it back. Xing Er, a 7-year-old male who arrived at the zoo last year, was seen on surveillance video breaking out of the newly built, 160 million-kroner ($24.2 million) Panda House that also houses female panda Mao Sun. Zoo spokesman Bengt Holst said that on the video staff could see how “the male panda crawls up a metal pole, which is studded with three rows of electrical wires … and then crawls out into the garden.” He said the park now was looking at making changes to security around the enclosure “to ensure that it does not happen again. ” Zoo staff reacted “quickly and efficiently,” the animal was corned and sedated with a dart without being harmed, he said. Monday’s incident happened before the animal park opened to the public. “It doesn’t change the fact that we want to avoid that kind of situation in the future,” Holst said. The enclosure to house the pandas from China’s southwestern city of Chengdu, was inaugurated by Queen Margrethe and other dignitaries in April 2019. Beijing lends out pandas as a sign of goodwill. Any cubs born during the 15-year loan period are considered China’s property.   
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The European Union’s top diplomat said Tuesday that since the United States has already withdrawn from an international agreement curbing Iran’s nuclear ambitions, it can’t now use its former membership of the pact to try to impose a permanent arms embargo on the Islamic Republic.
The accord, which Iran signed with the U.S., Britain, Germany, France, China and Russia in 2015, has been unraveling since President Donald Trump pulled Washington out in 2018 and reinstated sanctions designed to cripple Tehran under what the U.S. called a “maximum pressure” campaign.  
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Kelly Craft have said that extending a permanent U.N. backed arms embargo against Iran is now a top priority for Washington.
But speaking to reporters Tuesday after talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell insisted that since the U.S. has pulled out of the nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, it can no longer claim to have a role in it.
“The United States has withdrawn from the JCPOA, and now they cannot claim that they are still part of the JCPOA in order to deal with this issue from the JCPOA agreement. They withdraw. It’s clear. They withdraw,” Borrell said.
On Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accused the Trump administration of unleashing a politically motivated campaign against Iran and he called for “universal condemnation” of the U.S. attempt to get the U.N. Security Council to impose a permanent arms embargo.
The EU sees the nuclear deal as a key pillar of regional and world security and has struggled to keep the pact alive despite U.S. pressure. Borrell is tasked with supervising the way the pact is applied and to help resolve disputes between the parties.
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Turkish police on Monday detained two journalists for questioning as part of an investigation into alleged “political and military espionage,” the state-run Anadolu Agency said.The two journalists — Ismail Dukel, the Ankara representative of TELE1 television channel, and Muyesser Yildiz of the OdaTV news website — were being questioned by anti-terrorism police, the agency reported.OdaTV said Yildiz, who has reported on military issues, was detained following a raid on her home. Police searched her house and confiscated electronic material, the website reported.Last month, authorities charged seven journalists — including two OdaTV editors and a reporter — with violating laws governing the intelligence agency, for stories on the death of an intelligence officer who was reportedly killed in Libya. The journalists will go on trial later this month.The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists ranks Turkey among the top jailers of journalists worldwide, alongside China and Saudi Arabia.As many as 85 journalists and other media workers are currently in jail under Turkey’s broad anti-terrorism laws, according to the Turkish Journalists Syndicate, including many who were detained in a crackdown following a 2016 coup attempt.Turkey maintains that the journalists are prosecuted for criminal acts and not for their journalistic work.Separately, prosecutors issued warrants to detain 149 people — most of them former police officers — for alleged links to a network led by U.S.-based Muslim cleric, Fethullah Gulen.Anadolu Agency said 74 people, including six former police chiefs, were being sought by prosecutors in the western province of Balikesir, 42 were sought be authorities in northwestern Bursa province while 33 of the suspects were detained in Gaziantep, near the border with Syria.Turkey blames Gulen’s network for the failed 2016 coup. About 77,000 people have been arrested and around 130,000 others, including military personnel, have been dismissed from state jobs in the ongoing crackdown on Gulen’s network.Gulen, who has been in self-imposed exile in the U.S. since 1999, denies involvement in the coup attempt, which killed about 250 people and injured around 2,000 others.
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With France confined to fight the virus, a video circulated online in April showing a young man lying on the bloody ground next to two police officers — and quickly set off protests in struggling neighborhoods around the Paris region.
Sometime before, the man had been on a motorcycle. Then, he crashed into a suddenly opened police car door. Whether the door was opened on purpose or not is unclear, but what was clear was the anger the video sparked. A protest that night in the town of Villeneuve-la-Garenne led to others in a dozen Paris suburbs and similar neighborhoods around France in the ensuing days.  
The relationship between police and marginalized residents of France’s low-income neighborhoods, many of whom are Arab or black and trace their roots to former French colonies, has long been tense. Safety measures intended to curb the spread of COVID-19 further empowered police — but also empowered community activists using apps or online sleuthing to track and challenge what they see as an abuse of police power.  
George Floyd’s death in the U.S. has resonated especially loudly in places like Villeneuve, one of many banlieues, or suburbs, where poverty and minority populations are concentrated in France. Floyd-related protests against police violence and racial injustice have been held around France, and more are planned for Tuesday evening.
In a pivotal moment for modern France, rioting engulfed the country for three weeks in 2005 after two boys who were running from police, Zyed and Bouna, were electrocuted while hiding in an electric generator in the Paris suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois. A state of emergency was declared and almost 3,000 people were arrested.
Despite billions of euros in government improvement programs for the banlieues since 2005, tensions with police persist, and the deaths of other young men periodically rekindles anger. Protesters marching in solidarity with Floyd notably called for justice for Adama Traore, whose death in police custody in 2016 is still under investigation.
“The anger (in those neighborhoods) is so present and police impunity so frustrating that we don’t need much for it to blow up,” said Ilyes Ramdani, editor-in-chief of the Bondy Blog, which was founded in 2005 to tell the stories of young black and Arab French people in the banlieues.
Under France’s strictest virus lockdown measures, from March 17-May 11, the government restricted people’s movements to a kilometer (half-mile) around their homes and required that anyone leaving their homes carry a signed paper stating why. Punishments included fines starting at 135 euros (about $150), or even prison.
On the first day punishments were doled out, 10% of the fines given in the entire country were given in the region of Seine-Saint-Denis on Paris’ northern edge, where unemployment is twice the national average, almost one person out of three is an immigrant, and many others are the descendants of immigrants.
Government officials defended the fines as necessary to fight the virus in a region with especially high infection rates.
But police union leader Yves Lefebvre lamented that the lockdown measures “again made the police a repressive tool.”
“Public services have deserted these neighborhoods,” and police are the only presence left, which “necessarily leads to confrontation,” he said.
Lefebvre, general secretary for Unité SGP Police-Force Ouvrière union, said trust has been broken because “police only enter those neighborhoods to restore order.”
The Villeneuve incident is being investigated by prosecutors and by the French state police watchdog agency, which said it received 166 citizen reports of problematic police behavior and seven formal complaints of police abuse during the 54 days of France’s coronavirus lockdown.
 
Under pressure to act, Interior Minister Christophe Castaner pledged Monday to ban police chokeholds and said more officers will be equipped with cameras to help ensure that identity checks don’t lead to discrimination against minorities.
Frustrated activists are taking matters into their own hands.  
At the start of the lockdown, Sihame Assbague, an anti-racial profiling activist and journalist, started to collect reports of police harassment, citing “a multiplication of police violence videos on social media.”
She’s cross-referencing and verifying about 40 cases, most of them from videos she’s received. “I don’t expect much from the state or public authorities, but what I know is they respect strength. That’s why it’s important to organize,” she said.
Amal Bentounsi, whose brother Amine was shot in the back and killed by the police in 2012, founded a group to support families of victims and provide legal help to bring abusive police to court. The officer who killed her brother was sentenced to a five-year suspended prison sentence — a rare legal victory for families like hers.
In March, Bentounsi and three other families launched an app called Emergency-Police Violence designed to record abuses.
“The idea is for people to develop the habit of filming, not to make buzz, but to create a tool for citizens to contradict the police’s version of events and dissuade police who will be filmed” from abusing their authority, Bentounsi said.  
Users can record arrests live, and the videos are directly uploaded onto the app’s server so they can be salvaged if the phone is seized or broken.
Since March, the app has been downloaded more than 30,000 times.  
Their group wants to encourage people to press charges, even if chances of conviction are slim, Bentounsi said. The government says numbers of police abuses “aren’t big enough for it to be an issue. We want to change that. Because if there are no charges, there are no statistics.”
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Asian markets were mostly higher Tuesday as Wall Street’s big gains the day before gave investors hopes of a beginning of a post-pandemic recovery. The S&P/ASX in Sydney ended Tuesday’s session 2.4% higher to lead the region, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng is up 1% in late afternoon trading.  The Shanghai Composite index is up 0.6%, while both the KOSPI index in Seoul and Taiwan’s TSEC index is 0.2% higher.   Tokyo’s Nikkei index finished 0.3% lower for the day, while Mumbai’s Sensex is fluctuating. FILE – The German share price index DAX graph is pictured at the stock exchange in Frankfurt, Germany, April 8, 2020.But European markets are off to a slow start Tuesday.  The FTSE in London is down 1.5%, while both the CAC-40 in Paris and Frankfurt’s DAX index are down 1.6%. Oil markets are also down Tuesday, with U.S. crude selling at $37.79 per barrel, down 1%, while Brent crude is selling $40.47 per barrel, down 0.8%. The Dow Jones, S&P 500 and Nasdaq are trending lower in futures trading, despite all three markets finishing Monday’s trading day with solid gains.  The S&P 500 climbed back to its pre-pandemic levels, while the Nasdaq, which heavily tracks the technology sector, closed at a record high, despite news that the U.S. had officially fallen into a recession.  
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Former World Athletics’ Chief Lamine Diack was in a Paris courtroom Monday as a corruption trial opened against him. The case involves a Russian doping scandal. Eighty-seven-year-old Lamine Diack seemed relaxed as he made his court appearance Monday, sporting a dark grey suit. Arguments in the case were originally due to start in January, but postponed when new documents containing testimony from his son and co-defendant were submitted to the court. Lamine Diack is the former head of World Athletics – which was once known as the IAAF. As head of the IAAF from 1999 to 2015, Diack was once one of the most powerful figures in world athletics. Today, he lives under house arrest in Paris, charged with corruption and money laundering.  Prosecutors allege Diack solicited millions of dollars to cover up Russian doping tests.  Some of the money allegedly went to finance Macky Sall’s 2012 presidential campaign in Senegal. Sall won the election.  If found guilty, Diack faces up to 10 years in prison.  Diack denies wrongdoing. The trial is being held in Paris as the alleged money-laundering happened on French soil.  One of Diack’s lawyers, Simon Ndiaye, told reporters that people were unfairly lashing out against his client without any precise elements to back up their accusations. Ndiaye said Diack’s accusers have forgotten others surrounding the ex-chief. His client’s only concern, Ndiaye said, was to defend the IAAF and preserve its financial resources.  One of Diack’s sons, Papa Massata Diack, also faces corruption among other charges. He remains in Senegal, which has refused to extradite him, and will be tried in absentia. Four others are also on trial.  Briton Sebastian Coe replaced Diack as the association’s head. He is trying to rebuild trust in athletics and has introduced changes in how sport is governed. 
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Construction workers in Paris dangled from ropes and used saws to cut through the charred tangled remains of metal scaffolding as they resumed restoration work on Notre Dame cathedral. Fire nearly destroyed the centuries-old structure in April 2019. The coronavirus outbreak suspended work rebuilding the church in March.Huge towers of metal scaffolding erected before the fire — as part of a renovation — melted into a maze of tubes and pipes and must be cut away before any more work on the building can continue — 40,000 pieces of metal weighing as much as 200 tons must be carefully lifted out, which is expected to take three months.  Workers prepare to remove damaged scaffolding elements from the remains of the damaged roof of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, June 8, 2020“It’s a bit like open-heart surgery because we are in the middle of the cathedral between the transept and its heart, precisely where the spire crashed,” Christophe Rousselot said. He heads a charity collecting funds to help pay for the restoration.  The fire burned through the roof and destroyed the spire, but the main bell towers, walls, and most of the ceiling survived as well as many of the relics inside the church. Engineers cannot enter the cathedral to inspect its vaults until the fused scaffolding is removed. Once the scaffolding is gone, a temporary roof will be put up and the restoration work will begin. French President Emmanuel Macron has said he hopes the cathedral will be restored and ready for visitors again by 2024, when Paris hosts the Summer Olympics.  
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