For over a thousand years, Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia operated as the biggest Greek Orthodox Christian church before being converted into a mosque, then a museum and, most recently, a United Nations-designated cultural landmark.At the direction of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a reading of the Quran will take place Friday at the ancient building.In announcing his decision, Erdogan said the Conquest Sura, a section of the Quran, would be recited at the site, and that prayers would also be held as part of a celebration organized by the country’s culture ministry in commemoration of the fall of the Byzantine empire in 1453.FILE – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan listens during a teleconference with his cabinet in Istanbul, May 11, 2020.Whether followers will be allowed to pray inside Hagia Sophia or around the massive structure, or across its sprawling courtyard, remained unclear.Erdogan’s announcement comes as Turkey, among the countries hardest hit by the coronavirus, moves Friday to ease restrictions as death and infection rates from the pandemic have plummeted, according to state statistics.Still, the Quran recital has angered the neighboring Greeks, the former keepers of the monument.”Any move to change the existing status of Hagia Sophia, as safeguarded by UNESCO, cannot be accepted,” Deputy Foreign Minister Miltiades Varvitsiotis said. “The monument has long relinquished its religious character … and any attempt to alter its status will isolate Turkey even further,” he told the Athens-based Real FM radio station.Pundits, politicians and the press condemned the move Friday, as national television networks topped news bulletins with developments on what they called a “provocation” by Ankara.”It is obvious that Erdogan is playing to his local audience with this move,” Deputy Defense Minister Alkiviadis Stefanis said. “But for us, the Greek nation, it is a move that touches on sensitive chords: our religious and national sentiments.”History of Hagia SophiaBuilt in the sixth century, the Hagia Sophia, which means Holy Wisdom in Greek, was converted to a mosque soon after the Ottomans conquered what was then called Constantinople, 567 years ago. When the Ottoman Empire collapsed, hundreds of years later, secular Turkish leaders transformed the mosque into a museum in 1935.FILE – An aerial view of the Byzantine-era monument of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, Turkey, April 24, 2020.A masterpiece of Byzantine architecture, the building features an immense dome propped on massive pillars. It is sheathed with marble and decorated with mosaics.With the Turkish economy stuttering, analysts suggest Erdogan’s play on Hagia Sophia aims to rally his electoral base, fulfilling a longstanding demand by hardline Islamists in his country bent on converting the UNESCO landmark back into a mosque.”This is an act of desperation and will lead to no good,” said Elmira Bayrasli, director of the Globalization and International Affairs program at Bard College.Heightened tensionsErdogan’s announcement comes as relations between Greece and Turkey have taken a turn for the worse.While both NATO allies, Greece has been aggressively boosting its border security since Ankara fanned what Greek officials have called “a migrant offensive,” allowing over 150,000 refugees to travel freely into Europe.Turkey has since then also sent exploratory ships to drill in areas of the eastern Mediterranean, which Greece and Cyprus claim exclusively their own. Mock dogfights between Greek and Turkish fighter jets have also become a daily occurrence over the Aegean Sea that divides the two countries, heightening fears of an accident and all-out offensive between the traditional enemy states.”In just one day this week, we had to send up 62 jet fighters to intercept Turkish aircraft in Greece airspace,” said Stefanis.It was not immediately clear whether Greece would seek recourse with the United Nations or in other international fora to block the Quran readings from proceeding at Hagia Sophia on Friday. Still, opposition lawmakers in Athens are advising a more tempered stance by the government, saying a reading of the Quran does not explicitly constitute prayer or any semblance of disrespect for the 1,000-year-old monument. 
 
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Australia’s highest court ruled on Friday to make public letters between Queen Elizabeth II and her representative that would reveal what knowledge she had, if any, of the dismissal of an Australian government in 1975.
The High Court’s 6-1 majority decision in historian Jenny Hocking’s appeal overturned lower court rulings that more than 200 letters between the now 94-year-old monarch of Britain and Australia and Governor-General Sir John Kerr before he dismissed Prime Minister Gough Whitlam’s government were personal and might never be made public.
The only dismissal of an elected Australian government on the authority of a British monarch triggered a political crisis that spurred many to call for Australia to sever its constitutional ties with Britain and create a republic with an Australian president. Suspicions of a U.S. Central Intelligence Agency conspiracy persist.
Hocking, a Monash University academic and Whitlam biographer, said she expected to read the 211 letters at the National Archives of Australia in Canberra next week when a coronavirus lockdown is lifted.
She described as absurd that communications between such key officials in the Australian system of government could be regarded as personal and confidential.
“That they could be seen as personal is quite frankly an insult to all our intelligence collectively — they’re not talking about the racing and the corgis,” Hocking told The Associated Press, referring to the queen’s interest in horse racing and the dog breed.
“It was not only the fact that they were described quite bizarrely as personal, but also that they were under an embargo set at the whim of the queen,” she added.
Archives director David Fricker later said staff had begun assessing whether there was any information in the letters that should still be withheld. The archives have 90 business days — or more than four months — to do so.
Kerr dismissed Whitlam’s reforming government and replaced him with opposition leader Malcolm Fraser as prime minister to resolve a month-old deadlock in Parliament. Fraser’s conservative coalition won an election weeks later.
The archives has held the correspondence, known as the Palace Letters, since 1978. As state records, they should have been made public 31 years after they were created.
Under an agreement struck between Buckingham Palace and Government House, the governor-general’s official residence, months before Kerr resigned in 1978, the letters covering three tumultuous years of Australian politics were to remain secret until 2027. The private secretaries of both the sovereign and the governor-general in 2027 still could veto their release indefinitely under that agreement.
A Federal Court judge accepted the archives’ argument that the letters were personal and confidential. An appeals court upheld that ruling in a 2-1 decision.
Buckingham Palace said in a statement that the High Court decision was a “legal matter in the Australian courts and we would not comment.”
Dickie Arbiter, the queen’s spokesman for 12 years until 2000, said the letters should not be made public in her lifetime.
“I would have thought that the right time for the release of these documents is on the demise of the crown,” Arbiter told Nine Network television.
Hocking has been fighting since 2016 to access the letters written by Kerr to the queen through her then private secretary, Martin Charteris.
The British royal family is renowned for being protective of its privacy and keeping conversations confidential.
The family went to considerable lengths to conceal letters written by the queen’s son and heir, Prince Charles, in a comparable case in Britain that was fought through the courts for five years.
Britain’s Supreme Court ruled in 2015 that 27 memos written by Charles to British government ministers could be made public despite objections that their publication might damage public perceptions of the future king’s political neutrality.
Years of dogged research by journalists and historians have pieced together answers to many of the questions surrounding how and why Whitlam’s government was dismissed and who was behind it.
Kerr, who died in 1991, rejected in his memoirs media speculation that the CIA ordered Whitlam’s dismissal over fears that his government would close the top secret U.S. intelligence facility that still exists at Pine Gap in the Australian Outback.  
In the 1985 Hollywood spy drama “The Falcon and the Snowman,” a CIA plot to oust Whitlam motivated a disillusioned civilian defense contractor played by Sean Penn to sell U.S. security secrets to the Soviet Union.
Australian rock band Midnight Oil also blamed “Uncle Sam” for Whitlam’s downfall in the lyrics of its protest song “Power and the Passion.”
The Australian Republic Movement, which campaigns for an Australian president to replace the British monarch as head of state, welcomed the ruling as a win for Australian sovereignty.
“These letters provide a crucial historical context around one of the most destabilizing and controversial chapters in Australian political history,” the movement’s Chair Peter FitzSimons said.
Philip Benwell, national chairman of the Australian Monarchist League and a vocal advocate of the British monarch remaining Australia’s head of state, had warned before the High Court decision that releasing the letters would create a constitutional crisis “if the queen’s personal opinions became known.”
He said after the ruling that the letters’ exposure will strengthen Australia’s ties to the monarchy.
“It will show that the queen had done everything that she could to protect the people’s interests,” Benwell said.
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In northern Hungary, one of the European Union’s poorest regions, many Roma who live with hardship in the best of times are facing hunger as the coronavirus brings the economy to a halt. Justin Spike reports for VOA from the town of Ózd, northeast of Budapest.
Camera: Gabor Ancsin, Agency  Producer: Rod James
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Protesters supporting Kosovo’s ruling Self-Determination Movement, or Vetevendosje!,  took to the streets of Pristina, the capital, Thursday to oppose President Hashim Thaci’s nominee to be the country’s new prime minister after the Constitutional Court upheld his decree for the nomination.A poster read “We want elections,” and a banner said, “On the side of justice, not the president.”Arlind Manxhuka, a spokesperson for Vetevendosje!, said the peaceful gathering of a few thousand supporters was intended to show the party’s ability to organize a protest while respecting coronavirus pandemic restrictions.”Taking into consideration the many requests we received from activists and citizens to organize a protest against the latest political developments in our country [Kosovo], we felt obligated to demonstrate a way in which an eventual protest could be held in this new condition of the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said.Thaci nominated Avdullah Hoti, from the center-right Democratic League of Kosovo, or LDK, to replace acting Prime Minister Albin Kurti, who lost a no-confidence vote in March.  That vote was spurred by the LDK, then a junior partner in governing coalition with Vetevendosje!The movement argues Hoti’s nomination to form a new government is unconstitutional, saying that it is the only party entitled to do so because it won the most seats in Kosovo’s October parliamentary election. It has further said that if it cannot form a government, the country should hold new elections.The LDK says it has at least the 61 votes in the 120-seat parliament, required for his confirmation.Kosovo’s Constitutional Court had suspended the nomination decree until May 29. 
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European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced Thursday a new global fundraising campaign to finance the development and worldwide distribution of testing, vaccines and treatments against COVID-19, seeking to ensure they are equally shared.In an address from EU headquarters in Brussels, von der Leyen said the new effort — called “Global Goal: Unite for Our Future” — is meant to raise tens of billions of dollars with private and public donations. It would feature a month of fundraising and awareness, culminating with a June 27 pledging summit featuring businesses, foundations and citizens. She said 15 governments have also pledged their support.The new initiative follows another EU-led global campaign for the same goal which in less than a month raised nearly $11 billion, more than half of it from EU nations and institutions. The U.S. did not participate.The EU is increasingly taking a role as a champion of global cooperation while the United States and China, which have the world’s largest economies, favor national initiatives. The new campaign, which is being launched in cooperation with international advocacy organization Global Citizen, illustrates the need for funds to develop and make vaccines and treatments available for everyone.
 
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The World Health Organization said Thursday that since early March about 159,000 more people have died in 24 European countries than would have ordinarily been expected, with a “significant proportion” of the increase linked to COVID-19.WHO official Katie Smallwood told reporters during a remote briefing Thursday that while that figure reflects all causes of deaths in those countries, its timing coincides with the peak period during which people were dying of COVID-19 in hospitals in Italy, France, Spain and Britain.Smallwood said that is a good indication the significantly higher death toll during the period is linked to COVID-19.WHO Regional Director for Europe Hans Kluge said during the briefing there are now more than two million confirmed cased of COVID-19 in Europe, up 15 percent over the past two weeks, with Russia, Turkey, Belarus and Britain leading the way in new infections.  More than 175,000 people have died in Europe from COVID-19 since the pandemic began.Smallwood said European countries that may ease restrictions, including on bars, discos and other social hubs, must have robust disease detection, testing and tracing systems in place first, to help keep at bay a potential “second wave,” where the pandemic might re-emerge.
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Markets in Europe are once again on the rise as investors continue to express optimism that the global economy is turning a corner from the coronavirus pandemic. The FTSE index in London is up 0.8% in midday trading.  The CAC-40 in Paris is up nearly one percent, and the DAX index in Frankfurt is 0.4% higher.   Asian markets also enjoyed an upswing Thursday after a shaky start.  Tokyo’s Nikkei index closed 2.3% higher, while Sydney’s S&P/ASX index posted a 1.3% gain, and Shanghai was 0.3% higher.   But Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index lost 0.7% as China passed a controversial natural security law that critics say threatens the financial hub’s semi-autonomous status.  Seoul and Taiwan also posted slight losses.    Oil markets reversed course Thursday, with U.S. crude essentially unchanged at  $32.82 per barrel, while Brent crude, the international benchmark, is $34.98 per barrel,  a rise of 0.6%.   China’s recent moves to tighten control over Hong Kong have raised diplomatic tensions between Beijing and Washington and subsequently rattled investors.  U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced Wednesday that the Trump administration no longer considers the global financial hub as autonomous from China, indicating the U.S. is considering suspending the preferential status that has made the city a top U.S. trading partner.     In futures trading, the Dow Jones is up 0.6% and the S&P 500 is 0.6.% higher, but the Nasdaq is down 0.4%, signaling uncertainty as investors brace for the latest U.S. unemployment figures.   
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Britain’s ambassador to North Korea says the embassy has temporarily closed in the autocratic regime due to strict coronavirus restrictions. “The British Embassy in Pyongyang closed temporarily on 27 May 2020 and all diplomatic staff have left the DPRK for the time being,” Ambassador Colin Crooks tweeted Thursday, using the abbreviation for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, North Korea’s official name. The #BritishEmbassy in #Pyongyang closed temporarily on 27 May 2020 and all diplomatic staff have left the #DPRK for the time being.  If you need consular assistance call (+44) (0)207 008 1500 #NorthKorea— Colin Crooks (@ColinCrooks1) May 27, 2020NK News, a South Korea-based news site that monitors the North, reported that British Embassy staff had crossed the border into China by land. The British Foreign Office issued a statement saying the decision to evacuate the Pyongyang outpost was made because “restrictions on entry to the country have made it impossible to rotate our staff and sustain the operation of the Embassy.”  The statement said London intends to reestablish its presence in Pyongyang as soon as possible. North Korea closed its borders and imposed strict quarantine measures on all resident foreigners at the start of the pandemic, prompting many countries to withdraw their ambassadors and shutter their missions.   
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For years, international observers, western governments, and opposition politicians in Turkey have warned of the country’s slide to what one commentator called “an elected autocracy” under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Now,as coronavirus infections and deaths drop,the government has tightened already stringent controls on social media. Critics say the pandemic is accelerating Turkey’s descent from democratic freedoms. Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul.Camera: Berke Bas Produced by: Jonathan Spier
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A Ukrainian court has found a university student guilty of torching an RFE/RL reporter’s car, a decision that the media organization’s president said brings prosecutors closer to apprehending the organizers of the premeditated crime.   A court in the western city of Lviv on May 25 handed down a suspended five-year sentence with a three-year probation period to Yakob Sarakhman for setting Halyna’s car ablaze on the night of January 30.   The 19-year-old university student admitted his guilt to the court and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors, Tereshchuk’s lawyer, Oleh Mytsyk, said.   FILE – The burned-out car of RFE/RL journalist Halyna Tereshchuk in Lviv.Police have not provided a motive for the crime, but many reporters in Ukraine have been attacked, and even killed, over the years due to their investigative work. Ukraine ranked 96th out of 180 countries in the 2020 World Press Freedom Index.   “The conviction is an important first step in holding accountable the perpetrators of this hateful crime. The arson attack not only targeted an RFE/RL colleague, and terrorized her family, but it was a worrisome attempt to intimidate independent journalism in Ukraine,” RFE/RL President Jamie Fly said in a statement.   “I call on the Ukrainian authorities to identify and prosecute those who ordered the attack in addition to the individual who carried it out.”   Police have named two other suspects in the arson attack: Mykhaylo Cherdak, a local police official, and Vadym Dmytrenko, an unemployed individual with a criminal record.   Cherdak is in hiding and his whereabouts unknown, while Dmytrenko is under house arrest. 
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Two Uzbek sports journalists have left their positions after criticizing the state-run television channel for its coverage of the aftermath of a devastating dam failure earlier in May that killed at least four people and displaced tens of thousands of others.Speaking on condition of anonymity, an official of Sport TV and Radio told RFE/RL on May 25 that Bobur Akmalov, the editor of Sport TV, and the channel’s director-general, Jamoliddin Bobojonov, had been fired.The official did not give any further details, but his comments came after local media reports said the two had been relieved of their duties after they submitted their resignations on May 22.Another Tashkent-based journalist familiar with the situation told RFE/RL that Akmalov and Bobojonov had been forced to resign for expressing their opinions in a Football Plus program aired by the Oriat Dono radio station on May 18.During the broadcast in question, Bobojonov and Akmalov, who was also the anchor of the Football Plus program on Oirat Dono, criticized state-run Uzbekistan 24 for its coverage of the Sardoba dam burst, which flooded several nearby villages. Bobojonov said during the broadcast that “on paper and on the Uzbekistan 24 TV channel, everything is great” in Uzbekistan, “while real life is something completely different.””Well, after watching the reports by Uzbekistan 24, I had the impression that people in Sardoba were happy with the disaster,” Bobojonov said, laughing.Akmalov agreed with Bobojonov and also laughed, saying that reports about President Shavkat Mirziyoev’s visit to the area hit by the floods after the dam burst looked like reports from North Korea, “where people always look happy no matter what.”In a Facebook statement, Alisher Hojaev, chairman of the Uzbek National Television and Radio Company (MTRK), accused Akmalov and Bobojonov of “violating corporate ethics and making baseless and untrue allegations.”The statement was later removed from Facebook.A group called People’s Control has launched a petition on Facebook supporting the two journalists and demanding Hojaev’s resignation.RFE/RL’s Uzbek Service contributed to this report.
 
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“Do as I say, but not as I do” was the message many British saw in the behavior of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s key aide, who traveled hundreds of miles with coronavirus symptoms during the country’s lockdown.
While  Dominic Cummings has faced calls for his firing  but support from his boss over his journey from London to the northern city of Durham in March, few countries seem immune to the perception that politicians and top officials are bending the rules that their own governments wrote during the pandemic.
From U.S. President Donald Trump to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, global decision-makers have frequently set bad examples, whether it’s refusing to wear masks or breaking confinement rules aimed at protecting their citizens from COVID-19.  
Some are punished when they’re caught, others publicly repent, while a few just shrug off the violations during a pandemic that has claimed more than 350,000 lives worldwide.
Here are some notable examples:New Zealand Health Minister Calls Himself An “Idiot”
In April, New Zealand’s health minister was stripped of some of his responsibilities after defying the country’s strict lockdown measures. David Clark drove 19 kilometers (12 miles) to the beach to take a walk with his family as the government was asking people to make historic sacrifices by staying at home.
“I’ve been an idiot, and I understand why people will be angry with me,” Clark said. He also earlier acknowledged driving to a park near his home to go mountain biking.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said normally she would fire Clark but that the country couldn’t afford massive disruption in its health sector while it was fighting the virus. Instead, she stripped Clark of his role as associate finance minister and demoting him to the bottom of the Cabinet rankings.Mexico’s Leader Shakes Hands
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said it pained him not to embrace supporters during tours because of health risks, but he made a remarkable exception in March, shaking hands with the elderly mother of imprisoned drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán. Asked about shaking her hand when the government was urging citizens to practice social distancing, López Obrador said it would have been disrespectful not to.  
“It’s very difficult humanly,” he said. “I’m not a robot.”  America’s Pandemic Politics
The decision to wear a mask in public is becoming a political statement in the U.S. It’s been stoked by Trump — who didn’t wear a mask during an appearance at a facility making them — and some other Republicans, who have questioned the value of masks. This month, pandemic politics shadowed Trump’s trip to Michigan as he toured a factory making lifesaving medical devices. He did not publicly wear a face covering despite a warning from the state’s top law enforcement officer that refusing to do so might lead to a ban on his return.
Presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden, meanwhile, wore a mask along with his wife, Jill, as they laid a wreath Monday at a Delaware veterans’ memorial — his first public appearance since mid-March. Trump later retweeted Fox News analyst Brit Hume’s criticism of Biden for wearing a mask in public.
Vice President Mike Pence was criticized for not wearing a mask  while on a visit to the Mayo Clinic.
Netanyahu’s Passover Holiday
While the rest of Israel was instructed not to gather with their extended families for traditional Passover Seder in April, Netanyahu and President Reuven Rivlin hosted their adult children for the festive holiday meal, drawing fierce criticism on social media. Israeli television showed a photo of Avner Netanyahu, the premier’s younger son, attending the Seder at his father’s official residence.  
Benjamin Netanyahu later apologized in a televised address, saying he should have adhered more closely to the regulations.  The French Exception
French President Emmanuel Macron also has been inconsistent with masks, leaving the French public confused. Although Macron has sometimes appeared in a mask for visits at hospitals and schools, it’s a different story in the Elysee presidential palace and for speeches. During a visit to a Paris hospital on May 15, Macron initially wore a mask to chat with doctors but then removed it to talk with union workers.  
Interior Minister Christophe Castaner also faced criticism this month for huddling with dozens of mask-makers in a factory for a photo where everyone removed their masks.  
Putin’s Different Approach
The only time Russian President Vladimir Putin wore protective gear in public was on March 24, when he visited a top coronavirus hospital in Moscow.  Before donning a hazmat suit, Putin shook hands with Dr. Denis Protsenko, the head of the hospital. Neither wore masks or gloves, and a week later, Protsenko tested positive for the virus. That raised questions about Putin’s health, but the Kremlin said he was fine.
Putin has since held at least seven face-to-face meetings, according to the Kremlin website. He and others didn’t wear masks during those meetings, and Putin also didn’t cover his face for events marking Nazi Germany’s defeat in World War II.
When asked why Putin doesn’t wear a mask during public appearances, spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Kremlin has a different approach to protecting the president’s health.
“When it comes to public events, we ask medical workers to test all the participants in advance,” Peskov told reporters.  Puerto Rico Official’s Inconsistent Message
Puerto Rico Gov. Wanda Vázquez was criticized for not always wearing a mask despite holding new conferences ordering people to cover their face outside their homes and inside businesses. A member of the opposition Popular Democratic Party also filed a police complaint last week against members of Vázquez’s New Progressive Party, alleging they violated a curfew by gathering to inaugurate the party’s new headquarters. Police are investigating the incident, which angered many Puerto Ricans.  Scottish Medical Official Takes The Low Road
Scotland’s chief medical officer, Dr. Catherine Calderwood, broke her own rules and traveled to her second home during lockdown in April. She faced blowback after photos emerged of her and her family visiting Earlsferry in Fife, which is more than an hour’s drive from her main home in Edinburgh. She apologized and resigned.
“I did not follow the advice I’m giving to others,” Calderwood said. “I am truly sorry for that. I’ve seen a lot of the comments from … people calling me a hypocrite.”  Japan’s Gambling Scandal
A top Japanese prosecutor was reprimanded and later resigned this month after defying a stay-at-home recommendation in a gambling scandal.
Hiromu Kurokawa, the country’s No. 2 prosecutor who headed the Tokyo High Prosecutors’ Office, acknowledged that he wasn’t social distancing when he played mahjong for money at a newspaper reporter’s home twice in May. Japan didn’t enforce a stay-at-home recommendation, but his case outraged the public because many were following social distancing measures.  Italian Press Conference Criticism
At a March news conference to open a COVID-19 field hospital in Milan’s old convention center, photographers and video journalists were pushed into corners that did not allow proper spacing. Only text reporters were given seating in line with regulations. The Codacons consumer protection group announced it would file a complaint with prosecutors in Milan.
“What should have been a moment of great happiness and pride for Lombardy and Italy was transformed into a surreal event, where in violation of the anti-gathering rules, groups of crowds formed,” Codacons said.  South Africa’s Rule-Breaking Dinner
In April, Communications Minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams was placed on special leave for two months and forced to apologize by President Cyril Ramaphosa after she violated stay-at-home regulations. Ramaphosa directed police to investigate after a photo emerged on social media of Ndabeni-Abrahams and several others having a meal at the home of former deputy minister of higher education Mduduzi Manana.Spanish Hospital Ceremony Investigated
Madrid’s regional and city officials sparked controversy when they gathered on May 1 for a ceremony shuttering a massive field hospital at a convention center. Eager to appear in the final photo of a facility credited with treating nearly 4,000 mild COVID-19 patients, dozens of officials didn’t follow social distancing rules. Spain’s restrictions banned more than 10 people at events like the one that honored nurses and doctors. The central government opened an investigation, and Madrid regional chief Isabel Díaz Ayuso apologized. She said officials “got carried away by the uniqueness of the moment.”
Former Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy also defied strict stay-at-home orders, with a television station filming him power walking around in northern Madrid. The Spanish prosecutor’s office is investigating whether Rajoy, who was premier from 2011 to 2018, should be fined.Indian Cricket Game Criticized
In India, a top leader of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party drew flak last weekend after playing a game of cricket. Manoj Tiwari, also a member of India’s parliament, said he followed social distancing rules during the game. Videos circulating on social media showed Tiwati without a mask. He was also seen taking selfies with people.  Leaders Who Follow The Rules
Some leaders are setting a good example, including Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa. Media jokingly called him the most relaxed politician in the world after he was photographed queuing at a supermarket this month, wearing a mask and following social distancing measures. The photo was widely shared on social media.  
Another rule-follower is Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who did not visit his ill 96-year-old mother in a nursing home during the last eight weeks of her life because of coronavirus restrictions. He only came to her bedside during her final hours this month.  
“The prime minister has respected all guidelines,” according to a statement read by a spokesman. “The guidelines allow for family to say goodbye to dying family members in the final stage. And as such the prime minister was with her during her last night.” 
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Greece is mobilizing forces to boost defenses along its land frontiers with Turkey. The move as Turkey threatens to resume the flow of thousands of migrants to Europe through Greece. The deployment also follows plans by Greece to expand its border fence in the contentious border region. Officials in Athens say they are deploying more than 400 specially trained officers, including riot police, in the northeast region of Evros. 
 The deployment on Wednesday adds to the eleven hundred officers already in the area. An  additional 800 are expected arrive in the coming weeks as Greece ratchets up plans, as Defense Minister Nikos Papagiotopoulos says to defend itself from Turkey’s actions by extending an existing border fence. 
 
Soldiers and police in the region remain on a code-red alert, he says. 
 
Greece is reinforcing its defenses by expanding the fence because, officials say, it does not want to be caught by surprise if Turkey makes any sudden moves.  
 
While both are NATO allies, relations between the two neighbor states have plummeted to a low point since Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan opened the borders to millions of refugees trapped in his country, allowing them free access to Europe through Greece.  FILE – Migrants wait to board on buses outside Moria camp on their way to the port of Mytilene, on the northeastern Aegean island of Lesbos, Greece, May 3, 2020.The move turned the border region of Evros into a dangerous flashpoint as Greece — already inundated with more than 100,000 refugees — was left pushing back what its leaders called a massive migrant invasion in February. 
 
With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Turkey closed its borders and ordered migrants back into closed reception centers. 
 
But as lockdown measures are now relaxing across Europe and beyond, Turkey’s foreign minister said yesterday that migrants and refugees in his country may as well be preparing to make the move anew to Europe — a remark that alarmed officials in Athens. 
 FILE – Greek Army soldiers detain a group of migrants that crossed from Turkey to Greece, near the village of Protoklisi, in the region of Evros, Greece, March 10, 2020.Greece is now scrambling to seal its land border in the Evros region, tripling the size of an existing 12-kilometer fence — a move that has annoyed Ankara. 
 
Conservative lawmaker Tassos Hadjivassiliou explains why. 
 
“It’s a no-brainer,” he said.  “Once this fence goes up,  Turkey will be severely compromised of its ability to push through migrants. And if that happens, then Ankara will have lost its most powerful tool of leverage against Europe… and its chances, therefore, of clinching a new deal with Brussels, plus added financial support will fade.” 
 
Ankara’s deteriorating economy and political pressure on Erdogan leadership underpin much of these crisis fears. 
 
Hostility between Greece and Turkey has risen noticeably in the Aegean recently. Over the weekend, dozens of Turkish soldiers moved to block Greek soldiers from surveying marshland along the Evros river to extend the fence. 
 
Local media and residents said they spotted troops inching into Greek territory and camping out on Greek soil  — a move that enraged Athens, which lodged a protest with Ankara but later denied that any Turkish soldiers had set foot on Greek soil. 
 
“There were many suspicious movements at the time,” Panagiotopoulos told a local broadcaster late Wednesday.  
He refused to elaborate. 
 
Human rights experts in Greece warn that migrants are paying the toll in the latest Greek-Turkish spat, remaining trapped in overcrowded camps and in continued lockdown. 
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The worldwide death toll from the COVID-19 pandemic has surpassed 350,000. The milestone comes as South Korea announced Wednesday its highest number of new cases in 49 days. Authorities are focusing on testing workers from e-commerce giant Coupang after dozens of cases were linked to a company site outside of Seoul. South Korea’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said all but four of its 40 new cases were in the Seoul area. The country was an early hotspot for the coronavirus outbreak, but now barely ranks in the top-50 in terms of confirmed infections, according to statistics compiled by the Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins University.“We will do our best to trace contacts and implement preventive measures, but there’s a limit to such efforts,” KCDC head Jeong Eun-kyeong said. “There’s a need to maximize social distancing in areas where the virus is circulating, to force people to avoid public facilities and other crowded spaces.”  Brazil, India, Mexico are cause for concern
Brazil has emerged as a major source of concern, trailing only the United States in the number of infections. On Tuesday it reported the most single day deaths in the world, with 1,039, its fifth consecutive day atop the grim list. India posted its record high of 6,000 new cases reported Wednesday, pushing its total above 150,000. Mexico also reported troubling escalations in its coronavirus outbreak, with a new high of 501 deaths and 3,455 new confirmed cases.Like many governments around the world, Mexico is weighing continuing stay-at-home and social distancing orders against the desire to resume economic activity.   President Andrés Manuel López Obrador told reporters his advisers were discussing possible reopening steps and could announce as early as this week plans to send kids back to school.  He also said he plans to tour different states and hold talks with local officials on easing restrictions. A child gets a meal from the mobile dining rooms program as people who have not been able to work because of the COVID-19 pandemic line up for a meal outside the Iztapalapa hospital in Mexico City, Wednesday, May 20, 2020.US easing restrictions
In the neighboring United States, governors continue to pull back on their lockdown orders, including in Nevada, where Governor Steve Sisolak announced casinos in Las Vegas can reopen June 4 after the key industry was shut down for 10 weeks. “We welcome the visitors from across the country to come here, to have a good time, no different than they did previously, but we’re gonna be cautious,” Sisolak said. No COVID patients in New Zealand
New Zealand reported a new milestone in its coronavirus recovery, saying Wednesday there were no more COVID-19 patients in the country’s hospitals. Health officials said there were only 21 active cases in New Zealand, which put in place a strict five-week lockdown before slowly easing the measures in late April. New Zealand and Australia are working on plans to amend their travel bans to allow people to move between the two countries, and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said a draft should be ready by early next month. And in Spain, a 10-day mourning period began Wednesday to honor the more than 27,000 people in the country who have died from COVID-19. 
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The British Health Ministry announced a new trial Tuesday of the anti-viral drug remdesivir as a treatment for patients with COVID-19.Britain’s Health Secretary Matt Hancock holds the daily coronavirus disease news conference at 10 Downing Street in London, May 21, 2020.At his usual COVID briefing in London, Health Minister Matt Hancock called trials for the promising drug “probably the biggest step forward in the treatment of coronavirus since the crisis began.” He said treatment would be prioritized where it will provide the greatest benefit.Remdesivir, developed by the U.S. pharmaceutical company Gilead, was approved for treatment of U.S. COVID-19 patients earlier this month after trials by the U.S. National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Diseases ((NIAID)) showed positive results. Japan fast-tracked approval for use of the drug on its COVID-19 patients a short time later.NIAID director, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said the drug proved effective in shortening recovery in COVID-19 patients, and while not a “cure-all” could be a helpful treatment.Hancock also announced that on Monday, 134 COVID-19 deaths were reported across Britain. And for the first time since March 18, no deaths from the coronavirus were recorded in Northern Ireland.
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U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) says Russia recently deployed military fighter aircraft to Libya to support Russian state-sponsored, private military contractors, who are helping forces fighting the U.N.-supported Libyan government.The Russian fighter aircraft arrived at al-Jufra Airfield in Libya from an airbase in Russia after a stop in Syria where they were repainted to camouflage their Russian origin, AFRICOM said Tuesday. The fighter jets are expected to provide close air support for Russian military contractors with the Wagner Group, who have been supporting Libyan strongman Gen. Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA) in their yearlong offensive against the country’s Government of National Accord (GNA).AFRICOM commander Gen. Stephen Townsend called out Russia in a press release Tuesday for expanding its military footprint in Africa by sending mercenary pilots to “bomb Libyans.” “For too long, Russia has denied the full extent of its involvement in the ongoing Libyan conflict. Well, there is no denying it now. We watched as Russia flew fourth generation jet fighters to Libya, every step of the way,” Townsend said.He added that neither the LNA nor private military companies could arm and operate this type of aircraft without the “support they are getting from Russia.”FILE – President Donald Trump meets with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the Oval Office of the White House, Nov. 13, 2019, in Washington.In a phone call Saturday, President Donald Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan shared their concerns about worsening foreign interference in Libya, according to the White House. Turkey has provided military support to the internationally recognized GNA and has warned that attacks by Haftar’s forces will have “grave consequences.”Critics of Russian involvement in Libya say Moscow’s support of Haftar has increased the regional instability that has helped fuel Europe’s migration crisis.U.S. Air Force Gen. Jeff Harrigian, commander of U.S. Air Forces in Europe and Africa, warned Tuesday that Russia was setting up a means to create “real security concerns” for southern Europe in the near future.”If Russia seizes basing on Libya’s coast, the next logical step is they deploy permanent long-range anti-access area denial (A2AD) capabilities,” which are used to prevent adversaries from traveling across an area that the weapon protects, he said in a press release.
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Italy’s new contact tracing app for the coronavirus is about to be launched in a number of pilot regions. It will be available to everyone in the country on a voluntary basis and will guarantee the privacy of users, officials who commissioned its development say.
 
Italians will be able to download the contact tracing app on their mobile phones that will help combat the spread of the coronavirus, starting May 29.  “Immuni” was developed at the request of Italy’s Ministry of Innovation Technology and Digital Transformation. Paolo de Rosa, its chief technology officer, says the app can speed up the process of finding people who have had contact with the coronavirus.
    
“The app is able to do that in a privacy-preserving way so it is not like the traditional approach where you need to identify people. In this case there is only an alerting of people that have been in contact with someone that result positive,” de Rosa said.
    How contract tracing apps work
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Those alerted they have come close to someone that has tested positive for the coronavirus can quickly take action and contact health authorities or their personal physician.
 
De Rosa stressed that privacy is guaranteed as special measures have been taken and it would be extremely difficult to identify anyone using the app. The only data that a user must provide is the territorial province to which he or she belongs.
 
For the app to be fully effective, de Rosa said, there needs to be a significant amount of people using it, up to 60 percent, but that is only if one does not take into consideration other factors like social distancing. In any case, de Rosa is convinced that it will be a useful tool to have on one’s phone. “This is a very bleeding edge technology, very few countries in the world have used it,” he said.
    
Creating the app was no easy matter, de Rosa said, adding trade-offs had to be made between the requirements of health authorities and privacy. Knowledge was shared with many other countries as well, but no one really knew what the best app needed to look like. With such a highly infectious virus, the need for a tool that would help speed up contact tracing was considered essential to break the chain of the contagion.
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Merck & Co Inc, which has largely kept to the sidelines of the race for COVID-19 treatments, said it was buying Austrian vaccine maker Themis Bioscience and would collaborate with research nonprofit IAVI to develop two separate vaccines.
 
It also announced a partnership with privately held Ridgeback Biotherapeutics to develop an experimental oral antiviral drug against COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
 
It did not disclose the terms of the acquisition of Themis, a privately held company.
 
Merck shares rose more than 3% in premarket trading.
 
Most big pharmaceutical companies have already placed their bets on COVID-19 treatments, but Merck has been waiting for opportunities with proven track records, Chief Executive Ken Frazier said.
 
“We wanted to be in a position where we could choose things that have the right kind of characteristics to make a contribution for a virus that’s likely to be with us for some time,” he told Reuters in an interview.
 
Both vaccines are designed to be delivered in a single dose.
 
The Themis vaccine, developed in collaboration with the Institut Pasteur in Paris, is based on a modified measles virus that delivers bits of the SARS-CoV-2 virus into the body to prevent COVID-19.
 
It was developed in part through funding from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI).
 
Merck said it moving quickly with this candidate and expects to start vaccinating volunteers “within weeks.”
 
The IAVI vaccine uses the same technology as Merck’s Ebola vaccine ERVEBO, recently approved by the European Commission and the U.S. Food & Drug Administration.
 
That candidate, which Merck is developing jointly with IAVI, is expected to start human trials some time this year, Frazier said.
 
The U.S. Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) is backing the effort.
 
Both vaccines are made using technologies that have resulted in licensed products, unlike some frontrunners, such as the rapidly developed vaccine from Moderna Inc, which is expected to start large, late-stage clinical trials in July.
 
Last week, Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, said Merck’s vaccine, and those from Johnson & Johnson and Sanofi, were a month or two behind Moderna’s, but may get added to large efficacy trials this summer as they wrap up early-stage studies.
 
“I think we’ll be in a position to participate,” Frazier said.
 
Merck intends to shoulder the cost of scaling up production of the vaccines before either has been proven to work, although it has not yet determined where they will be manufactured commercially, he said.
 
Doses of the Themis vaccine are already being made in France for clinical trials. Merck also plans to begin early production of the vaccine it is developing with IAVI at its plant in Pennsylvania.
 
Frazier said Merck had not signed any pacts with the U.S. government to deliver doses of either vaccine to Americans first, adding it was committed to making its vaccines accessible globally and affordably.
 
Ridgeback’s pill, EIDD-2801, is designed to block virus reproduction, and has shown promise in animal studies of multiple coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-2. It has also been shown to be safe and well tolerated in early stage trials.
 
Frazier compared it to Gilead Sciences’ remdesivir, but it would be a pill, rather than an intravenous infusion. Efficacy trials will start later this year.
 
“If the drug works, we would be able to produce billions of doses,” Frazier added.
 
The United States has recorded more than 1.6 million new coronavirus infections and over 97,000 deaths, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Monday.
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Kazakhstan on Monday eased some restrictions on tightly-controlled public demonstrations but rights groups said they still fell short of international standards.Until now, protesters in the energy-rich country needed to apply for permission to hold a rally, and permits for political demonstrations were almost never granted.According to the legislation signed into law by President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev on Monday, demonstrators should notify authorities in advance of a rally taking place in one or more of the areas designated by the authorities for holding protests.FILE – Then-acting President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev delivers a speech in Astana, Kazakhstan, March 20, 2019.It also barred foreigners from joining protests or organizing them.Shortly after taking office last year, Tokayev pledged to reform the post-Soviet country’s restrictive legislation on public assembly.Yevgeniy Zhovtis, director of the Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law, criticized the new law.”There is nothing in international conventions on freedom of assembly about some sort of ‘designated places’,” he told AFP.”There is either freedom to assemble or its lack,” he said after parliament passed the bill last week.Clement Nyaletsossi Voule, a U.N. envoy on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly, said in April that parts of the new law “do not seem to be in line with international standards.”He called the notification process in the draft legislation “a de-facto approval procedure.”The draft law was also panned in late April by international rights groups in an open letter to the president.It was repeatedly criticized by local civil society activists, who said a national emergency imposed over the coronavirus pandemic had further limited space to debate the legislation.Tokayev, 67, has tried to position himself as a moderate reformer against the background of his predecessor Nursultan Nazarbayev’s reign of three decades that saw regular crackdowns on opposition and the free press.Nazarbayev, 79, hand-picked Tokayev as his successor after retiring from the presidency in March 2019 but retained key posts — notably the powerful chairmanships of the country’s security council and ruling party. 
 
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 The family’s two-room apartment slants downhill, and there is no running water.Three-year-old Zaineb is crying from hunger. The girl hasn’t eaten all day, says her mother, Ismahan, as she rolls rice into grape leaves for what will be the family’s evening meal.By afternoon, Zaineb, 3, cries because she hasn’t eaten any food and she is hungry, on May 20, 2020 in Istanbul. (Heather Murdock/VOA)They plucked the leaves from trees, she explains, because they can’t afford to buy them.Like many Syrian refugee families living in Turkey during the pandemic, they also cannot pay their rent.Eight people including Ismahan’s two children are crowded into the tiny apartment and an abandoned shelter nearby. The rent is only $30, very cheap for Istanbul, but they haven’t paid in two months.“The landlord says he will kick us out if we don’t pay,” says Ismahan. “He doesn’t like Syrians.”Across the country, families like hers have moved from poor to destitute as they are increasingly isolated by the pandemic lockdown.Most Syrian refugees rely on incomes from the country’s informal sector, in jobs such as cleaning, textiles, shop work and street sales. Most of these jobs have been wiped out since the onset of COVID-19.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
Syrian refugee Mohammed, 45, says since the pandemic began, he can no longer sleep because he’s worried about money, on May 20, 2020 in Istanbul. (Heather Murdock/VOA)Hostility and neglectA few kilometers away from Ismahan’s home, Mohammed, his wife Marwa and their five children live in a slightly more spacious apartment, paid for by a local charity.In early March, the family lived in another Turkish city, and Mohammed made money painting houses and fixing motorcycles. But when the government announced it was opening its border with Greece, Mohammed sold his furniture, and they headed for the border.Like tens of thousands of others, he thought this meant they could move to Europe.
However, Greece never opened its side of the border. After nearly two weeks camping in a petrol station, the family boarded a bus to Istanbul, homeless and broke. Aid groups met them at the bus station and helped them resettle.“But they told me they won’t pay our rent again,” says Mohammed, as his older children push his infant daughter around in an empty box that once contained food aid. “Now, I stay up all night, every night, worrying about how to keep my children off the streets.”Like in many places, the pandemic is straining Turkey’s economy, with the poorest people suffering the most, on May 20, 2020 in Istanbul. (Heather Murdock/VOA)Turkey hosts over 3.5 million Syrian refugees, more than any other country in the world. But as the country grows poorer, public resentment toward the refugees deepens.“People here tell us all the time, ‘Go back to your country,’” explains Mohammed. But as a former rebel fighter in Syria, he doesn’t have that option. “They think we are taking food from their mouths, but we are not. We are just trying to work to feed our families.”Marwa and four of her five children in a home paid for by charity for this month, in Istanbul, May 20, 2020. They don’t know how they can pay next month. (Heather Murdock/VOA)Mental strainIsolation from the pandemic has also brought back memories of the war, says Marwa, Mohammed’s wife, making her feel like she is reliving the worst moments of her life.“It is the same fear,” she continues. “In Syria, we were stuck in the house afraid of being killed by the bombs. Now, we are afraid of going out and getting the virus.”More than 5 million people have fled Syria in nine years of war, and nearly all of them have suffered some kind of mental trauma, says Dr. Mohammed Khaled Hamza, a neuropsychologist and mental health professor with Lamar University in Texas, after thousands of interviews with Syrian refugees.The impact of the war on Syrian families’ mental health is so great that Hamza and the Syrian American Medical Society call it “Human Devastation Syndrome.”Ismahan says these grape leaves rolled with rice and some yogurt is all they can afford for a day, on May 20, 2020 in Istanbul. (Heather Murdock/VOA)And for many Syrian refugees stuck in camps and on the fringes of society, the pandemic is making it worse.“It’s bad when you have health problems,” says Hamza. “But it’s much worse when you have health problems and don’t have enough money or the finances to treat yourself.”At his apartment in Istanbul, Mohammed describes increasing anxiety and feelings of depression caused by the financial strain.“When your children come to you and ask for food because they are hungry,” he says, “the hardest thing in the world is to say, ‘No, we don’t have any.’” 
 

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Russian prosecutors have asked a Moscow court to find former Marine Paul Whelan guilty of espionage — a charge Whelan and U.S. officials vehemently deny — and sentence him to 18 years in prison.Whelan’s lawyer, Vladimir Zherebenkov, said on May 25 that the Moscow City Court set June 15 as the date to hand down its verdict after a high-profile trial that has strained ties with Washington.”Frankly speaking, we are all in shock,” Zherebenkov said outside the Moscow City Court, where the trial was held.According to Zherebenkov, his client reacted “with dignity” to the prosecutor’s demand, adding that, in all, 15 witnesses had testified at the trial.”The prosecutor questioned its four witnesses, who were mainly operatives of the secret service, while defense questioned its 11 witnesses, who are people Whelan was in touch with while in Russia. All of them testified that Paul had not ‘recruited’ anyone and had never collected any secret information,” Zherebenkov said.The 50-year-old Whelan, who also holds British, Canadian, and Irish citizenships, again told the court in his final statement that he was not guilty.Whelan was arrested in Moscow in December 2018 and in March of this year went on trial, despite the coronavirus pandemic and diplomatic protests.Prosecutors claim that a flash drive found in his possession contained classified information.He says he was framed when he took a USB drive from an acquaintance thinking it contained holiday photos and that the allegations of spying against him are politically motivated. He has also accused his prison guards of mistreatment.The trial was held behind closed doors because the evidence includes classified materials, as well as because of measures taken to slow the spread of the coronavirus.Whelan was head of global security at a U.S. auto-parts supplier at the time of his arrest. He and his relatives insist he visited Russia to attend a wedding.U.S. officials have urged Moscow to release Whelan and criticized the Russian authorities for their “shameful treatment” of him.
 
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Greece restarted regular ferry services to its islands Monday, and cafes and restaurants were also back open for business as the country accelerated efforts to salvage its tourism season.
Travel to the islands had been generally off-limits since a lockdown was imposed in late March to halt the spread of the coronavirus, with only goods suppliers and permanent residents allowed access.
But the country’s low infection rate in the COVID-19 pandemic prompted the government to start the holiday season three weeks earlier than the expected June 15 date, as other Mediterranean countries — including Italy, Spain and Turkey — are grappling with deadlier outbreaks.
At Bairaktaris restaurant on central Monastiraki Square in Athens, waiters and staff wearing purple face masks and some with plastic visors, sliced meat from the revolving gyros grill, arranged flowers on widely spaced tables and waited for customers, who remained cautious Monday.
Spiros Bairaktaris, the exuberant owner, is carrying on a family business running for 140 years and has framed pictures on the wall of himself sitting next to supermodel Naomi Campbell, singer Cesaria Evora, and other past celebrity customers. He says he’s optimistic about the season despite the slow start.
“This has never happened before,” he told the AP. “We normally sit 100 in the inside area, now it’ll be just 30. … There won’t be any bouzouki music or dancing until we get the all-clear from the doctors.
“But I think people from all over Europe will come here because we have a low death toll, thank God.”
Greece has had nearly 2,900 infections and 171 deaths from the virus. Italy has seen nearly 33,000 coronavirus patients die, Spain has had nearly 29,000 dead and Turkey has had 4,340 deaths, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.
Social distancing regulations and passenger limits have been imposed on ferries and at restaurants to ward off new infections.
State-run health services to combat the coronavirus are being expanded to the islands, with intensive care units being placed on five islands: Lesbos, Samos, Rhodes, Zakynthos, and Corfu, along with existing ICU facilities on the island of Crete.
Tourism is a vital part of the Greek economy, directly contributing more than 10% of the country’s GDP as Greece struggles to emerge from years of financial crisis. More than 34 million visitors traveled to Greece last year, spending 18.2 billion euros ($19.5 billion), according to government data.
With a view of the Acropolis and padded lounge seating, it’s usually hard for cafe goers to find a spot at Kayak, but midday Monday it was still largely empty.
“Eighty percent of our business is from tourism, and people in Greece are cautious, they fear they will lose their job,” owner Liza Meneretzi said. “I’ve been running the cafe for 30 years, and I’ve never seen anything like this. But I was born an optimist, so we’ll see how things go.” 
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Vietnam has one of the only economies in the world that will grow in 2020, a distinction to be boosted as it heads into a final vote on its trade deal with Europe this week. The National Assembly of Vietnam scheduled a vote on the long-awaited deal for Thursday. The European Union Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) is seen as one tool for the economy to recover from COVID-19, as well as a catalyst for labor and environmental reforms.  Businesses shut down for weeks, but reopening before most nations helped Vietnam lure foreign investment, like Apple’s first-ever decision to make an entirely new product in Vietnam, its latest headphones. The Southeast Asian nation reported no deaths from the virus and 325 cases, sparing it from the worst of the crisis, particularly as many neighbors brace for recession.  The deal, which is the EU’s first with a developing nation, is expected to sail through Vietnam’s rubberstamp parliament and incentivize businesses to improve their product standards for export. Parliamentarian Hoang Van Cuong said the state should support businesses in making use of the deal.  “The government must make a list of exported goods to the EU market,” Hoang Van Cuong, a Member of Parliament representing Hanoi, said last week in a discussion to tee up the vote. “These goods are required to meet EU standards.” A cobblestone street is seen in Brussels, the seat of the European Union, which Vietnam is awaiting to finalize a trade agreement. (VOA/Ha Nguyen)Officials on both sides call the trade deal ambitious because of its social and eco-friendly goals. Besides ultimately scrapping 99% of tariffs between the European Union and Vietnam, the deal requires the latter nation to legalize labor unions independent of the ruling communist party and strengthen environmental rules, such as those against illegal logging. And there are other “major legal gaps” Vietnam will have to fill to enact the deal, the World Bank said. These relate to animal and plant sanitary standards, investor-state disputes, and rules of origin. “If Vietnam can act in a decisive manner to close legal and implementation capacity gaps, it can capitalize a trade deal whose direct benefits are estimated to be largest in the country’s history,” Ousmane Dione, World Bank country director for Vietnam, said. “With COVID-19 acting as a reset button and EVFTA as an accelerator, now is the perfect time to embrace deeper domestic reforms.” Vietnam’s major exports to the European Union include garments, footwear and other textiles, electronics, and agricultural goods, while imports from the bloc include machinery, medicines, vehicle parts and food products. The trade deal should increase Vietnam’s exports to the world’s biggest market, building on the investment gains that were made possible because Vietnam limited the pandemic’s impact, Trinh Nguyen, a senior economist for emerging Asia at Natixis, an investment bank, said. “Zero is certainly the new hero, and Vietnam is a frontier market that can lay claim to the impressive feat of having zero reported [deaths] from COVID-19,” she wrote in an analysis of the trade deal. She added that to reap the full benefit of the EU deal, however, Vietnam would need changes, such as more domestic businesses joining in global supply chains, rather than relying on foreign businesses as investors relocate from China. “Vietnam’s gross export growth is impressive but beneath the strong performance is domestic weakness,” Nguyen said. If that weakness is addressed, “Vietnam’s manufacturing luster will not be diminished and will continue to outshine the region in its higher growth trends.” Should the trade deal take effect by July this year as expected, it would be the EU’s second in Southeast Asia, after one with Singapore.
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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is defending one of his top advisers who has come under scrutiny for violating travel lockdowns.
 
Johnson said he would not fire adviser Dominic Cummings, who drove 400 kilometers to his parents’ house from London while he and his wife were sick with the novel coronavirus.
 
Opposition politicians have called for Cummings’ resignation or dismissal as he violated clear restrictions on any trips outside of one’s primary residence, other than for essential business.
 
British regulations also demand that anyone showing signs of COVID-19 self-isolate.
 
But Cummings said that he had to travel when he realized he and his wife were becoming sick in order to ensure that his four-year-old son would be looked after.
 
In a press conference Sunday, Johnson defended Cummings’ actions, saying he acted “responsibly, legally and with integrity” and “followed the instincts of every father and every parent.”
 
But even some members of Johnson’s own conservative party have said Cummings should be dismissed.
 
“Dominic Cummings has a track record of believing that the rules don’t apply to him and treating the scrutiny that should come to anyone in a position of authority with contempt. The government would be better without him,” MP Damian Collins wrote on Twitter.Dominic Cummings has a track record of believing that the rules don’t apply to him and treating the scrutiny that should come to anyone in a position of authority with contempt. The government would be better without him.— Damian Collins (@DamianCollins) May 24, 2020 Britain has recorded the second-highest death toll from COVID-19 in the world, with over 36,000 deaths from the virus.
 
Johnson was the first world leader to test positive for the disease but returned to work after weeks of recovery.
 
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