Pirates attacked a British-flagged oil tanker off the coast of Yemen Sunday, causing some minor damage but no injuries.Operators of the Stolt Apel say six gunmen in two separate speedboats sped toward the tanker about 140 kilometers off Yemen in the Gulf of Aden.Armed guards aboard the boat returned fire, disabling one of the speedboats.A spokesman for Stolt Tankers says their vessel suffered only minor damage and no one on board was hurt. No leaks from the tanker are reported.It is unclear if any of the pirates were hurt or where they were from.Maritime security experts say this was the ninth incident of piracy at sea in the Gulf of Aden this year. 
…

On a weekend when many pandemic-weary people emerged from weeks of lockdown, leaders in the U.S. and Europe weighed the risks and rewards of lifting COVID-19 restrictions knowing that a vaccine could take years to develop.In separate stark warnings, two major European leaders bluntly told their citizens that the world needs to adapt to living with the coronavirus and cannot wait to be saved by a vaccine.”We are confronting this risk, and we need to accept it, otherwise we would never be able to relaunch,” Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte said, acceding to a push by regional leaders to allow restaurants, bars and beach facilities to open Monday, weeks ahead of an earlier timetable.The warnings from Conte and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson came as governments worldwide and many U.S. states struggled with restarting economies blindsided by the pandemic.  With 36 million newly unemployed in the U.S. alone, economic pressures are building even as authorities acknowledge that reopening risks setting off new waves of infections and deaths. In the U.S., images of crowded bars, beaches and boardwalks suggested some weren’t heeding warnings to safely enjoy reopened spaces while limiting the risks of spreading infection.  Britain’s Johnson, who was hospitalized last month with a serious bout of COVID-19, speculated Sunday that a vaccine may not be developed at all, despite the huge global effort to produce one. Health experts say the world could be months, if not years, away from having a vaccine available to everyone.”There remains a very long way to go, and I must be frank that a vaccine might not come to fruition,” Johnson wrote in the Mail on Sunday newspaper.  The coronavirus has infected over 4.6 million people and killed more than 314,000 worldwide, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University that experts say under counts the true toll of the pandemic. The U.S. has reported over 89,000 dead and Europe has seen at least 160,000 deaths.For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness and lead to death.  Some experts noted recent infection surges in Texas, including a 1,800-case jump Saturday, with Amarillo identified as a growing hot spot. Texas officials said increased testing was playing a big role — the more you look for something, the more you find it. Many are watching hospitalizations and death rates in the weeks ahead to see exactly what the new Texas numbers really mean.But Texas was one of the earliest states to allow stores and restaurants to reopen, and some experts worry it is a sign of the kind of outbreak re-ignition that might occur when social distancing and other prevention measures are loosened or ignored.Dr. Michael Saag at the University of Alabama at Birmingham called Texas “a warning shot” for states to closely watch any surges in cases and have plans to swiftly take steps to stop them.”No one knows for sure exactly the right way forward, and what I think we’re witnessing is a giant national experiment,” said Saag, an infectious diseases researcher.In the U.S., many states have lifted stay-at-home orders and other restrictions, allowing some types of businesses to reopen.  Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, told CNN on Sunday that he was concerned to see images of a crowded bar in Columbus, Ohio, on the first day that outdoor dining establishments were allowed to reopen.”We made the decision to start opening up Ohio, and about 90% of our economy is back open, because we thought it was a huge risk not to open,” he said. “But we also know it’s a huge risk in opening.”The Isle of Palms, one of South Carolina’s most popular beaches, saw a rush of visitors this weekend— with Mayor Jimmy Carroll calling Saturday the busiest day he has seen in his more than 60 years there. But police said almost everyone on the beach and in the ocean was staying a safe distance apart.Houses of worship are beginning to look ahead to resumption of in-person services, with some eyeing that shift this month. But the challenges are steeper in states with ongoing public health restrictions.In Elgin, Illinois, Northwest Bible Baptist Church had sought to welcome back worshipers on Sunday, preparing to scan people’s temperatures and purchasing protective equipment. But that was postponed after local authorities raised questions and the church is now in talks about parameters for holding future services.The church’s preparations were “more than what they’d had to do if they were at Home Depot or Lowe’s or Walmart,” said Jeremy Dys, a counsel at First Liberty Institute, the legal nonprofit representing Northwest Bible Baptist. “Somehow people going to church are incapable, it’s insinuated, of safely gathering.”Underscoring the tradeoffs involved in resuming such gatherings, officials in California’s Butte County announced Friday that a congregant had tested positive for the virus after attending a Mother’s Day church event that drew more than 180 people.”Moving too quickly through the reopening process can cause a major setback and could require us to revert back to more restrictive measures,” the county’s public health director said in a statement.Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has suggested that early predictions were overblown, as he attempts to lure residents back to public life and help rebuild the state’s battered economy. On Monday, Florida restaurants will be allowed to operate at 50% capacity, as can retail shops, museums and libraries. Gyms can also begin reopening.Paula Walborsky, a 74-year-old retired attorney in Tallahassee, Florida, has resisted the temptation to get her hair done and turned down dinner invitations from close friends. But when one of her city’s public swimming pools reopened by appointment, she decided to test the waters. Just a handful of other swimmers shared the water as she swam laps and did water aerobics.”I was so excited to be back in the water, and it just felt wonderful,” Walborsky said.New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo got tested for the coronavirus on live television Sunday. Any New Yorkers experiencing flu-like symptoms or those returning to work can now get tested, Cuomo said.”We’re all talking about what is the spread of the virus when you increase economic activity. Well, how do you know what the spread of the virus is? Testing, testing, testing,” he said. 
…

Albanian police clashed with demonstrators, including artists and opposition supporters Sunday who were protesting the demolition of the country’s National Theater in the capital Tirana.About 40 people were detained early in the morning and police pulled a group of artists away from the building, before heavy machinery started to bring it down.Protesters chanted “Down with the dictatorships.”The leader of the opposition Democratic Party, Lulzim Basha, renewed calls on residents to topple the government over the theater’s destruction. Basha said, “This is injustice, this violence will continue, this will not stop until this government is gone. There is no other way.” Albanian artists and right activists, both in Albania and abroad, had been protesting for about two years against the government’s decision to destroy the old National Theater, built by Italians during World War II, and replace it with a new one.The artists and others wanted it renovated instead, arguing that the old theater was part of the country’s national heritage.They have directly accused Prime Minister Edi Rama and Tirana’s Mayor Erjon Veliaj of corruption. President Ilir Meta had labeled the theater’s demolition ‘a criminal activity’ in his filing with the Constitutional Court last week against the move.Meanwhile, the European Union delegation to Albania said in a statement it was following Sunday’s developments “with deep concern” and called on the parties to avoid an escalation of the confrontation. 
…

More and more migrants are crossing, Europe is closing its ports and no humanitarian ships are carrying out rescues. As the coronavirus pandemic dominates headlines, activists fear the Mediterranean is the scene of an overlooked “tragedy.”A handful of migrant landings have taken place in recent weeks, including 79 people who arrived last weekend in Italy — a country under fire even before the outbreak for refusing to allow private vessels carrying migrants to dock.International organizations and NGOs say the situation is bleak, as all rescue operations were ceased as of last week.”If there is no help at sea and countries drag their feet to rescue and allow people to disembark, we’re going to end up with a fairly serious humanitarian situation,” said Vincent Cochetel, special envoy for the central Mediterranean with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).He estimates that 179 people have died in the area since January.Italy and Malta closed their ports at the beginning of April as the pandemic hit Europe hard. At that time, only two rescue boats were in operation — the Alan Kurdi vessel run by the German NGO Sea-Eye, and Aita Mari chartered by the Spanish organization Maydayterraneo.Both have now been grounded by the Italian coastguard for “technical” problems, a move denounced as unjustified by campaign groups.Meanwhile Malta’s Prime Minister Robert Abela said last month that he was under investigation for his role in the death of at least five migrants who tried to sail from Libya to Italy. A Maltese patrol boat allegedly cut the cables of the migrant dinghy’s motor.More departuresThe situation is all the more dire, Cochetel said, as departures from the Libyan coast have nearly quadrupled compared with the same period a year ago, with 6,629 attempts to reach Europe between January and the end of April.The number of departures from Tunisia had more than doubled, Cochetel said.”Whether or not there are (rescue) boats at sea, it has no influence on departures — this period of coronavirus has amply proven that,” he said.He said that “75 percent of migrants in Libya have lost their jobs since the lockdown measures, which can lead to despair.”Sophie Beau, general director of SOS Mediterranee, a French-based NGO that charters a rescue boat called the Ocean Viking, questions the motives behind the withdrawal of the two vessels.”Two boats one after the other, it really raises questions about why they were seized,” she said.The Ocean Viking will return to sea “as soon as possible” despite the criminalization of aid groups, Beau said.”It’s very dramatic… and counter to international maritime law, which requires us to help anyone in distress as quickly as possible,” Beau said.”Now, as there are no witnesses, we don’t know the extent of the possible tragedy taking place” in the Mediterranean, she added.’Invisible shipwrecks’The central Mediterranean “remains the most dangerous maritime migration route on Earth,” the International Organization for Migration warned.”In the current context, risks that invisible shipwrecks are occurring out of sight of the international community have grown,” it said.Beau warned that “managing the epidemic, closing ports and borders… in addition to these constraints, there is also the lack of a coordinated mechanism,” referring to the agreement on the distribution of migrants between European countries after they have disembarked.The agreement was drawn up in Malta at the end of 2019 but has been slow to materialize.In a joint letter sent to the European Commission and reviewed by AFP, the French, Italian, Spanish and German interior ministers called for the establishment of a “solidarity mechanism” for “search and rescue” at sea.”Currently, a handful of member states carry an excessive burden, which shows a lack of solidarity and risks making the whole system dysfunctional,” they said in the letter.Pending a European agreement, and in the absence of humanitarian vessels, 162 migrants are currently stranded at sea on two tourist vessels.  
…

Serbia has deployed troops near a town not far from the border with Croatia, where hundreds of migrants hoping to reach the European Union are located.In a statement issued Saturday, the Serbian Defense Ministry said President Aleksandar Vucic sent the troops to “secure” three migrant camps near the western town of Sid, where about 1,500 people, mostly from Syria, Afghanistan and Pakistan, are being housed.Vucic said he ordered the deployment to protect the local population from alleged harassment and robberies committed by the migrants.He told TV Prva that, after a state of emergency imposed to fight the coronavirus spread in Serbia was lifted earlier this month, the migrants started venturing outside the camps, committing “petty crimes and illegal entries into houses.””Because of that, people are feeling unsafe,” Vucic said.There are an estimated 4,000 migrants stranded in Serbia, one of the main transit routes through the Balkans and on to the European Union for people fleeing wars and poverty.
…

The clash between China and the United States over COVID-19 has caused a rift between European nations at the U.N. Security Council over a call for cease-fires in some conflict zones during the pandemic.For two months, France has been trying to corral Washington and Beijing into a compromise on the resolution, which would urge a halt to fighting in countries like Afghanistan and Yemen as they struggle to cope with COVID-19.France and Tunisia had teamed up to draft the resolution.But on Tuesday, Germany and Estonia threw their hats in the ring with a competing resolution — one they did not coordinate with France, and which includes language that would placate the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump.The same day, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke by telephone with Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu, with the State Department saying they “discussed cooperative efforts” at the Security Council.’Clean up the mess'”Everybody knows who is behind the new draft,” quipped one diplomat under condition of anonymity.”Estonia and Germany are just trying to clean up the mess the U.S. has created,” said Richard Gowan, who follows the United Nations for the International Crisis Group, which studies conflict resolution.At the heart of the dispute is Trump’s offensive against the World Health Organization, from which he has vowed to cut all U.S. funding.President Donald Trump is pictured with the World Health Organization logo in this photo illustration.Trump has accused the WHO of responding too slowly to the illness, which had killed more than 311,000 people worldwide as of Saturday evening EDT, and of blindly accepting China’s initial assurances about the virus first discovered in its metropolis of Wuhan.Beijing denies wrongdoing and, as do others, accuses Trump of seeking to shift attention from his handling of COVID-19 in the United States, which has suffered by far the highest death toll.China has threatened for the past two months to veto any resolution that did not reference the WHO, while the United States has indicated it would do likewise if the text did mention the U.N. agency.Compromise collapsesThe French-Tunisian draft tried to skirt around the rift by speaking of the role of “specialized health agencies.”The United States and China both indicated last week that they were fine with the compromise — but Washington reversed course a day later.That prompted the new initiative by Estonia, which holds the rotating presidency of the Security Council this month. The Estonian-German draft makes no mention of the WHO.”The Europeans are united on the substance but disagree on the method,” another diplomat said.Several diplomats said that some countries were taken aback by the Estonian-German effort, and that it would be difficult to resolve the two texts.”The French are not happy,” Gowan said, but he doubted that any council member “really thinks a resolution will make a difference at this stage.””It is just necessary to end this pointless debate at last,” he said.FILE – U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks during a press conference at the African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Feb. 8, 2020.Violence in Afghanistan, Libya and Yemen has continued despite the virus, and despite calls first led by Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for global peace.Even if France and Tunisia press ahead, their room for maneuver is limited.A diplomat doubted that either the United States or China wanted a resolution, believing it would only strengthen the hand of Guterres in the future.Several sources saw growing tension between France, the only EU member with a Security Council veto, and the non-permanent European members, as Paris chose to focus on negotiating with the other permanent members.The three EU members have divergent interests, Gowan noted.France seeks to show its clout as one of the Big Five, Germany hopes to highlight its leadership against the pandemic, and Estonia, a former Soviet republic with historic tensions with Moscow, is prioritizing its security relationship with Washington.After Estonia, France takes over the Security Council presidency and then Germany.The three powers called a news conference this week to celebrate the “European Spring” — but it was abruptly canceled.
…

The Italian government will begin lifting coronavirus limits on Monday, but tourists will face stringent rules in hotels, restaurants and on beaches.Very strict COVID-19 lockdown measures have been in place in Italy since early March. The government has established general guidelines for reopening for the entire country, while each region may adopt its own changes depending on the particular situation.The national government may decide to close certain areas again at any time should there be a spike in new coronavirus infections.The first death from the coronavirus in Italy occurred February 21. Since then, according to Johns Hopkins University statistics, more than 31,700 people have died in the country from the virus, third highest among the world’s nations.Italians can now be seen again walking the streets of their cities, wearing protective masks and gloves, and beginning Monday, all shops can reopen to the public, with new rules. Social distancing of at least one meter must continue to be maintained, and only a designated number of people at a time will be able to enter stores.Italians will be able to return to bars, restaurants and beauty salons. Social distancing rules apply, and waiters and owners will have to wear face masks at all times.Italians can travel within their regions starting Monday, and from region to region and abroad beginning June 3. Tourists can return starting June 3, as well.Additionally, church services will resume, though only a certain number will be allowed to attend. Churches will be completely sanitized at the end of every day, one parish priest reported.Schools, universities, cinemas and theaters will remain closed for the time being.
…

Greek police have reinforced security around a community of Roma in central Greece as government health officials prepare to enter the settlement today to remove 35 people infected with the coronavirus.The infections mark a sharp uptick in Greece’s almost spotless record of COVID cases. Even so, members of the Roma community at the settlement of Nea Smyrni are resisting a lockdown order, staging violent protests in response to what they call racial targeting.Dumpsters were set ablaze and a local journalist was brutally beaten, hit with stones and pummeled in the face. Health officials were chased away and residents refused to heed a 14-day lockdown order on the settlement of 3,000, among the biggest in the country. No arrests were made for fear of inflaming the worst COVID-related protests to grip Greece since the outbreak of the pandemic.However, the deputy minister for civil protection and crisis management in the Ministry of Citizen Protection, Nikos Hardalias, said health officials will return again today to remove the infected patients. He is calling for cooperation.”Stopping the spread of this virus will only benefit local communities, so cooperation is imperative,” he said.Hardalias refused to elaborate, but authorities have boosted patrols around the settlement to enforce the quarantine.This is not the first time Nea Smyrni has been struck by the coronavirus, nor is it the first 14-day lockdown authorities have decreed for it. Locals, now though, are defying the order, saying it is more racially than health-motivated.Emerging from the crowd of protesters, one person held a batch of medical tests in his hand to explain why.He said several residents had undergone COVID antibody testing at local private laboratories, and all of them showed they were immune to the virus.Health officials here are dismissing the results. They say such blood screening exams are not reliable enough. They say testing can go wrong in several places and that only detailed screenings at state hospitals should be trusted. Whether the Roma in Nea Smyrni are convinced remains to be seen.
With one of Europe’s lowest infection rates, Greek authorities are not taking any chances.Police say they will remain on standby, ready to intervene and, this time, make arrests if new violence erupts and the infected Roma are prevented from being taken to a local hospital for treatment and observation. 
…

French police have arrested a man accused of funding militias that massacred hundreds of thousands of people in Rwanda 1994 genocide.The French Justice Ministry said police arrested Felicien Kabuga near Paris Saturday after 26 years on the run.The 84-year-old was Rwanda’s most wanted man and one of the last primary suspects in the 1994 slaughter of some 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus by Hutu extremists.Kabuga, once one of Rwanda’s wealthiest men, was indicted in 1997 on a charge of genocide and six other criminal counts, according to an international tribunal established by the United Nations.Authorities said Kabuga was living under a false identity in Asnieres-Sur-Seine, north of Paris, with the aid of his children.Kabuga, a Hutu businessman who had a $5 million U.S. bounty on his head, allegedly funded the purchases of large quantities of machetes and agricultural tools that were used as weapons during the genocide, a U.N. news website said.The justice ministry said Kabuga will appear before the Paris appeal court before being brought in front of the international court in The Hague.International justice authorities are still pursuing Rwandan genocide suspects Augustin Bizimana and Protais Mpiranya. 
…

French-Iranian academic Fariba Adelkhah has been sentenced to six-years in prison by an Iranian court, according to her lawyer.The lawyer, Saeid Dehghan, said Adelkhah was sentenced to five years for conspiring against Iran’s national security and one year for propaganda against the Islamic Republic.France has called for Adelkhah’s release, but Iran does not recognize dual citizenship for Iranians.Adelkhah, a sixty-year-old anthropologist, was arrested last June with Roland Marchal, a French academic.Marchal was released by Iran earlier this year as part of a prisoner exchange with France. 
…

A Montenegrin prosecutor on Friday ordered the release from detention of a Serbian Orthodox Church bishop and eight priests, whose arrests had sparked protests and clashes with police.Several hundred people gathered outside the detention facility in the western town of Niksic, greeting Bishop Joanikije and the other priests as they left it late Friday.”Let this fight continue but with God’s means, truth and justice, and with love towards our homeland, ” Joanikije said.The priests were detained Tuesday for leading a procession attended by a few thousand people without wearing surgical masks or respecting distancing rules.Their arrests sparked protests in several towns in Montenegro and Serbia, during which protesters clashed with police, and dozens were arrested.Meanwhile, tensions between the government and the Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro over a religious law are continuing. The church says the law would strip it of its property.The ban of large gatherings in Montenegro is still in force, as one of the measures to contain the spread of the coronavirus.
…

The United States will donate 200 medical ventilators to Moscow via U.S. military transport beginning next week, to aid against the worsening coronavirus outbreak in Russia.Government communications obtained by VOA reveal that the first 50 ventilators are being produced in California and will be ready for shipment to a surgical center in Moscow on Wednesday. The remaining 150 will be ready for shipment on May 26.The U.S. government is donating 100 percent of the cost of the ventilators, their start-up components and their delivery expenses, which officials said totals roughly $4.7 million.U.S. military aircraft will be used to transport the medical ventilators, considered the “best option” due to extremely limited commercial flights. Officials stressed within the communications that the ventilators are for the Russian people and do not signal a partnership with the Russian military.“There is no cooperation between the U.S. and Russian militaries, as is prohibited under the National Defense Authorization Act,” according to the communications.The COVID-19 outbreak has recently surged in Russia, which now has the second-highest number of cases in the world at nearly 263,000 cases, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. Only the U.S., with 1.4 million cases, has more.The deliveries later this month will fulfill an offer made by President Donald Trump during a news conference in mid-April.Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin accepted Trump’s offer to provide ventilators during a call between the two leaders that focused on the coronavirus as well as arms control, according to the White House.The United States has aided many countries battling the coronavirus pandemic and will continue to do so in the future, according to officials.Ventilator firesOn Wednesday, Russia suspended the use of some Russian-made, Aventa-M medical ventilators following fatal hospital fires in Moscow and St. Petersburg reportedly involving the machines.Russia sent a batch of the same type of ventilators to the United States in the beginning of April due to projected shortages in the states of New York and New Jersey.U.S. officials have said the Russian ventilators were not used or deployed to hospitals due to a flattening of the coronavirus curve, and the two states are returning the ventilators to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) “out of an abundance of caution.”  
…

Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven defended his country’s strategy in fighting the spread of COVID-19, pushing back on the notion Sweden has taken a “business as usual” attitude toward the pandemic.Speaking to foreign correspondents Friday in the capital, Stockholm, Lofven insisted life is not carrying on as normal in Sweden, as he said its international reputation would suggest.Other European nations have expressed concern about Sweden’s relatively “soft approach” to fighting the coronavirus. While they did ban large gatherings, restaurants and schools for younger children have stayed open. The government has urged social distancing, and Swedes have largely complied.A woman sits respecting social distancing at the Gallerian shopping center, as the spread of the coronavirus disease continues, in Stockholm, Sweden, May 12, 2020.Lofven said many people have been staying home, which he says has had a positive effect. He did acknowledge Sweden’s 3,500 deaths, which was far higher, per capita, than its Scandanavian neighbors Finland, Norway and Denmark, all which took a stricter approach.Lovgren said most of Sweden’s casualties were among the elderly, which, he says had little to do with people “walking around” the streets.He said Sweden, like several other countries, did not manage to protect the most vulnerable people, including the elderly, despite best intentions.Swedish media in recent weeks have reported cases where retirement homes have seen a large death toll, with staff continuing to work despite a lack of protective gear or despite exhibiting symptoms and potentially infecting residents.Some retirement homes also have seen a shortage of staff because employees either have refused to work or have been encouraged to stay home even with mild symptoms. 
 
…

Russia’s media regulator, Roskomnadzor, has asked Google to block an article about the controversy over official data on coronavirus deaths in the country on the website of MBKh Media independent online publication.MBKh Media said late on May 14 that its article was based on a report by the Financial Times, which estimated that the real number of people who have died in Russia from COVID-19 could be 70 percent higher than reported by the country’s health officials.
 MBKh Media said it had received a message from Google a day earlier, saying that the request to block the article was based on the decision of the Prosecutor-General’s Office that claimed the article contained “calls for riots, extremist activities, [and] participation in mass public events held in violation of the established order.”
 
According to MBKh Media, which is hosted on the Google Cloud Platform, Google asked it to remove the article from its website or make it inaccessible in Russia.
 
The Roskomnadzor request was not listed on the Google transparency report web page as of May 15.
 
MBKh Media also said the article in question indicated that its content was based on the Financial Times report.
 
As of May 15, Russian authorities said the country had 10,598 new infections, bringing the official number of confirmed cases to 262,843, the second-highest total in the world, lagging only behind the United States. The death toll stands at 2,418, up 113 over the previous day.
 
Experts have questioned whether testing procedures were flawed, or whether local and regional officials were misclassifying cases. In some places, such as St. Petersburg, for example, the number of pneumonia cases went sharply above seasonal norms.
 
The Moscow City Health Department issued a statement on May 13 saying that more than 60 percent of coronavirus patients’ deaths in the city had been caused by “alternative causes,” and therefore such deaths had not been included to COVID-19 death toll.
 In a May 13 interview with Current Time, the World Health Organization’s representative in Russia downplayed doubts about the country’s coronavirus statistics.
 
Melita Vujnovic also told the television channel in the interview that the epidemic is “in the stabilization phase and is moving into the decline phase.” Current Time is a Russian-language network led by RFE/RL in cooperation with VOA.
 
…

Protesters in Montenegro took on the streets again Thursday, a day after police arrested dozens of demonstrators demanding the release of priests detained after leading a religious procession in disregard to the lockdown regulations.Protesters had clashed with police at rallies Wednesday over the detainment of eight Serbian Orthodox Church priests who are facing charges of violating health regulations.Authorities said 26 police officers were injured during the clashes in the towns of Niksic and Pljevlja. One policeman has been hospitalized.Montenegrin Prime Minister Dusko Markovic condemned the clashes in a televised statement on Thursday.”Everything we have achieved in the past three months of devoted work and mutual renunciation has been brought into question,” Markovic said. “We are afraid that in 10 days we could find ourselves in the same situation we were in two months ago with the great danger and consequences to the heath and lives for you all. There is no reasonable explanation or justification for such behavior.”The priests had led a procession Tuesday attended by a few thousand people without wearing surgical masks or respecting distancing rules.In Serbia, meanwhile, a few hundred protesters gathered in the capital, Belgrade, to demand the release of the eight priests.The ban of large gatherings in Montenegro is still in force as one of the measures to contain the spread of the coronavirus.  
…

Turkey is easing COVID-19 restrictions as the government claims success in containing the virus. While infection and death rates are falling, concerns remain that the move may be coming too soon. Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul.
…

Once they scrambled to grab what they could from a disintegrating Soviet state, exploiting the political and economic chaos of the post-communist Boris Yeltsin era to secure state enterprises, oilfields and mineral deposits at knockdown prices. But now Russia’s uber-wealthy oligarchs are rushing to shore up a failing state effort to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
 
Rumblings of discontent are growing in Russia over Vladimir Putin’s handling of the pandemic. His approval ratings fell to an historic low for him — down to 59 % last month from 63 % the previous month, according to the independent pollster Levada Center.
 
Even the normally loyal state-owned broadcaster Russia Today ran a report last week warning that the country risks a double-digit unemployment rate and a “return to the pain of the economic miasma of the Yeltsin years [that] would have unpredictable consequences for President Putin.”
 
The Russian leader is facing the biggest test of his presidency, but has passed on most of the responsibility for battling the deadly virus to the country’s regional governors.
 
Tasking regional governors with the main responsibility for tackling the coronavirus reverses the policy Putin has pursued since coming to power, say analysts and Russian media commentators. The Kremlin has over the years curbed the powers of the governors, insisting Russia needs a strong a central government.
 
“It is in the interest of all of us for the economy to return to normal quickly,” Putin said Monday when announcing the end of the non-working period. But a return to normality seems a long way away. On Tuesday his own spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, checked himself into a hospital after testing positive, the fifth senior official to have to do so.FILE – Russian President Vladimir Putin is seen during a teleconference at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence, outside Moscow, May 11, 2020.Putin is being accused of wanting to distance himself from the pandemic, fearing the political fallout, say some analysts. Earlier this week the Russian leader announced the end of a nationwide “non-working period,” leaving to the governors to decide whether to ease lockdowns in their regions or not. His announcement draw derision from many Muscovites, who pointed out that just hours before his announcement, health authorities reported the biggest one-day increase so far in infections.
 
“Despite having created a highly centralized political system, he is not going to be the commander-in-chief of this war. Instead, he would rather force local leaders to take the tough decisions, demanding they both save lives and save the economy, while sniping at them from the sidelines,” according to Mark Galeotti, an analyst at Britain’s Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), and a columnist for the Moscow Times.“He is retaining real power, but handing his boyars the burden of coronavirus,” he adds.  
 FILE – Russian steel magnate Alexei Mordashov speaks during an interview at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, in St. Petersburg, Russia, May 25, 2018.In their turn the governors have found Russia’s oligarchs ready to try to help them to plug the holes left by the state in the struggle to curb the virus.  The embrace of social responsibility by some of Russia’s prominent high-rollers — including steel magnate Alexei Mordashov, who instructed four regional governors to lock down their cities where he has mills, and mining magnate Vladimir Potanin, who has spent more than a hundred million dollars on testing kits, protective masks and ventilators — has surprised some.  
 
When the virus was bearing down on Russia, some independent news outlets reported wealthy Russians were rushing to buy ventilators, adding to shortages. Moscow-based medical pulmonologist Vasiliy Shtabnitskiy, told reporters he was aware of rich Muscovites hoarding ventilators. Although he added that might not do them any good without plenty of supplies of pressured oxygen and other crucial equipment as well as trained staff. But for the super wealthy — especially the mega-rich oligarchs — bespoke medical teams would not be beyond their reach.FILE – Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska is seen outsite his GAZ car production plant in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, April 16, 2019.But in recent weeks as cases have mounted — Russia has the second fastest rate of new infections globally — and discontent increased with a smattering of protests, the oligarchs started to intervene. Metals magnate Oleg Deripaska is funding three COVID-19 clinics in Siberia. The oligarchs have presented their involvement as being motivated by patriotism, avoiding overt criticism of the state strategy, although Deripaska publicly urged in March the Kremlin to seal shut all borders and to impose a 60-day quarantine on the country.
 
Analysts say oligarchs need to be mindful of the unwritten deal between them and Putin of not getting involved in politics. They have examples to warn them of the danger of breaking the deal, including the case of oil magnate Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who was the world’s 16th richest man when arrested in 2003 on charges of fraud and embezzlement and sentenced to a nine-year prison stretch.   
 
Patriotism or not, some analysts hazard that the oligarchs are moving now to try to fill in the holes for fear that the system Putin presides over — which also protects their wealth — is facing serious risks.  
 
The Russian president has had to put on hold his plans to rewrite the Russian constitution, which would allow him another 12 years in office, “while the Kremlin tries to deal with both the virus and a new economic crisis,” says Tatiana Stanovaya, an analyst with the Carnegie Moscow Center, a think tank. “These twin challenges represent the biggest shock the Putin regime has ever faced and are likely to feed popular dissatisfaction,” she adds.  
 
The economic fallout is mounting. A quarter of working-age Russians say they have lost their jobs or expect they will soon. Six out of ten Russians have no savings. There have been isolated protests and analysts say there’s a real prospect of much wider unrest, once the pandemic starts to accelerate beyond Moscow and St. Petersburg, where hospitals and local health services have been neglected for years.  FILE – Medical personnel wearing protective gear move what appears to be a bag containing a human body, outside a hospital for coronavirus patients, on the outskirts of Moscow, Russia May 12, 2020.On Monday, the Kremlin appeared to understand the danger. Putin made his fifth address to the nation since the coronavirus outbreak, announcing new measures for supporting ordinary Russians as well as small businesses. Among the measures — bonuses for doctors and social workers, benefits for families with children, preferential credit terms for company owners and tax exemptions for small businesses. There had been mounting public criticism of the neglect of small business with preferential treatment going to much bigger concerns previously.
 
The measures received praise from economists. “For the first time during the crisis we are seeing that the size of payments is at least somewhat in line with what economists wrote about, and what opposition leaders suggested,” Konstantin Sonin, a professor at the University of Chicago and Russia’s Higher School of Economics, told Meduza, an independent news site.
 
Evsey Gurvich, an economist, agrees, but told Meduza it would have been better “if there had been a large-scale, anti-crisis program announced at the very beginning of the crisis — this would have helped many to decide not to close their businesses.”
 
Whether the new measures will dampen political frustration is unclear. For working-class Russians the new payments will cover their grocery costs for one month.
 
And few believe the coronavirus death toll the Kremlin has been publishing. In Moscow alone, the country’s coronavirus hotspot where 52 % of the officially registered confirmed cases have occurred, analysts as well as the city’s mayor say coronavirus-related cases and fatalities are being seriously under-reported.  
 
Russia confirmed 9,974 new coronavirus infections Thursday, bringing the country’s official tally of cases to 252,245. The total nationwide death toll is put at 2,305 — a mortality rate much lower than other European countries with better reserved and rated health-care systems. The Kremlin says Russia was able to learn lessons from the experiences of western Europe.
 
Trust in the mortality rate officially given is low. Russia’s first recorded virus-related fatality — an elderly woman who died on March 19 — was reclassified as having died from a blood clot.
 
…

In a world full of bad news on coronavirus, the good deeds of quiet people often go unnoticed. In a report narrated by Jonathan Spier, Ricardo Marquina and Sergey Smolyakov bring us the story of an octogenarian in St. Petersburg, Russia, who – despite being in the highest-risk group – goes out every day to help those who need it most. 
…

Spain’s health ministry reported Thursday the country’s daily coronavirus death toll rose above 200 for the first time in five days, with 217 fatalities reported since Wednesday.Spain’s death toll currently stands at more than 27,100, according to the Johns Hopkins University’s COVID-19 dashboard. COVID-19 is the illness caused by the virus.At news briefing in Madrid, the health ministry’s director of emergency coordination, Fernando Simón, said the higher number of deaths does not necessarily reflect a change in the situation in Spain. Rather, these were patients who were already hospitalized, likely in intensive care. He said it would take about a week to assess if this reflects a trend of any kind.Simon also said there were 506 new confirmed COVID cases Thursday, a slight increase (0.22 percent) that raises the number of cases to almost 230,000.More than half of the new cases were in Catalonia, where 195 were recorded. Eighty-eight cases were reported in Madrid.The two regions are not yet part of the national plan to ease lockdown restrictions due to their high infection rates.Simon also said that it was too soon to see an impact of the easing of the measures.
…

The European Medicines Agency predicted that there could be licensed drugs to treat the new coronavirus in the next few months and that a vaccine might even be approved in early 2021, in a “best-case scenario.”
Dr. Marco Cavaleri, who heads the European regulator’s vaccines department, told a media briefing on Thursday that approving medicines to treat COVID-19 might be possible “before the summer,” citing ongoing clinical trials. Recent early results for the drug remdesivir suggested it could help patients recover from the coronavirus faster, although longer-term data is still needed to confirm any benefit.  
Although it typically takes years to develop a vaccine, Cavaleri said that if some of the shots already being tested prove to be effective, they could be licensed as early as the beginning of next year.  
Cavaleri cautioned, however, that many experimental vaccines never make it to the end and that there are often delays.  
“But we can see the possibility that if everything goes as planned, vaccines could be approved a year from now,” he said.  Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline. Embed” />CopyMore than 140 heads of states and health experts, including South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan and Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz issued an appeal Thursday calling on all countries to unite behind a “people’s vaccine” against COVID-19, to ensure any effective treatments and vaccines be available globally to anyone who needs them, for free.
At the moment, there are about a dozen vaccine candidates being tested in China, Britain, Germany and the U.S. The World Health Organization has estimated it could take about 12 to 18 months for an effective vaccine to be found.  
While some experts have proposed dropping the requirement for large-scale advanced clinical trials altogether, Cavaleri said that wasn’t currently being considered.  
“Our current thinking is all vaccines under development should undergo large phase 3 trials to establish what is the level of protection,” he said.  
But he acknowledged that could change if the situation worsened.  
“Things may evolve as the pandemic will evolve and we will see if we need to do something else,” Cavaleri said.
Some officials have warned that a vaccine might never be found; previous attempts to develop a vaccine against related coronaviruses like SARS and MERS have all failed. But Cavleri was optimistic an immunization against COVID-19 would eventually be discovered, as there are various technologies being tried globally.  
“I think it’s a bit early to say, but we have good reason to be sufficiently optimistic that at the end of the day, some vaccines will make it,” he said.
…

German Chancellor Angela Merkel says she has “hard evidence” that Russia hacked the website of Germany’s parliament in 2015 and allegedly stole documents from her own parliamentary office. German news reports said prosecutors had issued an arrest warrant for a suspected member of the Russian military intelligence agency GRU. “I can say honestly that this pains me,” Merkel said during a question-and-answer session with lawmakers Wednesday. “On the one hand, I work every day for a better relationship with Russia, and when you see on the other hand that there is such hard evidence that Russian forces are involved in acting this way, this is an area of tension.” Merkel said she was “very glad” investigators had identified someone she called a “concrete” suspect. When asked about what the Russians were looking for, Merkel said she got “the impression that they picked up relatively indiscriminately what they could get.” It was unclear what Russian was allegedly trying to find. German authorities would categorize it only as intelligence data on German organizations and institutions.Merkel said that the charges didn’t make efforts to keep good relations with Russia easier and that Germany had the right to take measures against Russia or anyone who carried out such spying.  Russia has consistently denied conducting cyberattacks on Germany, the United States or any other Western nation. A Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman has said the only time Russia broke into the German parliament was in 1945.  
…

As people around the world wonder when the coronavirus might go away, experts say: Maybe never.The World Health Organization warned Wednesday that the new virus, which has infected 4.3 million people worldwide, may become endemic, just like the HIV virus, and that people may have to learn to live with it.It could stay embedded in communities even if a vaccine is found, said WHO emergencies director Mike Ryan during a virtual news conference from Geneva.”HIV has not gone away, but we have come to terms with the virus,” he said.About 100 organizations worldwide are working on developing a coronavirus vaccine. Even if they find one that works, containing the virus will take a “massive effort,” the WHO official said.Meanwhile, the California-based Gilead drug company has reached agreements with several companies to make its antiviral drug Veklury, the brand name of remdesivir, available in 127 countries to help treat COVID-19.After weeks or months under lockdown, people around the world are eager to return to their normal lives, but the pandemic is showing no signs of going away, at least for now. Some countries, like New Zealand and Thailand, reported no new cases Wednesday, and Australia came close. Once hardest hit, Italy and Spain have both slashed the number of new cases.An employee cleans the floor at Riverside Market in Christchurch on May 14, 2020. New Zealand will phase out its coronavirus lockdown over the next 10 days after successfully containing the virus.But Russia has reported more than 10,000 new infections per day for the past 11 days. It has the second-highest number of COVID-19 cases after the United States. The country’s prime minister and the president’s spokesman are being treated for COVID-19. There are fears the situation may worsen because the country’s official nonworking period ended Tuesday.Some countries that seem to have halted the spread, like Germany and South Korea, have seen a resurgence of cases. A spike of new infections in Lebanon prompted the government to reimpose a four-day lockdown Wednesday after it began gradually lifting restrictions earlier this month.Governments are struggling between the need to restart their economies and the necessity to contain the virus. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has instructed local governments to reinstate shutdowns if they record more than 50 new cases per 100,000 residents. Russian President Vladimir Putin left to local governors to decide whether to extend shutdowns or reinstate the ones that have been lifted.In the United States, the government’s top virology expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, warned the public and leaders of the dangers of reopening too soon. Fauci told a Senate committee Tuesday that premature lifting of restrictions could lead to an outbreak that could be impossible to control.But U.S. President Donald Trump said Wednesday that people want the country reopened, including businesses and schools.“We have to open our country. Now, we want to do it safely, but we also want to do it as quickly as possible. We can’t keep going on like this,” Trump said.The mayor of Washington, D.C., Muriel Bowser, extended the U.S. capital’s stay-at-home order, which was to expire Friday, until June 8. She said she wanted to see a steady decline of new cases over two weeks before lifting restrictions. Governors of neighboring states Virginia and Maryland are planning to ease their lockdowns in places where the spread of the virus has halted.Sheila Kelly, center, owner of Powell’s Steamer Co. & Pub, stands behind makeshift barriers as she helps patrons at her restaurant in the El Dorado County town of Placerville, Calif., May 13, 2020.Los Angeles County, California, the most populous county in the U.S., with 10 million residents, is expected to announce a three-month extension of its lockdown.The largest four-year public university system in the U.S., California State University, announced the cancellation of in-person classes in the fall at its 23 campuses, the first large U.S. university to do so. Almost all instruction will be moved online, Chancellor Timothy White said in a statement.Elsewhere in the world, Saudi Arabia announced Wednesday that it would go into complete lockdown for the end of the holy month of Ramadan after a sharp rise in new cases. The Interior Ministry said the measure would be in effect from May 23 through May 27.Worldwide, there were about 4.3 million confirmed infections and more than 297,000 deaths late Wednesday evening EDT, according to Johns Hopkins University statistics. The United States was leading the world in the number of infections, with close to 1.4 million, and the number of coronavirus-related deaths, over 84,000. 
…

The European Union Wednesday announced its plan to help European citizens salvage their summer vacations and resurrect Europe’s damaged tourism industry after months of coronavirus lockdowns.At a Brussels news conference, EU commissioners stressed safety as they announced their gradual, careful steps to restart travel and tourism among European countries.The commissioner’s over-arching advice is that EU countries with similar rates of coronavirus infections and comparably strong health care systems should begin lifting border measures between each other.Earlier Wednesday, Germany announced, after consultations with its neighbors, the opening of its borders with France, Luxembourg, Switzerland and Austria.  Tourists from outside Europe cannot enter Germany until at least June 15.The EU commissioners also announced guidelines for reimbursing consumers with vouchers for cancelled flights or other vacation plans that can be used for future travel plans. The vouchers, they said, would be preferable to cash reimbursements as they would encourage travel and not create a financial burden on cash-strapped airlines and travel companies.  Even with easing restrictions, social distancing rules would still apply, and Brussels is recommending that robust disease monitoring measures are put in place – including good testing capacity and contact tracing – so that people have the confidence to return to hotels and camping sites abroad. 
…

Spain – one of the nations hardest hit by the pandemic – is seeing its daily coronavirus death rate drop this week.  That is allowing a limited number of businesses to reopen after weeks of paralysis. Although business owners are happy to be open again, they continue to see their losses mount – and normality seems distant. In a report narrated by Jonathan Spier, Alfonso Beato has the story from Barcelona
…