Two weeks ago, an opposition-leaning radio station in Russia interviewed political analyst Valery Solovei, who alleged the government was lying when it said no one had died in the country from the coronavirus. Solovei told radio station Echo Moskvy at least 1,600 people might have died since mid-January. Russia’s media and internet watchdog, Roscomnadzor, quickly pressured the station to delete the interview from its website. The demand was part of a widespread government campaign against what authorities called “fake news” about the pandemic. On Tuesday, Russian lawmakers began putting some teeth behind the campaign, approving fines of up to $25,000 and prison terms of up to five years for anyone who spreads what is deemed to be false information. Media outlets will be fined up to $127,000 if they disseminate disinformation about the outbreak. Lawmakers rushed the bill through all three readings in just one day after President Vladimir Putin spoke about the need to counter “provocations, stupid gossip and malicious lies” about the outbreak.  Russian law enforcement officers wearing protective masks stand guard in a street, after the city authorities announced a partial lockdown to prevent the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in central Moscow, March 30, 2020.The crusade began about a month ago, when Russia’s caseload was still in the single digits. The Kremlin’s stance of “everything is under control” prompted speculation that authorities might be hiding or underreporting the scale of the outbreak in line with Soviet-era traditions of covering up embarrassing truths. A broad set of measures was outlined and a special “fake news” division in the government’s coronavirus task force was created. A group within Russia’s Investigative Committee was put together to chase down alleged disinformation.  Social media users who doubted the official numbers and news outlets questioning the government response became targets for law enforcement seeking to weed out anything that didn’t correspond with the official data. “In crises, those in power try very hard to control the information and push their own agenda. And, of course, it makes sense to suppress alternative points of view,” Solovei told The Associated Press. The AP found at least nine cases against ordinary Russians accused of spreading “untrue information” on social media and via messenger apps, with at least three of them receiving significant fines.  Police statements offered few details but clearly indicated those involved were merely sharing opinions or rumors, rather than deliberately spreading misinformation. A 32-year-old woman was fined $380 — a significant sum in a country with an average monthly salary of about $550 — for posting on social media something she heard on a bus about the virus in her region. A 26-year-old man was fined a similar amount for a comment he made under a news report claiming a woman died of the virus in a hospital. Another woman faces a fine of about $380-$1,200 for posting about virus cases in her region where no infections were officially reported. Asked whether the punishments fit these crimes, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said they were “absolutely justified.” “It stirs up unwarranted tensions, and in this situation it needs to be punished in accordance with the law,” he said. The crackdown on free speech fits a recent pattern. In the past five years, hundreds of people have been prosecuted on charges of extremism for posting, liking or sharing information on social media on sensitive topics like corruption, the conflict with Ukraine, the 2014 annexation of Crimea and the role of the Russian Orthodox Church. Dozens received prison sentences. FILE – Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a session of the State Duma, the Lower House of the Russian Parliament, prior to its members voting on constitutional amendments, in Moscow, Russia, March 10, 2020.In 2018, Putin acknowledged that prosecuting social media users sometimes turns into “idiocy and absurdity,” and he eased the regulations. Such online hunts have since fizzled out, said Damir Gainutdinov, an internet freedom lawyer with Agora, Russia’s prominent legal aid group. But the void is quickly filling again with a crackdown on those who insult officials or spread so-called “fake news” online – misdemeanors that parliament put on the books last year. “I think in the nearest future, we will see a rapid growth [of cases] related to fakes as the authorities are trying to suppress any nonofficial information about the coronavirus,” Gainutdinov told AP. On Monday, Hungary’s parliament  also passed a law setting prison terms of up to five years for those convicted of spreading false information about the pandemic. Rights groups said the law allows the government to crack down on press freedom. The effort to curb alleged disinformation at home came as Russia is once again being accused of spreading it abroad. The European Union recently identified nearly 80 instances of virus-related disinformation in the past two months. This also follows accusations by U.S. intelligence services that Russia interfered with the 2016 presidential election by spreading false information online — a charge that the Kremlin has steadfastly denied. Waging disinformation campaigns in the West stems from the same desire to control the narrative, said Mark Galeotti, a Russia expert at the Royal United Services Institute. To the Kremlin, “there is no such thing as an objective narrative. So given that it is going to be someone’s narrative that triumphs, of course, you want it to be your narrative rather than someone else’s,” Galeotti told the AP.  Kremlin critics argue that its effort to stifle alternative voices during the pandemic is unlikely to succeed.  Dr. Anastasia Vasilyeva, who works with opposition figure Alexei Navalny and leads the Alliance of Doctors union, made headlines in recent weeks exposing Russia’s underfunded, teetering health care system. She told the AP she was contacted by police about spreading false information in her YouTube blog.”They will have to prove that I lied, so let them prove it,” Vasilyeva said. “They want to scare me in order to stop the others … the truth won’t change because of it.” Even as Russia moved to control the narrative during the outbreak, some embarrassing news has still slipped out. FILE – Russian President Vladimir Putin, right shakes hands with the hospital’s chief Denis Protsenko during his visit to the hospital for coronavirus patients, March 24, 2020.On Tuesday, Dr. Denis Protsenko, head of Moscow’s top hospital for coronavirus patients, was reported to have the virus. That came only a week after Putin visited the hospital and was photographed shaking hands with Protsenko. Peskov sought to assure the country that Putin was fine.  “He’s being tested regularly. It’s all right,” Peskov was quoted by the RIA Novosti news agency as saying. 
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Spain announced Wednesday it surpassed 100,000 confirmed coronavirus cases, while a senior Saudi official urged people planning to make the hajj pilgrimage to hold off on deciding for now.Spain is one of the global hot spots for the virus, trailing only the United States and Italy in terms of number of cases.  Wednesday’s announcement also included a death toll that now stands at more than 9,000.Muslim pilgrims are due to descend on Saudi Arabia from all over the world in late July to perform the once-in-a-lifetime religious duty.  But with the virus pandemic, and Saudi Arabia already banning entry to Mecca and Medina, Saudi Hajj and Umrah Minister Muhammad Saleh bin Taher Banten told state television people should wait for more clarity on the situation.In the United States, officials say Americans should be prepared for a potential 100,000 to 240,000 deaths from the coronavirus, while stressing the need to keep social distancing measures in place to give the best chance of lessening the toll. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, speaks about the coronavirus in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House, March 31, 2020, in Washington.Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said he hopes the number will not go that high, but that realistically people should be ready. “People are suffering. People are dying,” he said.  “It’s inconvenient from a societal standpoint, from an economic standpoint to go through this. But this is going to be the answer to our problems. So, let’s all pull together and make sure, as we look forward to the next 30 days, we do it with all the intensity and force that we can.” Countries all over the world have locked down cities, regions and even their entire nations to try to stop the virus from spreading. One of the latest to put in place a two-week ban on all but essential activities is Vietnam, which started Wednesday. Last week, New Zealand shut down restaurants, bars, offices and schools.  Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Wednesday it is too early to tell what extent those measures have helped so far and advocated more testing to actively track down infections and stop new transmissions. Her government reported 61 new cases to push New Zealand’s total to 708. “If the virus is in the community in this way… then the worst thing we can do is to relax and be complacent, and allow the silent spread,” Ardern said. In South Korea, where mass testing has helped level off local transmission rates, officials reported 101 new cases Wednesday.  The country also started enforcing new 14-day quarantines for anyone entering the country. The risks of imported cases undermining successes in controlling community spread of COVID-19 have prompted similar measures in China, which for several months was by far the world leader in coronavirus cases but now has become a sign of hope with gradual lifting of lockdown restrictions. In Germany, health officials said there were about 5,500 new cases there, putting the country on track to soon become the next to surpass China. A research assistant holds coronavirus test samples in her hands at the Lower Saxony State Office for Consumer Protection and Food Safety (LAVES) in Hanover, Germany, April 1, 2020.Meanwhile, in keeping with a plea from U.N. chief Antonio Guterres for parties in the world’s conflicts to take this opportunity to halt their fighting, the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday urged Afghanistan’s warring sides to implement a cease-fire. The Council “called on the political leadership of Afghanistan to put aside their differences and put the interest of the country first.” 
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Turkey is being accused of “weaponizing” water against Syrian Kurds amid the coronavirus epidemic. Ankara is dismissing the accusation, however, as a “smear campaign.”  U.S.-based Human Rights Watch warned Tuesday that “Turkish authorities’ failure to ensure adequate water supplies to Kurdish-held areas in northeast Syria is compromising humanitarian agencies’ ability to prepare and protect vulnerable communities in the COVID-19 pandemic.”   The key Allouk water-pumping station is at the center of the controversy. HRW says that through March, the station worked only intermittently and now is closed again.  Syrian forces backed by Ankara operate the water station that serves territory held by the Syrian Kurdish militia, the YPG, which is designated as terrorists by Ankara.In October, Syrian rebels backed by Turkish forces launched an offensive against the YPG, taking control of a large swathe of territory. Ankara claims the Kurdish militia is affiliated with the PKK, which is fighting a decade’s long insurgency inside Turkey for greater minority rights.  A Syrian girl fills a jug with water in Washukanni camp, on Dec. 16, 2019, which was recently established on the outskirts of Hasakeh city for people displaced from the northeastern Syrian town of Ras Al-Ain.”Turkey and Turkish-backed factions are in control of the area where the Allouk pumping station is. Before they took control, we hadn’t seen any interruption in the water supply,” said Sara Kayyali, a researcher for Human Rights Watch in Syria. “What we’ve seen by the closure of the pumping station is an attempt to weaponize, to use water as a weapon to get more out of the Syrian Kurdish lead authority, as well as the Syrian authorities,” said Kayyali.  HRW warns the pumping station is of critical importance to hundreds of thousands of people.  “The water pumping station supplies clean drinking water to the most vulnerable refugee camps in the region,” said Kayyali.  “There are tens of thousands of Syrians and foreigners who are already living in dire humanitarian conditions. If you stop pumping water to these regions and coronavirus comes in, it will become an absolute disaster,” she said.  “Fortunately, until now, we don’t have any corona cases, because we acted very quickly, by closing all the borders,” said Dr. Raperin Hasan, co-chair of regional Health Authority in Jazira, an autonomous region of northern and eastern Syria.  But Hasan warns, with the region hosting several large refugee camps, the loss of the Allouk water station means they are still facing a humanitarian crisis.   “We now have hundreds of thousand people living together closely without water. They have only a small quantity of water every three days,” said Hasan.  “We are trying to bring water from other places by truck, but there is only a very small quantity. It’s not working, as there are so many people, and the water quality is not the same as if it comes piped in,” she said.  “We already have a lot of diseases — diarrhea, stomach problems, and skin diseases,” she added. “But our biggest fear is the coronavirus. Because there is no water to wash their hands, and they have the same problem in Hasakah [a local city].”  A woman carries jerry cans to fill them up with water at the Kurdish-run al-Hol camp for the displaced where families of Islamic State (IS) foreign fighters are held, in the al-Hasakeh governorate in northeastern Syria on Dec. 9, 2019.Personal hygiene, particularly regularly washing hands, according to experts, is one of the main ways of controlling the spread of the virus.  Ankara is blaming Damascus for failing to provide adequate electricity for the pumping station.  “The unstable electricity supply in the region affects the sustainment of water services provided by the Allouk water station,” according to a Turkish official speaking on the condition of anonymity.  “The Assad regime should prioritize repair and maintenance of the electricity infrastructure in the region rather than initiating a joint smear campaign against Turkey with the terrorist organization PKK-YPG, its long-time partner.”  HRW’s Kayyali disputes Ankara’s explanation. “It’s not that there’s not enough electricity; it’s just they [Ankara] want the electricity for rest of the region they control,” she added.  “Turkey had never used water as a weapon in the region, even when the Syrian regime was hosting the terrorist leader of the PKK, Abdullah Ocalan,” said international relations professor Huseyin Bagci, of Ankara’s Middle East Technical University.  “But if Ankara was to use water to squeeze the Syrian Kurds, that would be against international law and will create major problems for Turkey internationally,” he said.  “I think the situation is more likely a failure of all sides to work together, Damascus, Russia, Syrian Kurds, and Turkey. They all need to sit down talk together to resolve this, as it’s the most vulnerable who are suffering,” Bagci added.  Hasan concurs, warning that the water crisis comes as they are engaged in a desperate struggle to prepare for combating the coronavirus pandemic.   
   
“Our health care system is very, very weak. We don’t have supplies. We don’t have major hospitals. It’s a very big problem. We don’t have any international support. We don’t even have masks,” said Hasan.  “The coronavirus represents a threat to all of us,” said Kayyali. “It will be very easy to see how a failure to respond in one part of Syria will defiantly lead to consequences in areas of Syria controlled by other groups, but also in Turkey itself given it’s a neighboring country. It’s very clear, if we don’t fight coronavirus collectively and do what we can, we are all going to suffer the consequences.”  
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Fellow scientists question his findings, but an unlikely mix of supporters — from French yellow vest protesters to U.S. President Donald Trump — are cheering their promise.Last month, French immunology specialist Didier Raoult had no Twitter account. Now, he has more than a quarter-million followers, and counting.   The 68-year-old French physician has emerged as one of France’s most publicized and polarizing figures of these coronavirus times, since claiming his research shows an anti-malarial drug can help fight COVID-19.   Outside the Marseille university hospital where he works, a long line of sick and frightened people waits to be tested each day for COVID-19.   The sick may receive a much-hyped experimental treatment — a mix of anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine and antibiotic azithromycin that have starred in a pair of quick, small-scale studies that Raoult conducted, and were published this month. Together, the studies show the “efficacy” of the anti-malarial drug in fighting the virus, Raoult and his research team claim, and the synergetic effects of adding the antibiotic.  “He’s a visionary,” Renaud Muselier, head of the Provence-Alpes-Cote d’Azur region and a friend of Raoult, told the weekly Le Journal du Dimanche. “That’s what makes his strength today.”   But critics say Raoult’s team did not follow rigorous procedures, had no control group, and drew their results based on too few people, among other failings.   “The methodology is fragile, the results are forced, one doesn’t give people hope based on approximate trials,” Gilles Pialoux, infectious diseases head of Paris-based Tenon Hospital, told BFMTV.     A few years ago, Raoult grew his white-blond hair long — adding a mustache and beard —just to annoy the establishment, he is reported as saying. No stranger to controversy Raoult, who heads the infectious diseases department of La Timone Hospital in Marseille, is no stranger to controversy — or applause. Born in Dakar, Senegal, he dropped out of high school in his junior year and spent a couple of years in the French merchant marines before heading to medical school. A few years ago, he grew his white-blond hair long — adding a mustache and beard —just to annoy the establishment, he is reported as saying.  His award-winning research includes discovering giant viruses and new bacteria. He has published prodigiously, although his massive output has sparked skepticism about its rigor.   Raoult has also questioned climate change. In January, he initially dismissed the first coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan as overblown.   And while he has been added to the government coronavirus team of health experts, he has reportedly distanced himself from it, failing to attend recent meetings. “I don’t care what others think of me,” he told La Provence newspaper. “I’m not an outsider. I’m the one who is the most advanced.”   After Raoult’s first coronavirus findings were published mid-March in the International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents, Trump tweeted that the two-drug combination he tested could become “the biggest game changers” in medical history.  France and the United States have since authorized limited, emergency use of hydroxychloroquine and related compound chloroquine in treating the most serious COVID-19 cases. On Monday, the French food safety agency warned of potentially dangerous side effects.   But the public has dismissed such strictures. Pharmacies report a rush for Plaquenil, the brand name of hydroxychloroquine, which has worried lupus and other patients who have long depended on it.   Local hero  New and larger experimental studies are now under way in Europe and the United States to see if Raoult’s findings, among others, can be replicated on a bigger scale.   In the meantime, he has vaulted to near rock star status. His wide spectrum of supporters includes controversial French comedian Dieudonne, far-right adherents, ex-soccer champion Eric Cantona and several prominent politicians, some of whom took Raoult’s experimental treatment after contracting COVID-19.   “Bravo to @raoult didier and his team,” tweeted Nice Mayor Christian Estrosi. “I’m proud to have fought beside him.”   But a raft of medical experts is less enthusiastic, questioning the credibility of Raoult’s studies, the first of which involved just 20 patients.   “No, ‘not huge’ I’m afraid,” tweeted Francois Balloux of University College in London, in response to the results of Raoult’s second study involving 80 patients.   Released Friday, the study claimed that most of the patients treated with the combination drug had favorable outcomes.   But Balloux noted that those who had tested presented mild symptoms of coronavirus and likely would have recovered anyway.
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In Greece, the case of an Iranian migrant now jailed on charges of inciting an insurrection is highlighting the Greek government’s rising concerns about a flare-up of clashes involving migrants along Greece’s border with Turkey. Greek authorities say the Iranian man — a self-described anarchist — was urging groups in Greece to arm asylum seekers trying to enter Europe from Turkey. The man, if convicted, faces a stiff sentence of up to ten years in prison.Greek counter-terrorism forces say they arrested the 23-year-old Iranian national in central Athens after he posted a call for an armed insurrection on a website that is often visited by homegrown extremists and urban guerrilla groupings.Authorities say the unidentified man describes himself as a migrant anarchist and they say he has not denied the criminal charges set against him — among the stiffest slapped on a migrant in recent years.
 
Greek intelligence officials say Greece granted the man political asylum three years ago and that he has since then established a militant profile, linking up with a far-left extremist group in Greece.
 
Left-wing groups in Greece have long supported asylum seekers, advocating their safe passage — and their right to stay in Europe. But in his online calling, the Iranian went a step further, urging anarchists to help arm migrants, take to the streets and renew clashes with authorities in northern Greece to help tens of thousands trapped in Turkey stream in to Europe.
 
Authorities in Athens say they have not established links between that plot and Turkey.
 
But the Iranian’s arrest here and the severity of the charges laid against him underscore Greece’s desperate bid to stamp out any potential flare up of migrant clashes along the country’s borders with Turkey.
 
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan flung open the borders to migrants heading for Europe in late February after dozens of Turkish soldiers were killed in an air raid in Syria. FILE – Migrants walk in Edirne at the Turkish-Greek border, March 9, 2020.Turkey last week said it moved 5,800 migrants away from the border crossing at Edirne province where they had been massing, citing concerns over the threat of coronavirus.  The move was interpreted by some in Greece as a reversal by Ankara. But Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu told an independent broadcaster the move did not represent a policy change.
 
“Once the COVID-19 crisis is over, the Turkish government will not block migrants from returning to the border,” he said. Although Greek authorities have not established a link between the Iranian migrant and the Turkish government, they worry about how Ankara may use the nearly four million Syrian refugees now inside Greece.
Ioannis Mazis, an international relations analyst in Athens, said Greece has already seen Turkey using tens of thousands of migrants as pawns in the recent border clashes. He said the Turkish government has even admitted that it has orchestrated much of the border violence. So, threats of further clashes should not be underestimated, Mazis added.
 
By some accounts, as many 150,000 migrants and refugee tried to push into Europe last month. Greece says it succeeded in fending off more than 50,000, while many others managed to sneak in.  
 
  
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Prince Harry and his wife Meghan officially make the transition Tuesday from senior members of Britain’s royal family to — well, it’s unclear. International celebrities, charity patrons, global influencers?
The royal schism that the couple triggered in January by announcing that they would step down from official duties, give up public funding, seek financial independence and swap the U.K. for North America becomes official on March 31.
The move has been made more complicated and poignant by the global coronavirus pandemic, which finds the couple and their 10-month-old son Archie in California, far from Harry’s father Prince Charles — who is recovering after testing positive for COVID-19 — and Harry’s 93-year-old grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II.
“As we can all feel, the world at this moment seems extraordinarily fragile,” the couple said in a final post Monday on their now-mothballed SussexRoyal Instagram account.
“What’s most important right now is the health and well-being of everyone across the globe and finding solutions for the many issues that have presented themselves as a result of this pandemic,” they added. “As we all find the part we are to play in this global shift and changing of habits, we are focusing this new chapter to understand how we can best contribute.”  
It is less than two years since ex-soldier Harry, who is sixth in line to the British throne, married American actress Meghan Markle at Windsor Castle in a lavish ceremony watched by millions around the world.  
Soon the couple began to bristle at intense scrutiny by the British media — which they said tipped into harassment. They decided to break free, in what Harry called a “leap of faith” as he sought a more peaceful life, without the journalists who have filmed, photographed and written about him since the day he was born.  
Harry has long had an uncomfortable relationship with the media, which he blames for the death of his mother, Princess Diana. She died in a car crash in Paris in 1997 while being pursued by paparazzi.
Harry’s unhappiness increased after he began dating Markle, then the star of TV legal drama “Suits.” In 2016 he accused the media of harassing his then-girlfriend, and criticized “racial undertones” in some coverage of the biracial Markle.
It’s clear that Meghan’s upbeat Californian style — embodied in the glossy images and life-affirming messages of the couple’s Instagram account — rankled with sections of Britain’s tabloid press, which is both insatiable for royal content and fiercely judgmental of the family members.  
The couple — who are keeping their titles, Duke and Duchess of Sussex, but will no longer be called Their Royal Highnesses — had hoped to keep using the Sussex Royal brand in their new life. But last month they announced they wouldn’t seek to trademark the term because of U.K. rules governing use of the word “royal.”
The couple plans to launch a non-profit organization for their charitable activities in areas including youth empowerment, mental health, conservation, gender equality and education. Harry will also continue to oversee the Invictus Games, the Olympics-style competition he founded for wounded troops.
Meghan has been announced as the narrator of “Elephant,” a Disney nature documentary.
But for now, the couple’s office said they want the world to focus “on the global response to COVID-19.”  
“The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will spend the next few months focusing on their family and continuing to do what they can, safely and privately, to support and work with their pre-existing charitable commitments while developing their future non-profit organisation,” the couple’s office said in a statement.
The newly independent Harry and Meghan will also need to earn money to help pay for a multi-million dollar security bill.
As senior royals, they have had bodyguards funded by British taxpayers. Since late last year, Harry and Meghan have since been based on Canada’s Vancouver Island, where security was provided by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Canadian authorities warned last month that would end once the couple ceased to be working royals.
The duke and duchess recently moved to the Los Angeles area, where Meghan grew up and where her mother still lives. The news led President Donald Trump to tweet on Sunday: “the U.S. will not pay for their security protection. They must pay!”
Harry and Meghan’s office said they had “no plans to ask the U.S. government for security resources. Privately funded security arrangements have been made.”  
Some royal historians warned that Harry and Meghan could struggle to find a fulfilling role. Comparisons have been drawn to King Edward VIII, who abdicated in 1936 to marry divorced American Wallis Simpson. The couple lived the rest of their lives in luxurious but lonely self-imposed exile from Britain.
Royal historian Penny Junor said U.K.-based royals were helping boost the nation’s morale during the coronavirus pandemic. The queen has issued a message to the nation, while Harry’s brother Prince William and his children joined in a public round of applause for health care workers.
“All of this is absolutely what the family is about, and those members of the royal family that are on a limb now are pretty irrelevant,” Junor said.
 
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Hungary’s parliament granted nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban the right to rule by decree on Monday to fight the coronavirus, ignoring calls by opponents and rights groups to put a timeframe on the extra powers.
 
President Janos Ader, an Orban ally, signed the legislation extending a state of emergency after it was approved by parliament, dominated by Orban’s Fidesz party. Ader said it was in line with international treaties and Hungary’s constitution.
 
The law has triggered criticism from opposition parties, rights groups and the Council of Europe, Europe’s main rights forum, because it does not set a specific limit on the time the additional powers will be in force.
 
It also imposes jail terms of up to five years on those hindering measures to curb the spread of the virus or spreading false information that could upset people or hinder the fight against the virus.
 
Rights groups said this might be used to muzzle journalists as remaining independent media are forced to cut staff and budgets while media loyal to the government continue to receive taxpayers’ money.
 
Since he took power in 2010, Orban has built media he can control, using legal levers, ownership changes and advertising money for more loyal media coverage. The economic impact of the coronavirus could accelerate the shake-up of the media, journalists say.
 
The government has rejected the criticism, saying the law empowers it to adopt only measures needed to fight the virus, and that parliament can revoke the special powers.
 
“This is an authorization limited both in time and scope … as it is solely related to the coronavirus, and you are crying a dictatorship,” state secretary Bence Retvari told opposition parties before the vote.
 
Justice Minister Judit Varga said it was “very damaging fake news” that the law is intended to neutralize the national assembly.
 
Orban, who has gradually increased his power in a decade in office, has often been in conflict with the European Union and rights organizations over his perceived erosion of democratic checks and balances and the rule of law.
 
Opposition lawmakers said they back the government’s overall fight against the coronavirus but wanted a time limit placed on the government’s special powers, which parliament can extend if necessary. Parliament rejected all opposition amendments.
 
President Ader said the government’s special authorization would end once the epidemic is over and was limited to dealing with the epidemic and its fallout.
 
“The controlling role of Parliament and the government’s duty to report will remain in place during the epidemic,” Ader said. Hungary has reported 447 coronavirus cases and 15 deaths.
  Independent Media at Risk
 
Some media companies, facing severe short-term liquidity problems, have already scrapped plans for 2020.
 
Central Media, one of Hungary’s largest media groups, has put journalists on reduced hours and cut salaries by up to a quarter, several sources told Reuters.
 
Pesti Hirlap, a tabloid, has told staff it will cut jobs and switched to online-only mode. Executives at HVG, a weekly that also runs a popular web site, warned staff of budget cuts, according to several sources.
 
“Press freedom could fall victim to the coronavirus,” Miklos Hargitai, chair of the Hungarian Journalists Association (MUOSZ), told Reuters.
 
State media have an annual budget of around 90 billion forints ($280 million). The public media budget is not affected by the crisis this year, a government spokesman said.
 
Loyal outlets receive state advertisements regardless of their audience size, data shows.
 
“The coronavirus epidemic will have a devastating effect on Hungarian independent media,” said Agnes Urban, director of the Mertek Media Monitor think tank. “This can become critical for independent outlets within 2-3 months as most lack a rich owner.” 
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Ukraine’s parliament has voted to lift the ban on the sale of farmland in a move that would allow the country to get $8 billion worth of aid from the International Monetary Fund.  The bill, long pushed by economists to stimulate investment in agriculture, was approved by 259 votes out of 450 late Monday. It opens up the land market for Ukrainian citizens starting from July 1, 2021, and for Ukrainian companies starting from 2024.  Ukrainians will vote on a nationwide referendum on whether to allow foreigners to buy farmland.  Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, wearing a protective mask used as a preventive measure against coronavirus disease (COVID-19), gives thumbs-up during a session of parliament in Kyiv, Ukraine, March 31, 2020.Speaking in parliament Monday night, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy stressed the importance of getting the IMF loan.  “It is really important for us, to sign the memorandum with the IMF, and you know well that the two main conditions were the land law and the banking law,” Zelenskiy said.Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal echoed his sentiment in televised remarks Monday.  “Without the support of international organizations we will have to fall into the abyss of a financial meltdown,” Shmyhal said.  Earlier Monday, lawmakers approved the banking law in the first reading. It prevents former owners of banks that were nationalized or liquidated from regaining ownership rights or receiving compensation from state funds.  Some said that the bill, among others, targets billionaire tycoon Ihor Kolomoisky, whose Privatbank was nationalized in 2016 and who sought to get it back using his connections to Zelenskiy. In recent months, Zelenskiy has been trying to distance himself from Kolomoisky, who wasn’t hiding his ambitions to influence both domestic and foreign policies, observers say.According to Zelenskiy, once Ukraine fulfills the conditions outlined by the IMF, it will receive the first batch of funds — $1.75-$2 billion — in 15 days.  “We agreed with the management of the IMF,” Zelenskiy said.
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Russia tightened controls aimed at combating the spread of the coronavirus on Monday, with Moscow introducing temporary quarantine measures, and the Kremlin moving to extend the lockdown nationwide. The new restrictions came as President Vladimir Putin discussed the coronavirus, among other issues, with President Donald Trump in a phone call that the Kremlin insisted was at Washington’s request.The conversation came as Putin made clear he recognized the growing threat of the COVID-19 outbreak. He appeared for his second televised national address on the issue Monday afternoon with a new sense of urgency.“If you value your life, you should remain home,” he said, addressing elderly Russians, in particular. “God helps those who help themselves,” added the Russian leader. A doctor observes through a glass window the condition of the patient in a ward in the Moscow Sklifosovsky emergency hospital in Moscow, Russia, March 25, 2020.The new tone came as a  government task force said suspected cases of COVID-19 had swelled past the 1,800 mark with nine deaths — numbers that continued to place Russia far lower than other global coronavirus hotspots but that Kremlin allies and critics alike now acknowledge reflect some degree of underreporting.Moscow through the looking glass  Under new rules that went into effect midnight Sunday, the vast majority of Moscow’s 15 million inhabitants now face a blanket “home isolation quarantine” — with exceptions for trips to local supermarkets and pharmacies, as well as walking pets or taking out trash. A police officer wearing a protective mask and glasses stops a car driver to check his documents in Grozny, Russia, March 30, 2020.City authorities also announced that a system of smart QR codes would be developed to track people moving about the capital, as well as plans to retrofit additional public hospitals and private clinics to accept COVID-19 patients.“The situation with the spread of coronavirus has entered a new phase,” Mayor Sergey Sobyanin wrote in a blog post explaining the new rules with Moscow now an epicenter of the virus threat.  “The extremely negative turn of events that we see in the largest cities of Europe and the USA is cause for enormous concern for the lives and health of our citizens,” Sobyanin said.Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin later issued an appeal to Russia’s far-flung regional governors to follow Moscow’s lead — calling the quarantine a “logical extension of the president and the government’s policies to battle the coronavirus.” Putin’s ‘workless week’Moscow’s restrictions seemed to upstage the “workless week” introduced by Putin in an address to the nation last week.While the Russian leader requested people to stay home, his appeal fell far short of the quarantines and self-isolation measures now commonplace in cities across Europe, the United States and Asia.Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting with Russian regional officials via videoconference at the Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow, March 30, 2020.Some Russians seemed to interpret the “workless week” as an unexpected paid vacation — a factor that Sobyanin said played a role in the decision to close Moscow down. “Movement across the city has been cut by two-thirds, and that’s very good,” Sobaynin wrote in the blog. “But it’s also obvious that far from everyone has heard us.” Amid a spell of spring-like weather over the weekend, parks were so crowded that authorities resorted to blasting public service announcements from passing ambulances. The message: Go home. Media reports also noted a run on meat and charcoal at local supermarkets, suggesting the outdoor barbecue season was, or soon would be, in full swing.  Meanwhile, there was a spike in booked flights from Moscow to the southern resort city of Sochi — so much so that the region’s local governor, Benjamin Kondratiev, warned on social media that “this is not a week of extra leave or a holiday,” and ordered city attractions closed.  Good cop, bad copRussia’s political chatter centered on the seeming gulf between Sobyanin and Putin over how to respond to the contagion.  Had the mayor undermined the president? And who was in charge?“The left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing,” Genady Gudkov, a former member of Parliament with ties to the opposition, wrote in a post on Facebook. “Either Putin is losing control, or differences among the elite are dangerously strong.”Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin attends a cabinet meeting with Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin in Moscow, Russia, March 30, 2020.Others argued that Putin was merely distancing himself from more unpopular restrictions — at least until they were trial-ballooned by the hapless Moscow mayor — in effect, playing good cop to Sobyanin’s bad. Putin threw Sobyanin “before the firing squad, and himself remained in the shadows, giving speculation that Sobyanin is acting on his own,” wrote Tatiana Stanovaya, a political analyst with R.Politik, in a post to her Telegram channel. Stanovaya chalked the showdown to the shifting improvisational nature of Putin’s rule, one in which “circumstances rule.” “And who rules the circumstances, rules Russia,” added Stanovaya.
 
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Spain will delay a planned auction of 5G spectrum due to the coronavirus outbreak, the government said on Monday.
 
As part of a Europe-wide drive to speed up the roll out of fast Internet and broaden coverage, Spain had been due to free up space in the 700 MHz band of its network by switching from analog to digital terrestrial television by June 30.
 
One of the world’s worst national outbreaks of the virus, which had infected 85,915 people and killed 7,340 as of Monday, constitutes force majeure, making it impossible to stick to that deadline, the government said in a statement.
 
Madrid has told Brussels it will set a new deadline for the 700 MHz band depending on the eventual end-date for emergency measures including restrictions on people’s movements, it added.
 
Austria postponed a planned 5G auction last week, and the CEO of French group Iliad said one coming up in France would likely meet the same fate. 
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Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, has approved the firing of Finance Minister Ihor Umanskiy and Health Minister Illya Yemets just weeks into their mandates, but failed to approve new candidates to the posts.At an extraordinary session on March 30, lawmakers also failed to approve the first reading of a revised 2020 state budget that takes into account the impact of the coronavirus outbreak.Umanskiy and Yemets became ministers on March 4 when parliament approved President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s cabinet shuffle.A reason for their firing was not given.Serhiy Marchenko was proposed as the new finance minister, but his approval fell three votes shy of the 226 needed in the legislature. The revised state budget for 2020 also failed by the same tally.The nomination of Maksym Stepanov as health minister also failed when he received 217 votes, nine short of what he needed.The budget draft will now return to lawmakers for revision. 
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British heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles, who had tested positive for coronavirus, is out of self-isolation after seven days and is in good health, his spokesman said on Monday. Last week, his Clarence House office revealed that Charles, 71, had been tested after displaying mild symptoms of the virus and had been in self-isolation at his Birkhall home in Scotland where he had continued to work. After consultation with his doctor, he is now out of self-isolation, Clarence House said. He will resume meetings and take exercise in accordance with government and medical guidelines. However, his wife Camilla, who tested negative for coronavirus, will remain in self-isolation until the end of the week in case she too develops symptoms. Buckingham Palace has previously said Queen Elizabeth, who left London for Windsor Castle on March 19 along with her 98-year-old husband, Philip, is in good health.  
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Britain is on an emergency footing for the first time since World War II. The move means the British government is setting up what it calls strategic coordination centers across the U.K. to distribute supplies to citizens to help combat the coronavirus outbreak.  There are more than 22,000 British confirmed cases of coronavirus – Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Prince Charles are among them. More than 1,200 have died. The government’s deputy chief medical officer says the lockdown could last as long as six months but says if people do as they’re told and conditions improve, the lockdown and other restrictions can start to be eased.Prince Charles tests positive for Coronavirus. Prince Charles, The Prince of Wales, Patron of the Intelligence Agencies, visits the Headquarters of GCHQ, on July, 12, 2019.In Moscow, the lockdown is just getting started. Mayor Sergei Sobyanin says beginning Monday, people will be allowed out of their homes only to shop for food and medicine, takeout the garbage, walk the dog, or for urgent medical care. Police will issue special passes to those who cannot work from home. Moscow reports 1,000 cases and the head of the Russian Orthodox Church is telling worshippers to pray at home “before someone dies.”  While the number of cases in Italy – the European epicenter – slowed slightly for the second straight day Sunday, Spain’s death toll rose 838 overnight Sunday – a record climb for that country which, like Italy, remains on total lockdown.  In Asia, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked that country’s poor to forgive him for the difficulties that country’s lockdown is causing them. He acknowledged the steps he ordered are harsh and knows people are angry with him.  “But these tough measures were needed to win this battle,” he said Sunday. With a population of 1.3 billion, India’s lockdown is by far the world’s largest, leaving countless millions with no food or homes. Australia’s most populous state, New South Wales, is banning public gathering of more than two people. The state government says people should leave their homes only under “exceptional circumstances.” Australia’s nationwide death toll stands at 4,000.A nurse speaks with patients at the door of a new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) clinic opening at Mount Barker Hospital in Adelaide, Australia, March 17, 2020.Syria Sunday reported its first confirmed coronavirus death, but human rights groups warn of a looming catastrophe, saying the country’s war-torn health care system is ill-equipped to handle an outbreak among refugees.  Also Sunday, U.S. President Donald Trump has extended the government’s recommended guidelines for social distancing for another 30 days. The U.S. has the world’s biggest number of confirmed cases. Finally, in Brazil, a federal judge has banned the government’s social media campaign that downplayed the coronavirus threat. President Jair Bolsonaro’s “Brazil Can’t Stop” campaign said there was no need for most Brazilians to lock down inside their homes. “I’m sorry, some people will die, they will die, that’s life,” Bolsonaro said in a television interview. 
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Britain’s Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, have no plans to ask the U.S. government for help with security costs, the couple said in a statement on Sunday in response to a tweet from President Donald Trump that the United States would not pay for their protection.In January, the couple said they would step away from their royal duties and according to media reports, recently relocated to Los Angeles. Earlier on Sunday, Trump tweeted: “Now they have left Canada for the U.S. however, the U.S. will not pay for their security protection. They must pay!”A spokeswoman for the couple said later in a statement: “The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have no plans to ask the U.S. government for security resources. Privately funded security arrangements have been made.”The duchess, Meghan Markle, who married Prince Harry, the grandson of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth, in 2018, criticized Trump during his 2016 election campaign as misogynistic and divisive.Last year, Trump, on being told of Meghan’s criticism, said: “I didn’t know that. What can I say? I didn’t know that she was nasty.” But he also wished her well in her new life as a British royal.The couple stunned the royal family in early January with an announcement they would be stepping down from their roles as senior royals, in order to gain freedom from the intense media scrutiny that has followed them for several years.They had been living for several months with their son, Archie, on Vancouver Island in Canada.Britain’s Sun newspaper reported last week that the couple took a private flight to Los Angeles, but did not say when. Earlier this month, the United States and Canada agreed to close their border to non-essential travel at land crossings to ease the strain on health systems caused by the coronavirus.Meghan Markle was raised in the Los Angeles area and her mother, Doria, still lives there. Walt Disney Co said last week that Meghan had narrated a nature documentary that will be released on its Disney+ streaming platform on Friday.Last month, Canada said it would no longer provide security once the couple were no longer working members of the British royal family.The Royal Canadian Mounted Police had been assisting London’s Metropolitan Police with security for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex “intermittently” since November, when the couple began a six-week vacation in Canada, Reuters reported in February.
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Football leagues around the world have canceled soccer games for the foreseeable future as one of the measures to slow a rapid COVID-19 spread. But soccer, or football, as it is called in much of the world, continues to be played in Belarus where the number of confirmed infections is still relatively low.The country’s autocratic leader Alexander Lukashenko has dismissed the virus scare as overblown and has advised his people to continue business as usual, especially agriculture. Local media published photos of the Belarus president playing ice hockey.Top Belarusian football division, Vysheyshaya Liga, is run by the Belarusian Football Federation and currently includes 16 teams. The country has never excelled in soccer and has never qualified for the World Cup or the European football championships.But with sports fans around the world deprived of their favorite pastime, Belarus is getting attention and signing broadcasting contracts with a growing number of countries to carry their games. People in India and Israel, not just neighboring Russia, could soon become familiar with members of teams such as FC Minsk or Dinamo Minsk and their individual styles.Belarus soccer fans hope the exposure will inspire their teams to play better and qualify for the next UEFA (The Union of European Football Associations) champions league. UEFA Championship is also known as the European Cup.The spokesman for the Belarus Football Federation Aleksandr Aleinik said the organization is respecting the recommendations by the Sports Ministry.  “All those who are in contact with fans were given protective gloves,” he said. But images of fans from some of the games Saturday show very few wearing masks and some of them cheering without any shirts on.The outbreak of coronavirus in Italy has been especially deadly for the northern city of Bergamo. The unprecedented toll has been traced to a February football match in Milan. More than 2,000 fans traveled from Bergamo to Milan to watch the Atlanta vs. Valencia match at Milan’s San Siro Stadium February 19. As they chanted in the packed stadium it is believed they picked up the new coronavirus strain and took it home to Bergamo. Two days later, Italy confirmed the first case of locally transmitted COVID-19.  Six weeks later, Italy reported that the number of deaths from the coronavirus had topped 10,000. Bergamo is struggling to bury and cremate the number of bodies after several hundred people sometimes die in one day.   European football leagues have canceled local soccer matches until at least the end of April to help slow the rapid spread of COVID-19. The European championship has been postponed until the summer of 2021 because the domestic competition cannot be completed in time for this summer.Most European countries have locked their borders and ordered closures of schools and all but essential businesses. People are asked to stay at home, gather in very limited numbers, sometimes no more than two, and keep a distance from others when they have to go out. In some cases, governments have imposed strict measures such as curfews and mandatory quarantine.  But measures vary from country to country.  In Sweden, restaurants and bars in some cities seemed as lively this month as ever, with the government allowing people to choose how to protect themselves. Schools, day care centers, gyms and beauty salons remained open even as they closed in neighboring Denmark and Norway.  The government announced tougher measures last week after the number of infections and COVID-19 deaths suddenly soared.  But Prime Minister Stefan Löfven said you cannot legislate everything and that individuals also have to take responsibility.Some experts also say that it is counterproductive to impose measures that cannot be sustained for a long period of time. Meanwhile, ordinary people in countries hit by the virus may have to weigh daily the pros and cons of stepping out of the house for weeks or months yet to come.   
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President Donald Trump said on Sunday that the United States would not pay for security protection for Britain’s Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, who, according to media reports, have settled in Los Angeles.Trump wrote on Twitter that “now they have left Canada for the U.S. however, the U.S. will not pay for their security protection. They must pay!” In January, the couple said they would step away from their royal duties.
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In her first address to the nation on the coronavirus pandemic, German Chancellor Angela Merkel calmly appealed to citizens’ reason and discipline to slow the spread of the virus, acknowledging as a woman who grew up in communist East Germany how difficult it is to give up freedoms, yet as a trained scientist emphasizing that the facts don’t lie. Then, wearing the same blue pantsuit from the televised address, the 65-year-old popped into her local supermarket to pick up food, wine and toilet paper to take back to her Berlin apartment. For her, it was a regular shopping stop, but photos snapped by someone at the grocery store were shared worldwide as a reassuring sign of calm leadership amid a global crisis. With the coronavirus outbreak, Merkel is reasserting her traditional strengths and putting her stamp firmly on domestic policy after two years in which her star seemed to be fading, with attention focused on constant bickering in her governing coalition and her own party’s troubled efforts to find a successor. Merkel has run Germany for more than 14 years and has over a decade’s experience of managing crises. She reassured her compatriots in the 2008 financial crisis that their savings were safe, led a hard-nosed but domestically popular response to the eurozone debt crisis, and then took an initially welcoming — but divisive — approach to an influx of migrants in 2015. In the twilight of her chancellorship, she faces her biggest crisis yet — a fact underlined by her decision last week to make her first television address to the nation other than her annual New Year’s message. “This is serious — take it seriously,” she told her compatriots. “Since German unification — no, since World War II — there has been no challenge to our country in which our acting together in solidarity matters so much.” With Germany largely shutting down public life, she alluded to her youth in communist East Germany as she spelled out the scale of the challenge and made clear how hard she found the prospect of clamping down on people’s movement. “For someone like me, for whom freedom of travel and movement were a hard-won right, such restrictions can only be justified by absolute necessity,” she said. But they were, she said, “indispensable at the moment to save lives.” The drama was evident in Merkel’s words, but the manner was familiar: Matter-of-fact and calm, reasoning rather than rousing, creating a message that hit home. It is a style that has served the former physicist well in juggling Germany’s often-fractious coalitions and maintaining public support over the years. “Merkel painted a picture of the greatest challenge since World War II, but she did not speak of war,” the influential Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper wrote. “She did not rely on martial words or gestures, but on people’s reason. … Nobody knows if that will be enough, but her tone will at least not lead the people to sink into uncertainty and fear.” Merkel’s response to the coronavirus pandemic is still very much a work in progress, but a poll released Friday by ZDF television showed 89% of Germans thought the government was handling it well. The poll saw Merkel strengthen her lead as the country’s most important politician, and a strong 7% rise for her center-right Union bloc after months in which it was weighed down by questions over its future leadership. The poll, done by Forschungsgruppe Wahlen, had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. The 65-year-old chancellor initially had Health Minister Jens Spahn be the public face of the government’s response, drawing some criticism but has taken center stage over the past two weeks. She kept that up after going into quarantine on Sunday after a doctor who gave her a vaccination tested positive for the coronavirus. Since then she has twice tested negative for the virus herself but continues to work from home. On Monday, she led a Cabinet meeting by phone from home and then issued an audio message setting out a huge government relief package to cushion the blow of the crisis to business — a format she said was “unusual, but it was important to me.” Her vice chancellor, Olaf Scholz, who is also finance minister and a member of her coalition partner Social Democrats, has also had a chance to shine in the crisis, leading the way with the aid package that will allow Germany to offer businesses more than 1 trillion euros ($1.1 trillion) that he described as a “bazooka.” The jury is still out on how the government’s approach will work, but after having run a budget surplus for a half-decade, Germany is well-prepared to offer the massive aid program. Its health care system has been in good enough shape to be taking in patients from overwhelmed Italy and France, with intensive care beds still available. Although Germany has registered the third-highest number of coronavirus infections in Europe with 57,695, it has only seen 433 people die, placing it sixth in Europe behind Italy, Spain, France, Britain and even the Netherlands. Italy alone has over 10,000 dead. Experts have attributed Germany’s success partially to widespread and early testing for the virus, among other things. In an audio message Thursday night, Merkel cautioned, however, that it was far too early to declare victory over COVID-19, saying “now is not the time to talk about easing measures.” No matter what the outcome of Germany’s virus-fighting efforts, it won’t change the fact that the Merkel era is drawing to a close. Merkel has never shown any signs of backing off her 2018 vow to leave politics at Germany’s next election, due next year. But the crisis may burnish her government’s lackluster image and improve its chances of making it through to the fall of 2021, after persistent speculation that it wouldn’t last the full legislative term. And it certainly could put her successor on a better footing —though just who that will be is also up in the air. Merkel stepped down as her party’s leader in 2018 but her own choice as a successor, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, lasted just over a year before declaring that she would step down after failing to establish her authority. The decision on who will take over the leadership of Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union party was supposed to be made in April, but has been put on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic. 
 
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The husband of the jailed British-Iranian aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe says his wife has had her temporary release extended for another two weeks by the Iranian government.“Nazanin’s father got told today that it has been extended until Saturday, April 18, an extra two weeks,” husband Richard Ratcliffe told AFP in an e-mail on March 28.He added that the news had brought “a lot of relief in our house.”Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 41, currently on leave from Evin Prison at her parents’ house in the Iranian capital, had been due to return to custody on April 4.Her husband had previously said she was required to wear an ankle bracelet and to remain within 300 meters of her parents’ home.Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been detained in Iran since April 2016. In September 2016, she was sentenced to 5 years in prison for allegedly “plotting to topple the Iranian government.” She denied the charges, as did her employer and the British government.Richard Ratcliffe, the husband of Nazanin Zaghari Ratcliffe, his daughter Gabriella and his mother arrive at Downing Street in London, Jan. 23, 2020.On March 17, her husband said Zaghari-Ratcliffe was among up to 80,000 prisoners temporarily released by the Iranian government — a measure that authorities said was meant to help curb the COVID-19 outbreak in the country.Iranian President Hassan Rohani on March 24 said that the “government’s coronavirus crisis team has decided to extend [the overall prisoner] parole from April 3 to April 19,” adding that it could be extended again if the situation requires.Iran is the hardest-hit country in the Middle East by the coronavirus pandemic. As of March 28, it has reported more than 25,000 cases of infections and 2,517 deaths. However, experts warn that ascertaining an accurate number of cases anywhere in the world is impossible because of the lack of testing.Zaghari-Ratcliffe was arrested at Tehran airport in April 2016 after visiting relatives in Iran with her young daughter.She worked for the Thomson Reuters Foundation at the time.Britain has demanded her release and that of other dual nationals imprisoned in Iran. Tehran does not recognize dual citizenship.Former British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt wrote in a tweet that the latest development was “a glimmer of hope amidst the darkness.””Let’s pray that this remarkable family are reunited soon,” he added. 
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Italy, the European country hardest hit by the coronavirus, confirmed 10,023 people dead and 92,472 infected as of Saturday.Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte made the announcement Saturday evening in a joint appearance with Economy Minister Roberto Gualtieri.On a somewhat positive note, Conte said that on Saturday Italy also had more than 1,400 people who recovered, the highest number to date.Conte said that under the solidarity fund for the municipalities program, which has an advance payment of $4.8 billion, mayors will soon be issuing food vouchers for low-income and poor people facing challenges due to the lockdown of the country and the shutdown of nonessential factories and businesses. Many Italians have seen a drastic decrease of income.Relatives attend the funeral of a woman who died from the coronavirus disease, as Italy struggles to contain the spread of COVID-19 in Seriate, March 28, 2020.”With a Civil Protection order we will add to this fund (the solidarity fund for the municipalities) 400 million euros. We are distributing this fund to the municipalities, but they must use it to support poor people who cannot afford food shopping. With these 400 million that will be distributed to the 8,000 municipalities of our territory it will be possible to issue vouchers and to give food,” Conte said.Local municipalities are obliged to use the fund for food, medicines and other essential goods for citizens of the poorest segments of Italian society.Conte also said that if data collected show a decrease in the intensity of the coronavirus and if it is feasible, schools may open Friday.In Spain, the health ministry confirmed 832 deaths Saturday, bringing the total number of victims to 5,690.  The country has the highest death toll in Europe after Italy.Health authorities said Friday the country was getting closer to the peak of the virus outbreak. In the meantime, hospitals have surpassed their capacities and patients infected with coronavirus continue to arrive, which has forced medical personnel to accommodate them elsewhere.As of Saturday, France had 37,575 confirmed cases of infection and 2,314 deaths, with 319 new deaths in the last 24 hours, health authorities said.Sheep walk back to their shelter near the Mont-Saint-Michel, northwestern France, on March 28, 2020, during a lockdown in France aimed at curbing the spread of COVID-19.French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said the country has not seen the worst yet, warning that the first 15 days of April will be crucial.”We must all together face a considerable challenge and make an intense effort. An effort that will endure because I want to tell you things with clarity, the fight has just begun. The first 15 days of April will be difficult, even more difficult than the 15 days that have just passed,” Philippe said.Meanwhile, Health Minister Olivier Veran said France had ordered more than a billion protective masks, mostly from China, as the country was running short of the much-needed item to fight the spread of COVID-19.In Germany the number of deaths has been relatively low, compared to other European countries. According to Die Zeit newspaper, Germany had 397 victims – a death rate below 1 percent — as of Saturday, and 53,340 people tested positive for the coronavirus.Experts believe that strict measures, extensive testing and a strong health care system have helped the country to deal more effectively to keep the death toll lower, while the number of infections is high.Germany has closed nonessential services and has banned public gatherings of more than two people until April 20. 
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Russia’s Rosneft oil company said Saturday that it’s halting operations in Venezuela and selling its assets there to a company fully owned by the Russian government, a move apparently intended to protect Russia’s largest oil producer from U.S. sanctions while Moscow continues supporting Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.The sale follows the U.S. imposition of sanctions on two Rosneft subsidiaries in an effort to cut a critical lifeline Russia extended to Maduro after the U.S. government made it illegal for Americans to buy crude from Venezuela.Rosneft, led by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s longtime associate Igor Sechin, said that its move meant that “all assets and trading operations of Rosneft in Venezuela and/or connected with Venezuela will be disposed of, terminated or liquidated.”It said in a statement that it “concluded an agreement with a company 100% owned by the government of the Russian Federation, to sell all of its interest and cease participation in its Venezuelan businesses,” including multiple joint ventures, oil-field services companies and other activities.The sale could help shield Rosneft by handing over control of the Venezuelan operations to a fully state-owned venture that unlike the state-controlled Rosneft isn’t answerable to private investors.U.S. pressureIn February, the U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions on the Rosneft subsidiary based in Geneva that sells crude to European customers. U.S. authorities vowed to keep applying pressure and hit a second Rosneft subsidiary with sanctions earlier this month.FILE – Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro speaks during a news conference at Miraflores Palace in Caracas, March 12, 2020.Rosneft spokesman Mikhail Leontyev said the company’s decision was aimed at “protecting the interests of our shareholders.” He added in remarks carried by Russia’s Tass news agency that Rosneft expected the U.S. to now waive sanctions against its subsidiaries.”We really have the right to expect American regulators to fulfill their public promises,” he said.Konstantin Kosachev, the Kremlin-connected head of the foreign affairs committee in the upper house of the Russian parliament, reiterated that Russia’s view is that “unilateral U.S. sanctions against Venezuela are unlawful and inhumane.””Moscow and Caracas will remain partners amid the U.S. sanctions against Venezuela,” he told the Interfax news agency.Recognition of GuaidoThe U.S. was first among nearly 60 nations to recognize opposition leader Juan Guaido a year ago as Venezuela’s rightful leader. The international coalition considers Maduro illegitimate after 2018 elections widely deemed fraudulent because the most popular opposition candidates were banned from running against him. Russia’s support has helped Maduro to face down U.S.-backed efforts to unseat him.Rosneft said in its statement that “the concluded transaction and the sale of assets will result in Rosneft receiving as a settlement payment a 9.6% share of Rosneft’s equity capital that will be held by a 100% subsidiary of Rosneft and accounted for as treasury stock.”
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A prominent member of the U.S. House of Representatives on Friday issued a highly critical statement on U.S. policy toward Kosovo.Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia in 2008. Since than the country has been recognized by more than 110 countries, including the United States, but not by Serbia and its ally Russia.House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel, a Democrat, said there is something wrong with the U.S. foreign policy toward Kosovo and “we need to correct it.”In his statement, Engel expressed his serious concerns “with the heavy-handed tactics the Trump administration is using with Prishtina,” Kosovo’s capital.Engel was referring to State Department pressure on Prishtina, especially on the government of Prime Minister Albin Kurti, to lift tariffs the country had imposed on Serbia.“This administration turned to economic penalties just a few short weeks after the Kurti government took office. Rather than letting a new government facing a pandemic staff its agencies and set up internal procedures, the U.S. contributed to a political crisis in Prishtina over the tariffs on Serbia,” Engel said.On March 25, after only 50 days in office, the Kurti government did not survive a no-confidence vote in parliament, initiated by its ruling coalition partner, the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK).The government was dismissed following political bickering over whether to declare a state of emergency to prevent the spread of the coronavirus and after Kurti dismissed the LDK internal affairs minister, Agim Veliu.Kurti’s government is expected to continue as a caretaker government, pending creation of a new government.“There are good reasons for Kosovo to lift tariffs, mostly that they are hurting Kosovo more than they are providing leverage to reach a peace deal with Serbia,” Engel said.“Regardless, tariffs are a legitimate tool of a sovereign nation. As such, they’ve been imposed around the world by [U.S.] President [Donald] Trump against friends and foes, alike, for economic and political reasons,” Engel said.Engel said the Trump administration used “overbearing tactics with a friend which relies on our support” instead of working with Kurti government, “as it sought to work with the previous Kosovo government” to forge policies that promote lasting peace and prosperity.“Strong-arming a small democracy is the act of a bully,” Engel said.While Serbian diplomats are campaigning around the world to “derecognize” Kosovo’s independence, and Serbia is purchasing heavy weaponry from Russia and strengthening the relationship with Moscow, the pressure imposed on Prishtina for its tariffs on Serbia has been “decidedly unbalanced,” Engel said.The U.S., he added, should work with European allies “to treat both countries as independent and sovereign partners, applying consistent standards to both sides as we try to restart peace talks.”The arms purchases from Russia require U.S. sanctions on Serbia under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, passed in the aftermath of 2016 Russian interference in U.S. elections, Engel said.“Neither have we imposed those sanctions, nor have we energetically pressed Serbia to end its derecognition efforts,” Engel said.“When U.S. law says we should sanction Serbia due to its security ties with Russia, we should.”    
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A Chinese company offered Friday to replace thousands of faulty coronavirus test kits after Spanish health authorities – desperate for materials to cope with the world’s second highest COVID-19 death toll – complained they did not work as promised.China has sold face masks and other medical equipment through a series of personal contacts with Spanish authorities, including discussions between chief executives of Chinese tech giant Alibaba and Spain’s King Felipe.But the first shipment of 640,000 test kits was found to have “insufficient sensibility” to reliably identify infected patients, according to Health Minister Salvador Illa, who announced Thursday that 58,000 kits had been returned.FILE – This undated file photo provided by U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows CDC’s laboratory test kit for the new coronavirus.The Chinese company supplying the test kits, Shenzhen Bioeasy Technology, said in a statement quoted by Reuters that the incorrect results may have resulted from a failure to collect samples or use the kits correctly.The firm said it had not adequately communicated with clients how to use the kits and would resend them “assuring the sensitivity and specificity needed to help Spain fight against COVID-19.”Spanish medical experts, who have examined the 9,000 kits delivered last week, said they have only a 30 percent probability of detecting the virus.“They are useless,” said Victor Jimenez Cid, a senior professor in microbiology at Madrid’s Complutense University. For a test to be effective it must have a 70 percent to 80 percent probability of detecting the virus, Cid said.The failure of Bioeasy’s testing kits is a painful setback for Spanish medical authorities, who are struggling to cope with more than 64,000 cases of COVID-19 and more than 4,900 deaths, second only to Italy.It is also hugely embarrassing to China, which is seeking to rehabilitate a national image tarnished by its faulty early response to the virus in Wuhan by offering assistance to other hard-hit countries.“First they send us the virus, then they sell us the medications to stop it and then defraud us. It’s great for China” said a guest in a panel discussion on a broadcast on the Spanish TV channel La Sexta.An emergency worker wearing a protective suit closes the door of an ambulance transferring a COVID-19 patient in Barcelona, Spain, March 27, 2020.The test is performed by dipping a swab with a sample of a patient’s saliva in a protein extraction that gives color indications of the virus’s presence. The speedy method is essential for emergency examinations by hospitals as well as improvised drive-through facilities that Spanish authorities are setting up to isolate and quickly treat cases of contamination.Until now, Spanish hospitals have relied on slower molecular laboratory testing, which requires specialized personnel and take four hours to produce a result. Tests like those offered by Bioeasy are supposed to produce a diagnosis in 15 minutes.Mass testing methods proved essential in South Korea’s successful effort against coronavirus and they are recommended by the World Health Organization as an essential way of controlling the pandemic’s spread.A priest wearing a gloves to protect against coronavirus waits in front the cemetery chapel during the coronavirus outbreak in Madrid, Spain, March 27, 2020.The Chinese embassy in Spain tweeted that Shenzen Bioeasy is not licensed to sell the product and is not included on a list of “recommended suppliers,” which its ministry of commerce offered the Spanish government.Spain’s health ministry said Bioeasy products have been approved by European Union quality control agencies and that the “specifications of this test, at least of the lot that was received, do not correspond with EU quality certifications.”Officials said the deal with Bioeasy was made through an unidentified intermediary.Health ministry emergency coordinator Fernando Simon said Spain is trying to import 6 million testing kits from China and other EU countries. He also said that “intense efforts” are underway with Spanish biotechnology firms to produce them. 
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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Friday he had tested positive for coronavirus and was in self-isolation at his Downing Street office.
 
Here is reaction to the news.
   Jeremy Corbyn, Leader of UK’s Opposition Labor Party 
 
“I wish the Prime Minister a speedy recovery and hope his family are safe and healthy. Coronavirus can and does affect anyone. Everyone be safe. Our own health depends on everybody else.”   
 Indain Prime Minister Narendra Modi 
 
“You’re a fighter and you will overcome this challenge as well. Prayers for your good health and best wishes in ensuring a healthy UK.”
 Northern Ireland’s First Minister Arlene Foster 
 
“Best wishes to the Prime Minister and Carrie (Symonds, Johnson’s fiancee). No one is immune. Let’s all follow the guidelines.”
 Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon 
 
“I send my very best wishes to Boris Johnson and his family. I don’t underestimate for anybody how difficult it is to be positive for this virus so I certainly send my best wishes to him for a very speedy recovery.”
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Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon reports that as of Friday, there were 1,059 cases of COVID-19 in Scotland — an increase of 165 from Thursday.
 
At a news conference Friday in Edinburgh, Sturgeon also reported an additional eight deaths from the virus overnight, bringing the total number of fatalities in Scotland to 33.
 
The first minister said she expects those numbers to be an underestimate. She urged people to stay indoors, and to go out only for essential shopping and exercise, or care for others.   
 
Sturgeon also stressed the importance of supporting mental health during the coronavirus crisis, and she announced Friday about $4.7 billion in additional funding for National Health Service mental health support services, including 24-hour support phone lines and internet services. 
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