Germany’s Health Minister Jens Spahn said Friday the nation’s average COVID-19 infection rate over the past week has fallen below 100 per 100,000 residents for the first time in two months, a key threshold for lifting restrictions in the European nation.
Speaking to reporters while visiting a vaccine storage and distribution center in Quakenbruck, a city in Lower Saxony state, Spahn said the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases reported the national average infection rate fell to 96.5 per 100,000, its lowest level since March 20.  
He also said Germany’s vaccination program is gaining speed, with almost 36 percent of the population having received at least one shot, and more than 10 percent fully vaccinated. He said the nation set a record for vaccinations on Wednesday, with 1.35 million delivered.
A COVID-19 infection rate of 100 infections per 100,000 people is used as the threshold for imposing a nationwide “emergency brake,” imposing restrictions that include night-time curfews and limits on private gatherings. Should cases remain below this level, restrictions can be relaxed.
But Health Minister Spahn urged caution, saying care must be taken “to secure what has been achieved and not want too much too quickly, because that could backfire.” He said not all regions are rebounding evenly. He urged regional officials to wait for rates to fall below 50 per 100,000 before opening restaurants for indoor dining.  
Spahn also said that, as the weather is warming and people are thinking about travel, they should prioritize going to areas with low infection rates.
Last month, the German parliament approved temporary emergency powers for the federal government, allowing it to implement nationwide restrictions like curfews in response to a third wave of infections that was sweeping the nation. 
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The decision by India and the European Union to restart stalled talks on a free trade pact comes amid growing unease on both sides about China’s rise, according to analysts.   
 
The decision was announced following a summit of EU leaders in Portugal last week, which Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi joined via video conference.    
   
The meeting was held days after the EU suspended efforts to ratify an ambitious investment agreement with China following tensions that have grown between the 27-member bloc and Beijing about its treatment of the Uyghur population in Xinjiang province.   
 
Although reviving trade negotiations that were abandoned by India and Europe in 2013 will not be easy, the move is being seen as part of efforts by both sides to build closer ties in what analysts call a new “geopolitical and geo-economic environment.”   
 
“The kind of questions that have been raised recently about China have propelled Europe and India to look at each other with a different set of priorities,” according to Harsh Pant, head of Strategic Studies at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi and Professor of International Relations at King’s College, London.   
   
“Also post the pandemic, many countries are looking closely at the issue of overreliance on China in trade and Europe, in particular, has been over dependent on China. And from India’s perspective, the West is going to be a very important partner as it re-evaluates every aspect of its foreign policy from the standpoint of the China equation,” says Pant.   
 
India has been moving to build deeper partnerships with countries like the United States, Japan and Australia following an eight-month military standoff with China along their disputed Himalayan borders. Although the standoff eased in March, tensions are still running high over several undemarcated stretches where both countries have deployed tens of thousands of troops.   
 
Both India and the European Union struck an optimistic note after the summit. Indian foreign ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup said there was a strong economic rationale for relaunching trade talks as the European Union was India’s largest trading partner in 2019-20 with bilateral trade of about $ 90 billion. President of the European Council Charles Michel called it a “new important chapter” in ties.  
 
“We agreed to resume negotiations for a balanced, ambitious, comprehensive and mutually beneficial trade agreement which would respond to the current challenges,” according to a joint statement by both sides.   
 
A study by the European Parliament last year before Britain’s departure from the bloc had estimated the potential benefits of a trade deal with India for the EU at around 10 billion dollars. India is also due to start trade negotiations with Britain later this year.    
 
The bid to deepen ties with Europe goes beyond trade – a “connectivity partnership” launched by the two sides that aims at building joint infrastructure projects in third countries including Africa, Central Asia and the Indo-Pacific is also seen as a pushback against China’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative.    
 
However, hammering out a trade deal will be challenging with some analysts warning that India has turned even more protectionist in recent years.   
 
India and the EU had halted seven years of negotiations in 2013 after hitting a roadblock over key differences – Europe wanted India to lower levies on its major exports, such as wines, spirits and auto components, while New Delhi wanted greater access for Indian professionals to work in Europe.   
 
“India is in a worse situation than in 2013 when trade talks were abandoned. Last year the government’s signal to industry was that they will be protected if they ramp up domestic production,” points out Biswajit Dhar, a professor at New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University and an expert on international trade relations. “Now the question is whether they can accommodate Europe’s demands to open up the market. It’s going to be a tall ask – for example the Indian automobile industry which is one of the country’s important industries will resist any suggestion of tariff cuts.”   
 
But navigating the trade deal with Europe will be a key test for New Delhi as it seeks alternatives to China. In 2019 it abandoned a China-led regional trade pact – the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, after it failed to address Delhi’s concerns over market access.  
 
“For India it is a moment to underscore its credentials as a credible economic player because there are lots of questions about India’s ability to finalize trade deals,” points out Pant. “It has to show that it can walk the talk and can move forward on trade and economic matters with countries with which it has a strategic convergence.”  
 
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Paola Celeste Torres knows all too well the dangers for journalists in Nicaragua. She was working in the Radio Dario building in the city of León in April 2018 when arsonists set fire to the station.The attack, which destroyed the station’s equipment, took place during a period of View of the destroyed facilities of “Radio Dario” in the Nicaraguan city of Leon, on April 24, 2018, after it was set on fire during protests against President Daniel Ortega’s government on April 21.Torres is director of Sin Censura, or Without Censorship, a news outlet that broadcasts via social media. “We had a regular radio [broadcast], but seeing that we couldn’t continue working in the same location, we decided to move it to Facebook,” said Torres.Sin Censura used to be produced in the Radio Dario studios, but since the fire it has grown as a social media news platform focused on local stories. It has around 120,000 followers on Facebook and an audience that reacts and comments on the reporting.New media projects like Sin Censura are filling the gaps left in Nicaragua’s restrictive environment.The situation for the country’s media worsened in the wake of the 2018 protests. Several journalists went into self-imposed exile to avoid retaliation; those reporting in the field face violence; and independent outlets are censored or harassed, according to media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF). The country scores 121 out of 180, where 1 is the freest, on RSF’s annual World Press Freedom Index. Nicaraguan officials say the government respects press freedom. But one official with whom VOA spoke said that some journalists “fall into debauchery.”Wilfredo Navarro, a deputy in the ruling Sandinista party, told VOA that “the media makes up news and says anything. … Journalists say what they want. They invent what they want.”José Cardoza, right, the creator of Nicaragua’s Primer Orden podcast, distributed on at least 25 digital platforms. (Houston Castillo/VOA)Innovation during adversityUsing a similar model as Sin Censura, the podcast Primer Orden, or First Order, uses social media to distribute its daily news summaries.Its founder, José Cardoza, records the news show in a small room, improvised as a radio studio, in Managua, then distributes it on multiple platforms.The podcast initially started as a hobby for Cardoza in 2018, because his other job in public relations didn’t allow him to dedicate himself “fully to journalism.” Cardoza decided to use the pandemic and recent unemployment as an opportunity.Since its creation, the format has varied. “Currently it is a little more adapted to the needs of the audience; to be informed in a few minutes,” Cardoza said. “In the first six minutes you already know what the situation is in Nicaragua.”The Primer Orden newscast now has a team of five who collaborate daily to produce content.Running a podcast has advantages, but the journalists still face obstacles. Like others in media, they receive threats, face police harassment and lack financial support.“The advantage is technology, the internet. You can listen to it again, share it and even be able to download it. However, you go to a conference to get an interview and you find a huge number of policemen outside the event,” said Javier Bermúdez, a Primer Orden journalist.The same problems affect more traditional media.Aníbal Toruño, director and owner of Radio Darío in León, said he admires the ability of his team to report despite the pressure and threats from police and government officials.“I see it as a great opportunity and a testament to the environment in which you work, that if you could reach 50,000 people, now you can reach 100,000 or 150,000,” said Toruño.Cooperation and support among colleagues and associations with other media are a bonus, Toruño said, adding that competition among outlets is over.The municipal Radio Camoapa Estéreo, which covers Nicaragua’s central region, relies on collaboration and a few journalists.“We have a network of friends who are there, they help us and support us, people who send us contributions,” said Juan Carlos Duarte Sequeira, its co-founder. “Many of us earn absolutely nothing, we have no salary. We are simply here because we believe in the project.”The country’s media also face obstacles from legislation, including a cybercrime law approved in October. The law establishes fines and in some cases jail time for spreading “false news.”Journalists and members of Nicaragua’s opposition raised concerns about the law, pointing out that other legislation has been used to retaliate against critics.”We have seen other colleagues to whom previous laws have been applied, accusing them of defamation, and receiving a prison sentence, even when they have not committed any crime,” said Torres, of Sin Censura.The journalist believes the law is a tool to punish the media and journalists, but her team put fear aside. “If we allow ourselves to be overcome by fear, we will close down and what will become of independent media? Communication? The people will be most affected.”Government deputy Navarro denied the cybercrime law is aimed at media.“Journalists can say what they want,” Navarro told VOA. “What we want to do with the cybercrime law is to prevent online sexual trafficking,” as well as “ensure that the internet is not used to generate chaos.”Uncertain futureMedia professors from private universities in León told VOA there is disenchantment with prospective students. In 2018, they received more than 80 applications. In 2021, only three.The professors, who asked that they and their institutions remain anonymous out of security concerns, said many students were disappointed to see the police repression.“They go for an assignment; and we tell them to take photos and images. And they experience firsthand when the police or other people ask them what they’re doing and demand photo ID,” one of the academics said.Many also do not see journalism as a profitable career, saying you need a second job to survive in media.Torres said that journalists are more often bearing the financial burden of running their own outlets.“When we lost sponsors, our advertisements, we had to … acquire a microphone or a tripod. We had to migrate to other alternative jobs to be able to subsist as individuals and as journalists,” she said.But Torres, said, “This is my passion, despite everything. Despite having been at Radio Darío when it was set on fire, having seen that terrorist attack against freedom of expression. I’m one of the survivors of the attack on Radio Darío, along with colleagues from Sin Censura … we have to fight.”This story originated in VOA’s Spanish language division.
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After dark months struggling with the coronavirus pandemic, Europe is finally hitting its stride, with vaccinations and economies picking up, countries emerging from lockdowns, and even opening their borders to foreign tourists.For Maison Nomade, the recent journey under France’s lockdown has been tough.Now, this vegetarian restaurant in northern Paris is finally reopening. Staff members idled by the pandemic are scrambling to get things ready.Staff at Maison Nomade restaurant prepare for its reopening next Wednesday. The EU has notched up the region’s growth predictions for this year. (Lisa Bryant/VOA)“It’s been pretty hard to be closed for that long, but we’re very excited, a little bit stressed, and we’re really looking forward to opening the restaurant again,” said Allison Lamotte, the restaurant’s co-owner.”And we hope this time it will last forever, and we won’t have to close again, because it’s been hard.”That’s a sentiment shared by many other French businesses, as coronavirus restrictions start easing. Next Wednesday, outdoor terraces of restaurants and bars are reopening for the first time in months — although at half capacity — along with museums and shops.Other European countries are reopening even faster … sparking celebrations in Spain … and preparations in Greece to welcome vaccinated international tourists starting Saturday.Parisians walk past the Louvre Museum which will soon be open to visitors. (Lisa Bryant/VOA)That’s a big change from earlier this year. As the United States and Britain saw COVID-19 cases fall as they ramped up their vaccination campaigns, European Union numbers kept growing.Vaccine delivery delays left EU governments struggling to put shots into citizens’ arms, sometimes fighting over supplies. The 19-member eurozone slipped into a double-dip recession.With the vaccine bottleneck easing, Brussels predicts it will meet its goal of inoculating 70% of European adults this summer. EU economic growth forecasts also are also rosier — at 4.2% this year, up from previous estimates.Overall, says Rosa Balfour, director of the Carnegie Europe policy institute, things are looking better.“The economy is opening up — this has been partly a consequence of the acceleration of the vaccine drive, but also because some Mediterranean states in particular have been pushing very hard to get tourism back on track,” Balfour said.The EU hopes to facilitate travel within the bloc through special COVID-19 certificates for citizens who are vaccinated, recovered from the virus or test negative for it.Christophe Decloux, Managing Director of the Paris Region Tourism Board, is confident Americans and other tourists will be back. But it might take time. (Lisa Bryant/VOA)France’s international borders are set to reopen June 9. But reclaiming its spot as the world’s leading tourist destination may take time. Christophe Decloux, managing director of the Paris Region Tourism Board, says the Paris area alone lost 33 million visitors last year—more than two-thirds of its usual numbers.“Tourists will come back — I don’t know how many and how much time — but at the end, the Eiffel Tower always attracts,” Decloux said. “But at the end, the big issue is the business travelers. And why should they choose Paris rather than London, Berlin or Milan or whatever—that’s the issue.”The message to travelers, he says: France is a safe destination. People here are hoping that stays true.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 10 MB480p | 15 MB540p | 20 MB720p | 42 MB1080p | 81 MBOriginal | 228 MB Embed” />Copy Download Audio 
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After dark months struggling with the coronavirus pandemic, Europe is finally hitting its stride with vaccinations and economies picking up and countries emerging from lockdowns and reopening their borders to foreign tourists. But as Lisa Bryant reports from Paris, there is still a lot of uncertainty.
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Hungary has announced plans to open a branch of a Chinese University in Budapest. Critics fear the development — the first of its kind in Europe — will be used by Beijing to spread Chinese Communist Party propaganda and could pose a threat to national security.   The so-called “Student City” will be built on the site of a former wholesale market outside the nation’s capital, with its centerpiece a branch of the prestigious Shanghai-based Fudan University.   Hungary said it will raise the standard of higher education, offer courses to 6,000 students from Hungary, China and further afield, while bringing Chinese investment and research to the country.
For China, it’s a significant milestone, said professor Steve Tsang, director of the SOAS China Institute at the University of London. “Until relatively recently, China was importing foreign universities onto Chinese soil, having branches in China. Now, they are exporting a Chinese university branch on European soil, a member of the European Union. This is, I think, tremendously important from their perspective in how it shows that China has risen,” Tsang told VOA.  
   FILE – A view of the site where the construction of a top Chinese university, the Fudan’s campus, is planned, in the 9th district of Budapest, Hungary, Apr. 23, 2021.Two years ago, Hungary’s famous Central European University, which is backed by Hungarian-born, U.S.-based financier George Soros, was effectively forced out of the country through changes to education law and has since relocated to Vienna.Hungary’s government accuses Soros of political interference in the country, which he denies.
Budapest Mayor Gergely Karacsony, a member of the opposition Dialogue for Hungary Party, said Hungarians are being betrayed.   “Let’s put the two [universities] next to each other,” he said. “There was something which has offered an open education, did not cost a penny for Hungarian taxpayers, was a well-established university in Hungary and was exiled. And now, the government brings in another one which represents the ideology of the [Chinese] Communist Party and costs the Hungarian taxpayers billions,” he told The Associated Press.   Leaked government documents published by the Hungarian investigative journalism organization Direkt36 estimate the cost at $1.8 billion, which is more than Hungary spent on its entire higher education system in 2019. The documents suggest most of the funding will come from a Chinese bank loan, and construction will be carried out using mostly Chinese materials and labor.   FILE – A man sits front of the building of the Central European University, a school founded by U.S. financier George Soros, in Budapest, Hungary, Apr. 9, 2018.Fudan ranks among the top 100 universities in the world. Its expansion into Europe is part of Beijing’s efforts to control the narrative on China, Tsang said.   “When we are dealing with the humanities and social sciences side of the curriculum, it is clear that the Communist Party will keep control of it. It was only in the last two years that Fudan University changed clearly its instructions on its relationship with the [Chinese] party state, now clearly declaring that its first mission is not to uphold academic integrity but to follow the leadership of the party,” Tsang said.   Hungary’s government has pursued a strategy it calls “Eastern Opening,” seeking increased cooperation and trade with countries such as China and Russia. It has taken a $2 billion loan from China’s Exim Bank to build a railway line between Budapest and Serbia’s capital, Belgrade, as part of China’s global Belt and Road initiative.   Hungary is also the only country in the European Union to have approved the Chinese-made “Sinopharm” COVID-19 vaccine.   Karacsony is among many who fear the Fudan University development could pose a threat to national security through Chinese espionage. “While the Hungarian government visibly enjoys the benefits of European Union membership — since, for example, it will receive an astronomical amount of EU support in the coming months — it is meanwhile a kind of advanced bastion of eastern great powers,” he said. FILE – Local district mayor Krisztina Baranyi walks across the site where the construction of a top Chinese university, the Fudan’s campus, is planned, in the 9th district of Budapest, Hungary, April 23, 2021.In an email to VOA, a Hungarian government spokesperson said, “According to the prestigious QS World University Ranking, Fudan is the 34th best university in the world. … The Ministry of Innovation and Technology of Hungary and the Chinese Ministry of Education concluded an interministerial agreement finalized in February this year to support Fudan University in establishing a world-class, research-oriented, multidisciplinary university in Budapest. “From George Soros to President Obama, a lot of people have given lectures at Fudan University, and it is one of the best universities in the world that will not be engaged in ideological education but will provide economic courses,” the spokesperson said.   The EU has yet to officially respond to the university plans. Meanwhile, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas criticized Hungary Monday for what he called an “absolutely incomprehensible” decision to block an EU statement criticizing Beijing for the crackdown on the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong.   “I think everybody can work out for themselves what the reasons are, because there are good relations between China and Hungary,” Maas told reporters, following a meeting of the EU’s Foreign Affairs Council. In a statement, the U.S. Embassy in Budapest expressed concerns over the plans to open a branch of Fudan University in Hungary, “given Beijing’s proven track record of using academic institutions to advance a malign influence agenda and stifle intellectual freedom.”  The Fudan University branch is expected to be completed by 2024. 
 
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The Champions League final between Manchester City and Chelsea on May 29 has been moved from Istanbul to Porto to allow English fans to travel under COVID-19 restrictions, European soccer’s governing body UEFA said on Thursday.
The final was scheduled for Istanbul’s Ataturk Olympic Stadium, but Turkey was last week put on Britain’s travel ‘red list’, meaning that no English fans would be able to attend the game. It will now be held in FC Porto’s Estadio do Dragao.
UEFA said that each club would receive 6,000 tickets which are expected to go on sale from today. The final capacity for the match has yet to be confirmed.
There had been discussions over moving the final to London’s Wembley Stadium but UEFA said that despite “exhaustive efforts on the part of the (English) Football Association and the authorities, it was not possible to achieve the necessary exemptions from UK quarantine arrangements.”
“I think we can all agree that we hope never to experience a year like the one we have just endured,” said UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin.
“Fans have had to suffer more than twelve months without the ability to see their teams live and reaching a Champions League final is the pinnacle of club football.
“To deprive those supporters of the chance to see the match in person was not an option and I am delighted that this compromise has been found,” he added.
Portugal was placed on the UK government’s “green list” from May 17, which means fans of the English clubs will be free to travel to the game.
The country is in the last phase of easing a lockdown and expects to lift travel restrictions from May 17.
Turkish Football Federation officials told Reuters on Wednesday they expected to host the 2023 Champions League which would be part of the Republic’s centenary celebrations
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Spain has promised to donate 7.5 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to Latin American and Caribbean countries this summer as its vaccine diplomacy contrasts with the more cautious approach taken by the United States.   Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez pledged to ship between 5% and 10% of the country’s total vaccine supply in an effort to combat a third wave of the pandemic that is raging in a number of Latin American nations.   Spain’s leftist government is confident that 70% of its population of 47 million will be inoculated by the end of August.  Sanchez said this week the country was “100 days away from herd immunity,” and will send surplus vaccines to donate to Latin America.     The vaccines that Madrid will send are AstraZeneca, Moderna, Pfizer BioNTech and Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen. FILE – People receive a dose of the AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine at a vaccination center in Barcelona, Spain, Apr. 26, 2021.In Spain, more than 29% of the population has had at least one dose while 13.3% has had both as the vaccine program picks up pace.   Going further Sanchez supported U.S. President Joe Biden’s initiative to drop patent rights to COVID-19 vaccines to reduce costs for poorer countries but wants to go further.   “Spain is proposing a comprehensive initiative to facilitate the transmission of the necessary technology and expertise, lift all barriers to ramping up production and accelerate vaccine production,” Sanchez wrote in Britain’s Financial Times Wednesday. In contrast, and as U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris prepares to travel to Mexico and Guatemala next month, the United States has faced calls to do more to help Latin American nations with scant vaccine resources.   U.S, Democrats have called on the Biden administration to make Latin America a priority.   US response    The U.S. State Department said the government was working on plans to share vaccines when they became available, but that the priority is vaccinating American citizens.  “Right now, this administration is focused first and forecast foremost? on ensuring that Americans have access to the safe and effective vaccine. At the same time, we understand that for Americans to be truly safe from this virus both now and over the long term we need to demonstrate leadership, because as long as the virus is in the wild, it will continue to mutate, it will continue to pose a threat to Americans back here at home,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said last month.The scarcity of vaccines has prompted wealthier Latin Americans to travel to the U.S. to be inoculated, something which the U.S. government has discouraged.  Shortages of vaccines or materials to make them are crippling for many Latin American states.  Brazil, which recorded 425,000 deaths from COVID-19, will run out of the raw materials to produce the Chinese Sinovac vaccine by Friday, after a shipment was held up in China, authorities in Sao Paulo state said.   Alicia Martinez holds her vaccination card while resting after her second shot of China’s Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine in the outdoor patio of a home for the elderly in Santiago, Chile, March 5, 2021.In Chile, where the vaccine program is one of the fastest in the world, this progress has been muted by a sharp rise in coronavirus cases last month, reaching 9,000 in one day. It forced the government to bring in a quarantine for 80% of the population.   Pleas President Luis Abinader of the Dominican Republic called on Biden to release U.S. stocks of the AstraZeneca vaccine.“President @JoeBiden, less-developed countries and traditional allies of the USA, like Dominican Republic, have approved the AstraZeneca vaccine and we need it urgently,” he tweeted.Euclides Acevedo, the foreign minister of Paraguay, pleaded with Washington to come to its help as COVID-19 cases mounted. “What use is fraternity if now they don’t give us a response?” he said.  FILE – Spain’s Foreign Minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya speaks during a media briefing at San Carlos Palace in Bogota, Colombia, Feb. 26, 2021.Spain’s Foreign Minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya criticized the U.S. for delaying a response on sharing vaccines. “Europe has recently exported 200 million doses of vaccines to the world. Countries like the United States have still not exported any. This has to change,” she told eldiario.es, a Spanish online newspaper this week. The U.S. government refutes this claim, saying it has so far shared 4 million vaccines with Canada and Mexico. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters last week that Washington planned to send another 60 million doses from its supply over the next two months. He did not specify the countries.  The U.S. has contributed $2 billion to the COVAX, an initiative involving the World Health Organization and others to facilitate the sharing of vaccines by richer countries with poorer nations. COVAX has sent a total of 6.5 million doses with Latin America. Blinken has pledged another $2 billion to the program.However, the U.S. offer to share vaccines and the supplies from the COVAX initiative is small compared to the vast Latin American and Caribbean regions, whose populations total 650 million. Politics Spain wants to take a leading role among European powers when it comes to vaccine diplomacy, while Biden is under domestic political pressure to prioritize U.S. citizens — at the moment at least. “Sanchez’s gesture is a change for Spain to show solidarity with Latin America and to show that Europe cares about the problems of vaccine supply which countries there are facing,” Carlos Malamud, a senior investigator at the Real Elcano Institute, a Madrid research organization, told VOA.   “However, Biden may be under more domestic pressure to change the America First policy of the Trump era but not to open its hand straight away,” Malamud said.  It comes as Chinese vaccines dominate Latin American efforts to combat the pandemic, with Beijing sending more than half of the 143.5 million doses of the vaccine which have been sent to the continent’s 10 largest countries. FILE – Trucks carrying Chinese Sinovac’s CoronaVac vaccines against the COVID-19 disease leave the San Oscar Romero International Airport in San Luis Talpa, El Salvador, on March 28, 2021.China’s Sinovac has delivered 78.5 million finished doses or ingredients to make the vaccine, while AstraZeneca and Pfizer are the two main Western suppliers who have sent 59 million doses.     Ana Ayuso, a Latin America analyst at the CIDOB think tank in Barcelona, believes the U.S. may have to use vaccine diplomacy to stem the tide of migrants who are crossing the border to be inoculated. “At present the U.S. may not be shipping many vaccines to Latin America but this may change as a way to stop people crossing into the U.S. to get the jab,” she told VOA. 
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A joyful Pope Francis greeted a group of about 300 faithful in a Vatican courtyard Wednesday as he resumed his in-person weekly general audience with members of the public for the first time in six months. The COVID-19 pandemic shut down the pope’s public audiences last year as the pandemic swept through Italy. He instead taped his weekly message in a Vatican library. He attempted to resume them again in September, only to be forced back into the library when infection rates rose in November. Pope Francis holds the weekly general audience while coronavirus disease restrictions are eased at the Vatican, May 12, 2021.The crowd of about 300 cheered as the pope stepped out of a car that drove him into San Damaso Courtyard at the Vatican. He removed his mask and smiled and waved at the social-distanced group, all of whom had their temperatures checked as they entered the area. As he made his way to the front of the courtyard, the pope greeted a baby, signed a book and put on a red knit Filipino hat given to him by an audience member. In his opening remarks, the pope told the audience how happy he was to be back, face to face, with them. “I will tell you something — it is not nice to speak in front of nothing, to a camera. It is not nice,” he said. Later in the day, he held a private audience with German Foreign Minister Heiko Mass. The 84-year-old pope has been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, as have all residents of the Vatican. 
 
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Twenty-three people remain hospitalized Wednesday in the Russian city of Kazan following a school shooting that killed nine people, seven of whom were children.  The attack occurred Tuesday morning when a gunman opened fire on a school there.”We have lost seven children … four boys and three girls,” Rustam Minnikhanov, the president of the Republic of Tatarstan, told state TV, according to Reuters.Authorities have said all 23 wounded remain in stable condition and at least eight — three adults and five children — will be transferred to Moscow for further treatment.Men carry a coffin with the body of Elvira Ignatieva, a teacher who was killed in a shooting at a school on Tuesday, in Kazan, Russia, May 12, 2021.Russian officials have promised to pay 1 million rubles to each of the families of those killed and said the payments will be wired by the end of day Wednesday.Wednesday was declared a day of mourning in Tatarstan, the region where Kazan is the capital.The attacker has been identified as a 19-year-old and has been arrested. No details were given by authorities regarding a motive.Russian media has said the gunman was a former student at the school, who called himself “a god” on his Telegram messaging account and promised to “kill a large amount of biomass” on the morning of the shooting. Russian lawmaker Alexander Khinshtein said on Telegram that the suspect received a permit for a shotgun less than two weeks ago, and the school he targeted had no security besides a panic button.Attacks on schools are rare in Russia, and Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the head of the country’s National Guard to revise regulations on the types of weapons available for civilian use.  
 
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German Health Minister Jens Spahn said Wednesday the nation is prepared to roll out a digital “immunity app” to show proof of vaccination for Germans by the end of June.
 
Spahn told reporters the digital certificate is designed to allow people to more easily prove they have been vaccinated and travel to different areas and countries. He said all the standards, interfaces and “technical terms” for the certificate have been agreed to, and after regional testing is complete next month, he expects it to be ready for distribution.
 
The health minister said the goal is for the certificate to be compatible with the certification system currently being developed and debated by the European Union.
 
“If we manage to do this for the EU in the coming weeks, then we’ll likely set a global benchmark,” Spahn said, noting that no other countries have agreed to a system at the national level.
 
Tuesday, the European Parliament began discussing how the certificate could be used. While EU officials want it to allow unconditional entry to member states, some members are balking at surrendering the power to control their own borders.  
 
Spahn said the good news is that COVID-19 infection rates have been dropping for all age groups throughout the country and that vaccinations continue at a steady pace, with at least one-third of the German population having received at least one shot and about 10% fully vaccinated.
 
Speaking at the same news briefing, Robert Koch Institute for Infectious Diseases (RKI) President Lothar Wieler told reporters that schoolchildren and young adults remain the group with the highest infection rates, with over 150 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people.
 
RKI reports that as of Tuesday, Germany’s national average infection rate was 115 per 100,000 people.
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An independent panel released a report Wednesday saying the coronavirus pandemic was a “preventable disaster,” exacerbated by a slow and weak World Health Organization (WHO) and lack of global political leadership.
The panel, formed to examine the cause of and response to the pandemic, said that while there had been years of warnings about the threat of pandemics, initial signs of the threat from clinicians in Wuhan, China were not acted on. It said coordinated, global leadership was absent, and global tensions undermined efforts by international, multilateral institutions to take cooperative action.  
The panel also concluded that the international threat warning could have been declared at least a week earlier than it was on January 30, 2020.
Close to 160 million cases have been recorded globally, along with more than 3.3 million deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University’s Coronavirus Resource Center.
The independent panel faulted countries worldwide for their “wait and see” approach, rather than enacting aggressive containment strategies that might have slowed or prevented the crisis. The group also criticized restrictive international health laws that hindered the WHO’s response.
The independent panel was formed last year by WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at the request of the organization’s membership. Former Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark led the panel.
In its final report, the panel made a series of recommendations, such as creating a global health threats council through the United Nations. It would include heads of state, giving the WHO more power and financial independence and have it work with the World Trade Organization with vaccine-producing countries and manufacturers to quickly reach deals to boost the world’s global supply of coronavirus shots.
The panel also suggested that Tedros, WHO’s current director-general, should be limited to a single seven-year term. As it stands, the WHO chief is elected to a five-year term that can be renewed once.
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Paris begins reopening next week, bringing relief to residents missing its long-shuttered shops, museums, theaters and cafes that make France’s iconic capital so special. Not to mention something more basic—easily accessible toilets. Cecile Briand ducks into a small cement building, tucked inside a northern Paris square. The toilet she’s inspecting is a bit dirty, but no nasty surprises—nothing a little tissue can’t fix. Number one advice walking this city: always bring toilet paper.  Briand is a writer and artist. Also possibly this capital’s best resource on restrooms. Her guidebook Ou Faire Pipi a Paris? — or Where to Pee in Paris — is now in its second edition.   She earned her expertise firsthand— spending hours on the streets researching a separate Lonely Planet guide on Paris walks. Discovering its hidden and not-so-hidden toilets, she says, is another way of discovering the city.Briand checks out a restroom in a small square and pronounces it “correct.” (VOA/Lisa Bryant)Some of Briand’s top picks include the 5th-floor restrooms at the Galeries Lafayette department store —over a terrace with a stunning view of the capital. There’s also the red-carpeted Drouot auction house, and Josephine Baker swimming pool on the Seine River.  Lockdown has shuttered these and many other places — like this public library we pass by.  For the desperate — and less choosy — there are always the city’s 435 sanisettes, elegant-looking steel structures that—despite their automatic cleaning— aren’t always so elegant inside.  Peeing in Paris has been problematic long before coronavirus. The city hall has long been at war against what it calls ‘wild pipi’ — mostly by men — in public spaces. Residents and tourists mocked the environmentally friendly urinals it set up a few years ago— and this public service announcement featuring actors singing through toilet seats. Meanwhile, critics recently launched an online campaign hash tagged #saccageaparis, or “trashed Paris,” blaming the municipal government, fairly or unfairly, for unkempt streets.   Pere Lachaise cemetery, the next stop on Briand’s tour, offers a respite from the controversy. It’s here Frederic Chopin, Honore de Balzac, Jim Morrison and many other famous people are buried. Equally important is its restroom in a little chalet. Visitors Elena and Rosa Marie, from the northern city of Reims, are hunting for the entrance.One of the restrooms at the Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris. (VOA/Lisa Bryant)Elena says it’s very complicated spending time outside in big cities these days. Either you hold off peeing, or you stay at home.  The lockdown has brought Briand’s guide more media attention. She’s now waiting to assess its impact on the city’s toilet landscape — before working on the third edition of Where to to Pee in Paris.  
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Under Kremlin orders, the U.S. Embassy has stopped employing Russians, forcing the embassy to cut its consular staff by 75% and limit many of its services. The order went into effect on Wednesday, bringing the sharply deteriorating U.S.-Russia relationship to an intensely personal level. Because of the cuts, the embassy can offer only very limited services, such as considering “life-and-death” visa applications. That leaves Russian businessmen, exchange students and romantic partners adrift because they won’t be able to obtain visas. Even Americans will be unable to register their newborns or renew their passports. For Anastasia Kuznetsova, a 20-year-old engaged to marry a Californian, it’s a crushing blow. She had already spent about two years seeking a fiancee’s visa. The notoriously laborious process for Russians to get U.S. visas had already been slowed by COVID-19. “I felt destroyed, much more depressed than I was before,” said Kuznetsova, who last saw her fiance in January on a trip to Mexico. “We have no idea when it’s going to continue working and if we will be able to see each other even during these years.” Thomas H V Anthony, an American living in Russia, was already frustrated because of a delay in registering the birth of his daughter, a record of the child’s claim to U.S. citizenship. “My expectation was as things get better with the situation with the pandemic, gradually the consulate would open more and more and more,” he said. “It was a big shock to suddenly get an email from them, about two weeks ago, saying effective on the 11th we will no longer be offering any consular services.” For Anthony, this means his daughter, who was born before the pandemic, will not be able to travel to visit her grandparents in the United States in the foreseeable future. The embassy has made no statements on whether it is taking measures to beef up the consular staff with new employees from the United States. Embassy spokespeople could not be reached for clarification on how the mission will handle other jobs also filled by locals, such as security. An order signed last month by President Vladimir Putin called for creating a list of “unfriendly” countries whose missions could be banned from hiring Russians or third-country nationals. The list includes the United Kingdom, Ukraine, Poland and several other European countries, but the United States is the first for which the ban is being enforced. The move followed U.S. sanctions imposed over Russian interference in the 2020 U.S. presidential election and involvement in the SolarWind hack of federal agencies. Each country expelled 10 of the other’s diplomats. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the ban on local employees is in line with convention. “We rarely employ any local personnel in the country where our diplomatic mission is. And thus we have the full right to transfer this practice onto the regulations which manage the work of the U.S. Embassy and their general consulate in the Russian Federation,” he said last month. Yulia Kukula, a university student who was accepted for a PhD program in sustainable energy at Arizona State University, may have found a laborious and costly way around the problem of getting her visa to attend university. After searching online for advice from others in her situation, Kukula was able to sign up for an interview for a visa at the U.S. consulate in neighboring Kazakhstan. But that’s a 2,300-kilometer (1,400-mile) trip from Moscow, and the interview isn’t until October. The United States once had three other consulates in Russia — in Yekaterinburg, Vladivostok and St. Petersburg — which somewhat eased the travel burden for people seeking visas. But those consulates have closed or stopped providing visas amid diplomatic spats in recent years, in what Alexis Rodzianko, head of the American Chamber of Commerce in Russia, called “a visa war.” That had already placed a burden on the companies in his chamber whose executives needed to travel. “Now it looks like it’s impossible for the indefinite future,” he said. The travel restrictions of the pandemic have shown that videoconferencing can’t entirely replace the in-person contact of business travel, he said. “They’re especially good for people who already know each other and they’re much less effective for people getting to know each other,” he said. He also sees a larger problem if the visa halt lasts for long. He worries that because the U.S. and Russian governments are adversaries, a lack of contacts between people on both sides could lead to “dehumanization,” adding, “which is very dangerous because that’s what you need to fight a war.” Kuznetsova, who had hoped to celebrate her wedding in the United States this year and had even quit her university in Russia in preparation for the move, feels trapped as a small piece in a large geopolitical dispute. “I understand that there can be problems between countries, it’s normal, it’s happened throughout all of history, but it’s not normal to divide people and separate them, especially when it’s families and the lives of people,” she said. 
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Russia has denied involvement in the cyberattack that crippled Colonial Pipeline, a critical artery for almost half of the U.S. East Coast’s fuel supply. While the Biden administration has taken steps to address gasoline shortages, drivers are beginning to see higher prices at the pump. White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has this report.  
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Among the many stories of World War Two, Nazi Germany’s Siege of Leningrad —  the Soviet city now known as Russia’s Saint Petersburg —  stands among the most harrowing. It also helped shape the world we live in today, as Charles Maynes reports for VOA, from St. Petersburg.Camera: Ricardo Marquina Montañana
 
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Britain’s Queen Elizabeth delivered the official Opening of Parliament speech Tuesday, her first ceremonial appearance since the death of her husband, Prince Philip.The speech, traditionally a large-scale event full of pageantry in which the queen opens the new parliament, was scaled back considerably due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with the queen wearing a day dress instead of the usual robes and crown.The queen presented Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s agenda, focusing on economic recovery and development in a post-pandemic Britain. Johnson’s Conservative majority party made gains in regional elections late last week and is expected to press that advantage by pushing through reforms sidelined by the pandemic in the past year.  The queen outlined several bills the government hopes to pass during the next year on everything from job creation and strengthening the National Health Service to stripping back post-Brexit bureaucracy.In a speech prepared by Johnson’s cabinet the queen said, “My government’s priority is to deliver a national recovery from the pandemic that makes the United Kingdom stronger, healthier and more prosperous than before.”The queen said the government will balance opportunities across all parts of the United Kingdom, supporting jobs, businesses and economic growth and addressing the impact of the pandemic on public services.”Much of Tuesday’s “Queen’s Speech” comprised policies and proposals already offered, prompting the opposition Labour Party to challenge the government to turn its “rhetoric into reality.”While Johnson solidified his majority in parliament, last week’s elections also brought him problems in Scotland. There, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s ruling party won a pro-independence vote majority, and she told him Saturday that is not a question of “if, but when” Scotland will hold another referendum on independence from Britain.
 
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As COVID-19 infection rates begin to drop in the region, European Union ministers met in Brussels Tuesday in hopes of reaching an agreement on a “green certificate” travel pass designed to make it easier for fully vaccinated tourists to travel in the continent in time for the summer vacation season.  
The EU’s executive arm, the European Commission, first suggested the plan earlier this year, patterned after the so-called “Green Pass” issued in Israel that allows vaccinated people access to certain venues or events.  
In Europe, the commission suggested the certificates would allow EU residents who can prove they have been vaccinated, as well as those who tested negative for the virus or have proof they recovered from it, to move freely around the continent.
The EU parliament wants the COVID-19 certificates to allow easy travel, without member states imposing extra restrictions on certificate holders such as quarantines, tests or self-isolation measures. But border control is something member nations see as a sovereign right, leaving the initiative with hurdles to overcome.  
Speaking to reporters before their meeting, German Europe Minister Michael Roth said solving the issue is “of the utmost importance.” He said, “This is not just important for a few. It is important for all of us because it’s a symbol that means we are able to act together and to send a clear signal for freedom of movement and for mobility in the European Union.”
Roths’s French counterpart, Clement Beaune, expressed confidence a solution can be reached on the travel issue. He said, though, EU coordination in the fight against COVID-19 is essential before summer begins.  
The European Commission predicts about 70 percent of the EU adult population will be vaccinated by the end of the summer. The European Center for Disease Prevention and Control reports as of Tuesday, almost 32 percent of adults in the EU have received at least one dose of vaccine.
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Former top European Union official Michel Barnier, who led the bloc’s fraught Brexit negotiations, says immigration to France should stop for three to five years and the Schengen system of free movement between member states needs reexamination.  The French politician, who according to some French media outlets is considering challenging Emmanuel Macron in next year’s presidential election, says immigration in the EU is “not working” and that the bloc’s external borders have become a “sieve.” FILE – Kurdish migrants gather to organize their attempt to cross the French border in Claviere, Susa Valley, Alps Region, north-western Italy, Apr. 22, 2021.His remarks, made to a French television station Tuesday, are likely to be seized on by nationalist populists in central and southern European countries that have been increasingly critical of the Schengen system of free movement between member states on the grounds that the bloc’s external borders are porous.  The former French foreign minister told France Television, “I try to look at the problems as they are, in the way the French people live them every day and to find solutions and I think that effectively we need to take some time over three to five years and suspend immigration.” He added: “I’m not talking about students, I’m not talking about refugees who must be treated with humanity and strength, but we need to rebuild the whole process. We need to talk to our neighbors, about the Schengen Agreement, we possibly need to put in stricter border controls.” FILE – A street sign marks the beginning of Schengen zone, Luxembourg, Jan. 27, 2016.He said that it might be necessary to renegotiate Schengen rules and reintroduce cross-border controls for EU citizens. Central European populist leaders, such as Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, have long railed against Schengen, arguing that the absence of strict enforcement of the EU’s external borders has been facilitating a migration crisis.Orban and other Central European populists have declined to participate in EU migrant-burden sharing plan for asylum seekers, largely from the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa, who have landed on the coasts of southern Europe to be redistributed across the bloc.FILE – Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and Italy’s League party leader Matteo Salvini pose for a picture after a news conference following their meeting in Budapest, Hungary, Apr. 1, 2021.“If you are willing to repatriate immigrants, we will try to help with repatriation,” Orban said at one summit. “Shared distribution, not. Shared repatriation would be very good.” He rejected the idea migration can lead to cultural enrichment, arguing integration fails and warned migration brings “public safety problems.” Barnier, in his Tuesday comments, also touched on security concerns, saying there are “links” between immigration and “terrorist networks that infiltrate migrational flows.” He cited human trafficking as a major concern, too. The end of bordless travel? The free movement Schengen zone is seen by Europhiles and those backing deeper EU political and economic integration as crucial. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has argued that the bloc’s “linchpin” is a “fully functioning Schengen.”  Barnier, too, was a strong advocate of Schengen and during Brexit negotiations he emphasized that the single market’s “four freedoms” — free movement of goods, capital and people and the freedom to establish and provide services — are indivisible. “Cherry picking is not an option,” he warned at the start of Brexit negotiations in 2016.His remarks Tuesday prompted lively tweets with the chief foreign correspondent of Britain’s Financial Times noting a Brexit “irony.” “If the EU had allowed much milder restrictions on free movement of people, Brexit would probably never have happened,” he noted. Some commentators suggested French presidential ambitions may be behind Barnier’s skepticism about Schengen.   FILE – Migrants and refugees cross the border between Hungary and Austria, near Nickelsdorf, Austria, Sept. 10, 2015.Since leaving the EU bureaucracy in February, the 70-year-old Barnier, a former EU commissioner, has leveled a string of criticisms on how the bloc is functioning and has published a diary of his time as the chief Brexit negotiator. While highly critical of the British government and Britain’s decision to relinquish EU membership, he has warned that, although an “unlikely event,” other member states could decide to quit, saying, “less bureaucracy, more democracy” is needed in Brussels. Last week, he told another French channel, “In Brussels and Paris alike, it is urgent that we demonstrate the added value of the European project. Maybe — and it’s a suggestion I’m making for the upcoming French presidency next year — there will be a need to assess each European competency and policy to see which ones still have an added value and which ones don’t have that anymore. Where competencies ought to be given back to states.” British politician Nigel Farage, a key Brexit figure, joked in response on Twitter that Barnier, who for years has been seen as a europhile hero, is becoming a “euroskeptic.”  EU member states broke with Brussels last year over border controls, which they imposed unilaterally because of the pandemic. EU officials told national governments that they shouldn’t close borders or stop the free movement of people within the Schengen zone without group agreement.  They were ignored. FILE – German police officers guard a closed bridge at the French-German border at the river Rhine in Kehl, Germany, March 16, 2020. German government allowed only restricted access from France to Germany.Some politicians argued last year that the Schengen system of borderless travel may never be fully restored after the coronavirus has been suppressed or run its course. Luca Zaia, governor of the Veneto region, one of Italy’s worst-hit areas, told reporters last year that Europe’s borderless zone was “disappearing as we speak.  Schengen no longer exists,” he said. “It will be remembered only in the history books,” he predicted.  
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A rocket attack on a Turkish military supply convoy in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province has killed one soldier and wounded four others, Turkey’s Defense Ministry said Tuesday. Turkish forces retaliated to the attack by firing on targets they identified in the region, the Defense Ministry said in a statement. It did not elaborate or say who was responsible for the attack late Monday. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitoring group, said a roadside bomb exploded when a Turkish convoy of seven vehicles was passing on a road between the border crossing point of Bab al-Hawa and the Syrian border village of Kfar Lousin. The Observatory said one of the vehicles suffered a direct hit. Ambulances, it said, rushed to the areas to evacuate Turkish troops who suffered injuries. It added that Turkish troops cordoned off the area for some time preventing people from reaching it. Last year, Turkey and Russia reached a cease-fire agreement that stopped a Russian-backed Syrian government offensive on Idlib – the last major rebel stronghold in Syria. Despite sporadic violations, the agreement has held since then. Russia is the Syrian government’s main military ally, while Turkey has backed the Syrian opposition.
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Seven children were shot and killed at a school in southwest Russia Tuesday, Russian officials said.At least one teacher was also killed in the incident in the city of Kazan, capital of the Tartarstan republic, located more than 800 kilometers east of Moscow.  Four boys and three girls were among those killed.  Initial reports from state-owned RIA news agency said 11 students had been killed. News reports say some students were able to escape the building during the attack.  Authorities say at least 21 others were wounded, including at least a dozen children.  Several emergency vehicles were deployed to the school.  Rustam Minnikhanov, the governor of Tartarstan, told reporters a 19-year-old man he described as a “terrorist” has been arrested in the shooting.  Mass shootings are a rare event in Russia.  The Kremlin said President Vladimir Putin has ordered a review of gun control laws in the aftermath of Tuesday’s deadly shooting. 
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