The Vatican daily L’Osservatore Romano, which Pope Francis has jokingly called “the party newspaper,” suspended printing for only the third time in nearly 160 years on Wednesday due to the coronavirus. The paper, which was founded in 1861, will continue publishing online and most of its staff of about 60, including 20 journalists, will work from home, editor Andrea Monda said. “A newspaper and the paper on which it is printed are inextricably intertwined so it sad that this is happening but the reality is that we are all facing a crisis,” Monda told Reuters. Wednesday evening’s edition will be the last for the time being. The newspaper’ print run of about 5,000 is disproportionate to its wider influence in reflecting Vatican opinion on international affairs and Church matters. It is followed by many ambassadors. “We will try to make the best of the moment to boost our online readership until we are able to print again,” Monda said. Ten copies will continue to be printed. They are for Pope Francis, former Pope Benedict, a few top officials and several to be archived for the historical record. “We had to stop primarily because both the printers and the distributors could not guarantee their services in safe conditions because of the lockdown in Italy and the Vatican,” Monda said. Pope Francis told reporters last year he reads only two newspapers – the Osservatore and Rome’s Il Messaggero. It is very rare for the paper not to be published. Even the Nazi occupation of Rome during World War Two did not halt printing. However, the paper was not published on Sept. 20, 1870, when forces fighting for Italian unification conquered Rome and ended the Church’s temporal power over a large swathe of Italy known as the Papal States. Publication was also suspended for a period in 1919 due to labor unrest and other difficulties in Italy after World War I, Monda said.  
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A provincial official in Italy says a soccer game and a missed opportunity to detect one early coronavirus case might have contributed to the rapid spread of the disease in his hard-hit country. The mayor of Bergamo, Giorgio Gori, says his province, like many others in Italy, were not prepared for the coronavirus outbreak. Bergamo did not go into lockdown initially like 10 other towns in Lombardy and one in Veneto.  A case of pneumonia at a hospital in Bergamo province in late February was not recognized as coronavirus at the time. Gori believes that patient infected others, including doctors and nurses.Gori says another event is also believed responsible for the rapid spread of the virus in his province: a Champions League soccer game played February 19.Gori says 40,000 fans from the Bergamo area watched the match played at Milan’s San Siro stadium between Atalanta and Valencia.Many others watched the game at home in large groups, Gori added, and no doubt all those gatherings caused an escalation of the virus to nearly 7,000 cases.A moment of a funeral service without relatives in the cemetery of Zogno, near Bergamo, Northern Italy, March 21, 2020.Hospitals in the province of Bergamo have since been overwhelmed with patients. The death toll has not stopped rising and the province had nowhere to take bodies.Gori says the government was forced to request help from funeral services of other Italian regions and the army helped to take many of the bodies to crematoriums in other cities.For the past three days the number of confirmed cases in Italy has dropped and there is cautious optimism it is the start of a downward trend. But the head of the government’s coronavirus relief effort, Domenico Arcuri, implored Italians to continue to respect the stringent measures imposed on them because it will be the only way out of this crisis.Arcuri says that, “in a very short time we were harshly attacked by a strong, invisible and unknown enemy, adding that in the midst of “thousands of difficulties we reacted immediately and before many other countries in the world.The commissioner said Italy is facing an emergency without precedent and everyone must do their utmost to ensure that “this emergency does not spread to those regions where so far it has been contained.”  
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Britain’s Prince Charles has tested positive for the coronavirus.  A statement Wednesday said he “has been displaying mild symptoms” but is otherwise in good health.  His wife, Camilla, tested negative for the virus.  The couple is in self-isolation at a home in Scotland. 
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Turkey’s main city – Istanbul – is at the center of the country’s efforts to control the spread of the coronavirus.  Almost 40 people have died in Turkey and the virus has infected more than 1,500 people. Authorities are now ramping up restrictions, closing schools, shuttering entertainment venues and even halting prayers at mosques. As Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul, the city is learning to adapt to a new way of life.
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The Vatican is inviting Christians around the world to join Pope Francis in prayer against the coronavirus pandemic as some workers in Vatican City complain they are being discouraged from working from home. A church tweet says Francis will conduct his prayer service Wednesday at 1100 UTC.  Vatican officials have confirmed at least four coronavirus cases so far.  Although the church has said it is encouraging people TO work from what it calls “remote locations,” the Associated Press reports that workers in three different Vatican offices complain they have been told to show up in person from two to five days a week.  The offices include one that is said to handle sensitive church matters from which officials fear documents could disappear if the office is short-staffed. Another office, the so-called Propaganda Office, oversees the church’s work in developing countries.  “The whole of Italy closes down but not so the Vatican, at least not Propaganda Fide,” one commuter’s wife posted on Facebook. “It is dangerous, moving between cities, trains, metro and buses. I cannot believe that this is actually happening!” While church officials have yet to respond to such grievances, they again said that while Vatican offices will stay open, department heads should make sure “essential services”  are carried out with minimal staff while “incentivizing as much as possible remote working.” Pope Francis says he feels like he’s living in a “cage,” avoiding contact with the faithful and conducting video services instead of greeting pilgrims at St. Peter’s Square.  Some Catholic churches around the world still remain open despite the risks posed by congregations gathering in close contact during the coronavirus pandemic. 
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Istanbul, Turkey’s largest city, is at the center of the country’s efforts to control the spread of COVID-19. Authorities are ramping up restrictions, as the number of infections increase. On Tuesday, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca announced the pandemic’s latest figures — seven new deaths, bringing the death toll to 44, with a total of 1,872 infections. With a population of more than 16 million people, Istanbul accounts for a fifth of Turkey’s population. It is seen as an indicator for the entire country’s ability to win or lose in its battle against COVID-19. Every night across Istanbul, like in other Turkish towns and cities, people cheer and whistle from their balconies or windows in support of the country’s medical workers.  The city is learning to live behind closed doors, including its children, who woke up Monday morning with their schools shuttered in the latest effort by Ankara to contain the coronavirus. Schools closed for two weeks, but many believe that remains an optimistic target, given that the epidemic remains in its infancy.  COVID-19 came late to Turkey. The first official infection was reported two weeks ago. Among the first steps taken by Ankara to contain the virus was to close cinemas, theaters and restaurants until further notice. With its culture of street restaurants, Istanbul is a city that loves to live outside. Now, the streets are silent and empty, devoid of bustling tables of customers enjoying the city’s famed culinary pleasures. Istanbul’s Kadikoy district a hub for the city’s famed restaurants is now empty and silent as all the country’s restaurants are closed as part of the battle to contain the epidemic. (VOA/Dorian Jones)Even prayers at mosques are suspended, possibly a first in the city’s long history.  Despite the severe measures, there is a growing awareness among Istanbul’s residents about the dangers of the virus. “Definitely there is a big danger, both for our country and the world,” said Muhammet, a student. “Immediately, precautions should be taken. We have no doubt scientists and health workers are doing their best.” But others are more critical of the government’s response. “They hid the virus. My nephew works at a hospital. There are six or seven virus victims at a time, when they kept saying that there is no virus. Who are they kidding?” said a retired woman who declined to give her name. “How come there isn’t? Why did they deny this? Why didn’t they take precautions, like stopping the planes coming to Istanbul?”  Ankara denies such criticism, insisting it is reacting with speed and transparency.  Private hospitals on the front line Istanbul’s numerous and well-equipped private hospitals are being put on the front line to fight the virus. “The government has declared all private hospitals “pandemic hospitals,” which gives it the authority to force them to accept corona patients and to set aside the facilities to treat them,” said analyst Atilla Yesilada of Global Source Partners.  “Medical residents have been drafted into active duty,” he added. “The administration is trying to soothe public concerns about a health crisis by assurances that staff, facilities, medicine and test kits are adequate for even dire scenarios.” Yesilada pointed out, however, that anecdotal evidence suggests there is growing criticism about exhaustion, poor safety standards, a lack of masks, gloves, and other vital equipment for hospital staff. On Sunday, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu announced that authorities had raided depots belonging to medical suppliers suspected of hoarding vital equipment, including face masks. The Turkish Medical Association warned Sunday that inadequate regulations meant that all health care professionals are in danger of being infected. It also added that Turkey must immediately install new intensive care units. The Health Ministry rejected such criticisms as unfounded. The Interior Ministry introduced a nationwide measure controlling the number of people using food shops to ensure against overcrowding.  Earlier, people over 65 were banned from leaving home.  Istanbul municipal authorities have even started removing benches to discourage people from sitting and chatting. Police cars are touring Istanbul’s popular seafront areas telling people to go home. For now, Ankara has refrained from introducing compulsory lockdown measures for most of the population. But in Istanbul, much of the population is already heeding government calls to stay home and only work if essential. The use of the city’s public transportation has collapsed in two weeks. According to figures released by Istanbul’s Municipal Authority on Sunday, 800,000 people used the transport network, down from 4.8 million users two weeks prior — a 68% drop. Istanbul’s mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu of the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), is calling on the city to stay strong. “Together, we will get through. Our country, our city, can be an example for the world on how to keep the coronavirus cases and fatalities low,” he said Imamoglu at a recent press conference. “My fellow citizens of Istanbul, we do have difficult days ahead of us, but everything will be beautiful. Don’t lose hope.”  In its 3,000-year history Istanbul has faced plagues and invasions. It is now bracing itself for this latest challenge. 
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Rising coronavirus infections aren’t only testing Europe’s national governments to their limits but also straining European Union solidarity with the governments of member states shrugging off pleas for greater coordination.  Instead, national governments have been paying little heed to Brussels and are pursuing their own ways of containing the virus and coping with the economic fallout, say diplomats and analysts. One after another, the governments of the 27 member states have ignored Brussels’ appeals to keep their borders open to each other, ending the bloc’s hallowed principle of freedom of movement, and they have been ignoring the bloc’s rules on state support for their domestic industries. While EU leaders have talked about the need for “more Europe,” national leaders have elected to follow the path of “less Europe,” say observers. “Logically, the coronavirus now ravaging parts of Italy and Spain and sweeping across the continent should be the ideal opportunity for the EU to move away from complacency and national individualism to solidarity and European integration. Instead, the pandemic, so far, has proven the opposite,” according to Judy Dempsey, an analyst at the Carnegie Europe research organization. Each member state’s government has adopted its own way of containing the virus, she says. “But this is not a European response. The pandemic has not generated a sense of solidarity among the member states or forced a reappraisal of the EU’s role in setting the agenda, even on something as fundamental as safeguarding the health system,” she adds. Rome’s Spanish Steps are seen empty as Italy tightens measures to try and contain the spread of coronavirus in Italy, March 24, 2020.Italian politicians have complained about the lack of solidarity. Mauirzo Massari, Italy’s representative to the EU, appealed for help. “Rome should not be left to handle this crisis alone.” “In addition to national measures, this is a crisis that requires a global and — first and foremost — a European response,” he wrote this month in an open letter in Politico Europe. But the early appeals for protective gear from neighbors for Italy’s overwhelmed health workers fell on deaf ears, a breach, Italians say, of the principle of European Union solidarity.  According to treaty law, member states are meant to act jointly to assist another to cope with “a natural or man-made disaster.” Instead, France and Germany imposed bans on the export of medical equipment they anticipated needing, although Berlin lifted the prohibition earlier this week. Massari says Rome “asked for supplies of medical equipment, and the European Commission forwarded the appeal to the member states, but it didn’t work.” Today, this means Italy; tomorrow, the need could be elsewhere. Italy, like some central European states, has turned for support to China, which has dispatched medical equipment and doctors. Italy’s Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio gives a press conference at the Foreign Press Association in Rome, Feb. 27, 2020.Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio has heaped praised on China, pointedly noting, “We are not alone, there are people in the world who want to help Italy.”  Other Europeans have found China more responsive than near neighbors. Aleksandar Vucic, president of Serbia, which has applied for EU membership, has highlighted Chinese assistance over the “fairy tale” of European solidarity. Nor have member states adopted a common approach to detecting and reporting coronavirus cases, with common guidelines for the entire bloc, critics complain. An almost empty road leads towards the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany, March 24, 2020.With COVID-19 case numbers and deaths soaring — only Germany has shown early signs of managing to “flatten the curve” of confirmed infections — COVID-19 would seem to have torpedoed the logic of “more Europe,” according to The Economist magazine. “The EU evolved to deal with a post-modern world, where borders are blurred and markets ruled. Pandemics are a pre-modern problem, best solved by the tool that brought order to a brutish world: the modern state.” EU loyalists say the criticism leveled at Brussels is unfair. Health care systems are meant to be overseen by national governments and not the EU and Brussels has scant authority or power to act. Governments will always prioritize the health and well-being of their citizens. Critics say the breakdown of neighborliness has highlighted inherent flaws in the bloc and will leave a lasting imprint. Some Italian populist politicians say they doubt the Schengen open-border system will ever be fully restored — at least they hope it won’t. But while the virus has served mainly as a centrifugal force, the devastating economic fallout from the pandemic may well force EU member states closer together, say some analysts. The most Euro-skeptical states tend to be the weakest economically and as they struggle to right their economies, they will need their debts underwritten by the bloc as a whole — most especially by Germany. On March 18, the European Central Bank launched a $809 billion bond-buying program with strong French backing, although some richer member states were less enthusiastic. 
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At a time of isolation, people in many European cities hit hard by the new coronavirus are taking at least a minute each night to come together in gratitude.They stand at open windows or on balconies in Rome, Madrid, Paris, Athens and Amsterdam, singing, cheering and applauding even though they know their intended audience is too busy to listen.The adulation is for the doctors, nurses and other health care workers putting themselves at risk on the front lines of the pandemic that is forcing most residents to stay home. A 52-year-old nurse on Thursday became the first medical professional in Spain to die of COVID-19.People applaud from their houses in support of the medical staff in Rivas Vaciamadrid, March 14, 2020.In Italy, where the number of virus-related deaths surpassed those in China, 2,900 health care providers have been infected, or 10% of the country’s total. Italian broadcasters regularly feature exhausted doctors and nurses begging people to stay home and expressing a sense of abandonment over inadequate protective gear.The Dutch health minister collapsed from exhaustion in the midst of a parliamentary session on Wednesday.A man applauds from his window in support of the medical staff in Madrid, Spain, March 15, 2020.”We’re clapping tonight out of respect and to say thank you to all the health care workers in the Netherlands who are protecting us against this horrible coronavirus,” King Willem-Alexander said while observing the ritual Tuesday night with his family at Palace Huis ten Bosch in The Hague.The word spread mostly through the WhatsApp messaging service. In France, where the head of the national doctors’ federation picked up the virus from a diabetic patient, the call went out seemingly spontaneously by text messages hours after a nationwide lockdown went into effect Tuesday. Windows opened promptly at 8 p.m. then and again on Wednesday.Health workers react as people applaud them from their houses, Barcelona, Spain, March 16, 2020.”In this period of crisis, we are going to see the most beautiful things humanity has to offer, but also perhaps the darkest,” French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said.In Brussels and other cities, the intended audience for the nightly chorus of thanks was expanded to everyone working to keep essential services running in Belgium, such as firefighters, supermarket workers and trash collectors.In Spain, people are singing Mónica Naranjo’s popular cover of the disco-era tune “I Will Survive” with the lyrics tweaked to say, “I will survive/I’ll look for a home/Among the rubble of my loneliness/Strange paradise/Where you are missed.”Parisians applaud the caregivers and police for their work, Paris, France, March 18, 2020.Workers at one hospital responded with a video recorded in the facility’s corridors. Standing in a small group and wearing masks, they held up one sign after another with messages that included, “We are all in this together.” Then, they gave a minute of applause for their home-bound admirers.
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The trial in absentia of three Russians and a Ukrainian charged with multiple counts of murder over the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine in 2014 resumed briefly at The Hague on Tuesday amid coronavirus restrictions.The Dutch judges in the trial read out several preliminary decisions before ruling to adjourn the case until June 8 in order to give the defense lawyers of one of the accused more time to prepare their case.The courtroom was almost empty during the 45-minute session, which was livestreamed on the Internet due to restrictions aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus.Flight MH17 was shot down July 17, 2014, by a Russian-made Buk missile fired from territory in eastern Ukraine controlled by pro-Russian separatists.FILE – People walk amongst the debris at the crash site of a Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 near the village of Grabove, Ukraine, July 17, 2014.The civilian passenger plane was on a flight from Amsterdam to Malaysia when it was shot down.All 298 passengers and crew were killed.The victims included 193 Dutch citizens as well as 43 Malaysians and 38 Australians.The four accused — Russian citizens Igor Girkin, Sergei Dubinsky, and Oleg Pulatov, and Ukrainian Leonid Kharchenko — remain at large despite the issuance of international warrants for their arrests.Russian nationals Igor Girkin, Sergey Dubinskiy and Oleg Pulatov, and Ukrainian Leonid Kharchenko, accused of downing of flight MH17, seen on screen as international investigators present their findings, in Nieuwegein, Netherlands, June 19, 2019.Only Pulatov has appointed defense lawyers to represent him at the trial in the Netherlands.When the trial opened on March 9, it was attended by lawyers, judges, family members of victims, and journalists.But the number of prosecutors, lawyers, and other staff on March 23 was reduced over the coronavirus pandemic. Family and media were not allowed to attend the trial in person, and judges sat separated from one another by empty seats.Prosecutors say the four men helped to arrange the supply of the Russian missile system used to shoot down MH17.Girkin, a former colonel in Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), was the top military commander of a separatist group in eastern Ukraine while Ukrainian Kharchenko was in charge of a combat unit in the region, according to the Dutch-led Joint Investigation Team (JIT).Dubinsky and Pulatov were connected with Russia’s Military Intelligence Service (GRU), the investigators concluded.Despite evidence that Russia’s military was directly involved in shooting down of Flight MH17, the Kremlin has repeatedly denied any involvement.The Kremlin also denies providing any military or financial support to Ukraine’s pro-Russia separatists, despite evidence assembled by the JIT and the Bellingcat open-source investigative group. 
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The United States could become the global epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday, as Britain went into lockdown and Olympic organizers considered postponing the 2020 Tokyo Games.   But the Chinese province of Hubei, where the virus was first identified in December, said it would lift travel restrictions on people leaving the region as the epidemic there eases.   Police officers check a pedestrian in Boulogne Billancourt, March 18, 2020.On the economic side, business activity collapsed from Australia and Japan to Western Europe at a record pace in March, with data for the United States later on Tuesday expected to be just as dire.   “The coronavirus outbreak represents a major external shock to the macro outlook, akin to a large-scale natural disaster,” analysts at BlackRock Investment Institute said.   WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris said in Geneva there had been a “very large acceleration” in coronavirus infections in the United States which had the potential of becoming the new epicenter.   Over the past 24 hours, 85 percent of new cases were from Europe and the United States, she told reporters. Of those, 40 percent were from the United States.   Asked whether the United States could become the new epicenter, Harris said: “We are now seeing a very large acceleration in cases in the U.S. So it does have that potential. We cannot say that is the case yet but it does have that potential.”    London lockdown   Some U.S. state and local officials have decried a lack of coordinated federal action, saying having localities act on their own has put them in competition for supplies.   President Donald Trump gestures as he asks a question to Dr. Deborah Birx, White House coronavirus response coordinator, during a briefing about the coronavirus in the James Brady Briefing Room, March 23, 2020, in Washington.U.S. President Donald Trump acknowledged the difficulty in a tweet.   “The World market for face masks and ventilators is Crazy. We are helping the states to get equipment, but it is not easy,” he wrote.   Confirmed coronavirus cases exceeded 377,000 across 194 countries and territories as of early Tuesday, according to a Reuters tally, with over 16,500 deaths linked to the virus.   Of the top 10 countries by case numbers, Italy had reported the highest fatality rate, at around 10%, which is reflective of its older population. The fatality rate globally is around 4.3%.   Britain, believed by experts to be about two weeks behind Italy in the outbreak cycle, woke up on Tuesday to curbs on movement without precedent in peacetime after Prime Minister Boris Johnson ordered the country to stay at home.   An almost empty Westminster Bridge normally a very busy river crossing as the sun rises in London, March 24, 2020.The streets of the capital were eerily quiet as all but essential shops closed and people only went to work if it was essential.   Johnson had resisted pressure to impose a full lockdown even as other European countries had done so, but was forced to change tack as projections showed the health system could become overwhelmed.  Olympics under threat   A decision on whether to postpone this year’s Tokyo Olympics for the first time will come in days, sources said on Tuesday. The July 24-Aug. 9 Olympics have been the last major sporting event left untouched as the epidemic put most of the world in virtual lockdown.  FILE – A woman wearing a protective face mask walks past the Olympic rings in front of the Japan Olympics Museum in Tokyo, March 13, 2020.The International Olympic Committee and Japan repeated their insistence that the event would go ahead as scheduled — and then their weekend announcement of a lengthy, one-month consultation over possible postponement — perplexed many.   Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and IOC President Thomas Bach were to talk by phone on Tuesday.   China’s Hubei province, the original epicenter of the outbreak, will lift travel curbs on people leaving the area, but other regions will tighten controls as new cases double due to imported infections.   The provincial capital Wuhan, which has been in total lockdown since Jan. 23, will see its travel restrictions lifted on April 8.   However, the risk from overseas infections appears to be on the rise, prompting tougher screening and quarantine measures in major cities such as the capital Beijing.     
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Cuba is launching its most restrictive measures Tuesday to stop the spread of the coronavirus- banning citizens from leaving the island without authorization and placing foreign tourists under quarantine. Prime Minister Manuel Marrero said in a televised address Monday that just over 32 thousand tourists will have to stay in hotels until they secure a flight home.  Cuba had resisted imposing the restrictions because tourism is the lifeblood of the island nation’s economy.  Authorities in Cuba on Monday also announced schools and universities will close. Cuba’s Ministry of Public Health on Monday confirmed 40 cases of the virus and doctors are monitoring more than 37- thousand other Cubans showing symptoms similar to the coronavirus. So far, Cuba has confirmed one death, an Italian tourist.  
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Italy, which has suffered by far the deadliest consequences of the novel coronavirus outbreak, reported Tuesday a third consecutive day in which its daily deaths and new infections declined. The 601 deaths recorded Monday are still a staggering figure, but one that is a vast improvement from nearly 800 on Saturday. Italy has reported more than 6,000 deaths and has the second highest overall number of cases.  Officials put the entire country on lockdown two weeks ago in hopes of stopping the spread of the virus that has reached nearly every country on the planet. South Korea, which once held the position of being one of the hardest-hit nations showed its own continued progress, reporting Tuesday a daily rise in new cases of 76.  That was its 13th consecutive day below 100. Meanwhile China continues to report its own improvements with just four locally transmitted cases in its latest figures Tuesday.   But worries persist about a comeback for the virus in China, the place it was first detected in late December, due to cases among people who arrive from elsewhere in the world.  China reported 74 such imported cases Tuesday. Medical experts from China stand at the Nikola Tesla airport after arriving with medical supplies to help country’s fight against coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak in Belgrade, Serbia, March 21, 2020.Those fears have prompted governments all over the world to institute travel restrictions. Beginning Tuesday, Cuba is barring all tourists from entering the country.  Those already there will go into mandatory quarantine, while Cuban citizens will not be able to leave the island. In the United States, about one-third of the population is under stay-at-home orders issued by state governors.  The latest was the governor of Hawaii telling people to not go out except for essential trips, while the governor of the western state of Washington tightened an existing order to include closing non-essential businesses. President Donald Trump also signed an executive order Monday which criminalizes the stockpiling of personal protective equipment that medical personnel need to stay safe while treating coronavirus patients. With the national and global response to the outbreak taking an economic toll, U.S. political leaders met late into Monday night trying to finalize an agreement on a massive economic rescue package.  They expressed confidence they can reach a deal on Tuesday. 
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Sao Paulo state in Brazil begins a two-week quarantine Tuesday, on the order of Governor Joao Doria. Sao Paulo is the hardest hit area in Brazil, with more than 900 virus cases, including the head of the state’s task force against coronavirus, David Uip, who is said to be in self-isolation. There have been eleven deaths in Sao Paulo, including six in the capital, which carries the same name. The governor’s lockdown also means non-essential businesses and services must shut down. Health care services, public transportation, grocery stores, security services and banks are exempt from the lockdown. The restrictions in Sao Paulo resemble steps already taken in Rio de Janeiro state, where beaches have been closed to stop the spread of the coronavirus. 
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Lawyers for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange say they will file papers Wednesday to have him released on bail because he is at risk of contracting coronavirus. Assange is being held at a London-area prison as he fights extradition to the United States, where he has been charged with espionage for obtaining classified government documents from former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning and publishing them on his website. The documents were secret diplomatic cables and military files related to the U.S.-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.   Health experts say the prisoners are particularly vulnerable to contracting COVID-19 because of overcrowded conditions.   Assange has been imprisoned since he was evicted from the Ecuadorian embassy last April, where he had sought refuge to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he was wanted for questioning in a sexual assault case. 
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The long-awaited trial of a former U.S. Marine facing charges of espionage got under way in Moscow on Monday — with U.S. officials accusing Russia of providing no evidence in a spy case that has proved an added irritant to already troubled relations between the two countries.  Paul Whelan, 50, was arrested by FSB security agents in late December 2018 after allegedly accepting classified materials on a computer thumb drive in a central Moscow hotel.  Whelan has repeatedly denied those charges, insisting he was in Moscow for a friend’s wedding and had accepted the drive from a Russian acquaintance without ever knowing or viewing its contents. The former Marine, who in addition to U.S. citizenship holds passports from the U.K., Canada and Ireland, also says he’s been mistreated and denied medical treatment while in detention — an assertion that U.S. officials have backed repeatedly and did so again Monday. U.S. Ambassador to Russia John J. Sullivan joined his counterparts from the U.K. and Ireland at the courtroom Monday, where the presiding judge allowed them to speak with Whelan briefly before closing the hearing to the public — a standard practice in Russian-led “top secret” espionage cases. “It’s a sad day for me as an American and a U.S. ambassador, in these circumstances, to come and see a citizen of my country held in such circumstances, with serious health problems unaddressed, with no evidence that’s been produced to justify his incarceration for well over a year, and his inability to communicate with his family despite repeated requests by him and by me to the Russian government,” said Sullivan, in a statement afterward to the press. “I am hoping that, as this process moves forward, we see a fair and transparent judicial process,” Sullivan added. “Every person, every citizen, of every country in the world, deserves that.” In turn, Russia’s foreign ministry has accused Whelan of feigning illness — part of what the ministry says is Whelan’s playbook training as a U.S. intelligence officer after being caught “red-handed” by Russia’s security services. If convicted on existing charges, Whelan faces the possibility of 10-20 years in prison.U.S. ambassador to Russia John Sullivan speaks with journalists after his meeting with Paul Whelan, a U.S. national arrested and accused of espionage, outside a detention centre in Moscow, Russia January 30, 2020.COVID-19, witnesses, and ‘a goat rodeo’ The Whelan trial proved one of the rare court proceedings currently in session in Russia, after the country’s high court postponed most judicial work last week out of fear of the spread of the coronavirus. Whelan’s Russian lawyers, Olga Karla and Vladimir Zherebenkov, said that — barring unforeseen delays because of the contagion — the closed trial would last about a month in which they promised to mount a vigorous defense. Speaking to reporters, Zherebenkov said he planned to call at least a dozen witnesses, all of them Russians with whom Whelan had been in contact during multiple visits to the Russian Federation in recent years. Whelan’s legal team also indicated they planned to call embassy officials to the stand, a move they assured would prove Whelan’s innocence of the spy charges. “We’ll interrogate the embassies to prove that Whelan physically could not be an agent as a citizen of four different countries,” said Zherebenkov, in comments carried by the Interfax News Agency. “It’s simply not possible,” he added. Yet, throughout the run-up to Monday’s hearing, Zherebenkov has repeatedly acknowledged that politics may play a larger role than material evidence in resolving the case. Last December, the lawyer publicly floated the idea of including Whelan in a wider prisoner swap between Russia and the West. “Paul is a citizen of four countries. None of them has asked to organize his exchange yet,” noted Zherebenkov before pleading: “Take the initiative gentlemen!” Meanwhile, Whelan has called on U.S. President Donald Trump to intervene on his behalf, asking the American leader “to tweet your intentions” about a case that Whelan has colorfully labeled “the Moscow goat rodeo.” 
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Turkish security forces detained five elected Kurdish mayors Monday in anti-terror raids, a move that was condemned by human rights groups, as Turkey is grappling with the coronavirus pandemic. The mayors are members of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), which swiftly attacked the detentions. “We reject with hatred this vile attempt that does not shy away from showing enmity against Kurds, even in these difficult days when the whole world is battling an epidemic,” said Mithat Sancar, co-leader of the HDP.  Co-chair of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party Mithat Sancar waves as he attends the 4th Ordinary Peoples’ Democratic Party congress in Ankara on Feb. 23, 2020.Sancar told reporters Monday that security forces seized municipal offices in the city of Batman and in the towns of Egil, Silvan, Lice and Ergani. Local media broadcast images of public workers locked out of their workplaces.  The HDP said the municipalities were in the forefront of trying to contain the virus.  The detentions occurred across Turkey’s predominantly Kurdish southeast, the center of a decades-long war by the separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) against the Turkish state. The government accuses the HDP of providing logistic and tacit support to the PKK through its network of mayors, a charge the party denies. In an ongoing crackdown, over 30 elected HDP mayors have been removed from office under anti-terror legislation and replaced with government-appointed trustees.  But with Turkey facing a health emergency over the coronavirus, the latest detentions are drawing widespread criticism. “In the midst of this coronavirus pandemic, the interior minister is intent on hounding the HDP by removing the mayors of the Southeast and therefore depriving thousands of voters of their choice,” said Emma Sinclair-Webb, Turkey researcher for the New York-based Human Rights Watch.   “The grounds of imprisonment are very vague assertions, scant evidence,” Sinclair-Webb said. “Much of the evidence is based on secret witnesses. There is a pattern of complete misuse of the charge of terrorism against people. There is no proof.” Sezgin Tanrikulu of the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) speaks to journalists in Istanbul, Oct. 9, 2018.”In fear of Allah, in this period, we need unity and to work,” said Sezgin Tanrikulu, deputy leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP). Neither the ruling AKP or state officials have so far commented on the detentions. 
The latest crackdown on the HDP comes as the AKP indicated it was considering a mass release of prisoners. Turkey’s prison population has more than doubled since ongoing crackdowns on the country’s pro-Kurdish movement, and in the aftermath of the 2016 failed coup. Earlier this month, national and international human rights groups called for action to ease prison overcrowding, given fears over COVID-19. “We are extremely concerned about Turkish prisons, because they are very overcrowded. The prison population is almost 300,000, which is very high for a country the size of Turkey,” Sinclair-Webb said. “There are a lot of worries of access to medical help in prisons at the best of the times, let alone the worst of times.”  Silivri Prison complex is pictured in Silivri near Istanbul, June 24, 2019. Mehmet Mus, deputy parliamentary head of the AKP, confirmed his party was looking into legal steps to ease the prison population.  “The government has accelerated an important plan to provide early parole for some prisoners,” Sinclair-Webb said. “Now, that is welcome.”  She added, “But the government has so far said they will exempt prisoners charged under terrorism charges and crimes against the state. (In) reality, that includes many journalists, mayors, politicians and human rights defenders.” According to international media watchdogs, Turkey is one of the biggest jailers of journalists in the world. A local newspaper editor in the Kocaeli province was detained by police over the weekend for reporting on the coronavirus. He was released after questioning.  Police have also held several people for social media posts about the coronavirus. The government insists it is determined to prevent people from spreading panic. On Sunday, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said that nine people had died from COVID-19, bringing the total number of deaths to 30. The number of confirmed cases rose from 289 to 1,236.   Turkish authorities stepped up restrictions to contain the virus. In a presidential decree issued Sunday, some civil servant workers were allowed to work at home. Turkey’s Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu delivers a speech in Ankara, Oct. 3, 2019.Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu stepped up pressure on medical product manufacturers and accused some companies of hoarding.   “Some of the manufacturers stockpile the masks. We warned them again on Sunday night to sign contracts with the Ministry of Health,” he said.  Soylu announced Sunday that the first raids on manufacturers had begun and that authorities will seize mask-producing factories if they don’t agree to sell to the state. On Monday, banking hours were restricted. Istanbul’s world-renowned Grand Bazaar was temporarily closed. All entertainment venues, including restaurants and cinemas, are closed, along with schools and universities. Prayers are no longer held in mosques.   
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A Trump administration official said Sunday that illegal border crossings have dropped by half as the strictest U.S.-Mexico border policies yet went into place amid the coronavirus pandemic, but there was confusion about how it was all working.  
Anyone caught crossing the border illegally is to be immediately returned back to Mexico or Canada, according to the new restrictions based on an order from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention late Friday. According to Mark Morgan, the acting head of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the decision applies to all migrants.  
“We’re not going to take you into our custody,” he said Saturday evening on Fox News. “We don’t know anything about you. You have no documents, we’re not going to take you into our facilities and expose you to CBP personnel and the American people as well as immigrants,” he said.  
But Mexican officials have said they would only take people from Mexico and Central America and only those who are encountered straight away — not people already in custody. Officials later said the elderly and minors won’t be taken back and that they expected to take in about 100 per day. 
“If people who are not Mexican or Central American are returned to us, Mexico would not accept them,” Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard said Friday in Spanish. “The United States will take care of that.”  
The majority of people crossing the border are from Central America, but not all. For example, there were some 6,000 Brazilians and nearly 1,200 Chinese who arrived between January and February this year, according to Customs and Border Protection data.  
But it’s not entirely clear what happens to those people. Morgan said the migrants should be “expeditiously” returned to the country they came from.  
CDC on Friday issued an order in effect for 30 days that bars anyone coming illegally in part because migrants are held in close quarters and there isn’t enough proper staffing or space to keep them at a safe distance and to screen for the illness. Plus, migrants who are suspected of having COVID-19 are sent to local hospitals, possibly further infecting others, the CDC warned.  
The borders remain open, according to Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf, but only to facilitate trade; the U.S. has about $3 billion per day with Canada and Mexico. Tourists and shoppers were asked to stay home.  
Wolf said Sunday on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” that the number of migrants crossing illegally had plummeted, but it was important to “keep supply chains open,” but to do it in a careful and considerate way that would “limit the introduction and spread of the virus.”  
Meanwhile, there was growing concern on the Mexican side of the border that the number of migrants stranded there would only increase, with shelters already at capacity.  
“We have 300 people in the shelter and we can no longer take it. We have been a week without the United States asking for people and if they don’t ask, we are going to be overcrowded,” said Héctor Joaquín Silva, director of the Senda de Reynosa shelter, which borders McAllen, Texas.
Silva said he hasn’t accepted more migrants and has kept the shelter in quarantine to avoid infections but that migrants continue to arrive in Reynosa.  
Meanwhile, in the U.S., immigrant advocates filed a lawsuit in Washington D.C. requesting the immediate release of migrant families from detention facilities over concerns of inadequate care and an environment ripe for an outbreak. They say the country’s three detention centers where families are held — Berks in Pennsylvania, and Karnes and Dilley in Texas — have failed to take adequate measures to protect families from COVID-19.  
Immigration enforcement has  wide latitude on when to release migrants. Earlier this year, Homeland Security officials said they would detain families as long as possible in an effort to discourage migrants from crossing the border. Most families are held 20 days.  
“The families who are detained in these detention centers facilities have no criminal history and do not pose any threat whatsoever to public safety and are not a flight risk — they all came to the United States to seek asylum and are actively pursuing the right to remain in the United States,” the advocacy groups wrote.
ICE has said it is working to contain any spread of the virus in its detention facilities. The agency did not comment on the lawsuit. Immigration courts are still operating, but with scattered closures and delays in some hearings.  
For most people, the new  coronavirus  causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia. More than 300,000 have been infected worldwide.  
The vast majority of people recover from the new virus. According to the World Health Organization, people with mild illness recover in about two weeks, while those with more severe illness may take three to six weeks to recover.
Curbing immigration has been a signature policy of Trump’s, and he’s tried to block asylum seekers before but failed after courts ruled against him. On Sunday, a text from his re-election campaign read: “Pres. Trump is making your safety his #1 priority. That’s why we’re closing BORDERS to illegals.”
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Turkish officials are threatening to seize factories where face masks are produced if the companies running them do not agree to sell their products to the government.Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu told Turkish state-run media Monday the companies must stop hoarding their stock and sign contracts with the health ministry or they will be seized. He was quoted as saying the government would pay a fair price for the face masks.Soylu said the government Sunday carried out simultaneous raids on depots of some local producers that were stockpiling the protective masks.The actions come as Turkey’s death toll from the virus increased by nine to 30 on Sunday, with 1,256 confirmed cases after a surge in the last two weeks. Soylu says Turkey currently has quarantined about 10,750 people.The country has closed about 165,000 businesses, called for citizens to practice social distancing and issued a full curfew for people over 65 to fight the spread of the virus. 
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Air Canada is laying off more than 5,000 flight attendants as the country’s largest airline cuts routes amid plunging demand. The Montreal-based carrier is laying off about 3,600 employees, plus 1,549 flight attendants at its low-cost subsidiary Rouge, according to Wesley Lesosky, head of the Air Canada component of the Canadian Union of Public Employees. The layoffs will take effect by April and affect roughly 60% of flight attendants. Air Canada says it will suspend most of its international and U.S. flights by March 31. The carrier says employees will be returned to active duty status once flights resume.
The United Arab Emirates is suspending passenger transits through Dubai, the world’s busiest international airport, for two weeks to help stop the spread of the coronavirus. Suspending transit through Dubai, which connects Europe with Asia and Australia, will affect travelers around the world.
Low-cost airline Eastar Jet has become the first South Korean carrier to shut down all flights as demand plunges. The company says it will temporarily suspend its domestic flights from Tuesday to April 25. Other budget South Korean carriers including Air Seoul, Air Busan and T’Way Air operate only domestic flights after suspending their international services.Heavy Industry: Airbus is canceling a planned dividend payment and lining up 15 billion euros ($16 billion) in new credit to give the European aircraft giant more cash to weather the crisis. Airbus The plane maker is withdrawing the proposed 2019 dividend payment of 1.8 euros ($1.9) per share will save the company 1.4 billion euros ($1.5 billion). Airbus is also making pension savings and says it has significant liquidity to cope with the crisis. It had shut several plants last week to adapt them to safer health conditions.
Royal Dutch Shell will reduce its operating costs by between $3 billion to $4 billion for the next 12 months to adapt to the virus outbreak crisis and plunging oil prices. The company is also reducing capital expenditure to a maximum of $20 billion, down from its previous expectation of $25 billion.Financial Markets: U.S. futures are down more than 3% after shares fell in Europe and Asia as shutdowns aimed at containing the coronavirus pandemic expanded around the globe.  
Stocks fell in Paris, Frankfurt and London after a brutal session in Asia on Monday. Japan’s Nikkei 225 index was the outlier, gaining 2.0% after the International Olympic Committee and Japanese officials indicated they are considering postponing the Tokyo Games, due to begin in July.
U.S. futures slipped after work on more stimulus for the U.S. economy hit snags in the U.S. Senate. Top-level negotiations between Congress and the White House continued after the Senate voted against advancing the nearly $2 trillion economic rescue package.  Supermarkets: President Emmanuel Macron urged employees to keep working in French supermarkets and some other businesses deemed essential amid a spreading shutdown imposed to fight the coronavirus.
“We need to keep the country running,” Macron said.
Finance minister Bruno Le Maire said Friday the whole supply chain for the food industry must be guaranteed after France shut down this week all restaurants, cafes, cinemas and retail shops that are deemed nonessential. Many employees are working from home. Businesses that are allowed to remain open must enforce rules about social distancing, washing hands and disinfection.
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German Chancellor Angela Merkel has gone into quarantine after being informed that a doctor who administered a vaccine to her has tested positive for the new coronavirus.Merkel, 65, was informed about the doctor’s test shortly after holding a news conference Sunday announcing new measures to curb the spread of the virus, her spokesman Steffen Seibert said.He said that Merkel had received a precautionary vaccine Friday against pneumococcal infection.For most people, the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever or coughing. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia. About 93,800 people have recovered, mostly in China.Seibert said in a statement that Merkel would undergo “regular tests” in the coming days and continue with her work from home for the time being.Merkel had earlier expressed her gratitude to Germans who were following the rules on social distancing, saying it was important to remain at least 1.5 meters (about five feet) apart to reduce the likelihood of infection.Merkel on Sunday thanked “the overwhelming majority” of Germans who were following rules on social distancing to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus.“I know that it means sacrifice,” she said, citing the economic and social costs that the lockdown is having. “I’m moved by the fact that so many are abiding by these rules. This way we show care for older and sick people, because the virus is most dangerous to them. In short: we are saving lives with this.”Merkel said the lockdown had already affected her profoudly, too.“My life has also fundamentally changed and now consists largely of phone calls and video conferences,” she said.The development illustrated how even world leaders aren’t free from the risk of infection.“With a certain distance the risk of infections is reduced almost to zero,” Merkel told reporters. “Whether you are half a meter apart or 1.5 meters apart makes a huge difference.”Seconds later, she was informed that her doctor had tested positive for COVID-19.
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The troubles of opera superstar Placido Domingo continue to mount.The 79-year-old Domingo announced Sunday he has tested positive for the coronavirus.He said in a Facebook post it is his “moral duty” to reveal that he has the illness.The tenor says he and his family are in self-quarantine, adding that except for a fever and a cough, he feels fine.   “I beg everyone to be extremely careful, follow the basic guidelines by washing your hands frequently, keeping at least a 6 foot distance from others, doing everything you can to stop the virus from spreading and please above all stay home if you can!” he said, adding that he hopes everyone can return to their regular daily routines very soon.Domingo’s career as one of the world’s premier opera stars was derailed last year when a number of women accused him of sexual misconduct during his time as a director with the Washington National Opera and the Los Angeles Opera, a company he helped found.  Domingo initially denied the charges but apologized to his accusers after an investigation by the L.A. company concluded last month that their accusations were credible.  “I respect that these women finally felt comfortable enough to speak out, and I want them to know that I am truly sorry,” he said. 
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