The Russian Agriculture Ministry announced Sunday that it was suspending its export of most grains until July 1, seemingly ignoring warnings from international organizations who are asking countries not to disrupt global food supply chains during the current COVID-19 pandemic.The ministry said the Russian cutoff affected shipments of wheat, corn, rye, barley and meslin, which is a mixture of wheat and rye.It made no mention of the crisis from the coronavirus that has infected 185 countries or regions around the world and infected nearly 3 million people since emerging in central China in December 2019.The supplies from Russia, the world’s largest wheat exporter, will continue to fellow members of the Moscow-led Eurasian Economic Union (EES), which includes other post-Soviet states Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.Leaders of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Trade Organization (WTO) warned in a joint statement in late March that “as countries move to enact measures aiming to halt the accelerating COVID-19 pandemic, care must be taken to minimize potential impacts on the food supply or unintended consequences on global trade and food security.”George Eustice, British secretary of state for environment, food and rural affairs, said Sunday there was “no serious disruption” to international flows of food, although he acknowledged that there had been “isolated cases” of trade being disrupted, for example goods from India.The Russian Agriculture Ministry announced the move Sunday by saying a quota set earlier this month for exports through June had been “fully exhausted.”Moscow had said the quota was introduced to safeguard its national supplies and market.The World Food Program (WFP) said in early April that while “disruptions are so far minimal” from the COVID-19 crisis, food supply “adequate,” and markets “relatively stable,” panics or other behavior changes could create major problems.But spokeswoman Elizabeth Byrs said accompanying the release of a WFP report that “we may soon expect to see disruptions in food-supply chains.”Kazakhstan has seen protests over wheat and flour supplies and said recently that it might abolish quotas on wheat and flour exports.A Reuters report said less than 1 million tons of a 7 million-ton quota for April-June remained by Saturday, owing to a deluge of orders for later exports.It quoted analysts suggesting that while the quota might be formally exhausted, grain exports so far in April were probably around 4 million and 3 million tons more might be spoken for but would probably ship out in May and June.Russia exported more than 35 million tons of wheat and 43 million tons of all grains in 2018-19, RIA Novosti reported.
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The itch to dance, to break out of coronavirus lockdown and bust a few moves in the fresh air, out on the street, has proved too strong for some to resist in Paris after weeks of staying home.Video of Parisians dancing in the street this weekend, some wearing face masks, triggered buzz and criticism on social networks and an apology Sunday from the out-of-work theater technician who blasted the music from his balcony.Nathan Sebbagh has been thanking medics and trying to keep people’s spirits up with half-hour hip-shaking musical selections on Saturday evenings.But his goodwill gesture, which he dubs @discobalcons in his Instagram postings, this weekend became a victim of its own success.Police knocked at his door and gave him a talking to after a small but frisky crowd gathered and danced under the balcony of his apartment in Montmartre.”There were a lot of people. The square was quite full. Some people were far too close,” Sebbagh acknowledged somewhat sheepishly in a phone interview Sunday.The police “said that music on balconies is a very good idea but not like this, it’s too dangerous,” he said.Among his musical offerings on Saturday was “Let me Dance” by Egyptian-born songbird Dalida. She lived in Montmartre before her death in 1987 and a square is named in her honor.Video posted by a journalist showed police vehicles rolling up as the song played and people danced. The images provoked hostile comments on social media, with critics arguing that such behavior during France’s lockdown in place since March 17 risked spreading the virus.Paris police tweeted, with “be responsible” and “stay home” hashtags, that the dancers didn’t respect social distancing rules.Sebbagh said it wasn’t his intention to draw a crowd. The 19-year-old said he carted the loudspeakers over from the now closed theater where he worked before the lockdown solely to add a bit of musical zest to the stay-home lives of his neighbors.“I was missing human contact and music,” he said.He said he wholeheartedly supports medical staff battling the pandemic and that he was sorry if he upset them.“It’s true, people are cracking up. But we are in a very complicated and particular situation,” he said. “The aim is to come out alive.” 
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The United Nations says persistent and serious long-term consequences remain more than 30 years after the explosion and fire at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine.The world body is marking International Chernobyl Disaster Remembrance Day on April 26, the 34th anniversary of the accident that spread a radioactive cloud over large parts of Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia.The anniversary is being marked after fires recently burned in the 30-kilometer exclusion zone around the plant, raising concerns about the potential release of radioactive particles into the air.In this photo taken from the roof of Ukraine’s Chernobyl nuclear power plant on April 10, 2020, a forest fire is seen burning near the plant inside the exclusion zone.The U.N. General Assembly adopted a resolution in December 2016 designating April 26 as a day to recognize the consequences of the accident. Its statement says that while progress has been made, “there is still a great deal of work that needs to be done in the affected region.”The United Nations says the completion of a confinement structure over the reactor most heavily damaged in the accident was a major milestone of 2019.It noted that the project received more than $2 billion in funding from 45 donor nations through funds managed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. The scope of the project in terms of international cooperation is one of the largest ever seen in the field of nuclear safety, the U.N. said.A woman wearing a protective mask lights a candle at a memorial, dedicated to firefighters and workers who died after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, during a night service in Slavutych, Ukraine, April 26, 2020.The U.N.’s involvement in Chernobyl recovery efforts dates back to a resolution passed in 1990. U.N. agencies continue to work closely with the governments of Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine to provide development assistance to the communities affected by the disaster.The U.N.’s statement on Chernobyl remembrance day does not mention the fires that have burned in the exclusion zone. The largest among several blazes was extinguished last week. Smaller fires continue to burn in the zone, the authority that administrates it said on April 24.Video showing plumes of smoke billowing from the charred landscape earlier this month alarmed environmental activists, who said the burning of contaminated trees and other vegetation could disperse radioactive particles.The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on April 24 that the increase in levels of radiation measured in the country was very small and posed “no risk to human health.”The Vienna-based IAEA, which acts as the U.N. nuclear watchdog, said it was basing its assessment on data provided by Ukraine.There have been “some minor increases in radiation,” the IAEA said, adding the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine found the concentration of radioactive materials in the air remained below Ukraine’s radiation safety norms. 
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Argentina is extending its coronavirus lockdown until May 10, excluding towns of under 500,000, where the question is up to provincial authorities.President Alberto Fernandez made the announcement Saturday, as the nationwide mandatory quarantine instituted March 20 was to expire Sunday.Fernandez loosened some restrictions, saying people will be allowed to go out daily for recreational purposes, but only within a 500-meter radius of their homes, and not for exercises such as running or bicycle riding.Schools and various other activities, however, will remain closed.”We will continue without classes in primary, secondary, and university levels,” Fernandez said. “We will continue without activity in the public administration. We will continue without recreational activity, without restaurants, without hotels.”As of Saturday night, Argentina had reported 3,780 cases of coronavirus infection and 185 deaths. 
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Italians on Saturday celebrated the 75th anniversary of Liberation Day — and the end of World War II fascist rule — under a national lockdown.Stranded at home, they went out on their balconies waving flags, singing, clapping and cheering. Among them were elderly Italians who participated in the resistance movement in the 1940s against German occupation and fascist forces.Rome’s residents sang “Bella Ciao,” a well-known folk song connected with the resistance movement.Every year tens of thousands of people take to the streets of Italy’s main cities, including Rome, Milan and Bologna, to mark the day.This year was different, though, as all events were canceled because of the coronavirus outbreak.  
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Weeks into France’s strict coronavirus lockdown, Mohammed, a 14-year-old with autism, took a pickax and started hitting the wall of his family’s house.His explanation: “Too long at home, too hard to wait.”The disruptions in daily life caused by the virus pandemic are a particularly trying ordeal for children with disabilities and the people who love them and are caring for them confined at home while special-needs schools and support programs remain closed.Mohammed hasn’t picked up the ax again since the incident last month, his father, Salah, said with relief. But the boy still gets frustrated being stuck inside and says, “I want to break the house down.”The family, like others who spoke to The Associated Press about their experiences, spoke on the condition of being identified by first name only out of concern for the privacy of their children.Mohammed, a 14-year-old with autism, on his bike outside his home April 15, 2020, in Mantes-la-Jolie, west of Paris.Making matters worse, Mohammed’s mother, who works in a nursing home, has been on sick leave after testing positive for COVID-19. For weeks, she had to live isolated on the top floor of their house in the Paris suburb of Mantes-la-Jolie. Her health has since improved.The physical distance from her family was particularly hard for Mohammed, who has a close relationship with his mother.“We kept telling him that there’s the disease. He took note. Then he tried again to go up and see her,” Salah said.Violent outbursts, incomprehension, disputes, panic attacks: Life under lockdown has been a shock to many children with special needs who suddenly lost their reassuring routines, cut off from friends and teachers. And France’s virus lockdown measures — now in their second month and set to run until at least May 11 — are among Europe’s strictest.At home, Mohammed requires constant attention so that he won’t injure or endanger himself.“That’s tough on him. We reprimand him, saying no. … We need to repeat and repeat,” Salah said. The father admits to his own fatigue, working at home as a telecom engineer while caring for Mohammed and his two brothers, ages 12 and 8.Salah knows how to detect signs on Mohammed’s face when he is under too much pressure and may get angry: “I don’t let things get heated.”Mohammed normally attends the Bel-Air Institute near Versailles, which provides specialized educational and therapeutic services for dozens of children with different types of disabilities. His teacher, Corentin Sainte Fare Garnot, is doing his best to help.“If you remove crutches from someone who needs them from one day to the next, it gets very complicated,” he said.“The feeling of loneliness and lack of activity can be very deep” for people with autism, the teacher said. Mohammed calls him several times a day.Aurelie Collet, a manager at the Bel-Air Institute, said that at first, some teenagers didn’t understand the lockdown rules keeping them stuck at home and kept going out. Others who had been well-integrated in their classes turned inward, isolating themselves in their bedrooms.The staff developed creative tools to keep communicating and working with the children, including through social networks, she said.In this photo taken April 16, 2020, Jerome, second left, Nadege and their children Thomas, 17, right and Pierre, 14, pose outside their home in Montigny-le-Bretonneux, near Paris.Thomas, 17, and Pierre, 14, brothers with intellectual disabilities who also go to the Bel-Air, have been similarly destabilized by lockdown restrictions.“I feel worried about how long the lockdown will last, what’s going to happen next,” Thomas said. The teenager wonders “how many people will get the virus, when the epidemic will stop?”Another big concern for Thomas is his future; an internship he planned to do this summer is likely to be postponed.Pierre says he’s having more nightmares than usual, adding that the lockdown is also prompting more family quarrels.At first, their parents recalled, the boys acted as if they were on vacation, playing all day and calling their friends. The parents organized activities to give Pierre and Thomas more structure amid the public health crisis.Pierre especially misses the gardening he used to do at the Bel-Air, so he planted seeds in pots to grow radishes.Under nationwide restrictions, the French can only leave home for essential services, like buying food or going to the doctor, and must stay close to home. Physical activity in public is strictly limited to one hour and within a nearby radius. Police routinely fine violators.Recognizing the burden the regulations place on people with autism, French President Emmanuel Macron announced an exception that allows them to go out to customary places without having to observe time or distance limits.The new challenges the pandemic presents to children with special needs are familiar to millions of families around the world. Across the U.S., teachers are exploring new ways to deliver customized lessons from afar, and parents of children with disabilities are not only home-schooling but also adding therapy, hands-on lessons and behavioral management to their responsibilities.Salah has started taking Mohammed out again for bike riding, an activity his eldest son enjoyed before the pandemic.“This is like a safety valve to him. He needs it. … We’re having a hard time following him, he’s going ahead, happily shouting,” Salah said with a smile in his voice.Sainte Fare Garnot is helping the family find concrete solutions. Because playing soccer with his brothers in the garden has proven difficult for Mohammed because the rules of team games are too complex for him, Sainte Fare Garnot suggested that the three boys instead take shots at goal in turn.France is still playing catch-up with some developing-country peers in terms of educational opportunities for children with autism spectrum disorders, and teachers fear that some will also have to spend months relearning skills they may have lost during the lockdown period.The president has announced that schools will be “progressively” reopened starting May 11, but authorities have not provided details yet about special-needs children. France counts more than 350,000 school students with disabilities, including 70,000 in the special education system that includes the Bel-Air.The uncertainty is especially hard for young people like Mohammed. “I know he will ask me again,” his teacher said. “‘When is it ending?’”  
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The mix of fury and disappointment among residents was palpable inside a cafe in the southeastern Turkish city of Mardin after the government replaced the popular mayor with a trustee.One year on from local elections, 40 out of 65 municipalities won by the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) are now under the control of government-appointed trustees.In Mardin, the HDP’s Ahmet Turk won 56.2 percent of the vote in March 2019. But in August he was one of the first, along with those in nearby Diyarbakir and Van, to be removed and replaced by the government.Six months after the move, residents in Mardin, where the governor now runs the city of over 800,000 people, were especially critical of a lack of service and development.”No one bothers, no one wants to do anything, and no one raises their voice. We’re speaking to you now — who knows what will happen to us tomorrow?” cafe manager Firat Kayatar told AFP during a visit late February.”They may as well not hold elections in the southeast because they had two elections, and after both they appointed trustees,” said Kayatar, who lives in the old city.Complaints unheard”No one listens anyway,” one of the cafe’s customers, Abdulaziz, 57, chipped in. “We can’t complain to anyone. [The governor] brings bananas but we need bread.”Another man nearby who did not give his name said young people went to university but were unable to find a job.”This is the problem Mardin faces, too,” he said.The party described the mayors’ removals as an “attack” on Kurds but the government has accused the HDP of links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).Kurds make up around 20 percent of Turkey’s overall population.The HDP accused Ankara last month of making it “even harder for the Kurds to fight the coronavirus” through the “repression of Kurdish democratic institutions, their municipalities in particular.”Such actions are not new. Ankara removed 95 HDP mayors after the party won 102 municipalities in 2014.”When it comes to the HDP, just slapping trumped-up terror charges is the easiest way to go and it’s just a political attempt to destroy their legitimacy,” said Emma Sinclair-Webb, Turkey director of Human Rights Watch (HRW).FILE – Faruk Kilic, city chairman for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling party, speaks during a interview in Mardin, Turkey, Feb. 25, 2020.Accusation against PKKThe chairman in Mardin for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) defended the government’s actions, accusing the PKK of using the HDP mayors to obtain control.”In fact these mayors were Qandil representatives,” Faruk Kilic said, referring to where the PKK leadership and rear bases are located in a mountainous region in Iraq.”None of the mayors made statements of their own independent will,” Kilic added, a claim the HDP strongly denies.The Turkish government has repeatedly accused the HDP mayors of using the municipalities’ money to support the PKK, or hiring relatives of PKK militants.The interior ministry claimed some mayors attended political rallies, demonstrations and even funerals of PKK militants.The HDP says 21 of its mayors are behind bars.The PKK has been waging an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984, and the group is blacklisted as a terror organization by Ankara and its Western allies.The government’s aim was to “collapse any distinction between the HDP, a legal party playing by the rules of the game in parliament and democratically elected representatives from this party, and an armed organization,” HRW’s Sinclair-Webb said.’Economic’ reason for dismissals?Veteran Kurdish politician Turk was acquitted in February in one case cited against him when he was removed as mayor of Mardin the first time in 2016.The AKP’s Kilic said if mayors were later acquitted on the charges against them, they would return to their posts, but added “there’s evidence against many” charged.Eren Keskin, of the Ankara-based Human Rights Association (IHD), believed there was an “economic” motive to the dismissals.”The first municipalities they appointed a trustee for — Diyarbakir, Mardin and Van — are provinces that are really open to economic development,” Keskin said.Her claim was supported by HDP deputy chairman Saruhan Oluc, who said the government “keeps itself strong through the income and profit from local administrations.”Oluc accused the government of handing out money and favors to its allies as well as companies and foundations close to it through the municipalities’ coffers.
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U.S. President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, issued a rare joint statement Saturday commemorating a 1945 World War II link-up of U.S. and Soviet troops on their way to defeat Nazi Germany as an example of how their countries can cooperate.The statement by Trump and Putin came amid deep strains in U.S.-Russian ties over a raft of issues, from arms control and Russia’s intervention in Ukraine and Syria to U.S. charges that Russia has spread disinformation about the novel coronavirus pandemic and interfered in U.S. election campaigns.The Wall Street Journal reported that the decision to issue the statement sparked debate within the Trump administration, with some officials worried it could undercut stern U.S. messages to Moscow.The joint statement marked the anniversary of the April 25, 1945, meeting on a bridge over the Elbe River in Germany of Soviet soldiers advancing from the east and American troops moving from the West.“This event heralded the decisive defeat of the Nazi regime,” the statement said. “The ‘Spirit of the Elbe’ is an example of how our countries can put aside differences, build trust and cooperate in pursuit of a greater cause.”Last Elbe statement in 2010The Journal said the last joint statement marking the Elbe River bridge link-up was issued in 2010, when the Obama administration was seeking improved relations with Moscow.Trump had hoped to travel to Moscow to mark the anniversary. He has been complimentary of Putin, promoted cooperation with Moscow and said he believed the Russian leader’s denials of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.Senior administration officials and lawmakers, in contrast, have been fiercely critical of Russia, with relations between the nuclear-armed nations at their lowest point since the end of the Cold War.The Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday issued a bipartisan report concurring with a 2017 U.S. intelligence assessment that Russia pursued an influence campaign of misinformation and cyber hacking aimed at swinging the vote to Trump over his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton.U.S. intelligence officials have warned lawmakers that Moscow is meddling in the 2020 presidential election campaign, which Russia denies.
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The coronavirus lockdown in many European countries has led to less pollution. But policy decisions in coming months will make clear if an economic recovery helps or hurts environmental gains.Europe’s cities, where streets are usually congested, are now quiet, as people are forced to stay at home due to the coronavirus pandemic.Alberto Gonzalez Ortiz, an air quality expert at the European Environment Agency, says air pollution is down since lockdowns were implemented in cities across the continent.“In some cities, it’s from one week to another we see a reduction of more than half of the concentrations. The reductions are not the same in all cities. Because the lockdown measures are not the same or not so intense either in all countries and they have started at different times,” Gonzales said.In Europe, 2019 was the hottest year ever recorded. But with millions of people forced to stay home, consuming less and traveling less, there is a reduction in emissions, carbon and air pollution.But countries across the continent want to slowly ease restrictions to get the economy going again. Some people are concerned a quick return to life as it was before COVID-19 might undo newly gained environmental benefits.Imke Lübbeke of the environmental group World Wildlife Fund (WWF) says there is no reason yet to celebrate about environmental gains.A sign hung by activists of the Fridays for Future movement is seen on a tree in Erfurt, Germany, April 24, 2020.“These are temporary results following from the lockdowns enforced in many countries and cities to address the spread of COVID. But they are not structural emissions reductions or a way out of air pollution yet. We are working hard to make clear that the climate change crisis and all the environmental crisis is not going away once we’ve addressed the COVID crisis,” Lübbeke said.
European Union leaders are discussing an economic recovery package that some say will cost about $2 trillion. And governments are promising billions to businesses, including to polluting industries.Climate Action Network Europe Director Wendel Trio says this moment in history is an opportunity for governments to decide if they want to steer the recovery in a direction that makes current gains lasting.“Both carmakers and airlines, for instance, have been rather reluctant to accept the changes that are needed to go to a climate-neutral society. And I think now is the time to make it clear to them. If they want public money, if they want the taxpayer to pay for their future, then actually their future should also be of benefit to society,” Trio said.There is a fear among some climate advocacy groups that the economic recovery will be valued more highly than addressing climate change.  BusinessEurope, a large corporate lobby group, already wrote to the European Union requesting a delay in climate-related regulations.A speech on climate German Chancellor Angela Merkel is expected to deliver Monday (April 27) might indicate what the EU’s most influential member will be pushing for when it comes to balancing environmental issues against a recovering economy.
 
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The worldwide number of COVID-19 cases continues to climb, bringing misery and pain to all echelons of society.The global count of cases has reached more than 2.8 million people, and more than 197,000 people have died.There have been a growing number of coronavirus cases aboard an Italian cruise ship docked in Japan with a crew but no passengers.  The Costa Atlantica had been headed to China for repairs but was diverted to Nagasaki earlier this year.Crew members were told to stay aboard the ship but media reports say some of them were spotted in Nagasaki.Local officials say at least 91 crew members, many of them asymptomatic, have tested positive for the virus. One has been hospitalized.In Europe, Spain has more than 219,000 coronavirus cases and more than 22,500 deaths, followed by Italy with more than 192,000 cases and almost 26,000 deaths.A nurse wearing a face mask writes down a telephone message from a deceased patient’s family member, to be put in the victim’s coffin, in Corsica, April 23, 2020.Several European countries have seen a decrease in new cases and are preparing to gradually reopen businesses and ease restrictions.The number of U.S. infections is creeping up to a million with more than 905,000 cases and nearly 52,000 deaths. Despite the rising tally, several states took steps Friday to reopen their economies, with Georgia and Oklahoma allowing salons, spas and barbershops to reopen. Some business owners said it was too early to open and doing so could spark a new surge in coronavirus infections, despite facing financial collapse if they do not.The U.S. Congressional Budget Office says the economic hardship caused by the coronavirus in the United States will last through next year, as the pandemic wreaks havoc on the financial health of countries around the world.The nonpartisan agency said the U.S. budget deficit will grow from $1 trillion to $3.7 trillion this year and said the unemployment rate would rise from 3.5 percent in February to 16 percent in September. It predicted that unemployment would fall after that time but would remain in double digits through 2021.The report puts pressure on the U.S. government as it tries to balance the concerns over the growing federal deficit with the approval of stimulus money meant to combat the outbreak’s economic effects.A woman wears a face mask to protect herself from COVID-19 as she walks past a painting in Hong Kong, April 25, 2020.On Friday, U.S. President Donald Trump signed a $484 billion relief package to extend additional support for small business loans and to help hospitals expand COVID-19 testing. The money is part of more than $3 trillion the U.S. government has spent to boost the economy.Earlier Friday, the G-20 called on “all countries, international organizations, the private sector, philanthropic institutions, and individuals” to contribute to its funding efforts to fight COVID-19, setting an $8 billion goal.An international forum for the governments and central bank governors of 19 nations and the European Union said Friday the G-20 already has raised $1.9 billion. Saudi Arabia, the current holder of the G-20 presidency, contributed $500 million.With no proven remedy for the coronavirus, health officials worldwide are recommending protective measures such as hygiene, social distancing and wearing masks and gloves. But people in many places are growing tired of restrictions, even as the number of cases grows.The coronavirus has had a devastating effect on the global economy, but the International Monetary Fund and other organizations warn that developing countries will be the worst hit.The United Nations food agency projects that some 265 million people could experience acute hunger this year, twice as many as last year. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on governments to ensure health care is available to all people and that economic aid packages help those most affected. In Brief:COVID-19’s toll continues to climb, with cases now having surpassed 2.8 millionMore than 197,000 people have died from the diseaseThe U.S. has more than 905,000 cases and almost 52,000 deathsSome states, nevertheless, are taking steps to reopen their economiesA congressional office sees U.S. COVID economic hardship lasting through 2021  Spain has more than 219,000 cases and over 22,500 deathsItaly has more than 192,000 cases and almost 26,000 deathsAuthorities in Italy say the country has passed the peak of the outbreakWith their cases down, parts of Europe are preparing to ease restrictions 
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A U.S. federal judge has ordered the release of migrant children who have been detained at the Mexico border, after ruling Friday the Trump administration was again violating an agreement to release them within 20 days.
 
The Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law has been challenging the Trump administration’s child detention policies on behalf of plaintiffs who contend the coronavirus pandemic has triggered more delays in the release of the migrant children.
 
The center’s argument against the administration is being made under a 1997 pact known as the Flores agreement, which generally requires minors who have been detained in non-licensed facilities at the U.S.-Mexico border to be released within the 20-day period.
 
The plaintiffs maintain the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) stopped releasing children to their parents or other guardians in California, Washington state and New York to avoid getting involved with the states’ lockdown rules, which have been imposed to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
 
They also allege the administration stopped the release process for some children because their parents or guardians could not easily arrange to be fingerprinted as required for background checks.
 
The plaintiffs argued the delays could expose the children to the coronavirus if it spreads in detention facilities. They cited a non-profit detention center in Texas where a 14-day quarantine order was put into effect.
 
In addition, the plaintiffs accused the government of releasing a teenager who turned 18 while in “quarantine” to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) instead of sending him to family placement program where arrangements had been made to accommodate him.
 
U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee, who oversees the case, did not agree with all of the allegations but once more ordered the administration to “expedite the release of the children.”
 
Gee concluded that “ORR and ICE shall continue to make every effort to promptly and safely release” the detained children who are represented by the plaintiffs.
 
In a separate ruling last month, Gee described the immigration detention centers as “hotbeds of contagion.”
 
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The worldwide number of COVID-19 cases continues to climb, bringing misery and pain to all echelons of society.The global count of cases has reached more than 2.8 million people, and more than 197,000 people have died.There have been a growing number of coronavirus cases aboard an Italian cruise ship docked in Japan with a crew but no passengers.  The Costa Atlantica had been headed to China for repairs but was diverted to Nagasaki earlier this year.Crew members were told to stay aboard the ship but media reports say some of them were spotted in Nagasaki.Local officials say at least 91 crew members, many of them asymptomatic, have tested positive for the virus. One has been hospitalized.In Europe, Spain has more than 219,000 coronavirus cases and more than 22,500 deaths, followed by Italy with more than 192,000 cases and almost 26,000 deaths.A nurse wearing a face mask writes down a telephone message from a deceased patient’s family member, to be put in the victim’s coffin, in Corsica on April 23, 2020.Several European countries have seen a decrease in new cases and are preparing to gradually reopen businesses and ease restrictions.The number of U.S. infections is creeping up to a million with more than 905,000 cases and nearly 52,000 deaths. Despite the rising tally, several states took steps Friday to reopen their economies, with Georgia and Oklahoma allowing salons, spas and barbershops to reopen. Some business owners said it was too early to open and doing so could spark a new surge in coronavirus infections, despite facing financial collapse if they do not.The U.S. Congressional Budget Office says the economic hardship caused by the coronavirus in the United States will last through next year, as the pandemic wreaks havoc on the financial health of countries around the world.The nonpartisan agency said the U.S. budget deficit will grow from $1 trillion to $3.7 trillion this year and said the unemployment rate would rise from 3.5 percent in February to 16 percent in September. It predicted that unemployment would fall after that time but would remain in double digits through 2021.The report puts pressure on the U.S. government as it tries to balance the concerns over the growing federal deficit with the approval of stimulus money meant to combat the outbreak’s economic effects.A woman wears a face mask to protect herself from COVID-19 as she walks past a painting in Hong Kong, April 25, 2020.On Friday, U.S. President Donald Trump signed a $484 billion relief package to extend additional support for small business loans and to help hospitals expand COVID-19 testing. The money is part of more than $3 trillion the U.S. government has spent to boost the economy.Earlier Friday, the G-20 called on “all countries, international organizations, the private sector, philanthropic institutions, and individuals” to contribute to its funding efforts to fight COVID-19, setting an $8 billion goal.An international forum for the governments and central bank governors of 19 nations and the European Union said Friday the G-20 already has raised $1.9 billion. Saudi Arabia, the current holder of the G-20 presidency, contributed $500 million.With no proven remedy for the coronavirus, health officials worldwide are recommending protective measures such as hygiene, social distancing and wearing masks and gloves. But people in many places are growing tired of restrictions, even as the number of cases grows.The coronavirus has had a devastating effect on the global economy, but the International Monetary Fund and other organizations warn that developing countries will be the worst hit.The United Nations food agency projects that some 265 million people could experience acute hunger this year, twice as many as last year. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on governments to ensure health care is available to all people and that economic aid packages help those most affected.   
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An unmanned cargo spacecraft with food, fuel and supplies docked at the International Space Station (ISS) on Saturday.Russian Progress 75 cargo ship left the Baikonur Cosmodrom in Kazakhstan, a few minutes before 1 a.m. GMT and transported almost 3 tons of food and other supplies to the ISS.Scientists and staff, both in Baikonur and at Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, monitored the three-hour journey and the docking.The cargo ship is set to remain at the station until December, when it will leave and burn up in Earth’s atmosphere.   
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A riot broke out on Friday at the Villa Devoto prison in Buenos Aires, Argentina, as inmates protested hygiene conditions and other shortcomings there amid the coronavirus outbreak.Some were seen on the roof of the prison, holding handmade knives and spears. Some displayed a flag saying “Freedom” in Spanish.According to authorities, prison officials have tried to establish a dialogue with the inmates.In the recent weeks, Argentina has experienced an increase in prison protests.More than 1,000 inmates from eight penitentiary facilities in the Buenos Aires province are on a hunger strike demanding the option of house arrest.The highest Argentine criminal court recommended several days ago that lower courts grant those convicted of minor crimes alternative confinement options.   
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Cases of the new coronavirus are overwhelming hospitals, morgues and cemeteries across Brazil as Latin America’s largest nation veers closer to becoming one of the world’s pandemic hot spots.Medical officials in Rio de Janeiro and at least four other major cities have warned that their hospital systems are on the verge of collapse, or are already too overwhelmed to take any more patients.Health experts expect the number of infections in the country of 211 million people will be much higher than what has been reported because of insufficient, delayed testing.Meanwhile, President Jair Bolsonaro has shown no sign of wavering from his insistence that COVID-19 is a relatively minor disease and that broad social-distancing measures are not needed to stop it. He has said only Brazilians at high risk should be isolated.In Manaus, the biggest city in the Amazon, officials said a cemetery has been forced to dig mass graves because there have been so many deaths. Workers have been burying 100 corpses a day — triple the pre-virus average of burials.Ytalo Rodrigues, a 20-year-old driver for a funerary service provider in Manaus, said he had retrieved one body after another for more than 36 hours, without a break. There were so many deaths, his employer had to add a second hearse, Rodrigues said.Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro speaks during a news conference at the Planalto Presidential Palace in Brasilia, Brazil, April 24, 2020.So far, the health ministry has confirmed nearly 53,000 COVID-19 cases and more than 3,600 deaths. By official counts, the country had its worst day yet on Thursday, with about 3,700 new cases and more than 400 deaths, and Friday was nearly as grim.Experts warned that paltry testing means the true number of infections is far greater. And because it can take a long time for tests to be processed, the current numbers actually reflect deaths that happened one or two weeks ago, said Domingos Alves, adjunct professor of social medicine at the University of Sao Paulo, who is involved in the project.”We are looking at a photo of the past,” Alves said in an interview last week. “The number of cases in Brazil is, therefore, probably even greater than what we are predicting.”Scientists from the University of Sao Paulo, University of Brasilia and other institutions say the true number of people infected with the virus as of this week is probably as much as 587,000 to 1.1 million people.The health ministry said in a report earlier this month that it has the capacity to test 6,700 people per day — a far cry from the roughly 40,000 it will need when the virus peaks.”We should do many more tests than we’re doing, but the laboratory here is working at full steam,” said Keny Colares, an infectious disease specialist at the Hospital Sao Jose in northeastern Ceara state who has been advising state officials on the pandemic response.Meanwhile, health care workers can barely handle the cases they have.In Rio state, all but one of seven public hospitals equipped to treat COVID-19 are full and can only accept new patients once others have either recovered or died, according to the press office of the health secretariat. The sole facility with vacancy is located a two-hour drive from the capital’s center.Residents watch water utility workers from CEDAE disinfecting the Vidigal favela in an effort to curb the spread of the new coronavirus in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, April 24, 2020.At the mouth of the Amazon, the city of Belem’s intensive care beds are all occupied, according to online media outlet G1. As the number of cases rises in the capital of Para state, its health secretary said this week that at least 200 medical staff had been infected, and it is actively seeking to hire more doctors, G1 reported.On Saturday, the city of Rio plans to open its first field hospital, with 200 beds, half reserved for intensive care. Another hospital erected beside the historic Maracana football stadium will offer 400 beds starting next month.In Ceara’s capital, Fortaleza, state officials said Friday that intensive care units for COVID-19 patients were 92 percent full, after reaching capacity a week ago. Health experts and officials are particularly worried about the virus spreading into the poorest neighborhoods, or favelas, where people depend on public health care.Edenir Bessa, a 65-year-old retiree from Rio’s working-class Mangueira favela, sought medical attention on April 20; she was turned away from two full urgent care units before gaining admission to a third located 40 kilometers away.Hours later, she was transferred by ambulance almost all the way back, to the Ronaldo Gazzola hospital, according to her son, Rodrigo Bessa. Still, she died overnight, and he had to enter the hospital to identify her body.”I saw a lot of bodies also suspected of (having) COVID-19 in the hospital’s basement,” said Bessa, a nurse at a hospital in another state.The hospital released Edenir’s body with a diagnosis of suspected COVID-19, meaning that her death — like so many others — doesn’t figure into the government’s official tally. A small group of family members gathered for her burial on Wednesday, wearing face masks.”People need to believe that this is serious, that it kills,” Bessa said.Bolsonaro has continued to dismiss health officials’ dire predictions about the virus’s spread in the country. Last week, the president fired a health minister who had supported tough anti-virus measures and replaced him with an advocate for reopening the economy.Bolsonaro’s stance largely echoes that of his counterpart and ally U.S. President Donald Trump, who has been stressing the need to put people back to work as unemployment figures reach Depression-era levels. Unlike Bolsonaro, however, Trump has moderated his skepticism about the virus.The fight to reopen business “is a risk that I run,” Bolsonaro said at the swearing-in of his newly appointed health minister, Nelson Teich. If the pandemic escalates, Bolsonaro said, “it lands on my lap.”  
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Police officials in Canada Friday revealed more details about last weekend’s shooting rampage in rural Nova Scotia that left 22 people dead, the worst mass killing in the nation’s history. At a news briefing Friday in Dartmouth, near Halifax, Royal Canadian Mounted Police Superintendent Darren Campbell said the shooting rampage started on the evening of Saturday, April 18, with an assault by the suspect — identified as 51-year-old Gabriel Wortman — on his girlfriend.Campbell said the woman managed to escape Wortman and survived by hiding overnight in the woods. He suggested her escape may have set off the events that followed, thought he is not discounting the possibility Wortman may have planned some of the murders that followed. Campbell said police found 13 deceased victims in the rural community of Portapique, where the suspect lived part time. There were several homes on fire, including the suspect’s, when police arrived in the community. Campbell said the suspect had a pistol and several long-barreled guns. They found several dead in and outside homes. Campbell said at about 6:30 a.m. Sunday, Wortman’s girlfriend emerged from hiding in the woods, called 911 and gave police detailed information about the suspect, including that he was driving a mock police car and was in police uniform. More than an hour later, police started receiving 911 calls more than 35 miles away. Campbell said the suspect killed three people he knew and set the house on fire.  After shooting and killing a number of other people over the next several hours, including a female police officer, the suspect was shot to death at 11:26 on April 19, about 13 hours after the attacks began.Police have said Wortman carried out much of the attack disguised as a police officer in a vehicle marked to seem like a patrol car. Campbell said he had a few cars that police believe were former police vehicles.  His home was destroyed by fire. Residents who knew him say Wortman, who owned a denture practice in Dartmouth, lived part time in Portapique. His Atlantic Denture Clinic had been closed the past month because of the coronavirus pandemic. 
 
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How do you protest in the era of the coronavirus?  In Russia, “virtual protesters” have clustered outside government buildings, at a safe social distance, and they post messages online demanding more financial assistance from authorities. Young climate change activists have heeded the call by Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg, the founder of the global school strike movement, to avoid big protests to help contain the novel coronavirus.  “We have to adapt. That is what you have to do in a crisis,” she told activists last month. She encouraged her followers to move their climate action protests online and use the hashtag #DigitalStrike. 2019 was a revolutionary year, with 12 months of protests and mass mobilizations from Hong Kong to Bolivia, and from France to Lebanon, rocking political establishments as they unfolded.  Few parts of the world were unaffected. FILE – Volunteers give a face mask to a food delivery courier during an action for free distribution of masks protesting against price increases for viral protection masks in pharmacies in St. Petersburg, Russia, April 1, 2020.In Russia’s capital, Moscow, protesters were outraged by rigged elections. In Britain, people rallied against Brexit. Serbia, Ukraine, Albania and the central European states all experienced major demonstrations. Separatists battled police in the restive region of Catalonia. Dissent in the Middle East prompted talk of a new Arab Spring. In Sudan, President Omar al-Bashir was overthrown by the military following months of mass protests. In the Americas, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela all experienced popular unrest. But 2020 has become the year of house confinement.  Protesters who want to keep within lockdown rules — either out of a sense of social responsibility or fear of punishment — must navigate social distancing and travel restrictions to make their voices heard. Many fear contracting the potentially deadly coronavirus if they congregate.  Many movements are determined not to be silenced, although they acknowledge they can’t be as effective now as they were last year.  “It is quite challenging to continue striking and organizing, if people cannot meet physically,” climate action activist Linus Steinmetz told German broadcasters.   As in other European countries, climate change activists in Germany have gone digital, blanketing the internet and social media with demands for deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, sometimes focusing on government institutions with tweets. German branches have launched a YouTube learning module for children not attending school. “We’re trying to figure things out now,” Luisa Neubauer, a German activist, told Yale e360, an American online environment magazine. “Beating the coronavirus is the first thing we have to do, but the fight to save the climate can’t stop. It will continue in other ways and when this crisis is over, the climate crisis will look different. We may even have a better chance. We know that political will, when it is there, can move mountains. We are experiencing this right now in the corona crisis.” Other protest movements are also exploring alternate ways to mobilize support and promote their causes — as well as to oppose government measures.  FILE – An anti-government protester stands in front of the Lebanese riot police who wear masks to help curb the spread of the coronavirus, during a protest over the deepening financial crisis in Beirut, Lebanon, April 23, 2020.This week in Beirut, hundreds of Lebanese demonstrators used the Poles’ model, reclaiming streets emptied by the coronavirus lockdown. They stayed in their cars to observe social distancing rules, honking horns and waving Lebanese flags out of their car windows, hoping to revive a cross-sectarian protest movement that flared in October but was unable to push through the radical reforms demonstrators want. “It’s so good to be back. There’s no better feeling,” protester Hassan Hussein Ali, 22, told AFP. “Corona has killed everything, but it hasn’t stopped the corruption of our politicians, so it will not stop us either.” FILE – People keep social distancing amid concerns over the country’s coronavirus outbreak, during a protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv, Israel, April 19, 2020.In neighboring Israel, this week also saw anti-government protests. In Tel Aviv, a few thousand gathered to express their disapproval of a new unity government headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The protest was given the go-ahead by authorities with organizers promising that attendees would observe social distancing restrictions and wear face masks. They marked up a square for the protest to ensure physical distancing rules were followed.   Police said in a statement, “Protests are regarded as an essential right that should be reserved for every citizen, as long as all restrictions and instructions are obeyed.” FILE – In this March 30, 2020, photo, ultra-Orthodox Jews gather during a protest against government’s measures to stop the spread of the coronavirus in the Orthodox neighborhood of Mea Shearim in Jerusalem.But in Jerusalem, hundreds of ultra-Orthodox adherents gathered to protest the lockdown of Mea Shearim, one of the oldest Jewish neighborhoods in the city, populated by Haredi Jews. The protesters ignored social distancing regulations and clashed with police. With anger and frustration simmering in many countries in Europe and the Middle East, and people tiring of state-ordered lockdowns, authorities worry the overall interruption in physical political protest will amount to a lull before the storm. Poverty, economic hardship and bankruptcy in many cases are compounding pre-coronavirus grievances.  FILE – Activists install a banner reading “More beds can save lives, a hospital not a commercial center, requisition of the Hotel Dieu” to protest against a project next to Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, April 21, 2020.In France, police fear a coming explosion of violence in the troubled working-class suburbs of Paris following several nights of small-scale rioting against police enforcement of the lockdown. The leader of France’s largest police union said Wednesday that he was worried the country could explode in violence. “It may get very difficult,” said Yves Lefebvre, head of the SGP Unite police union. “If tomorrow we are confronted by widespread urban violence, we would have trouble keeping on top of it unless a curfew was put in place, and the army called in to help enforce it.” 
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Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Friday decried crimes against “civilization” and demanded an apology from Turkey as his country marked the 105th anniversary of the WWI-era Armenian genocide.The genocide is a “crime not only against our ethnic identity, but also against human civilization,” Pashinyan said in a message after laying flowers at a genocide memorial in the capital, Yerevan.Commemorative events were scaled back this year because of the coronavirus restrictions imposed throughout the country, and the Yerevan memorial was closed to the public.In a short video address at the memorial, Pashinyan said that after more than a century, “the consequences of the genocide have not been eliminated.””Turkey has not yet apologized for what it did,” he said, adding that Yerevan “demands” that Ankara officially recognize the massacres as genocide.Armenians say up to 1.5 million people were killed as the Ottoman Empire was falling apart during World War I in what amounted to genocide, a claim supported by some 30 countries.Turkey rejects labelTurkey fiercely rejects the genocide label, arguing that 300,000 to 500,000 Armenians and at least as many Turks died in civil strife when Armenians rose up against their Ottoman rulers and sided with invading Russian troops.Yerevan has long demanded Ankara provide financial compensation and restore property rights to the descendants of those killed in the 1915-18 massacres, which Armenians call Meds Yeghern or the Great Crime.Pashinyan said Armenians “are still facing the challenges posed to our people at the outset of the 20th century.”He said that instead of visiting the memorial, Armenians worldwide could send their names to a mobile number to have them displayed on the pillars of the memorial until dawn.Commemorations started in Armenia on Thursday evening, when street lights were switched off and church bells chimed across the country.Yerevan residents also switched off lights in their homes and many lit candles or waved mobile telephone flashlights at windowsills.Last month, Armenia — which has reported 1,596 coronavirus cases and 27 deaths — declared a state of emergency and imposed a nationwide lockdown to slow the spread of the infection.
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A preliminary hearing opened Friday at Britain’s High Court in the Duchess of Sussex’s legal action against a British newspaper that published what she describes as a “private and confidential” letter she wrote to her father.  
Meghan is suing the Mail on Sunday and its parent company, Associated Newspapers, for publishing parts of an August 2018 letter she wrote to Thomas Markle. The civil lawsuit accuses the newspaper of copyright infringement, misuse of private information and violating the U.K.’s data protection law.
Associated Newspapers published sections of the letter in February last year. It denies the allegations — particularly the claim that the letter was presented in a way that changed its meaning. 
Lawyers for Associated Newspapers want the court to strike out parts of Meghan’s case ahead of a full trial, arguing that allegations of “dishonesty and malicious intent” should not form part of her case.
As the hearing opened via video conferencing, Anthony White, a lawyer representing the publisher, told the judge that lawyers for Meghan had made “further assertions of improper, deliberate conduct,” and that she accused the publisher of “harassing, humiliating, manipulating and exploiting” Thomas Markle.
White rejected the duchess’s allegations that the publisher had deliberately sought to “manufacture or stoke a family dispute for the sake of having a good story or stories to publish.” He said this was “irrelevant to the claim for misuse of private information”, and asked the judge to strike out that allegation.
The lawyer also rejected Meghan’s allegation that the publisher “acted dishonestly” when deciding which parts of her letter to publish.
Harry and Meghan were expected to listen in to the part of the hearing conducted by her lawyers.
Thomas Markle’s strained relationship with his daughter complicated Meghan’s entry into the royal family.
He had been due to walk Meghan down the aisle at her May 2018 wedding, but pulled out at the last minute, citing heart problems. The former television lighting director has given occasional interviews to the media, complaining in December 2018 that he’d been “ghosted” by his daughter after the wedding.
The letter was written three months after the royal wedding at Windsor Castle.  
Analysts have compared the legal case to the late Princess Diana’s lawsuit over photographs showing her exercising on gym equipment. The case was settled before it was to be heard.
Harry has long had a difficult relationship with the press. When the couple announced the legal action over the letter, he accused some newspapers of a “ruthless campaign” against his wife and compared it to how the press treated his mother Princess Diana, who died in a Paris car crash in 1997.
Earlier this week the couple issued a strongly-worded letter announcing they will no longer cooperate with several British tabloid newspapers because of what they called “distorted, false or invasive” stories.  
The couple said they won’t “offer themselves up as currency for an economy of click bait and distortion.”  
The couple announced in January they were quitting as senior royals, seeking financial independence and moving to North America.
 
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