Youth groups are staging a long-planned global climate demonstration online Friday because of restrictions on public protests during the coronavirus pandemic.
The student group Fridays for Future, whose past rallies have drawn hundreds of thousands onto the streets worldwide, is using a livestream to call on world leaders to act against global warming.
Some groups have found creative ways to stage very limited demonstrations despite the lockdown.
In Berlin, activists placed thousands of protest placards in front of the German parliament.
Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, 17, the most prominent face of the youth climate movement, said Wednesday during an online Earth Day event that the climate crisis “may not be as immediate as the corona crisis but we need to tackle this now, otherwise it will be irreversible.”
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Austria, which is loosening its coronavirus lockdown, said on Friday that most pupils will go back to school on May 18, with classes split in two groups that will each attend lessons half the week to ensure their desks are far enough apart.
 
Austria acted early in its outbreak to shut schools, bars, restaurants, non-essential shops and other gathering places more than a month ago. The public has been told to stay at home and work from there if possible.
 
That has helped slow the daily increase in infections to less than 2%. Austria has recorded a total of 15,011 confirmed cases of the disease, with 530 deaths.
 
The government says those numbers justify loosening its lockdown, which started last week with the reopening of DIY and garden centers as well as smaller shops.
 
Pupils in their final year were already due to go back to school on May 4, and the government said this week that schools would reopen “step by step” from May 15.
 
“If all goes well and infections do not increase further…, if the experiences of Denmark and Norway, which have decided to open schools early, are good, then the second phase of school openings will happen,” Education Minister Heinz Fassmann said.
 
“It is essentially all types of school for six-to-14-year-olds,” he told a news conference. While schools will officially reopen on Friday, May 15 for preparatory work, lessons would not resume in earnest until the following Monday, he added.
 
Most classes will be split into two groups, with one attending school Monday to Wednesday and the other Thursday to Friday, then swapping the following week, Fassmann said.
 
Pupils roughly 15 and older who are not in their final year should return to school on May 29, Fassmann added.
 
Denmark loosened its lockdown last week by reopening schools and day care centers, but concerns they might become breeding grounds for infection prompted thousands of parents to keep their children at home.
 
In Austria, the conservative-led government has faced criticism for reopening shops and other businesses before outlining plans for schools.
 
Hairdressers and larger shops are due to reopen from May 1, followed by cafes, bars, restaurants, libraries, museums and churches from May 15.
 
“The phased plan presented today is late and beyond overdue, but fundamentally an important step in providing the clarity for parents, pupils and teachers that the SPO has been calling for,” the leader of the opposition Social Democrats (SPO), Pamela Rendi-Wagner, said in a statement. 
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Brazil’s health minister confirmed 407 new coronavirus deaths Thursday, the country’s largest single-day increase since the virus struck the South American country.The majority of the deaths were in Sao Paulo, the epicenter of the pandemic in the country, where Mayor Bruno Covas warned the greatest hardship is yet to come.The virus casualties in Brazil come as President Jair Bolsonaro has started advocating to move away from social isolation measures that still are being supported by most governors and mayors to contain the virus.Meanwhile, Brazil’s new health minister, Nelson Teich, is casting doubts about the way governors are using data to impose self-isolation measures to fight the spread of the coronavirus, urging a standard model to analyze information.”If you produce ‘alarming’ numbers and people treat a mathematics model as the truth, you will worsen the scare and expectations of the society,” Teich said Thursday.Teich appeared to be echoing the sentiments of Bolsonaro, who fired the previous health minister partly over his support of the governors’ stay-at-home measures that Bolsonaro said are harming the economy.Teich said next week he’ll unveil the administration’s model for handling the outbreak.Brazil has reported more than 43,000 infections and upward of 3,300 deaths.So far, nearly 50,000 people have tested positive for the disease in Brazil.   
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The European Union approved a $580 billion aid package to help mitigate the consequences of coronavirus pandemic lockdowns in member countries.European Council President Charles Michel said Thursday the package was expected to be operational by June 1. Michel said it would help pay lost wages, keep companies afloat and fund health care systems.”We all agreed that the health and safety of our citizens comes first,” Michel said. “We also agreed to continue to follow the situation closely, in particular as we approach the holiday season and to coordinate as much as possible to ensure a gradual and orderly lifting of restrictions.”At Thursday’s virtual summit, the EU leaders also agreed on a recovery fund, without giving a specific figure, intended to rebuild the 27-nation bloc’s economies. However, officials said $1.1 trillion to $1.6 trillion would be needed.European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the impact of the economic crisis following the coronavirus outbreak is unprecedented in modern times.”While the pandemic knows certainly no borders and is blind to nationalities, some countries are certainly hit harder than others,” she said. “And unless we act decisively and collectively, the recovery will not be symmetric and divergences between member states will increase. I am therefore very happy that the leaders this evening tasked the Commission with shaping our collective response to the crisis.”The funds are urgently needed in the hardest-hit European countries, Italy and Spain.       
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European governments are rolling out plans outlining how they will start to cautiously unlock their countries and fire up their economies, but the lifting of lockdowns is being complicated by a string of studies suggesting that even in cities and regions hit hard by the coronavirus, only a small fraction of the population has contracted the infection.That presents governments with exactly the same dilemma they faced when the virus first appeared: Lock down and wreck the economy to save lives and prevent hospitals from being overwhelmed with the sick, or, allow the virus to do its worst and watch health care systems buckle and the death toll mount.There had been hope that sizable numbers — many more than confirmed cases — had contracted the virus, protecting them with some immunity, even if temporary, from reinfection. That would help ease the complications of gradually lifting restrictions.“The choice we face is no different to the one we faced at the beginning,” noted British commentator Daniel Finkelstein, a onetime adviser to former British Prime Minister John Major. “How long can we socially, economically and politically sustain the lockdown before we decide that the cure is worse than the disease?”It is a question every government is asking.Hopes of swift exits from lockdowns have been dealt a blow in Europe, as well as in the United States and Asia, by a series of studies indicating how few have been exposed so far to the coronavirus, thanks to the lockdowns. A study in California by public health officials and scientists at Stanford University and the University of Southern California suggests that 2.5%  to 4% of residents in Santa Clara County, south of San Francisco, and Los Angeles County have had the virus.FILE – Residents enjoy the weather despite an ongoing lockdown imposed to slow the spread of the coronavirus, in Nantes, France, April 23, 2020.A French study suggests less than 6% of France’s population will have been infected by the coronavirus by the time the country begins to unlock slowly in May, according to a study led by the prestigious Pasteur Institute. That would mean few people would have developed any possible immunity by the time the lockdown ends, meaning that if people mix more, more will contract the virus and more will go on to develop the disease COVID-19.“To achieve a sufficient level of collective immunity to avoid a second wave, you need 70 percent of the population to be immune,” said one of the authors of the study, Simon Cauchemez. He and his fellow Pasteur Institute researchers warn that a rapid lifting of restrictions could prompt a second huge wave of the epidemic. Collective immunity, also known as herd immunity, means the virus is less likely to spread to people who aren’t immune, because there are not enough infectious carriers to transmit it.Officials across Europe also say that the lack of testing capacity, or even of reliable enough quick antibody tests, is further hampering their plans to ease home confinement. Without better and speedy testing, public health officials won’t know if, when or where a second wave of virus infections is taking shape, making it harder to take preemptive measures with contract tracing. There remains a fierce debate among public health officials, virologists and government leaders about whether prior infection affords people any immunity, and if so, for how long.The World Health Organization has said it’s not known whether people who have been exposed to the virus become immune to it, and if so, for how long. Maria Van Kerkhove, an infectious-disease epidemiologist at the WHO, told reporters this week that some preliminary studies suggest “some people will develop an immune response.” She added, “We don’t know if that actually confers immunity, which means that they’re totally protected.”Some European governments are trying to prepare their citizens for highly complicated unlocking plans, which will involve ambitious and long-term road maps to manage the impact of the unprecedented medical, economic and social stress the pandemic has caused.In Britain, the government’s medical and scientific advisers say that it is highly unlikely that a large percentage of people have already been infected. Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer, said at a news conference that Britain will have to live with disruptive social measures for at least the rest of the year, saying it is “wholly unrealistic” to expect life will return to normal anytime soon.FILE – A woman takes photos of flowers in a park in London, April 22, 2020, as the lockdown in Britain continues due to the coronvirus pandemic.“This disease is not going to be eradicated; it is not going to disappear,” he said at the government’s daily coronavirus briefing. “So, we have to accept that we are working with a disease that we are going to be with globally … for the foreseeable future,” he added. He warned that the chance of having a vaccine, or even highly effective therapy for COVID-19, within the next calendar year was “incredibly small.”As the government remains highly cautious, Conservative lawmakers are becoming restive, warning midweek that its “safety-first” strategy was putting tens of thousands of businesses at risk. Senior Conservative lawmaker Charles Walker said, “There has got to be an economy to go back to. All MPs right now are dealing with dozens, if not hundreds, of local businesses that are fearing for their future.”  Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel, is also coming under mounting pressure to ease restrictions quickly. She said Thursday that the coronavirus pandemic is “still at the beginning” and warned, “We will be living with this virus for a long time.” Merkel told the country’s parliament that she understood public frustration and the urge to relax coronavirus restrictions as soon as possible, but moving too fast, she added, risked setting back what had already been achieved with the restrictions.“Let us not squander what we have achieved and risk a setback. It would be a shame if premature hope ultimately punishes us all,” she added. Germany has the fifth-highest COVID-19 caseload behind the United States, Spain, Italy and France, but extensive and early testing has allowed fatalities to remain low. The country’s authorities have reported more than 150,700 infections and 5,354 deaths to date.The problem for all governments is they are running out of money to support their deflated economies. And Europeans are showing signs of tiring with the lockdowns and draconian restrictions. A study of data this week by Mannheim University in Germany suggests that the proportion of people avoiding friends and relatives has slipped from nearly 70 percent maintaining strict social distancing to less than 50 percent.FILE – People wind-skate at the Theresienwiese, site of the annual Oktoberfest beer festival in Munich, southern Germany, April 23, 2020. This year’s Oktoberfest has already been cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.Most European governments have started to offer some concessions and are feeling their way nervously to relaxing some restrictions. In Germany, the latest case figures show that people who are recovering outnumber new infections. “It is precisely because the figures give rise to hope that I feel obliged to say that this interim result is fragile. We are on thin ice, the thinnest ice even,” Merkel told lawmakers.Nonetheless, Germany’s gradual easing of restrictions will see schools and hairdressers allowed to reopen on May 4. And stores no bigger than 800 square meters were permitted to resume business this week, along with bookshops and car showrooms.In the coming days, France too will present a plan detailing how slowly to unwind its lockdown after May 11. Protective masks, increased testing and maintaining social distancing will likely be highlighted, say officials. French retailers are to be allowed to restart their business on May 11, although with some curbs in areas with high infection rates.The easing comes as the government of President Emmanuel Macron has come under mounting pressure to get the economy running again. Restrictions may remain in place on traveling between regions.Italy has earmarked May 4 for relaxing some quarantine restrictions. Pressure has mounted on Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte to get the country working again, with southern regions reporting zero infections. Across the nation, the numbers of new infections are declining daily. But problems remain in the north of the country, especially in Lombardy, the hardest-hit Italian region of all and the country’s commercial and manufacturing powerhouse, which accounts for a quarter of Italy’s GDP.Italy’s representative on the executive board of the WHO, Walter Ricciardi, has warned it would be highly premature to ease Lombardy’s lockdown. “May 4 is just too optimistic for Lombardy,” he said. Stefano Patuanelli, Italy’s economic development minister, has argued publicly for a patchwork approach, with regions with fewer cases being allowed to lift lockdown restrictions sooner.Some southern governors have warned that if a lockdown is not maintained on Lombardy and another hard-hit northeastern region, Marche, they will bar entry into their territories to anyone arriving from the north.
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Canada pledged new money on Thursday to develop and eventually mass-produce vaccines in its fight against the coronavirus, while the western province of Saskatchewan unveiled its plan to gradually restart its economy. Canada’s 10 provinces have closed non-essential businesses and urged people to stay at home since mid-March to slow the spread of COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the new coronavirus. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters that Ottawa would spend C$1.1 billion ($782 million) to bolster vaccine research, clinical trials and national testing.”Once we’ve developed a vaccine, whether it be in Canada or elsewhere around the world, we’re going to need to produce it,” Trudeau said.Global scrambleNoting there had been a competitive global scramble to obtain personal protective equipment (PPE) amid the pandemic, “part of the investment we’re making … is to establish the capacity of developing vaccines and mass-producing vaccines here in Canada.” Canada’s total coronavirus deaths rose to 2,028 on Thursday, up 8% from a day earlier, official data showed.Some provinces have seen daily case numbers dwindle.Saskatchewan plans a phased approach to reopening, starting on May 4 with medical services such as dentists and chiropractors. Golf courses reopen on May 15.Second phaseThe second phase, starting on May 19, allows retail stores and services such as hairdressers and massage therapy to open. Broader restrictions, such as at seniors homes, and limits on gatherings to 10 people, remain in place. Testing and contact tracing will increase.”We have to find middle ground that continues to keep our case numbers low … while allowing Saskatchewan people to get back to work,” Premier Scott Moe said. The province has not set dates for subsequent phases to reopen restaurants, theaters, pools and casinos. The timing will depend on the spread of the coronavirus during the first two phases, Moe said.On Wednesday, there were only 61 active cases and five hospitalizations in the province, which is about 70% below the Canadian average, he said. Ontario — the most populous province — extended its shutdown until at least May 6. Quebec has prolonged its closures until early May.Similar guidelinesAsked about Saskatchewan’s plan, Trudeau said Ottawa was coordinating with provinces so that decisions are made using similar guidelines.”Different provinces are in very different postures related to COVID-19 and will be taking decisions appropriate for them,” Trudeau told reporters.In the United States, some businesses prepared to reopen in Georgia and a few other states for the first time in a month. Their plans have drawn criticism from health experts who warn that a premature easing of stay-at-home guidelines could trigger a surge in cases. 
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Opposition lawmakers in Venezuela quietly agreed to pay themselves $5,000 a month when they approved special $100 bonuses for doctors and nurses battling the coronavirus — a large payout for a nation where most workers are scraping by on a couple dollars a month, according to people involved in the process.The payout, which has not been previously reported, was contained in legislation passed last week by the National Assembly setting up an $80 million “Liberation Fund” made up of Venezuelan assets seized by the Trump administration as part of its sanctions campaign to remove socialist leader Nicolas Maduro.The legislation was touted as a hallmark achievement for Juan Guaido, the 36-year-old congressional leader recognized as Venezuela’s rightful president by the U.S. and nearly 60 other nations, but who has struggled to exert real power. For this first time since invoking the constitution to proclaim himself acting president, he would have access to some of the billions of dollars in Venezuelan assets frozen abroad.  But the details have been shrouded in secrecy. The text of the new measure — which implements a general law passed in February creating the fund — hasn’t been made public. And the official announcement makes no mention of salaries, saying only that 17% of the $80 million in recovered assets will be set aside for “the defense and strengthening of the national legislative power and the social protection of its members.” Neither Guaido or anybody else in the opposition has publicly offered an explanation.FILE – Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido speaks to journalists during a regional counterterrorism meeting at the police academy in Bogota, Colombia, Jan. 20, 2020.Two lawmakers and three Guaido aides confirmed the salary plan and acknowledged that the optics were potentially bad, coming as many Venezuelans are struggling to cope with an economic crisis that has reduced the minimum wage to barely $2 per month. The five spoke on the condition of anonymity so as not to be seen airing details of what they described as a fierce, monthslong debate that threatened to split the anti-Maduro coalition.The two lawmakers even refused to call it a salary, preferring to view the fixed monthly payment as a stipend partially compensating them for legislative work that has gone unpaid since Maduro cut off funding to the legislature after it fell to the opposition by a landslide in 2015. They said some lawmakers will surely refuse to collect the money, even though many struggle to make ends meet while living in exile or traveling to Caracas for parliamentary debates.They point out that spread out over the full five-year legislative session, the payments amount to $1,000 a month — far less than what lawmakers earn elsewhere in Latin America. They must also cover any office expenses or staff costs.Guaido did not immediately comment on the controversy when contacted by The Associated Press. But since the legislation passed, he has frequently promoted his plan to hand out $100 bonuses to an estimated 60,000 doctors and nurses fighting the coronavirus pandemic in a country where most hospitals lack running water, electricity and basic supplies.“The dictatorship has billions of our dollars sequestered but we, with less than 0.01% of what they have, can do a lot more,” Guaido said while announcing his plan.Second-largest budget itemThe $13.6 million in funding for the National Assembly is the second-largest item in the “Special Law for the Venezuelan Liberation Fund and Attention to Vital Risks” after a 45% outlay on social spending to ease the humanitarian crisis. That includes the three monthly bonuses of $100 each for “health care heroes,” payment of which will be made via digital wallets in a system managed with the Organization of American States.  Another 11% is earmarked for diplomatic envoys in the countries that recognize Guaido as interim president. There’s also money to strengthen the opposition’s communications outreach and judicial cooperation abroad.The money comes from an estimated $11.6 billion in frozen Venezuelan assets abroad, much of it proceeds from oil sales and the earnings of Houston-based CITGO, a subsidiary of state oil giant PDVSA, that the Trump administration took away from Maduro but until now had refused to hand over to Guaido.  Francisco Rodriguez, a Venezuelan economist who used to work in the National Assembly, said that he welcomes good pay for elected officials working in the public’s interest. But he said the opposition and the U.S. efforts would be better spent assisting Venezuelans devastated by the country’s collapse, including the estimated 5 million migrants who have fled their homes in recent years and have no savings to fall back on amid the coronavirus pandemic.  “It’s deeply disturbing that legislators would be willing to approve a generous compensation package for themselves without having yet found the time to discuss how they can use the funds at their disposal to help Venezuelans now living on the verge of starvation,” said Rodriguez.  FILE – Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro delivers his annual state of the nation speech during a special session of the National Constituent Assembly, in Caracas, Venezuela, Jan. 14, 2020.Led by Guaido, Venezuela’s opposition lawmakers have faced repeated physical attacks, threats and arrests by Maduro’s security forces. Since January, they’ve been blocked from even entering the federal legislative palace after a dissident faction of lawmakers — who the opposition alleges were bribed by Maduro — claimed leadership of the congress with the support of the ruling party.  Precisely to root out corruption and avoid future defections from Guaido’s slim majority, opposition leaders considered it important to start paying an honest wage, according to the five people. Payments, which are retroactive to January, will also be made to substitute lawmakers, who often fill in for the large number of elected representatives forced into exile.But members of Maduro’s party will not receive any payments. That’s because many have been sanctioned in the U.S. for trampling on Venezuela’s democracy. The Trump administration must still issue a special license giving a five-member commission appointed by Guaido access to the funds, which are sitting in an account at the New York Federal Reserve after the Trump administration seized a $342 million payout from a gold-for-loans deal in 2015 that Maduro defaulted on with the Bank of England.
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A new World Bank study predicts remittances sent home by migrant workers from low- and middle-income countries may plummet by one-fifth this year, prompted by the coronavirus-driven global economic downturn.In Europe, that translates into billions of dollars lost to families in Africa, the Middle East and elsewhere. Shuttered shops and empty sidewalks on the normally bustling Avenue de Paris in Montreuil. (L. Bryant/VOA)Almost every business in the Paris suburb of Montreuil is shuttered on what is a normally bustling street — except for the Western Union money transfer office. Even so, it is seeing only a trickle of customers.  Retiree Boubacar Baka is sending his usual quarterly payment back to his family in Abidjan. He said it’s not much — times are tight. But he said his family has to eat.  With its many African residents, especially from Mali, Montreuil is sometimes called “Little Bamako.” On this day,  Western Union customer Sidi Djiabate, who is from Mali, has business to do.  Djiabate is sending a small sum to family in western Mali as a Ramadan gift. He said he is an office clerk here, and his job is secure. But he says times are tough in his homeland, where the coronavirus has also arrived. With Mali’s borders closed to slow the pandemic, he says people lack basics like sugar.  France is one of Europe’s biggest exporters of migrant worker remittances. The African diaspora here, estimated at 3.6 million people, sent more than $10 billion home in 2017.  Graffiti in the Paris suburb of Montreuil, nicknamed ‘little Bamako’ because of its large Malian diaspora. (L. Bryant/VOA)But coronavirus-triggered layoffs and lost wages are affecting those transfers. Staff at the Montreuil Western Union declined to be interviewed but said their clientele has dropped sharply in recent weeks.  There are other reasons for the slowdown in remittances. One is that a number of money transfer offices are closed under the current shutdown. Companies like Western Union have launched communications campaigns urging clients to send payments via internet or phone app.  But not everyone has a computer or smartphone.  A market in the Paris suburb of Saint Denis before the lockdown. (L. Bryant/VOA)Laurent Russier, mayor of the nearby town of Saint-Denis where about a third of the population is foreign born, said some remittances are going the other way, as well. He said migrant workers who have lost their jobs here are getting money from families back home.  The World Bank forecasts Africa alone could lose more than $11 billion in remittances from its diaspora this year, even as experts fear foreign investment and aid could also drop.     
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The Novosibirsk-based news website Taiga.info recently published an interview with a woman who told the independent outlet that she called an ambulance after experiencing severe flu-like symptoms that she feared could be COVID-19. The paramedics who showed up had no gloves, masks, or other personal protective equipment (PPE), she said.
 
“The management of Novosibirsk’s ambulance service wrote a complaint to the prosecutor’s office and [state media-monitoring agency] Roskomnadzor,” the Siberian website’s editor, Aleksei Mazur, told RFE/RL. “A few days later, an ambulance paramedic who had been handling possible coronavirus infections was diagnosed with COVID-19. It turned out he had only a normal mask and had not been issued a respirator.”
 
Earlier this month, St. Petersburg journalist Tatyana Voltskaya, who writes for RFE/RL’s Russian Service, published an interview with a local doctor  who warned of a looming shortage of ventilators and qualified emergency doctors in the city. The doctor, concerned about possible retribution for speaking out, insisted that his name be withheld.
 
Days after the interview was published, Voltskaya received a phone call from a police investigator. “He immediately asked me to reveal my source,” Voltskaya said. “I refused.”
 
Voltskaya said the investigator claimed that he only wanted to make sure the hospital where the doctor worked had adequate supplies.
 
“The investigator said that Bastrykin was interested in the interview,” she recalled, referring to the head of the federal Investigative Committee, Aleksandr Bastrykin. “If that is true, then get to work! They should put on masks and go and see [what is going on]…. Is that so hard? Why drag me into it?”
 
A few days later, local state-friendly media reported that St. Petersburg Governor Aleksandr Beglov had warned that the city faced a dire shortage of ventilators and PPE for medical workers.FILE – People watch a broadcast of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s address to the nation on measures to combat the spread of the coronavirus, in a cafe in Omsk, Russia, March 25, 2020.Real pressure on ‘fake news’
 
Independent journalists across Russia are facing similar encounters as they work to cover the unfolding COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian government’s efforts to cope with it. On March 31, even before the government had announced a general lockdown and other emergency measures, the legislature adopted a law criminalizing the distribution of “fake information” about the health crisis, a measure that President Vladimir Putin signed into law on April 1.
 
On April 4, St. Petersburg activist Anna Shushpanova became the first person to face investigation under the law because of a social-media post sharing concerns about the adequacy of hygiene measures at a local hospital.
 
“Our deputies live in a world that they have spent years creating in their minds — a world in which information that is disseminated in the interests of their bosses is ‘correct’ information,” said Viktor Muchnik, editor in chief of the TV2 information agency in the Siberian city of Tomsk. “And any ‘incorrect’ information is distributed to help their bosses’ enemies. And they can’t imagine any other kind of information, so they need to put an end to all this ‘fake information’ that is coming either from abroad or from some sort of [opposition leader Alexey] Navalny or some other enemies of the regime.”
 
“And the bosses, of course, welcome any such initiatives,” he concluded. “It is obvious why this is being done.”
 
In such a climate, Muchnik said, “doctors are really frightened.” He recently interviewed one doctor who told him “everything was normal” at her hospital. Later that night, however, she called him back and told him the hospital was critically short of qualified personnel. “Earlier, I had caught her at work, and she was not able to speak honestly,” he said.
 
Maria Bukhtuyeva, editor in chief of the TVK television company in Krasnoyarsk, said the best way to combat rumors and speculation would be for the authorities to work better with the media. “Our politicians and parliamentarians and law enforcement personnel and others involved in this matter locally have lost the ability to make independent decisions and therefore they are not in a position to give adequate, timely commentary [to the media],” she said. “What can be prosecuted as ‘fake news’? Whatever they want.”FILE – Workers in protective suits spray disinfectant in the center of Grozny, capital of Russia’s Chechnya region, April 6, 2020. Ramzan Kadyrov, the region’s strongman, has taken extreme measures to fight the spread of the coronavirus in Chechnya.And more than pressure…
 
In addition to the intimidating law on “fake news,” some Russian regional figures have been intimidating journalists more directly. Chechnya’s Kremlin-backed leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, recently accused journalists of the independent Novaya gazeta of being “traitors.” Shortly after he called an article about the region’s COVID-19 crisis “absurd,” the Russian authorities forced Novaya Gazeta to take it off the Internet.
 
Earlier in April, Kadyrov issued a video in which he threatened the head of RFE/RL’s North Caucasus Service, Aslan Doukaev, for an article about how the region’s farmers are struggling through the pandemic. “The head of that region has been quite effective at using extrajudicial means to resolve issues,” Taiga.info’s Mazur said, referring to Kadyrov. “But the main complaint shouldn’t be to him, but to the federal authorities.”
 
Kadyrov “has always tended to test the limits of the laws and instructions. When you draw a line in the sand for him, he crosses it and waits to see what happens. When nothing happens, he goes further,” he said. “It’s a shame that the federal government and the [president] put up with this.”
 
There are similar examples elsewhere in Russia. In an interview with state media on April 17, Tomsk region Governor Sergei Zhvachkin warned those who “smear the authorities with dirt” during a “semi-war period.”
 
“The government knows your names and where you live,” he said. “Don’t be offended, but if you cross the line, we will be forced to stop you…. Don’t play around.”
 
TV2’s Muchnik and his team are used to working under government pressure. The company’s flagship TV station was closed down in 2014 after a campaign against it by local officials.
 
“If this had happened in the late 1990s or early 2000s, we would have had the people who were responsible in our studio, constantly communicating with our viewers,” he said. “We would have found ways to convey in detail what was happening. And not only us — there were many media outlets who were competing with one another.
 
“But over a period of many years, the media space has been made flat and regulated,” he concluded. “Of course, we have our sources of information, but the people now are in a panic and a lot of unreliable information is out there. We have to spend a lot of time checking things. And we also have to check official information, of course.”
 Written by Robert Coalson based on reporting by Aleksandr Molchanov of the Siberia Desk of RFE/RL’s Russian Service. 
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Married gay couple Dawid Mycek and Jakub Kwiecinski say they face frequent abuse in Poland for being part of a so-called “homosexual plague.””So we thought that if we are dealing right now with a real plague (the new coronavirus) we could help protect people from this plague and do something good,” said 37-year-old Kwiecinski.He and his husband gave out 300 rainbow face masks on the streets of the northern Polish city of Gdansk this month to help people protect themselves from COVID 19 and raise awareness of the situation of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in the country.A video of them distributing the masks was watched on Facebook over 2 million times.Poland has reported 10,346 cases of the coronavirus and 435 deaths, and wearing a face mask is mandatory in public spaces.Kwiecinski and Mycek, 35, who married in Portugal, said reactions to their masks were overwhelmingly positive, but the general attitude towards LGBT people in Poland has become more hostile in recent years.In Poland, which doesn’t recognize any form of same-sex union, parades to celebrate LGBT life became violent flashpoints last year in the buildup to October elections.The country is due to hold presidential elections on May 10.”The situation of LGBT people in Poland is getting worse I would say day by day, we have the right-wing in power… the Law and Justice party and they are against LGBT,” Kwiecinski said.”They also encourage people to attack us, to insult us.”A spokeswoman for the ruling conservative Law and Justice party (PiS) did not respond to requests for comment.PiS officials have previously said they are not against gay couples, they just want them to exist as couples in private.Kwiecinski and Mycek said in recent years they have received death threats from 80 people.”We’ve heard many times in Poland from people and from Polish bishops, and from Polish politicians that we are a plague,” Kwiecinski said referring to comments made by the archbishop of Krakow, Marek Jedraszewski last August.Jedraszewki described Poland as under siege from a “rainbow plague” of gay rights campaigners he compared to Poland’s former Communist rulers. 
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German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned German lawmakers some regions in the nation were moving too quickly to ease COVID-19 restrictions, risking a setback to the progress the country has made in getting the virus under control.In an address to the Bundestag, the lower house of the German parliament, Merkel said she fully supports the decision made last week – after consultations with regional governors – to begin easing some restrictions, such as allowing smaller businesses to reopen. But she said she is concerned some areas are relaxing those rules too quickly.Merkel said nobody likes to hear it but “we are not living in the final phase of the pandemic, but still at the beginning.” She said Germany’s early success bought them time that has been used to bolster the health care system and moving too quickly could set all that back.Turning the European Union, the German chancellor said in the spirit of solidarity, Germany should be willing to contribute more to the EU budget to help other nations in the region recover economically. 
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Haitian authorities are conducting a criminal investigation into a February fire at an orphanage operated by a U.S.-based church near Port-au-Prince, where 13 children and two adults died.Authorities suspect the fire was started by candles used during frequent power failures.The Associated Press reported that at one point the Haitian orphanages run by the Church of Bible Understanding, were stripped of accreditation by Haitian officials over compliance with safety and health criteria and three years ago both of the church’s  homes in Haiti failed inspections but stayed open.The AP said an attorney for the church said the church, the orphanage operators and the Haitian government should all bear some responsibility.The operational problems and reported poor condition of the homes is glaring because of the revenue wealth and property assets of the church. 
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U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the coronavirus outbreak is “fast becoming a human rights crisis.”In a statement Thursday, he called on governments to ensure that health care is available and accessible to all people, that economic aid packages help those most affected, and that everyone has the ability to obtain food, water and housing.Women wearing face masks ride past the Opera House in Hanoi on April 23, 2020, as Vietnam eased its nationwide social isolation efforts.“We have seen how the virus does not discriminate, but its impacts do — exposing deep weaknesses in the delivery of public services and structural inequalities that impede access to them.  We must make sure they are properly addressed in the response,” Guterres said.He added: “And in all we do, let’s never forget: The threat is the virus, not people.”The U.N. chief’s message comes as world health officials warn that while some countries have seen great progress and are starting to relax lockdown measures, the fight against the virus is very much not over.”Make no mistake: We have a long way to go. This virus will be with us for a long time,” said World Health Organization head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.  “Most countries are still in the early stages of their epidemics. And some that were affected early in the pandemic are now starting to see a resurgence in cases.”U.S. health officials also are urging the public to look ahead to the next flu season and get flu shots in order to help mitigate a potential huge strain on health resources if there are large numbers of flu and coronavirus patients at the same time.With the illnesses sharing similar symptoms, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield told reporters, “We’re going to have to distinguish between which is flu and which is the coronavirus.”“I need them to help now to best prepare us by getting the flu vaccine and taking flu out of the picture,” he said.Many countries remain focused on stopping the current outbreak with stay-at-home measures in place.Those restrictions are complicating usual routines for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan that starts this week.Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation, banned tens of millions of people who live in big cities from traveling home. Officials in the capital city of Jakarta extended lockdown restrictions until May 22 and asked Muslims to forego attending mosques.Turkey’s health minister urged similar measures, saying people should put off the tradition of holding fast-breaking meals with friends and family for Ramadan until next year.A man wearing a face mask walks at sunset in a park in Wuhan, in China’s central Hubei province on April 19, 2020.Turkey has been instituting weekend curfews and has banned those younger than 20 and older than 65 from leaving their homes.Muslims in Malaysia’s capital also have been told to pray from home with their mosques closed.Pakistan is taking a different approach, ignoring pleas from doctors and keeping mosques open, though encouraging people to observe social distancing rules.The question of whether to allow people to gather for worship is being confronted in many countries, and among many religions.U.S. officials largely told people to avoid gathering for the Christian Easter holiday earlier this month, while some churches have defied state lockdown orders and held in-person services.A federal judge in California said Wednesday he would reject a request by three churches seeking a temporary restraining order to set aside the governor’s orders.  They argue the government is violating the constitutional First Amendment rights to freedom of religion and assembly.But the judge said in such a time of emergency, the government has the power to “provide emergency remedies, which may infringe on fundamental constitutional rights.”  
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Japanese health officials say 48 crew members of an Italian cruise ship docked in the port city of Nagasaki have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, including 14 cases confirmed Thursday.The Costa Atlantica and its 623 crew members have been docked in Nagasaki since January to undergo repairs by a unit of Mitsubishi Heavy Industry. The crew was tested for COVID-19 last week after the ship reported that one crew member had developed a cough and fever.The total number of infections include 34 crew members who were first confirmed on Wednesday. At least one crew member has been taken to a Nagasaki hospital, where he is currently on a ventilator. Health officials say they hope to test the remaining crew members by Friday.This is the second time Japan has dealt with a coronavirus outbreak onboard a cruise ship. The U.S.-flagged Diamond Princess cruise ship was quarantined in Yokohama after a passenger tested positive for the disease, but more than 700 passengers eventually tested positive.Japan has nearly 12,000 COVID-19 infections and nearly 300 deaths, not including the figures from the Diamond Princess. The nation is currently under a state of emergency.    
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Brazil’s new health minister is casting doubts about how governors use data in imposing self-isolation measures to fight the spread of the coronavirus, saying there needs to be a standard model of analyzing information.On Wednesday, in his first public statements since taking the job six days ago, Nelson Teich said “if you produce ‘alarming’ numbers and people treat a mathematics model as the truth, you will worsen the scare and expectations of the society.”Teich appears to be echoing the sentiments of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who fired the previous health minister partly over his support of the governors’ stay-at-home measures that he said were bad for the economy.Teich says he will unveil the administration’s model for handling the outbreak next week. He said Brazil is looking at ways of backing away from social isolation practices, although media reports say the virus has not peaked in the country.Brazil has reported more than 46,000 infections and more than 2,900 deaths.     
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Police in the Netherlands have released security camera video showing a thief who stole a prized Vincent van Gogh painting from a Dutch museum late last month.The video of the March 30 theft shows how the perpetrator used a sledgehammer to smash his way through reinforced glass doors at the Singer Laren Museum in Laren, Netherlands, east of Amsterdam.Police hope that publicizing the images will help them track down the thief who stole “The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen in Spring 1884” while the museum was shut down due to coronavirus containment measures.Police have made no arrests in connection with the theft of the painting, which was on loan from the Groninger Museum when it was stolen, and it remains missing.The 25-by-57-centimeter oil-on-paper painting shows a person standing in a garden surrounded by trees with a church tower in the background.It dates to a time when Van Gogh had moved back to his family in a rural area of the Netherlands and painted the life he saw there, including his famous work “The Potato Eaters”, in mostly somber tones.The exact value of the missing painting is uncertain, but recent Van Gogh paintings have gone for tens of millions of dollars when sold at auction. 
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France’s parliament votes next week on plans to use a controversial tracing app to help fight the coronavirus, as the country eyes easing its lockdown next month.French Digital Affairs Minister Cedric O says the downloadable app would notify smartphone users when they cross people with COVID-19, helping authorities track and reduce the spread of the pandemic.In a video on the ruling party’s Facebook page, O said the so-called “Stop COVID” app will fully respect people’s liberties, and will be completely voluntary and anonymous. It also will be temporary — lasting only as long as the pandemic, he added.A man rides his bike in an empty street during a nationwide confinement to counter the COVID-19 in Paris, April 21, 2020.The government wants to launch the app on May 11, the date it has set to begin easing a two-month lockdown in the country. It initially announced a parliamentary debate on the technology, but that’s been changed to a vote, after major pushback from lawmakers.The app’s critics include ruling party member Guillaume Chiche, who told French TV the app would reveal people’s health status and lead to discrimination and exclusion.He’s not the only one worried.”We think that it is very dangerous for the government to say to French people that the solution will be this kind of application,” said Benoit Piedallu, a member of La Quadrature du Net, an advocacy group defending digital rights and freedoms.The potential problems he sees range from chances the app could infringe on individual liberties, to whether it would actually work effectively.”We think that the digital application is not the correct answer to this problem,” Piedallu said. “The government should buy masks, the government should open new hospitals. … There are a lot of other solutions than an application.”A recent poll showed eight in 10 French respondents said they would be willing to download the app. But Piedallu believes the numbers of those actually using it will likely be much smaller, and many seniors —who are among the most vulnerable to the coronavirus — don’t have smartphones.France isn’t the only European country working on tracing apps and sparking similar rights debates, including in neighboring Germany. Reports say the French government is also pushing Apple to allow the app to work on its iPhones without built-in privacy measures.  
 
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FURCY, HAITI – About an hour’s drive from Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, residents of Furcy, a cool, lush, agricultural community high up in the mountains, say they are used to dealing with illnesses common to cooler climates. Their community is located more than 1,000 meters above sea level and average temperatures there during the month of April are around 20 degrees Celsius. Comparatively, in the capital, the average temperature is near 30 degrees Celsius.   The residents say they are now using their herbal cold and flu remedies in their homemade plan to deal with the coronavirus. They had to come up with a plan of action they say, because the government has ignored them.  This woman, who is holding her baby tells VOA the locals are used to cool weather illnesses and have their own herbal concoctions to treat them. (Photo: Matiado Vilme / VOA)“The symptoms caused by coronavirus are things we are used to dealing with up here,” a woman wearing a hoodie and a wool hat told VOA Creole. “We’re used to the flu, headaches, sore throats; they are all familiar to us. We do take precautions of course, but we can say we own this type of illness because we live in a cold climate.”“I know what to make for my children to protect them from illness,” a woman cradling a baby on her hip said. “Back in the day, the old people used to give their children medicine before medicating themselves.”  
 Remedies to fight flu symptoms
Favorite local remedies to fight flu-like symptoms include a concoction made with cat tail plants, various leaves and ginger root.
 This woman tells VOA locals usually follow the elders’ example and treat their children before they treat themselves when they are sick. (Photo: Matiado Vilme / VOA)“There’s bitter ginger and there’s sweet ginger. To calm a cough, we have our own remedies, so we don’t need to go see a doctor,” the woman with the baby said.  
 
Residents told VOA they are wary of consulting a doctor when they have flu-like symptoms.   
“You know it’s a saga to get the doctor to come all the way up here,” a man wearing a patchwork face mask said. “By the time they get their protective gear, instruments and drive up here, we could die.”
 
Instead, he said, they have decided to take a pragmatic approach.  
 Furcy residents use these sunflower leaves to make tea, which they say alieves flu and cold symptoms. (Photo: Matiado Vilme / VOA)“We have these leaves over here,” he said pointing to a green leafy plant. “These are sunflower leaves, but to us they are also medicine. They are really bitter, but when we have a cold or the flu, we boil these leaves. We also use it to get rid of fever.”  
 
The man said the locals have various other herbal remedies in their arsenal that are quite effective. He also said they consume limes and bitter oranges, two fruits loaded with Vitamin C, which can boost the immune system.  
 Fact or fake? Pierre Hugues Saint-Jean is president of Haiti’s National Pharmacist Association. He’s shown here in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on April 3, 2020.VOA Creole asked Pierre Hugues Saint-Jean, president of Haiti’s National Association of Pharmacists, if there’s any validity to the traditional remedies being touted by people in rural communities.“There actually has been a debate about the virtues of certain plants. Some people say ginger, others say limes, some people are talking about aloe,” Saint-Jean said. “Just because it’s a plant doesn’t mean it has no scientific validity. But you have to study the plant, isolate the active substances contained in the plant and then conduct (scientific) studies.”Saint-Jean said this kind of in-depth study can determine what preventive attributes the plant may hold that perhaps later could be used to treat illnesses.
 Living in isolationFurcy, a lush, cool agricultural community is located 38 kilometers from Haiti’s capital, Port au Prince. (Photo: Matiado Vilme / VOA)Although Furcy is only 38 kilometers southeast of the capital, the road to get there is steep and winding, so not many people venture there. 
“We don’t go down to Port-au-Prince, so if we need something, someone has to bring it to us,” the man wearing the patchwork face mask told VOA. “No one has come to inform us about the virus or tell us what we should and shouldn’t do. We learned all about it while listening to the radio.”  
Another man, who was not wearing a face mask, agreed.  
 
“We just listen to the radio and follow the advice,” he said. Asked why he chose not to wear a face covering, the man said it’s because he finds it difficult to breathe when he has it on. This man is not wearing a mask even though he knows he should. He says it takes getting used to and he finds it harder to breathe when he has it on. (Photo: Matiado Vilme / VOA)“I have to get used to it,” he said. “I know it will protect me.”Residents whom VOA interviewed knew that keeping hands clean is also key to staying healthy. So, they found a way to make that happen.  
 
“Since we live on a mountain, we take many precautions,” said a woman whose baby was wearing a light blue wool hat. “We wash our hands often; if we are going out, we always have a bottle of vinegar in our pocket (that we use as a disinfectant) because way up here, it’s hard to find alcohol but we can easily find vinegar,” she told VOA Creole. 
The woman said she stays home most days and doesn’t have contact with many people.  Haiti currently has 58 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, according to the Johns Hopkins University, which is tracking the global outbreak. Of those 58, four people have died and there have been no recoveries.
 
Prime Minister Joseph Jouthe announced this week that a lockdown that began in March has been extended until May 19.
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The COVID-19 pandemic could have been a fraught moment for U.S.-Mexico relations — two leaders from opposite ends of the political spectrum facing the largest crisis ever confronted by either administration.
Instead, presidents Donald Trump and Andrés Manuel López Obrador are carrying on like old pals.
The men appear so chummy that the Mexican president, who has not traveled outside his country since taking office nearly 18 months ago, is talking about visiting his U.S. counterpart. It’s almost enough to forget that less than a year ago Trump threatened to put crippling tariffs on Mexican exports.
As a candidate, Trump said Mexicans crossing the border brought drugs, crime and “tremendous infectious disease” to the U.S. After taking office, he continued to promise to build a border wall and make Mexico pay for it.
But this month Trump called López Obrador “a very good friend” and praised his “tremendous intelligence.” His Mexican counterpart described their relationship as a “friendship” and said Trump had spoken to him with a lot of “fondness.”
The two have consistently denied observers any fireworks, and their common ground in the virus crisis appears to be an eagerness to reactivate their economies, which is sometimes at odds with warnings from health advisers.
The warmth between them recently yielded some benefit to Mexico. To complete an agreement among oil-producing nations to reduce production, Trump offered to make a deeper cut to U.S. production, because López Obrador said Mexico could not afford to.
Then on Friday, Trump appeared to grant a favor to López Obrador. The Mexican president said Trump called him and said that Mexico would get 1,000 ventilators by the end of the month with the option to buy more.
“It’s a new gesture of solidarity with Mexico,” López Obrador wrote on Twitter. “I proposed the possibility of meeting in June or July to personally express our appreciation.”
Earlier that day, López Obrador had said at his daily news conference that Trump “has been respectful of the people and government of Mexico.”
“There isn’t the belittling of Mexicans like there had been before, there isn’t with the same intensity,” he added.
On Monday, the Department of Homeland Security reached agreement with Mexico and Canada to continue restricting nonessential travel at U.S. borders for another month. Later, in a tweet, Trump said he was temporarily suspending immigration to the U.S. to curb the virus, though with all the other immigration restrictions, it was not immediately clear who would be affected.
“It’s very clear that there’s a high degree of affinity, a surprising degree of affinity, between Trump and López Obrador,” who is willing “to cater to Trump in order to not only prevent Trump from dumping on Mexico, but also because López Obrador recognizes that he can get help and support where he needs it,” said David Shirk, a political science professor at the University of San Diego.
Last year, Mexico signed a new regional free-trade agreement with the U.S. and Canada, which had been a Trump priority. López Obrador, who rails against the neoliberal legacy of his predecessors — privatizing state-owned businesses, weakening unions — almost daily, went along with it.
When the number of asylum seekers showing up at the U.S.-Mexico border began last year to overwhelm the U.S. capacity to process them, Mexico averted Trump’s tariff threat by deploying its newly minted National Guard, which stopped mostly Central American immigrants headed north. The Mexican government also let the U.S. expand a controversial program to make asylum seekers wait in Mexico while their cases were processed in the U.S.
The result was that Mexico became the de facto executor of U.S. immigration policy in the region.
López Obrador “has shown an incredible penchant for appeasement” of Trump, said Tony Payan, director of the Center for the United States and Mexico at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy. “He’s up against a wall. He has no choice. Picking a fight with Washington today would absolutely and completely poison the waters more than they’re already poisoned. He’s got no other choice but to cooperate with Mr. Trump. And I think Mr. Trump knows it.”
Under the health emergency, the U.S. government has completely closed its southern border to asylum seekers and in many cases is quickly returning Mexicans and Central Americans back to Mexico.
López Obrador has effectively chosen an economic benefit over the welfare of migrants and Mexican border towns, Shirk said. “It says to me that this is a president who is absolutely focused on one thing and that is trying to stimulate a moribund Mexican economy.”
In Mexico, López Obrador’s hardened position on immigration has not appeared to hurt him with his base, said Ivonne Acuña Murillo, a political science professor at Mexico City’s Iberoamerican University. She sees the real threat to his administration in the pandemic and what she says is an organized opposition campaign against his handling of the situation.
“I believe that if we are not in a political crisis, we could enter one,” Acuña said. “There is clearly an orchestrated strategy to hit the president’s popularity.” López Obrador frequently refers to his “adversaries,” a group that by his definition includes opposition politicians, the country’s largest media outlets and most anyone who criticizes his policies. He accuses them of trying to take advantage of the pandemic to damage him.
As for López Obrador’s recent coziness with Trump, Acuña also thinks he has little choice.
“During the campaign, (López Obrador) said if he tweets, I’m also going to tweet,” Acuña said. “That’s campaign talk. But it’s not the same being a candidate as being president … because the United States is still the empire. And politically speaking, Trump is still the most powerful politician in the world.”
 
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French President Emmanuel Macron told the Australian prime minister now was not the time for an international investigation into the coronavirus pandemic and that the urgency was to act in unison before looking for who was at fault, an official said.
 
“He says he agrees that there have been some issues at the start, but that the urgency is for cohesion, that it is no time to talk about this, while reaffirming the need for transparency for all players, not only the WHO,” an Elysee official told Reuters on Wednesday.
 
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has sought support for an international investigation into the pandemic in phone calls with U.S. President Donald Trump and the German and French leaders overnight, the government said on Wednesday.
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