An international team has completed a preliminary investigative analysis of the black boxes from a Ukrainian passenger jetliner accidentally shot down by Iran in January, Canada’s Transportation Safety Board said Thursday.”The work in Paris is finished, but the investigation is far from over. There are still many key questions that need to be answered,” board chair Katy Fox said in a statement, without giving further details.Fox urged Iran, the country that is leading the investigation, to release information as soon as possible, adding that the country has not authorized the board to release details.Investigators from the countries of the victims of the plane crash met in Paris this week at France’s BEA accident investigation agency to begin extracting the data.The Ukraine International Airlines plane was hit by two missiles after taking off from Teheran for Kyiv on January 8 and crashed, killing all 176 people on board.Iran admitted days later its forces accidentally shot the airliner down.Most of the victims were Iranian and Canadian, and many were dual nationals.  
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Voters in Bolivia will have to wait until October before choosing the country’s next president because of the coronavirus pandemic.Bolivia’s Supreme Electoral Tribunal moved the election date from September 6 to October 18. The vote had initially been set for May 3.The president of the tribunal, Salvador Romero, said the new date of the election generates better conditions for health protection, convenience for voting from abroad, the arrival of international observation missions, as well as favoring the logistics throughout the territory by all departmental electoral tribunals.Romero rejected the claim by the controlling party in the legislature that lawmakers had to approve the change in date.Movement Toward Socialism is the party of former President Evo Morales, who was ousted last year and replaced by interim president Jeanine Áñez.Bolivia has confirmed more than 64,000 cases of the coronavirus and more than 2,300 deaths.   
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Following Britain’s decision to ban Chinese tech firm Huawei from its 5G telecom network, Germany is emerging as the next potential battleground to check China’s expansion of influence in world affairs, which is increasingly seen as a serious challenge to democratic institutions worldwide.Germany’s decision on whether to include Huawei equipment in its own network “is still up for grabs,” said Reinhard Buetikofer, a member of Germany’s opposition Green Party who chairs the European Parliament’s Delegation for Relations with the People’s Republic of China.Britain’s decision “may very well have an impact on the decision Germany is about to make,” Buetikofer said in a phone interview from Berlin.Buetikofer said Britain’s plan to include Huawei in its next-generation network – which was abruptly reversed in a dramatic announcement last week – had been held out as a model by German supporters of the Chinese telecom giant.“In the past, supporters of having Huawei construct Germany’s 5G network often pointed out: ‘Look, the Brits knew that much more about Huawei than we do, if the Brits are not doing anything about it, why should we?’” But Britain’s July 14 decision has pulled out the rug from under that argument.Buetikofer, a strong advocate for decoupling his country from Huawei, greeted the British announcement with a challenge to German Chancellor Angela Merkel.FILE – Huawei headquarters building is pictured in Reading, Britain, July 14, 2020.“Now it’s Berlin’s turn to move!” he tweeted. “Does the chancellor really want to be the stumbling block preventing a united EU + transatlantic + 5Eyes stance?”The Five Eyes is a nickname for an intelligence-sharing alliance comprising the United States, Britain, Australia, Canada and New Zealand.A German decision to exclude Huawei from its network would be a diplomatic win for the United States, which lobbied hard for the British reversal and is bringing pressure on other countries to follow suit. The Americans warn that Huawei equipment may contain “back doors” that will allow China to spy on sensitive communications.“We hope we can build out a coalition that understands the threat and will work collectively,” U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said during a trip to Britain and Denmark this week.But Buetikofer said his objections to the Chinese company are not influenced by the pressure from Washington. “I oppose Huawei’s playing a part in the German 5G network not because I want to do the U.S. a favor, but because I think it is a threat to German national security,” he said.As in other countries, the German argument over Huawei is rooted in a larger debate about the best way to deal with China’s rising power.Merkel emphasizes the importance of “dialogue” with Beijing, unswayed by the fierce international reaction to its new security law restricting long-established rights in Hong Kong. But others, including a significant number of German lawmakers, believe Beijing is not only an economic rival, but one that is doing all it can to replace democratic norms around the world with its own style of authoritarian rule.German Free Democratic Party legislator Johannes Vogel has argued that Beijing has been explicit in stating that goal. “It would be naive if we didn’t take their assessment at face value,” wrote Vogel, the deputy chair of the German-Chinese Parliamentary Friendship Group.Merkel has also argued in favor of Huawei on the basis of a “no-spying pact” her government secured from the company.But Buetikofer points out that Huawei founder and CEO Ren Zhengfei is a member of China’s ruling Communist Party.“Don’t take us for idiots,” he remarked during a recent podcast.Analysts have warned that China could retaliate against an unfavorable decision on Huawei by targeting Germany’s auto industry, and Buetikofer acknowledged to VOA that the industry plays a significant part in his country’s economy.Nevertheless, he said, “Germany’s national interest is not synonymous with the interests of Volkswagen, just as the U.S.’s national interest is not synonymous with the interests of GM.” 
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The European Union agreed Thursday on Germany’s proposal for coronavirus-preventative common hygiene standards at airports and on aircraft. “I am pleased that the German proposal was accepted by my colleagues at the European level and that we could agree on these uniform standards,” Andreas Scheuer, minister of transport and digital infrastructure, said at a European aviation conference. The agreement reached by officials will have to be formally approved by ministers. The proposal includes social distancing and the wearing of face masks at security checks and check-ins for those older than 6. It does not require the middle seats on airplanes to be empty. It is not clear how much the proposal will differ from the Safety Directive (SD) issued by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), which went into effect July 1. The most recent SD and EASA’s COVID-19 Aviation Healthy Safety Protocol states that the use of medical face masks should be “recommended” to everyone at the airport and on aircraft. Current guidelines also state that passengers should not be kept onboard an aircraft without proper ventilation for longer than 30 minutes. The SD, however, requires airplanes to be cleaned and disinfected only before and after long-haul flights, and has operators take a “risk assessment” for shorter flights. But airplanes are still cleaned at least once every 24 hours. Meanwhile, the United States, Russia and Brazil remain excluded from the EU’s 14-country “safe travel list” from which the bloc allows nonessential travel. 
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A Hamburg court convicted a 93-year old German man of helping to murder 5,232 prisoners, many of them Jewish, at a Nazi concentration camp during World War II and gave him a suspended two-year sentence in one of the last cases against Nazi-era crimes.Rolled into the courtroom in a wheelchair and hiding his face behind a blue folder, Bruno D. acknowledged he had been an SS guard in the Stutthof concentration camp near Gdansk in what was then occupied Poland, but he said his presence did not amount to guilt.This did not convince the court in Hamburg, which found him guilty Thursday of being involved in the killings from August 1944 to April 1945.”How could you get used to the horror?” asked Judge Anne Meier-Goering as she read the verdict.About 65,000 people, including many Jews, were murdered or died at Stutthof, the museum’s website says. Prosecutors argued that many were shot in the back of the head or gassed.As Bruno D. was only 17 or 18 years old at the time of the crimes, he was tried in a youth court and sessions were limited to two to three hours per day because of his frail health.Prosecutors had called for a prison sentence of three years. In his final testimony to the court, he apologized for the suffering of victims but stopped short of taking responsibility.”I would like to apologize to all the people who have gone through this hell of insanity and to their relatives and survivors,” he told the court on Monday, broadcaster NDR and other media outlets reported.Some 75 years after the Holocaust, the number of suspects is dwindling but prosecutors are still trying to bring individuals to justice. A landmark conviction in 2011 cleared the way to more prosecutions, as working in a camp was for the first time found to be ground for culpability with no proof of a specific crime.
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Spain was the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic in April but after imposing one of Europe’s strictest lockdowns, the infection and death rates dropped. However, that trend is taking a turn for the worse.  As Alfonso Beato reports from Barcelona, the cases have risen threefold in July and now restrictions are being re-imposed. Ihar Tsikhanenka narrates the story.PRODUCER: Rob Raffaele
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An overhaul of Haiti’s penal code that punishes marriage officiants who refuse to perform same-sex weddings is provoking outcry among religious leaders in the socially conservative Caribbean nation.  The tension is emerging in a nation that has never spelled out LGBT rights and same-sex unions have never been recognized and homosexuality has never been expressly codified as illegal.At the heart of the current discussion is the rewrite of the 185-year-old penal code, decreed by Haitian President Jovenel Moise last month. It voids the work of lawmakers who were drafting legal reforms before parliament recessed and the COVID-19 pandemic arrived in the country.  Published in an official government newsletter on June 24, the reforms would go into effect in 2022 unless a new parliament rejects the document.
 
Critics object to the sweeping changes issued by decree as well as the new penal code’s treatment of sexual minorities that, on paper, would make Haitian tribunals among the most LGBT-friendly in the Caribbean, a region where sexual minorities have faced centuries of repression. Outcry from the pulpitDr. Francoise St. Vil Villier, president of the National Spiritual Council of Haitian Churches. (Photo: Renan Toussaint / VOA)”The people don’t need immorality, the people don’t need homosexuality,” Dr. Francoise St. Vil Villier, president of the National Spiritual Council of Haitian Churches, said during a press conference. “Anyway, [LGBT people] have always been here, we don’t bother them, we look them in the eye. But legalizing it in Haiti? We say no.” 
“A penal code cannot be immoral, because its purpose is to sanction those who commit crimes against society,” countered Marie Ghislaine Monpremier, Haiti’s minister for women’s affairs. 
The new penal code tacitly allows homosexuality, as it contains no provisions punishing same-sex relations. And, it sets forth fines and possible prison sentences for officiants who refuse to perform same-sex weddings.  Port-au-Prince Pastor Gary St. Hubert, a Protestant, decried the provision.
 
“People will do what they want, but you can’t legalize it,” St. Hubert told VOA Creole. “You can’t force me — if a man comes to my church and asks me to marry him to another man — to do it or face arrest. Then there’s no democracy!”
 
Several pastors have given the government until July 25 to rescind the new penal code, promising street protests if no action is taken.
 Yaisah Val, 46, a transgender woman, watches a movie with her husband, Richecarde Val, 28, in their home in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.Human rights observers note that, as a civil matter, same-sex unions are not currently recognized in Haiti. In fact, there have seen unsuccessful legislative initiatives to fine and imprison married gay and lesbian couples over the past few years.
 
LGBT advocates say denunciations of the new penal code are misguided.
 
“There’s a difference between penal code and civil code. It’s the civil code which deals with marriage, not the penal code,” said Djennifer Mercer in a statement posted in French on the Facebook page of Kouraj, Haiti’s most prominent LGBT rights group.  Government weighs inHaiti’s Presidential Press Secretary Eddy Jackson Alexis (Photo: Yves Manuel / VOA)Presidential Press Secretary Eddy Jackson Alexis addressed the controversy in a recent press conference and promised broader consultations with the public.”There are lies being told about this document. They say it is what it is not,” he said, adding that articles have been cited that are not even part of the penal code. “To re-establish the truth, the government will address the people. The prime minister is meeting with sectors of civic society so that they may once again express their opinions.”
 Voices in Port-au-Prince  Most people VOA Creole asked about the new penal code on the streets of Port-au-Prince oppose it, reflecting views that LGBT advocates say predominate in Haiti and have long contributed to a climate of hostility towards sexual minorities.
 This Haitian mother of three boys says she is against the president’s new penal code articles regarding homosexuality. (Photo: Matiado Vilme /VOA)”Was the president drunk or on drugs when he came up with this idea?” a street vendor said.  
 
“If he signed this decree God will strike him down, because [according to the Bible] that is how Sodom’s life was destroyed,” a female merchant said. “We should all revolt against this document, we don’t want it.”
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Peru President Martín Vizcarra says 3,688 people were mistakenly not included in the previously reported death toll of those killed by the novel coronavirus.The revised death toll is at least 17,455.The new tally adds victims who died from March to the end of June. But it is unclear if more people who died of the virus this month may have gone uncounted.Vizcarra blames the miscount partly on the chaos created by the sudden impact of the pandemic. Vizcarra said Wednesday, a commission will be formed so the government can review the figures it receives from thousands of bureaus around the country that report to the National Death System, which keeps the official nationwide count.Peru’s more than 360,00 coronavirus cases is secondly only to Brazil in Latin America. 
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A Chilean man has been extradited to France to face charges in connection with the disappearance and alleged killing of a Japanese university student.Nicolas Zepeda is charged in France with premeditated murder in the alleged 2016 slaying of his girlfriend, Narumi Kurosaki, whose body was never found.He had returned to Chile by the time Kurosaki was reported missing from her university in Besancon, France, days later.Zepeda was under house arrest in Viña del Mar, but the Chilean Supreme Court lifted the order earlier on Wednesday clearing the way for Interpol officers to escort him to France.Chile’s high court first intervened in May, approving Zepeda’s extradition weeks after a lower court blocked his return to France when Zepeda’s lawyer argued that he could not be extradited because Kurosaki’s body has never been found.Zepeda, who met with Kurosak in December before her disappearance, has reportedly not cooperated with authorities investigating the case. 
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Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro remains in self-isolation at his official residence in Brasilia after testing positive for the coronavirus for a third time in two weeks.Bolsanaro’s medical team revealed the results of Tuesday’s test in a statement Wednesday, which also said the president is in good condition. Due to his latest coronavirus test, Bolsonaro’s advisers told the French News Agency (AFP) his planned trips to the Brazilian states of Bahia and Piauí in the coming days are currently on hold.Bolsanaoro said he and four ministers in his administration are treating their infections with the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, despite scientists saying there was no medical evidence to support its effectiveness.Bolsanaro has been criticized for his management of the health crisis.He fired two health ministers amid the pandemic and has openly opposed measures to curb the virus, including wearing face masks and practicing social distancing.Brazil has the most COVID-19 cases in Latin America, with more than 2.1 million infections and more than 80,100 deaths.  
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A Canadian court Wednesday invalidated the country’s Safe Third Country Agreement with the United States, ruling elements of the law violate Canadian constitutional guarantees of life, liberty and security.But Federal Court Justice Ann Marie McDonald delayed the implementation of her decision for six months to give the Canadian Parliament time to respond.”I conclude that the provisions enacting the (safe third country agreement) infringe the guarantees in section 7 of the Charter,” McDonald wrote in her decision, referring to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom, part of Canada’s Constitution. “I have also concluded that the infringement is not justified under section 1 of the Charter.”Under the agreement, immigrants who want to seek asylum in Canada and present themselves at ground ports of entry from the United States are returned to the U.S. and told to seek asylum there.But if they request asylum on Canadian soil at a location other than an official crossing, the process is allowed to go forward. In most cases, the refugees are released and allowed to live in Canada, taking advantage of generous social welfare benefits while their asylum applications are reviewed, a process that can take years.Last fall Amnesty International, the Canadian Council for Refugees and the Canadian Council of Churches sued, arguing that the Canadian government has no guarantee that those returned to the United States will be safe because of the treatment of immigrants by the administration of President Donald Trump.The original legal challenge cited the widespread detention of asylum seekers who are turned back from Canada and the separation of parents and children as other examples of why the U.S. is not a “safe” country for newly arrived immigrants.Mary-Liz Power, a spokesperson for Canada’s Public Safety Minister Bill Blair, said they were aware of the decision.”Although the Federal Court has made its ruling, that decision does not come in effect until January 22nd 2021,” Power said in a written statement. “The Safe Third Country Agreement remains in effect.”On Wednesday, the three groups that filed the lawsuit said they welcomed the decision and urged the government of Canada not to appeal. The groups also urged Canada to stop returning refugee claimants to the United States immediately.‘That cannot be allowed to continue’”The Safe Third Country Agreement has been the source of grave human rights violations for many years, unequivocally confirmed in this ruling,” said Alex Neve, secretary general of Amnesty International Canada, one of the groups that brought the lawsuit. “That cannot be allowed to continue one more day.”In a statement, Canadian opposition lawmaker Jenny Kwan of the New Democratic Party called the decision an important victory for the rights of asylum seekers.”This decision will undoubtedly save lives,” she said. “We hope the Liberals will accept this important decision and not appeal it since too many people have already lost their rights.”An email sent to the U.S. State Department in Washington seeking comment was not immediately returned.A former U.S. Department of Homeland Security attache in Ottawa who helped work on the details of the implementation of the agreement said the ruling mostly criticizes the Canadian government for sending asylum seekers to the United States in a way that violates the Canadian charter.”It certainly is a broad criticism of the U.S. policy of detention of asylum-seekers,” Theresa Brown, now director of immigration and cross border policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington, said in a Wednesday email.Since Trump took office in 2017, tens of thousands of people have crossed into Canada at locations between ports of entry where they were arrested, but then able to file a refugee claim.Many of those migrants who came to the U.S. from across the globe — Syria, Congo, Haiti and elsewhere — would travel to upstate New York and then go to Roxham Road in the town of Champlain, a backroad that dead-ends at the border. There they walked across, were arrested and usually released, hoping Canadian policies would give them the security they believe the political climate in the United States does not.Under special rules set up by the United States and Canada to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic most who cross illegally in either direction are now immediately returned to the other country.The organizations that filed suit argued that if the agreement is abandoned, it would allow Canada to meet its legal obligations for the treatment of asylum seekers and allow people to present themselves at ports of entry, ending irregular crossings. 
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A new British policy allowing Hong Kong residents to claim British citizenship is a “violation of international law” and interferes with China’s internal affairs, the Chinese Embassy in London said Thursday.Britain’s interior minister, Priti Patel, said in a written statement Wednesday that Hong Kong people with British National Overseas visas would be able to apply for citizenship starting in  January 2021.The Chinese Embassy said in a statement posted on its website that Beijing would respond strongly, adding that Britain should immediately correct its mistakes.This is a breaking story. Check back with voanews.com for further developments.
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Tropical Storm Gonzalo formed Wednesday over the Atlantic Ocean, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center.Gonzalo has sustained winds of up to 75 kilometers per hour, and is around 2,010 kilometers east of the southern Windward Islands.Hurricanes are named according a strict list from the World Meteorological Organization. The names restart each year and go in alphabetical order. This is the earliest time a “G” hurricane has appeared, which signifies an unprecedented hurricane season.The official hurricane season runs from June 1 through November 30.  
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A report by the U.K. National Cyber Security Centre this month accused hackers with links to Russian intelligence of attacking organizations developing a vaccine for COVID-19.  The report has raised diplomatic tensions and opened a window into the world of pharmaceutical intelligence. VOA’s Tatiana Vorozhko has the story.
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This Friday, Islamic prayers are due to be held in Istanbul’s iconic Hagia Sophia for the first time since Turkey’s government decided to re-convert the ancient cathedral into a mosque. Russia has stepped in, with Moscow voicing concern to Ankara over the fate of the historic building, including its world-famous Christian mosaics.  
 
A spokesman for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has spearheaded the push to change the status of the monument from museum to mosque, earlier said Christian mosaics would be concealed with curtains or lighting during Friday prayers.  
 
Within days of an Istanbul court revoking the Hagia Sophia’s museum status – paving the way to its conversion to a mosque – Russian president Vladimir Putin was on the phone to President Erdogan seeking assurances over the state of the mosaics.  
 
Russian Orthodox leaders have also expressed concerns about building’s conversion, which they describe as a threat to Christianity.  
 
The 6th-century Byzantine cathedral is not only famous as an architectural marvel, but also for the large mosaics depicting Christ, the Virgin Mary, and Byzantium rulers decorating the building’s massive walls ceilings.’A major monument’ for Christians
Russia’s Orthodox Church is a powerful force within Russian society. “These images are very important for Christianity because it was a major monument for Christian people,” said professor Zeynep Ahunbay, who spent 25 years working on the Hagia Sophia’s restoration and preservation.
 
“All possible steps must be taken to prevent damage that could be caused by the hasty change in the status of the world-renowned museum,” read a statement this month by the Russian parliament the State Duma.This handout picture released by the Turkish Presidential press office shows Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visiting Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, July 19, 2020.When the Hagia Sophia was converted to a mosque in 1453 after the Ottoman conquest of then-Constantinople by Fatih Sultan Mehmed – known historically as Mehmed the Conqueror – the mosaics were later plastered over to comply with Muslim doctrine banning figurative representations in places of worship.  
 
The mosaics were only revealed when the Hagia Sophia was turned into a museum in 1934 by the founder of the Turkish secular republic, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
 
Russia and Turkey are currently at odds on issues like Syria and Libya, but Moscow rarely publicly criticizes Ankara over domestic matters.
 
Ankara has been quick to quell growing concern by offering assurances on the future of Hagia Sophia’s artwork. “It’s out of the question that these mosaics are (to be) covered, plastered over or are kept from the public,” said presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalın.
 Curtains, not lasers
 
But the Turkish leadership appeared in disarray over how the museum will be converted into a mosque. Initially, the Turkish presidency proposed sophisticated lighting to obscure the images. In pro-government newspapers, the use of “dark lasers” was touted as a solution without explaining what a dark laser is.  
 
The use of lighting raised concerns over the potential risk posed to the integrity of the nearly thousand-year-old images. However, following Erdogan’s visit to the Hagia Sophia Sunday to inspect preparations for the building’s conversion, curtains are now presented as the more viable solution.  
 
The Diyanet, the state body administering the Muslim faith in Turkey, announced Christian icons would be curtained off and unlit “through appropriate means during prayer times.” The authority also vowed to protect the building’s integrity promising “not even a nail would be used” when installing the system.The head of Turkey’s Religious Affairs Directorate, Ali Erbas, visits Hagia Sophia as workers lay carpets in its interior, in Istanbul, Turkey, July 22, 2020.In Turkey, curtains are already used in other recent mosque conversions of former historic churches. “We have seen some examples of using curtains,” said Ahunbay. “In Iznik [Turkish City] there is also a Hagia Sophia and another one in Trabzon [Turkish City], there they try to cover in some way human images, so it’s not visible during prayer times. But these are much smaller buildings. You can imagine in Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia, how difficult to cover the mosaics, 40 meters high up, and several meters big. I think it’s not practical.”
 Damage control
 
Ankara is working hard to defuse the controversy, “Our goal is to avoid harming the frescoes, icons and the historic architecture of the edifice,” stated Kalin in a television interview.  
 
The government is seeking to present Hagia Sophia mosque conversion as a victory for spirituality, arguing the importance of returning the historic building to its intended religious purpose.
 
“Hagia Sophia’s resurrection is a sign that we something new to say to the world as the Turkish nation, as Muslims, and all of humanity.” Yasin Aktay, a close Erdogan adviser, penned in a column Thursday in the pro-government Yeni Safak newspaper.
 
Azerbaijan’s president, Ilham Aliyev, and Qatar’s Emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani both close Erdogan allies, are invited to attend the Hagia Sophia’s reopening as a mosque. Thousands of people are expected to travel from across Turkey to attend Friday prayers at the Hagia Sophia.  
 
With opinion polls indicating Erdogan’s party, the AKP, is hemorrhaging support, analysts say the Hagia Sophia’s conversion is widely seen as an attempt by Erdogan to galvanize both his religious and nationalist base.
 
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Tropical storm Gonzalo formed Wednesday over the Atlantic Ocean, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center.Gonzalo has sustained winds of up to 75 kilometers per hour, and is around 2,010 km east of the southern Windward Islands.Hurricanes are named according a strict list from the World Meteorological Organization. The names restart each year and go in alphabetical order. This is the earliest time a “G” hurricane has appeared, which signifies an unprecedented hurricane season.The official hurricane season runs from June 1 though November 30.  
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The New York Times reported Tuesday that according to several people familiar with the matter, U.S. Ambassador to Britain Robert Johnson told colleagues in February 2018 that President Donald Trump asked him to reach out to the British government for possible help in getting one of Trump’s golf courses selected as a site for the British Open. The Times said its story was based on information from three people with knowledge of the events. FILE – U.S. President Donald Trump waits on the fourth tee at Turnberry golf course, Scotland, July 14, 2018.The newspaper reported that Johnson brought up the idea of trying to get the tournament assigned to the Trump Turnberry course in Scotland with the secretary of state for Scotland David Mundell, who told the newspaper it would be inappropriate for him to discuss his interactions with Johnson. The report said Mundell instead referred reporters to a British government statement that said Johnson had not made any requests about the tournament. The Times also said Johnson, the State Department and White House all declined to comment. The British Open site is selected by a private organization. 
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Even as European Union leaders celebrate their historic coronavirus recovery package agreement, some regions and countries are bracing for a possible resurgence of the infection.  Belgium, Sweden, Luxembourg and Portugal count among others reporting an increase in cases. Parts of Barcelona, Spain have gone under lockdown. And in another hard-hit country, Italy, the Lazio region that includes Rome warned also of possible local lockdowns, if more clusters of the infection are found.  Meanwhile, France on Monday imposed a face mask requirement for all indoor public spaces, threatening violators with a $155 fine. The country has seen a modest rise in cases, but a more worrying spike in areas like the northeast, Brittany, and the territory of Mayenne.  “At this point we are very far from a second wave,” French Health Minister Olivier Veran told France Info radio Monday.  Still, he warned, if the trend continued, the government may consider regional or even nationwide confinement measures. “All options are on the table,” Veran said.  With European economies battered by the pandemic’s fallout, such a scenario likely sends chills through many capitals. In France alone, the first lockdown will contract the economy by roughly 9 percent this year, according to the INSEE statistical agency.  “I think a second wave that would need a lockdown, either national or regional, would be very costly from an economic perspective,” said Gregory Claeys, senior economist for Brussels-based research group Bruegel.  Each month of confinement in France cost the country roughly 3 percent of GDP, he added, citing INSEE.  All the more reason, some analysts say, for European collaboration in avoiding such a scenario — as EU leaders finally did Monday, in adopting the recovery package after marathon talks. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, left, and European Council President Charles Michel address a media conference at an EU summit in Brussels, July 21, 2020.Could have done better The increase in European cases dwarfs that of the United States, with its recent spell of record daily cases. The pandemic’s hotspot has long moved on from Europe, where Italy and Spain topped global charts in April. Still, many observers say the region could have done a lot better in managing the pandemic.  A Monday New York Times article described Europe as “behind the curve” in managing the first wave, its coronavirus pandemic plans and sense of readiness built on a sand castle of “miscalculations and false assumptions.” National stockpiles of masks and other medical supplies existed only on paper, the newspaper reported, with acquisitions based on presumed supply chains that were disrupted by the pandemic.  “I think now, at least, they are better prepared,” economist Claeys said, with certain items like masks in good supply. “That will be helpful in avoiding another lockdown.”  New research from Britain’s University of Southampton points to another area where European countries should coordinate more; in lifting lockdowns and other virus-curbing measures.  Meanwhile, the university’s WorldPop study published Friday in the journal Science and mapping several scenarios, found any virus resurgence could be brought forward by up to five weeks if European states acted independently in lifting restrictions.  “The danger is you would have this case of whack-a-mole if it’s not coordinated, where some places have lower cases, while others experience an increase,” said Nick Ruktanonchai, the study’s lead author.   While Europe governments did not coordinate their lockdowns, he said, life didn’t immediately go back to normal after they were lifted. Among the population, “there was a fair amount of adherence for a while” to restrictive measures, helping to even the playing field.  Now, with cases still relatively low across the EU, “time has essentially been bought,” Ruktanonchai said, to build up infrastructure to cope with an “inevitable” second wave. Among other needed investments, he said: cross-border testing and contact tracing.  Yet not all European countries have rolled out contact tracing apps. Some that have, including France, found very little public interest — and the different European apps are not all compatible.   A different economic story  Still, these and other virus-curbing mechanisms may be needed sooner, rather than later.  Sweden, which did not go under lockdown, has seen a sharp rise in cases in recent weeks, but also a decline in serious instances and deaths.  Belgium has also seen an overall caseload increase, with numbers doubling in some areas.  The country was among the world’s worst hit by the virus on a per-capita basis, and virologists warned Friday the country could be at the start of a second wave, the Reuters news agency reported.  Meanwhile, the EU’s newly agreed on recovery package has ushered in some needed good news. Overall, Bruegel’s Claeys believes, the bloc has done a better job managing the pandemic’s economic fallout than its health one. “I’m still waiting for a second New York Times article saying that even if Europe maybe was not prepared, on the economic front we gave a very good response,” he said.  In countries like Germany, France, Ireland and the Netherlands, governments have heavily subsidized payrolls, allowing coronavirus-idled workers to remain paid.  The European Central Bank rolled out a vast bond buying program to help member states weather the crisis, while the EU relaxed fiscal rules, allowing those states to run up bigger deficits through massive rescue packages.  In both cases, Claeys said, Europe has “learned from its past mistakes” — notably its sluggish response to the 2009 global financial crisis.  While Claeys had hoped for a bigger share of non-repayable grants in the newly agreed to EU recovery package, its passage “shows Europe is able to act in a relatively short amount of time,” he said. “That it’s ready to do things together — and that it’s a sustainable construction.”  
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For Turkish journalist Emre Kızılkaya, social media is a necessity. He’s been using platforms including Twitter since 2008, tweeting during the Gezi Park protests in Istanbul in 2013 and when soldiers raided his newspaper building after the failed coup attempt in 2016.But if Turkish lawmakers heed President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s calls this month for greater control over social media, Kızılkaya and other journalists could lose one of the last platforms that allows them to report freely.A draft bill — first introduced in April and backed by Erdogan — calls for large platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and Google to appoint a legal representative in Turkey to handle court requests to remove content or provide the identity of users. Companies that fail to appoint a representative within 30 days of the legislation going into effect would face gradually increasing fines and bandwidth reductions of up to 90 percent, a Turkish legislator told reporters. Proposals are a concernLocal journalists and digital rights experts say the proposals are a concern in a country that has limited space for independent journalism and where social media plays a key role in reporting on and sharing news.“I check the pulse of the public [on social media],” said Kızılkaya, who is vice president of the International Press Institute’s national committee in Turkey and project editor at Journo, a nonprofit news platform. “Social media is a part of history. Controlling it would mean to rewrite the history.” Erdogan called for further controls on social media on July 1, the day after social media users posted insulting comments when his daughter and son-in-law announced the birth of their child. Police detained individuals alleged to have been behind 11 of the 19 accounts that criticized the family.“These platforms do not suit this nation,” Erdogan told members of his Justice and Development (AKP) party. “We want to shut down, control [them] by bringing [a bill] to parliament as soon as possible.”Erdogan called on lawmakers to fast-track the legislation. Lawmakers said Tuesday they were submitting a nine-article draft bill to parliament. It is due to be debated by the general assembly next week.Ozlem Zengin, a ruling party legislator told reporters the draft bill would “balance freedoms with rights and laws,” adding, “We aim to put an end to insults, swearing, to harassment made through social media.”Opposition parties said they were concerned the measures would further limit access to social media and independent news, the Associated Press reported.Press freedom has been under assault in Turkey for years. Following a failed military coup in 2016, Erdogan’s government closed more than 150 news outlets and jailed more than 100 journalists, often on terrorism-related accusations.  Journalists deemed pro-opposition or who criticize Erdogan can find themselves in court, including on charges of “insulting the president,” and authorities have temporarily blocked access to popular websites, including YouTube and Wikipedia.Reporters Without Borders says Turkey is conducting a “witch-hunt” against government critics and independent journalists. The Paris-based media watchdog ranks the country 154 of 180 countries, with 1 being most free in its World Press Freedom Index.With traditional networks under attack, social media has become an important resource for journalists and media organizations, Kızılkaya said. Pro-government businessmen began to take over news outlets, which then saw audiences shrink. Now, many independent journalists and smaller outlets rely on social media for their work.“It may be one of the reasons why the government wants to expand its control on social media,”  Kızılkaya said. “Simply put, the digital domain is the last refuge of independent journalism in Turkey.”Social media platforms are popular among the country’s population of 84 million. As of April, Turkey had 37 million regular Facebook users  – those who access their account at least once a month – and 13.6 million on Twitter, according to data from Statista, a German online research group.The legislation is not the first attempt by Ankara to try to control social media.In the first six months of 2019 — the most recent information available — Twitter received 388 court orders for removal requests and 5,685 requests from government agencies, police or other organizations, the platform’s transparency report shows. Twitter said it complied in full or partially with 5 percent of requests.Last month, Twitter permanently removed over 7,300 accounts that it determined were “fake and compromised.” Analysis found fake accounts, as well as some profiles associated with the president’s critics that had been hacked,  were used to promote support for the AKP and Erdogan, Twitter said.’Propaganda machine’In response, the presidential communications director called the platform a “propaganda machine” and dismissed allegations that the accounts were supporting the ruling party.The proposed bill has worrying implications, Raman Jit Singh Chima, the Asia policy director and senior international counsel for digital rights organization Access Now, told VOA. Such legislation sends a “symbolic statement” to news organizations, he said.“[Governments] are saying ‘Look, comply with the request we’re making to you. Otherwise we’re going to come at you with a law, change the law to make you more liable or to make it more expensive for you to operate’,” he said.Other rights groups, including the International Press Institute and European Centre for Press and Media Freedom, condemned the proposed law as an attempt to “further restrict freedoms.”“Turkey is obliged to ensure the right to freedom of expression and access to information,” a joint statement read.Kızılkaya said that while the measures are troubling, he has hope for the future of independent journalism.“Turkey’s next-generation journalists are eager and capable to create a better environment for the freedom of the press,” Kızılkaya said. “They stick to journalism, and they insist on doing it in Turkey for the public good.”Mehmet Toroglu contributed to this report from Washington.
 
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The Egyptian parliament’s decision Monday to authorize the possible deployment of Egyptian troops in Libya is highlighting concerns in the region about a possible escalation of the Libyan conflict.  International pressure is, meanwhile, growing on Turkey over its involvement as Ankara doubled down on its support of Libya’s Government of National Accord, fueling fears of a wider a regional war.After a phone conversation Monday, President Donald Trump and Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al Sissi added their voices to growing international calls for a Libyan ceasefire.FILE – Libyan military commander Khalifa Haftar walks with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi at the Presidential Palace in Cairo, Apr. 14, 2019 in this handout picture courtesy of the Egyptian Presidency.The Turkish intervention turned the tide in the conflict, with Haftar forces suffering heavy losses. Alarmed by this reversal, Cairo is looking to intervene.Widening conflictOn Monday, the Egyptian parliament voted to allow President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi to order Egyptian military intervention in Libya.Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Friday pledged “never to abandon the Libyan people,” claiming a new agreement deepening cooperation with Tripoli will be signed soon.Ankara has so far not responded to Trump’s call for a ceasefire. But geo analyst Yoruk Isik says Trump’s intervention is unlikely to end the fighting immediately.”Ankara will say this is wonderful. I want a ceasefire. But the Trump statement is not necessarily saying I want a ceasefire tomorrow,” said Isik.”If Trump were to call Erdogan and demand an immediate ceasefire, it would, of course, be different. But I don’t think that call will happen because Turkey stopping right at this moment, means the Russians will retain the upper hand in Libya, and Washington doesn’t want a ceasefire with the Russians fully settling in Libya.”Libya Remains Calm as Egypt’s Parliament Authorizes Military InterventionEgypt’s leader Sissi and US President Trump concur on need for cease-fire in Libya in a Monday night phone call Egypt, United Arab Emirates, and Russia are all suspected of supplying arms to Haftar’s forces.Despite growing international pressure, Ankara believes it has a winning hand in Libya, calculating that no country is ready to confront the situation directly. Analyst Uzgel warns of the dangers of overconfidence.”There is a kind of hubris self-indulgence. Sometimes this may lead them (Turkish leaders) to make serious mistakes as they’ve done in the past.”
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U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Tuesday as tensions escalated between the United States and China over trade, the status of the South China Sea, the origins of the novel coronavirus and the Chinese response to the virus when it first emerged in the city of Wuhan.   
 
The London visit by America’s top diplomat came just days after Johnson decided, on security grounds, to prohibit Chinese tech giant Huawei from participating in the development of Britain’s fast-speed 5G phone network — a ban Washington had been urging for more than year.
 
After finishing his initial talks, Pompeo tweeted,  “Constructive visit with @BorisJohnson today. Our two countries’ long-standing, strong bilateral relationship has laid the foundation for today’s candid discussion on issues ranging from 5G telecommunication to our negotiations for a U.S.-UK free trade agreement.”
 
In a press conference later Pompeo praised Britain for its tough line on Huawei and Hong Kong. “I wanted to take this opportunity to congratulate the British government for its principled responses to these challenges. You made a sovereign decision to ban Huawei computer 5g networks.”He added: “We want every nation to work together to push back against the Chinese Communist Party’s efforts in every dimension that I described to you today that certainly includes the United Kingdom includes every country, we hope we can build out a coalition that understands this.”The two Western allies appear to be increasingly seeing eye-to-eye about the challenges posed by the Chinese government, say analysts and Western diplomats. On his arrival in the British capital, Pompeo tweeted that he was looking forward to meeting with Johnson “as we tackle our most pressing global issues in combating COVID-19 and addressing our shared security challenges.” COVID-19 is the disease caused by the coronavirus.
 
Pompeo and Johnson observed social distancing guidelines while in the Downing Street garden. “Hope you appreciate the social distancing,” Johnson told journalists gathered there. “Social distance does not imply diplomatic or political distance,” the British leader added.  
 
Analysts say Pompeo wants to capitalize on Britain’s hardening line toward Beijing. The Huawei ban was a major policy U-turn for Britain which has been trying to walk a tight rope between Washington, its long-stranding traditional ally, and Beijing, which it has been courting heavily since the 2016 Brexit vote in the hope of securing a lucrative trade deal.FILE – A sign reading “Boris Stop Huawei” is seen next to the M40 motorway, Tetsworth, Britain, May 1, 2020, in a reference to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.The outright confrontation between Washington and Beijing in the wake of the coronavirus has made a balancing act even harder to pull off, say former British diplomats. Beijing’s increasingly aggressive moves in the South China Sea, where it is alarming its neighbors with expansive territorial claims, is also prompting a cross-party political backlash in Britain.  
 
This week Britain announced it was suspending an extradition agreement with Hong Kong because of a draconian Beijing-imposed security law on the former British colony. The British and Chinese governments have been trading increasingly acrimonious barbs since the Chinese government launched a crackdown earlier this year on Hong Kong — a move the British say breaches a deal the two countries struck in 1997 for the handover of the territory to China.
 
Britain has also imposed an arms embargo on Hong Kong, banning the export of equipment that could be used for “internal repression.” Britain’s foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, who also met with Pompeo, told the House of Commons Monday that the measures were a “necessary and proportionate response” to the new security law, which Britain says is being used to outlaw dissent. “The UK is watching and the whole world is watching,” Raab told lawmakers.British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, left, walks with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo outside of 10 Downing Street, in London, July 21, 2020.China responded to Monday’s announcement by warning that Britain would “bear the consequences” of its actions. “Now the UK side has gone even further down the wrong road in disregard of China’s solemn position and repeated representations,” a spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in London said. He added,“ China urges the UK side to immediately stop interfering in Hong Kong affairs, which are China’s internal affairs, in any form.”
 
Australia and Canada suspended extradition treaties with Hong Kong earlier this month, and the United States ended preferential economic treatment for the territory, while also imposing sanctions on Chinese officials. China has taken retaliatory steps.
 
British officials have started to echo more volubly long-standing American grievances about Beijing’s treatment of China’s Muslim Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking Muslim minority in northwest China. Since 2015, more than a million Uighurs have been detained in what Chinese officials describe as “vocational education centers” for job training, but critics and rights campaigners describe as internment or concentration camps, part of an effort to forcibly assimilate the Uighurs.  
 
The ban on Huawei has angered Beijing and retaliation is almost a certainty. Chinese officials say the ban has wrecked any chances of Beijing agreeing to a wide-ranging free trade deal with Britain, something London has been hoping would come in compensating for the likely commercial losses the country will suffer from Brexit.   
British companies such as AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline, Burberry and Jaguar Land Rover, which have large investments in China, are bracing for retaliation. With a Chinese trade deal likely off the table, a favorable post-Brexit agreement with the U.S. is of even greater urgency for Britain, say analysts.  
 
A senior Chinese official accused Britain of pandering to Washington shortly after Pompeo landed in London. “We do not want to see the tit-for-tat between China and the U.S. happen in China-U.K. relations,” the Chinese ambassador to Britain, Liu Xiaoming, tweeted.
 
U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday hailed Johnson’s Huawei ban as Pompeo set off for Britain.
 
Pompeo is scheduled also to meet in London with Hong Kong democracy activist Nathan Law, who fled China recently, and Chris Patten, the last British governor of Hong Kong. Patten is a former Conservative minister who has become increasingly critical of China and advocates confrontation with Beijing.
 
In a recent press interview, he said Britain and other Western countries had been naive in thinking they could tame China’s Communist leaders by “cozying up” to them. He said successive Western governments had fallen for a myth about China “that somehow at the end of all the kowtowing there’s this great pot of gold waiting for us… We keep on kidding ourselves that unless we do everything that China wants we will somehow miss out on great trading opportunities. It’s drivel,” he added.
 
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Cuba increased the number of food stores that accept U.S. dollars and eliminated a 10 percent tax on the U.S. currency, in the government’s latest efforts to secure hard cash to bolster the island nation’s weak economy. People lined up at designated stores that only accept hard currency to purchase items in short supply such as meat, rice and cleaning supplies. The new exchange system set off criticism on social media that the government is creating a special class of consumer who is fortunate enough to have U.S. dollars and other hard currencies. Cuban President Miguel Diaz Canel recently rejected that accusation, saying the government will allow all citizens to buy 47 items using local currency or they will receive them through monthly aid to families. The government denied that people without hard currency will be left behind in the economy. 
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Restaurants in Peru are accepting diners for the first time since closing four months ago at the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak in March.  Under new guidelines, businesses on Monday resumed operations at 40% capacity. Tables were required to be at least two meters apart. Ruben Espinoza, chef and manager of the Punto Marisko restaurant, said he is excited about the reopening even if it’s only at 40% of restaurant capacity because it’s a start.  The reopening of restaurants in the upscale Miraflores tourist district in the capital, Lima, attracted few diners as businesses begin to recover from the economic crisis created by COVID-19 lockdown restrictions.  The president of Peru’s National Tourism Chamber, Carlos Canales, said some 70,000 businesses permanently closed during the lockdown, eliminating thousands of jobs during the pandemic.  Peru has confirmed more than 350,000 COVID-19 cases and more than 13,000 deaths.
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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson met face to face with members of his Cabinet Tuesday for the first time since March.
 
Johnson and his Cabinet gathered at the Foreign Office so they could have a room large enough to practice social distancing due to the new coronavirus.
 
In his remarks before the meeting, Johnson said he will not let the pandemic blow him off course and delivering on his agenda. He touted his plan to build 40 new hospitals and hire 50,000 more nurses, as well as thousands more police officers and more funding for schools.
 
The pandemic would likely be on the agenda for the meeting a day after scientists at Oxford University said their experimental coronavirus vaccine has been shown in an early trial to prompt a protective immune response in hundreds of people who received the shot.
 
Johnson called the in-person meeting just days after encouraging people to return to their jobs. He said last week he would give employers more flexibility to determine the safest way to bring employees back to their workplaces.
 
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