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The Russian Imperial Movement (RIM), a white supremacist group based in St. Petersburg, is increasingly expanding its outreach beyond Russia through the establishment of transnational networks with like-minded neo-Nazis and white supremacist groups, experts on the group warn.RIM adheres to an ultranationalist ideology and aims to bring Russia’s tsarist rule back. The group is known for disseminating anti-Semitic and anti-LGBT rhetoric on its online networks.In April, the U.S. State Department listed three leaders of the group, Stanislav Anatolyevich Vorobyev, Denis Valliullovich Gariyev and Nikolay Nikolayevich Trushchalov, as Specially Designated Global Terrorists. The move marked the first time the U.S. had labeled a white supremacist group as a terrorist organization.“The Russian Imperial Movement is an organization that has very likely thousands of members, an organization that trained two individuals who then later carried out terrorist attacks in Sweden,” said Jason Blazakis, the director of the Center on Terrorism, Extremism and Counterterrorism at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in California.Combat training in St. PetersburgOver the years, RIM has been able to persuade foreign white supremacists from various countries to visit the group’s camps in St. Petersburg for combat training, Blazakis told VOA. The group’s capacity and intent to carry out terrorist activities make it a major threat, he added.RIM was established in St. Petersburg by Vorobyev in 2002. The group reportedly has two training camps in St. Petersburg that are run by its paramilitary unit called Partisan. Neo-Nazis and white supremacists gain combat experience there before relocating to conflict zones.The group’s second paramilitary unit, the Imperial Legion, has been found fighting on the side of pro-Russia separatists in the war in eastern Ukraine. An April report by the Soufan Center concluded that the Imperial Legion has sent its fighters to other conflict areas, including Syria, Libya and the Central African Republic.“This group has innocent blood on its hands,” Nathan Sales, the coordinator for counterterrorism at the U.S. State Department, said during a teleconference following the U.S. ban on the group in early April.In 2016, two Swedish men, trained by RIM in St. Petersburg for 11 days, later that year conducted terrorist attacks in Gothenburg, Sweden, Sales said.Viktor Melin and Anton Thulin, identified as the two perpetrators of the Gothenburg bomb attacks, targeted asylum centers and seriously wounded a man. Swedish authorities said the men were members of the Nordic Resistance Movement (NRM), a neo-Nazi group aiming to create a pan-Nordic nation.RIM allegedly established contacts with NRM during a right-wing conference called the International Russian Conservative Forum in March 2015 in St. Petersburg. Rodina, a Russian political party, organized the conference.“At the conference, there was a resolution to try to coordinate Russian and European conservative elements,” Magnus Ranstorp, a research director at the Swedish Defense University, told VOA.“Later, Stanislav Anatolyevich Vorobyev, one of the leaders of the RIM, came to one of the social gatherings organized by the Nordic Resistance Movement called Nordic Days, and he spoke there. Also, he donated a sum of money to the Nordic Resistance Movement,” Ranstorp said.Visiting USSome observers of RIM claim the group has made similar moves elsewhere by sending its representatives to sympathetic foreign organizations. In 2017, RIM representative Stanislav Shevchuk reportedly visited Washington, D.C., and Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, to join a far-right rally.“It was the first time that we had a meeting on the U.S. soil of the American white nationalists and then the members of the Russian far right nationalist community,” Casey Michel, an investigative journalist who covered RIM’s American ties, told VOA.He said Shevchuk then met Matthew Heimbach, the head of the far-right Traditionalist Worker Party, in Washington. The two were seen in a photograph holding a Russian imperial flag in front of the White House.Contacted by VOA about the alleged ties between RIM and the Traditionalist Worker Party, Sales, of the State Department, said U.S. officials were aware of such reports, without providing more information.“Any group whose leaders or members have visited the United States or any group that has sought to recruit Americans into its twisted causes is a matter of grave concern,” Sales said.Russian officials have condemned the U.S. embargo on RIM, calling it a part of “the Russophobia of the U.S. establishment.”“Since Washington has not substantiated its decision with convincing and detailed information, we have the impression that it was made primarily for propaganda purposes and has little to do with cooperation in countering international terrorism,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a press briefing in April.Some experts said Russian intelligence units such as the Federal Security Service are likely aware of RIM activities but allow it to operate for short-term benefits.The “Kremlin knew what the Russian Imperial Movement was doing, and it never hid what they were doing,” Anton Shekhovtsov, a Vienna-based senior fellow at the Free Russia Foundation, told VOA.RIM’s recruitment efforts and pledge to send members to combat zones were “beneficial to the Kremlin in its aggression against Ukraine,” Shekhovtsov said. 
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Coronavirus patients were being turned away from hospitals in the Mexican capital on Saturday, as both public and private medical facilities quickly fill up and the number of new infections continues to rise.Of the 64 public hospitals in the capital’s sprawling metro area designated to receive patients sick with COVID-19, the highly contagious respiratory disease caused by the virus, 26 are completely full, according to city government data.A vinyl banner on the fence of the Ignacio Zaragosa public hospital in the city’s poor Iztapalapa district said it had no more beds for new coronavirus patients.”We thank you for your understanding,” it added.Doors paramedics entered with patients on stretchers last week were closed on Saturday at the public facility, with orange barrels set up to block access.Another 16 public clinics were nearly full, while 22 others did have space, the data showed.Five private hospitals in the capital contacted by Reuters said they had reached their capacity to treat coronavirus patients, including the Medica Sur hospital, Hospital Español, as well as two clinics belonging to Grupo Angeles.Available beds and intensive care units equipped with ventilators to treat COVID-19 patients at private hospitals in five states and Mexico City are already saturated, according to figures from the National Association of Private Hospitals.The states include Puebla, Tabasco, Quintana Roo, Baja California and Baja California Sur.”Right now we don’t have any space,” said an attendant at the private Centro Medico ABC hospital.The government has said this weekend could mark the peak of infections in the densely populated area in and around the capital, home to more than 20 million people, which is also where most confirmed cases have been documented.Public health officials have confirmed at least 31,522 infections and 3,160 deaths to date, although both figures almost certainly undercount the true extent of the outbreak in Mexico due to very limited testing.Citing modeling data from a few weeks ago, public health authorities have said there could be more than 104,000 COVID-19 cases.As recently as Thursday, the health ministry said the capital still had 38 percent availability of beds with ventilators to treat patients, while in the surrounding state of Mexico, 55 percent remained available.Nationwide, three-quarters of beds with ventilators were still available for new patients, the ministry said.  
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Russia on Saturday marked the 75th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Europe, a day after its erstwhile Western allies in the fight against Nazi Germany.It was the continuation of a tradition dating to the era of Communist dictator Joseph Stalin, who dismissed the Nazi surrender to the Western allies signed in Reims, France, on May 8, 1945, insisting on another signing of the capitulation the next day in the German capital, Berlin, which had fallen to Soviet forces.That isn’t the only difference between how the wartime allies remember a conflict that remains, for some, a dominating, albeit shifting, cultural reference point in contemporary national identities.Subsequent politics and propaganda, reassessments and the emergence of new wartime facts, as well as changing cultural tastes and the immediate needs of political leaders and peoples of the day, have altered memory. They also have changed over time how the end of the devastating struggle is marked, as well as how it is remembered, say historians.The top photo shows people with portraits of relatives who fought in World War II, on the 74th anniversary of the victory in the war, in Red Square in Moscow, Russia, May 9, 2019; at bottom, a nearly empty Red Square on the 75th anniversary.Russia has celebrated victory in what it calls “the Great Patriotic War” every year since 1945, but commemoration has undergone a makeover. Parades were often staged without tanks and missiles rumbling across Red Square under the baleful eyes of septuagenarian and octogenarian Communist Party secretaries.Under the leadership of Russian President Vladimir Putin, however, Victory Day has become a bigger and more militaristic affair, one in which advanced military hardware has been showcased, and Stalin has been lauded in a recasting of patriotism.But this year, thanks to the coronavirus, the big Moscow celebration scheduled for the 75th anniversary of VE Day was canceled. It was much the same in the rest of Europe, which saw governments shelve plans for brass bands and packed crowds, military parades, concerts and street parties.Some things never change, though.In his book Inferno: The World at War, 1939-1945, British military historian Max Hastings notes that each of the victorious nations “emerged from the Second World War confident in the belief that its own role had been decisive in procuring victory.”Who the key player was in the defeat of the Nazis in Europe remains an issue — canceled celebrations and the pandemic notwithstanding.While most see the United States as having played the crucial role in vanquishing Adolf Hitler, the British, according to polling data released this week, see themselves as having played the biggest part in the war effort — although they acknowledge that the Nazis would not have been overcome without the Soviet Union bleeding Germany’s Wehrmacht on the Eastern Front.US creditedIn contrast, Americans, Germans and the French believe the U.S. war effort ultimately was the most significant contribution in achieving victory in Europe, according to a survey conducted by British pollster YouGov. Recent polls conducted in Russia, however, show Russians are convinced they’re the ones deserving the main credit for Hitler’s defeat — a reflection, possibly, of the huge death toll the country suffered in the war.An estimated 25 million to 31 million Russians were killed in the conflict — 16 million of them civilians, and more than 8 million from the Red Army. Russians also point to the fact that Soviet forces killed more German soldiers than their Western counterparts, accounting for 76 percent of Germany’s military dead.Some military historians say death tolls and the number of casualties shouldn’t be seen as reflecting necessarily what was crucial in the defeat of the Nazis. The Allied victory was more complicated than the heroic sacrifice of Soviet soldiers. Historian Anthony Beevor told Britain’s The Times newspaper that Stalin was more callous than Western leaders, who tried to minimize casualties.Police help Vakhtang Adamashvili, 94, a WWII veteran with a portrait of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, attend a ceremony in Victory Park marking the 75th anniversary of the Nazi defeat in World War II, in Tbilisi, Georgia, May 9, 2020.“The Red Army dispatched militiamen into attacks without any weapons and basically expected them to stop Panzer divisions with their own bodies,” he said. “They were suffering a 42 percent fatal casualty rate. They just threw away a quarter of a million lives.” Others say Western attitudes toward the Soviet Union are colored by the fact that Stalin concluded a nonaggression pact with Hitler in 1939 that was instrumental in allowing the Nazi leader to unleash a world war, before turning his attention to Russia.The U.S. mobilized about the same number of troops as Russia but fought on more major front lines — not only in Europe but also in the Pacific and North Africa. American war production — its ability to churn out astounding numbers of bombers, tanks and warships — was possibly the key war-winning factor, say some historians, who point out American factories produced more airplanes than all of the other major war powers combined.US suppliesAnd without U.S. supplies, the Soviet war effort would have been massively diminished. America supplied Stalin with 400,000 trucks, 2,000 locomotives, more than 10,000 rail rolling stock and billions of dollars’ worth of warplanes, tanks, food and clothing. At the same time, the U.S. also supplied nearly a quarter of Britain’s munitions.“We were lucky to have America as an ally,” Russian historian Anatoly Razumov told VOA recently. He said American technology and supplies formed the base of Russia’s war effort. “And we want to close our eyes to that. It’s shameful! Sometimes I talk to ordinary people who don’t want to understand. We were together during the war. How would it be if we hadn’t had this help? It was not a victory of just one country over Hitler. It was a victory of the whole world over him.”That view was echoed 75 years ago by Winston Churchill, Britain’s iconic wartime leader, when at 3 p.m. (London time) on May 8, 1945, he broadcast to the British people to announce victory in Europe.FILE – Winston Churchill approaches microphones to make a speech in January 1939.He recapped his nation’s lonely stand against Hitler in 1940, but he highlighted the gradual appearance of “great allies” in the fight, suggesting victory had been achieved because of a combined effort. “Finally,” he said, “the whole world was combined against the evildoers, who are now prostrate before us.”Churchill concluded his broadcast: “We may allow ourselves a brief period of rejoicing. … Advance Britannia! Long live the cause of freedom! God save the king!”Britons allowed themselves a respite Friday from coronavirus woes to mark VE Day. The celebration was a more muted and stationary affair than had been planned,  as it was in neighboring France and elsewhere in Europe. Parisians waved the French tricolor from balconies. Britons had tea parties in their gardens and along their streets — making sure they remained a safe distance from each other as they raised a glass to the countless individual sacrifices that led to victory in Europe in 1945.Queen’s broadcastHow the war was won — who deserves the lion’s share of credit — seemed lost at the moment of quiet celebration and as they listened to a broadcast by Queen Elizabeth, who, like other Western leaders, used wartime sacrifices to inspire hope in the fight against the coronavirus now. Weaving the themes of wartime endurance and success, she said Britain was still a country that those who fought in WWII would “recognize and admire.”And she added: “Never give up, never despair.”In Washington, war veterans joined U.S. President Donald Trump in laying a wreath at the World War II Memorial. “These heroes are living testaments to the American spirit of perseverance and victory, especially in the midst of dark days,” White House spokesman Judd Deere said, cutting through the clamor of historical debate.
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Russian soldiers are operating drones over Venezuela as part of a search for members of a paramilitary force that led a botched invasion this week, local media reported, citing deleted tweets from a state military command center.At least eight Russian special forces members will be “operating drones to run search and patrol operations” near La Guaira, the coastal state just north of Caracas, according to a report Friday from local news outlet El Nacional. It posted a screenshot of a tweet it said was later deleted on Thursday from the profile of the military command, known as ZODI La Guaira.An aircraft arrived at the country’s international airport on Thursday that would join the search mission, ZODI La Guaira wrote in a separate tweet, posting a photo of a helicopter. El Nacional said that tweet was also later deleted.The aircraft’s origin and the reason the tweets were deleted were not immediately evident.The information ministry did not immediately reply to a request for clarification.Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told the Interfax news agency on Saturday that the report represented an attempt to denigrate the cooperation between Moscow and Caracas.’Fake News’ZODI La Guaira on Friday posted a tweet saying the command “categorically denies interference by the Russian military” in its ranks. The post included a screenshot of a tweet from user @YourNewsAnonLat about Russia’s alleged support, saying the claim was “Fake News.” It did not address the screenshots of the previous alleged tweets from the account.Even though the incursion was broadly considered a humiliating failure since authorities initially announced it had been broken up on Sunday, organizers in subsequent days have said members of the force continued to fight.There has, however, been no evidence of any military actions on the part of the group since Sunday.Thirty-one people have been arrested for their role in the bungled incursion, Chief Prosecutor Tarek Saab said Friday, including two Americans who work for the security firm that organized it, Silvercorp USA.Authorities said eight people were killed.The two captured Americans appeared on state television in Venezuela on Wednesday and Thursday, saying they had been tasked by Silvercorp with taking control of the Caracas airport in order to fly out President Nicolas Maduro after his planned seizure by the group.On Friday, Venezuela requested the extradition of U.S. veteran Jordan Goudreau, chief executive of Florida-based Silvercorp USA, who has claimed responsibility for the plan, and two U.S.-based Venezuelans for their roles in the failed incursion.
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The Serbian government Saturday protested to the European Union after one of the bloc’s educational websites described inventor and electricity trailblazer Nikola Tesla as a “famous Croatian.”Tesla was an ethnic Serb born under the former Austrian Empire in what is now Croatia.He spent most of his life in Western Europe and the United States, but his ethnicity is a near-constant source of friction between Balkan neighbors and former Yugoslav republics Serbia and Croatia.Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic said Saturday that he had sent a protest note to Brussels after learning about the reference to Tesla as a “Croatian” on the EU’s Learning Center website for children.Serbia is a candidate country for EU membership; Croatia joined the bloc in 2013.Serbia’s culture minister, Vladan Vukosavljevic, previously demanded an “apology to the Serbian people” from the European Union for allowing what he described as “the virus of this fake information” to appear on an official EU website.The ashes of Tesla, who developed alternating current as a means to transport electricity and was among the first scientists to discover X-ray imaging, are housed in the Nikola Tesla museum in Belgrade, the Serbian capital.Statues in his honor are on display both there and in the Croatian capital, Zagreb.Tesla took on U.S. citizenship and lived there for decades before his death in New York in 1943.The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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A Brazilian non-governmental organization run by a group of ex-prisoners is providing aid to residents of Rio de Janeiro’s poor neighborhoods (favelas) as the country is facing an economic crisis partially caused by coronavirus restrictions.
 
Eu Sou Eu, or I Am Me, is distributing food and face masks to the needy in the favelas, where many people live under the poverty line, lacking adequate food and decent living spaces.
 
Authorities in Brazil have enforced strict guidelines to curb the spread of COVID-19 with stay-at-home orders and requiring people to wear masks in public places and on transportation.
 
However, President Jair Bolsonaro has pushed to have measures eased and has criticized governors for going too far with restrictions.
 
Data collected by the Johns Hopkins University show that Brazil has more than 146,800 confirmed COVID-19 cases and more than 10,000 deaths. 
 
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The European Union said Friday that its envoy to China made a mistake by allowing the country’s foreign ministry to censor an opinion piece by EU ambassadors without first informing headquarters or member states, amid concern that the bloc might be bowing to political pressure from Beijing.
The op-ed by the EU’s 27 ambassadors was published in the China Daily this week to mark the 45th anniversary of EU-China diplomatic relations. But China’s foreign ministry insisted it could only appear in the paper if a reference to the coronavirus originating in China was removed.
The EU’s External Action Service — essentially a sort of European foreign office — said that its ambassador, Nicolas Chapuis, was reluctant to agree to the cut, but did so because he was under “time pressure.”
“There was no consultation of headquarters, and there was no consultation either of member states prior to the decision,” spokeswoman Virginie Battu-Henriksson said, adding: “The decision was not the right one to take.” However, Chapuis did inform them later, she said.
Despite the move, Chapuis retains the confidence of his superiors and Battu-Henriksson said that he “is an outstanding expert of China and is a true asset” to the bloc, having been sent on diplomatic assignment to the country six times.
The short section that was removed referred to the outbreak of the coronavirus being “…in China, and its subsequent spread to the rest of the world over the past three months…” The op-ed was published in full on the European delegation to China’s website and in some EU member countries.
Still, Germany’s Greens EU lawmaker Reinhard Buetikofer tweeted that “EU ambassadors act like sheep” and added that “even if the op-ed would’ve been published uncensored, it would have been quite questionable, to say the least.”
The spat comes a week after the head of the External Action Service, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, was forced to deny that his agency had bowed to pressure from China and watered down a report critical of the country’s role in promoting disinformation about the coronavirus.
Borrell was grilled by EU lawmakers over the incident. Belgian parliamentarian Hilde Vautmans demanded to know “who interfered, which Chinese official put pressure, at what level, what means of pressure. I think that Europe needs to know that, otherwise we’re losing all credibility.”
EU institutions are notoriously slow to validate changes to documents and communications materials. Seeking the agreement of 27 countries as well might have caused significant delays to the op-ed’s publication.
In a statement Friday, the EU delegation in China said it “strongly regrets” that the article was not published in its unedited form and that it had “made known its objections to the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs in no uncertain terms.”
It said the decision to go ahead anyway was made because the article still “passed key messages” on topics of EU concern, such as “climate change and sustainability, human rights, the importance of multilateralism” as well as international coronavirus efforts and debt relief.
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Prime Minister Boris Johnson will keep Britain under a coronavirus lockdown until at least next month — to the frustration of some in his Cabinet, who behind the scenes are arguing that Downing Street now needs to prioritize the economy, which is heading for its worst recession in 300 years.Cabinet ministers and some senior Conservatives have urged Johnson at least to release a timetable on easing the lockdown, with specific dates for different stages for lifting restrictions. Former Finance Minister Sajid Javid, a onetime rival for the leadership of the ruling Conservatives, said Friday that Downing Street must turn its attention to the economy now that the peak of coronavirus cases is thought to have been reached.“We’ve got to find a way forward,” he told broadcaster Sky News. Javid said it was right to have “put public health first,” but now Johnson needed to pivot to focus on economic recovery. “We’re going to have to coexist with this virus for, I think, many months, if not potentially years. But we’ve got to find a way forward and that does mean you are relaxing, as much as you can,” he said.Javid is the most prominent Conservative so far to call publicly for the economy to be restarted swiftly, but two of Johnson’s most senior Cabinet members, Michael Gove and Javid’s replacement as finance minister, Rishi Sunak, also have been making the case in Cabinet meetings for an unlocking of Britain, say Conservative sources.A view of a COVID-19 testing station manned by British military personnel inside London’s Hyde Park, May 8, 2020.For most of the week, Britain’s pro-Conservative newspapers have assumed Johnson would announce in the next few days the lifting of many restrictions. They have been highlighting the damage the lockdown is doing to the economy. On Thursday, the Bank of England warned that Britain is heading for its worst recession since 1706, when the country’s then-agriculture-based economy contracted by 15 percent because of poor weather and a disastrous harvest.Incremental changesJohnson is scheduled Sunday to outline the incremental changes to the coronavirus restrictions he is prepared to order before the end of May. He will outline a longer-term overall exit strategy, too, but has told his Cabinet he will proceed with “maximum caution,” with only modest changes before June at the earliest.His caution contrasts with the policies of some of Britain’s European neighbors, which, while approaching exits from their lockdowns cautiously, are easing their restrictions more quickly.German Chancellor Angela Merkel — under pressure from the country’s regional authorities — announced Thursday that the goal of slowing the spread of coronavirus had been achieved, so all shops can be reopened as lockdown restrictions are eased. Germany’s Bundesliga football league has been given the green light to resume, and schools will gradually start reopening for the summer term.Germany’s 16 federal states will oversee the timing of the easing in their jurisdictions and are empowered to operate an “emergency brake” if there are any new surges in infections.A woman wearing a protective shield looks at her phone as the lockdown because of the coronavirus outbreak continues, in London, May 8, 2020.Johnson’s caution comes after he was warned that viral outbreaks in Britain’s nursing homes and hospitals make significant easing before June risky. Johnson expressed “bitter regret” midweek in the House of Commons at the epidemic wave that has struck the country’s nursing homes. Some nursing home managers blame the government, saying a decision to speed up hospital discharges of the elderly triggered the outbreaks.8,000 deaths a weekThe Office for National Statistics has reported that the average number of deaths in care homes is approaching 8,000 a week. Martin Green, of the industry association Care England, told reporters that it had been “foolhardy” to discharge patients in a rush to nursing homes in a bid to free up hospital beds for an influx of coronavirus patients. “It was a major mistake. We should have moved nobody unless we were absolutely sure they were COVID-19 negative,” he said.Some Conservatives say privately that Johnson’s own struggle with the coronavirus may be another factor in his determination to move more cautiously than they would prefer. Johnson was discharged from the hospital on April 11, a week after being admitted with a severe case of COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus.Government officials initially said he was moved from self-isolation in a Downing Street apartment to a nearby London hospital as a “precautionary move,” but it later transpired that doctors quickly feared for his life and transferred him into an intensive care unit a day after his arrival.This past week, Johnson told The Sun newspaper that at one point it was “50-50” whether he would be put on a ventilator. Johnson described how he was given “liters and liters of oxygen” to keep him alive, and he credited his recovery to “wonderful, wonderful nursing.”He said contingency plans had been readied in the event he didn’t survive. “It was a tough old moment; I won’t deny it,” he told the paper.On Sunday ,Johnson will offer the public some relief from the strict lockdown by announcing people can take unlimited outdoor exercise. Churches and other places of worship are also likely to be allowed to open for private prayer, and garden centers are likely to be given approval to reopen. But households are unlikely to be allowed to mix, because officials fear that could lead to a spike in transmissions.Britain became the first country in Europe to pass 30,000 coronavirus deaths. Communities Minister Robert Jenrick said these were “heartbreaking losses.”
 
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Greece’s government is gradually easing lockdown restrictions, and after 42 days of strict stay-at-home rules, young Greeks are spilling onto the streets. Authorities are striking back, imposing stiff fines and new lockdowns in an effort to prevent a possible resurgence of the coronavirus.In the Athens suburb of Agia Parasksevi earlier this week, more than 400 young Greeks defied social-distancing rules by buying take-away drinks from local pubs and turning the district’s main square into a massive, open-air block party.Police intervened, firing tear gas to disperse the crowds and imposing a new curfew.But most young Greeks, in Agia Paraskevi and beyond, are undeterred.Thousands of people have spilled out on the streets for take-away parties in the capital and in other cities across the country. Fines of up to 5,000 euros have been slapped on bar owners fanning the craze.Nothing seems to be working, though. Even older crowds are joining in, inundating parks and piazzas for late-night strolls and meetings despite COVID controls forbidding social gatherings.Nikos Hardalias, the head of Greece’s homeland security force, is concerned.In a stern public appeal late Thursday, he urged Greeks to heed social distancing rules and to avoid behaving in ways that could enflame the spread of the COVID virus.The staggering death tolls of neighboring Italy, he warned, should not be ignored.Early and rigorous Greek controls have helped keep most of this country of 11 million free of the virus. Just over 2,000 cases have been reported, with fewer than 150 deaths.However, the government’s handling of the crisis after the easing of controls has been the source of fierce political debate.Alexis Haritsis of the left-wing opposition Syriza party accused the government of using excessive force to keep Greeks in check. Spontaneous acts of celebration or gatherings, he said, cannot be confronted with tear gas and the police.With the summer setting in and the weekend approaching, authorities fear take-away parties may spread even further, and police say they are considering deploying special negotiators to help disperse defiant crowds.  
 
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Europe was marking the 75th anniversary of the surrender of Nazi Germany to Allied forces following six years of war  in a low-key fashion Friday  due to coronavirus lockdown restrictions across the continent.
The big celebrations that had been planned have been either cancelled or scaled back dramatically and people across Europe have been asked to mark the moment in private.  
There will be no mass gatherings, no hugging or kissing, but that day of liberation is being remembered from Belfast to Berlin. For the few World War II veterans still left, many living in nursing homes under virus lockdowns, it’s a particularly difficult time.BritainUp and down the U.K., people have been getting into the spirit of VE Day, which for this year alone has been designated as a public holiday.
Many are dressing up in 1940s attire, while bunting has been displayed outside homes, including at 10 Downing Street in London that houses the prime minister’s office. People are also being encouraged to go out onto their doorsteps to sing Dame Vera Lynn’s iconic wartime anthem, “We’ll Meet Again” — which has added resonance now as families and friends are separated by coronavirus lockdowns.
People gathered in a socially distanced way on the hills of south London to marvel at the Royal Air Force’s Red Arrows. The nine planes flew in formation above the River Thames and let loose their red, white and blue smoke to mark the colors of the Union flag.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who lit a candle Thursday evening by the grave of the Unknown Warrior in Westminster Abbey in remembrance of those who gave their lives, wrote to the country’s veterans, describing them as “the greatest generation of Britons who ever lived.”
Prince Charles and his wife, the Duchess of Cornwall, led the country in a two-minute silence at the war memorial on the grounds of Balmoral Castle in Scotland. Charles laid a wreath of poppies on behalf of the nation. At the U.K.’s main memorial on Whitehall in central London, traffic ground to a halt as people observed the silence.  
The tributes will continue through the day. The victory speech of Britain’s wartime prime minister, Winston Churchill, will be broadcast on BBC Television.  
Queen Elizabeth II will speak to the nation at 9 p.m., the exact time that her father, King George VI, addressed Britons 75 years ago.FranceFrench President Emmanuel Macron led a small ceremony at the Arc de Triomphe monument to mark the anniversary. He lay a wreath and relit the flame of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, atop a deserted Champs-Elysees, Paris’ grandest avenue.  
Macron was accompanied by former presidents Francois Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy, each carefully observing social distancing. Macron cleaned his hands with hand gel after signing the official register.  
Four singers of the French Army Chorus sang the national anthem, “La Marseillaise.”
Macron also laid a wreath at the statue of one of his predecessors, Charles de Gaulle, the general revered for leading the French Resistance from London after France had fallen in 1940. France was liberated in 1944.GermanyGerman Chancellor Angela Merkel and other top officials laid wreaths at the memorial to victims of war and violence in Berlin, standing in silence as a trumpet played. The low-key ceremony on an empty Unter den Linden boulevard replaced a bigger event that President Frank-Walter Steinmeier had once planned to lead outside the Reichstag parliament building.
“The corona pandemic is forcing us to commemorate alone – apart from those who are important to us and to whom we are grateful,” Steinmeier said. He recalled that, on May 8, 1945, “the Germans were really alone,” militarily defeated, economically devastated and “morally ruined.”
“We had made an enemy of the whole world,” he said in a nationally televised address. Seventy-five years later, he said, “we are not alone.”
Steinmeier underlined Germans’ responsibility to “think, feel and act as Europeans” in this time of crisis and to confront far-right attacks wherever they emerge.
“If we don’t keep Europe together, in and after this pandemic, we will prove not to be worthy of May 8,” he said.
Germans have come to see the Nazis’ defeat as a liberation.
“We Germans can say today that the day of liberation is a day of gratitude,” Steinmeier said. “Today, we must liberate ourselves – from the temptation of a new nationalism; from fascination with the authoritarian; from distrust, isolation and enmity between nations; from hatred and agitation, from xenophobia and contempt for democracy.”
Merkel spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin by phone Friday to mark the anniversary, and the two agreed the war is a reminder of the need for “close cooperation between states and people to preserve and encourage peace and understanding.”  Poland
In Poland, VE Day elicits mixed emotions as the defeat of Nazi Germany did not lead to the immediate freedoms that other European nations enjoyed. After the war, Poland was subjugated by the Soviet Union, and remained part of the communist bloc until 1989.  
At a wreath-laying commemoration at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Warsaw, President Andrzej Duda described VE Day as a “bittersweet anniversary” for a country that endured one of the most brutal Nazi occupations. Six million of Poland’s 35 million people were killed, half of whom were Jewish.  
Duda lamented the fact that thousands of Polish troops who had fought alongside Allied forces during the war were later “betrayed” by the Allies and were not allowed to march in the 1946 Victory Parade in London for fear of straining British relations with Soviet leader Joseph Stalin.
World War II began on Sept. 1, 1939, when Adolf Hitler’s Nazi forces invaded Poland. 
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Authorities in Argentina evacuated 25 residents from a nursing home in Buenos Aires Thursday night after they tested positive for the coronavirus.Initial reports indicated none of those taken from the nursing home showed any symptoms.Five workers at the nursing home also tested positive for the coronavirus.The director of the nursing home, Blas Rinaudo, said the facility will continue to care for 15 other residents who tested negative for the virus and conduct follow-up tests to check their status.Meanwhile, people banged pots and pans from their balconies in Buenos Aires on Thursday evening to protest measures the government is taking to stop the spread of the coronavirus.Argentina is heading into its eighth week of lockdown.The South American nation has 5,371 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 282 deaths.
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Croatia’s defense minister has resigned after an air force training plane crashed shortly after takeoff from a military airbase in the southwest of the country.Both crew members were killed in Thursday’s crash. A similar accident three months ago, when a helicopter crashed, also killed two pilots.Damir Krsticevic announced his resignation, saying “we have to be transparent” and take responsibility for the crashes.”This is a big loss for the Croatian army,” Krsticevic said. “I am today stepping down from the role of vice president of the government and minister of defense of the Croatian Republic. Thank you.”The Croatian Defense Ministry said in a statement that the Zlin single-engine aircraft crashed at around 4 p.m. local time during a routine training flight near the central Adriatic town of Zadar.The ministry did not give any explanation for the possible cause of the accident.Images for the from the scene of the crash showed a small plane’s wreckage in flames, near what seemed to be a private house.
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Venezuela has aired a video in which captured U.S. contractor Airon Berry said Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was a target of Sunday’s foiled raid.This is the second video released by the Venezuelan government purporting to show the questioning of Berry and fellow security contractor Luke Denman, both former members of the U.S. Special Forces.In the video aired Thursday, Berry said the Venezuelan Intelligence Services and the airport tower were also targets.Maduro insists the men were operating under the direction of the White House.President Donald Trump has denied any U.S. involvement in the raid.Jordan Goudreau, operator of a Florida-based security contracting company implicated in the botched mission, has said he was unable to convince the Trump administration to support his plan for a private coup.Maduro announced Thursday that the government will attempt to extradite Goudreau for allegedly participating in the raid.Authorities allege the men traveled by speedboat from neighboring Colombia to the Venezuelan port city of La Guaira. Eight people were killed in the foiled attack.Venezuela authorities said Thursday that they have now captured 23 people involved in the incident.
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In Serbia, hundreds of people took to the streets of the capital, Belgrade, late Thursday to demonstrate against the country’s president, Aleksandar Vucic.Protesters from the “Citizens’ Resistance” movement accuse Vucic of curbing democratic freedoms.”We are here because we are angry at our government, because of everything they did to us during the past two months, and even more time,” said protester Biljana Stojkovic. “This is the clear repression, and we think that this is a dictatorship we are living in nowadays. So, this is not just because of COVID-19, this is because of everything else that is going on in this country.”The protest in front of the presidency building was organized just one day after the authorities lifted restrictions imposed to curb the spread of COVID-19.Once during the protest, participants led by some opposition leaders attempted to storm the building’s entrance. Security guards did not intervene.Critics have accused Vucic of using the state of emergency imposed due to the coronavirus pandemic to tighten his grip on power ahead of the general elections, which are to be held next month. Vucic has denied the accusations.Some opposition parties have announced a boycott of June’s election, questioning its freedom and fairness.The opposition also accuses Vucic of controlling the mainstream media, of not allowing it to give space to critical voices.
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Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Thursday authorized deployment of armed forces to fight destruction of the Amazon rainforest, giving them authority over environmental agencies in the region as military influence in the government grows.   Environmental advocates fiercely criticized the order, saying that environmental agencies are the one with the necessary expertise. Last year, Bolsonaro waited until August to send troops into the Amazon, following international outcry over a wave of fires in the rainforest, which traps vast amounts of greenhouse gases that cause climate change. Deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon hit an 11-year high in 2019, and rose another 51% through March this year.   The order, unlike last year, gives the military authority to “coordinate” activities of agencies such as environmental enforcer Ibama and parks department ICMBio. Plan called ‘unacceptable’Suely Araujo, who headed Ibama until early 2019 and now is an adviser to advocacy group Climate Observatory, said it was “unacceptable” to transfer power over environmental operations in the Amazon to the military.  “The military can help in certain situations, but in relation to environmental agencies, they should be consulted and not subordinated,” Araujo said. “It’s the environmental agencies that have expertise in this area, who know how to carry out operational planning and strategy.” Bolsonaro, a former paratrooper, has appointed a slew of current and former military officers as government ministers since taking office in 2019. This year, he increased to seven the number of military men in his 20-member cabinet, not including retired general and Vice President Hamilton Mourao. One month at a timeAraujo said putting the armed forces in charge of Amazon enforcement operations raised the question of whether Ibama would have to ask the military’s permission to destroy equipment used to commit crimes such as illegal logging inside indigenous reserves or other protected areas.   Bolsonaro has repeatedly said the government should not destroy this type of machinery, but Ibama agents have not halted the practice, long considered the only way to avoid a repeat of environmental crimes.   Ibama and the Environment Ministry did not respond to requests for comment.  The military authorization is effective from May 11 to June 10, but can be extended in 30- day increments, as Bolsonaro did once last year, for 60 days in total. Vice President Mourao said last week that the government planned to send in the military as part of a plan to establish bases in the Amazon to fight deforestation. 
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France’s leader on Thursday called for closer cooperation with Russia as the world struggles against the coronavirus, recalling the joint Allied effort to defeat Nazi Germany that ended 75 years ago.In a conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin, President Emmanuel Macron expressed “the recognition of the French people” as both countries prepare to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe this week. The Soviet Union played a key role in defeating Nazi Germany, whose forces occupied France.Despite tensions with Russia over its actions in Ukraine, Macron argued that “this common memory should bring us together.” He added that the virus pandemic “makes the construction of peace and stability on the continent and in the rest of the world more necessary than ever,” according to a French presidential statement.While France is starting to reopen as the virus recedes, infections are still rising in Russia.Macron has increasingly reached out to Russia, even as his relationship with United States President Donald Trump has been strained by trade and other disputes.Trump also spoke with Putin Thursday, saying the U.S. is ready to provide assistance to any country in need, including Russia, according to the White House. 
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Belarusian authorities have stripped two Russian journalists of accreditation after their reports about the growing coronavirus outbreak in the country.
 
The Foreign Ministry in Minsk did not give a reason for the move against journalist Aleksei Kruchinin and cameraman Sergei Panasyuk, who work for Russia’s Channel One television company.
 
But a Belarusian state television channel aired a report in response to Channel One’s coverage of the coronavirus outbreak in Belarus, accusing Russian journalists of spreading false information.
 
Channel One called Minsk’s move “absolutely groundless” and company representatives told RFE/RL on May 7 that reactions to the move “will be made on diplomatic levels as well.”
 
According to Channel One’s representatives, Kruchinin left Minsk for Moscow right after the ministry’s announcement, while his family remains in the Belarusian capital.
 
As of May 6, Belarus had reported 19,255 confirmed coronavirus cases and 112 deaths.
 
Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko has repeatedly derided concerns over COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.
 
He has claimed disregard for the environment was in part to blame for the spread of the virus, and activities like planting trees could help defend against it.
 
In stark contrast to other European countries that have adopted strict lockdown measures to contain the pandemic, Belarus has kept its borders open and allowed soccer matches in the national league to be played in front of spectators.
 
On May 9, Minsk will host a military parade marking the 75th anniversary of the Allied victory over Nazi Germany, an event that was cancelled in Russia and other former Soviet republics, except Turkmenistan, over fears of large crowds gathering amid the coronavirus outbreak.
 Some information contained in this report came from AP.
 
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The Bundesliga soccer season will resume on May 16 in empty stadiums, picking up right where it left off two months ago amid the coronavirus pandemic.Thursday’s announcement comes one day after clubs were told the season could restart following a meeting between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the country’s 16 state governors.”Everyone has to be clear. We’re playing on probation,” German soccer league managing director Christian Seifert said. “I expect everyone to live up to this responsibility. Our concept is designed to catch infections early.”Seifert said the return of soccer was because of the success the country’s leaders and health officials have had in response to the outbreak.Germany has had a high number of COVID-19 infections — nearly 170,000 by Thursday, according to Johns Hopkins University — with about 7,000 deaths, a lower number compared to elsewhere.The country’s relative success in combating the virus has been attributed to early testing, a robust health service and strict lockdown measures that are now being loosened.”That we’re allowed to play again boils down to German politics for managing this crisis, and the health system in Germany,” Seifert said. “If I were to name the number of tests that I was asked about in teleconferences with other professional leagues, with American professional leagues, with clubs from the NFL, the NHL, Major League Baseball and others, and I tell them how many tests are possible in Germany, they generally check, or there’s silence, because it’s just unimaginable in the situation over there.”Only about a third of Germany’s massive testing capacity of almost 1 million a week is being currently used, said Lars Schaade, the deputy head of the Robert Koch Institute.Seifert said the season will restart with the 26th round of games, including the Ruhr derby between Borussia Dortmund and Schalke on the opening Saturday. That match will test local authorities who hope to keep groups of fans from gathering around the stadium or at bars to watch on television.Pay-TV broadcaster Sky said it will show all games on the first two weekends for free in Germany.Seifert, who was speaking in Frankfurt after a video conference with members from each club, warned that everyone involved will need to maintain strict hygiene measures to ensure another suspension will not be necessary.The Bundesliga was suspended on March 13 with nine rounds remaining. Seifert said the last round is now planned for the weekend of June 27-28. He said the second division will also begin on May 16.”The decision means economic survival for some clubs,” Seifert said.Seifert said there have been 10 positive cases of COVID-19 in the first two waves of tests among the 36 professional clubs, with another two positive cases found in a third wave.It was initially planned that teams would spend two weeks in quarantine before games could resume, but a compromise on shorter training camps in isolation for each team was reached because players have been undergoing regular tests.Seifert said a decision on whether to temporarily allow five substitutions per match depends on FIFA rules. FIFA made the proposal to help players cope with game congestion but it is still subject to approval from the International Football Association Board, soccer’s law-making body.
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The daily flights and ferries carrying tourists and French retirees seem a distant memory, even as a chunk of the diaspora has returned to ancestral villages.  
 
Just 200 kilometers across the Mediterranean, the island of Corsica has never seemed so cut off from mainland France. The coronavirus has restored a sense of identity and separation that independence fighters have long sought.  
 
The pandemic, however, is also fueling more tangible demands. The nationalists running the island’s government want to manage the health crisis “the Corsican way,” which includes piloting a controversial treatment program and deciding on school openings.
 
“Our strategy needs to be adapted to the reality on the ground,” said Gilles Simeoni, president of the island’s executive council. A goat ranch in the Agriate region of northern Corsica. (Lisa Bryant/VOA)Such sentiments are echoed elsewhere in Europe by territories long pushing for greater economic and political power from capitals, said University of Bordeaux political scientist and Corsica expert Thierry Dominici.  
 
COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, is giving them new cause.  
 
“In Corsica, we have the impression the elected leadership wants to move forward” in managing the island’s response to COVID-19, Dominici added. “But the administrative situation imposed by the state has tied their hands.”  
 Rocky ties  
 
With soaring mountains, spectacular beaches and winding country roads—where drivers still slow for crossing sheep—Corsica has long had a rocky relationship with Paris. A long-running and violent independence movement, the FLNC, formally laid down its arms in 2014.Graffiti supporting Corsica’s FLNC liberation movement covers a road sign in the island’s Balagne region. (Lisa Bryant/VOA)Polls have shown little local appetite for full independence from France, on which the island depends heavily for tourism and subsidies. But a Corsican sense of identity, seen in a resurgence of the local language and traditions, remains powerful.  
 
In 2015, a politically complex stew of nationalists surged to power, which they still hold. When the coronavirus lockdown began in mid-March, a number of Corsicans living in mainland France headed home to spend time with families.  
 
Regional council head Simeoni has called for an “independent scientific” council in Corsica to manage the coronavirus response, and for making the island a “pilot territory” in using malaria drug chloroquine to treat the infection. Ostriconi beach in Corsica, usually packed in the summer. (Lisa Bryant/VOA)Corsican mayors are also joining others in France in opposing government plans to begin reopening schools next week.
 
Paris has promised regional and local governments greater leeway in managing the crisis. Still, it has nixed Corsica’s chloroquine pitch, allowing the island a more modest option of joining a clinical trial in Bordeaux.  
 
“It’s very insufficient,” said Corsican Assembly leader Jean-Guy Talamoni of Paris’ response. He says “Corsica must have its own method” of dealing with the pandemic.  
 
Critics suggest such declarations are opportunistic—deepening the divisions between the more moderate Simeoni and Talamoni, who has long championed Corsica’s full independence from France.Goats and sheep still cause traffic jams on winding Corsican roads like this one. (Lisa Bryant/VOA) 
“Talamoni is using the situation for political ends, which is totally stupid,” said political analyst Jean Petaux of Sciences Po Bordeaux University.  
 
“On the one hand, he wants the island to be independent and fly with its own wings,” Petaux said. “On the other, there’s an unending demand for state support,” including compensation for tourism and other economic losses wrought by the virus.  
 Pushback elsewhere in Europe
 
Corsica is hardly alone in pushing for greater local control of the health crisis.  
 
In Spain, Catalonia’s separatist leader, Quim Torra, has bucked Madrid’s plans to extend a state of emergency underpinning its lockdown, and joined the Basque region in opposing “co-goverance” with the state in unwinding confinement.The coast near the western Corsican village of Girolata. (Lisa Bryant/VOA) In Italy, regions run by opposition rightist parties argue Rome’s plans to end confinement are not bold enough. Southern Calabria announced restaurants and bars with outdoor seating could reopen immediately — countering the government’s timeline of June 1.  
 
Scottish nationalists are similarly protesting health orders coming from England.  
 
“The suggestion that Scotland and England must march forth entirely in unison is absurd,” Scottish National Party lawmaker Kenny MacAskill wrote in The Scotsman newspaper, adding many measures to end confinement would likely be replicated in both areas, nonetheless.  
 
In more decentralized Germany, the federal government and local states have agreed on ways to ease the lockdown, although some want restrictions lifted faster.  Northwestern Corsica’s Balagne region is a draw for tourists and retirees. (Lisa Bryant/VOA)For his part, Corsica expert Dominici believes COVID-19, following other crises like the environment, will make greater local decision-making inevitable.  
 
“Even if the state doesn’t want to, it will have to give regions more rights to manage the deconfinement,” he added of the pandemic. 
Nor should Corsica’s nationalists be underestimated, he said. They are no longer political newbies.  
 
“This is their second term in office,” Dominici said. “That’s not nothing. They’re a political force to be reckoned with.” 
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Quarantines and travel don’t mix, but Greece is contemplating opening its borders to travelers from at least two other countries whose COVID-19 outbreaks are under control to revive tourism, which has been devastated by the pandemic.The move, according to Tourism Minister Harris Theoharis, would include setting up a “corona corridor” among Greece, Cyprus and Israel, attracting tourists less willing to travel far in the coming months, allowing them access to the islands of the Aegean and Mediterranean seas by early July.”Several details still have to be worked out,” Theoharis told VOA. “But when we knocked on Israel’s door, it opened wide open. The interest is there; so too with Cyprus.””It is an ambitious scheme that could square the circle,” he said.After Cyprus, Greece is the European Union’s most vulnerable country in terms of tourism. The profitable industry accounts for about one-fifth of its economy and 1 in 4 jobs. Also, in recent years, the country has become a favorite travel destination for young Israelis, attracting nearly a million visitors from the Middle Eastern country.Details of the corona corridor plan have yet to be finalized. However, its creation, Theoharis said, would allow travelers to forgo quarantines or two-week isolation periods.”You don’t want to go on holiday knowing that you will spend it in lockdown,” Theoharis said.Empty chairs with various slogans from the union of bars and restaurants owners are placed at Athens’ main Syntagma square May 6, 2020.Times nevertheless remain difficult for the tourism industry.Since much of the world went into lockdown and nations closed their borders to slow the spread of COVID-19, international travel has plunged, bringing an industry employing 75 million to a standstill.While travelers cannot globe-trot as they did three months ago, studies show that many still dream of escaping their homes — albeit for nearer destinations.The European Union’s executive body, the European Commission, is to release the first EU-wide guidelines for coronavirus-era tourism on Wednesday. Until then, though, several states, including Greece, have wasted no time in taking matters into their own hands.Detailed negotiations with Israel and Cyprus in coming weeks will focus on attempts to thrash out a deal to revive tourism while preventing a catastrophic second wave of the disease.”That means agreeing on every possible guideline and health protocol — from the medical clearances travelers will need to have before setting foot in either of the three countries, to whether hotels will offer breakfast and dinner buffets,” Theoharis said. “Tracking and tracing systems will also have to be in place if there is an outbreak of infections at a resort.””It is a difficult exercise,” he said.Yet with the EU reluctant to issue a blanket release on travel, options like the corona corridor are gaining appeal.The Czech Republic is said to be considering a similar plan with neighboring Slovakia and Croatia. Malta, the Mediterranean island nation that relies heavily on tourism, has also called for the creation of “safe corridors” among territories and regions proven successful in their management of the COVID-19 pandemic.Early and rigorous controls instituted by the Greek government of Prime Minister  Kyriakos Mitsotakis have helped keep most of the country’s idyllic hot spots free of the pandemic.A man wearing a mask to protect against the coronavirus walks in Syntagma square in central Athens, on May 5, 2020.Even so, several Greek hoteliers remain wary of the corona corridor proposal.On Crete, a hugely popular spot for U.S. and British vacationers, hotel owners are considering keeping resorts closed until authorities provide ironclad assurances to ensure their operation.”We are not prepared to risk any human life for the sake of business and profit,” said Manolis  Tsalakakis, president of the hotel owners’ association in Rethimon, a city on Crete’s northern coast, “but we need to be legally covered in the case that we do have an infection during holiday stays.””These are all parameters that have be in put in place before we even consider opening up for business again.”Meanwhile, Italy, among the countries hardest hit by the pandemic, has raised serious concerns about the plan, saying it creates unfair competition, further penalizing the country as it struggles to recover from the death, fear and hardship brought on by the virus.On Thursday, though, Theoharis said Greece would eventually reach out to Italy if its corona corridor plan proves effective.”Israel and Cyprus are just the start,” he told VOA. “Bulgaria, Austria may join in at the next step, eventually bringing in Italy and the United States, where huge pools of expats are eager to come back and visit.”Each step must be planned, though, he said.”We have to first stand up, before we start walking and running again,” he said. 
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Rio de Janeiro Mayor Marcelo Crivella says the city will set up blockades Thursday in sections of the city where people have been ignoring quarantine restrictions aimed at reducing the spread of the coronavirus.Crivella said Rio has a problem with people gathering on sidewalks in densely populated business districts of Campo Grande, Santa Cruz and Bangu.He said business operators have been reopening not long after they are closed by municipal guards.Crivella said guards will now remain in the area and violators that reopen after they are closed risk being shut down.The tightening restrictions come a day after the latest COVID-19 tally revealed Brazil’s 125,218 cases leads all of Latin America and the Caribbean, with São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro provinces experiencing the worst of the outbreak.So far, 8,574 people have died from the virus in Brazil. 
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As its coronavirus death rate ebbs, Spain is at last easing one of the strictest lockdowns in the world. But analysts fear its political polarization will hamper its ability climb back from what is expected to be the deepest economic recession since the 1936-39 civil war.Unlike some other European countries, where parties have made visible efforts to put aside their differences to fight the virus, in Spain the epidemic has only emphasized ideological divisions.Conservative opposition parties have unsparingly criticized the handling of the crisis by Pedro Sánchez, the Socialist prime minister, who heads a minority government. Most recently, they are demanding a swifter reopening of the economy than Sanchez is willing to sanction.The prime minister has hit back, telling the Spanish parliament: “Lifting the state of emergency would be a total, unpardonable mistake.” He added that billions of dollars in state aid to help companies and individuals were available only because of the lockdown order.When Sánchez this week called for another extension of the lockdown until May 24, the parliamentary vote should have been a formality. Instead it blew up into a political row, underlining problems which will dog the government when the immediate health crisis recedes.Pablo Casado, leader of the main opposition conservative People’s Party, initially threatened to vote against extending the lockdown. He said measures designed to contain the spread of the crisis were no longer necessary at a time when people were being allowed outside after more than two months of confinement.“We cannot support extending the state of emergency,” Casado told Spanish radio Onda Zero this week. “When the prime minister says that … we are in a phase of de-escalation, it does not seem compatible with continuing to demand extraordinary measures against the rights and freedoms of Spaniards.”After initially supporting the government, Casado has accused the government of recklessly allowing large marches to mark International Women’s Day on March 8 against the advice of health bodies, for acting too slowly and for inconsistencies in releasing data.People wearing face masks to combat the spread of coronavirus walk in a public park in Madrid, Spain, May 6, 2020.Casado, who later backed down and supported extending the state of emergency, was far from alone in opposing the government.Santiago Abascal, leader of the far-right Vox party, which is the third-largest force in parliament with 52 seats, claimed Sánchez and his left-wing allies Unidas Podemos are replacing a democratic normality with “totalitarianism,” which he said leads to “death, more ruin, more unemployment and less freedom.”The Catalan Republican Left, a regional separatist party on whom the left-wing government depends for support, also promised to oppose the extension, arguing against Sánchez’s centralization of health care, which is usually handled by regional authorities.Other Catalan separatist politicians have even suggested there would have been fewer deaths if the crisis had been managed by an independent Catalonia.Sánchez only scraped together enough votes to pass the lockdown extension by doing a last-minute deal with the centrist Ciudadanos party and promising more autonomy to moderate nationalists in the Basque country.For Sánchez, the battle was won but the war is far from over. Analysts believe the minority government, which depends on several small parties for its survival, may struggle to enact bold measures designed to steer Spain back from an economic recession.The outlook is relentlessly grim. The country suffered one of the world’s worst outbreaks of the disease, forcing the government in Madrid to put the economy effectively into hibernation.The Bank of Spain forecasts GDP could contract by up to 12 percent this year and unemployment could rise from 14 percent to above 20 percent. Spain’s jobless figure rose by 282,000 in April, according to government data, largely because of the collapse of the tourism industry which accounts for 15 perccent of GDP.The car industry, a key indicator of economic health in Spain, sold the same number of cars in the entire month of April as it would sell in one day in normal times.A man holds a face mask as he rests in a public park in Madrid, Spain, May 6, 2020.A parliamentary commission will oversee the country’s economic regeneration, but just setting up the commission took weeks of wrangling between Sánchez and Casado.William Chislett, an analyst at the Real Elcano Institute, a think tank in Madrid, believes the fragmented political landscape will make it hard to find agreement on a common policy.“There are 16 parties in parliament involved in the regeneration commission. It is difficult to see what they will come up with. Perhaps more taxes, as they will need more money, but that will be opposed by the People’s Party,” he said.“What you have to remember is, Spain was in a weak position before this, with high public debt and unemployment. Now it faces an even worse situation, with lots of political division.”With the threat of a second outbreak ever present, political unity will be key to managing the health service and preventing another grim tally of deaths.Rafael Bengoa, a former director of the World Health Organization and adviser to the U.S. government on public health, said that during the so-called Spanish flu pandemic in 1918, the degree of political solidarity in different U.S. cities had a direct relationship to how well they prevented a second wave of the illness.St. Louis, Missouri, was able to withstand the virulent flu outbreak, which killed an estimated 40 million people worldwide, while Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, both in Pennsylvania,  suffered from second waves of the illness.A 2007 study published in the of the American Medical Association said multi-agency cooperation in St. Louis meant its death rate was lower, whereas in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh this cooperation did not exist and the number of fatalities was higher. “History has shown that political unity is one more instrument against a virus, along with a vaccine,” said Bengoa. “This unity has begun to break down in Spain and this will not help if there is another outbreak.”Successive polls have found Spaniards would like their politicians to put their differences aside to address the national crisis.Pablo Simón, a political analyst at the University Carlos III in Madrid, said Spain’s problem is that its political parties do not prioritize the long-term good of the nation.“Polarization generates instability. As there are so many political parties, they are only looking for short- or medium-term gain,” he said. 
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Germany’s recent decision to ban the political activities of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah has sparked a debate among experts, with some believing the move was necessary while others arguing it would have little impact on Hezbollah’s terrorist activities.German authorities last week declared the Iranian-backed group a “Shiite terrorist organization,” outlawing its activity on German soil. Police also carried out raids on mosques and community centers with suspected links to the extremist group in different parts of Germany.“Germany’s designation is a recognition of Hezbollah’s unitary nature – that it has no separate military or political wings as the EU declared in its 2013 designation,” said Josh Lipowsky, a senior researcher at the Washington-based Counter Extremism Project (CEP).The European Union considers Hezbollah’s military wing a terrorist organization, while allowing its political wing to operate in the bloc’s countries. The Netherlands and Germany are the only EU members that recognize Hezbollah in its entirety as a terrorist organization. The U.K. dropped the distinction last year, but it is no longer part of the EU.In 1997, Hezbollah was designated a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department.Previous actionsExperts said the decision came after a series of actions taken by German authorities in the past few years against the Shiite group.“The first real action that the German government took was in 2008 when it banned Hezbollah’s al-Manar TV station [from] broadcasting in Germany,” said Hans-Jakob Schindler, a terrorism expert based in Berlin.“In 2014, they banned an alleged charity that was actually a front for the Martyrs Organization of Hezbollah in Germany [but it] was an orphan kids project in Lebanon. … It was organization which had a charitable status in Germany but was connected to financing the families of killed Hezbollah fighters rather than supporting actual orphans in Lebanon,” he told VOA.In 2015, Germany’s Supreme Court ruled that Hezbollah was an organization that disrupted global peace.Last December, Germany’s parliament called on the government to declare Hezbollah in its entirety a terrorist organization, but the government rejected the proposal at the time.The new banThe recent German move effectively outlaws public support for Hezbollah on German soil. Supporters of the group are no longer allowed to express support for it.According to German law, an organization that has no formal branch in Germany can’t be outlawed as such. But the new government measure against Hezbollah’s activities has the same legal consequences.“What can be done for organizations that are not German, like Hezbollah or other organizations, is that they can get banned from having any kind of activities directly or indirectly in Germany. That’s the maximum of what can be done against a foreign organization,” analyst Schindler said.But recognizing the entire structure of Hezbollah as a terrorist organization is also significant to cutting off support for its activities around the world, other experts argue.“Hezbollah receives monetary contributions from Lebanese expatriates, from criminal activities such as the drug trade and counterfeiting,” said Lipowsky of CEP.He told VOA that “this sort of legislation will help to crack down on these types of activities, particularly when it comes to fundraising within community organizations such as the Islamic centers in Germany where we saw a Hezbollah presence, targeting Lebanese expatriates.”US pressure?U.S. officials have lauded Germany for the move against Hezbollah.“We commend Germany for banning Hizballah in its entirety as a terrorist organization and for taking strong action against suspected Hizballah supporters,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement last week.“Obstructing this terrorist organization’s ability to plot terrorist attacks and to raise money will further reduce Iran’s malign behavior and influence,” Pompeo added.Some experts argue that the German decision to ban Hezbollah came partially because of pressure from the U.S. government against Iran, Hezbollah’s main benefactor.“I think for the U.S., it’s a declared goal to isolate Iran with their ‘maximum pressure’ campaign,” said René Wildangel, a Berlin-based policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR). “They left nuclear agreement. They are increasing their pressure on Iran and they are trying to build a coalition.”Wildangel told VOA that the other side of the story is that there is “genuine concern about activity, not necessarily of Hezbollah, but of organizations or people that might be connected to the military wing. There is genuine concern about the incidents of anti-Semitism that we’ve seen in past terrorist activities.”Israeli involvementIsraeli media reported that the country’s intelligence agencies provided their German counterparts crucial information on Hezbollah’s activities in Germany.“This decision, which is a dramatic departure from Berlin’s previous policy, was made based on intel from [the Israeli intelligence agency] Mossad to Germany’s intelligence service BND that some Hezbollah affiliates were stashing big volumes of ammonium nitrate, a material used to make explosives, in various warehouses in the south of Germany,” said Meir Javedanfar, a Middle East expert at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, Israel.Israel considers Hezbollah a major threat to its security. Since the start of Syria’s war in 2011, Israel has frequently carried out attacks against Hezbollah targets in Syria.But analyst Javedanfar believes the labeling of Hezbollah by Germany would have little effect on the group and “wouldn’t change its agenda, its purpose or its functionality.”“The only way this might impact Hezbollah’s activities would be in connection with its functionality within Lebanon’s government and its recent loan request from the IMF,” he said.The Lebanese government, largely controlled by Hezbollah, recently requested assistance from the International Monetary Fund to help fix the country’s crippling economic crisis.“If this designation distresses the IMF rescue deal, then the group would face some dire shortcomings and Tehran’s support for the group would be at much higher stakes. Tehran has to foot a higher bill for its enormous support,” Javedanfar told VOA.The Iranian government has condemned Germany for its recent decision against Hezbollah, accusing Berlin of giving in to the U.S. and Israel.Hadi Borhani, a Tehran-based analyst, said this labeling carries no importance or impact on Iran and its Lebanese ally.“The designation of Hezbollah as a terrorist group at this time is just a hollow and baseless move with zero significance or weight,” he said.
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El Salvador begins a more restrictive lockdown Thursday to curtail the spread of the coronavirus, with an emphasis on the densely populated capital region of San Salvador.In a national address late Tuesday, President Nayib Bukele said residents will only be permitted to shop for groceries twice a week.He said citizens will not be allowed to travel between jurisdictions unless they have a written document justifying their movement.Under the special lockdown, El Salvador will also suspend public transportation for 15 days to help efforts to contain the COVID-19 outbreak.Bukele said if the scale of the outbreak drops substantially during the 15 days, the country will be able to start reopening some businesses.So far, El Salvador has reported 633 cases of COVID-19 and 15 deaths.
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