RiyadMedia

Thousands of Peru reservists are joining security forces and police in enforcing the mandatory quarantine aimed at stopping the spread of the new coronavirus.President Martin Vizcarra is calling up more than 10,000 reservists to patrol neighborhoods as thousands of people continue to violate a national stay-at-home order and guidelines for social distancing.Reservists who refuse to report for duty face a fine of $1,200.Although President Vizcarra declared a state of emergency and ordered people to stay home through April 12, a military spokesman said Wednesday that thousands of people have been detained for violating the dusk-to-dawn stay-off-the-streets order.So far, Peru has 1,065 cases of coronavirus, and 30 people have died.
…

President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that Navy ships were being moved toward Venezuela as his administration beefs up counternarcotics operations in the Caribbean following a U.S. drug indictment against Nicolas Maduro.”The Venezuelan people continue to suffer tremendously due to Maduro and his criminal control over the country, and drug traffickers are seizing on this lawlessness,” Defense Secretary Mark Esper said after the president’s announcement.The mission involves sending additional Navy warships, surveillance aircraft and special forces teams to nearly double the U.S. counternarcotics capacity in the Western Hemisphere, with forces operating both in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific. Esper said 22 partner nations would support the mission.As nations around the world focus on the COVID-19 pandemic, “there is a growing threat that cartels, criminals, terrorists and other malign actors will try to exploit the situation for their own gain,” said Trump. “We must not let that happen.”The enhanced mission has been months in the making but has taken on greater urgency following last week’s indictment of Maduro, Venezuela’s embattled socialist leader, and members of his inner circle and military. They are accused of leading a narcoterrorist conspiracy responsible for smuggling up to 250 metric tons of cocaine a year into the U.S., about half of it by sea.FILE – Opposition leader Juan Guaido waves to supporters during a rally at Bolivar Plaza in Chacao, Venezuela, Feb. 11, 2020.Attacks on GuaidoThe mission comes as Maduro has stepped up attacks on his U.S.-backed rival, Juan Guaido. Maduro’s chief prosecutor ordered Guaido to provide testimony Thursday as part of an investigation into an alleged coup attempt. Guaido, the head of Venezuela’s congress who is recognized as his country’s legitimate leader by the U.S. and almost 60 other nations, is unlikely to show up, raising the possibility he could be arrested. The U.S. has long insisted it will not tolerate any harm against Guaido.”No matter where you sit ideologically, any move to try to bring democracy back to Venezuela requires first recognizing the criminal nature of the Maduro regime, and making moves that scare the regime into negotiating,” said Raul Gallegos, a Bogota, Colombia-based director in the Andean region for Control Risks, a consulting group.  Maduro has blasted the Trump administration’s offer of a $15 million reward for his arrest, calling it the work of a “racist cowboy” aimed at getting U.S. hands on Venezuela’s vast oil reserves, the world’s largest. He also points out that the vast majority of cocaine leaves South America from Colombia, a staunch U.S. ally.Others have faulted a U.S. plan, unveiled Tuesday by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, to create a five-member council without Maduro or Guaido to govern the country until elections can be held within a year. While it’s the first attempt in months by the U.S. to seek a negotiated solution to Venezuela’s stalemate, coming on the heels of the indictments, many say it has little hope of succeeding and is likely to drive Maduro further away from the path of dialogue.  The Trump administration has long insisted that all options are on the table for removing Maduro, including military ones. Still, there’s no indication that any sort of U.S. invasion is being planned.  Rather, the sending of ships fits into a long-standing call by the U.S. Southern Command for additional assets to combat security threats in the hemisphere.FILE – The USS Detroit, pictured in Detroit on Oct. 14, 2016, is part of a new breed of naval vessel, designed to work in shallow waters and operate with speed and agility.In January, another Navy vessel, the USS Detroit, conducted a freedom-of-navigation operation off the coast of Venezuela in a show of pressure against Maduro.  “That presence sends a big statement about U.S. commitment, it sends a big statement to our friends, it reassures them, and then to our adversaries that those are capable performers,” Admiral Craig Faller, the head of the U.S. military’s Southern Command, said in congressional testimony last month.Ship collisionThe report of the planned deployment comes two days after one of Venezuela’s naval patrol boats sank after colliding with a Portuguese-flagged cruise ship near the Venezuelan-controlled island of La Tortuga. Maduro accused the ship of acting aggressively and said it was possibly carrying “mercenaries” seeking his ouster.  “You have to be very naive to see this as an isolated incident,” Maduro said Tuesday night on state TV.  But Columbia Cruise Services, the operator of the cruise ship, said the patrol boat fired gunshots and then purposely rammed into the liner at speed. There were no passengers on board and none of its 32 crew members were injured, the company said.
…

Since the coronavirus pandemic hit Europe and the United States, Austrian Ambassador Martin Weiss has tweeted a series of Martin Weiss, ambassador of Austria to the U.S. (in green jacket), seen here at the Austrian Airlines ticket counter March 23, 2020, as he helps ensure all goes smoothly as 300 Austrians head home.VOA: Three hundred Austrians left the United States for home last week. Was it because the outbreak seemed less severe there?Weiss: There were very different reasons for their return. Many were just tourists ready to cut their trips short. Others worked in hotels and restaurants and had simply lost their jobs. Also, many students were leaving because their schools have closed for the foreseeable future. Many of them felt that they were better off in Austria. There, they have family. There, they are familiar with the health care system, etc. Plus, many Austrians have the feeling that our government does a very good job in this crisis. The Austrian government has taken proactive steps early on, informs the public daily about the latest developments, keeps expectations at a realistic level, has adopted a huge rescue package for workers and the economy, etc. Austrians are concerned, but by and large, think our country does what it can in this difficult time.VOA: Tell us more about Austria’s stimulus package.Weiss: It amounts to roughly 10 percent of Austria’s gross domestic product. In that sense, we are in lockstep with the U.S. Both of our governments are pulling out all the stops in an effort to keep our economies, and, thereby, the livelihood of so many people who depend on it afloat.VOA: What is Austria using to test and treat patients who may be suffering from COVID-19?Weiss: Austrian company Procomcure (Biotech Gmbh) has recently developed a very promising testing kit that gives you precise results within hours. Little wonder that they are already exporting it to many countries all over the world. When it comes to testing, Austria is currently in the European median — neither extremely good nor very bad. But the government has realized that more tests are needed and is currently trying hard to get the numbers up. Without thorough testing, there is no way of getting out of this crisis for good.As to our health care system, Austria has traditionally a high number of hospital beds per capita — 750 beds per 100,000 inhabitants. We have often been criticized for that because it makes our system expensive. However, in this crisis, this seems to be a clear advantage.Austrians heading home get their papers checked on March 23, 2020 at Dulles Airport.VOA: You retweeted an image of Italian armed forces arriving in Bergamo to take away coffins from hospitals, underscoring the gravity of the situation in Italy. Is Austria doing anything to help Italy?Weiss: We have supported our southern neighbor right from the beginning, bilaterally as well as in the framework of the European Union. Just this past week, Austria transported urgently needed personal protection equipment, including 1.6 million face masks, to northern Italy. European and global solidarity is crucial these days.VOA: What do you think the future will be for multinational corporations and for globalization in the aftermath of the pandemic?Weiss: There are a lot of debates out there on how this crisis will change our lives, change corporations, change the way the world cooperates in the future, etc. Frankly, I am not so sure. As human beings, we are amazingly adept in forgetting bad things. Once something bad — or even something terrible — has passed, we are more than ready to “go back to normal.” In other words, old habits die hard. Some business models will certainly take a hit. I wonder, for example, about the future of the cruise ship industry. With so many stories about being stranded on ships, I suppose it will be a while before passengers will be ready for this kind of voyage again. But in general, I believe the world before and after corona will not be all that much different.The Austrian Embassy’s official Twitter account @AustriainUSA chose local blossoms spotted near the embassy to adorn its front page.VOA: What would you like to see the U.S. do more or less of to tackle this outbreak both domestically and abroad?Weiss: The devilish thing about this new virus is that it is highly infectious, and none of us is immune. It thus grows exponentially. … Exponential growth starts slow, little by little, and then it very rapidly explodes. I still have the feeling that many people in the U.S. and around the world fail to grasp this. The exponential curve knows no mercy. We all — the U.S., Europe and the rest of the world — have to work together and as hard as we can. It is this level of unequivocal seriousness that is needed now, and the U.S. should lead in this effort.VOA: Your tweet that has generated the most “likes” is a video clip involving a mock question about the quarantine. Given an option, a man chooses not to stay with his wife and kids. What does this say about the human condition?Weiss: This clip simply made me laugh hard. And just to be clear, it probably cuts both ways, and his wife would have quickly said “B,” too. But I have seen many somewhat humorous reactions to this crisis, and I think it is very important not to lose that, even in the toughest of times. Humor is the best medicine, they say. I´m not sure it’s a cure for COVIID-19, but it certainly helps.
…

Nations around the world are growing increasingly worried about violence linked to extreme right-wing terror groups, with new research showing there has been a 320% jump in the number of related attacks over the past five years.Deadly attacks over the past year, like the shootings in Christchurch, New Zealand, and in El Paso, Texas, in the U.S., as well as a couple in Germany, have gotten most of the international attention.  But the research, highlighted Wednesday in a new report from the United Nations’ Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate, also warns the trend is worsening, with attacks by individuals linked to right-wing extremist groups becoming ever-more deadly, while the groups themselves are getting increasingly sophisticated.“Although extreme right-wing terrorism is not a new phenomenon, there has been a recent increase in its frequency and lethality,” UN-CTED said in its Raymond Duda, FBI Special Agent in Seattle, speaks during a news conference on Feb. 26, 2020, about charges against a group of alleged members of the neo-Nazi group Atomwaffen Division for cyber-stalking and mailing threatening communications.And intelligence from U.N. member states indicates that level of violence is unlikely to taper off, with the West – Europe, North America and Australasia – continuing to see the brunt of such attacks. “Recent evidence suggests that there has been a greater exchange of views between like-minded individuals, both online and offline,” according to the report. “These connections allow extreme right-wing groups to improve their tactics, develop better counter-intelligence techniques, solidify their violent extremist views and broaden their global networks.” The U.N. report echoes warnings from the European Union and the United States, both of which have warned about the threat from right-wing extremism. In the EU, the number of arrests in connection to right-wing terrorism more than doubled, from 20 in 2017 to 44 in 2018, with counterterrorism officials cautioning the problem was likely to get worse. “While the vast majority of right-wing extremist groups across the EU have not resorted to violence, they nevertheless help entrench a climate of fear and animosity against minority groups,” the EU concluded in its 2019 Terrorism Situation and Trend report. “Such a climate, built on xenophobia, anti-Semitic, Islamophobic and anti-immigration sentiments, may lower the threshold for some radicalized individuals to use violence.” In this Aug. 12, 2017, file photo, white nationalist demonstrators – including three members of the Rise Above Movement – clash with counter demonstrators at the entrance to Lee Park in Charlottesville, Virginia.The U.S. has likewise voiced growing concerns about the rise of right-wing extremism, putting it on par with the threat from the Islamic State terror group. “Racially, ethnically motivated violent extremists were the primary source of all ideologically-motivated lethal incidents and violence in 2018 and 2019 and have been considered the most lethal of all domestic violent extremists since 2001,” FBI Director Christopher Wray told lawmakers in Washington this past February.  There have also been persistent concerns that U.S.-based groups, like the Atomwaffen Division and the Rise Above Movement (R.A.M.), have been establishing connections with similar groups in Europe and Russia. There is also evidence that a growing number of members have been willing to take up arms, with hundreds flocking to Ukraine to get battlefield experience. The U.N. report finds those types of connections and relationships have only gotten stronger, with groups making efficient use of the Internet and social media to exchange ideas and raise money.  Additionally, the UN report warns the spread of far-right rhetoric is allowing extremist groups to connect with other fringe elements of society and expand their ability to recruit.  “These synergies allow more obscure misogynist groups-such as incels (involuntary  celibates) – to act as a bridge to violent extreme-rightwing groups and individuals,” the report said. VOA’s Masood Farivar contributed to this report. 
…

Russian President Vladimir Putin called on Wednesday for global oil producers and consumers to address “challenging” oil markets, while U.S. President Donald Trump complained that oil cheaper “than water” was hurting the industry.Oil prices fell nearly 70% from January highs as coronavirus lockdowns hammered demand and as Saudi Arabia and Russia have flooded the market in a race for market share after a deal they engineered on supply curbs broke down.Oil and natural gas sales are a key revenue source for Russian coffers, while low prices are also hurting shale oil producers in the United States.  Speaking at a government meeting, set up via a video link as a precaution against the coronavirus, Putin said that both oil producers and consumers should find a solution that would improve the “challenging” situation of global oil markets.He also said if investments into the oil sector fell, oil prices would be sure to spike, something he said “no one needs.””That’s why we, together with the main producers and consumers, should work out such decisions, which would mitigate the situation on the market on the whole,” Putin said, according to the readout of the meeting.FILE – U.S. Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette gestures during an interview at the LNG terminal of the deepwater port of Sines after visiting the port, in Sines, southern Portugal, Feb. 12, 2020.Flurry of diplomacyOn Tuesday, U.S. Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette spoke with his Russian counterpart, Alexander Novak, about the price slump, and they agreed to hold future discussions involving other major world oil producers and consumers.The call occurred a day after Trump and Putin agreed in a phone conversation to have their top energy officials discuss global oil market turmoil.Putin said that the United States was also worried about the state of the oil market as shale oil producers need a price around $40 per barrel to turn a profit.”That’s why this is also a hard challenge for the American economy,” he said.Trump plans to meet with oil executives on Friday to discuss potential aid to the industry, including possible tariffs on oil imports from Saudi Arabia, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing unidentified sources.The meeting is to take place at the White House and will include Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp. and Occidental Petroleum Corp., the newspaper said in a report on Wednesday.Crude oil benchmarks ended a volatile quarter with their biggest losses in history. On Wednesday, oil slid toward $25 a barrel, after touching its lowest level in 18 years.”There is so much oil and in some cases it’s probably less valuable than water. At some points of the world the water is much more valuable. So we’ve never seen anything like it,” Trump said.Pact’s collapseThe discussions between Washington and Moscow mark a new twist in oil diplomacy since the collapse this month of a deal between the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and other producers, including Russia, on cutting production.The failure to agree on an extension to a pact that had propped up the market since 2016 led to the scrapping of all restrictions and a dash for market share.FILE – Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak is pictured at EU Commission headquarters in Brussels, Oct. 29, 2014.Brouillette and Novak “had a productive discussion on the current volatility in global oil markets,” Energy Department spokeswoman Shaylyn Hynes said.”Secretary Brouillette and Minister Novak discussed energy market developments and agreed to continue dialogue among major energy producers and consumers, including through the G-20, to address this unprecedented period of disruption in the world economy,” she said.The Russian Energy Ministry said on Wednesday the ministers noted that the fall in the demand and oversupply created risks for stable supplies to the markets.The United States has grown in recent years into the world’s largest oil and gas producer, thanks to a technology-driven shale drilling boom. But the current price of oil is below the production cost of many American drillers, threatening the highly leveraged U.S. shale industry.’Crazy’ productionTrump on Monday said Saudi Arabia and Russia “both went crazy” with their production after the supply deal failed. “I never thought I’d be saying that maybe we have to have an oil [price] increase, because we do,” he said.The Trump administration is trying to persuade Saudi Arabia, the world’s top oil exporter, to cut crude output. It will soon send a special energy envoy, Victoria Coates, to the kingdom.The Kremlin said on Wednesday that Russia and Saudi Arabia were not holding talks regarding the oil market at the moment and that Putin had no immediate plans to have a phone call with Saudi leadership.But the Kremlin added that such talks could be set up quickly if necessary. 
…

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said Wednesday that the coronavirus pandemic had not diminished the alliance’s ability to carry out its missions and keep allies secure.At a news briefing carried via video-conference from Brussels, Stoltenberg said NATO was doing its part to airlift necessary emergency medical equipment, and he noted that a military cargo aircraft left Turkey earlier Wednesday with protective gear and other medical equipment for Spain and Italy.  Stoltenberg also said NATO’s “core task” is to provide security for nearly 1 billion people, so the immediate primary objective is to “make sure a health crisis does not become a security crisis.”Stoltenberg said recent Russian war games in western Russia near NATO ally borders were a stark reminder that the alliance cannot lose its focus on defending Europe.NATO foreign ministers are scheduled to meet Thursday, also via video-conference.
 
…

Two weeks ago, an opposition-leaning radio station in Russia interviewed political analyst Valery Solovei, who alleged the government was lying when it said no one had died in the country from the coronavirus. Solovei told radio station Echo Moskvy at least 1,600 people might have died since mid-January. Russia’s media and internet watchdog, Roscomnadzor, quickly pressured the station to delete the interview from its website. The demand was part of a widespread government campaign against what authorities called “fake news” about the pandemic. On Tuesday, Russian lawmakers began putting some teeth behind the campaign, approving fines of up to $25,000 and prison terms of up to five years for anyone who spreads what is deemed to be false information. Media outlets will be fined up to $127,000 if they disseminate disinformation about the outbreak. Lawmakers rushed the bill through all three readings in just one day after President Vladimir Putin spoke about the need to counter “provocations, stupid gossip and malicious lies” about the outbreak.  Russian law enforcement officers wearing protective masks stand guard in a street, after the city authorities announced a partial lockdown to prevent the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in central Moscow, March 30, 2020.The crusade began about a month ago, when Russia’s caseload was still in the single digits. The Kremlin’s stance of “everything is under control” prompted speculation that authorities might be hiding or underreporting the scale of the outbreak in line with Soviet-era traditions of covering up embarrassing truths. A broad set of measures was outlined and a special “fake news” division in the government’s coronavirus task force was created. A group within Russia’s Investigative Committee was put together to chase down alleged disinformation.  Social media users who doubted the official numbers and news outlets questioning the government response became targets for law enforcement seeking to weed out anything that didn’t correspond with the official data. “In crises, those in power try very hard to control the information and push their own agenda. And, of course, it makes sense to suppress alternative points of view,” Solovei told The Associated Press. The AP found at least nine cases against ordinary Russians accused of spreading “untrue information” on social media and via messenger apps, with at least three of them receiving significant fines.  Police statements offered few details but clearly indicated those involved were merely sharing opinions or rumors, rather than deliberately spreading misinformation. A 32-year-old woman was fined $380 — a significant sum in a country with an average monthly salary of about $550 — for posting on social media something she heard on a bus about the virus in her region. A 26-year-old man was fined a similar amount for a comment he made under a news report claiming a woman died of the virus in a hospital. Another woman faces a fine of about $380-$1,200 for posting about virus cases in her region where no infections were officially reported. Asked whether the punishments fit these crimes, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said they were “absolutely justified.” “It stirs up unwarranted tensions, and in this situation it needs to be punished in accordance with the law,” he said. The crackdown on free speech fits a recent pattern. In the past five years, hundreds of people have been prosecuted on charges of extremism for posting, liking or sharing information on social media on sensitive topics like corruption, the conflict with Ukraine, the 2014 annexation of Crimea and the role of the Russian Orthodox Church. Dozens received prison sentences. FILE – Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a session of the State Duma, the Lower House of the Russian Parliament, prior to its members voting on constitutional amendments, in Moscow, Russia, March 10, 2020.In 2018, Putin acknowledged that prosecuting social media users sometimes turns into “idiocy and absurdity,” and he eased the regulations. Such online hunts have since fizzled out, said Damir Gainutdinov, an internet freedom lawyer with Agora, Russia’s prominent legal aid group. But the void is quickly filling again with a crackdown on those who insult officials or spread so-called “fake news” online – misdemeanors that parliament put on the books last year. “I think in the nearest future, we will see a rapid growth [of cases] related to fakes as the authorities are trying to suppress any nonofficial information about the coronavirus,” Gainutdinov told AP. On Monday, Hungary’s parliament  also passed a law setting prison terms of up to five years for those convicted of spreading false information about the pandemic. Rights groups said the law allows the government to crack down on press freedom. The effort to curb alleged disinformation at home came as Russia is once again being accused of spreading it abroad. The European Union recently identified nearly 80 instances of virus-related disinformation in the past two months. This also follows accusations by U.S. intelligence services that Russia interfered with the 2016 presidential election by spreading false information online — a charge that the Kremlin has steadfastly denied. Waging disinformation campaigns in the West stems from the same desire to control the narrative, said Mark Galeotti, a Russia expert at the Royal United Services Institute. To the Kremlin, “there is no such thing as an objective narrative. So given that it is going to be someone’s narrative that triumphs, of course, you want it to be your narrative rather than someone else’s,” Galeotti told the AP.  Kremlin critics argue that its effort to stifle alternative voices during the pandemic is unlikely to succeed.  Dr. Anastasia Vasilyeva, who works with opposition figure Alexei Navalny and leads the Alliance of Doctors union, made headlines in recent weeks exposing Russia’s underfunded, teetering health care system. She told the AP she was contacted by police about spreading false information in her YouTube blog.”They will have to prove that I lied, so let them prove it,” Vasilyeva said. “They want to scare me in order to stop the others … the truth won’t change because of it.” Even as Russia moved to control the narrative during the outbreak, some embarrassing news has still slipped out. FILE – Russian President Vladimir Putin, right shakes hands with the hospital’s chief Denis Protsenko during his visit to the hospital for coronavirus patients, March 24, 2020.On Tuesday, Dr. Denis Protsenko, head of Moscow’s top hospital for coronavirus patients, was reported to have the virus. That came only a week after Putin visited the hospital and was photographed shaking hands with Protsenko. Peskov sought to assure the country that Putin was fine.  “He’s being tested regularly. It’s all right,” Peskov was quoted by the RIA Novosti news agency as saying. 
…

U.S. federal agents seized a large cache of drugs from a long tunnel used by smugglers to move them across the U.S.-Mexico border.The 600-meter long tunnel, which ran under a series of warehouses from the northern Mexican border town of Tijuana to the southern California city of San Diego, was discovered on March 19 by the San Diego Tunnel Task Force, a special unit made up of agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration and other agencies. Among the drugs stashed in the tunnel were nearly 600 kilograms of cocaine, 1,360 kilograms of marijuana, plus smaller amounts of methamphetamine, heroin and fentanyl. The tunnel’s entrance was near a newly constructed segment of the border wall that President Donald Trump visited back in September that has become a hallmark of his hardline policy of keeping undocumented immigrants from entering the United States.Critics say the border wall will have no effect on the elaborately built tunnels commonly used by smugglers to sneak drugs into the U.S.No arrests were made in connection with last month’s discovery.A 1,300-meter long tunnel complete with an extensive rail cart system, electricity and ventilation was discovered in the same area back in January, which federal agents said was the longest underground tunnel ever found along the U.S.-Mexican border. 
…

Spain announced Wednesday it surpassed 100,000 confirmed coronavirus cases, while a senior Saudi official urged people planning to make the hajj pilgrimage to hold off on deciding for now.Spain is one of the global hot spots for the virus, trailing only the United States and Italy in terms of number of cases.  Wednesday’s announcement also included a death toll that now stands at more than 9,000.Muslim pilgrims are due to descend on Saudi Arabia from all over the world in late July to perform the once-in-a-lifetime religious duty.  But with the virus pandemic, and Saudi Arabia already banning entry to Mecca and Medina, Saudi Hajj and Umrah Minister Muhammad Saleh bin Taher Banten told state television people should wait for more clarity on the situation.In the United States, officials say Americans should be prepared for a potential 100,000 to 240,000 deaths from the coronavirus, while stressing the need to keep social distancing measures in place to give the best chance of lessening the toll. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, speaks about the coronavirus in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House, March 31, 2020, in Washington.Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said he hopes the number will not go that high, but that realistically people should be ready. “People are suffering. People are dying,” he said.  “It’s inconvenient from a societal standpoint, from an economic standpoint to go through this. But this is going to be the answer to our problems. So, let’s all pull together and make sure, as we look forward to the next 30 days, we do it with all the intensity and force that we can.” Countries all over the world have locked down cities, regions and even their entire nations to try to stop the virus from spreading. One of the latest to put in place a two-week ban on all but essential activities is Vietnam, which started Wednesday. Last week, New Zealand shut down restaurants, bars, offices and schools.  Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Wednesday it is too early to tell what extent those measures have helped so far and advocated more testing to actively track down infections and stop new transmissions. Her government reported 61 new cases to push New Zealand’s total to 708. “If the virus is in the community in this way… then the worst thing we can do is to relax and be complacent, and allow the silent spread,” Ardern said. In South Korea, where mass testing has helped level off local transmission rates, officials reported 101 new cases Wednesday.  The country also started enforcing new 14-day quarantines for anyone entering the country. The risks of imported cases undermining successes in controlling community spread of COVID-19 have prompted similar measures in China, which for several months was by far the world leader in coronavirus cases but now has become a sign of hope with gradual lifting of lockdown restrictions. In Germany, health officials said there were about 5,500 new cases there, putting the country on track to soon become the next to surpass China. A research assistant holds coronavirus test samples in her hands at the Lower Saxony State Office for Consumer Protection and Food Safety (LAVES) in Hanover, Germany, April 1, 2020.Meanwhile, in keeping with a plea from U.N. chief Antonio Guterres for parties in the world’s conflicts to take this opportunity to halt their fighting, the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday urged Afghanistan’s warring sides to implement a cease-fire. The Council “called on the political leadership of Afghanistan to put aside their differences and put the interest of the country first.” 
…

How should the U.N. General Assembly and its 193 member states respond to the coronavirus pandemic? Members have been sent two rival resolutions for consideration — and under new voting rules instituted because the global body isn’t holding meetings, if a single country objects a resolution is defeated.One resolution, which has more than 135 co-sponsors, calls for “intensified international cooperation to contain, mitigate and defeat the pandemic, including by exchanging information, scientific knowledge and best practices and by applying the relevant guidelines recommended by the World Health Organization.”The other, sponsored by Russia with support from Central African Republic, Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela, also recognizes the leading role of WHO in combating the pandemic, but it calls for abandoning trade wars and implementing protectionist measures, and not applying unilateral sanctions without U.N. Security Council approval.General Assembly President Tijjani Muhammad-Bande sent both resolutions to all member states late Monday afternoon under a so-called “silence procedure,” saying they had 72 hours until 6 p.m. EDT on Thursday to send an objection, or break silence.  Normally, General Assembly resolutions are adopted by majority votes or by consensus. But in this case, because ambassadors are working from their missions or from home as a result of COVID-19, the new rule calls for silence procedures for all votes.Under the procedure, if a country supports a resolution, it does nothing. If it opposes a resolution, it sends an email breaking silence, which scuttles a resolution’s approval even if it has overwhelming support.In this case, both resolutions could be adopted or defeated, or one could be adopted and the other defeated.The resolution calling for international cooperation is sponsored by Ghana, Indonesia, Liechtenstein, Norway, Singapore and Switzerland and has over 130 co-sponsors.It would also reaffirm the General Assembly’s “commitment to international cooperation and multilateralism and its strong support for the central role of the United Nations system in the global response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.”  It would also emphasize the need to respect human rights and oppose “any form of discrimination, racism and xenophobia in the response to the pandemic.”The draft also recognizes “the unprecedented effects of the pandemic, including the severe disruption to societies and economies, as well as to global travel and commerce, and the devastating impact on the livelihood of people,” and that “the poorest and most vulnerable are the hardest hit.”Norway’s U.N. Ambassador Mona Juul told AP: “In this moment of great uncertainty and global anxiety caused by COVID-19, it is important for the voice of the United Nations General Assembly – as the universal body of nations – to be heard loud and clear.””Our wish is that the assembly urgently send a strong message of unity, solidarity and international cooperation,” she said. “People around the world expect no less from the United Nations.”The Russian draft resolution is drafted as a “declaration of solidarity of the United Nations in the face of the challenges posed by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).”It pledges “to take a comprehensive, science-based approach in elaborating, implementing and improving measures to slow down the transmission of, reverse and eventually defeat COVID-19,” following WHO rules and recommendations and supports those people and countries most affected.”We are resolved to prevent financial speculations which hinder access for all to essential health-care services and quality, safe, effective and affordable essential medicines, vaccines, personal protection and food items,” the draft says.”We are resolved to cooperate in addressing the disruptions to international trade and the market uncertainty due to the pandemic, mitigating the damage caused to the global economy by the spread of COVID-19, and promoting economic growth throughout the world, especially in developing countries,” the draft says.Fedor Strzhizhovskiy, spokesman for Russia’s U.N. Mission, said: “We consider the Russian draft declaration … to be more result-oriented than the alternative draft declaration that we believe is too general.””We were also ready to work on merging the two drafts,” he said. “However, authors of the other initiative declined such a scenario.” 
…

Prosecutors in Mexico are vowing to punish the person or persons who gunned down a newspaper journalist earlier this week. Maria Elena Ferral, a correspondent for the Diario de Xalapa in the eastern state of Veracruz, was shot several times Monday in the city of Papantla.  Police say Ferra was shot several times by a group of gunmen on motorbikes as she was getting into her car. Ferral had complained many times in the past that she had received death threats and had been harassed on numerous occasions. Veracruz state is plagued by drug violence and police corruption.  Mexico is notorious for being one of the world’s most dangerous countries for journalists.  Over 100 journalists have been murdered in the Central American nation since 2000. 
…

Turkey is being accused of “weaponizing” water against Syrian Kurds amid the coronavirus epidemic. Ankara is dismissing the accusation, however, as a “smear campaign.”  U.S.-based Human Rights Watch warned Tuesday that “Turkish authorities’ failure to ensure adequate water supplies to Kurdish-held areas in northeast Syria is compromising humanitarian agencies’ ability to prepare and protect vulnerable communities in the COVID-19 pandemic.”   The key Allouk water-pumping station is at the center of the controversy. HRW says that through March, the station worked only intermittently and now is closed again.  Syrian forces backed by Ankara operate the water station that serves territory held by the Syrian Kurdish militia, the YPG, which is designated as terrorists by Ankara.In October, Syrian rebels backed by Turkish forces launched an offensive against the YPG, taking control of a large swathe of territory. Ankara claims the Kurdish militia is affiliated with the PKK, which is fighting a decade’s long insurgency inside Turkey for greater minority rights.  A Syrian girl fills a jug with water in Washukanni camp, on Dec. 16, 2019, which was recently established on the outskirts of Hasakeh city for people displaced from the northeastern Syrian town of Ras Al-Ain.”Turkey and Turkish-backed factions are in control of the area where the Allouk pumping station is. Before they took control, we hadn’t seen any interruption in the water supply,” said Sara Kayyali, a researcher for Human Rights Watch in Syria. “What we’ve seen by the closure of the pumping station is an attempt to weaponize, to use water as a weapon to get more out of the Syrian Kurdish lead authority, as well as the Syrian authorities,” said Kayyali.  HRW warns the pumping station is of critical importance to hundreds of thousands of people.  “The water pumping station supplies clean drinking water to the most vulnerable refugee camps in the region,” said Kayyali.  “There are tens of thousands of Syrians and foreigners who are already living in dire humanitarian conditions. If you stop pumping water to these regions and coronavirus comes in, it will become an absolute disaster,” she said.  “Fortunately, until now, we don’t have any corona cases, because we acted very quickly, by closing all the borders,” said Dr. Raperin Hasan, co-chair of regional Health Authority in Jazira, an autonomous region of northern and eastern Syria.  But Hasan warns, with the region hosting several large refugee camps, the loss of the Allouk water station means they are still facing a humanitarian crisis.   “We now have hundreds of thousand people living together closely without water. They have only a small quantity of water every three days,” said Hasan.  “We are trying to bring water from other places by truck, but there is only a very small quantity. It’s not working, as there are so many people, and the water quality is not the same as if it comes piped in,” she said.  “We already have a lot of diseases — diarrhea, stomach problems, and skin diseases,” she added. “But our biggest fear is the coronavirus. Because there is no water to wash their hands, and they have the same problem in Hasakah [a local city].”  A woman carries jerry cans to fill them up with water at the Kurdish-run al-Hol camp for the displaced where families of Islamic State (IS) foreign fighters are held, in the al-Hasakeh governorate in northeastern Syria on Dec. 9, 2019.Personal hygiene, particularly regularly washing hands, according to experts, is one of the main ways of controlling the spread of the virus.  Ankara is blaming Damascus for failing to provide adequate electricity for the pumping station.  “The unstable electricity supply in the region affects the sustainment of water services provided by the Allouk water station,” according to a Turkish official speaking on the condition of anonymity.  “The Assad regime should prioritize repair and maintenance of the electricity infrastructure in the region rather than initiating a joint smear campaign against Turkey with the terrorist organization PKK-YPG, its long-time partner.”  HRW’s Kayyali disputes Ankara’s explanation. “It’s not that there’s not enough electricity; it’s just they [Ankara] want the electricity for rest of the region they control,” she added.  “Turkey had never used water as a weapon in the region, even when the Syrian regime was hosting the terrorist leader of the PKK, Abdullah Ocalan,” said international relations professor Huseyin Bagci, of Ankara’s Middle East Technical University.  “But if Ankara was to use water to squeeze the Syrian Kurds, that would be against international law and will create major problems for Turkey internationally,” he said.  “I think the situation is more likely a failure of all sides to work together, Damascus, Russia, Syrian Kurds, and Turkey. They all need to sit down talk together to resolve this, as it’s the most vulnerable who are suffering,” Bagci added.  Hasan concurs, warning that the water crisis comes as they are engaged in a desperate struggle to prepare for combating the coronavirus pandemic.   
   
“Our health care system is very, very weak. We don’t have supplies. We don’t have major hospitals. It’s a very big problem. We don’t have any international support. We don’t even have masks,” said Hasan.  “The coronavirus represents a threat to all of us,” said Kayyali. “It will be very easy to see how a failure to respond in one part of Syria will defiantly lead to consequences in areas of Syria controlled by other groups, but also in Turkey itself given it’s a neighboring country. It’s very clear, if we don’t fight coronavirus collectively and do what we can, we are all going to suffer the consequences.”  
…

Fellow scientists question his findings, but an unlikely mix of supporters — from French yellow vest protesters to U.S. President Donald Trump — are cheering their promise.Last month, French immunology specialist Didier Raoult had no Twitter account. Now, he has more than a quarter-million followers, and counting.   The 68-year-old French physician has emerged as one of France’s most publicized and polarizing figures of these coronavirus times, since claiming his research shows an anti-malarial drug can help fight COVID-19.   Outside the Marseille university hospital where he works, a long line of sick and frightened people waits to be tested each day for COVID-19.   The sick may receive a much-hyped experimental treatment — a mix of anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine and antibiotic azithromycin that have starred in a pair of quick, small-scale studies that Raoult conducted, and were published this month. Together, the studies show the “efficacy” of the anti-malarial drug in fighting the virus, Raoult and his research team claim, and the synergetic effects of adding the antibiotic.  “He’s a visionary,” Renaud Muselier, head of the Provence-Alpes-Cote d’Azur region and a friend of Raoult, told the weekly Le Journal du Dimanche. “That’s what makes his strength today.”   But critics say Raoult’s team did not follow rigorous procedures, had no control group, and drew their results based on too few people, among other failings.   “The methodology is fragile, the results are forced, one doesn’t give people hope based on approximate trials,” Gilles Pialoux, infectious diseases head of Paris-based Tenon Hospital, told BFMTV.     A few years ago, Raoult grew his white-blond hair long — adding a mustache and beard —just to annoy the establishment, he is reported as saying. No stranger to controversy Raoult, who heads the infectious diseases department of La Timone Hospital in Marseille, is no stranger to controversy — or applause. Born in Dakar, Senegal, he dropped out of high school in his junior year and spent a couple of years in the French merchant marines before heading to medical school. A few years ago, he grew his white-blond hair long — adding a mustache and beard —just to annoy the establishment, he is reported as saying.  His award-winning research includes discovering giant viruses and new bacteria. He has published prodigiously, although his massive output has sparked skepticism about its rigor.   Raoult has also questioned climate change. In January, he initially dismissed the first coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan as overblown.   And while he has been added to the government coronavirus team of health experts, he has reportedly distanced himself from it, failing to attend recent meetings. “I don’t care what others think of me,” he told La Provence newspaper. “I’m not an outsider. I’m the one who is the most advanced.”   After Raoult’s first coronavirus findings were published mid-March in the International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents, Trump tweeted that the two-drug combination he tested could become “the biggest game changers” in medical history.  France and the United States have since authorized limited, emergency use of hydroxychloroquine and related compound chloroquine in treating the most serious COVID-19 cases. On Monday, the French food safety agency warned of potentially dangerous side effects.   But the public has dismissed such strictures. Pharmacies report a rush for Plaquenil, the brand name of hydroxychloroquine, which has worried lupus and other patients who have long depended on it.   Local hero  New and larger experimental studies are now under way in Europe and the United States to see if Raoult’s findings, among others, can be replicated on a bigger scale.   In the meantime, he has vaulted to near rock star status. His wide spectrum of supporters includes controversial French comedian Dieudonne, far-right adherents, ex-soccer champion Eric Cantona and several prominent politicians, some of whom took Raoult’s experimental treatment after contracting COVID-19.   “Bravo to @raoult didier and his team,” tweeted Nice Mayor Christian Estrosi. “I’m proud to have fought beside him.”   But a raft of medical experts is less enthusiastic, questioning the credibility of Raoult’s studies, the first of which involved just 20 patients.   “No, ‘not huge’ I’m afraid,” tweeted Francois Balloux of University College in London, in response to the results of Raoult’s second study involving 80 patients.   Released Friday, the study claimed that most of the patients treated with the combination drug had favorable outcomes.   But Balloux noted that those who had tested presented mild symptoms of coronavirus and likely would have recovered anyway.
…

In Greece, the case of an Iranian migrant now jailed on charges of inciting an insurrection is highlighting the Greek government’s rising concerns about a flare-up of clashes involving migrants along Greece’s border with Turkey. Greek authorities say the Iranian man — a self-described anarchist — was urging groups in Greece to arm asylum seekers trying to enter Europe from Turkey. The man, if convicted, faces a stiff sentence of up to ten years in prison.Greek counter-terrorism forces say they arrested the 23-year-old Iranian national in central Athens after he posted a call for an armed insurrection on a website that is often visited by homegrown extremists and urban guerrilla groupings.Authorities say the unidentified man describes himself as a migrant anarchist and they say he has not denied the criminal charges set against him — among the stiffest slapped on a migrant in recent years.
 
Greek intelligence officials say Greece granted the man political asylum three years ago and that he has since then established a militant profile, linking up with a far-left extremist group in Greece.
 
Left-wing groups in Greece have long supported asylum seekers, advocating their safe passage — and their right to stay in Europe. But in his online calling, the Iranian went a step further, urging anarchists to help arm migrants, take to the streets and renew clashes with authorities in northern Greece to help tens of thousands trapped in Turkey stream in to Europe.
 
Authorities in Athens say they have not established links between that plot and Turkey.
 
But the Iranian’s arrest here and the severity of the charges laid against him underscore Greece’s desperate bid to stamp out any potential flare up of migrant clashes along the country’s borders with Turkey.
 
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan flung open the borders to migrants heading for Europe in late February after dozens of Turkish soldiers were killed in an air raid in Syria. FILE – Migrants walk in Edirne at the Turkish-Greek border, March 9, 2020.Turkey last week said it moved 5,800 migrants away from the border crossing at Edirne province where they had been massing, citing concerns over the threat of coronavirus.  The move was interpreted by some in Greece as a reversal by Ankara. But Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu told an independent broadcaster the move did not represent a policy change.
 
“Once the COVID-19 crisis is over, the Turkish government will not block migrants from returning to the border,” he said. Although Greek authorities have not established a link between the Iranian migrant and the Turkish government, they worry about how Ankara may use the nearly four million Syrian refugees now inside Greece.
Ioannis Mazis, an international relations analyst in Athens, said Greece has already seen Turkey using tens of thousands of migrants as pawns in the recent border clashes. He said the Turkish government has even admitted that it has orchestrated much of the border violence. So, threats of further clashes should not be underestimated, Mazis added.
 
By some accounts, as many 150,000 migrants and refugee tried to push into Europe last month. Greece says it succeeded in fending off more than 50,000, while many others managed to sneak in.  
 
  
…

The United States says it is willing to lift sanctions against Venezuela in exchange for the formation of a transitional government comprised of allies of President Nicolas Maduro and opposition leader Juan Guaido, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Tuesday.
 
The plan calls on Maduro and Guaido to hand over power to a five-member council until presidential and parliamentary elections can be held within the next year.
 
Pompeo called on Maduro and Guaido to form a transitional government which would be tasked with scheduling elections within six to 12 months.
 
Pompeo said the U.S. would welcome efforts by Guaido to seek office in future elections, but maintained the U.S. position that Maduro must go.FILE – Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro speaks during a news conference at Miraflores Palace in Caracas, March 12, 2020.The U.S. and more than 50 countries recognize Guaido as Venezuela’s interim leader.
 
“We’ve made clear all along that Nicolas Maduro will never again govern Venezuela,” Pompeo said at a Washington news conference Tuesday.
 
Pompeo said the U.S. continues to support Guaido and added, “When we put together this pathway to democracy, we worked closely with him.”
 
The U.S.’ top diplomat said sanctions “will remain in effect, and increase, until the Maduro regime accepts a genuine political transition.”  
 
The oil-rich country’s economy, already weakened by a U.S. economic pressure campaign, has been dealt subsequent blows by the coronavirus pandemic and falling oil prices. The coronavirus has also crippled the country’s health care system.Opposition leader Juan Guaido waves to supporters during a rally at Bolivar Plaza, in Chacao, Venezuela, Feb. 11, 2020. The U.S. proposal also addresses for the first time the lifting of sanctions on Venezuela’s oil sector and Maduro officials.
 
Officials facing accusations of human rights abuses and drug trafficking are not eligible for sanctions relief. But members of Maduro’s socialist government who have been blacklisted would benefit.
 
A transitional government is unlikely to be supported by Maduro and many of his allies unless he is guaranteed protections from the U.S. justice system.
 
“It’s a little hard to see how this is going to be convincing to the major players in the government,” said David Smilde, a senior fellow at the Washington Office on Latin America. “They seem to think the military is going to step in, but that seems extremely unlikely.”
 
The plan would also need the approval of Cuba, Russia or China — Maduro’s major political and economic supporters.  
 
The U.S. campaign against the South American country was spearheaded by economic and diplomatic pressure to break the military’s support for Maduro.
 
Last week, however, the U.S. indicted Maduro, the head of the supreme court, the defense minister and other key allies on drug trafficking and money laundering charges.
 
A high-ranking U.S. administration official who spoke anonymously with reporters on Monday said the U.S. is willing to negotiate with Maduro the terms of his exit, even with respect to the indictments against him.
 
On Saturday, Guaido called for the establishment of a “national emergency government.”VOA’s Nike Ching contributed to this report from the State Department.
 
…

Prince Harry and his wife Meghan officially make the transition Tuesday from senior members of Britain’s royal family to — well, it’s unclear. International celebrities, charity patrons, global influencers?
The royal schism that the couple triggered in January by announcing that they would step down from official duties, give up public funding, seek financial independence and swap the U.K. for North America becomes official on March 31.
The move has been made more complicated and poignant by the global coronavirus pandemic, which finds the couple and their 10-month-old son Archie in California, far from Harry’s father Prince Charles — who is recovering after testing positive for COVID-19 — and Harry’s 93-year-old grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II.
“As we can all feel, the world at this moment seems extraordinarily fragile,” the couple said in a final post Monday on their now-mothballed SussexRoyal Instagram account.
“What’s most important right now is the health and well-being of everyone across the globe and finding solutions for the many issues that have presented themselves as a result of this pandemic,” they added. “As we all find the part we are to play in this global shift and changing of habits, we are focusing this new chapter to understand how we can best contribute.”  
It is less than two years since ex-soldier Harry, who is sixth in line to the British throne, married American actress Meghan Markle at Windsor Castle in a lavish ceremony watched by millions around the world.  
Soon the couple began to bristle at intense scrutiny by the British media — which they said tipped into harassment. They decided to break free, in what Harry called a “leap of faith” as he sought a more peaceful life, without the journalists who have filmed, photographed and written about him since the day he was born.  
Harry has long had an uncomfortable relationship with the media, which he blames for the death of his mother, Princess Diana. She died in a car crash in Paris in 1997 while being pursued by paparazzi.
Harry’s unhappiness increased after he began dating Markle, then the star of TV legal drama “Suits.” In 2016 he accused the media of harassing his then-girlfriend, and criticized “racial undertones” in some coverage of the biracial Markle.
It’s clear that Meghan’s upbeat Californian style — embodied in the glossy images and life-affirming messages of the couple’s Instagram account — rankled with sections of Britain’s tabloid press, which is both insatiable for royal content and fiercely judgmental of the family members.  
The couple — who are keeping their titles, Duke and Duchess of Sussex, but will no longer be called Their Royal Highnesses — had hoped to keep using the Sussex Royal brand in their new life. But last month they announced they wouldn’t seek to trademark the term because of U.K. rules governing use of the word “royal.”
The couple plans to launch a non-profit organization for their charitable activities in areas including youth empowerment, mental health, conservation, gender equality and education. Harry will also continue to oversee the Invictus Games, the Olympics-style competition he founded for wounded troops.
Meghan has been announced as the narrator of “Elephant,” a Disney nature documentary.
But for now, the couple’s office said they want the world to focus “on the global response to COVID-19.”  
“The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will spend the next few months focusing on their family and continuing to do what they can, safely and privately, to support and work with their pre-existing charitable commitments while developing their future non-profit organisation,” the couple’s office said in a statement.
The newly independent Harry and Meghan will also need to earn money to help pay for a multi-million dollar security bill.
As senior royals, they have had bodyguards funded by British taxpayers. Since late last year, Harry and Meghan have since been based on Canada’s Vancouver Island, where security was provided by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Canadian authorities warned last month that would end once the couple ceased to be working royals.
The duke and duchess recently moved to the Los Angeles area, where Meghan grew up and where her mother still lives. The news led President Donald Trump to tweet on Sunday: “the U.S. will not pay for their security protection. They must pay!”
Harry and Meghan’s office said they had “no plans to ask the U.S. government for security resources. Privately funded security arrangements have been made.”  
Some royal historians warned that Harry and Meghan could struggle to find a fulfilling role. Comparisons have been drawn to King Edward VIII, who abdicated in 1936 to marry divorced American Wallis Simpson. The couple lived the rest of their lives in luxurious but lonely self-imposed exile from Britain.
Royal historian Penny Junor said U.K.-based royals were helping boost the nation’s morale during the coronavirus pandemic. The queen has issued a message to the nation, while Harry’s brother Prince William and his children joined in a public round of applause for health care workers.
“All of this is absolutely what the family is about, and those members of the royal family that are on a limb now are pretty irrelevant,” Junor said.
 
…

Josna Begum lives with her son in a house with four other families in a slum in Bangladesh’s capital, Dhaka, the world’s most densely populated city. “Distancing is impossible for us,” she said.
The 35-year-old, who occupies a single room with her 12-year-old son and earns $100 a month as a domestic worker, shares the single kitchen in the house with 22 other residents.  
The Bangladeshi government this week ordered a nationwide shutdown to try to slow the spread of the coronavirus in a country considered at high risk because hundreds of thousands of overseas workers have returned home from Italy and other virus hot spots. All businesses were ordered closed except food markets, pharmacies and other essential services, and people were told to stay indoors and keep a safe distance from each other.
But in Dhaka, a city of more than 10 million where the average home is less than 120 square feet and a million people live in slums, that is easier said than done.  
From Mumbai to Rio de Janeiro to Johannesburg the same story is playing out in some of the world’s most unequal regions, where tens of millions live in crowded slums without adequate water, sanitation and access to health care.
“The future of this pandemic to a greater extent will be determined by what happens in very large and densely populated countries,” Dr. Michael J. Ryan, executive director of the World Health Organization’s health emergencies program, said this week.  
Experts believe the virus is mainly spread through droplets expelled from the mouths and noses of infected people when they speak, cough or sneeze, traveling 3 to 6 feet (1 to 2 meters) before gravity pulls them to the ground. And while most people suffer mild or moderate symptoms like cough or fever, in older adults and people with other health problems the risk of pneumonia or death is far higher.
Social distancing, while necessary in the face of such an easily spread virus, envisions a “citizen who is able to live in the most desirable way,” said Hyun Bang Shin, a professor of urban studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science. “Injustices and inequities that have basically been embedded are being exposed in face of this outbreak.”  
Abu Bakar, 74, who lives with his family of three in a makeshift two-room structure in a slum in northern Jakarta can’t imagine how social distancing could work. “For me it is more important to keep myself clean,” he said.  
But even that can be nearly impossible in an area regularly ravaged by seasonal flooding from the murky, trash-filled water of a neighboring reservoir. Marks on the walls show the flooding can be as high as 2 feet.
In the sprawling slum, where thousands lived crammed together in dilapidated structures with poor ventilation and narrow walkways, Bakar says that even if he were to become sick, he wouldn’t be able to isolate himself.  
And that’s far from the only problem, said Elisa Sutanudjaja, of the Jakarta-based Rujak Center for Urban Studies.  
“There’s a major lack of clinics, sanitation, and other utilities. So for many it’s not only the lack of space that’s a concern,” she said.
In Mumbai — where the city and its suburbs have seen a tenth of India’s nearly 900 cases — 53-year-old Abrar Salmani lives with 11 family members in a house so small that many regularly sleep outdoors in the Bhim Nagar slum.  
The unemployed weaver said most families don’t have access to water and rely on communal washrooms for bathing. “Our demands to have a water pipeline haven’t been answered for years,” he said.  
In the Gaza Strip, where 2 million Palestinians lived squeezed into 140 square miles and more than half are unemployed, the arrival of the virus this week prompted the territory’s Hamas rulers to order the closure of cafes and wedding halls, and to cancel Friday prayers at mosques. Residents were urged to stay at home and refrain from close contact.
But with chronic power shortages of at least eight hours a day, it’s hard for Gazans to stay inside their homes. And the traditional conservative Muslim society frowns upon a handshake being declined, let alone a kiss on the cheek.  
“My friend was upset after I refused to shake hands with him, even though I tried to explain to him this is because of the coronavirus,” 53-year-old Yasser Anan said. “Eventually, because he is dear to me, I had to kiss his forehead in apology.”
Across Africa, home to some of the world’s fastest-growing cities with badly strained infrastructure, authorities worry that the virus could swiftly spread through slums and impoverished townships. Tear gas and gunfire have been used in a couple of cities in a rough bid to enforce social distancing. So far the continent of more than 1.3 billion people has nearly 3,500 cases, but with the global shortage of testing kits the actual number could be higher and health experts have warned that the rising rate looks like that of Europe.  
In Nigeria’s seaside city of Lagos, Africa’s largest with more than 20 million people, authorities have scrambled to spread the word about the virus among slum dwellers. In the vast Makoko slum, where shacks are built on stilts and sewage runs into the sea, residents listened with a mix of fear and defiance.
Biodun Edward scooped up a handful or the murky water and drank it. “Let (authorities) come and test it, there’s no disease here,” he declared.  
“Firstly, the smoke in the air will ward off disease, strong alcohol,” he added, then pulled a piece of ginger root from his pocket and called it protection.
In South Africa’s crowded, impoverished townships, tens of thousands of workers pack into groaning minibus taxis for commutes with little or no protection. At home, extended families squeeze into a single room or two and communities draw water from collective taps. A countrywide lockdown began Friday.
“Coronavirus scares us since we’re living in a shack,” said one Soweto resident on the outskirts of Johannesburg, Mando Masimola. “We don’t know how we’ll survive if the virus infects us.”
In Latin American and the Caribbean, experts are warning the virus could kill untold numbers in the poorest sectors of society, where not working means not eating, people live packed together and few have access to health care, let alone sophisticated medical care.
“Quarantine here is impossible,” said Raull Santiago, founder of two charities in the favelas, or slums, of Rio de Janeiro.  
“It’s wall to wall, there are homes of two or three rooms with six people living inside,” he said on Twitter, along with a photo of tightly packed brick houses in the Complexo do Alemao favela. “How do you do it?”
The first person to die in Rio de Janeiro state was Cleonice Goncalves, a 63-year-old woman who worked as a maid for a family in Leblon, one of Rio’s wealthiest neighborhoods. The woman of the household was infected during a trip to Italy but didn’t tell Goncalves, the victim’s brother told local media. Concalves, who had hypertension and diabetes, fell ill and died on March 17.
“There’s a large population of working people … that are just going to be unable to simply stay home,” said Geoff Ramsey, a Washington-based researcher at the Washington Office on Latin America.  
“We’re looking at a region that’s going to be deeply, deeply impacted by the global pandemic.” 
…

Hungary’s parliament granted nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban the right to rule by decree on Monday to fight the coronavirus, ignoring calls by opponents and rights groups to put a timeframe on the extra powers.
 
President Janos Ader, an Orban ally, signed the legislation extending a state of emergency after it was approved by parliament, dominated by Orban’s Fidesz party. Ader said it was in line with international treaties and Hungary’s constitution.
 
The law has triggered criticism from opposition parties, rights groups and the Council of Europe, Europe’s main rights forum, because it does not set a specific limit on the time the additional powers will be in force.
 
It also imposes jail terms of up to five years on those hindering measures to curb the spread of the virus or spreading false information that could upset people or hinder the fight against the virus.
 
Rights groups said this might be used to muzzle journalists as remaining independent media are forced to cut staff and budgets while media loyal to the government continue to receive taxpayers’ money.
 
Since he took power in 2010, Orban has built media he can control, using legal levers, ownership changes and advertising money for more loyal media coverage. The economic impact of the coronavirus could accelerate the shake-up of the media, journalists say.
 
The government has rejected the criticism, saying the law empowers it to adopt only measures needed to fight the virus, and that parliament can revoke the special powers.
 
“This is an authorization limited both in time and scope … as it is solely related to the coronavirus, and you are crying a dictatorship,” state secretary Bence Retvari told opposition parties before the vote.
 
Justice Minister Judit Varga said it was “very damaging fake news” that the law is intended to neutralize the national assembly.
 
Orban, who has gradually increased his power in a decade in office, has often been in conflict with the European Union and rights organizations over his perceived erosion of democratic checks and balances and the rule of law.
 
Opposition lawmakers said they back the government’s overall fight against the coronavirus but wanted a time limit placed on the government’s special powers, which parliament can extend if necessary. Parliament rejected all opposition amendments.
 
President Ader said the government’s special authorization would end once the epidemic is over and was limited to dealing with the epidemic and its fallout.
 
“The controlling role of Parliament and the government’s duty to report will remain in place during the epidemic,” Ader said. Hungary has reported 447 coronavirus cases and 15 deaths.
  Independent Media at Risk
 
Some media companies, facing severe short-term liquidity problems, have already scrapped plans for 2020.
 
Central Media, one of Hungary’s largest media groups, has put journalists on reduced hours and cut salaries by up to a quarter, several sources told Reuters.
 
Pesti Hirlap, a tabloid, has told staff it will cut jobs and switched to online-only mode. Executives at HVG, a weekly that also runs a popular web site, warned staff of budget cuts, according to several sources.
 
“Press freedom could fall victim to the coronavirus,” Miklos Hargitai, chair of the Hungarian Journalists Association (MUOSZ), told Reuters.
 
State media have an annual budget of around 90 billion forints ($280 million). The public media budget is not affected by the crisis this year, a government spokesman said.
 
Loyal outlets receive state advertisements regardless of their audience size, data shows.
 
“The coronavirus epidemic will have a devastating effect on Hungarian independent media,” said Agnes Urban, director of the Mertek Media Monitor think tank. “This can become critical for independent outlets within 2-3 months as most lack a rich owner.” 
…

The Trump administration is prepared to lift sanctions on Venezuela in support of a new proposal to form a transitional government representing allies of both Nicolas Maduro and opposition leader Juan Guaido, U.S. officials said.
The plan, which will be presented Tuesday by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, echoes a proposal made over the weekend by Guaidó that shows how growing concerns about the coronavirus, which threatens to overwhelm the South American country’s already collapsed health system and crippled economy, are reviving U.S. attempts to pull the military apart from Maduro.  
What’s being dubbed the “Democratic Framework for Venezuela” would require Maduro and Guaidó to step aside and hand power to a five-member council of state to govern the country until presidential and parliamentary elections can be held in late 2020, according to a written summary of the proposal seen by The Associated Press.  
Four of the members would be appointed by the opposition-controlled National Assembly that Guaidó heads. To draw buy-in from the ruling socialist party, a two-third majority would be required. The fifth member, who would serve as interim president until elections are held, would be named by the other council members. Neither Maduro nor Guaidó would be on the council.
“The hope is that this setup promotes the selection of people who are very broadly respected and known as people who can work with the other side,” U.S. Special Representative for Venezuela Elliott Abrams told the AP in a preview of the plan. “Even people in the regime look at this and realize Maduro has to go, but the rest of us are being treated well and fairly.”
The plan also outlines for the first time U.S. requirements for lifting sanctions against Maduro officials and the oil industry — the source of nearly all of Venezuela’s foreign income.
While those accused of grave human rights abuses and drug trafficking are not eligible for sanctions relief, individuals who are blacklisted because of the position they hold inside the Maduro government — such as members of the supreme court, electoral council and the rubber-stamp constitutional assembly — would benefit.  
But for sanctions to vanish, Abrams said the council would need to be functioning and all foreign military forces — from Cuba or Russia — would need to leave the country.  
“What we’re hoping is that this really intensifies a discussion inside the army, Chavismo, the ruling socialist party and the regime on how to get out of the terrible crisis they’re in,” Abrams said.
For months, the U.S. has relied on economic and diplomatic pressure to try and break the military’s support for Maduro and last week U.S. prosecutors indicted Maduro and key stakeholders — including his defense minister and head of the supreme court — on drug trafficking and money laundering charges.  
Still, any power-sharing arrangement is unlikely to win Maduro’s support unless the thorny issue of his future is addressed and he’s protected from the U.S. justice system, said David Smilde, a senior fellow at the Washington Office on Latin America. While Venezuelans are protected from extradition by Hugo Chavez’s 1999 constitution, the charter could be rewritten in a transition, he said.
“It’s a little hard to see how this is going to be convincing to the major players in the government,” said David Smilde, a senior fellow at the Washington Office on Latin America. “They seem to think the military is going to step in, but that seems extremely unlikely.”
It also would require the support of Cuba, China or Russia, all of whom are key economic and political backers of Maduro. In a call Monday with Vladimir Putin, President Donald Trump reiterated that the situation in Venezuela is dire and told the Russian leader we all have an interest in seeing a democratic transition to end the ongoing crisis, according to a White House readout of the call.  
A senior administration official said Monday that the U.S. is willing to negotiate with Maduro the terms of his exit even in the wake of the indictments, which complicate his legal standing.
But recalling the history of Gen. Manuel Noriega in Panama, who was removed in a U.S. invasion after being charged himself for drug trafficking, he cautioned that his options for a deal were running out.
“History shows that those who do not cooperate with U.S. law enforcement agencies do not fare well, ” the official said in a call with journalists on condition of anonymity to discuss U.S. policy. “Maduro probably regrets not taking the offer six months ago. We urge Maduro not to regret not taking it now.”
Guaidó, who has been recognized by the U.S. and nearly 60 other countries as the lawful leader of the country following a widely viewed fraudulent re-election of Maduro, called on Saturday for the creation of a “national emergency government.”  
He said international financial institutions are prepared to support a power-sharing interim government with $1.2 billion in loans to fight the pandemic. Guaido said the loans would be used to directly assist Venezuelan families who are expected to be harmed not only by the spread of the disease but also the economic shock from a collapse in oil prices, virtually the country’s only source of hard currency.  
The spread of the coronavirus threatens to overwhelm Venezuela’s already collapsed health system while depriving its crippled economy of oil revenue on which it almost exclusively depends for hard currency.  
The United Nations said Venezuela could be one of the nations hit hardest by the spread of the coronavirus, designating it a country for priority attention because of a health system marked by widespread shortages of medical supplies and a lack of water and electricity.  
Last September, Guaidó proposed a similar transitional government in talks with Maduro officials sponsored by Norway, which never gained traction.  
But with the already bankrupt country running out of gasoline and seeing bouts of looting amid the coronavirus pandemic, calls have been growing for both the opposition and Maduro to set aside their bitter differences to head off a nightmare scenario.
“The regime is under greater pressure than it has ever before,” Abrams said.
…

Two ships carrying passengers and crew from an ill-fated South American cruise are pleading with Florida officials to let them carry off the sick and dead, but Gov. Ron DeSantis says Florida’s health care resources are already stretched too thin.As the Zandaam and its sister ship the Rotterdam make for Florida, passengers confined to their rooms are anxious for relief, hoping DeSantis will change his mind and allow them to disembark despite confirmed coronavirus cases aboard.  The governor  said he has been in contact with the Coast Guard and the White House about diverting them, and local officials were meeting Tuesday to decide whether to let them dock at Broward County’s Port Everglades cruise ship terminal, where workers who greet passengers were among Florida’s first confirmed coronavirus cases.Holland America said the Rotterdam took on nearly 1,400 people who appear to be healthy, leaving 450 guests and 602 crew members on the Zaandam, including more than 190 who said they are sick. More than 300 U.S. citizens are on both ships combined.”We cannot afford to have people who are not even Floridians dumped into South Florida using up those valuable resources,” DeSantis told Fox News. “We view this as a big big problem and we do not want to see people dumped in Southern Florida right now.”Holland America President Orlando Ashford penned an opinion column in the South Florida Sun Sentinel to plead with officials and residents to let the passengers disembark.”Already four guests have passed away and I fear other lives are at risk,” Ashford wrote. “The COVID-19 situation is one of the most urgent tests of our common humanity. To slam the door in the face of these people betrays our deepest human values.”  With authorities in country after country sealing borders and imposing quarantines in response to the coronavirus pandemic, the Zandaam and then its sister ship became pariahs. Passengers were asked to keep their rooms dark and leave their drapes closed as they passed through the Panama Canal on Sunday night after days of wrangling with local authorities.Laura Gabaroni and her husband Juan Huergo, of Orlando, had wanted to explore the southernmost tip of South America for years — to see the penguins on the Falkland Islands and the glacial landscapes of the Strait of Magellan. But their vacation turned harrowing as countries shunned them and people fell ill.”It’s been a trying time, especially because of the many ups and downs we’ve seen along the way,” said Gabaroni. “We are unable to leave our rooms, haven’t had fresh air in days.”At least two of the four deaths on the Zandaam were caused by the coronavirus, according to Panamanian authorities. The company said eight others have tested positive for COVID-19, and that most of the passengers and crew on both ships appear to be in good health.  Gabaroni and hundreds of others who were fever-free and not showing any symptoms were transferred to the Rotterdam, which replenished the Zandaam with supplies and staff last week.The Zandaam was originally scheduled to travel on March 7 from Buenos Aires to San Antonio, Chile, and then depart on March 21 for a 20-day cruise to arrive in Fort Lauderdale in early April. But beginning March 15, the Zandaam was denied entry by South American ports, even before passengers reported their first flu-like symptoms on March 22.  Canal administrator Ricaurte Vásquez said Panama allowed them through for humanitarian reasons, but won’t make another exception for vessels with positive coronavirus cases.Passenger Emily Spindler Brazell, of Tappahannock, Virginia, said the company has been accommodating, offering extravagant meals, wine and unlimited phone calls — but they have to stay in their rooms, avoiding any contact with others.”The captain said something like, ‘This is not a trip anymore. This is not a cruise. This is a humanitarian mission,'” said Brazell, who was transferred to the Rotterdam on Saturday.  Gabaroni, a 48-year-old technical writer, wrote a letter to DeSantis imploring him to let them off the ships.”Florida continues to receive flights from New York, and it allowed spring break gatherings to go on as planned. Why turn their backs on us?” Gabaroni said.
…

Ukraine’s parliament has voted to lift the ban on the sale of farmland in a move that would allow the country to get $8 billion worth of aid from the International Monetary Fund.  The bill, long pushed by economists to stimulate investment in agriculture, was approved by 259 votes out of 450 late Monday. It opens up the land market for Ukrainian citizens starting from July 1, 2021, and for Ukrainian companies starting from 2024.  Ukrainians will vote on a nationwide referendum on whether to allow foreigners to buy farmland.  Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, wearing a protective mask used as a preventive measure against coronavirus disease (COVID-19), gives thumbs-up during a session of parliament in Kyiv, Ukraine, March 31, 2020.Speaking in parliament Monday night, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy stressed the importance of getting the IMF loan.  “It is really important for us, to sign the memorandum with the IMF, and you know well that the two main conditions were the land law and the banking law,” Zelenskiy said.Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal echoed his sentiment in televised remarks Monday.  “Without the support of international organizations we will have to fall into the abyss of a financial meltdown,” Shmyhal said.  Earlier Monday, lawmakers approved the banking law in the first reading. It prevents former owners of banks that were nationalized or liquidated from regaining ownership rights or receiving compensation from state funds.  Some said that the bill, among others, targets billionaire tycoon Ihor Kolomoisky, whose Privatbank was nationalized in 2016 and who sought to get it back using his connections to Zelenskiy. In recent months, Zelenskiy has been trying to distance himself from Kolomoisky, who wasn’t hiding his ambitions to influence both domestic and foreign policies, observers say.According to Zelenskiy, once Ukraine fulfills the conditions outlined by the IMF, it will receive the first batch of funds — $1.75-$2 billion — in 15 days.  “We agreed with the management of the IMF,” Zelenskiy said.
…

Mexico has declared a month-long health emergency, with new restrictions on the size of gatherings, to contain the surging coronavirus that already exceeds 1,000 cases, with 28 deaths.  Reuters news agency said Mexico will now only allow gatherings of no more than 50 people, and it is extending its ban on non-essential activities. Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said Monday violators of the new rules will face penalties. Mexico’s latest move to contain the virus stops short of measures in place in some other Latin American countries in the grips of the virus, including lockdowns.  
…

Nearly 200 Cubans returning home from trips out of the country just began a two-week quarantine in government centers until medical authorities are sure clear they have no signs of coronavirus.  The government is keeping a close watch on Cuban nationals and monitoring travelers from overseas at dozens of quarantine centers set up across the island.  The manager of one quarantine center, Daniel Diaz, says the centers are staffed with doctors and nurses around the clock, who check patients three times day.  Diaz says, so far, nobody has shown any symptoms of the coronavirus, but those who do will be taken to a hospital. Health officials in Cuba say there are 170 coronavirus cases, and three people have died. Cuban officials say the nation is on lockdown until the end of April, meaning only Cuban citizens or foreign residents returning home are allowed entry into the country.  
…

Security measures have increased on the Colombia-Venezuela border after both governments decided to close the International Simon Bolivar bridge in Cucuta in mid-March to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus. An estimated 40 thousand Venezuelans had been crossing each day to buy food, medicine or supplies. Now most Venezuelans have to take other, often dangerous routes to cross the border into Colombia. Cristina Caicedo Smit narrates this report filed by Hugo Echeverry from Cucuta, Colombia.
…