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As much of Europe remains under a strict lockdown amid the coronavirus pandemic, Sweden has stood out in taking a very different approach.  The government has refused to impose strict new lockdown laws, and its people have been allowed to work and travel.    In the early days of the pandemic, it seemed that Sweden may have gotten things right, as the outbreak tore through Italy, Spain, France and Britain. However, infection rates are increasing rapidly, and there have been close to 4,000 deaths, prompting growing nervousness in the country. Unlike other cities across Europe, the streets of Stockholm have remained busy, as shops, cafés, restaurants and nightclubs have stayed open, along with primary schools and most services such hairdressing.  The government has asked citizens to take individual responsibility for social distancing, while people over 70 and anyone feeling ill are asked to stay home.  State epidemiologist Anders Tegnell of the Public Health Agency of Sweden speaks during a news conference on a daily update on the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) situation, in Stockholm, Sweden, May 15, 2020.The theory behind Sweden’s approach is sustainability, says the government’s chief epidemiologist Anders Tegnell, who has become something of a popular cult figure among many Swedes through his numerous television appearances.   “I think the Swedish strategy has proven to be sustainable,” he said. “I mean, we get figures now that people are actually increasing their adherence to our advice, not decreasing. It is very difficult to stop having very strict measures. I mean, that’s the signals we get from all of these countries. It’s very difficult to stop a lockdown.”  Opinion is divided on whether Sweden’s unusual approach is working. Scott Rosenstein, director of the global health program at the Eurasia Group, said the trajectory of deaths and infections suggests the government has made mistakes.  “Ultimately, the death toll in Sweden right now is the highest per capita in Europe as of this week. And the experience of their neighbors hasn’t been as severe. So, I think if you look at Denmark, which has taken a very different approach — a very strong lockdown early — they really got out in front of their outbreak. They have been testing significantly more than Sweden. They’ve been able to relieve a lot of their social distancing quicker,” Rosenstein told VOA.  Paramedics clean and disinfect an ambulance after dropping a patient at the Intensive Care Unit at Danderyd Hospital near Stockholm on May 13, 2020, during the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic.Almost half of Sweden’s deaths have occurred in care homes. Outside Sweden’s Parliament, victims’ relatives have made a memorial to loved ones who they say died “without help.” “Why didn’t they protect the citizens by closing the borders, by protecting the people against the epidemic?” asked Mirrey Gourie, who set up the memorial after losing her father to COVID-19. Ultimately, it is too early to tell who has gotten it right, argues Dr. Peter Drobac, a global health analyst at Britain’s Oxford University.  “We’re relying on some historical experience, some modeling. But to an extent, all countries are kind of experimenting with different methods of safely opening up. And I think we have to be very careful in trying to learn from one another.”   The economic damage in Sweden could be less severe than in other European states, but the human toll may far exceed neighboring countries. The debate over such trade-offs will likely intensify as the pandemic continues to take lives. 
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The United States has returned at least 1,000 unaccompanied migrant children to Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras since early March despite risks of violence and discrimination that have worsened because of the coronavirus pandemic, the United Nations children’s agency UNICEF said on Thursday.
 
Mexico has also returned at least 447 migrant children to Guatemala and Honduras over the same period, UNICEF said. It warned that children returned by the United States and Mexico faced added protection risks because of the perception they are infected with the coronavirus.
 
“COVID-19 is making a bad situation even worse. Discrimination and attacks are now added to existing threats like gang violence that drove these children to leave in the first place,” UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore said.
 
“This means many returned children are now doubly at risk and in even greater peril than when they left their communities,” her statement said.
 
U.S. immigration authorities dealing with border security and enforcement and Mexico’s National Institute of Migration did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
 
UNICEF said it was making efforts regionwide to shore up overstretched national protection systems for children.
 
A Reuters tally shows the coronavirus has infected more than 5 million people globally and caused almost 327,000 deaths.
 
UNICEF said it had reports of communities in Guatemala and Honduras barring entry to returned migrants, including children, and threatening violence.
 
Reuters reported Guatemala’s indigenous Maya towns are threatening to burn homes of some returned migrants or lynch them after more than 100 deportees from the United States tested positive for the coronavirus.
 
The United States launched coronavirus-related rules in March allowing authorities to rapidly deport migrants encountered at the border. Data shows some 900 unaccompanied children were deported in March and April under those rules.
 
U.S. immigration authorities said in April they would test some immigrants in detention for COVID-19 before deporting them.
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President Donald Trump said Thursday he is pulling the United States out of the 18-year-old international Open Skies treaty allowing surveillance flights over other countries because Russia has been violating it. The U.S. began notifying the other 33 signatories to the accord that it was giving the required six months’ notice to leave. President Donald Trump listens during a meeting in the State Dining Room of the White House, May 18, 2020, in Washington.At the White House, Trump accused Moscow of ignoring terms of the treaty. Consequently, Trump told reporters, “We’re not going to adhere to it either,” although he held out hope that some new agreement might be reached. The treaty has allowed the 34 countries to conduct surveillance flights over each other’s territory to look at military installations, an effort aimed at international peacekeeping. But the U.S. contends that Moscow has been violating the treaty by blocking it from conducting flights over the Baltic Sea city of Kaliningrad and Russia’s southern border near Georgia, both of which are permitted by the agreement. U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper told the Senate Armed Services Committee in March that Russia has been “cheating for many years.” Russia has denied violating the treaty. The Open Skies withdrawal is Trump’s latest move during his three-and-a-half-year presidency to remove the U.S. from international agreements enacted by previous presidents that he considers unfair to American interests.  Last year, Washington withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty with Russia, and earlier had abandoned the international Paris climate control accord, a trade treaty with Pacific Rim nations and a deal with Iran to restrain its development of nuclear weapons. The concept of the Open Skies treaty was first advanced in the decade after the end of World War Two by President Dwight Eisenhower. The Soviet Union balked at the idea at the time, but the U.S. again pushed for a pact in 1989 under President George H.W. Bush. It was finally adopted by the required 20 countries in January 2002. 
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British Health Secretary Matt Hancock said Thursday that a small-scale antibody surveillance study has shown that about 17% of people in London and 5% in the rest of the country have had COVID-19.Speaking at his usual remote COVID-19 news briefing in London, Hancock said the study came out of Britain’s government-funded effort to develop antibody tests, which he said were not reliable enough for clinical use. He said that for the public at large to know whether they have had the coronavirus, they needed antibody tests at a larger scale.To that end, Hancock announced that Britain had signed contracts with pharmaceutical company Roche and Abbott to supply more than 10 million antibody tests. He said they would begin rolling out the tests in phases beginning next week, starting with health workers, and then patients.Hancock also reported a 14% decrease in COVID-19 patients being treated in hospitals since last week. He said that over 3 million people had been tested for the virus, of which 250,908 tested positive.The COVID-19 death toll in Britain stands at 36,042, a rise of 338 since Wednesday.  
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Italy’s most popular tourist destination, Venice, is beginning its slow process to a return to normality. The city’s beautiful canals and palazzos have seen no visitors now for over two months so it faces enormous challenges when it comes to recovering economically. But the coronavirus lockdown appears to have had a positive effect on the environment, as Sabina Castelfranco reports from Venice.
Camera: Mark Brewer
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In Russia, a colossal new Orthodox Church cathedral has gone up on the outskirts of Moscow. It is called the Main Cathedral of the Russian Armed forces – a place of worship not only dedicated to the Christian faith, but a museum and also, for many, a symbol of the former Red Army’s conversion to conservatism. Jonathan Spier narrates this report by Ricardo Marquina in Moscow.
Camera: Ricardo Marquina et al
Video editor: Jason Godman
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Venezuela’s defense minister said Wednesday that planes and ships from the nation’s armed forces will escort Iranian tankers arriving with fuel to the gasoline-starved country in case of any U.S. aggression.  
Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López said Venezuela’s navy and air force will welcome the five Iranian tankers, seeing them through the nation’s maritime territory and into port. He compared the fuel tankers to humanitarian aid that China and Russia have sent to help Venezuela combat the new coronavirus pandemic.  
A force of U.S. vessels, including Navy destroyers and other combat ships, patrol the Caribbean on what U.S. officials call a drug interdiction mission. Venezuelan officials paint them as a threat, but U.S. officials have not announced any plans to intercept the Iranian tankers, or threatened to try that. Both countries have been hit with U.S. economic sanctions.
Venezuela’s ambassador to the United Nations, Samuel Moncada, also lashed out at the U.S., saying any attempt to stop the tankers would be illegal.  
“Forbidding those boats from reaching their destination would thus constitute a crime against humanity,” Moncada said at a U.N. Security Council meeting to discuss recent turmoil in Venezuela.
The five Iranian tankers now on the high seas are expected to start arriving to Venezuela in the coming days. They are carrying gasoline to help alleviate days-long lines at service stations even in Caracas, which had normally been immune to shortages as the capital and seat of political power.
Earlier Wednesday, Iran’s ambassador to Venezuela defended broadening trade relations between the two nations, which includes the five tankers, as their right to trade freely. International conventions protect the expanding ties between the two U.S.-sanctioned nations, Ambassador Hojjatollah Soltani said.
“This relationship between Iran and Venezuela doesn’t threaten anybody. It’s not a danger to anyone,” Soltani said in a meeting with reporters at the Iranian Embassy in Caracas.  
In addition to sending the tankers, Iran has flown in shipments of a chemical needed to restart an aging Venezuelan oil refinery with the goal of producing gasoline.  
While Venezuela sits atop the world’s largest oil reserves, its oil production has plummeted in the last two decades, which critics blame on corruption and mismanagement under socialist rule. Recent U.S. sanctions designed to force President Nicolás Maduro from power have also hurt Venezuela’s production.  
Trump’s National Security Council tweeted Monday that few financial lifelines remain for Maduro. The U.S. is among nearly 60 nations that recognize opposition leader Juan Guaidó as Venezuela’s legitimate leader.  
“Our maximum pressure campaign, which includes financial & economic sanctions, will continue until Maduro’s tyrannical hold ends,” the council said. “The humanitarian & economic crisis endured by Venezuelans is the fault of 1 person – Maduro.”
For Iran’s government, the business ties with Venezuela represent a way to bring money into its cash-starved coffers and apply its own pressure on Washington.
Soltani denied claims that Iranian planes returned from Venezuela loaded with gold to pay for Iran’s support. He accused U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo of spreading “fake news” to undermine the trade, which the ambassador called a “win-win” for both Venezuela and Iran.  
“They can sanction whoever they want,” Soltani said. “Iran will always advance.”  
Adm. Craig Faller, the top U.S. military official in Latin America, said Monday that he was “concerned” by the news reports that Iran was shipping gasoline to Venezuela. He said it fits a larger pattern of Iran trying to gain “positional advantage in our neighborhood in a way that would counter U.S. interests.”
“I’ve seen those same news reports that the tankers are in route,” Faller said in a webcast event. “We see the long hand of that Iranian malfeasance at work each and every day.” 
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Hungary is closing its border transit zones where it held asylum-seekers as they waited for authorities to review their applications. The move announced Thursday by President Viktor Orban’s chief of staff follows a ruling last week by the European Union’s top court saying the system amounted to detention. Hungary said it was moving 280 asylum-seekers to other facilities as a result of closing the transit zones. All new asylum applications will now only be accepted at Hungarian embassies and consulates. Orban’s government has sought to strictly limit immigration, and during a 2015 migrant crisis in Europe it built fences along its southern border.     
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Authorities in Argentina are hailing the production of an inexpensive coronavirus test that scientists say provides results in under two hours.The new test, NEOKIT-COVID-19, which cost around $8, is a collaboration between public and private partners.Santiago Werbajh, an epidemiologist at the Pablo Cassara Foundation, which contributed to the test’s creation, says the kit is unique in that it can be used on an outpatient basis for massive testing.The test works by mixing the patient’s sample with a liquid solution that turns violet if the person is negative for the coronavirus and blue if they test positive.Reuters news agency says Argentina’s government plans to make the first 10,000 tests available for nationwide use over the next 10 days.A government spokesperson said some foreign embassies have already been contacted about looking at the new coronavirus rapid test kit.So far, Argentina has confirmed more than 9,200 COVID-19 cases and 203 deaths. 
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Russia continues to pose “serious” and “growing” threats to U.S. interests in space, according to the top military officer for space defense. “They’re real, they’re serious and they’re concerning,” Gen. John Raymond, chief of the newly established U.S. Space Force and head of U.S. Space Command, told reporters Wednesday. “Our advantage has been diminished, and that’s why the establishment of the Space Force in the Aerospace Command is so important — to allow us to move fast with agility of effort, reducing costs to stay ahead of that growing threat,” he added. The realm of space is essential to everyday activities from navigation to banking. Space assets are also critical to military missions from launching missiles to collecting intelligence. Raymond did not elaborate when pressed for specific areas where the U.S. advantage is eroding but touted “significant strides” over recent months to remain the world leader in space.  Raymond credited having the “best partnerships” as a major reason the United States leads in space, confirming that Peru this month became the latest nation to join a U.S.-led network that shares information on space objects.  The data-sharing space situational awareness agreement will give Peru access to satellite tracking data, connecting Peru’s space agency with the military team that tracks space objects for the United States. Raymond warned, however, that as the United States has watched both Russia and China advance in space capabilities, “any progress they make could erode our advantage.” Russia and China have recently placed a greater emphasis on their space capabilities, including developing technology and weapons that could disrupt or destroy satellites.  “Our adversaries in the last several years have weaponized space. They’ve made it a war fighting domain,” Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said Friday.U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper, speaks during a news conference on Feb. 29, 2020.In recent weeks, Russia fired an anti-satellite missile, technology that could threaten U.S. orbital assets. It also conducted test maneuvers of two satellites that followed a U.S. spy satellite, a move that the U.S. Space Force said last month “exhibited characteristics of a space weapon.”  Raymond slammed Russia’s “hypocritical” behavior toward space, saying that Moscow is advocating for outer space arms control at the same time it is developing space weapons.  Iran and North Korea have less developed capabilities than Russia and China, but they still pose a threat, according to defense officials. Last month, Iran conducted its first successful launch of a military satellite into space. Raymond reiterated to reporters Wednesday that the satellite was “nothing more than a tumbling webcam” that was unlikely to provide intelligence. 
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Even as Mexico saw its largest one-day death toll, Mexico City announced Wednesday it will begin a gradual reopening June 1.The nationwide death toll rose by 424 on Wednesday to 6,090, well above last week’s record of 353 deaths reported in one day. Total confirmed infections nationwide grew to 56,594, though the real number is probably several times higher because Mexico performs so little testing.With about 9 million residents, the capital is one of the world’s largest cities. Authorities predicted the pandemic is nearing its peak in Mexico City, but hospitals in the capital are already about three-quarters full. As of Tuesday night, Mexico City reported more than 15,000 confirmed coronavirus infections and nearly 1,500 deaths.Despite it all, Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum said Mexico City will begin a gradual reopening June 1, when some sectors of the economy would be allowed to resume operations.While Sheinbaum called on residents to continue taking social distancing measures through June 15, impatience with being shut up at home, household financial demands and a lack of any enforcement already drew more and more people back into the streets in recent weeks.More customers clustered at the city’s famous street food stands and traffic has picked up. The city never shut down its subway system, which millions depend on for transportation.Sheinbaum’s reopening plan included some of the industries that the federal government already approved to return to work like construction, but also adds bicycle sales and beer production.The mayor said bike shops are being exempted because she wants to promote bicycle use as a way to help improve the health of city residents. As elsewhere around the world, Mexico’s COVID-19 dead have included a high percentage of people suffering from ailments such as diabetes and obesity.Some businesses never shut down in the city but did implement social distancing measures. At an office goods store in a central neighborhood Wednesday, a dozen people lined up in the parking lot outside. A security guard with a mask and bottle of hand sanitizer let customers enter one at a time only when an employee was available to escort them and after a squirt of gel on their hands.Sheinbaum has acknowledged that the real number of deaths in Mexico City is surely higher but said an independent panel will have to review suspected cases and make a determination. City death records reported by an anti-corruption watchdog group suggested the death toll could be three times as high in the capital.The city’s graduated reopening will be based on its hospital occupancy, which currently stands at 76 percent.”The trend continues increasing, but we hope this trend will decrease in the coming weeks,” Sheinbaum said.The rest of the city’s economic activity won’t be allowed to resume until hospital occupancy drops below 59 percent. Even then, restaurants, hotels and churches will be limited to 30 percent of their capacity.Sports are to resume without fans. But in professional soccer, Mexico’s most popular sport that has been shut down since March 15, club owners are still debating whether to restart their season or just call it off.Fanny Alejandra Manriquez Ezquivel, a city employee who has continued working and not quarantined at home, said Wednesday that she thinks it’s time for the city to return to some semblance of normality.”Sooner or later we’re all going to get infected, and you’ve got to return to normalcy,” Manriquez said. “They’re the ones who know and have the certainty of how to manage the city.” 
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For most of the coronavirus pandemic, the daily Downing Street briefing by ministers of the ruling Conservative party has been accompanied by a chart showing Britain’s death toll trailing comfortably behind tallies in other Western countries, notably Italy and Spain. But earlier this month, when Britain’s toll surged past continental neighbors, the chart unceremoniously disappeared.Britain has not had a good coronavirus war, say critics of Prime Minister Boris Johnson, including some Conservatives, who fault him for not locking down the country earlier than he did.”I’ve always been skeptical about British exceptionalism,” former Conservative lawmaker Matthew Parris commented in Britain’s The Times newspaper. “No longer. Our handling of this crisis has been exceptionally poor.”On Monday, an all-party parliamentary panel criticized Johnson’s Conservative government for missteps and U-turns, and for failing to be transparent with the public about the scientific reasoning behind its shifting strategy.Government ministers say they have just been following scientific advice, but until recently, the membership of the main expert body advising ministers was kept secret and the minutes of its deliberations also have been held from publication.The parliamentary panel rebuked the government for what it termed a “lack of boldness” with the country’s virus testing regime and for a failure to boost testing capacity fast enough. “Capacity drove strategy, rather than strategy driving capacity,” the committee said.Medical Director of NHS England, Professor Stephen Powis, speaks as Britain’s Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden chairs the daily coronavirus disease news conference at 10 Downing Street in London, Britain, May 20, 2020.Committee members also fumed about the explosion of infections and deaths in Britain’s nursing homes, which have accounted for about 42 percent of the 40,000 coronavirus-related deaths so far in the country, which is the second highest reported death tally in the world.Public health officials failed to warn nursing home operators about the rate of infection in the sector during March and April, even though they knew it was rapidly increasing, critics say. And they forced care homes to admit elderly patients from hospitals without testing them first to see if they were infected.Polls suggest even Britons think many foreign governments, including those in the European Union, have handled the crisis better. The pandemic risks upending Johnson’s bid to restore the image of Britain being an orderly, well-governed place after the country’s governance took a battering during its long, drawn out and shambolic Brexit process — a fear held even by some Conservative party loyalists.Recession fearsGovernment steps to ease the lockdown also are not going well. Public unease is mounting about whether the government is prioritizing the economy above public health. Figures released this week showed that claims for unemployment benefits rose 69 percent between March and April, the fastest month-to-month rise since records began in 1971.Britain’s top finance minister, Rishi Sunak, warned Tuesday that the country was facing a severe recession on a scale “we haven’t seen” before and that the economy could be permanently scarred by the lockdown.He added the country was unlikely to “bounce back” quickly and spelled out the bleak impact on the economy, health and society for prolonging the lockdown. Sunak highlighted research suggesting that for every two percent increase in unemployment, more than a million people develop chronic health conditions.Reopening schoolsEven so, the government is facing stiff resistance to its efforts to ease the lockdown. A crucial part of unlocking is reopening schools, but teacher unions have criticized the plans to allow some age groups to resume classes on June 1, dubbing them unsafe. And the government is facing an unprecedented revolt by local governments, including large cities in the north of the country, whose leaders say they will defy government plans to reopen elementary schools.French coordinator Julie Bonaz covers a bookshelf with plastic to help provide a teaching environment safe from coronavirus for pupils and teachers at La Petite Ecole Bilingue at Kentish Town, north London, May 20, 2020.”We recognize the importance of schools reopening. We also recognize the role of getting children back to school in helping to kick-start the economy. But this needs to be done with the safety of school communities at front and center,” said Tamoor Tariq, a local politician in Bury, a town in northwest England. Liverpool, the ninth largest city in England, has also said it won’t reopen schools and Manchester, too, the third largest English city, is also opposed.The leader of the municipal authority in Gateshead in the north east of England, Martin Gannon, which has one of the highest infection rates in the country, says Britain “locked down too late and this un-locking strategy is premature. The testing capacity isn’t robust enough, neither is the tracking and tracing system, the R-rate [the virus’s reproduction rate] isn’t low enough. They’re doing this too soon; it means a second wave will happen.” Municipal defiance has now thrown the government’s school-reopening plan into disarray with one senior government minister, Robert Buckland, the justice secretary, Wednesday conceding that Downing Street accepts there are still issues needing to be addressed. School resumptions might not be able to happen in a “uniform way,” he suggested.That partial reversal of thought came after one of the government’s most senior scientific advisers said schools should only reopen once an effective system to test for the virus, track transmissions and isolate the infected has been established.Britain isn’t alone among Western countries struggling to balance public health needs with economic imperatives. Defenders of the government’s efforts say all nations have experienced setbacks and missteps, and have had to shift strategies and tack as new evidence and data has emerged.’The science’World shortages of protective equipment, as well as technical and administrative problems with testing, have affected Britain’s near neighbors, too. All countries are trying to feel their way forward as they deal with a novel virus, government supporters say.”You can only make judgments and decisions based on the information and advice that you have at the time,” work and pensions minister Therese Coffey said Tuesday.”If the science was wrong, advice at the time was wrong, I’m not surprised if people will then think we then made a wrong decision,” she added. “Ministers say they have been guided throughout by ‘the science.'”People sit in the sunshine in London Fields, north east London, May 20, 2020.Her remarks have led to accusations that ministers are trying to divert blame for any mistakes on to the government’s science advisers. They, in turn, have pushed back. Adrian Smith, the president of the Royal Society, Britain’s most prestigious scientific body, chided ministers earlier this week for saying they are just doing what scientists tell them.He said ministers felt the need to appear decisive but that with a new virus, there is much that is uncertain and that politicians needed to be frank and open about that.”We’re fairly sure about how the planets work, but once you get into new viruses you get extraordinary amounts of uncertainty,” he said in a newspaper interview.Political pressure is now mounting on the government to publish all scientific advice the government is receiving to head off a deepening “blame game” among ministers, officials and scientists. So far, the government has published only 28 of the 120 papers produced by its top expert group.Poll ratingsJohnson, who was hospitalized for COVID-19, has opinion poll ratings that have personally remained high but have dropped in recent weeks. A poll Sunday showed that approval ratings for his government over the handling of the coronavirus crisis have plummeted with a net disapproval rate — the figure reached when the percentage who disapprove is subtracted from percentage who approve — now at minus three percent. In late March it was +42 percent.Much of the disapproval of the government’s performance and of its unlocking plans is coming from the north of the country — in parts of the country Johnson’s Conservatives captured from the main opposition Labor Party in last year’s general election. That is adding to unease in Conservative ranks.So, too, is the increasing divergence on coronavirus policy between the government in London and the devolved governments of Scotland and Wales, which have chosen increasingly their own paths and are turning their backs on a speedy unlocking. Senior Scottish lawmakers say the British government’s handling of the crisis is “building the case for Scottish independence.”That may be wishful thinking, according to commentators, but the divergence between different parts of Britain is adding to a picture of coronavirus confusion. 
 
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Iran’s ambassador to Venezuela said Wednesday that the two nations, both under increasing U.S. pressure, were exercising their right to trade freely in a deal that includes shipping the South American nation five tankers of gasoline to relieve deep shortages.Ambassador Hojjatollah Soltani said international conventions protected the expanding relationship between the two U.S.-sanctioned nations.”This relationship between Iran and Venezuela doesn’t threaten anybody. It’s not a danger to anyone,” Soltani said in a meeting with reporters at the Iranian Embassy in Caracas.The five Iranian tankers now on the high seas are expected to start arriving to Venezuela in the coming days. They’re carrying gasoline to help alleviate days-long lines at service stations even in Caracas, which had normally been immune to shortages as the capital and seat of political power.While Venezuela sits atop the world’s largest oil reserves, its oil production has plummeted in the last two decades, which critics blame on corruption and mismanagement under socialist rule. Recent U.S. sanctions designed to force Maduro from power have also impacted Venezuela’s production.Trump’s National Security Council tweeted Monday that few financial lifelines remain for Maduro. The U.S. is among nearly 60 nations that recognize opposition leader Juan Guaidó as Venezuela’s legitimate leader.”Our maximum pressure campaign, which includes financial & economic sanctions, will continue until Maduro’s tyrannical hold ends,” the National Security Council said. “The humanitarian & economic crisis endured by Venezuelans is the fault of 1 person – Maduro.”In addition to sending the fuel-laden tankers, Iran has flown in shipments of a chemical needed to restart an aging gasoline refinery. For Iran, the business ties represent a way to bring money into its cash-starved nation and apply its own pressure on Washington.Soltani denied claims that Iranian planes returned from Venezuela loaded with gold to pay for Iran’s support. He accused U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo of spreading “fake news” to undermine the deal, which the ambassador called a “win-win” for Venezuela and Iran.”They can sanction whoever they want,” Soltani said. “Iran will always advance.”
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The sky-high ratings and talk of a start-up nation are long gone. So is the reformist agenda, pushed through over strikes and demonstrations.  Two years before the next presidential elections, France’s 42-year-old leader, Emmanuel Macron, is struggling to find a second wind, as the coronavirus pandemic and its aftermath shreds the country’s economy and his progressive programs.  Macron’s approval ratings are underwhelming, his unifying rhetoric in dispute. For this week, at least, it seems the only good news has been regional.  FILE – German Chancellor Angela Merkel holds a joint video news conference with French President Emmanuel Macron in Berlin, Germany, May 18, 2020.On Monday, Macron teamed up with France’s traditional ally, proposing with German Chancellor Angela Merkel a massive bailout for struggling European Union countries. While reactions have been mixed, the announcement offered the president a chance to polish his image as a regional leader.  Whether he can bounce back at home, as he has before, is another question.  “Macron must realize his 2017 program is partly or completely dead,” wrote the country’s respected Le Monde newspaper, “upended by the coronavirus epidemic and its consequences.” “I think for Mr. Macron, the game is over,” said geopolitical analyst and former French diplomat Philippe Moreau Defarges. “Presidents generally can do many things in the first months or even first year of their term. After that, it’s over.” Macron faced a fresh setback Tuesday, when his centrist Republic on the Move, or LREM Party, lost its absolute majority in parliament, with the departure of half-a-dozen leftist and ecology-minded members.  To be sure, the fallout was widely expected. And in a landscape where the traditional right and left have been severely weakened, the LREM can still cobble alliances with other smaller parties. Yet, losing the majority was symbolic, analysts say, and underscored a steady trickle of defections in recent months.  “It’s going to impact the image Emmanuel Macron wants to project as a unifier” in the health crisis, Sciences Po Paris political analyst Bruno Cautres told Le Parisien newspaper.   FILE – A picture taken on April 3, 2020 shows a banner reading “Emergency services are suffering” above empty stretchers in the hall of the emergency services of the Aix Hospital Center in Aix-en-Provence, southern France.Reforms on hold Macron’s government has faced sharp criticism over its handling of the coronavirus crisis, which saw the country short of face masks, tests and even some basics such as thermometers and hand sanitizer.  The pandemic has also highlighted a hospital system weakened by funding and staff cuts over successive administrations, problems which sparked massive protests last year.  Visiting a Paris hospital last week and in a rare admission, Macron acknowledged a “mistake” in his hospital reform strategy and promised action. Still other reforms his government rammed through, including a hard-fought battle to overhaul the pension system, are on indefinite hold. Recent polls show see-sawing public opinion. An early May IFOP survey, reflecting several others, showed Macron’s approval rating falling six points to just 40%. By contrast, the ratings of conservative Prime Minister Edouard Philippe — who has been on the front lines of daily crisis management — were on the uptick and five points more than Macron’s.  Reports suggest relations between the two are tense and competitive, although officially they reportedly view each other with “mutual respect.” In this file photo taken on Sept. 8, 1968, French President Charles de Gaulle holds a press conference at the Elysee Palace, in Paris.”De Gaulle tells us that France is strong when it knows its destiny, when it stays united, when it searches the path of cohesion,” Macron said at the site of a key battle in northeast France. But critics say calls for unity are hollow when Macron’s own party is divided. Moreau Defarges doubts Macron shares de Gaulle’s farsightedness as he charts a post-COVID-19 recovery.  “He will be both populist and conservative,” predicts Moreau Defarges on how Macron will finish his term. He describes the government’s stimulus package to reboot the economy as “we give money, and after that, we will see.”  But for now, polls show that Macron faces no major mainstream rival. France’s traditional right and left imploded during the 2017 elections. He has also bounced back from previous crises, including monthslong yellow vest demonstrations over social and economic disparities. Last year, Macron announced a “Great Debate” giving French a say in finding solutions, which helped diffuse tensions.  He could still pull another surprise solution “out of his hat,” Le Monde wrote, among other options moving forward.  “I think he’s convinced that during these two small years, he can climb back,” Moreau Defarges said. “But it’s not sure.” 
 
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Britain’s prime minister told parliament on Wednesday that a COVID-19 test, track and tracing system would be in place by June 1. 
Responding to a question from opposition Labor Party Leader Keir Starmer, Boris Johnson said the government has already recruited 24,000 trackers and will have another thousand in place by that date. He said they will be able to trace the contacts of 10,000 new cases a day. 
Starmer had accused Johnson of “abandoning” virus tracking and leaving a huge hole in Britain’s COVID-19 defenses. 
Tracking and tracing involves testing vast numbers of people, identifying those who test positive, isolating them and tracking those who have come into direct contact with them.  
Johnson told the lawmakers the country will be able to test up 200,000 people per day by the end of the month.  
The Johns Hopkins University COVID-19 resource center reports that currently, Britain has 35,422 deaths and more than 250,000 confirmed cases of the disease caused by the coronavirus. 
 
 
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Italy’s restaurants and pizzerias, for foodies the world over a key reason to visit, are facing an existential threat. Those that didn’t fold after 10 weeks of a strict coronavirus lockdown are emerging to find that new social distancing requirements might yet drive them out of business.While Italians reveled this week in being able to sit down to a plate of spaghetti alle vongole (spaghetti with clams) at their local trattoria for the first time since March, a slew of studies suggest that as many as a third of Italy’s bars and restaurants risked closing. The reasons? Financial losses already incurred by the lockdown, a projected tourism downturn, reduced table capacity and Italians’ own fears about eating out.Venice’s famed Harry’s Bar — the birthplace of the Bellini cocktail of white peach juice and prosecco — has closed until further notice.”We can’t think about opening with just five or six people” allowed inside at a time, said owner Arrigo Cipriani.Milan chef Matteo Fronduti, who won the first Italian edition of “Top Chef,” announced that his Manna restaurant wouldn’t reopen for now, given lingering questions about the continued risk of contagion and the Italian government’s confusing regulations for restaurants.Only when those questions were answered, Fronduti said, would he consider reopening Manna, which features unusual, wildly named dishes like “Against the wear and tear of modern life,” (artichokes, raw jumbo shrimp and lemon) and “All talk” (spaghetti, broccoli rabe, herring and horseradish).”Until then, I’ll continue listening and making meatballs,” Fronduti wrote on Facebook.As it is, the lockdown in the birthplace of the Slow Food movement has already cost Italy’s food and beverage sector 14 billion euros ($15.1 billion) in lost revenue, the Bain consultancy said. It estimated the full-year losses could reach 30 billion euros ($32.4 billion) in an industry that is worth 4% of Italy’s gross domestic product and accounts for 5% of its jobs. Bain projected that up to 300,000 jobs were at risk.”It is a situation that is a bit apocalyptic,” said Manuela Paiella, owner of the Corsi Trattoria in downtown Rome, a popular lunchtime spot for tourists and Romans alike. “Never would we ever have thought in the restaurant business, in the historic center of a European capital, that we could ever live through something like this.”Corsi reopened for business on Monday, the first day that restaurants were allowed sit-down customers. But half of the tables were removed due to social distancing rules. Hand sanitizing gel was placed at the entrance and a new ordering system was installed to let customers see the menu on their phones. No longer do waitresses squeeze between tightly packed tables to recite specials.”We have to turn upside down all the activity that we did before,” lamented chef Raffaele di Cristo, who now must wear a mask and latex gloves to cook. “Everything is changed.”Nearby Pierluigi, one of Rome’s fanciest restaurants, had to renovate its kitchen because workplaces also have to respect social distancing.Italy’s main farm lobby estimated this week that Italian restaurants and pizzerias saw an 80% drop in consumption during the lockdown, with the ripple effects hitting the vital wine and agricultural sectors particularly hard.Coldiretti said prior to the coronavirus outbreak, Italians spent 35% of their food budgets outside of the home, from morning cappuccinos to pizza dinners, pumping 84 billion euros ($90.7 billion) a year into the Italian food and beverage industry.But now, many Italians are too terrified to eat out. An SWG poll this week found that 32% of Italians considered going to a restaurant “unsafe,” particularly places with only indoor seating.Their fears are not unreasonable. For two months, Italy was the epicenter of Europe’s coronavirus outbreak, with a surge of patients overwhelming some hospitals in the north and soaring deaths scarring Italian families and psyches. Italy has seen over 32,000 deaths in the pandemic, behind only the United States and Britain.While Italians have welcomed the easing of lockdown restrictions, many fear a predicted second wave of infections and deaths amid uncertainty that the government has the outbreak under control.For those staying home, at least there’s Massimo Bottura’s “Kitchen Quarantine,” a weekly YouTube cooking tutorial from the Michelin three-starred chef, who just won a Webby Award for “inspiring home cooking and uplifting spirits” during the COVID-19 crisis.The show is charming. Narrated in English by his daughter Alexa and featuring cameos of Bottura’s American wife and son in their home kitchen, Bottura takes viewers through easy recipes.Bottura’s Osteria Francescana in Modena, one of Italy’s best known restaurants, is scheduled to reopen June 2.But the loss of tourists is hitting the industry hard. Seven out of 10 restaurants on Rome’s picturesque Piazza Navona were still shuttered Wednesday. They cater mostly to tourists, so many will likely stay closed at least until Italy reopens to European visitors on June 3.At L’Isola del Pescatore in the Santa Severa beach resort near Rome, up to 40% of the clientele had been foreigners.”Certainly we have to be stronger than before and try to restart,” said owner Stefano Quartieri as he readied tables to meet the government’s new regulations.Restaurant owners had harshly criticized preliminary government recommendations that their tables be spaced 4 meters (13 feet) apart, arguing it would decimate the industry.”If you want 4 meters, better to keep us closed,” warned Lino Enrico Stoppani, president of the FIPE federation of restaurant owners. The government eventually relented and agreed to a 1-meter (3-foot) distancing rule, and moved up the original June 1 reopening by two weeks.Diner Francesco Lapenta joined some colleagues for a lunch at Corsi on Monday, sitting widely spaced apart. He read off the menu items from his phone, speaking loudly so his friends could hear.”We will have to yell more,” said Lapenta as he rattled off the pastas of the day: carbonara, cacio e pepe, gricia. “We will make more noise!” 
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Croatia’s President Zoran Milanovic on Wednesday scheduled a parliamentary election in the European Union nation for July 5.  Milanovic formally set the date for the ballot after Croatia’s lawmakers voted earlier this week to dissolve parliament.The Balkan country of around 4.2 million people has been easing lockdown measures against the new coronavirus after a drop in new cases.Croatia’s ruling conservatives are facing a challenge from a liberal opposition alliance after losing the presidential election in January.  The former Yugoslav republic has one of the weakest economies in the 27-nation EU after going through a war in the 1990s’.
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Brazil’s daily death toll from the new coronavirus jumped to a record 1,179 on Tuesday as U.S. President Donald Trump said he is considering imposing a ban on travel from Brazil. The highest daily toll before Tuesday had been 881 deaths on May 12. The pandemic has killed at least 17,971 people in Brazil, according to the Health Ministry. Brazil overtook Britain on Monday to become the country with the third-highest number of confirmed infections, behind Russia and the United States. Brazil’s confirmed cases also jumped by a record 17,408 on Tuesday, for a total of 271,628 people who have tested positive for the virus. President Jair Bolsonaro, an ideological ally of Trump, has been widely criticized for his handling of the outbreak, such as opposition to restrictions on movement he sees as too damaging to the economy. Bolsonaro said Interim Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello would issue new guidelines on Wednesday expanding the recommended use of the anti-malarial drug chloroquine to treat the coronavirus. Health Minister Nelson Teich quit on Friday under pressure to sign the guidelines, making him the second trained doctor to leave the post in a month.Brazil’s newly-named Brazil Health Minister Nelson Teich speaks during his swearing-in ceremony at Planalto palace in Brasilia, Brazil, Friday, April 17, 2020.In an interview posted to the website Blog do Magno, Bolsonaro said Pazuello, an active duty army general who had been Teich’s deputy, would sign the new chloroquine guidelines and keep the top job for now. Bolsonaro added that his mother is 93 years old, and he keeps a box of chloroquine on hand should she need it. Trump, who announced on Monday he was taking chloroquine preventively, told reporters on Tuesday: “I don’t want people coming over here and infecting our people. I don’t want people over there sick either. We’re helping Brazil with ventilators … Brazil is having some trouble, no question about it.”  
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Coronavirus cases are spiking from India to South Africa and Mexico in a clear indication the pandemic is far from over, while Russia and Brazil now sit behind only the United States in the number of reported infections.  
The surges come as much of Asia, Europe and scores of U.S. states have been easing lockdowns to restart their economies as new infections wane. U.S. autoworkers, French teachers and Thai mall workers are among hundreds of thousands of employees back at work with new safety precautions.Russia reported a steady rise in new infections Tuesday, and new hot spots have emerged across the nation of about 147 million. Russia registered nearly 9,300 new cases in the last 24 hours, bringing the total to almost 300,000 infections, about half of them in Moscow. Authorities say over 2,800 people with COVID-19 have died in Russia, a figure some say is surely higher.
Some experts argue Russian authorities have been listing chronic illnesses as the cause of death for many who tested positive for the virus. Officials angrily deny manipulating statistics, saying Russia’s low death toll reflects early preventive measures and broad screening. Nearly 7.4 million tests have been conducted.
In Russia’s second-largest city of St. Petersburg, a virus hot spot, all burials now must be with closed coffins as a precaution, irrespective of the cause of death. Previously the measure applied only to COVID-19 deaths.  
Russia’s caseload is second only to that of the U.S., which has seen 1.5 million infections and over 90,000 deaths. The country’s prime minister, Mikhail Mishustin, resumed work Tuesday after a bout of coronavirus.  
Cases are still rising across Africa, where all 54 nations have seen confirmed infections for a total of over 88,000 cases and 2,800 deaths, according to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  
South Africa has the highest number of cases at over 16,400 and nearly 290 deaths. Infections have increased dramatically in Cape Town and the surrounding Western Cape province, which now accounts for 61% of South Africa’s total.  
Latin America has seen more than 480,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and about 31,000 dead. The highest number of cases is in Brazil, which became the world’s third worst-hit county Monday with more than 250,000 infections despite limited testing. Hospital officials reported that more than 85% of intensive care beds are occupied in the states of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo.
Some countries have seen encouraging signs reverse: Iran reported a steady drop in new infections through April, only to see them rise again in May.
But there is new hope after an experimental vaccine against the coronavirus yielded encouraging results, though in a small and extremely early test. Stocks rallied Monday on the news.
In a surprise announcement, President Donald Trump said he has been taking the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine to protect against the virus even though scientists say there is no evidence of its effectiveness against the disease and his own administration has warned it should be administered only in a hospital or research setting because of potentially fatal side effects.
In Russia, President Vladimir Putin has declared that a partial economic shutdown imposed in late March helped slow the outbreak and prevented the nation’s health care system from being overwhelmed. A week ago, he ended the nationwide lockdown.  
He has given Russia’s 85 regions a free hand to determine how they will ease their own lockdowns, but some have been struggling. The mostly Muslim southern province of Dagestan has reported a spike in infections that left its hospitals overflowing.
In India, coronavirus cases surged past 100,000, and infections are rising in the home states of migrant workers who fled cities and towns during a nationwide lockdown when they lost their jobs.
India is now seeing more than 4,000 new cases daily. States including West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha and Gujarat, the major contributors of India’s migrant labor, are showing major spikes in infections as the country’s lockdown rules have eased. More than 3,100 with COVID-19 have died, according to India’s Health Ministry.
And in densely populated Bangladesh, where authorities reported a record number of new positive tests at over 1,600, thousands of cars were on the streets of the capital, Dhaka, despite a lockdown. Authorities have relaxed some rules and allowed shops to open ahead of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr.
In Latin America, intensive care units in the Chilean capital of Santiago have been beyond 90% capacity for days, and officials warned that intensive care staff members are reaching their limits.
“They can’t keep going forever, no matter how many beds or ventilators there are,” said Claudio Castillo, a professor of public policy and health at the University of Santiago.  
Infections are also increasing in poor areas of Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina, where authorities relaxed strict lockdown measures last week, allowing some businesses to open and children to walk outside on weekends.  
Colombia struggled with an outbreak in Leticia, a city on the border with Brazil, where hospitals were overwhelmed and patients were being sent to commandeered hotels. Colombia has recorded about 16,300 confirmed cases and close to 600 dead.In Europe and in the United States, which has seen 36 million Americans file for unemployment, economic concerns dominated the political landscape.  
Unemployment claims in Britain jumped 69% in April, the government reported Tuesday. European car sales collapsed by an unprecedented 76% last month.
An experimental vaccine by Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Moderna Inc. triggered hoped-for immune responses in eight healthy, middle-aged volunteers. They were found to have antibodies similar to those seen in people who have recovered from COVID-19.  
Much bigger studies on the vaccine’s safety and effectiveness are planned. Worldwide, about a dozen vaccine candidates are in or near the first stages of testing.  
More than 4.8 million people worldwide have been infected and over 318,000 deaths have been recorded, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University that experts believe is too low for several reasons.
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Governments in the Americas are failing to protect vital health care workers, according to a report by Amnesty International released Tuesday.The report focuses on the rights of health care professionals in both North and South America, and it is based upon 21 in-depth interviews, an Amnesty International press released stated.“ … saying thank you is not enough. Governments must take action to ensure their basic rights and safety are never put at such horrendous risk again,” said Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International. 
 
Titled “The Cost of Curing: Health workers’ rights in the Americas during COVID-19 and beyond,” the report discusses topics such as compensation, access to personal protective equipment and reprisals for whistleblowers.  
 
“The right to access information and the right to speak up freely [are] both rights recognized under international human rights law and crucial elements of protecting the right to health,” the report states. 
 
Several American countries have repressed the freedom of expression relating to the coronavirus outbreak.Venezuela, for example, has jailed journalists for speaking out against the nation’s practice of underreporting.Similarly, El Salvador’s president Nayib Bukele vetoed legislation designed to increase the safety of health care workers, and he accused human rights organizations of working “to make sure more people die.”In the United States, those interviewed expressed fear of losing their jobs if they spoke out, and they also mentioned a lack of adequate access to equipment.According to the study, more than half of those who have tested positive for COVID-19 reside in the Americas but suffer disproportionate access to medical care.  
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Here’s a look at how Muslims worldwide are marking Ramadan, a month of fasting, prayer and reflection, during the Pandemic.
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The United Nations has hailed the arrest of a wanted Rwandan genocide suspect, Felicien Kabuga, who appeared before a Paris court under heavy police protection on Tuesday.Kabuga’s court appearance came three days after French police arrested the 84-year-old at his apartment in the Paris suburb of Asnieres-sur-Seine, where officials say he had been living under a false identity.  The date of arrest and a red cross are seen written on the face of Felicien Kabuga, one of the last key suspects in the 1994 Rwandan genocide, on a wanted poster at the Genocide Fugitive Tracking Unit office in Kigali, Rwanda, on May 19, 2020.Experts say French legal procedures could take several weeks or more, before Kabuga can then be transferred for trial. That’s expected to come before a special body that inherited outstanding cases from the U.N. International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, which closed in 2015. That tribunal indicted Kabuga on seven counts, including genocide. U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said she hoped Kabuga’s arrest would encourage other states to hunt down other top genocide suspects still at large.  United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet attends a session of the Human Rights Council at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, Feb. 27, 2020.Rights and genocide survivor groups have likewise hailed Kabuga’s unexpected arrest.  Lawyer Patrick Baudouin, honorary president of the International Federation for Human Rights, said it’s in France’s interest to ensure Kabuga is tried as soon as possible, given the years gone by and his advanced age.Once a powerful and wealthy businessman, Kabuga had been on the run across Europe and Africa for more than a quarter-century.   He is accused of financing militia groups who helped carry out the 1994 killings of some 800,000 Rwandan Tutsi and moderate Hutus. He also co-owned Radio Milles Collines, whose broadcasts fed hatred against the Rwanda’s Tutsi minority.   One investigator told Reuters news agency the coronavirus lockdown in France and elsewhere in Europe left them time to focus on Kabuga’s trail. They reportedly traced him through internet clues left by his children, who rented the apartment where he lived.  It’s uncertain how and when he came to France, but neighbors have told local media they saw him around for several years, and he kept a low profile.  Some activists want a fuller explanation of why it took so long to find Kabuga. Baudouin said his trial might also shed light on other genocide suspects. The genocide has long cast a shadow on French-Rwandan relations, with Kigali accusing Paris of complicity. Ties have improved in recent years. Last year French President Emmanuel Macon appointed an expert commission to look into France’s role in the killings, with a report due next year.  For the first time in April, France officially commemorated the Rwandan genocide that took place 26 years ago.   
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A song took aim at an alleged abuse of power by Poland’s ruling party leader, Jaroslaw Kaczynski. It rose to the top of the chart of a public radio station. Then it disappeared.The public broadcaster is now accused of censorship. The scandal, which has been a top issue of public debate in recent days, has prompted several resignations from the station, Radio Trojka, and left some musicians vowing to boycott it.The affair has created new worries about media freedom in Poland. Since Kaczynski’s party won power in 2015, it has used public media as a propaganda tool in violation of its mandate to be neutral. In the past five years, Poland has fallen in the World Press Freedom Index from 18th to 62nd place.  Kaczynski isn’t himself accused of ordering the removal of the song from a listener-voted chart, and members of the government have also been critical of what happened. Instead, the song’s removal is seen as the kind of self-censorship that happens by overzealous underlings in a system where democratic standards are under threat.Wojciech Mann, a journalist who left Radio Trojka in March, said the story played out at the bottom of a “a ladder of fear” where Kaczynski sits at the top.The song, “My Pain is Better Than Yours,” is by singer and songwriter Kazik Staszewski, known better as just Kazik.The lyrics of the folk rock song describe an April 10 visit by Kaczynski to Warsaw’s Powazki Cemetery that infuriated many Poles because cemeteries in the country were closed to the public because of the coronavirus pandemic.  It was the 10th anniversary of the plane crash in Russia that killed his twin brother, President Lech Kaczynski, and 95 others. Kaczynski was driven in a limousine and protected by bodyguards as he entered the closed cemetery to visit his mother’s grave and a memorial to his brother and other crash victims.The song doesn’t mention Kaczynski’s name, but it speaks of limousines, bodyguards and a visit by one person alone to a closed cemetery.”You alone can soothe the pain, everyone else slid into poverty,” the song says.The song was voted the No. 1 song of the week on Friday by listeners. But the next day it disappeared from the website. Station director Tomasz Kowalczewski said it was removed because of irregularities in voting.  But a Trojka journalist this week said that management ordered him to stop airing the song.The station has been in operation since 1962. Under communism it played rock music geared at the youth and was given some leeway to be more independent than other censored media. One of the journalists who quit in protest over the the weekend, Marcin Kydrynski, said he couldn’t recognize the station anymore.Kazik’s song is now in fourth place on the chart.Culture Minister Piotr Glinski said he disapproved of the song, but also its removal. But Glinski also said he believed the whole scandal could be a “provocation,” suggesting that people against the government were setting it up to look bad. 
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More than 856,000 people filed for unemployment benefits in Britain in April, the largest number in nearly a quarter century. The large number of unemployment claims is another indication of how the COVID-19 pandemic has forced business closures and put people out of work. Britain’s Office of National Statistics said Tuesday April’s claims were the highest since 1996 and raised the number of jobless people to 2.1 million. The April figures represent only the first weeks of the nationwide lockdown, the ONS said. Economists have suggested Britain’s jobless situation could have been much worse if the government had not established a job-retention program that essentially put them on the government payroll. Britain’s unemployment rate was 3.9% in March, the last month for which all statistics are available, and economists expect it to approach 10% by the fall. An unemployment rate of 10% would still fall far short of the rate in the U.S., where it climbed to 14.7% in April, and is predicted to increase more in the coming months.  
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