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AT&T said Tuesday it will immediately abandon Venezuela’s pay TV market as U.S. sanctions prohibit its DIRECTV platform from broadcasting channels that it is required to carry by the socialist administration of Nicolas Maduro.  
The Dallas-based company said its decision to close its unit is effective immediately.  
“Because it is impossible for AT&T’s DIRECTV unit to comply with the legal requirements of both countries, AT&T was forced to close its pay TV operations in Venezuela, a decision that was made by the company’s U.S. leadership team without any involvement or prior knowledge of the DIRECTV Venezuela team,” the company said in a statement.  
AT&T is the largest player in Venezuela’s pay TV market and was one of the last major American companies still operating in the crisis-wracked country.  
But it has come under pressure of late for abiding by Maduro regulators’ orders to remove some 10 channels such as CNN en Espanol that have broadcast anti-government protests and critical coverage of the country amid the past year’s turmoil.
DIRECTV is also a major platform for the broadcast of state-run TV outlets criticized by the opposition as propaganda. It’s also required to carry Globovision, a private network owned by a businessman close to Maduro who is wanted on U.S. money laundering charges.  
While AT&T hasn’t made money from its Venezuelan operations for years, the company was reluctant to close down its operations in Venezuela because of its 44% market share and its commitment to a satellite broadcast center from which DIRECTV beams about a third of its programming to several parts of South America. 
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The novel coronavirus is spreading so rapidly among indigenous people in the outskirts of Brazil’s Amazon that doctors are now evacuating critical COVID-19 patients by plane. Doctor Daniel Siqueira said Monday two planes are going out daily, one for normal patients and the other for COVID patients. He said airlifts for COVID patients account for 60% of the removals.  Brazil’s Indigenous Peoples’ Articulation (APIB), the country’s main tribal organization, said the vast majority of the 540 COVID-19 cases among dozens of tribes has hit the Manaus area the hardest. The mayor of Manaus, Arthur Virgilio Neto, said because much of the interior Amazon is underdeveloped, people in those areas are trying to get to Manaus. He said he expects there will be a new wave of crowded hospitals and fights for vacancies. The Brazilian government’s indigenous health service, Sesai, reported on Monday at  least 23 indigenous people have died from COVID-19. The victims were in a remote area of the Amazon river bordering Colombia and Peru. Brazil has confirmed 255-thousand COVID cases and 16,856 deaths. 
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Tensions are still running high in a poor community outside Santiago, Chile, a day after dozens of protesters demanding food aid during the coronavirus lockdown clashed with police. Police fired water cannons at protesters in the “El Bosque” neighborhood who threw stones and firebombs at them and lit barricades blocking streets.Police clear a barricade during clashes demanding food aid from the government during the COVID-19 lockdown, at a poor neighborhood in Santiago, Chile, Monday, May 18, 2020. The face off occurred a day after President Sebastian Piñera announced on national television, the start of a five-point aid program, beginning with the distribution of 2.5 million baskets of food and other essential items for the most vulnerable and middle-class families in need. Pinera’s announcement comes with just under half of the country still under lockdown restrictions to slow the spread of the coronavirus.  Quarantine measures have hit thousands of Chile’s poorest individuals, preventing them from generating enough income to support their families.  The surge in unemployment caused by shutdowns to slow the spread of the coronavirus has forced many poor Chileans to turn to a growing number of soup kitchens. Chile’s Health Ministry has reported 46,059 cases of coronavirus, with 478 deaths. 
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Human rights and survivor groups are cheering Saturday’s arrest in France of a top Rwandan genocide suspect, Felicien Kabuga. But questions are mounting about how he managed to evade justice for so long — and the fate of other suspects and accomplices in the 1994 killings.Neighbors in the Paris suburb where Kabuga lived say they knew little about the frail 84-year-old. But for many people, Kabuga is infamous. One of Rwanda’s richest businessmen before the 1994 genocide, he faces multiple charges from a U.N. tribunal for allegedly funding and backing perpetrators of the mass slaughter.Authorities say he also bankrolled and presided over the incendiary Radio Milles Collines that egged them on.FILE – A man rides a bicycle past an apartment building where Rwanda genocide suspect Felicien Kabuga was arrested in Asnieres-sur-Seine near Paris, France, May 16, 2020.Etienne Nsanzimana, president of genocide survivors’ group Ibuka France, says he is shocked by the arrest.All the more so, Nsanzimana said, because Kabuga lived not so far away from him and his children. He also questioned how Kabuga—on the run for years across Europe and Africa—was suddenly caught now.A similar reaction came from Alain Gauthier, who heads another victims’ association.Gauthier pointed to a lot of unknowns, including how long Kabuga has been living in France — and how, despite having various passports and aliases, he managed to avoid arrest for so long.After the 1994 genocide, Kabuga reportedly escaped to Switzerland, then headed to Africa, spending several years in Kenya. Two of his daughters married into the family of former Rwandan President Juvénal Habyarimana, whose death helped spark the genocide.Habyarimana’s widow, Agathe, lives outside Paris, despite an international arrest warrant Rwanda issued against her. It’s one of many sticking points in French-Rwandan relations that remain tense over the genocide.FILE – Felicien Kabuga, a fugitive wanted over the 1994 Rwandan genocide, who was arrested in a Paris suburb on May 16, 2020, is seen in this handout photo released by the Mecanisme pour les Tribunaux penaux internationaux.Gauthier encouraged investigators to dig into the relationship between Kabuga and the Habyarimana family. Cases against several dozen other genocide suspects remain, he said, and still other suspects remain at large.Ethnic Hutu militants killed an estimated 800,000 people in Rwanda between April and July of 1994, most of them ethnic Tutsis. The U.N.-created International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda convicted and sentenced 61 people in connection with the genocide before shutting down in 2015.For his part, activist Nsanzimana said he fears the scars of Rwanda’s genocide will last a long time. Nsanzimana was 17 when it happened and lost many family members. Like the Holocaust, he said, the longer time passes, the less one forgets. 
 
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French actor Michel Piccoli, a prolific screen star who appeared in landmark films by directors such as Luis Bunuel – including in his Academy Award winning “The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie” —and Jean-Luc Godard, has died. He was 94.His family confirmed to French media Monday that he died last week, but they did not give a cause of death.Though less famous in the English-speaking world, in continental Europe and his native France Paris-born Piccoli was a stalwart of art house cinema.French movie star Michel Piccoli (L) stands next to prominent Egyptian movie critic Youssef Cherif Rizkallah at a press conference in Cairo, Egypt, Nov. 1987. (Photo: Diaa Bekheet)Beginning his career in the 1940s, he went on to make over 170 movies, working into his late eighties.His most memorable appearance came arguably during the French New Wave – starring opposite Brigitte Bardot in Godard’s 1963 masterpiece “Contempt,” with his dark hat and signature bushy eyebrows.But Piccoli’s performances for Europe’s most iconic directors will also be remembered, including for France’s Jean Renoir, Jacques Rivette and Jean-Pierre Melville, Britain’s Alfred Hitchcock and Spain’s Bunuel. For the Spanish director, Piccioli starred alongside Catherine Deneuve in the 1967 masterpiece “Belle de Jour” and in 1972’s “The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie,” which won the Best Foreign Film award at the Oscars in 1973.FILE – French actor Michel Piccoli talks with Swedish actress Liv Ullmann at the Cannes Film Festival, southern France, May 20, 1974.Despite starring in Hitchcock’s 1969 English-language espionage thriller “Topaz,” Piccoli’s career in Hollywood didn’t take off.In Europe, Piccoli won a host of accolades, including Best Actor in Cannes in 1980 for “A Leap In The Dark” by Marco Bellochio and a Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival in 1982 for “Strange Affair” by Pierre Granier-Deferre.The actor’s last major role was in 2011’s Nanni Moretti’s “We Have a Pope,” which premiered in competition at the Cannes Film Festival.Piccoli was married three times, to Éléonore Hirt, the singer Juliette Greco and finally to Ludivine Clerc. He had one daughter from his first marriage, Anne-Cordélia. Piccoli stayed with Clerc, whom he married in 1978, until his death. 
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Premier League clubs agreed Monday on the measures that will allow non-contact practice sessions to resume during the coronavirus pandemic.The protocols for small group training — while maintaining social distancing — beginning Tuesday were approved unanimously in a vote by the clubs during a conference call after the government eased lockdown restrictions in England last week.Up to five players will be allowed to work together on a pitch, according to details released by Newcastle. The northeast club will operate a rotation that will ensure only 10 players maximum are at the training ground at any one time.”A player has a quarter of a pitch to work within, so social distancing is not a problem,” Newcastle manager Steve Bruce said. “We’ll train with eight to ten at a time on two separate pitches. Everything is in place in the safety aspect. I’ve got no issues and I can tell the supporters the players and the staff are as safe as we possibly can be.”We all understand that this virus isn’t going to go away just like that – it’s going to hang around a bit, but I think with the protocols in place we’ll do everything we possibly can to get up and running again.”Contact training and matches are yet to be allowed by the government, which is waiting to see there is no new spike in COVID-19 infections before further relaxing the distancing measures.The Premier League said it is the “first step towards restarting the Premier League, when safe to do so.” The season was suspended in March with Liverpool leading by 25 points with nine games remaining.Coronavirus testing is due to take place twice weekly at clubs on up to 40 players, coaches and support staff.The league will continue to consult across the game with players, coaches and clubs on the protocols that could allow full-contact training.”Strict medical protocols of the highest standard will ensure everyone returns to training in the safest environment possible,” the Premier League said in a statement. “The health and wellbeing of all participants is the Premier League’s priority, and the safe return to training is a step-by-step process.” 
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After some schools went through a “dry run” on Friday, more of Belgium’s schools opened Monday as the nation took its “next step” in easing its COVID-18 restrictions. Classes resumed with a limited number of pupils per school to make sure social distancing was fully respected. Temperatures were taken as students entered schools and face masks were worn by teachers and students. In many cases, though, distance learning on laptops remained the order of the day, as many schools had only a fraction of their enrollment attending.  Where students were present, classes were rearranged to make sure each child has four square meters and each teacher eight square meters of space available. Brussels education alderwoman Faouzia Hariche told the Associated Press it was important to resume classes for the children’s social and psychological wellbeing. Children will go to school only twice per week until the end of June. Belgium was particularly hard hit by the coronavirus. Johns Hopkins University reports the nation had a death rate of 78 per 100,000 people, one of the highest in the world.  But the rate of new cases, hospital admissions, and deaths have steadily fallen since early last month, prompting officials to begin easing restrictions.    
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Iran is warning the United States against threatening its tankers carrying fuel to Venezuela, where gasoline and oil are in desperately short supply despite Venezuela being a major oil production center. As many as five Iranian ships loaded with gasoline are believed to be on their way to the South American country. U.S. sanctions forbid Iran from selling oil and the U.S. is also pressuring all countries against supplying fuel to Venezuela, as part of Washington’s efforts to drive President Nicolas Maduro from power. Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif wrote a letter Sunday to United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres about Tehran’s concerns over whatever action the U.S. might take. Iran “reserves its right to take all appropriate and necessary measures and decisive action…to secure its legitimate rights and interests against such bullying policies and unlawful practices,” Zarif wrote. “This hegemonic gunboat diplomacy seriously threatens freedom of international commerce and navigation and the free flow of energy. Zarif said Iran would consider any “coercive measures” by the U.S. as a “dangerous escalation.”  Iranian officials delivered a similar message to the Swiss ambassador in Tehran who handles all U.S. interests in Iran.Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin brief reporters about additional sanctions placed on Iran, at the White House, Jan. 10, 2019, in Washington.U.S. officials have not yet said specifically how they plan to respond if Iran is sending gasoline to Venezuela. But the State Department, Treasury, and Coast Guard warned all global shipping companies and governments not to help Iran, or anyone else, dodge sanctions. U.S. President Donald Trump re-imposed sanctions on Iran when he pulled the U.S. out of the 2015 nuclear deal, leaving the Iranian economy in shambles. The U.S. has also imposed a variety of sanctions against Venezuela, whose economy was destroyed by a drop in global oil prices, corruption, and Maduro’s failed socialist policies. The sanctions have made it difficult for Venezuela to send crude oil to refineries. “We have to sell our oil and we have access to its paths,” Iranian cabinet spokesman Ali Rabiei says. “Iran and Venezuela are two independent nations that have had trade with each other, and they will.” 
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Brazil become the country with the fourth-largest number of coronavirus infections in the world, surpassing Spain and Italy. Overnight, the South American country had more than 15,000 confirmed new cases, bringing the total to more than 235,000 Sunday, according to the Johns Hopkins University tally. Health experts say the real number of cases could be higher because many people have not been tested.  With the death toll approaching 16,000, Brazil ranks sixth in the world for coronavirus-related deaths. Mexico and Ecuador also have seen a spike of new cases, prompting the World Health Organization to declare the Americas the new center of the pandemic. Russia is another hotspot, recording about 10,000 new confirmed cases a day for at least the past 10 consecutive days in May. But officials said Sunday the spread is being stabilized across the country.  Russia’s chief sanitary doctor, Anna Popova, told Rossiya 1 TV channel in an interview that the progress has been achieved due to Russians’ careful attention to their health. Russia has reported 281,752 confirmed coronavirus cases and 2,631 COVID-19-linked fatalities.  New hotspots are emerging in Africa, especially Nigeria, drawing attention to the dangers of inaction.A man wearing a protective face mask is seen on the first day of the easing of coronavirus lockdown measures, in Lagos, Nigeria, May 4, 2020.Spain and Italy, two European countries that were at the center of the world’s coronavirus outbreak in March, are now gradually returning to normal after about two months under lockdown and no reports of new infections. The daily number of people dying of COVID-19 in those two countries also is declining. A lockdown remains in place for Spain’s two largest cities, Madrid and Barcelona, as the government seeks to prevent resurgence of infections.  Italy has relaxed some of the coronavirus restrictions and is moving toward the next phase to reopen more businesses. Officials say tourists will be allowed into the country beginning June 3. Britain, which has the third-highest number of confirmed coronavirus cases and the second-highest number of COVID-19-related deaths worldwide, also is preparing to reopen. The government said it has hired nearly all of the contact tracers it plans to employ to trace the virus’ spread when the country eases lockdown measures. Britain was on track to develop a coronavirus vaccine by the end of the year, but Prime Minister Boris Johnson quashed that hope Sunday. “There remains a very long way to go, and I must be frank that a vaccine might not come to fruition,” Johnson wrote in a British newspaper. The number of cases globally continues to rise and has reached close to 4.7 million Sunday with more than 314.000 deaths. But after weeks of lockdowns that have ravaged the global economy and affected people’s material and mental health, even the countries where the spread continues have begun easing some restrictions. The United States, the world’s leader in the number of COVID-19 infections and deaths, with nearly 1.5 million confirmed cases and close to 90,000 deaths, is gradually easing restrictions, albeit at a different pace in different regions.  On Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump is set to hold discussions with several state governors as well as restaurant executives and industry leaders on conditions for reopening. He is also expected to announce support of farmers and other members of the food chain industries who helped ensure a steady food supply during the lockdowns.President Donald Trump speaks about the coronavirus in the Rose Garden of the White House, May 15, 2020, in Washington, as Coronavirus Task Force members Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx listen.Elsewhere in the world, Turkey is relaxing coronavirus guidelines. Citizens older than 65, who are the most vulnerable to the coronavirus, were allowed to leave their homes for six hours on Sunday, after weeks under a strict lockdown. In Thailand, malls were reopened Sunday for the first time since March and New Zealand has reopened restaurants and cinemas. Both countries have reported no new cases in recent days but are watching for a possible resurgence of infections.  As a precaution, Thailand on Saturday extended a ban on international passenger flights until the end of June. India has extended its lockdown by two more weeks as the virus continues to spread, the fourth extension since the end of March, but the government has promised new guidelines in the near future with a view to reopen some economic activities. The country of 1.3 billion people Sunday had about 95,000 coronavirus cases and slightly more than 3.000 deaths. China, where the virus originated last year in the central city of Wuhan, and was later contained, has seen a resurgence of new cases in the northeast. The authorities have quarantined about 8,000 people in the province of Jilin.  Health officials worldwide are warning of a possible new wave of infections in the fall. 
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Pirates attacked a British-flagged oil tanker off the coast of Yemen Sunday, causing some minor damage but no injuries.Operators of the Stolt Apel say six gunmen in two separate speedboats sped toward the tanker about 140 kilometers off Yemen in the Gulf of Aden.Armed guards aboard the boat returned fire, disabling one of the speedboats.A spokesman for Stolt Tankers says their vessel suffered only minor damage and no one on board was hurt. No leaks from the tanker are reported.It is unclear if any of the pirates were hurt or where they were from.Maritime security experts say this was the ninth incident of piracy at sea in the Gulf of Aden this year. 
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On a weekend when many pandemic-weary people emerged from weeks of lockdown, leaders in the U.S. and Europe weighed the risks and rewards of lifting COVID-19 restrictions knowing that a vaccine could take years to develop.In separate stark warnings, two major European leaders bluntly told their citizens that the world needs to adapt to living with the coronavirus and cannot wait to be saved by a vaccine.”We are confronting this risk, and we need to accept it, otherwise we would never be able to relaunch,” Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte said, acceding to a push by regional leaders to allow restaurants, bars and beach facilities to open Monday, weeks ahead of an earlier timetable.The warnings from Conte and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson came as governments worldwide and many U.S. states struggled with restarting economies blindsided by the pandemic.  With 36 million newly unemployed in the U.S. alone, economic pressures are building even as authorities acknowledge that reopening risks setting off new waves of infections and deaths. In the U.S., images of crowded bars, beaches and boardwalks suggested some weren’t heeding warnings to safely enjoy reopened spaces while limiting the risks of spreading infection.  Britain’s Johnson, who was hospitalized last month with a serious bout of COVID-19, speculated Sunday that a vaccine may not be developed at all, despite the huge global effort to produce one. Health experts say the world could be months, if not years, away from having a vaccine available to everyone.”There remains a very long way to go, and I must be frank that a vaccine might not come to fruition,” Johnson wrote in the Mail on Sunday newspaper.  The coronavirus has infected over 4.6 million people and killed more than 314,000 worldwide, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University that experts say under counts the true toll of the pandemic. The U.S. has reported over 89,000 dead and Europe has seen at least 160,000 deaths.For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness and lead to death.  Some experts noted recent infection surges in Texas, including a 1,800-case jump Saturday, with Amarillo identified as a growing hot spot. Texas officials said increased testing was playing a big role — the more you look for something, the more you find it. Many are watching hospitalizations and death rates in the weeks ahead to see exactly what the new Texas numbers really mean.But Texas was one of the earliest states to allow stores and restaurants to reopen, and some experts worry it is a sign of the kind of outbreak re-ignition that might occur when social distancing and other prevention measures are loosened or ignored.Dr. Michael Saag at the University of Alabama at Birmingham called Texas “a warning shot” for states to closely watch any surges in cases and have plans to swiftly take steps to stop them.”No one knows for sure exactly the right way forward, and what I think we’re witnessing is a giant national experiment,” said Saag, an infectious diseases researcher.In the U.S., many states have lifted stay-at-home orders and other restrictions, allowing some types of businesses to reopen.  Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, told CNN on Sunday that he was concerned to see images of a crowded bar in Columbus, Ohio, on the first day that outdoor dining establishments were allowed to reopen.”We made the decision to start opening up Ohio, and about 90% of our economy is back open, because we thought it was a huge risk not to open,” he said. “But we also know it’s a huge risk in opening.”The Isle of Palms, one of South Carolina’s most popular beaches, saw a rush of visitors this weekend— with Mayor Jimmy Carroll calling Saturday the busiest day he has seen in his more than 60 years there. But police said almost everyone on the beach and in the ocean was staying a safe distance apart.Houses of worship are beginning to look ahead to resumption of in-person services, with some eyeing that shift this month. But the challenges are steeper in states with ongoing public health restrictions.In Elgin, Illinois, Northwest Bible Baptist Church had sought to welcome back worshipers on Sunday, preparing to scan people’s temperatures and purchasing protective equipment. But that was postponed after local authorities raised questions and the church is now in talks about parameters for holding future services.The church’s preparations were “more than what they’d had to do if they were at Home Depot or Lowe’s or Walmart,” said Jeremy Dys, a counsel at First Liberty Institute, the legal nonprofit representing Northwest Bible Baptist. “Somehow people going to church are incapable, it’s insinuated, of safely gathering.”Underscoring the tradeoffs involved in resuming such gatherings, officials in California’s Butte County announced Friday that a congregant had tested positive for the virus after attending a Mother’s Day church event that drew more than 180 people.”Moving too quickly through the reopening process can cause a major setback and could require us to revert back to more restrictive measures,” the county’s public health director said in a statement.Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has suggested that early predictions were overblown, as he attempts to lure residents back to public life and help rebuild the state’s battered economy. On Monday, Florida restaurants will be allowed to operate at 50% capacity, as can retail shops, museums and libraries. Gyms can also begin reopening.Paula Walborsky, a 74-year-old retired attorney in Tallahassee, Florida, has resisted the temptation to get her hair done and turned down dinner invitations from close friends. But when one of her city’s public swimming pools reopened by appointment, she decided to test the waters. Just a handful of other swimmers shared the water as she swam laps and did water aerobics.”I was so excited to be back in the water, and it just felt wonderful,” Walborsky said.New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo got tested for the coronavirus on live television Sunday. Any New Yorkers experiencing flu-like symptoms or those returning to work can now get tested, Cuomo said.”We’re all talking about what is the spread of the virus when you increase economic activity. Well, how do you know what the spread of the virus is? Testing, testing, testing,” he said. 
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In the remote Amazon community of Betania, Tikuna tribe members suspect the coronavirus arrived this month after some returned from a two-hour boat trip down the Solimoes River to pick up their government benefit payments.Dozens subsequently got headaches, fevers and coughs. Two died. And the five government medical workers for the community of about 4,000 are not treating the sick because they lack protective equipment and coronavirus tests, said Sinésio Tikuna, a village leader.So the Tikuna rely on their traditional remedy for respiratory ailments: Inhaling clouds of smoke from burning medicinal plants and beehives.The Tikuna’s plight illustrates the danger from the coronavirus as it spreads to rainforest areas where tribe members live in close quarters with limited medical services. Most are reachable only by boat or small aircraft.”We’re very worried, mainly because help isn’t arriving,” Sinésio Tikuna said in a telephone interview.Brazil has Latin America’s highest COVID-19 death toll, with more than 15,000 as of Sunday. The country’s hardest hit major city per capita is in the Amazon — Manaus, where mass graves are filling up with bodies.Graves for people who have died in the past month fill a new section of the Nossa Senhora Aparecida cemetery, amid the new coronavirus pandemic, in Manaus, Brazil, May 11. 2020.As Sinésio Tikuna described in an interview his belief that beehive smoke saved four sick tribe members, there was no one at a Manaus hospital to help a feverish woman, struggling to breathe, make it inside the emergency room. A police officer put her on a gurney, wheeling it inside with an Associated Press photographer’s help.The indigenous people dwelling up the Solimoes and Negro rivers that merge in Manaus to form the Amazon River tried for weeks to seal their reserves off from the virus, pleading for donations while awaiting government deliveries of food so they could remain isolated. It didn’t come for many, indigenous advocates said.The Upper Solimoes basin has 44 tribal reserves and has emerged as the Brazilian Amazon’s indigenous infection hotspot. Testing is extremely limited, but shows that at least 162 of the area’s approximately 76,000 indigenous people have been infected and 11 have died. There are more than 2,000 confirmed infections in parts of the area not overseen by the government’s indigenous health care provider.In a Tikuna village named Umariacu near the border with Peru and Colombia, the first three COVID-19 deaths were elderly tribe members infected by younger members who left town to receive government welfare payments and trade fish and produce for chicken and other food, said Weydson Pereira, who coordinates the region’s indigenous government health care.”Our biggest anguish today is the indigenous people who aren’t staying in their communities and coming in and out of town. Today the safest place for them is inside their villages,” Pereira said this month, infected and isolating at home with his infected wife and daughter.Two weeks of tribal quarantine for the region would have provided time to identify and isolate cases, but “unfortunately, that hasn’t happened,” he said.In the same area, people of Kokama ethnicity have been unable to get medical treatment fromhealth system in the small city of Tabatinga or from the government’s indigenous care provider, federal prosecutors said in a lawsuit filed this week seeking to expand Tabatinga’s hospital.That hospital’s 10 ventilators are in use for coronavirus patients and the nearest intensive care is 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) downriver in Manaus, also filled with patients, Pereira said.Manaus’ lack of coronavirus treatment prompted Pedro dos Santos, the leader of a slum named Park of Indigenous Nations, to drink tea made of chicory root, garlic and lime to combat a high fever that lasted 10 days. A 62-year-old neighbor of Bare indigenous ethnicity needed an ICU bed, but none were available and he died, said the man’s son, Josué Paulino.Some frightened residents of Manaus, population 2.2 million, are fleeing but they may be asymptomatic carriers and could spread the virus elsewhere, said Miguel Lago, executive director of Brazil’s Institute for Health Policy Studies, which advises public health officials.About 575 miles (925 kilometers) up the Negro River from Manaus is the community of Sao Gabriel Cachoeira, where people of 23 indigenous ethnicities make up more than 75 percent of the population.FILE – A small boat navigates on the Solimoes River near Manaus, Brazil, May 22, 2014.About 46,000 live in the urban area and on rural reserves with frequent back-and-forth transit, said Juliana Radler, an advisor for the Socio-Environmental Institut, an environmental and indigenous advocacy group.Sao Gabriel Cachoeira quickly reacted to the COVID-19 threat within a week of the World Health Organization’s pandemic declaration by cutting off riverboat and plane arrivals in late March — except for essential goods and soldiers.But Radler said some Sao Gabriel Cachoeira residents stuck in Manaus headed home on supply ships — disembarking nearby and sneaking into town under cover of darkness. About 150 others made the voyage on a triple-decker ferry named the Lady Luiza.When it arrived days later, authorities tried but failed to turn passengers away. No quarantine areas were available and some ferry passengers may have brought the virus to Sao Gabriel Cachoeira, Radler said.Brazil’s Navy authorized the ferry’s trip and passengers were desperate to go home because “they felt exposed and vulnerable” in Manaus, the Lady Luiza’s owner said on Facebook.By mid-April, many residents had what they believed was a strong flu. The community’s COVID-19 committee used radio broadcasts, sound trucks and pamphlets to issue warnings about the virus in Portuguese and indigenous languages including Tukano, Nheengatu and Baniwa.One of the first confirmed coronavirus cases was a teacher of Baniwa ethnicity who died after being taken to Manaus for treatment. For most people COVID-19 causes moderate symptoms like fever, but it can result in death.As of this week, Sao Gabriel Cachoeira had 292 confirmed infections and nearby indigenous reserves had registered their first cases.All six functioning ventilators in the hospital were in use and remote tribal health centers were short of supplies, Radler said. “We need a field hospital as fast as possible, in the next 20 days,” she said. “If not, it will be a catastrophe, a true catastrophe.”  
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Albanian police clashed with demonstrators, including artists and opposition supporters Sunday who were protesting the demolition of the country’s National Theater in the capital Tirana.About 40 people were detained early in the morning and police pulled a group of artists away from the building, before heavy machinery started to bring it down.Protesters chanted “Down with the dictatorships.”The leader of the opposition Democratic Party, Lulzim Basha, renewed calls on residents to topple the government over the theater’s destruction. Basha said, “This is injustice, this violence will continue, this will not stop until this government is gone. There is no other way.” Albanian artists and right activists, both in Albania and abroad, had been protesting for about two years against the government’s decision to destroy the old National Theater, built by Italians during World War II, and replace it with a new one.The artists and others wanted it renovated instead, arguing that the old theater was part of the country’s national heritage.They have directly accused Prime Minister Edi Rama and Tirana’s Mayor Erjon Veliaj of corruption. President Ilir Meta had labeled the theater’s demolition ‘a criminal activity’ in his filing with the Constitutional Court last week against the move.Meanwhile, the European Union delegation to Albania said in a statement it was following Sunday’s developments “with deep concern” and called on the parties to avoid an escalation of the confrontation. 
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A Mexican journalist was killed Saturday in Ciudad Obregon in the country’s north, the third reporter killed this year in Mexico, authorities said.”An armed attack has been confirmed that took the life of Jorge Armenta,” director of digital media outlet Medios Obson, the regional prosecutor’s office said on Twitter. A municipal police officer was also killed and a second officer was wounded.Regional Governor Claudia Pavlovich condemned the armed attack on Armenta in a message on Twitter, adding that she instructed the prosecutor to “immediately start the investigations to clarify and find those responsible for the damnable attack against the director of the Obson Media, Jorge Armenta and 2 municipal police officers.”Media group Reporters Without Borders, known by its French initials RSF, said in a statement that Armenta had received threats and was under government protection. The organization said it is investigating the type of protection he had.RSF has continuously ranked Mexico, as well as Syria and Afghanistan, as the world’s most dangerous countries for journalists to carry out their duties.The two other journalists killed in Mexico also this year were Víctor Fernando Alvarez, who was found dead on April 11 in the port of Acapulco after he disappeared on April 2; and Maria Elena Ferral, who was shot dead by two assailants on motorbikes in the eastern state of Veracruz in March. 
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May 17 is International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia.First observed in 2004, the day was designed to focus “attention on the violence and discrimination experienced by lesbian, gay, bisexuals, transgender, intersex people and all other people with diverse sexual orientations, gender, identities or expressions, and sex characteristics,” according the May17.org website.The U.N. secretary general issued a statement in support of May 17, noting that this year’s observation comes “at a time of great challenge.”“Among the many severe impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic is the increased vulnerability of LGBTI people,” Antonio Guterres said. “Already facing bias, attacks and murder simply for who they are or whom they love, many LGBTI people are experiencing heightened stigma as a result of the virus, as well as new obstacles when seeking health care.”The U.N. chief urged people to “stand united against discrimination and for the right of all to live free and equal in dignity and rights.”Most of the events around the world marking the day have been moved online because of the lockdowns caused by the coronavirus pandemic.The May 17 date was chosen for the worldwide celebration of sexual and gender diversities to commemorate the World Health Organization’s 1990 decision to declassify homosexuality as a mental disorder.  
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More and more migrants are crossing, Europe is closing its ports and no humanitarian ships are carrying out rescues. As the coronavirus pandemic dominates headlines, activists fear the Mediterranean is the scene of an overlooked “tragedy.”A handful of migrant landings have taken place in recent weeks, including 79 people who arrived last weekend in Italy — a country under fire even before the outbreak for refusing to allow private vessels carrying migrants to dock.International organizations and NGOs say the situation is bleak, as all rescue operations were ceased as of last week.”If there is no help at sea and countries drag their feet to rescue and allow people to disembark, we’re going to end up with a fairly serious humanitarian situation,” said Vincent Cochetel, special envoy for the central Mediterranean with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).He estimates that 179 people have died in the area since January.Italy and Malta closed their ports at the beginning of April as the pandemic hit Europe hard. At that time, only two rescue boats were in operation — the Alan Kurdi vessel run by the German NGO Sea-Eye, and Aita Mari chartered by the Spanish organization Maydayterraneo.Both have now been grounded by the Italian coastguard for “technical” problems, a move denounced as unjustified by campaign groups.Meanwhile Malta’s Prime Minister Robert Abela said last month that he was under investigation for his role in the death of at least five migrants who tried to sail from Libya to Italy. A Maltese patrol boat allegedly cut the cables of the migrant dinghy’s motor.More departuresThe situation is all the more dire, Cochetel said, as departures from the Libyan coast have nearly quadrupled compared with the same period a year ago, with 6,629 attempts to reach Europe between January and the end of April.The number of departures from Tunisia had more than doubled, Cochetel said.”Whether or not there are (rescue) boats at sea, it has no influence on departures — this period of coronavirus has amply proven that,” he said.He said that “75 percent of migrants in Libya have lost their jobs since the lockdown measures, which can lead to despair.”Sophie Beau, general director of SOS Mediterranee, a French-based NGO that charters a rescue boat called the Ocean Viking, questions the motives behind the withdrawal of the two vessels.”Two boats one after the other, it really raises questions about why they were seized,” she said.The Ocean Viking will return to sea “as soon as possible” despite the criminalization of aid groups, Beau said.”It’s very dramatic… and counter to international maritime law, which requires us to help anyone in distress as quickly as possible,” Beau said.”Now, as there are no witnesses, we don’t know the extent of the possible tragedy taking place” in the Mediterranean, she added.’Invisible shipwrecks’The central Mediterranean “remains the most dangerous maritime migration route on Earth,” the International Organization for Migration warned.”In the current context, risks that invisible shipwrecks are occurring out of sight of the international community have grown,” it said.Beau warned that “managing the epidemic, closing ports and borders… in addition to these constraints, there is also the lack of a coordinated mechanism,” referring to the agreement on the distribution of migrants between European countries after they have disembarked.The agreement was drawn up in Malta at the end of 2019 but has been slow to materialize.In a joint letter sent to the European Commission and reviewed by AFP, the French, Italian, Spanish and German interior ministers called for the establishment of a “solidarity mechanism” for “search and rescue” at sea.”Currently, a handful of member states carry an excessive burden, which shows a lack of solidarity and risks making the whole system dysfunctional,” they said in the letter.Pending a European agreement, and in the absence of humanitarian vessels, 162 migrants are currently stranded at sea on two tourist vessels.  
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Serbia has deployed troops near a town not far from the border with Croatia, where hundreds of migrants hoping to reach the European Union are located.In a statement issued Saturday, the Serbian Defense Ministry said President Aleksandar Vucic sent the troops to “secure” three migrant camps near the western town of Sid, where about 1,500 people, mostly from Syria, Afghanistan and Pakistan, are being housed.Vucic said he ordered the deployment to protect the local population from alleged harassment and robberies committed by the migrants.He told TV Prva that, after a state of emergency imposed to fight the coronavirus spread in Serbia was lifted earlier this month, the migrants started venturing outside the camps, committing “petty crimes and illegal entries into houses.””Because of that, people are feeling unsafe,” Vucic said.There are an estimated 4,000 migrants stranded in Serbia, one of the main transit routes through the Balkans and on to the European Union for people fleeing wars and poverty.
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The clash between China and the United States over COVID-19 has caused a rift between European nations at the U.N. Security Council over a call for cease-fires in some conflict zones during the pandemic.For two months, France has been trying to corral Washington and Beijing into a compromise on the resolution, which would urge a halt to fighting in countries like Afghanistan and Yemen as they struggle to cope with COVID-19.France and Tunisia had teamed up to draft the resolution.But on Tuesday, Germany and Estonia threw their hats in the ring with a competing resolution — one they did not coordinate with France, and which includes language that would placate the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump.The same day, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke by telephone with Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu, with the State Department saying they “discussed cooperative efforts” at the Security Council.’Clean up the mess'”Everybody knows who is behind the new draft,” quipped one diplomat under condition of anonymity.”Estonia and Germany are just trying to clean up the mess the U.S. has created,” said Richard Gowan, who follows the United Nations for the International Crisis Group, which studies conflict resolution.At the heart of the dispute is Trump’s offensive against the World Health Organization, from which he has vowed to cut all U.S. funding.President Donald Trump is pictured with the World Health Organization logo in this photo illustration.Trump has accused the WHO of responding too slowly to the illness, which had killed more than 311,000 people worldwide as of Saturday evening EDT, and of blindly accepting China’s initial assurances about the virus first discovered in its metropolis of Wuhan.Beijing denies wrongdoing and, as do others, accuses Trump of seeking to shift attention from his handling of COVID-19 in the United States, which has suffered by far the highest death toll.China has threatened for the past two months to veto any resolution that did not reference the WHO, while the United States has indicated it would do likewise if the text did mention the U.N. agency.Compromise collapsesThe French-Tunisian draft tried to skirt around the rift by speaking of the role of “specialized health agencies.”The United States and China both indicated last week that they were fine with the compromise — but Washington reversed course a day later.That prompted the new initiative by Estonia, which holds the rotating presidency of the Security Council this month. The Estonian-German draft makes no mention of the WHO.”The Europeans are united on the substance but disagree on the method,” another diplomat said.Several diplomats said that some countries were taken aback by the Estonian-German effort, and that it would be difficult to resolve the two texts.”The French are not happy,” Gowan said, but he doubted that any council member “really thinks a resolution will make a difference at this stage.””It is just necessary to end this pointless debate at last,” he said.FILE – U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks during a press conference at the African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Feb. 8, 2020.Violence in Afghanistan, Libya and Yemen has continued despite the virus, and despite calls first led by Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for global peace.Even if France and Tunisia press ahead, their room for maneuver is limited.A diplomat doubted that either the United States or China wanted a resolution, believing it would only strengthen the hand of Guterres in the future.Several sources saw growing tension between France, the only EU member with a Security Council veto, and the non-permanent European members, as Paris chose to focus on negotiating with the other permanent members.The three EU members have divergent interests, Gowan noted.France seeks to show its clout as one of the Big Five, Germany hopes to highlight its leadership against the pandemic, and Estonia, a former Soviet republic with historic tensions with Moscow, is prioritizing its security relationship with Washington.After Estonia, France takes over the Security Council presidency and then Germany.The three powers called a news conference this week to celebrate the “European Spring” — but it was abruptly canceled.
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The Italian government will begin lifting coronavirus limits on Monday, but tourists will face stringent rules in hotels, restaurants and on beaches.Very strict COVID-19 lockdown measures have been in place in Italy since early March. The government has established general guidelines for reopening for the entire country, while each region may adopt its own changes depending on the particular situation.The national government may decide to close certain areas again at any time should there be a spike in new coronavirus infections.The first death from the coronavirus in Italy occurred February 21. Since then, according to Johns Hopkins University statistics, more than 31,700 people have died in the country from the virus, third highest among the world’s nations.Italians can now be seen again walking the streets of their cities, wearing protective masks and gloves, and beginning Monday, all shops can reopen to the public, with new rules. Social distancing of at least one meter must continue to be maintained, and only a designated number of people at a time will be able to enter stores.Italians will be able to return to bars, restaurants and beauty salons. Social distancing rules apply, and waiters and owners will have to wear face masks at all times.Italians can travel within their regions starting Monday, and from region to region and abroad beginning June 3. Tourists can return starting June 3, as well.Additionally, church services will resume, though only a certain number will be allowed to attend. Churches will be completely sanitized at the end of every day, one parish priest reported.Schools, universities, cinemas and theaters will remain closed for the time being.
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Greek police have reinforced security around a community of Roma in central Greece as government health officials prepare to enter the settlement today to remove 35 people infected with the coronavirus.The infections mark a sharp uptick in Greece’s almost spotless record of COVID cases. Even so, members of the Roma community at the settlement of Nea Smyrni are resisting a lockdown order, staging violent protests in response to what they call racial targeting.Dumpsters were set ablaze and a local journalist was brutally beaten, hit with stones and pummeled in the face. Health officials were chased away and residents refused to heed a 14-day lockdown order on the settlement of 3,000, among the biggest in the country. No arrests were made for fear of inflaming the worst COVID-related protests to grip Greece since the outbreak of the pandemic.However, the deputy minister for civil protection and crisis management in the Ministry of Citizen Protection, Nikos Hardalias, said health officials will return again today to remove the infected patients. He is calling for cooperation.”Stopping the spread of this virus will only benefit local communities, so cooperation is imperative,” he said.Hardalias refused to elaborate, but authorities have boosted patrols around the settlement to enforce the quarantine.This is not the first time Nea Smyrni has been struck by the coronavirus, nor is it the first 14-day lockdown authorities have decreed for it. Locals, now though, are defying the order, saying it is more racially than health-motivated.Emerging from the crowd of protesters, one person held a batch of medical tests in his hand to explain why.He said several residents had undergone COVID antibody testing at local private laboratories, and all of them showed they were immune to the virus.Health officials here are dismissing the results. They say such blood screening exams are not reliable enough. They say testing can go wrong in several places and that only detailed screenings at state hospitals should be trusted. Whether the Roma in Nea Smyrni are convinced remains to be seen.
With one of Europe’s lowest infection rates, Greek authorities are not taking any chances.Police say they will remain on standby, ready to intervene and, this time, make arrests if new violence erupts and the infected Roma are prevented from being taken to a local hospital for treatment and observation. 
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The U.N. refugee agency UNHCR reports worsening violence and hardship caused by COVID-19 are pushing people in Central America to flee their homes in droves, creating a displacement crisis in the region.By the end of last year, escalating violence and instability had displaced some 720,000 people in northern Central America, about half of them in their home countries.The UNHCR reports Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala — the most seriously affected countries — are locked in a vicious circle of chronic violence, poverty and increasing hardship due to the COVID-19 pandemic.The UNHCR finds that criminality, which is endemic in the region is flourishing in this time of coronavirus. Agency spokesman Andrej Mahecic says despite COVID-related lockdowns, criminal gangs are using the confinement to strengthen their control over communities.“This includes the stepping up of extortion, drug trafficking and sexual and gender-based violence, and using forced disappearances, murders, and death threats against those who do not comply. Restrictions of movement made it harder for those that need help and protection to obtain it, and those that need to flee to save their lives are facing increased hurdles to find safety,” Mahecic said.In addition to constant threats to their lives, Mahecic said the lockdowns are destroying livelihoods, making it difficult for people to support themselves and feed their families. He said access to basic services such as health care and running water are limited.“Faced with these dire circumstances, people are increasingly resorting to negative coping mechanisms, including sex work and that puts them at further risks both in terms of health and by exposing them to violence and exploitation by gangs,” Mahecic said.The UNHCR reports local community leaders expect a rapid increase in forced displacement as soon as lockdown measures are lifted. The agency says it is working with state officials and partners in Honduras and El Salvador to try to protect people facing threats and violence. 
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French police have arrested a man accused of funding militias that massacred hundreds of thousands of people in Rwanda 1994 genocide.The French Justice Ministry said police arrested Felicien Kabuga near Paris Saturday after 26 years on the run.The 84-year-old was Rwanda’s most wanted man and one of the last primary suspects in the 1994 slaughter of some 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus by Hutu extremists.Kabuga, once one of Rwanda’s wealthiest men, was indicted in 1997 on a charge of genocide and six other criminal counts, according to an international tribunal established by the United Nations.Authorities said Kabuga was living under a false identity in Asnieres-Sur-Seine, north of Paris, with the aid of his children.Kabuga, a Hutu businessman who had a $5 million U.S. bounty on his head, allegedly funded the purchases of large quantities of machetes and agricultural tools that were used as weapons during the genocide, a U.N. news website said.The justice ministry said Kabuga will appear before the Paris appeal court before being brought in front of the international court in The Hague.International justice authorities are still pursuing Rwandan genocide suspects Augustin Bizimana and Protais Mpiranya. 
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French-Iranian academic Fariba Adelkhah has been sentenced to six-years in prison by an Iranian court, according to her lawyer.The lawyer, Saeid Dehghan, said Adelkhah was sentenced to five years for conspiring against Iran’s national security and one year for propaganda against the Islamic Republic.France has called for Adelkhah’s release, but Iran does not recognize dual citizenship for Iranians.Adelkhah, a sixty-year-old anthropologist, was arrested last June with Roland Marchal, a French academic.Marchal was released by Iran earlier this year as part of a prisoner exchange with France. 
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Ten people died in gunbattles between police and suspected gang members in a shantytown in Brazil on Friday.Police chasing a gang leader raided the Alemao slum in northern Rio de Janeiro, triggering the gunbattles. Authorities said in a statement that there were “multiple clashes.”An elite Brazilian police unit known by its Portuguese acronym BOPE carried out the operation. The local drug kingpin sought in the raid was among the dead, the statement said.Police did not release the man’s identity but said he had escaped prison in 2016 and was on the list of leading drug traffickers in slums, bordering Rio’s iconic Copacabana and Ipanema neighborhoods. 
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