RIYADMEDIA

Panama is now using a gender-based plan to support restrictions already in place to contain a COVID-19 outbreak.Panama Security Minister Juan Pino said that until April 15, men and women can only leave their homes for a two-hour period on certain days.The plan permits women to leave home to buy goods on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.Men in Panama are allowed out on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.  No one is permitted to leave home on Sunday unless it’s an emergency.It’s unclear how the separation of men of women in public will enhance Panama’s ability to curtail the growing infection rate.Panama has also tightened its nightly curfew, instead of people not being allowed out between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m., the curfew now starts at 5 p.m.Panama’s health ministry has reported 1,475 coronavirus cases, with 37 deaths. 
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Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador is scheduled to begin two days of hospital visits Friday as the government scrambles to make ready dozens of facilities with the capability of treating coronavirus patients.The move comes as crews begin sanitizing a public hospital in the northern town of Monclova, in Coahuila state, where at least 26 medical workers tested positive for the virus and a doctor died.Authorities say the hospital staff is being retrained on how to handle coronavirus cases following the doctor’s death.Prior to the doctor’s death, medical workers at the hospital and several other medical facilities across Mexico staged protests over training and equipment needed to safely treat coronavirus patients.The latest outbreak has raised public concern over the strength of the government’s plan to fight the virus, which has infected more than 1,300 people in Mexico and claimed the lives of 37 people. 
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The coronavirus pandemic has hit a grim milestone — 1 million confirmed cases.The count by Johns Hopkins University says almost one-fourth, 236,000, are in the United States.The worldwide death toll stands at more than 53,000. Italy reported the most fatalities with more than 13,000 and climbing daily.A question on nearly everyone’s lips in the U.S. is, “Do I need to wear a mask?” Some experts have said anyone who is not sick or caring for someone who is doesn’t need one. They say a mask won’t stop the virus.Other experts say even minimal protection from a face covering is better than nothing at all.New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is recommending New Yorkers wear a scarf, bandana, or some homemade covering over their mouths and noses – but not a surgical mask. He says those should be reserved for medical professionals.Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti is also asking people to cover their mouths in public.U.S. President Donald Trump said the White House task force is still putting together guidelines on whether to wear a face covering.“If people wanted to wear them, they can. It’s not a bad idea, at least for a period of time,” Trump said.A transit police officer checks the temperature of a truck driver as a preventive measure against the new coronavirus, during a partial curfew ordered by the government in Villa Nueva, Guatemala, on April 2, 2020.The White House said Trump was tested again for the coronavirus, using a test that gives results in 15 minutes. The president tested negative and was pronounced “healthy.”The World Bank approved nearly $2 billion in funds for 25 of the world’s poorest countries to battle the coronavirus pandemic.India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, and Ethiopia will get most of the first payments. The money is specifically earmarked for critical medical supplies, including masks and ventilators.Bank President David Malpass says the institution could provide as much as $160 billion in such help over the next year.India’s lockdown of more than 1 billion people has left hundreds of millions homeless and without food, prompting Prime Minister Narendra Modi to beg for their forgiveness.In Brussels, NATO foreign ministers have tasked the alliance’s top military officer, U.S. Air Force Gen. Tod Wolters, “to coordinate the necessary military support to combat the crisis, to speed up and step up assistance.”Wolters will procure cargo planes and other aircraft to deliver medical supplies as well as surplus stocks across the 30-member bloc.Meanwhile, Portugal announced a ban on all commercial flights arriving at its airports, and its citizens won’t be allowed to visit other towns except for work. The new restrictions take effect April 9 and are set to last five days.“The virus doesn’t travel by itself,” Prime Minister Antonio Costa said Thursday. “This Easter period is a particularly critical time and that’s why it is essential to restrict movement in the national territory.”The government is also pardoning inmates sentenced to two years or less to prevent a spread of the virus in jails.People wait in line to buy supplies amid the spread of the coronavirus disease in Guayaquil, Ecuador, April 2, 2020.Portugal has a little more than 9,000 confirmed cases.Also Thursday, three anonymous Iraqi doctors involved in testing say the country has thousands of coronavirus cases – far more than the government’s official count of 772.Iraq’s health ministry simply said the sources reporting what the doctors allege are “incorrect.”In Seattle, Washington, federal officials have proposed a $611,000 fine for the nursing home where 40 people died of coronavirus.The Life Care Center was ground zero early in the U.S. outbreak.Federal regulators say the facility had a nuber of serious problems including failing to quickly identify and properly treat residents during a spate of respiratory illnesses that turned out to have been caused by the coronavirus.The nursing home has yet to respond to the proposed fine.Also Thursday, the U.S. Postal Service said 22 countries have informed them that they can no longer process or deliver mail arriving from other nations because of disruptions in service caused by the coronavirus.They include India, Kuwait, Honduras, Saudi Arabia, and South Africa, and 17 other countries.And Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte is ordering police to confront anyone who is violating the lockdown on Luzon and “shoot them dead.”Duterte appeared on television Thursday after residents in a poor section of Manila protested in the streets against what they say is the government’s negligence to deliver food and supplies.Women buy medicinal plants in Asuncion, Paraguay, on April 2, 2020.”I will not hesitate. My orders are to the police and military, as well as village officials, if there is any trouble, or occasions where there’s violence and your lives are in danger, shoot them dead. Do not intimidate the government. Do not challenge the government. You will lose.”Government officials hastily followed up on Duterte’s remarks to say he was simply using his usual tough rhetoric to illustrate how serious the coronavirus is.Police Chief Archie Gamboa said the president was “just overemphasizing on implementing the law in this time of crisis,” and police officers realize that they are not going to kill anyone for protesting.
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Russia says it’s entering a new phase in its fight against the spread of COVID-19. A near countrywide quarantine is just the latest in a series of government measures aimed at stopping a contagion that has infected over 3,500 Russians and killed 30 thus far.  But as Charles Maynes reports from Moscow, the Kremlin’s approach to the virus has been evolving over time.
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 Germany’s foreign minister Thursday warned NATO members against taking advantage of the coronavirus pandemic to spread “disinformation,” “propaganda” and “fake news.”Speaking ahead of a video teleconference of alliance foreign ministers, Heiko Maas said, “There are some who abuse this situation for propaganda purposes” and try to show themselves in a better light.He urged both the European Union and NATO to take counter measures to ensure available information is “fact-based” and not “fake news.”Maas did not name specific nations, but the Reuters news agency, citing a document it had reviewed last month, reports the EU claimed Russian media had launched a significant disinformation campaign against the West to generate panic and sow distrust regarding the governmental responses to the crisis.Reuters reports Moscow denied the allegations.
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Spain’s health officials reported 950 deaths from COVID-19 since Wednesday, a new one-day record in fatalities that pushes the nation’s total deaths during the outbreak to over 10,000. Speaking at a news briefing in Madrid Thursday, Spain’s medical emergency chief, Fernando Simon, said that while coronavirus cases rose to 110,238, the rate of spread in the nation is stabilizing. Health ministry officials say figures show the virus was spreading at a daily rate of 20 percent until March 25. Since then they say that rate has dropped to less than 12 percent, showing orders for residents to stay at home are working.  Spain trails only Italy in total deaths from the virus and behind only Italy and the United States for total cases.
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Keeping up to date about the coronavirus can be a problem for migrants who do not speak the language of the country in which they are living. In the Netherlands, a group of volunteers is trying to address the problem with a help desk aimed at recent immigrants.Every afternoon, calls come streaming into the coronavirus help desk, a service in the Netherlands for newcomers who do not speak the national language, Dutch.From two- to four p.m., volunteers answer calls from an immigrant population that hails mostly from Syria and Eritrea. Co-founder Milka Yemane explains that the service fills a gap in the coronavirus prevention campaign.“We got a lot of questions from newcomers, from refugees about the corona crisis, but also about what was the government saying about it?,” asked Yemane . “What do we need to know? Why are the schools closing, et cetera, et cetera. So, we said, it is so important to also offer them this very important information in these times in the languages that they know best.”Seven civil society groups started the service, which is operated entirely by volunteers.  Operators at the help desk speak Arabic and Tigrinya, the Eritrean national language.  Yemane says they plan to add other languages. Providing information to communities that don’t speak the national language fluently had a catastrophic impact in Sweden. Six of the first 15 coronavirus casualties in Sweden had a Somali background. The Swedish government has now committed to providing coronavirus-related news in 15 languages, including Somali.Catherine Woollard is the director of the European Council on Refugees and Exiles. She underlines the importance of understanding the communities of people with migrant and refugee backgrounds.“It’s very important to assess the needs of different groups and to take then a tailored approach,” said Woollard . “There are those people with a background in migration, who may be disproportionately carrying out work that has become essential, both high-level high skilled clinical work but also low-paid undervalued work, that may be putting them at greater risk.”The coronavirus help desk says that the group of newcomers in the Netherlands adds up to about 100,000 people.Yemane says the support does not stop with just translating the information but that people also need follow-up support.“If you have symptoms you can call your doctor, for instance. But then the next problem sometimes is that they cannot call the doctor because of the language barrier,” said Yemane . “So, then we have like this back office for questions that cannot be answered right away, and also call their doctor for them.”Other European countries, like Belgium, have also announced measures to share coronavirus-related news in additional languages. 
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The United States says it has delivered 128 anti-tank Javelin missiles to Estonia as part of a larger contract with the Baltic NATO member and the U.S. Department of Defense.
 
The U.S. Embassy in Tallinn said in a statement on Thursday that “the shipment will continue to build upon Estonia’s defensive capabilities and further strengthens our nations’ strategic integration” within NATO, of which Estonia has been a member since 2004.
 
Washington has provided Estonia, a staunch military ally, with over $100 million in joint defense cooperation over the past few years, the U.S. Embassy said.
 
The FGM-148 Javelin is an infrared-guided anti-tank missile that can be carried and launched by a single person. It is manufactured by a joint venture between Raytheon Company and Lockheed Martin Corp.
 
In December, the Estonian defense ministry said the United States has allocated $175 million in military aid to the Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania for 2020.
 
The three countries are all NATO members and all of them border Russia.
 
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The head of the World Health Organization’s office in Europe says figures show that more than 95% of people who have died of coronavirus on the continent have been aged over 60.   But Dr. Hans Kluge said age is not the only risk factor for severe disease, adding: “The very notion that COVID-19 only affects older people is factually wrong.”   In an online news conference Thursday in Copenhagen, Kluge said “young people are not invincible” — echoing similar recent comments from WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.   The U.N. health agency says 10% to 15% of people under 50 with the disease have moderate or severe infection.   “Severe cases of the disease have been seen in people in their teens or 20s with many requiring intensive care and some unfortunately passing away,” Kluge said.   He said recent statistics showed 30,098 people have been reported to have died in Europe, mostly in Italy, France and Spain.   “We know that over 95 percent of these deaths occurred in those older than 60 years,” he said, with more than half aged over 80.   Kluge said more than four in five of those people had at least one other chronic underlying conditions, like cardiovascular disease, hypertension or diabetes.   “On a positive note, there are reports of people over the age of 100 who were admitted to hospital for COVID-19 and have now — since — made a complete recovery,” he said. 
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Officials in Brazil say the first indigenous person in the South American nation to test positive for the coronavirus is in isolation with her family.Authorities in Brazil say the 20-year-old woman, who is from the Kokama ethnic group in the Amazon rainforest, worked with a doctor who tested positive for the virus last week after returning from vacation.A spokesman for Brazil’s Indigenous Health unit said Wednesday that she showed no symptoms of the virus, which has infected 6,836 people across Brazil, the nation with the highest infection rate in Latin America. So far the disease claimed the lives of 241 people.The French News Press (AFP) says 12 indigenous patients and 14 other people who worked with the infected doctor are awaiting coronavirus test results.Health Minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta said the health of Brazil’s indigenous people is a big concern because their communal lifestyle may help spread the virus.Mandetta said indigenous leaders are already quarantined for two weeks when they return from overseas trips to avoid bringing outside diseases into their communities.
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Thousands of Peru reservists are joining security forces and police in enforcing the mandatory quarantine aimed at stopping the spread of the new coronavirus.President Martin Vizcarra is calling up more than 10,000 reservists to patrol neighborhoods as thousands of people continue to violate a national stay-at-home order and guidelines for social distancing.Reservists who refuse to report for duty face a fine of $1,200.Although President Vizcarra declared a state of emergency and ordered people to stay home through April 12, a military spokesman said Wednesday that thousands of people have been detained for violating the dusk-to-dawn stay-off-the-streets order.So far, Peru has 1,065 cases of coronavirus, and 30 people have died.
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President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that Navy ships were being moved toward Venezuela as his administration beefs up counternarcotics operations in the Caribbean following a U.S. drug indictment against Nicolas Maduro.”The Venezuelan people continue to suffer tremendously due to Maduro and his criminal control over the country, and drug traffickers are seizing on this lawlessness,” Defense Secretary Mark Esper said after the president’s announcement.The mission involves sending additional Navy warships, surveillance aircraft and special forces teams to nearly double the U.S. counternarcotics capacity in the Western Hemisphere, with forces operating both in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific. Esper said 22 partner nations would support the mission.As nations around the world focus on the COVID-19 pandemic, “there is a growing threat that cartels, criminals, terrorists and other malign actors will try to exploit the situation for their own gain,” said Trump. “We must not let that happen.”The enhanced mission has been months in the making but has taken on greater urgency following last week’s indictment of Maduro, Venezuela’s embattled socialist leader, and members of his inner circle and military. They are accused of leading a narcoterrorist conspiracy responsible for smuggling up to 250 metric tons of cocaine a year into the U.S., about half of it by sea.FILE – Opposition leader Juan Guaido waves to supporters during a rally at Bolivar Plaza in Chacao, Venezuela, Feb. 11, 2020.Attacks on GuaidoThe mission comes as Maduro has stepped up attacks on his U.S.-backed rival, Juan Guaido. Maduro’s chief prosecutor ordered Guaido to provide testimony Thursday as part of an investigation into an alleged coup attempt. Guaido, the head of Venezuela’s congress who is recognized as his country’s legitimate leader by the U.S. and almost 60 other nations, is unlikely to show up, raising the possibility he could be arrested. The U.S. has long insisted it will not tolerate any harm against Guaido.”No matter where you sit ideologically, any move to try to bring democracy back to Venezuela requires first recognizing the criminal nature of the Maduro regime, and making moves that scare the regime into negotiating,” said Raul Gallegos, a Bogota, Colombia-based director in the Andean region for Control Risks, a consulting group.  Maduro has blasted the Trump administration’s offer of a $15 million reward for his arrest, calling it the work of a “racist cowboy” aimed at getting U.S. hands on Venezuela’s vast oil reserves, the world’s largest. He also points out that the vast majority of cocaine leaves South America from Colombia, a staunch U.S. ally.Others have faulted a U.S. plan, unveiled Tuesday by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, to create a five-member council without Maduro or Guaido to govern the country until elections can be held within a year. While it’s the first attempt in months by the U.S. to seek a negotiated solution to Venezuela’s stalemate, coming on the heels of the indictments, many say it has little hope of succeeding and is likely to drive Maduro further away from the path of dialogue.  The Trump administration has long insisted that all options are on the table for removing Maduro, including military ones. Still, there’s no indication that any sort of U.S. invasion is being planned.  Rather, the sending of ships fits into a long-standing call by the U.S. Southern Command for additional assets to combat security threats in the hemisphere.FILE – The USS Detroit, pictured in Detroit on Oct. 14, 2016, is part of a new breed of naval vessel, designed to work in shallow waters and operate with speed and agility.In January, another Navy vessel, the USS Detroit, conducted a freedom-of-navigation operation off the coast of Venezuela in a show of pressure against Maduro.  “That presence sends a big statement about U.S. commitment, it sends a big statement to our friends, it reassures them, and then to our adversaries that those are capable performers,” Admiral Craig Faller, the head of the U.S. military’s Southern Command, said in congressional testimony last month.Ship collisionThe report of the planned deployment comes two days after one of Venezuela’s naval patrol boats sank after colliding with a Portuguese-flagged cruise ship near the Venezuelan-controlled island of La Tortuga. Maduro accused the ship of acting aggressively and said it was possibly carrying “mercenaries” seeking his ouster.  “You have to be very naive to see this as an isolated incident,” Maduro said Tuesday night on state TV.  But Columbia Cruise Services, the operator of the cruise ship, said the patrol boat fired gunshots and then purposely rammed into the liner at speed. There were no passengers on board and none of its 32 crew members were injured, the company said.
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Since the coronavirus pandemic hit Europe and the United States, Austrian Ambassador Martin Weiss has tweeted a series of Martin Weiss, ambassador of Austria to the U.S. (in green jacket), seen here at the Austrian Airlines ticket counter March 23, 2020, as he helps ensure all goes smoothly as 300 Austrians head home.VOA: Three hundred Austrians left the United States for home last week. Was it because the outbreak seemed less severe there?Weiss: There were very different reasons for their return. Many were just tourists ready to cut their trips short. Others worked in hotels and restaurants and had simply lost their jobs. Also, many students were leaving because their schools have closed for the foreseeable future. Many of them felt that they were better off in Austria. There, they have family. There, they are familiar with the health care system, etc. Plus, many Austrians have the feeling that our government does a very good job in this crisis. The Austrian government has taken proactive steps early on, informs the public daily about the latest developments, keeps expectations at a realistic level, has adopted a huge rescue package for workers and the economy, etc. Austrians are concerned, but by and large, think our country does what it can in this difficult time.VOA: Tell us more about Austria’s stimulus package.Weiss: It amounts to roughly 10 percent of Austria’s gross domestic product. In that sense, we are in lockstep with the U.S. Both of our governments are pulling out all the stops in an effort to keep our economies, and, thereby, the livelihood of so many people who depend on it afloat.VOA: What is Austria using to test and treat patients who may be suffering from COVID-19?Weiss: Austrian company Procomcure (Biotech Gmbh) has recently developed a very promising testing kit that gives you precise results within hours. Little wonder that they are already exporting it to many countries all over the world. When it comes to testing, Austria is currently in the European median — neither extremely good nor very bad. But the government has realized that more tests are needed and is currently trying hard to get the numbers up. Without thorough testing, there is no way of getting out of this crisis for good.As to our health care system, Austria has traditionally a high number of hospital beds per capita — 750 beds per 100,000 inhabitants. We have often been criticized for that because it makes our system expensive. However, in this crisis, this seems to be a clear advantage.Austrians heading home get their papers checked on March 23, 2020 at Dulles Airport.VOA: You retweeted an image of Italian armed forces arriving in Bergamo to take away coffins from hospitals, underscoring the gravity of the situation in Italy. Is Austria doing anything to help Italy?Weiss: We have supported our southern neighbor right from the beginning, bilaterally as well as in the framework of the European Union. Just this past week, Austria transported urgently needed personal protection equipment, including 1.6 million face masks, to northern Italy. European and global solidarity is crucial these days.VOA: What do you think the future will be for multinational corporations and for globalization in the aftermath of the pandemic?Weiss: There are a lot of debates out there on how this crisis will change our lives, change corporations, change the way the world cooperates in the future, etc. Frankly, I am not so sure. As human beings, we are amazingly adept in forgetting bad things. Once something bad — or even something terrible — has passed, we are more than ready to “go back to normal.” In other words, old habits die hard. Some business models will certainly take a hit. I wonder, for example, about the future of the cruise ship industry. With so many stories about being stranded on ships, I suppose it will be a while before passengers will be ready for this kind of voyage again. But in general, I believe the world before and after corona will not be all that much different.The Austrian Embassy’s official Twitter account @AustriainUSA chose local blossoms spotted near the embassy to adorn its front page.VOA: What would you like to see the U.S. do more or less of to tackle this outbreak both domestically and abroad?Weiss: The devilish thing about this new virus is that it is highly infectious, and none of us is immune. It thus grows exponentially. … Exponential growth starts slow, little by little, and then it very rapidly explodes. I still have the feeling that many people in the U.S. and around the world fail to grasp this. The exponential curve knows no mercy. We all — the U.S., Europe and the rest of the world — have to work together and as hard as we can. It is this level of unequivocal seriousness that is needed now, and the U.S. should lead in this effort.VOA: Your tweet that has generated the most “likes” is a video clip involving a mock question about the quarantine. Given an option, a man chooses not to stay with his wife and kids. What does this say about the human condition?Weiss: This clip simply made me laugh hard. And just to be clear, it probably cuts both ways, and his wife would have quickly said “B,” too. But I have seen many somewhat humorous reactions to this crisis, and I think it is very important not to lose that, even in the toughest of times. Humor is the best medicine, they say. I´m not sure it’s a cure for COVIID-19, but it certainly helps.
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Nations around the world are growing increasingly worried about violence linked to extreme right-wing terror groups, with new research showing there has been a 320% jump in the number of related attacks over the past five years.Deadly attacks over the past year, like the shootings in Christchurch, New Zealand, and in El Paso, Texas, in the U.S., as well as a couple in Germany, have gotten most of the international attention.  But the research, highlighted Wednesday in a new report from the United Nations’ Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate, also warns the trend is worsening, with attacks by individuals linked to right-wing extremist groups becoming ever-more deadly, while the groups themselves are getting increasingly sophisticated.“Although extreme right-wing terrorism is not a new phenomenon, there has been a recent increase in its frequency and lethality,” UN-CTED said in its Raymond Duda, FBI Special Agent in Seattle, speaks during a news conference on Feb. 26, 2020, about charges against a group of alleged members of the neo-Nazi group Atomwaffen Division for cyber-stalking and mailing threatening communications.And intelligence from U.N. member states indicates that level of violence is unlikely to taper off, with the West – Europe, North America and Australasia – continuing to see the brunt of such attacks. “Recent evidence suggests that there has been a greater exchange of views between like-minded individuals, both online and offline,” according to the report. “These connections allow extreme right-wing groups to improve their tactics, develop better counter-intelligence techniques, solidify their violent extremist views and broaden their global networks.” The U.N. report echoes warnings from the European Union and the United States, both of which have warned about the threat from right-wing extremism. In the EU, the number of arrests in connection to right-wing terrorism more than doubled, from 20 in 2017 to 44 in 2018, with counterterrorism officials cautioning the problem was likely to get worse. “While the vast majority of right-wing extremist groups across the EU have not resorted to violence, they nevertheless help entrench a climate of fear and animosity against minority groups,” the EU concluded in its 2019 Terrorism Situation and Trend report. “Such a climate, built on xenophobia, anti-Semitic, Islamophobic and anti-immigration sentiments, may lower the threshold for some radicalized individuals to use violence.” In this Aug. 12, 2017, file photo, white nationalist demonstrators – including three members of the Rise Above Movement – clash with counter demonstrators at the entrance to Lee Park in Charlottesville, Virginia.The U.S. has likewise voiced growing concerns about the rise of right-wing extremism, putting it on par with the threat from the Islamic State terror group. “Racially, ethnically motivated violent extremists were the primary source of all ideologically-motivated lethal incidents and violence in 2018 and 2019 and have been considered the most lethal of all domestic violent extremists since 2001,” FBI Director Christopher Wray told lawmakers in Washington this past February.  There have also been persistent concerns that U.S.-based groups, like the Atomwaffen Division and the Rise Above Movement (R.A.M.), have been establishing connections with similar groups in Europe and Russia. There is also evidence that a growing number of members have been willing to take up arms, with hundreds flocking to Ukraine to get battlefield experience. The U.N. report finds those types of connections and relationships have only gotten stronger, with groups making efficient use of the Internet and social media to exchange ideas and raise money.  Additionally, the UN report warns the spread of far-right rhetoric is allowing extremist groups to connect with other fringe elements of society and expand their ability to recruit.  “These synergies allow more obscure misogynist groups-such as incels (involuntary  celibates) – to act as a bridge to violent extreme-rightwing groups and individuals,” the report said. VOA’s Masood Farivar contributed to this report. 
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Russian President Vladimir Putin called on Wednesday for global oil producers and consumers to address “challenging” oil markets, while U.S. President Donald Trump complained that oil cheaper “than water” was hurting the industry.Oil prices fell nearly 70% from January highs as coronavirus lockdowns hammered demand and as Saudi Arabia and Russia have flooded the market in a race for market share after a deal they engineered on supply curbs broke down.Oil and natural gas sales are a key revenue source for Russian coffers, while low prices are also hurting shale oil producers in the United States.  Speaking at a government meeting, set up via a video link as a precaution against the coronavirus, Putin said that both oil producers and consumers should find a solution that would improve the “challenging” situation of global oil markets.He also said if investments into the oil sector fell, oil prices would be sure to spike, something he said “no one needs.””That’s why we, together with the main producers and consumers, should work out such decisions, which would mitigate the situation on the market on the whole,” Putin said, according to the readout of the meeting.FILE – U.S. Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette gestures during an interview at the LNG terminal of the deepwater port of Sines after visiting the port, in Sines, southern Portugal, Feb. 12, 2020.Flurry of diplomacyOn Tuesday, U.S. Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette spoke with his Russian counterpart, Alexander Novak, about the price slump, and they agreed to hold future discussions involving other major world oil producers and consumers.The call occurred a day after Trump and Putin agreed in a phone conversation to have their top energy officials discuss global oil market turmoil.Putin said that the United States was also worried about the state of the oil market as shale oil producers need a price around $40 per barrel to turn a profit.”That’s why this is also a hard challenge for the American economy,” he said.Trump plans to meet with oil executives on Friday to discuss potential aid to the industry, including possible tariffs on oil imports from Saudi Arabia, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing unidentified sources.The meeting is to take place at the White House and will include Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp. and Occidental Petroleum Corp., the newspaper said in a report on Wednesday.Crude oil benchmarks ended a volatile quarter with their biggest losses in history. On Wednesday, oil slid toward $25 a barrel, after touching its lowest level in 18 years.”There is so much oil and in some cases it’s probably less valuable than water. At some points of the world the water is much more valuable. So we’ve never seen anything like it,” Trump said.Pact’s collapseThe discussions between Washington and Moscow mark a new twist in oil diplomacy since the collapse this month of a deal between the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and other producers, including Russia, on cutting production.The failure to agree on an extension to a pact that had propped up the market since 2016 led to the scrapping of all restrictions and a dash for market share.FILE – Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak is pictured at EU Commission headquarters in Brussels, Oct. 29, 2014.Brouillette and Novak “had a productive discussion on the current volatility in global oil markets,” Energy Department spokeswoman Shaylyn Hynes said.”Secretary Brouillette and Minister Novak discussed energy market developments and agreed to continue dialogue among major energy producers and consumers, including through the G-20, to address this unprecedented period of disruption in the world economy,” she said.The Russian Energy Ministry said on Wednesday the ministers noted that the fall in the demand and oversupply created risks for stable supplies to the markets.The United States has grown in recent years into the world’s largest oil and gas producer, thanks to a technology-driven shale drilling boom. But the current price of oil is below the production cost of many American drillers, threatening the highly leveraged U.S. shale industry.’Crazy’ productionTrump on Monday said Saudi Arabia and Russia “both went crazy” with their production after the supply deal failed. “I never thought I’d be saying that maybe we have to have an oil [price] increase, because we do,” he said.The Trump administration is trying to persuade Saudi Arabia, the world’s top oil exporter, to cut crude output. It will soon send a special energy envoy, Victoria Coates, to the kingdom.The Kremlin said on Wednesday that Russia and Saudi Arabia were not holding talks regarding the oil market at the moment and that Putin had no immediate plans to have a phone call with Saudi leadership.But the Kremlin added that such talks could be set up quickly if necessary. 
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NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said Wednesday that the coronavirus pandemic had not diminished the alliance’s ability to carry out its missions and keep allies secure.At a news briefing carried via video-conference from Brussels, Stoltenberg said NATO was doing its part to airlift necessary emergency medical equipment, and he noted that a military cargo aircraft left Turkey earlier Wednesday with protective gear and other medical equipment for Spain and Italy.  Stoltenberg also said NATO’s “core task” is to provide security for nearly 1 billion people, so the immediate primary objective is to “make sure a health crisis does not become a security crisis.”Stoltenberg said recent Russian war games in western Russia near NATO ally borders were a stark reminder that the alliance cannot lose its focus on defending Europe.NATO foreign ministers are scheduled to meet Thursday, also via video-conference.
 
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Two weeks ago, an opposition-leaning radio station in Russia interviewed political analyst Valery Solovei, who alleged the government was lying when it said no one had died in the country from the coronavirus. Solovei told radio station Echo Moskvy at least 1,600 people might have died since mid-January. Russia’s media and internet watchdog, Roscomnadzor, quickly pressured the station to delete the interview from its website. The demand was part of a widespread government campaign against what authorities called “fake news” about the pandemic. On Tuesday, Russian lawmakers began putting some teeth behind the campaign, approving fines of up to $25,000 and prison terms of up to five years for anyone who spreads what is deemed to be false information. Media outlets will be fined up to $127,000 if they disseminate disinformation about the outbreak. Lawmakers rushed the bill through all three readings in just one day after President Vladimir Putin spoke about the need to counter “provocations, stupid gossip and malicious lies” about the outbreak.  Russian law enforcement officers wearing protective masks stand guard in a street, after the city authorities announced a partial lockdown to prevent the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in central Moscow, March 30, 2020.The crusade began about a month ago, when Russia’s caseload was still in the single digits. The Kremlin’s stance of “everything is under control” prompted speculation that authorities might be hiding or underreporting the scale of the outbreak in line with Soviet-era traditions of covering up embarrassing truths. A broad set of measures was outlined and a special “fake news” division in the government’s coronavirus task force was created. A group within Russia’s Investigative Committee was put together to chase down alleged disinformation.  Social media users who doubted the official numbers and news outlets questioning the government response became targets for law enforcement seeking to weed out anything that didn’t correspond with the official data. “In crises, those in power try very hard to control the information and push their own agenda. And, of course, it makes sense to suppress alternative points of view,” Solovei told The Associated Press. The AP found at least nine cases against ordinary Russians accused of spreading “untrue information” on social media and via messenger apps, with at least three of them receiving significant fines.  Police statements offered few details but clearly indicated those involved were merely sharing opinions or rumors, rather than deliberately spreading misinformation. A 32-year-old woman was fined $380 — a significant sum in a country with an average monthly salary of about $550 — for posting on social media something she heard on a bus about the virus in her region. A 26-year-old man was fined a similar amount for a comment he made under a news report claiming a woman died of the virus in a hospital. Another woman faces a fine of about $380-$1,200 for posting about virus cases in her region where no infections were officially reported. Asked whether the punishments fit these crimes, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said they were “absolutely justified.” “It stirs up unwarranted tensions, and in this situation it needs to be punished in accordance with the law,” he said. The crackdown on free speech fits a recent pattern. In the past five years, hundreds of people have been prosecuted on charges of extremism for posting, liking or sharing information on social media on sensitive topics like corruption, the conflict with Ukraine, the 2014 annexation of Crimea and the role of the Russian Orthodox Church. Dozens received prison sentences. FILE – Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a session of the State Duma, the Lower House of the Russian Parliament, prior to its members voting on constitutional amendments, in Moscow, Russia, March 10, 2020.In 2018, Putin acknowledged that prosecuting social media users sometimes turns into “idiocy and absurdity,” and he eased the regulations. Such online hunts have since fizzled out, said Damir Gainutdinov, an internet freedom lawyer with Agora, Russia’s prominent legal aid group. But the void is quickly filling again with a crackdown on those who insult officials or spread so-called “fake news” online – misdemeanors that parliament put on the books last year. “I think in the nearest future, we will see a rapid growth [of cases] related to fakes as the authorities are trying to suppress any nonofficial information about the coronavirus,” Gainutdinov told AP. On Monday, Hungary’s parliament  also passed a law setting prison terms of up to five years for those convicted of spreading false information about the pandemic. Rights groups said the law allows the government to crack down on press freedom. The effort to curb alleged disinformation at home came as Russia is once again being accused of spreading it abroad. The European Union recently identified nearly 80 instances of virus-related disinformation in the past two months. This also follows accusations by U.S. intelligence services that Russia interfered with the 2016 presidential election by spreading false information online — a charge that the Kremlin has steadfastly denied. Waging disinformation campaigns in the West stems from the same desire to control the narrative, said Mark Galeotti, a Russia expert at the Royal United Services Institute. To the Kremlin, “there is no such thing as an objective narrative. So given that it is going to be someone’s narrative that triumphs, of course, you want it to be your narrative rather than someone else’s,” Galeotti told the AP.  Kremlin critics argue that its effort to stifle alternative voices during the pandemic is unlikely to succeed.  Dr. Anastasia Vasilyeva, who works with opposition figure Alexei Navalny and leads the Alliance of Doctors union, made headlines in recent weeks exposing Russia’s underfunded, teetering health care system. She told the AP she was contacted by police about spreading false information in her YouTube blog.”They will have to prove that I lied, so let them prove it,” Vasilyeva said. “They want to scare me in order to stop the others … the truth won’t change because of it.” Even as Russia moved to control the narrative during the outbreak, some embarrassing news has still slipped out. FILE – Russian President Vladimir Putin, right shakes hands with the hospital’s chief Denis Protsenko during his visit to the hospital for coronavirus patients, March 24, 2020.On Tuesday, Dr. Denis Protsenko, head of Moscow’s top hospital for coronavirus patients, was reported to have the virus. That came only a week after Putin visited the hospital and was photographed shaking hands with Protsenko. Peskov sought to assure the country that Putin was fine.  “He’s being tested regularly. It’s all right,” Peskov was quoted by the RIA Novosti news agency as saying. 
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U.S. federal agents seized a large cache of drugs from a long tunnel used by smugglers to move them across the U.S.-Mexico border.The 600-meter long tunnel, which ran under a series of warehouses from the northern Mexican border town of Tijuana to the southern California city of San Diego, was discovered on March 19 by the San Diego Tunnel Task Force, a special unit made up of agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration and other agencies. Among the drugs stashed in the tunnel were nearly 600 kilograms of cocaine, 1,360 kilograms of marijuana, plus smaller amounts of methamphetamine, heroin and fentanyl. The tunnel’s entrance was near a newly constructed segment of the border wall that President Donald Trump visited back in September that has become a hallmark of his hardline policy of keeping undocumented immigrants from entering the United States.Critics say the border wall will have no effect on the elaborately built tunnels commonly used by smugglers to sneak drugs into the U.S.No arrests were made in connection with last month’s discovery.A 1,300-meter long tunnel complete with an extensive rail cart system, electricity and ventilation was discovered in the same area back in January, which federal agents said was the longest underground tunnel ever found along the U.S.-Mexican border. 
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Spain announced Wednesday it surpassed 100,000 confirmed coronavirus cases, while a senior Saudi official urged people planning to make the hajj pilgrimage to hold off on deciding for now.Spain is one of the global hot spots for the virus, trailing only the United States and Italy in terms of number of cases.  Wednesday’s announcement also included a death toll that now stands at more than 9,000.Muslim pilgrims are due to descend on Saudi Arabia from all over the world in late July to perform the once-in-a-lifetime religious duty.  But with the virus pandemic, and Saudi Arabia already banning entry to Mecca and Medina, Saudi Hajj and Umrah Minister Muhammad Saleh bin Taher Banten told state television people should wait for more clarity on the situation.In the United States, officials say Americans should be prepared for a potential 100,000 to 240,000 deaths from the coronavirus, while stressing the need to keep social distancing measures in place to give the best chance of lessening the toll. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, speaks about the coronavirus in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House, March 31, 2020, in Washington.Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said he hopes the number will not go that high, but that realistically people should be ready. “People are suffering. People are dying,” he said.  “It’s inconvenient from a societal standpoint, from an economic standpoint to go through this. But this is going to be the answer to our problems. So, let’s all pull together and make sure, as we look forward to the next 30 days, we do it with all the intensity and force that we can.” Countries all over the world have locked down cities, regions and even their entire nations to try to stop the virus from spreading. One of the latest to put in place a two-week ban on all but essential activities is Vietnam, which started Wednesday. Last week, New Zealand shut down restaurants, bars, offices and schools.  Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Wednesday it is too early to tell what extent those measures have helped so far and advocated more testing to actively track down infections and stop new transmissions. Her government reported 61 new cases to push New Zealand’s total to 708. “If the virus is in the community in this way… then the worst thing we can do is to relax and be complacent, and allow the silent spread,” Ardern said. In South Korea, where mass testing has helped level off local transmission rates, officials reported 101 new cases Wednesday.  The country also started enforcing new 14-day quarantines for anyone entering the country. The risks of imported cases undermining successes in controlling community spread of COVID-19 have prompted similar measures in China, which for several months was by far the world leader in coronavirus cases but now has become a sign of hope with gradual lifting of lockdown restrictions. In Germany, health officials said there were about 5,500 new cases there, putting the country on track to soon become the next to surpass China. A research assistant holds coronavirus test samples in her hands at the Lower Saxony State Office for Consumer Protection and Food Safety (LAVES) in Hanover, Germany, April 1, 2020.Meanwhile, in keeping with a plea from U.N. chief Antonio Guterres for parties in the world’s conflicts to take this opportunity to halt their fighting, the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday urged Afghanistan’s warring sides to implement a cease-fire. The Council “called on the political leadership of Afghanistan to put aside their differences and put the interest of the country first.” 
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How should the U.N. General Assembly and its 193 member states respond to the coronavirus pandemic? Members have been sent two rival resolutions for consideration — and under new voting rules instituted because the global body isn’t holding meetings, if a single country objects a resolution is defeated.One resolution, which has more than 135 co-sponsors, calls for “intensified international cooperation to contain, mitigate and defeat the pandemic, including by exchanging information, scientific knowledge and best practices and by applying the relevant guidelines recommended by the World Health Organization.”The other, sponsored by Russia with support from Central African Republic, Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela, also recognizes the leading role of WHO in combating the pandemic, but it calls for abandoning trade wars and implementing protectionist measures, and not applying unilateral sanctions without U.N. Security Council approval.General Assembly President Tijjani Muhammad-Bande sent both resolutions to all member states late Monday afternoon under a so-called “silence procedure,” saying they had 72 hours until 6 p.m. EDT on Thursday to send an objection, or break silence.  Normally, General Assembly resolutions are adopted by majority votes or by consensus. But in this case, because ambassadors are working from their missions or from home as a result of COVID-19, the new rule calls for silence procedures for all votes.Under the procedure, if a country supports a resolution, it does nothing. If it opposes a resolution, it sends an email breaking silence, which scuttles a resolution’s approval even if it has overwhelming support.In this case, both resolutions could be adopted or defeated, or one could be adopted and the other defeated.The resolution calling for international cooperation is sponsored by Ghana, Indonesia, Liechtenstein, Norway, Singapore and Switzerland and has over 130 co-sponsors.It would also reaffirm the General Assembly’s “commitment to international cooperation and multilateralism and its strong support for the central role of the United Nations system in the global response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.”  It would also emphasize the need to respect human rights and oppose “any form of discrimination, racism and xenophobia in the response to the pandemic.”The draft also recognizes “the unprecedented effects of the pandemic, including the severe disruption to societies and economies, as well as to global travel and commerce, and the devastating impact on the livelihood of people,” and that “the poorest and most vulnerable are the hardest hit.”Norway’s U.N. Ambassador Mona Juul told AP: “In this moment of great uncertainty and global anxiety caused by COVID-19, it is important for the voice of the United Nations General Assembly – as the universal body of nations – to be heard loud and clear.””Our wish is that the assembly urgently send a strong message of unity, solidarity and international cooperation,” she said. “People around the world expect no less from the United Nations.”The Russian draft resolution is drafted as a “declaration of solidarity of the United Nations in the face of the challenges posed by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).”It pledges “to take a comprehensive, science-based approach in elaborating, implementing and improving measures to slow down the transmission of, reverse and eventually defeat COVID-19,” following WHO rules and recommendations and supports those people and countries most affected.”We are resolved to prevent financial speculations which hinder access for all to essential health-care services and quality, safe, effective and affordable essential medicines, vaccines, personal protection and food items,” the draft says.”We are resolved to cooperate in addressing the disruptions to international trade and the market uncertainty due to the pandemic, mitigating the damage caused to the global economy by the spread of COVID-19, and promoting economic growth throughout the world, especially in developing countries,” the draft says.Fedor Strzhizhovskiy, spokesman for Russia’s U.N. Mission, said: “We consider the Russian draft declaration … to be more result-oriented than the alternative draft declaration that we believe is too general.””We were also ready to work on merging the two drafts,” he said. “However, authors of the other initiative declined such a scenario.” 
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Prosecutors in Mexico are vowing to punish the person or persons who gunned down a newspaper journalist earlier this week. Maria Elena Ferral, a correspondent for the Diario de Xalapa in the eastern state of Veracruz, was shot several times Monday in the city of Papantla.  Police say Ferra was shot several times by a group of gunmen on motorbikes as she was getting into her car. Ferral had complained many times in the past that she had received death threats and had been harassed on numerous occasions. Veracruz state is plagued by drug violence and police corruption.  Mexico is notorious for being one of the world’s most dangerous countries for journalists.  Over 100 journalists have been murdered in the Central American nation since 2000. 
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Turkey is being accused of “weaponizing” water against Syrian Kurds amid the coronavirus epidemic. Ankara is dismissing the accusation, however, as a “smear campaign.”  U.S.-based Human Rights Watch warned Tuesday that “Turkish authorities’ failure to ensure adequate water supplies to Kurdish-held areas in northeast Syria is compromising humanitarian agencies’ ability to prepare and protect vulnerable communities in the COVID-19 pandemic.”   The key Allouk water-pumping station is at the center of the controversy. HRW says that through March, the station worked only intermittently and now is closed again.  Syrian forces backed by Ankara operate the water station that serves territory held by the Syrian Kurdish militia, the YPG, which is designated as terrorists by Ankara.In October, Syrian rebels backed by Turkish forces launched an offensive against the YPG, taking control of a large swathe of territory. Ankara claims the Kurdish militia is affiliated with the PKK, which is fighting a decade’s long insurgency inside Turkey for greater minority rights.  A Syrian girl fills a jug with water in Washukanni camp, on Dec. 16, 2019, which was recently established on the outskirts of Hasakeh city for people displaced from the northeastern Syrian town of Ras Al-Ain.”Turkey and Turkish-backed factions are in control of the area where the Allouk pumping station is. Before they took control, we hadn’t seen any interruption in the water supply,” said Sara Kayyali, a researcher for Human Rights Watch in Syria. “What we’ve seen by the closure of the pumping station is an attempt to weaponize, to use water as a weapon to get more out of the Syrian Kurdish lead authority, as well as the Syrian authorities,” said Kayyali.  HRW warns the pumping station is of critical importance to hundreds of thousands of people.  “The water pumping station supplies clean drinking water to the most vulnerable refugee camps in the region,” said Kayyali.  “There are tens of thousands of Syrians and foreigners who are already living in dire humanitarian conditions. If you stop pumping water to these regions and coronavirus comes in, it will become an absolute disaster,” she said.  “Fortunately, until now, we don’t have any corona cases, because we acted very quickly, by closing all the borders,” said Dr. Raperin Hasan, co-chair of regional Health Authority in Jazira, an autonomous region of northern and eastern Syria.  But Hasan warns, with the region hosting several large refugee camps, the loss of the Allouk water station means they are still facing a humanitarian crisis.   “We now have hundreds of thousand people living together closely without water. They have only a small quantity of water every three days,” said Hasan.  “We are trying to bring water from other places by truck, but there is only a very small quantity. It’s not working, as there are so many people, and the water quality is not the same as if it comes piped in,” she said.  “We already have a lot of diseases — diarrhea, stomach problems, and skin diseases,” she added. “But our biggest fear is the coronavirus. Because there is no water to wash their hands, and they have the same problem in Hasakah [a local city].”  A woman carries jerry cans to fill them up with water at the Kurdish-run al-Hol camp for the displaced where families of Islamic State (IS) foreign fighters are held, in the al-Hasakeh governorate in northeastern Syria on Dec. 9, 2019.Personal hygiene, particularly regularly washing hands, according to experts, is one of the main ways of controlling the spread of the virus.  Ankara is blaming Damascus for failing to provide adequate electricity for the pumping station.  “The unstable electricity supply in the region affects the sustainment of water services provided by the Allouk water station,” according to a Turkish official speaking on the condition of anonymity.  “The Assad regime should prioritize repair and maintenance of the electricity infrastructure in the region rather than initiating a joint smear campaign against Turkey with the terrorist organization PKK-YPG, its long-time partner.”  HRW’s Kayyali disputes Ankara’s explanation. “It’s not that there’s not enough electricity; it’s just they [Ankara] want the electricity for rest of the region they control,” she added.  “Turkey had never used water as a weapon in the region, even when the Syrian regime was hosting the terrorist leader of the PKK, Abdullah Ocalan,” said international relations professor Huseyin Bagci, of Ankara’s Middle East Technical University.  “But if Ankara was to use water to squeeze the Syrian Kurds, that would be against international law and will create major problems for Turkey internationally,” he said.  “I think the situation is more likely a failure of all sides to work together, Damascus, Russia, Syrian Kurds, and Turkey. They all need to sit down talk together to resolve this, as it’s the most vulnerable who are suffering,” Bagci added.  Hasan concurs, warning that the water crisis comes as they are engaged in a desperate struggle to prepare for combating the coronavirus pandemic.   
   
“Our health care system is very, very weak. We don’t have supplies. We don’t have major hospitals. It’s a very big problem. We don’t have any international support. We don’t even have masks,” said Hasan.  “The coronavirus represents a threat to all of us,” said Kayyali. “It will be very easy to see how a failure to respond in one part of Syria will defiantly lead to consequences in areas of Syria controlled by other groups, but also in Turkey itself given it’s a neighboring country. It’s very clear, if we don’t fight coronavirus collectively and do what we can, we are all going to suffer the consequences.”  
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Fellow scientists question his findings, but an unlikely mix of supporters — from French yellow vest protesters to U.S. President Donald Trump — are cheering their promise.Last month, French immunology specialist Didier Raoult had no Twitter account. Now, he has more than a quarter-million followers, and counting.   The 68-year-old French physician has emerged as one of France’s most publicized and polarizing figures of these coronavirus times, since claiming his research shows an anti-malarial drug can help fight COVID-19.   Outside the Marseille university hospital where he works, a long line of sick and frightened people waits to be tested each day for COVID-19.   The sick may receive a much-hyped experimental treatment — a mix of anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine and antibiotic azithromycin that have starred in a pair of quick, small-scale studies that Raoult conducted, and were published this month. Together, the studies show the “efficacy” of the anti-malarial drug in fighting the virus, Raoult and his research team claim, and the synergetic effects of adding the antibiotic.  “He’s a visionary,” Renaud Muselier, head of the Provence-Alpes-Cote d’Azur region and a friend of Raoult, told the weekly Le Journal du Dimanche. “That’s what makes his strength today.”   But critics say Raoult’s team did not follow rigorous procedures, had no control group, and drew their results based on too few people, among other failings.   “The methodology is fragile, the results are forced, one doesn’t give people hope based on approximate trials,” Gilles Pialoux, infectious diseases head of Paris-based Tenon Hospital, told BFMTV.     A few years ago, Raoult grew his white-blond hair long — adding a mustache and beard —just to annoy the establishment, he is reported as saying. No stranger to controversy Raoult, who heads the infectious diseases department of La Timone Hospital in Marseille, is no stranger to controversy — or applause. Born in Dakar, Senegal, he dropped out of high school in his junior year and spent a couple of years in the French merchant marines before heading to medical school. A few years ago, he grew his white-blond hair long — adding a mustache and beard —just to annoy the establishment, he is reported as saying.  His award-winning research includes discovering giant viruses and new bacteria. He has published prodigiously, although his massive output has sparked skepticism about its rigor.   Raoult has also questioned climate change. In January, he initially dismissed the first coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan as overblown.   And while he has been added to the government coronavirus team of health experts, he has reportedly distanced himself from it, failing to attend recent meetings. “I don’t care what others think of me,” he told La Provence newspaper. “I’m not an outsider. I’m the one who is the most advanced.”   After Raoult’s first coronavirus findings were published mid-March in the International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents, Trump tweeted that the two-drug combination he tested could become “the biggest game changers” in medical history.  France and the United States have since authorized limited, emergency use of hydroxychloroquine and related compound chloroquine in treating the most serious COVID-19 cases. On Monday, the French food safety agency warned of potentially dangerous side effects.   But the public has dismissed such strictures. Pharmacies report a rush for Plaquenil, the brand name of hydroxychloroquine, which has worried lupus and other patients who have long depended on it.   Local hero  New and larger experimental studies are now under way in Europe and the United States to see if Raoult’s findings, among others, can be replicated on a bigger scale.   In the meantime, he has vaulted to near rock star status. His wide spectrum of supporters includes controversial French comedian Dieudonne, far-right adherents, ex-soccer champion Eric Cantona and several prominent politicians, some of whom took Raoult’s experimental treatment after contracting COVID-19.   “Bravo to @raoult didier and his team,” tweeted Nice Mayor Christian Estrosi. “I’m proud to have fought beside him.”   But a raft of medical experts is less enthusiastic, questioning the credibility of Raoult’s studies, the first of which involved just 20 patients.   “No, ‘not huge’ I’m afraid,” tweeted Francois Balloux of University College in London, in response to the results of Raoult’s second study involving 80 patients.   Released Friday, the study claimed that most of the patients treated with the combination drug had favorable outcomes.   But Balloux noted that those who had tested presented mild symptoms of coronavirus and likely would have recovered anyway.
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In Greece, the case of an Iranian migrant now jailed on charges of inciting an insurrection is highlighting the Greek government’s rising concerns about a flare-up of clashes involving migrants along Greece’s border with Turkey. Greek authorities say the Iranian man — a self-described anarchist — was urging groups in Greece to arm asylum seekers trying to enter Europe from Turkey. The man, if convicted, faces a stiff sentence of up to ten years in prison.Greek counter-terrorism forces say they arrested the 23-year-old Iranian national in central Athens after he posted a call for an armed insurrection on a website that is often visited by homegrown extremists and urban guerrilla groupings.Authorities say the unidentified man describes himself as a migrant anarchist and they say he has not denied the criminal charges set against him — among the stiffest slapped on a migrant in recent years.
 
Greek intelligence officials say Greece granted the man political asylum three years ago and that he has since then established a militant profile, linking up with a far-left extremist group in Greece.
 
Left-wing groups in Greece have long supported asylum seekers, advocating their safe passage — and their right to stay in Europe. But in his online calling, the Iranian went a step further, urging anarchists to help arm migrants, take to the streets and renew clashes with authorities in northern Greece to help tens of thousands trapped in Turkey stream in to Europe.
 
Authorities in Athens say they have not established links between that plot and Turkey.
 
But the Iranian’s arrest here and the severity of the charges laid against him underscore Greece’s desperate bid to stamp out any potential flare up of migrant clashes along the country’s borders with Turkey.
 
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan flung open the borders to migrants heading for Europe in late February after dozens of Turkish soldiers were killed in an air raid in Syria. FILE – Migrants walk in Edirne at the Turkish-Greek border, March 9, 2020.Turkey last week said it moved 5,800 migrants away from the border crossing at Edirne province where they had been massing, citing concerns over the threat of coronavirus.  The move was interpreted by some in Greece as a reversal by Ankara. But Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu told an independent broadcaster the move did not represent a policy change.
 
“Once the COVID-19 crisis is over, the Turkish government will not block migrants from returning to the border,” he said. Although Greek authorities have not established a link between the Iranian migrant and the Turkish government, they worry about how Ankara may use the nearly four million Syrian refugees now inside Greece.
Ioannis Mazis, an international relations analyst in Athens, said Greece has already seen Turkey using tens of thousands of migrants as pawns in the recent border clashes. He said the Turkish government has even admitted that it has orchestrated much of the border violence. So, threats of further clashes should not be underestimated, Mazis added.
 
By some accounts, as many 150,000 migrants and refugee tried to push into Europe last month. Greece says it succeeded in fending off more than 50,000, while many others managed to sneak in.  
 
  
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