With Turkey battling COVID-19, Turks are turning to a traditional custom to contain the virus: sweet smelling cologne. With its high alcoholic content, cologne is widely accepted as useful in killing the coronavirus on people’s hands. From major producers to local chemists, all are working to keep up with the surge in demand. Ziya Melih Sezer, 89 years old, is perhaps Istanbul’s oldest chemist. His profession keeps him exempt from the nationwide lockdown on people over 65. Donning a chic beret, Sezer continues to open his pharmacy to serve the local people, like his family has done for more than century. Family pharmacy certificates dating back before the Turkish republic attribute to the Sezer’s family serving Istanbul for more than a century. (D. Jones/VOA)On the wall of his store hangs his family’s pharmacy qualifications written in Ottoman script dating back before the Turkish Republic. Sezer recalls previous health crises to hit Istanbul. The typhus epidemic during World War Two was denied by authorities who dismissed the outbreak as malicious propaganda, he says. Cholera, in 1973, was “terrible,” with people fleeing the districts hit by the waterborne disease. But the coronavirus is the greatest challenge, he says “Nothing like this happened. Nothing like this panic,” Sezer said. “I haven’t heard such rate of deaths, never seen anything like that. People are collapsing and dying like a house of cards.” According to Turkish healthy ministry figures, over 3,000 people have died from the disease, with more than 60% of those deaths in Istanbul. Distinct lemon scentIstanbul’s mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu of the opposition CHP, suggests the death rate is probably much higher. The government vehemently denies Imamoglu’s accusation. Chemist Ziya Melih Sezer, every week for decades, prepares cologne, which is now in high demand as a way of sterilizing hands to prevent COVID’s spreading. (D. Jones/VOA)In a tiny back room, Sezer, in his small way, is helping to battle the virus. For decades he, like many chemists, produces cologne, carefully mixing fragrances with alcohol. In a large pestle and mortar, he pounds the ingredients that give the cologne its distinct lemon scent so loved by Turks. Sezer then, with a steady hand, carefully mixes in the alcohol, which he says is so effective in killing the coronavirus on people’s hands. As the virus spreads across Turkey and with it a growing awareness to regularly sterilize hands, demand for cologne has surged. “At the beginning of the coronavirus, there was a real high demand,” Sezer said. “For a short while, there was a shortage of ingredients.” Part of Turkish lifeCologne, for more than a century, is a part of the fabric of Turkish life. “Still cologne is a very important tradition in Turkey,” said Mehmet Muderrisoglu, owner of Rebul Pharmacy. His son Kerim runs the family firm Atelier Rebul, one of Turkey’s most prominent cologne producers. Traditional lemon-scented cologne is an essential part of Turkish culture. But its 80% alcohol content means it’s effective in sterilizing hands, becoming an important part of the country’s battle to contain COVID. (D. Jones/VOA)”There are few traditions when you visit an office or a house. One. You are offered a cup of tea, two a lokum (sweet), and three, when you enter the house the first thing they would give you, is to distribute cologne. This is the fragrant lemon cologne, and it is (also) good for disinfecting,” Muderrisoglu added. “I don’t think another society has that much consumption of cologne as the Turkish society,” said Professor Istar Gozaydin, an expert on religion and the Turkish State. Enduring popularity Gozaydin says Turkey being a predominantly Muslim country in part, explains cologne’s enduring popularity. “Cleanliness is a very important part of Turkishness, probably has to do with its religious identity, which is Islam, that demands washing before praying fives a day.” “However, among Muslim societies, the Turkish one is quite unique. Cleanliness among Turks extends to washing oneself only with running water is an example, or to be obsessed with washing oneself after deification, washing oneself after sex. Yes, it has to do with identity, and the widespread use of cologne is a part of this culture of cleanliness,” added Gozaydin. Cologne came to Turkey from Europe in the 19th century. A Frenchman founded Atelier Rebul, which is at the forefront of meeting the surging demand. “The first week was a boom. It was a very booming subject because everybody was running behind the cologne,” said Muderrisoglu, admitting they initially struggled to keep up with demand as people stocked up. Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline. Embed” />CopyMuderrisoglu, says they are now on top of demand, with calm starting to return to the market, “Now it is decreasing to normal.” But cologne’s sterilizing qualities are now demanded not only in Turkey. “Now we are exporting to Europe a lot. Previously cologne was never accepted in the European market. But now the European market is an important market for the cologne industry.” Fortunately, the surge in demand coincides with Atelier Rebul, opening a new factory that will triple production. Meaning there should be plenty of cologne to go round.
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Month: May 2020
Nigeria Eases Lockdown Measures Despite Increasing Coronavirus Cases
Nigeria has eased some coronavirus lockdown measures to reduce damage to the economy. The move Monday followed weeks of a nationwide shutdown that hurt millions of businesses. Timothy Obiezu reports from Abuja on warnings by critics that easing restrictions could lead to more damage to public health.
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US Supreme Court Justices ‘Phone It In’ for the First Time in Hearing a Case
The Supreme Court’s historic livestreaming of its first-ever oral argument by telephone went without a hitch on Monday, spurring new calls for the high court to keep up the practice for the public’s benefit.The session ran well past its allotted time of 60 minutes, but Chief Justice John Roberts ran a tight ship.All nine justices, including the court’s famously laconic justice, Clarence Thomas, phoned in from home to ask questions.FILE – US Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas delivers a keynote speech during a dedication the Nathan Deal Judicial Center in Atlanta, Georgia, Feb. 11, 2020.Lawyers for the government and Booking.com engaged in a robust back-and-forth with the justices as tens of thousands of people seized the unprecedented opportunity to listen in.The case – a legal dispute over whether the online reservation service can register its name as a trademark – is the first of 10 that will be argued by telephone and livestreamed this month as the justices – five of them 65 and older – shelter from the coronavirus.The justices had long resisted calls to livestream oral arguments – the only public part of their deliberations – and it wasn’t clear how Monday’s proceeding would unfold in light of the high court’s inexperience with live broadcasting technology.Now, the apparent success of the first-ever livestream is being hailed as a victory for court openness and increasing calls for the court to continue it even after the pandemic ends.This comes as high courts in other democracies – from Britain to Canada – and lower courts around the United States have increasingly embraced broadcasting technology to open their proceedings to the public via livestream and in many cases video conferencing.“Congratulations SCOTUS on broadcasting the audio of oral arguments live today,” Justice Beth Walker of the West Virginia Supreme Court tweeted. “The Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia has been doing it since the late 1980s.”Steve Vladeck, a constitutional law professor at the University of Texas at Austin said the session was “pretty darn typical.”“It’s not a circus – which is why live streaming shouldn’t be controversial,” Vladeck tweeted during the argument.FILE – U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts listens as President Donald Trump delivers his first State of the Union address in the House chamber of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Jan. 30, 2018.The telephonic argument began with the traditional call of “Oyez, oyez, oyez” by the court marshal before Chief Roberts called the case. An assistant solicitor general presented the government’s case and fielded questions during the first 30 minutes or so, while Lisa Blatt, a partner at the law firm of Williams & Connolly, argued on behalf of Booking.com during the second half of the session.There were a few minor glitches. One justice couldn’t be heard for several seconds. Another was briefly on mute. Twice Roberts had to remind a lawyer – who was apparently also on mute – that it was her turn to speak.Things otherwise moved briskly and in an orderly fashion.“This was the most ordered presentation of oral arguments ever seen,” said Adam Feldman, a long-time court watcher who teaches political science at California State University and runs a blog about the Supreme Court.Thomas, who had asked all of two questions over the past 14 years, posed four on Monday, leading other justices to piggyback off his queries to ask follow-up questions of their own.FILE – Supreme Court Justice nominee Neil Gorsuch testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, March 22, 2017.Missing from the telephone session were visual cues lawyers take from justices as they make their arguments in the courtroom. One such moment, shorn of visuals, came when Blatt, a veteran Supreme Court litigator, told associate justice Neil Gorsuch, the court’s second most junior member, that “you’ve not obviously read our expert” – to which Gorsuch retorted “That is not fair. Come on!”Prior to Monday, only a few dozen people could watch a Supreme Court argument live. The court has about 50 seats for members of the public and, depending on the profile of a case, people have waited up to five days outside the courtroom to secure a spot. However, despite minimal public interest in the Booking.com case itself, tens of thousands of people listened in, according to Gabe Roth, executive director of Fix the Court, an advocacy organization.As the argument was being livestreamed, many people reacted in real-time on social media, something court watchers and pundits fear U.S. President Donald Trump will be doing when three cases involving his financial records are heard next week.“Super cool to be able to listen live to the Supreme Court of the United States for the first time ever!” one person tweeted.
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US Warns China Faces Populist Backlash
A top U.S. official behind the Trump administration’s China policies is reaching out directly to the Chinese people in pressing U.S. concerns over China’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. U.S. Deputy National Security Adviser Matt Pottinger, speaking in Mandarin Chinese on Monday, said China’s communist ruling party is risking a popular backlash if Beijing does not ease controls on free speech. Matt Pottinger, U.S. Deputy National Security Adviser, arrives for the opening ceremony of the Belt and Road Forum at the China National Convention Center in Beijing, May 14, 2017.“When small acts of bravery are stamped out by governments, big acts of bravery follow,” Pottinger said during a webinar hosted by University of Virginia’s Miller Center. The warning came on a day when China marked the 101st anniversary of the May Fourth Movement, a cultural and political protest movement that propelled China toward modernity. Since the coronavirus outbreak in China, authorities have clamped down on critics who pointed out shortcomings in the government’s response. Chinese doctors, including the coronavirus whistleblower Dr. Li Wenliang who sounded early alarms before succumbing to the virus, were punished. Others, including citizen journalists such as Chen Qiushi, Fang Bin and Li Zehua who spoke out against authorities’ mishandling of the crisis, went missing. “When a privileged few grow too remote and self-interested, populism is what pulls them back or pitches them overboard. It has a kinetic energy. It fueled the Brexit vote of 2015 and President Trump’s election in 2016,” Pottinger added. Pottinger, a former Marine officer and reporter with the Wall Street Journal who reported from China for several years, is among the top U.S. officials who have been publicly drawing distinctions between China’s ruling communist party and the Chinese people. FILE – U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo smiles during a news conference at the State Department, in Washington, April 29, 2020.Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, a regular critic of the Beijing government, has complimented the Chinese people as “smart” and “hard-working,” while disparaging Beijing’s treatment of its citizens. The message from the White House came soon after a news report from Beijing said an internal communist party document is warning of rising global hostility over the coronavirus outbreak. Reuters, which reported the warning recently presented to top Chinese leaders, concluded that global anti-China sentiment is at its highest since the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown and could tip Beijing’s relations with Washington into confrontation. Relations between the U.S. and China have significantly deteriorated since the coronavirus outbreak that has killed about 250,000 people worldwide. In recent weeks, the two countries have sharpened their accusations over the handling of the pandemic. The U.S. said China hid the severity of the outbreak and did not allow in American investigators to study the virus early on. China insists it has been transparent and worked with the World Health Organization to prepare countries for the coming health disaster. Mistrust between the world’s two leading economies also grows from what Washington said Beijing’s unfair trade and technology practices to disputes over Hong Kong, Taiwan and contested territories in the South China Sea.
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Long Lines at Food Banks While US Faces Record Unemployment
Unprecedented unemployment due to COVID-19 is creating a new pressure for local food banks. They are rising to the challenge. Deana Mitchell reports.
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To Cope with COVID, Turkey Turns to Tradition
With the number of coronavirus infections continuing to rise in Turkey, the country is – like many others – anxiously awaiting a vaccine. Until one comes, many Turks are turning to an old tradition: perfume. From Istanbul, Dorian Jones reports.
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Journalist Critical of Madagascar President Released
A prominent Madagascar journalist detained a month ago after criticizing President Andry Rajoelina’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic was released on Monday.Arphine Rahelisoa, who heads the pro-opposition newspaper Valisoa, was charged on April 4 with “inciting hatred” after running a blog that notably said “COVID-19, lockdown, Andry Rajoelina, killer.”The charges against Rahelisoa, the only journalist detained in Madagascar, have not been dropped. She could face a prison term of between one and five years.”I thank everyone for thinking of me,” Rahelisoa said as she left a detention center in Antananarivo on Monday.”I was treated well in prison because I was a journalist,” added Rahelisoa, who had previously filed three unsuccessful requests for release.President Rajoelina had promised her release on television on Sunday.”I am going to take steps for the release of journalists who are currently in prison, and I urge journalists to exercise freedom within the scope of the law,” he said.Amnesty International had taken up Rahelisoa’s case, urging the authorities to release her and guarantee freedom of expression. UNESCO, the United Nations cultural organization, has designated May 3 as World Press Freedom Day.The communications ministry said Sunday it was an “abuse of… freedom” to fail to take into account the exceptional situation facing Madagascar and this “should in no way be put forward as freedom of the press.”Rajoelina placed the country’s three biggest cities on lockdown for several weeks in a bid to curb the spread of coronavirus, measures that have since been lifted.One of the world’s poorest countries, Madagascar has had 151 cases of coronavirus, but no fatalities, according to official figures.
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Low Turnout as Kenya Offers Free Testing in Feared Coronavirus Hotspots
Kenya is offering free testing for the coronavirus in densely populated, high-risk areas of Nairobi but the Ministry of Health says that so far, it’s been a low turnout. The testing, which kicked off Friday and continues this week, has uncovered dozens of new positive cases.On Monday morning, 25-year-old Martin Wakwayika was one of the hundreds in Eastleigh, a neighborhood in Nairobi’s central business district, who turned up at a temporary Ministry of Health stand to get tested for the coronavirus.Having recorded more than 50 coronavirus cases, Eastleigh is one of the most densely populated neighborhoods in Nairobi that Kenya’s Ministry of Health warned might be a coronavirus hotspot.The ministry on Friday began mass testing in the targeted areas, with hundreds of residents like Wakweyika volunteering themselves for testing.“I went to get tested to know if I was OK,” Eastleigh said. “I have two children in the house and I am always out working, so I had to know if I am OK.”A man walks through smoke generated by Nairobi municipality worker in an effort to fight against the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the Kawangware neighborhood of Nairobi, Kenya, May 2, 2020.Another hotspot where dozens more positive cases were confirmed in the past week is the neighborhood of Kawangware.Hundreds queued for testing at a primary school in the area on Monday, but thousands more such as Connie Mwana chose to stay home. “When you get to those quarantine facilities, the chances of contracting COVID-19 are high, because of the way people are staying in the facilities. For example sanitation is not good, people are sharing washrooms, picking individuals and taking them by force to these quarantine facilities has made people fear,” she said.A patient sits in a ward for those who have tested positive for the new coronavirus, at the infectious disease unit of Kenyatta National Hospital, in Nairobi, Kenya, May 1, 2020.Mwana said she cannot risk exposing her kids to quarantine if she was to test positive.She hopes if she has the virus, it may pass as a flu without her noticing.But thinking like that will allow the virus to spread, said ministry official Rashid Aman at a news conference Sunday.“The outcome of the testing so far has shown a low turnout in some of these areas. In the last two days, the testing teams have tested 803 against a target of 2,000 in Kawangware, 494 in Eastleigh against a target of 3,000. I want to remind Kenyans that there are countries that people beg to be tested yet their governments are unable to do so. As of now the Ministry of Health has acquired the testing capacity to undertake targeted testing, but the willingness of the people to be tested is low,” he said.Part of the problem may be that those who are found positive are charged for the tests, and have to send two weeks in quarantine at a government facility.The cost of quarantine, which is also charged to the patient, is $20 per day, much more than the daily wage of most people in the slum areas where the mass tests are being conducted.In an effort to encouraging more testing, the Ministry of Health on Monday said the government will cover the fees of patients who show they cannot afford the cost.On Monday, Kenya recorded 25 new cases of the coronavirus, raising the number of confirmed cases in the country to 490.
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Australia, New Zealand Consider Lifting Travel Restrictions with Possible ‘Travel Bubble’
Leaders from Australia and New Zealand are discussing the possible creation of a travel agreement— or “travel bubble” between the two nations as they begin to roll back their coronavirus-related restrictions.In March, both countries implemented strict travel restrictions, banning entry to almost all foreigners. But with coronavirus outbreaks appearing to have been brought under control, Australia and New Zealand are now seriously considering slowly lifting restrictions on flights with a possible “trans-Tasman travel bubble” later this year.New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has accepted an invitation from Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison to join in a meeting of the Australian government’s National Cabinet on Tuesday to discuss the proposal.”If there is any country in the world with whom we can reconnect with first, undoubtedly that’s New Zealand,” Morrison said during a press conference last month.New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern briefs the media about the COVID-19 coronavirus at the Parliament House in Wellington, April 27, 2020.Ardern discussed the concept of a travel agreement with reporters, suggesting that opening flights between the two nations would offer “huge advantages” to both and could help to reinvigorate their economies.Ardern, however, warned that unrestricted international travel, even with Australia, might still be further away and that more health measures will have to be implemented before the “travel bubble” can take effect.”One thing I’m not willing to do is jeopardize the position that New Zealand has got itself into by moving too soon to open our borders — even to Australia,” Ardern said in a live press conference on April 27. “Don’t expect this to happen in a couple of weeks’ time. We need to make sure we are locking in the gains all New Zealanders have helped us achieve and make sure we have health precautions in place.”New Zealand and Australia have both achieved a COVID-19 mortality rate of just 1% and managed to slow the increase in new cases. Going forward, leaders say they will continue to discuss how to prevent the possibility of a second wave of COVID-19 infections as they begin to reopen the countries and attempt to kick start industries that have been maimed by the restrictions. The coronavirus causes the COVID-19 disease.While similar precautions and restrictions were employed by the two countries to combat the spread of the coronavirus, New Zealand does not have a contact tracing app like CovidSafe, which Australia launched last week.An illustration picture shows the new COVIDSafe app by the Australian government on a mobile phone, as the country works to curb the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), April 28, 2020.About 4.4 million Australians have already downloaded the CovidSafe app; however, this total is still a couple of million people short of Morrison’s goal of 40% of the 16 million citizens with smartphones. If the federal government is to recall national restrictions, officials warn that more people will have to download and sign up for the app. New Zealand has indicated that it intends to release a similar app soon.Australia and New Zealand have one of the closest bilateral relationships in the world, and they contribute heavily to each other’s industries.Australian passport holders can travel and work in New Zealand without a visa, and vice versa. According to an international visitor survey conducted by the New Zealand Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment, Australians account for almost 40% of international travelers. In Australia, New Zealanders compose approximately 15% of international arrivals.Tourism in both nations is an extremely lucrative and essential industry. In New Zealand, tourism is the No. 1 export industry and contributes more than 20% of total exports according to a report by the TIA. While tourism is only Australia’s fourth-biggest export industry, it generates billions of dollars and employs 5% of the work force.
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Thousands Head to Reopened Beaches in Texas
In the first phase of Gov. Greg Abbott’s plan for Texas to reopen, the state’s beaches fully reopened last week. In the Gulf of Mexico coastal city of Galveston, the beach patrol reported thousands of visitors over the weekend. Galveston issued a statement as the beaches opened Friday, saying its top priority is the health of its residents. Officials strongly urged residents to “continue taking health precautions and following the CDC, state and health district guidelines regarding COVID-19, including social distancing and avoiding gatherings of more than 10.” Video and pictures from the beach over the weekend showed that not everyone took those warnings seriously. Prior to opening, the beaches were available only from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. daily for pedestrians, joggers and surfers. Texas’s stay-at-home order is set to expire May 8. Mayor Steve Adler of the state’s capital, Austin, said Monday he intends to extend the city’s stay-at-home order past that date.
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European Governments Face ‘Gray Revolt’
Governments across Europe are facing a coronavirus-related revolt from the elderly, who are pushing back on plans that would see their home-confinement prolonged as restrictions on other age groups are slowly relaxed. Seniors say a prolonged “gray lockdown” amounts to age discrimination and will probably cut their lives short anyway, regardless of the coronavirus.They have support from some doctors, who warn of the “impact” lockdowns are having on the “physical and mental health” of the elderly.In Britain, where all those aged 70 and over, regardless of their health, have been classified as “clinically vulnerable” and told to stay at home, the British Medical Association (BMA) has urged Prime Minister Boris Johnson to include the elderly in any plans for easing the coronavirus lockdown in the coming weeks. Home confinement is damaging the mental health of seniors, they say.FILE – Elderly people wait for a Sainsburys supermarket to open as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues, in Hertford, Britain, March 19, 2020.Age alone should not determine people’s ability to resume aspects of their daily lives when the government begins easing the overall lockdown restrictions in the coming weeks, the BMA says.In a statement, the BMA said, “A blanket ban on any section of the population being prohibited from lockdown easing would be discriminatory and unacceptable.” The doctors’ association acknowledged the government should ensure that “those at highest risk from infection are protected,” but added, “This needs to be based on individual risk that would apply at all ages rather than an arbitrary age of 60 or 70.”Muir Gray, professor of primary health care at Britain’s Oxford University, has warned of a “de-conditioning syndrome,” in which reduced physical and mental activity “increases the risk of dementia and frailty.”Those at greatest risk to the coronavirus are the over-70s, but the elderly say they should be allowed to make their own risk assessments as other age groups are slowly released from confinement.FILE – Stanley Johnson, father of the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, speaks at an event on climate change, in London, Oct. 9, 2019.”It should be up to us to determine our own risk, and judge whether we can finally see our children and grandchildren again,” according to commentator Magnus Linklater.As debate rages in Britain over the future of the elderly, Boris Johnson’s father, Stanley, has entered the fray, saying he hopes his son will end restrictions on seniors in time for his 80th birthday in August as he hopes to join an expedition to climb Mount Kilimanjaro to raise money for a charity.”I am rather hoping they will ease the restrictions in time,” the elder Johnson said.FranceAfter a pushback from the elderly in France, President Emmanuel Macron assured seniors his government will try to avoid setting separate rules for older people as the easing of the coronavirus confinement unfolds. The French president was forced to offer the concession when a backlash mounted after his top scientific adviser, Jean-François Delfraissy, said home confinement should continue for people over the age of 65 for the foreseeable future.”The President has followed the growing debate about the situation for elderly citizens,” the Elysee palace said in a statement last month. “He does not want there to be any discrimination among citizens after May 11 in the context of a gradual easing of confinement measures, and will appeal to people’s individual responsibility.”FILE – Marguerite Mouille, 94, gestures while her visiting daughter takes a photo at the Kaisesberg nursing home, eastern France, April 21, 2020.Generational tensions The debate is underscoring generational tensions in Europe. As countries started to lock down in March and April, governments appealed to cross-generational solidarity, arguing that the young had a duty to abide by restrictions in order to shield the most-at-risk groups, those with underlying health conditions, the old and frail.While many, if not most, people, both young and old, have responded to the appeals, there have been signs of generational friction — as well as complaints by both sides. Some youngsters bristled at lockdowns and flouted restrictions, with especially rebellious ones disobeying the rules on social distancing. Some held “lockdown parties” and “end of world” drinking sessions, joking on social media sites that the pandemic was the perfect opportunity for the removal of the baby boomer generation. Baby boomers are generally thought to have been born between 1946 and 1964.Millennials (born between 1981 and the mid-’90s) and youngsters from Generation Z (born between the mid-’90s and 2015), have also complained that they will be the ones who will have to bear the brunt of the economic costs of the coronavirus, rather than the old, much as what happened after the 2008 crash. State pensions in most European countries after the financial crash were shielded for the elderly and increased in line with inflation; austerity measures hit youngsters harder, their advocates say.FILE – Reinier Sijpkens performs classical music on his music boat for elderly people confined to their nursing home because of the coronavirus, in Heemstede, Netherlands, April 27, 2020.The elderly have said that they too suffered after 2008 with low returns on their savings — as they are suffering now. Nonetheless, there have been mounting calls for the huge economic cost of the pandemic emergency measures to be shared equally between old and young in the years ahead.”Quite rightly, society is making sacrifices to protect its elderly right now. There is a clear case for intergenerational reciprocation when it comes to meeting the fiscal costs of the crisis in the years ahead,” said Scott Corfe of the Social Market Foundation, a research group based in London.While some youngsters, who are less at risk from the coronavirus, have earned the ire of government officials and scientists for blithely flouting coronavirus restrictions, there have also been complaints of some seniors not observing lockdown rules, especially in central Europe, where pensioners have crowded markets. Romanian authorities cracked down on pensioners, ordering those aged over 65 only to venture from their homes between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. unless seeking urgent medical care.Craig Turp, the editor of Emerging Europe, a news site, suggested that the more carefree attitude of central Europe’s elderly had much to do with the history they have experienced.”War, deportation, poverty, dictatorship and revolution: They harden the spirit, darken the soul.” He went on to write, “For anyone who has lived through them, why would an invisible threat such as coronavirus pose any concern at all?”
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US Navy Ships Enter Arctic’s Barents Sea for First Time in Decades
Four U.S. Navy surface ships entered the Barents Sea on Monday for the first time in decades as part of maritime security operations aimed at asserting freedom of navigation in the Arctic Circle. The destroyers USS Donald Cook, USS Porter and USS Roosevelt, along with the fast combat support ship USNS Supply, were joined Monday by the Royal Navy’s HMS Kent. U.S. surface ships, as opposed to U.S. submarines that regularly prowl the Arctic waters, have not operated in the Barents Sea since the mid-1980s. “In these challenging times, it is more important than ever that we maintain our steady drumbeat of operations across the European theater,” said Vice Adm. Lisa Franchetti, commander, U.S. 6th Fleet. She added that the operation was critical to reinforcing “a foundation” of readiness in the Arctic, where the austere weather environment places extreme demands on vessels. The Russian Ministry of Defense was notified of the visit to the Barents Sea on Friday “in an effort to avoid misperceptions, reduce risk, and prevent inadvertent escalation,” according to a statement from U.S. 6th Fleet. U.S. Gen. Tod Wolters, NATO’s supreme allied commander Europe and head of U.S. European Command, told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee in February that the Arctic remains a “great concern” to the alliance, as Russia and China increase military activity there. He said he believed the U.S. needed to be as focused in the Arctic as they are in the Baltics and elsewhere. An alliance exercise in the Arctic kicked off in March but was canceled midway by the Norwegian government due to COVID-19 concerns. The exercise, dubbed Cold Response, was part of NATO’s larger Defender Europe 2020 exercise, which has seen cancellations, postponements and modifications across the board this year due to the pandemic.
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China Accuses Pompeo of Lying About Origin of Coronavirus
China accused U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday of “wantonly spewing poison and spreading lies” about the origin of the worldwide coronavirus pandemic.A day ago, the top U.S. diplomat there was “enormous evidence” that the pandemic originated in a laboratory in Wuhan, China, not a nearby market.But China’s state broadcaster CCTV attacked what it described as Pompeo’s “insane and evasive remarks.” It claimed the pandemic was natural in origin.Pompeo told ABC News’s “This Week” show, “Remember, China has a history of infecting the world, and they have a history of running substandard laboratories. These are not the first times that we’ve had a world exposed to viruses as the result of failures in a Chinese lab.”FILE – U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks at a news conference, which under coronavirus restrictions has only a handful of reporters and one pool camera in the room, at the State Department, in Washington, April 29, 2020.The Chinese commentary contended, “These flawed and unreasonable remarks by American politicians make it clear to more and more people that no ‘evidence’ exists.”The so-called ‘virus leaked from a Wuhan lab’ hype is a complete and utter lie,” China said. “American politicians are rushing to shift the blame, cheat votes and suppress China when their own domestic anti-epidemic efforts are a mess.”In the last week, CCTV has often called Pompeo the “common enemy of mankind” and accused him of “spreading a political virus” over claims that the pandemic originated in the Wuhan Institute of Virology. China in March had advanced the conspiracy theory that the U.S. military may have brought the virus to China.U.S. intelligence officials said last week that the U.S. is investigating whether the initial COVID-19 outbreak was the result of exposure to wild animals or an accident at the Wuhan laboratory. Pompeo said there is a “high degree of confidence” that the virus came from the Wuhan lab, which was studying the presence of the virus in bats.“There’s enormous evidence that that’s where this began,” Pompeo said.Pompeo said he has no reason to doubt the U.S. intelligence community’s consensus that the virus was “not manmade or genetically modified.”But he blamed China for delays in informing the world of the emerging threat of Covid-19.Medical staff treat COVID-19 coronavirus patients at a hospital in Wuhan, in China’s central Hubei province, March 19, 2020.He said the worldwide number of cases – now more than 3.5 million, with a death toll of more than 248,000 — would not have been so extensive had China not “attempted to conceal and hide and confuse. “We can confirm that the Chinese communist party did all that it could to make sure the world didn’t learn in a timely fashion about was taking place,” he said. “There’s lots of evidence of that.”Pompeo said Sunday that U.S. and international scientists have not been allowed to visit the Wuhan laboratory and that China has not provided a sample of the original virus.“We have said from the beginning, that this was a virus that originated in Wuhan, China,” Pompeo said. “We took a lot of grief for that from the outset.”Now, he said, China has embarked on a campaign to keep the world from further investigating its role in the pandemic’s origin.“We’ve seen the fact they’ve kicked journalists out,” Pompeo said. “We saw the fact that those who were trying to report on this, medical professionals inside of China, were silenced.“This is a classic communist disinformation effort that created enormous risk,” he said. “And now you can see hundreds of thousands of people around the world and tens of thousands in the U.S.” who have contracted the virus.He said U.S. President Donald Trump is “very clear: we’re going to hold those responsible, accountable. We’ll do so on a timeline that is ours.”
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Cameroon Military Denies Civilian Deaths in ‘Successful’ Raids on Rebels
Cameroon’s military says it killed at least 22 separatist fighters in a week of raids on seven rebel camps in the country’s troubled western regions. Villagers, however, say the military killed at least 13 civilians in the raids, which involved hundreds of troops. The commander in Cameroon’s English-speaking Northwest region said more than 300 troops were involved in successful raids this past week on rebel Ambazonian camps. General Valere Nka spoke via a messaging application Monday from the town of Bafut, where he was praising troops on behalf of Cameroon’s President Paul Biya.”A good number of Ambazonians were neutralized and we have [recovered] 50 guns, pistols, ammunitions, motorcycles and even a Fortuna car, two horses and so on,” he said.Nka said troops on Thursday and Friday killed 15 rebels in Bafut, including an infamous fighter calling himself “General Aladji,” who in 2018 kidnapped dozens of schoolchildren. He said Cameroonian troops killed seven other rebels during raids on camps in several villages and the town of Bamenda with no civilian casualties. But villagers disputed that claim and said at least 13 civilians were killed in the clashes. Thirty-two-year-old Oumarou Tanda said seven civilians were found dead after the military left his village of Bangolan. Speaking through a messaging app from the village, he said three of those killed were fellow Muslims with whom he was praying on Friday when the military opened fire.”The military men that are Muslims went into the mosque to pray,” he said. “The Amba boys break in [attacked the troops]. So instead of the military to shoot the Ambas, they instead turned and be shooting but the civilians. Now in the village we do not know who we are counting on, because we were counting on the military but now the military are shooting but us.” Tanda said his village had welcomed the military in hopes that they would prevent rebel attacks and abductions. In the northwest town of Tatum, farmer Innocent Ngumulah said crossfire during raids in three neighboring villages killed six people, including teenagers. He told VOA that villagers had expected the army to protect them from the rebels.
“It is rather unfortunate. They had been hoping that the military will come in and solve their problems so that this killing left and right will come to an end. They regret that they are now like orphans. They are tired. They want peace and that the rule of law should reign,” he said. The separatists on social media blamed Cameroon’s military for the civilian casualties, acknowledged their own losses in the raids, and claimed responsibility for an unclear number of military deaths. Cameroon’s military denied suffering any losses and said only a few of its troops were wounded. Cameroon’s anglophone rebels have since 2017 been fighting to carve out an English-speaking state from Cameroon’s French-speaking majority. The rebels and Cameroon’s military routinely accuse each other of atrocities against civilians, which rights groups have documented on both sides. The United Nations says the fighting in the English-speaking regions has cost more than 3,000 lives and displaced more than half a million people.
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Freedom! In France, a Nursing Home Takes on COVID and Wins
As the coronavirus scythed through nursing homes, cutting a deadly path, Valerie Martin vowed to herself that the story would be different in the home she runs in France. The action she took to stop the virus from infecting and killing the vulnerable older adults in her care was both drastic and effective: Martin and her staff locked themselves in with the 106 residents. For 47 days and nights, staff and residents of the Vilanova nursing home on the outskirts of the east-central city of Lyon waited out the coronavirus storm together, while COVID-19 killed tens of thousands of people in other homes across Europe, including more than 9,000 in France. “I said, ‘No. Not mine. My residents still have so much to live for,'” Martin said in an interview. “I don’t want this virus to kill them when they have been through so much.” On Monday, Martin and 12 colleagues who stayed in the home for the full duration ended their quarantine with hugs of celebration and singing, and with an uplifting victory: Coronavirus tests conducted on the residents and staff all came back negative. The caregivers, who nicknamed themselves “the happily confined,” left in a convoy of cars, joyously honking horns and heading for reunions with families, pets and homes. “We succeeded,” Martin said. “Every day, every hour, was a win.” While COVID-19 killed people by the dozens at some other homes, Martin said there were just four deaths at Vilanova during their lockdown and that none appears to have been linked to the virus. The average age of residents at the home is 87 and the deaths were not unexpected, she said. Because staff and residents were locked in together, Vilanova didn’t have to confine people to their rooms like other homes to shield them from the risk of infection brought in from outside. That spared residents the loneliness that has been agonizing for others. Vilanova allowed residents to continue to mingle and to get fresh air outside.May Day in France: Virtual Protests and Little to CelebrateThe coronavirus pandemic has battered the country’s economy and jobs, leaving workers anxious about the futureThe son of a 95-year-old resident described the staff as “a fantastic team,” saying they saved his mother by shielding her from the virus and keeping her spirits up, even holding celebrations for her birthday on April 17. Gilles Barret said the home’s daily Facebook posts of news, photos and videos also were “such a comfort.” “It saved lives,” he said. “Perfect, perfect. I tip my hat to them.” Martin said she didn’t want their residents to feel like “prisoners” and that it wouldn’t have felt right to her had she continued to come and go from the home while depriving them of their liberty during France’s lockdown, in place since March 17. Residents were confined to their rooms for two days at the beginning while staffers gave the home a thorough cleaning, and that proved “a catastrophe,” Martin said. “In two days, we already saw people who started no longer wanting to eat, people who didn’t want to get up, people who said, ‘Why are you washing me? It’s pointless,'” she said, In all, 29 of the 50 staff volunteered to stay, bringing pillows, sleeping bags and clothes on March 18 for what they initially thought might be a three-week stay but which they subsequently opted to extend. Other staff came from outside to help and were kept apart from residents and made to wear masks and take other protective measures to prevent infections. The carers slept on mattresses on the floor. Martin slept in her office. One of the volunteers left a 10-month-old baby at home. The team tallied the days on a blackboard marked: “Always together with heart.” “It was tough,” said caregiver Vanessa Robert. But there were also moments of “total joy, getting together in the evenings, fooling around, tossing water bombs at each other.” Martin said her top priority now is to console her estranged cat, Fanta. And one of the weirdest moments of the lockdown was climbing back into her car and hearing the same tune on the CD player — Limp Bizkit’s “Mission Impossible” soundtrack — that she had been listening to when she parked seven weeks earlier. “It was a bit like entering a holiday camp,” she said. “Living a lockdown with 130 people is extremely rewarding.”
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European Virus Tracing Apps Highlight Battle for Privacy
Goodbye lockdown, hello smartphone.
As governments race to develop mobile tracing apps to help contain infections, attention is turning to how officials will ensure users’ privacy. The debate is especially urgent in Europe, which has been one of the hardest-hit regions in the world, with nearly 140,000 people killed by COVID-19.
The use of monitoring technology, however, may evoke bitter memories of massive surveillance by totalitarian authorities in much of the continent.
The European Union has in recent years led the way globally to protect people’s digital privacy, introducing strict laws for tech companies and web sites that collect personal information. Academics and civil liberties activists are now pushing for greater personal data protection in the new apps as well.
Here’s a look at the issues.Why an App?
European authorities, under pressure to ease lockdown restrictions in place for months in some countries, want to make sure infections don’t rise once confinements end. One method is to trace who infected people come into contact with and inform them of potential exposure so they can self-isolate. Traditional methods involving in-person interviews of patients are time consuming and labor intensive, so countries want an automated solution in the form of smartphone contact tracing apps. But there are fears that new tech tracking tools are a gateway to expanded surveillance.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline. Embed” />CopyEuropean Standards
Intrusive digital tools employed by Asian governments that successfully contained their virus outbreaks won’t withstand scrutiny in Europe. Residents of the EU cherish their privacy rights so compulsory apps, like South Korea’s, which alerts authorities if users leave their home, or location tracking wristbands, like those used by Hong Kong, just won’t fly.
The contact-tracing solution gaining the most attention involves using low energy Bluetooth signals on mobile phones to anonymously track users who come into extended contact with each other. Officials in western democracies say the apps must be voluntary. Rival Designs
The battle in Europe has centered on competing systems for Bluetooth apps. One German-led project, Pan-European Privacy-Preserving Proximity Tracing, or PEPP-PT, which received early backing from 130 researchers, involves data uploaded to a central server. However, some academics grew concerned about the project’s risks and threw their support behind a competing Swiss-led project, Decentralized Privacy-Preserving Proximity Tracing, or DP3T.
Privacy advocates support a decentralized system because anonymous data is kept only on devices. Some governments are backing the centralized model because it could provide more data to aid decisionmaking, but nearly 600 scientists from more than two dozen countries have signed an open letter warning this could, “via mission creep, result in systems which would allow unprecedented surveillance of society at large.”
Apple and Google waded into the fray by backing the decentralized approach as they unveiled a joint effort to develop virus-fighting digital tools. The tech giants are releasing a software interface so public health agencies can integrate their apps with iPhone and Android operating systems, and plan to release their own apps later.
The EU’s executive Commission warned that a fragmented approach to tracing apps hurt the fight against the virus and called for coordination as it unveiled a digital “toolbox” for member countries to build their apps with.Beyond Borders
The approach Europe chooses will have wider implications beyond the practical level of developing tracing apps that work across borders, including the many found in the EU.
“How we do this, what safeguards we put in, what fundamental rights we look very carefully at,” will influence other places, said Michael Veale, a lecture in digital rights at University College London who’s working on the DP3T project. “Countries do look to Europe and campaigners look to Europe,” and will expect the continent to take an approach that preserves privacy, he said.Country by Country
European countries have started embracing the decentralized approach, including Austria, Estonia, Switzerland, and Ireland. Germany and Italy are also adopting it, changing tack after initially planning to use the centralized model.
But there are notable exceptions, raising the risk different apps won’t be able to talk to each other when users cross Europe’s borders.
EU member France wants its own centralized system but is in a standoff with Apple over a technical hurdle that prevents its system from being used with iOS. The government’s digital minister wants it ready for testing in “real conditions” by May 11 but a legislative debate on the app was delayed after scientists and researchers warned of surveillance risks.
Some non EU-members are going their own way. Norway rolled out one of the earliest – and most invasive – apps, Smittestopp, which uses both GPS and Bluetooth to collect data and uploads it to central servers every hour.
Britain rejected the system Apple and Google are developing because it would take too long, said Matthew Gould, CEO of the National Health Service’s digital unit overseeing its development. The British app is weeks away from being “technically ready” for deployment, he told a Parliamentary committee.
Later versions of the app would let users upload an anonymized list of people they’ve been in contact with and location data, to help draw a “social graph” of how the virus spreads through contact, Gould said.
Those comments set off alarm bells among British scientists and researchers, who warned last week in an open letter against going too far by creating a data collection tool. “With access to the social graph, a bad actor (state, private sector, or hacker) could spy on citizens’ real-world activities,” they wrote.
Despite announcing plans to back European initiatives or develop its own app, Spain’s intricate plan for rolling back one of the world’s strictest confinements doesn’t include a tracing app at all. The health minister said the country will use apps when they are ready but only if they “provide value added” and not simply because other countries are using them.
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Giant Asian Hornets Found in US Washington State
Scientists in Washington State say Asian giant hornets have been spotted in that state, the first time anywhere in the U.S.Researchers at Washington State University (WSU) say Asian giant hornets, Vespa mandarinia, are more than five centimeters long and the world’s largest hornets. They have with a sting that can kill humans if stung multiple times, earning their nickname, murder hornets.Beekeepers have reported piles of dead bees with their heads ripped off, an alarming sight in a country with a rapidly declining bee population.WSU entomologist and beekeeper Susan Cobey said the bees are like “something out of a monster cartoon,” with a large yellow orange face. She said the bees were first discovered in December and she and her fellow scientists are worried the insects will begin to emerge this Spring.The researchers are working with the Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA), beekeepers and citizens to find the hornets, study them and stop their spread.It is not known how or where the hornet first arrived in North America, possibly in international cargo shipments, or perhaps brought here deliberately.They live in dens in the ground, from forests and low mountains of eastern and southeast Asia, and feed on large insects, including native wasps and bees. In Japan, it has devastated European honeybees, which have no effective defense.While they are not usually aggressive towards humans, Cobey says they can be if provoked. Their stings are big and painful, with a potent neurotoxin.
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‘We Don’t Know How It Will End’: Hunger Stalks Amid Virus
When all this started — when the coronavirus began stalking humanity like an animal hunting prey, when she and her husband lost their restaurant jobs overnight as the world shut down to hide, when she feared not being able to feed her family — Janeth went outside with a red kitchen towel.
It was Passover. Her pastor had told her about the roots of the Jewish holiday, about Israelites smearing a lamb’s blood on their doors as a sign for the plagues to pass them by. So Janeth, an immigrant from Honduras, reached up to hang the red towel over the door of her family’s apartment on the edge of the nation’s capital. It was close enough, she figured, “to show the angel of death to pass over our home.”
Pass us by, coronavirus.
And pass us by, hunger.
At night now, it’s the worry over food that keeps Janeth’s mind racing, and her heart, she says, hurting. “I spend hours thinking, thinking, about what we will do the next day, where we will find food the next day,” she says weeks into the coronavirus outbreak, her family’s food and cash both dwindling.
Janeth and her husband, Roberto, are part of the greatest surge in unemployment in the U.S. since the Depression, setting off a wave of hunger that is swamping food programs nationwide. The couple and every adult member of their extended family in the U.S. have lost their jobs in the economic lockdown prompted by the pandemic.
They are among the tens of millions in America — more than 1 out of every 6 workers — abruptly cut off from paychecks.
The Associated Press is withholding the couple’s full names because they are in the country illegally and could face deportation. Their immigration status, their problems with English and scanty access to the Internet all combine to block them from accessing the U.S. government benefit programs that millions more newly jobless citizens are able to turn to during the outbreak.
Before the pandemic, food policy experts say, roughly one out of every eight or nine Americans struggled to stay fed. Now as many as one out of every four are projected to join the ranks of the hungry, said Giridhar Mallya, senior policy officer at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for public health.
Immigrants, African Americans, Native Americans, households with young children and newly jobless gig workers are among those most at risk, said Joelle Johnson, senior policy associate at the Center for Science in the Public Interest.
“They’re more vulnerable to begin with and this situation has just exacerbated that situation,” she said.
When the global economy clamped down, Roberto, a cook in his mid-30s, and Janeth, who keeps water glasses filled at another restaurant and is in her mid-40s, spent $450 out of their final paychecks to stock up. Weeks later, their diminished cache includes two half-full five-pound bags of rice, an assortment of ramen noodles, a half-eaten bag of pasta, two boxes of cornbread mix, four boxes of raisins and cans of beans, pineapple, tuna, corn and soup.
“Cookies?” Roberto and Janeth’s 5-year-old, gap-toothed daughter Allison still asks them, always getting a gentle “no” back. “Ice cream?”
Janeth and Roberto have cut down to one meal a day themselves, skipping meals to keep their daughter fed.
On a good day recently, after Roberto landed four hours of work preparing take-home meals for a grocery store, they had enough for what constitutes a feast these days — a can of refried beans split three ways and two eggs each, scrambled. Janeth also made tortillas from their last half-bag of masa flour.
Janeth placed aluminum foil over two of the plates; she and Roberto would eat later. Tears sprang from her eyes as she watched her daughter wolf down the meal.
“Where can we get enough food? How can we pay our bills?” she asked. Then she repeated something she and her husband emphasized again and again over the course of several days: They are hard-working people.
“We have never had to ask for help before,” she said.
Janeth and Roberto also have three adult children and, as the oldest of three sisters here, she and Roberto are trying to keep a half-dozen households in the United States and Honduras fed.
By day, they race in their second-hand pickup truck from food pantries and churches to relatives’ houses. They chase tips about food giveaways or temporary jobs. They share their painstakingly acquired cartons of food with her two sisters, who themselves have a total of five young children to feed, and call their grown children with leads on food lines.
And they fight off despair. “We don’t have help. We don’t know how it will end,” Janeth said.
On a recent day, Janet and Roberto’s breakfast is coffee and a few crackers. Allison eats cereal, a favorite provided by a food bank.
Soon after, Roberto and Allison, who is sporting pink sparkly sneakers, are among the first in line outside a DC food pantry. In line with them: a young African American man newly unemployed and seeking aid for the first time and two foreign-born nannies with their clients’ children in tow. The women now are only intermittently used — and paid — by their employers and need help feeding their own children at home.
Roberto is happy to leave with a bag of bananas, some spaghetti, tomato sauce and other staples.
Another day, Roberto and Allison stay inside the truck while Janeth heads out in a cold drizzle to approach a church said to be providing food. She struggles to read the sign in English posted on the door, then calls the numbers listed. No one answers. Allison, 5, holds two bananas next to her mother Janeth, left, as a volunteer at the food bank Martha’s Table waits to help the next guest, April 21, 2020, in Washington.Later, loading their pickup truck to take food to Janeth’s sisters, husband and wife dip into the pockets of their jeans to display the cash they have left — $110 total.
That’s gas money. Without that, living on the outskirts of town, there’s no getting to food banks, to one-day cash jobs, to stranded relatives facing eviction and hoping for food.
On the drive to Janeth’s sisters in Baltimore, Janeth hands Allison a small container of applesauce. The girl savors each taste, dipping in her finger, licking every last bit. “More?” she asks hopefully, tilting the container toward her mother.
Janeth answers regretfully, tenderly. No more.
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Japan’s Prime Minister Expected to Extend COVID-19 State of Emergency
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has extended the country’s state of emergency over the coronavirus pandemic until the end of May. Prime Minister Abe made the announcement on Monday after meeting with the government’s coronavirus task force. The original 30-day decree imposed by Abe on April 7, which is set to expire on Wednesday, covered Tokyo and six other prefectures, but was later extended nationwide as the number of infections continued to rise. The prime minister said the number of new infections have slowed in recent days, but not enough to lift the state of emergency. Japan has now reported 15,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 infections with 510 deaths, a situation that has overwhelmed the country’s healthcare system, hobbled its economy and forced it to postpone the Tokyo Summer Olympic Games for a year. The emergency declaration gives local authorities the legal power to call on its citizens to stay at home and to ask schools and businesses to close, but stops short of imposing a legally binding nationwide lockdown. Japan’s post-World War II constitution, which weighs heavily in favor of civil liberties, does not empower the government to impose a mandatory quarantine. The extension will keep the original restrictions in place for Tokyo and the other six prefectures named in the original decree, while the others will be allowed to ease restrictions provided they have low rates of infection. Abe’s government has been criticized for its slow response to the outbreak and its failure to set up an aggressive testing program.
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Australia Urges Citizens to Download COVID-19 Tracing App
More than four million Australians have downloaded the government’s CovidSafe tracing App, but officials insist many more need to sign on to make it effective. Australia has had 6,800 COVID-19 cases, 5,800 patients have recovered, and 95 people have died with the virus. The CovidSafe App was launched in Australia just over a week ago. 4.25 million Australians have downloaded it, but officials say a greater uptake of the coronavirus tracing software would give political leaders the ability to be more “bold” in easing restrictions. The government has said that about 10 million Australians – or 40 % of the population – need to join the program to make it an effective tool to trace COVID-19 cases. Civil liberties groups say the technology breaches privacy, while some experts have questioned its ability to accurately trace users. But the Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy is urging more Australians to take part. “The other very important precondition we have talked about on many occasions is the App. 4.25 million Australians have now downloaded the App and clearly, we need to keep downloads and registrations increasing. We think there are about 16 million adults with Smartphones. They are our target population. They are the people we want to get to download App because they are the people are likely to be contacts of cases, and we want as many of them as possible to download the App,” Murphy said.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline. Embed” />CopyThe federal government says it will announce later in the week if more COVID-19 controls will be relaxed following moves by some state and territory authorities to ease some public gathering and recreational restrictions. More than 630,000 tests have been carried out across the country. Australia also shut its borders to foreigners in March to stop the spread of imported cases of the disease. A New Zealand rugby team are the first foreign nationals to be allowed into Australia since international borders were closed. The New Zealand Warriors will stay in quarantine for 14 days before the planned resumption of the Australian National Rugby League on May 28. The Auckland-based Warriors are the only overseas side to play in the 16-team competition. In Sydney, another elderly resident has died at a care home that has become an epicenter for COVID-19 in Australia. 14 people have now died after a staff member caused an outbreak by working several shifts despite having mild coronavirus symptoms. The New South Wales state government said the situation at the facility was “horrific” and “unacceptable.”
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Free-roaming Horse Cheers Up German Town During COVID-19 Lockdown
Every morning a white horse named Jenny is seen strolling freely through her Frankfurt neighborhood. Her owners, Anna and Werner Weischedel, say the 25-year-old, free-roaming Arabian mare, is brightening up the coronavirus lockdown for many people in the Fechenheim area of Frankfurt-am-Main. “She goes wherever she wants, she has no limits. She can travel further away than we can, because we have travel restrictions at the moment. Jenny has ‘Corona-Freedom’, everything is allowed,” Werner said.For more than a decade Jenny has roamed solo through the town, taking the high street or trotting along the tram line to a nearby field nibbling for hours on patches of grass. “People seem to notice her more because they have more time. A lot of passers-by stroke her, maybe because they are missing some human contact,” Anna said. “Everyone knows her, no matter where she goes. People always greet her nicely, especially now in times of coronavirus, they are happy to have someone to cuddle. People have to stay apart from each other, but Jenny sometimes has 10 children around her. Adults too come out of the tram and hug or pet her,” Werner said.Germany, like many other countries, has closed schools, playgrounds and many businesses to curb the spread of the coronavirus. It has slowly begun to ease some lockdown measures, but people are urged to observe social distances and limit their social interactions. But the guidelines do not apply when it comes to interacting with Jenny and people can still snuggle with her. Since residents have in the past called the police to report an unaccompanied horse, Jenny wears a note around her neck that reads: “I haven’t run away, I’m just out for a walk.”
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Immigrant Entrepreneur Hopes for End to Pandemic
An immigrant entrepreneur has weathered financial ups and downs, but the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting lockdown sent a shock wave through his business. Mike O’Sullivan reports that, cut off from suppliers and customers, he wants the economy restarted, but first hopes to see the pandemic brought under control.
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More Than Two-Dozen Rohingya Refugees Sent to Flood-Prone Island Off Coast of Bangladesh
Bangladesh has relocated more than two-dozen Rohingya refugees who had been stranded at sea for several days to a flood-prone island in the Bay of Bengal. Officials say the refugees, including 15 women and six children, were taken to Bhasan Char island Saturday. The group is believed to have been among 500 Rohingyas who have been stranded on two fishing vessels that were turned away by Malaysia due to strict border controls imposed because of the coronavirus pandemic. Bangladesh has built facilities for 100,000 people on Bhasan Char in an effort to relieve the pressure from the crowded camps on Cox’s Bazar in southern Bangladesh, where about one million Rohingya have been housed in recent years. But officials say none of those refugees have agreed to voluntarily relocate to Bhasan Char. About 700,000 Rohingyas living in the Cox’s Bazar camps crossed over from neighboring Myanmar to escape a brutal, scorched-earth military campaign against them in 2017 that the United Nations described as ethnic cleansing – involving rapes, killings and torching of homes. Buddhist-majority Myanmar does not consider the Rohingya citizens, despite the fact they have lived in the country for generations. Thousands of Rohingyas over the years have attempted to escape the Bangladesh camps by boarding crowded boats bound for either Malaysia or Thailand.
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Justice Department Supports US Church Challenging Lockdown Order
The U.S. Justice Department has filed a statement in support of a church that is challenging the state of Virginia’s ban on gatherings of more than ten people. The church argued in a federal lawsuit that Governor Ralph Northam’s order infringes upon constitutional rights to free expression of religion. Chincoteague, Virginia police issued a criminal citation to the church’s pastor after an early April service attended by 16 people who observed social distancing measures. The Justice Department said the state has not demonstrated it has compelling reasons to treat the church differently from non-religious businesses that are allowed to operate with more than 10 people. The department’s filing said the government must strike a balance between maintaining best public health practices and ensuring liberties. “The United States has a substantial interest in the preservation of its citizens’ fundamental right to free exercise of religion, expressly protected by the First Amendment,” the Justice Department said. In late April U.S. Attorney General William Barr threatened legal action against restrictions imposed by state and local authorities that undercut religious freedom and other constitutional rights. In a memo, Barr directed the Justice Department’s top civil rights official and federal prosecutors around the country to be “on the lookout for state and local directives that could be violating the constitutional rights and civil liberties of individual citizens.”
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