Britain's Brexit bill passes final hurdle in Parliament

January 23, 2020

LONDON (AP) — Britain's Brexit bill passed its final hurdle in Parliament on Wednesday after the House of Lords abandoned attempts to amend it, leaving the U.K. on course to leave the European Union next week.

The bill was approved by Parliament's upper chamber after the House of Commons overturned changes to the government’s flagship Brexit bill made a day earlier by the unelected House of Lords. The bill will become law when it receives royal assent from Queen Elizabeth II, a formality that could come as soon as Thursday.

Britain is scheduled to leave the European Union on Jan. 31, more than three and a half years after voters opted for Brexit in a June 2016 referendum, and after many rounds of political wrangling. "Ät times it felt like we would never cross the Brexit finish line, but we've done it," Prime Minister Boris Johnson said.

The Lords voted Tuesday to demand that post-Brexit Britain continues to let unaccompanied migrant children in EU countries join relatives living in the U.K. The promise was made in 2018 by former British Prime Minister Theresa May, but it was removed from the Brexit legislation after Johnson’s Conservatives won a big parliamentary majority in an election last month.

Johnson's government says it intends to continue resettling child migrants in Britain after the country leaves the EU but argues that the issue does not belong in the EU withdrawal bill, which sets out the terms of Britain’s departure from the 28-nation bloc.

Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay said an agreement on taking in the children “is ultimately a matter which must be negotiated with the EU, and the government is committed to seeking the best possible outcome in those negotiations."

But Labor lawmaker Yvette Cooper accused Johnson's Conservative government of planning to “betray the commitments that have been made to the most vulnerable children of all." The House of Commons also stripped out changes made by the Lords to bolster the rights of EU citizens in Britain, protect the powers of U.K. courts and ensure a say for Scotland and Wales in post-Brexit legal changes.

The wrangling didn't stop the Brexit bill from becoming law, because the House of Commons can override the unelected Lords. Members of the Lords acknowledged Wednesday that they would have to give way.

“We are at the end of a very long road," said Martin Callanan, a Conservative Brexit minister in the Lords. The EU parliament also must approve the Brexit divorce deal before Jan. 31. A vote by the European Parliament is expected next week.

Despite Johnson’s repeated promise to “get Brexit done” on Jan. 31, the departure will only mark the start of the first stage of the country's EU exit. Britain and the EU will then launch into negotiations on their future ties, racing to strike new relationships for trade, security and a host of other areas by the end of 2020.

UK plans Brexit celebrations but warns businesses may suffer

January 18, 2020

LONDON (AP) — The British government has announced plans for special events on the night of Jan. 31 when the country officially leaves the European Union but the country's treasury chief has admitted that some U.K. business sectors will suffer as a result.

Sajid Javid told the Financial Times in an interview Saturday that Britain's regulations will not be aligned with the EU in the future and that those changes may hurt some businesses. Currently the EU is Britain's largest trading partner.

“There will not be alignment, we will not be a rule-taker, we will not be in the single market and we will not be in the customs union — and we will do this by the end of the year," he said, referring to a deadline at the end of 2020 for conclusion of what are expected to be contentious trade talks with the then-27 member EU.

Britain will officially leave the EU bloc on the night of Jan. 31, even though it will keep following EU rules for an 11-month transition period. It will be the first nation ever to leave the bloc. The British government plans to mark the occasion with a series of upbeat events.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson plans to make a speech to the nation that night after holding a rare cabinet session in the north of England to emphasize his government's plan to spread opportunity to that economically beleaguered region.

The government also plans to mark Brexit by projecting a clock onto the prime minister's official residence at 10 Downing Street in London that will count down until 11 p.m., when the break takes place.

The entire government neighborhood of Whitehall is to be illuminated for the occasion as part of a light show, with Union flags flown on all the poles in Parliament Square. The government will also create a commemorative coin that will enter circulation that day.

But Johnson's Conservative government is no longer actively pushing a plan to have the familiar chimes of the Big Ben clock tower at Parliament sound at 11 p.m. despite a private fundraising push in support of activating the chimes, which are under repair.

Britain voted in a 2016 referendum to become the first nation to leave the 28-nation EU, but the process has moved more slowly than expected. A stalemate last year kept a withdrawal bill from passing, leading to a rare December election that gave Johnson's pro-Brexit Conservative Party a strong majority in Parliament.

The Brexit divorce bill quickly passed when the new Parliament convened. A transition period will last until the end of 2020 as negotiators try to forge a trade arrangement between Britain and the remaining EU nations.

Johnson, who is also seeking a trade deal with the United States, has ruled out seeking an extension of the deadline for the EU talks.

EU chief warns UK must compromise to get Brexit trade deal

January 08, 2020

LONDON (AP) — Three weeks before Britain is due to leave the European Union, the president of the European Commission warned Wednesday that the U.K. won’t get the “highest quality access” to the European Union's market after Brexit unless it makes major concessions.

In a friendly but frank message to the U.K., Ursula von der Leyen said negotiating a new U.K.-EU trade deal will be tough. She also said the end-of-2020 deadline that British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has imposed on negotiations makes it “basically impossible” to strike a comprehensive new agreement in time.

Von der Leyen, who took over as head of the EU's executive branch on Dec. 1, met Johnson at 10 Downing Street in London on Wednesday for the first time since the British leader’s election victory last month.

Johnson’s Conservatives won a substantial parliamentary majority in Britain's Dec. 12 election, giving him the power to end more than three years of wrangling over Brexit and take the U.K. out of the EU on Jan. 31. It will be the first nation to ever leave the bloc, which currently has 28 members.

Britain’s departure will be followed by a transition period in which the U.K.-EU relationship will remain largely unchanged while the two sides negotiate a new trade arrangement. Johnson says the U.K. is seeking a wide-ranging free trade deal, but doesn't want to agree to keep all EU rules and standards.

Johnson's office said after the meeting that the U.K. wanted “a broad free trade agreement covering goods and services, and cooperation in other areas.” But it said “any future partnership must not involve any kind of alignment” in which Britain would automatically follow EU rules.

That could cause problems. Speaking at the London School of Economics before her meeting with Johnson, von der Leyen warned that “without a level playing field on environment, labor, taxation and state aid, you cannot have the highest quality access to the world’s largest single market.”

"With every choice comes a consequence. With every decision comes a trade-off," she warned. The EU worries that Britain plans to cut environmental and employment standards in order to position itself as a low-regulation, low-tax competitor to the bloc.

Johnson sought to allay those fears, telling von der Leyen the U.K. would continue to maintain high standards “in areas like workers’ rights, animal welfare, agriculture and the environment,” Downing St. said.

International trade agreements typically take years to complete, but Johnson has ruled out extending the post-Brexit transition period beyond the end of 2020, although the EU has offered to prolong it until 2022. Downing Street said Wednesday that “both British and EU citizens rightly expect negotiations on an ambitious free trade agreement to conclude on time.”

Von der Leyen said the time frame was “very, very tight” and made it “basically impossible” to negotiate anything but a skeleton deal. “The more divergence there is, the more distant the partnership has to be,” she said. “And without an extension of the transition period beyond 2020, you cannot expect to agree on every single aspect of our new partnership. We will have to prioritize.”

The German EU chief — who studied in Britain in the 1970s and has proclaimed herself a friend and fan of Britain — did have some encouraging words for Johnson. She said the bloc was ready to strike a tariff-free and quota-free trade deal with Britain, and “a partnership that goes well beyond trade and is unprecedented in scope.”

She said the new relationship could encompass “everything from climate action to data protection, fisheries to energy, transport to space, financial services to security. And we are ready to work day and night to get as much of this done within the time frame we have.”

At the start of the meeting, Johnson noted that he and von der Leyen had attended the same Belgian school — the European School in Brussels, where both lived for a time as children. Johnson, 55, is six years younger than the EU chief.

Johnson’s election victory broke Britain's political stalemate over Brexit. His 80-seat House of Commons majority means he has the votes to get his Brexit deal approved by lawmakers, something his predecessor Theresa May never achieved.

Johnson’s key Brexit bill was approved in principle last month and is expected to pass its final House of Commons hurdle on Thursday after three days of debate. It also must be approved by the European Parliament.

Von der Leyen said she did not anticipate a delay and expected the U.K. to leave the EU on Jan. 31. “This will be a tough and emotional day," she said.

Raf Casert reported from Brussels.

Uncharted Brexit waters: UK's Boris Johnson faces 2020 tests

January 03, 2020

LONDON (AP) — After a remarkable political turnaround, Prime Minister Boris Johnson is on the verge of taking Britain out of the European Union with the enthusiastic support of a strong majority in Parliament.

After suffering a string of parliamentary defeats over Brexit — plus the ignominy of being told by Britain's Supreme Court that his suspension of Parliament last year was unlawful —Johnson cruised to victory in the country's Dec. 12 election and finally got his landmark Brexit bill passed before Christmas.

Expectations for the coming year are high, fueled by Johnson’s upbeat approach. He promised in his New Year’s message that resolving the Brexit stalemate means Britain “can start a new chapter in the history of our country, in which we come together and move forward united, unleashing the enormous potential of the British people.”

He pledged to “work my socks off” to unite the country. The message was pre-recorded; Johnson spent the holiday on the Caribbean island of Mustique with girlfriend Carrie Symonds. Johnson’s predecessor, former Prime Minister Theresa May, was stung by repeated rebukes from a hostile Parliament. Johnson, however, is in a much stronger position with a healthy Conservative Party majority in the House of Commons after the election that he called two years early.

When Johnson's tenure at 10 Downing Street began in July with a series of defeats in Parliament, many observers said he likely would have the shortest reign of any recent prime minister. Instead, he has won a five-year term and left the main opposition Labor Party in near-total disarray.

With Parliament remade in his image, Johnson expects to split Britain off from the 27 other EU nations on Jan. 31, becoming the first nation ever to leave the bloc. Then the truly difficult part begins as Britain launches contentious trade talks that will define its new relationship with Europe, its key trading partner.

Momentous changes are coming, but the immediate impact of Britain’s departure will be blunted because of a yearlong transition period. There will still be unfettered trade between Britain and the EU and the free movement of people throughout 2020.

Johnson may have a friendly Parliament at home, but he does not have a warm relationship with EU leaders, who hold much of the leverage in trade talks. He faces outright hostility from Scotland’s leader, whose region wanted to stay in the EU, and questions about whether Brexit may nudge U.K. member Northern Ireland closer to the Republic of Ireland and threaten its status as part of the U.K.

There is intense time pressure on the EU trade talks, which must conclude by the end of 2020 unless both sides agree on an extension by the end of June. That is an option Johnson has ruled out, raising once again the prospect that Britain might sever all EU ties without a new deal in place. Economists say such a “no-deal” Brexit would sabotage Britain's economy.

Most trade talks take much longer than one year to complete. These particular negotiations are unusually fraught because of uncertainty surrounding how trade between Northern Ireland and Ireland will be governed once the U.K. is no longer part of the EU.

There have been persistent warnings that imposing new trade barriers and tariffs could jeopardize the gains brought about by Northern Ireland's 1998 Good Friday peace deal and rekindle the violence there that has been largely dormant for two decades.

Brexit may nudge Northern Ireland toward uniting with Ireland by keeping Northern Ireland closely bound to Ireland in trade terms and imposing new paperwork that would slow trade between Northern Ireland and mainland Britain.

Johnson also faces a Brexit-fueled confrontation with Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon that poses another threat to the U.K.'s unity. Sturgeon and her Scottish National Party are lobbying hard for a second independence referendum on whether Scotland should remain in the U.K. or strike its own path as an independent country.

Sturgeon argues that since Scottish voters rejected Brexit in the 2016 referendum Scotland is being “dragged out of the EU against its will” and should be given the chance to opt for independence, even though the prospect was voted down in 2014.

Johnson says his government will not authorize another vote on Scottish independence, but Sturgeon plans to press the issue in the coming year, capitalizing on her party’s strong performance in the December election. The independence-minded SNP won 48 seats in the House of Commons, a gain of 13 legislators.

Johnson’s larger-than-expected margin of victory and his Conservatives’ strong performance in traditional working-class Labor Party strongholds in northern and central England give him a chance to consolidate power. The Conservatives now have 365 seats in the 650-seat Parliament to Labor's 202.

It is not clear yet whether Johnson will navigate a shift to the center, patching together a deal that keeps the EU trading relationship as open as possible, or whether he will continue to court the Conservatives' hard-Brexit wing, which is ready for an abrupt rupture with Europe.

Either way, his task is formidable: take Britain out of the EU without sparking a major economic contraction, keep the U.K. intact despite the yearning for secession in some quarters, and making good on promises to hard-hit communities in north and central England that wealth and opportunity will — finally — move beyond greater London.

If he can do all that, and keep voters in newly Conservative parts of the country content, his turnaround would be complete.

UK lawmakers OK Johnson's Brexit bill, pave way to leave EU

December 20, 2019

LONDON (AP) — British lawmakers approved in principle Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Brexit bill, clearing the way for the U.K. to leave the European Union next month. The House of Commons voted 358-234 on Friday for the Withdrawal Agreement Bill. It will receive more scrutiny and possible amendment next month, and also has to be approved by Parliament’s upper chamber, the House of Lords.

But Johnson’s commanding majority in Parliament means it is almost certain to become law in January. Britain will then leave the EU on Jan. 31. Johnson said Friday that passing the bill would end the “acrimony and anguish” that has consumed the country since it voted in 2016 to leave the EU. Opponents argue that leaving the EU will only trigger more uncertainty over Britain’s future trade relations with the bloc.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson urged lawmakers on Friday to back his Brexit bill to end the “acrimony and anguish” that has consumed the country since it voted in 2016 to leave the European Union.

Johnson's Withdrawal Agreement Bill is all but certain to be approved in principle later Friday by the country’s new Conservative-dominated House of Commons. It will be a moment of triumph for Johnson, who won a commanding parliamentary majority in last week’s general election on a promise to end more than three years of political gridlock and lead Britain out of the European Union on Jan. 31.

The U.K.'s departure will open a new phase of Brexit, as Britain and the EU race to strike new relationships for trade, security and host of other areas by the end of 2020. Johnson, however, painted Friday's vote as a moment of closure. Opening debate on the bill he said, optimistically, that after Jan, 31, “Brexit will be done, it will be over.”

“The sorry story of the last 3 1/2 years will be at an end and we will be able to move forward together,” he said. “This is a time when we move on and discard the old labels of ‘leave’ and ‘remain,’” Johnson added. “Now is the time to act together as one reinvigorated nation.”

Britain voted narrowly to leave the EU in a 2016 referendum. But previous attempts by Johnson and his predecessor, Theresa May, to pass a Brexit deal through the U.K. Parliament foundered as lawmakers objected to sections of the agreement and demanded a bigger say in the process. Johnson’s election victory finally gives him the power to get his way.

“The election has produced a result: We will leave the EU at the end of January,” acknowledged pro-EU Liberal Democrat legislator Wera Hobhouse. “The battle to stop Brexit is over.” The bill commits Britain to leaving the EU on Jan. 31 and to concluding trade talks with the bloc by the end of 2020. Trade experts and EU officials say striking a free trade deal within 11 months will be a struggle, but Johnson insists he won’t agree to any more delays, The Brexit bill has been amended to bar ministers from agreeing to extend the transition period with the EU.

That has set off alarm bells among business es, who fear that means the country will face a “no-deal” Brexit at the start of 2021. Economists say that would disrupt trade with the EU — Britain's biggest trading partner — and plunge the U.K. into recession.

Johnson said Friday he was confident of striking a “deep, special and democratically accountable partnership with those nations we are proud to call our closest friends” by the Brexit deadline. He said extending the transition period would just prolong Brexit “acrimony and anguish ... a torture that came to resemble Lucy snatching away Charlie Brown’s football.”

For all Johnson's talk of “getting Brexit done” on Jan. 31, details of Britain's negotiating stance — and even who will lead the trade talks — remain unknown. Armed with his 80-seat majority in the 650-seat House of Commons, Johnson has stripped out parts of the Brexit bill that gave lawmakers a role in negotiating a future trade deal with the EU and required ministers to provide regular updates to Parliament. The clauses were added earlier in the year in an attempt to win opposition lawmakers’ support for the Brexit bill — backing that Johnson no longer needs.

A promise that workers’ rights will not be eroded after Brexit has also been removed from the bill, although the Conservative government says it will enshrine employment rights in separate legislation.

Opposition Labor Party lawmaker Hilary Benn said Johnson's bill was “a gamble with our nation’s economy.” “If he fails, the cliff-edge of a no-deal Brexit becomes in just 12 months’ time,” he said. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said his 203 lawmakers would oppose the Brexit bill because of “the reckless direction in which the government and the prime minister are determined to take our country.”

“There is a better and fairer way for this country to leave the European Union," he said. Even without opposition votes, the bill is expected to complete its passage through Parliament in January, in time for Britain to leave the 28-nation bloc on Jan. 31.

The divorce deal also needs to be ratified by the European Parliament. European Parliament vice president Pedro Silva Pereira said officials expect that to happen by Jan. 29. Very little will change immediately after Brexit. Britain will remain an EU member in all but name during the 11-month transition period that ends in December 2020.

Taiwan President Tsai calls for stability in China relations

May 20, 2020

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen called for stability in relations with China in her inaugural address Wednesday but said she would not accept Beijing’s political terms that would “downgrade Taiwan and undermine the cross-strait status quo.”

Reelected by a landslide late last year, Tsai said relations with Beijing had reached a “historical turning point” and that “peace, parity, democracy, and dialogue” should form the basis for contacts between the sides as a means to prevent intensifying antagonisms and differences.

Tsai said Taiwan would also work to increase its participation in international society, even as Beijing seeks to shut it out and poach allies away from the self-governing island democracy it claims as its own territory.

“We will not accept the Beijing authorities’ use of ‘one country, two systems' to downgrade Taiwan and undermine the cross-strait status quo," Tsai told an audience at the baroque Taipei Guest House in the center of the capital.

Tsai represents the ruling Democratic Progressive Party which advocates Taiwan’s formal independence, something Beijing says it will use force to prevent. Her election to a second, four-year term came after the repression of pro-democracy protests in the nearby Chinese semi-autonomous region of Hong Kong solidified public opinion in Taiwan against moves toward accepting rule by Beijing.

The sides split amid civil war in 1949 and Beijing has cut off ties with Tsai’s government over her refusal to accept its demand that she recognize the island as a part of China to be unified with eventually under the “one country, two systems" policy enacted in Hong Kong.

Beijing's diplomats have prevented Taiwan from joining international gatherings such as the World Health Organization and reduced its number of diplomatic allies to a handful, while its military has boosted patrols and exercises aimed at intimidating the island's population.

In her speech, Tsai emphasized the need to boost national security, including against non-traditional threats such as cyber and “cognitive" warfare, defined partly by the use of disinformation on social media.

Tsai, 63, is a former law professor and unique in being the only modern woman leader in Asia to rise to the top without being part of a political dynasty. Attending Wednesday's speech were diplomats from Taiwan’s remaining 15 formal diplomatic allies and representatives of the U.S. and other major nations that maintain strong but informal ties with Taiwan. The U.S. is the island’s main source of military support against China’s military threats and a key advocate for its participation in international gatherings.

Prior to her address, congratulatory remarks from U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo were read out praising Tsai’s “courage and vision in leading Taiwan’s vibrant democracy is an inspiration to the region and the world.”

“The United States has long considered Taiwan a force for good in the world and a reliable partner,” Pompeo said in the statement. “We have a shared vision for the region — one that includes rule of law, transparency, prosperity, and security for all.”

The U.S. support comes amid rising frictions between Washington and Beijing over trade, technology and allegations of Beijing’s mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic that began last year. At the same time, Washington has increased military sales to the island of 23.6 million and Congress has passed legislation promoting closer political and economic ties.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said Beijing expressed its “strong indignation and condemnation," over Pompeo's remarks, adding that the U.S. must “stop official exchange with Taiwan or improving real relations with Taiwan."

“China will take necessary measures against the above-mentioned wrong actions of the U.S. side, and the resulting consequences shall be borne by the U.S. side," Zhao said. Despite Beijing’s attempts to isolate Taiwan diplomatically and vastly reduce numbers of Chinese tourists visiting the island, Tsai has overseen steady growth in Taiwan’s high-tech economy and enacted social reforms, including making the island the only democracy in Asia to recognize same-sex marriage.

Reforms, including reductions in civil service pensions had sparked a backlash and Tsai had appeared vulnerable to a challenge from the pro-China Nationalist Party candidate. However, her support for the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong in the face of an often-violent police response helped lift her poll figures.

Many see China’s autocratic Communist Party as eroding Hong Kong’s civil liberties and Taiwanese voters have strongly rejected any moves toward political accommodation with Beijing. Poll results released by the U.S.-based Pew Research Center last week found that 66% of island residents view themselves as Taiwanese, 28% as both Taiwanese and Chinese and 4% as just Chinese. The telephone poll of 1,562 people, conducted last fall, has a margin of error of 3.2 percentage points.

Among respondents under 30, fully 83% said they don’t consider themselves Chinese. Another 2.3% of Taiwan’s people are members of indigenous groups who are not ethnically Chinese. A former Japanese colony, Taiwan was handed to China in 1945 but split again from the mainland when Mao Zedong’s Communists swept to power on the mainland in 1949. The rival Nationalists, led by Chiang Kai-shek, fled to Taiwan, 160 kilometers (100 miles) across the Taiwan Strait from China’s east coast.

China says boy picked by Dalai Lama now a college graduate

May 20, 2020

BEIJING (AP) — China said Tuesday that a boy who disappeared 25 years ago after being picked by the Dalai Lama as Tibetan Buddhism’s second-highest figure is now a college graduate with a stable job.

Very little information has been given about Gedhun Choekyi Nyima or his family since he went missing at age 6 shortly after being named the 11th Panchen Lama. China, which claims that Tibet is part of its territory, named another boy to the position, Gyaltsen Norbu, who is rarely seen and is believed to spend most of his time in Beijing. He is generally viewed as a political figure under Beijing's control and shares none of the Dalai Lama's global fame.

Foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said Gedhun Choekyi Nyima “received free compulsory education when he was a child, passed the college entrance examination and now has a job." Zhao said neither the now-31-year-old man or his family wishes to be disturbed in their “current normal lives.” No other details were given.

The tussle between Beijing and the Dalai Lama, who fled into exile in 1959, concerns who will determine the future of Tibetan Buddhism, which still commands heavy sway over the people of the Himalayan region that China says has been its territory for centuries but which many Tibetans believe was largely independent.

Tibet’s self-declared government-in-exile in India marked the 25th anniversary of Gedhun Choekyi Nyima's disappearance by calling on Beijing on Sunday to account for his whereabouts. “China’s abduction of the Panchen Lama and forcible denial of his religious identity and right to practice in his monastery is not only a violation of religious freedom but also a gross violation of human rights,” the Tibetan parliament in northern India, known as the Kashag, said in a statement.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also issued a statement on Monday calling on China to “immediately make public the Panchen Lama’s whereabouts and to uphold its own constitution and international commitments to promote religious freedom for all persons."

The Dalai Lama named the original Panchen Lama with the help of Tibetan lamas trained in reading portents and signs. China claims the reincarnate can only be chosen by pulling lots from a golden urn, a method it used to pick its own candidate under the control of the officially atheistic ruling Communist Party.

Traditionally, the Panchen Lama has served as teacher and aide to the Dalai Lama, Tibetan Buddhism’s highest leader who is now 84 and is accused by Beijing of seeking independence for Tibet. The Dalai Lama denies that and says he advocates greater autonomy for the region.

Hong Kong lawmakers clash as pro-Beijing camp elects chair

May 18, 2020

HONG KONG (AP) — Clashes broke out in Hong Kong's legislature Monday for a second time this month as a pro-Beijing lawmaker was elected as chair of a key committee that scrutinizes bills, ending a prolonged struggle for control with the pro-democracy camp.

The legislature’s House Committee, which vets bills and decides when to present them for a final vote, had been without a chairperson for more than six months. The central government in Beijing criticized deputy chairperson and pro-democracy lawmaker Dennis Kwok for deliberately delaying matters and causing a backlog of bills that affect public interest.

Kwok was replaced Friday by Chan Kin-por, who was appointed by the legislature’s president to preside over Monday’s election. After scuffles and shouting matches, leading to Chan ejecting most of the pro-democracy lawmakers, the election took place with pro-Beijing lawmaker Starry Lee winning easily.

Her election will likely speed up the passing of a controversial bill that would criminalize abuse of the Chinese national anthem. Hong Kong’s chief executive Carrie Lam said last week that passing the bill was a priority for the government, and the bill will be presented to the committee on May 27.

At Monday’s meeting, pro-democracy lawmakers held up placards that read “Abuse of Power” and “CCP tramples HK legislature,” referring to the China's ruling Communist Party. Within minutes, at least five lawmakers were ejected for disorderly behavior, with at least one lying injured on the ground as the meeting was briefly suspended.

“Hong Kong is marching towards the beginning of the end of ‘one country, two systems’,” said pro-democracy lawmaker Claudia Mo after the meeting ended. The former British colony was returned to China in 1997 under a one country, two systems framework that gives Hong Kong its own legal system and greater rights than in the mainland.

Mo urged the Hong Kong people to vote out those who “don’t care about Hong Kong’s future” in the legislative elections in September. Pro-democracy lawmaker Tanya Chan accused security guards of Hong Kong’s legislature of “losing their impartiality,” after the security guards surrounded the bench where the chairperson was seated and prevented pro-democracy lawmakers from getting close.

Lawmakers clashed over the same issue on May 8, when Lee occupied the chairperson’s seat more than an hour before the meeting was scheduled to start, saying that external legal counsel had advised that she had the power to preside over House Committee meetings.

Pro-democracy lawmakers accused her of abusing her power and staged a walkout, leaving Lee and the pro-Beijing camp to clear several bills.

20 years after withdrawal, Israel, Hezbollah brace for war

May 20, 2020

KFAR CHOUBA, Lebanon (AP) — Twenty years after Hezbollah guerrillas pushed Israel’s last troops from southern Lebanon, both sides are gearing up for a possible war that neither seems to want. Israeli troops are striking Hezbollah targets in neighboring Syria and drilling for what could be an invasion of Lebanon. The militant Hezbollah group is beefing up its own forces and threatening to invade Israel if provoked. The bitter enemies routinely exchange warnings and threats.

“We are preparing seriously for the next war. We’re not taking any shortcuts because we understand we have to be extremely strong to defeat the enemy,” said Col. Israel Friedler, an Israeli commander who has been overseeing a weeks-long exercise simulating war with Hezbollah at a base in northern Israel.

Hezbollah emerged as a ragtag guerrilla group in the 1980s, funded by Iran to battle Israeli troops occupying southern Lebanon. A protracted guerrilla war, characterized by roadside bombs and sniper attacks, eventually forced Israel to withdraw in May 2000. With the exception of an inconclusive, monthlong war in 2006, the volatile frontier has largely remained calm.

Since then, Hezbollah has evolved into the most powerful military and political entity in Lebanon. The party and its allies dominate Lebanon’s parliament and are the main power behind Prime Minister Hassan Diab’s government.

“Domestically, Hezbollah has emerged to become the preponderant force in Lebanon,” said Hilal Khashan, a political science professor at the American University of Beirut. But regionally, he said, “the position of Hezbollah is precarious” due to Israeli pressure, domestic turmoil and problems for its Iranian benefactors.

The group can ill afford another massive clash with Israel. The Lebanese economy is in shambles, around half the population is now estimated to live in poverty — including in Hezbollah strongholds — and the group’s finances are suffering because of U.S. sanctions imposed on it and Iran. The group also suffered heavy losses in the Syrian civil war, losing some 2,000 fighters while battling alongside the forces of Syria's President Bashar Assad. Once seen as a liberation movement, Hezbollah is now seen by many in Lebanon and the region as an Iranian pawn.

Qassim Qassir, an expert on Hezbollah, says the group has no interest in going to war but has been preparing for battle for a long time. “The battle will not be a battle of missiles only,” he said, a reference that Hezbollah might try to invade parts of northern Israel.

In a region filled with adversaries, Israel considers Hezbollah to be its toughest and most immediate threat. During the 2006 war, the group launched some 4,000 rockets into Israel, most of them unguided projectiles with limited ranges. Today, Israeli officials say Hezbollah possesses some 130,000 rockets and missiles capable of striking virtually anywhere in Israel. They say it has sophisticated anti-tank missiles, night-vision equipment and cyber warfare capabilities.

Hezbollah operates along the border, in violation of the U.N. cease-fire that ended the 2006 war. It also has established a presence in southern Syria, near the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, providing an additional front in a future war. Most critically, Israel believes Hezbollah is trying to develop and build precision-guided missiles.

Sheikh Ali Daamoush, a top Hezbollah official, claimed the Israelis are afraid of Hezbollah's missile program. “The Israelis should be worried and scared because the resistance now has the will, intention, capabilities and force to make Israel face a great defeat in any coming confrontation,” he said.

That confrontation may come sooner than anticipated. Israel has acknowledged carrying out scores of airstrikes in neighboring Syria in recent years, most of them believed to have been aimed at stopping Iranian arms shipments or missile technology for Hezbollah.

Syria has accused Israel of carrying out at least seven airstrikes in the past two months alone, believed to have targeted Iranian and proxy interests. Israeli warplanes and reconnaissance drones have been violating Lebanese airspace on almost daily basis in recent weeks.

Israeli officials say that neither Iran’s troubles — including the coronavirus crisis, plunging oil prices and U.S. sanctions — nor Lebanon’s domestic problems have changed Hezbollah’s behavior. They point to a recent attempt by Hezbollah to fly a drone into Israeli airspace and an incident last month in which alleged Hezbollah operatives damaged a fence along the Israeli-Lebanese frontier.

The Lebanese border town of Kfar Chouba, overseen by three Israeli positions, was quiet Wednesday, three days after Israeli troops shot and wounded a Syrian shepherd who had crossed into Israeli-held territory. The area is a disputed enclave along the frontier between Israel, Syria and Lebanon, where tensions often play out.

In recent weeks, tens of thousands of Israeli troops have been participating in a massive exercise at the Elyakim military base. On a recent day, four Israeli tanks rumbled up to the edge of a ridge and fired powerful 120-millimeter shells streaking across the valley, scoring direct hits on targets several kilometers (miles) away. Ground troops maneuvered through a mock Lebanese village. Air force, navy and cyber units joined the drill.

Friedler, the Israeli commander, said if there is another war, Israel will have no choice but to cross the border to halt Hezbollah fire. He said battling an enemy entrenched in civilian areas is like “fighting with handcuffs on,” but insisted that his troops are ready.

“It won’t be easy. But without a doubt it will be much harder for them. They don’t have the means to stop us,” Friedler said. Hezbollah has also vowed to cross into Israel in any future war. In late 2018, Israel uncovered and later destroyed what it said was a network of cross-border tunnels.

Despite these tensions, residents along Israel’s northern border say that life has greatly improved since Israel withdrew from its self-declared “security zone” two decades ago. Nisim Shtern, a farmer in the northern Israeli border town of Kerem Ben Zimar, spent time in southern Lebanon as a soldier in the mid-1980s and remembers times when Katyusha rockets rained down on the area.

Shtern, who grows pomegranates and wine grapes in his orchards, says day-to-day life is good, but that some residents still get jittery. Even so, he said Israel made the right decision to withdraw. He said he trusts the army to take quick and decisive action whenever needed.

“We need to strike them hard and get out,” he said. “If there’s a problem, take care of it with maximum force.”

Federman reported from Elyakim Military Base, Israel.

Britain divided over reopening schools as virus rules ease

May 23, 2020

LONDON (AP) — David Waugh is putting down barrier tape and spraying yellow lines on the ground outside the main door of his school near Manchester. Waugh, who oversees five schools in northwestern England, already has painted yellow arrows to ensure that children follow a one-way path around the building when they return next month from an extended break due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Soft furniture and play equipment have been cordoned off, and desks have been spread apart. Waugh has stocked up on 7,500 face masks, hundreds of pairs of gloves, hand sanitizer and other supplies. “The government says we don’t need them, but I certainly couldn’t have risked not having them,” he told The Associated Press. “It’s the unknown, the utter unknown. We’re taking baby steps forward at the moment, trying to win the hearts and minds of parents and teachers.”

Since March 20, the coronavirus has forced British schools to close to all but a small number of key workers’ children and those under social care. The government wants children to start returning to primary schools in stages from June 1. Those going back first include the youngest — ages 4 to 6. Daycare providers also have been told to start welcoming back babies and toddlers from June.

The reopening has divided the country and faced vehement opposition from teachers unions, which say it’s too risky for everyone and could cause a spike in infections. Dozens of local authorities have refused to follow the reopening timetable. Scotland and Northern Ireland, which have their own governments, are not opening schools until August at the earliest.

Worried parents are texting each other the same question: “Are you sending your kid back?” Justine Roberts, who founded parenting website Mumsnet, said the decision to send the youngest children back first is “causing bafflement and some anger, and a suspicion that decisions are being driven by the need to get people back to work."

Teachers union NASUWT cited a poll of 29,000 members that suggested only 5% think the plan is safe. Other unions have told members not to engage with planning for an early June opening. Mary Bousted, joint leader of the National Education Union, said the plan is “simply not safe, it is not fair, it is not feasible.”

Unions say they are unconvinced by the scientific evidence on the topic published by the government. They also want the tracking and tracing system for those infected to be in place first. Charlotte Smith, whose 14-year-old son is unaffected by the plan, joined a small protest of the reopening Thursday in Manchester. She didn't believe administrators have thought through how to work out social distancing "that isn’t damaging to kids.”

“There’s absolutely no way I would want my kid to go into an environment that’s psychologically damaging for them,” she said. "We need to rethink education and we can’t do that in two weeks.” In its guidance to schools, the Education Department said face masks are not recommended in schools, and acknowledged that young children can’t be expected to keep the 2-meter (6-foot) social-distancing guidelines. It said class sizes should be halved and limited to a maximum of 15, and that children should be separated into the same small groups.

Waugh’s school group, the True Learning Partnership in Cheshire, is doing that and more. He is planning to split students into “mini school” zones, each with separate entrances, daily timetables and play areas. Meals will be delivered to classrooms. Teachers’ desks will be 2-meter “exclusion zones” ringed off with tape. Even the cutlery will be assigned to separate groups.

It’s “more than feasible” to make schools safe, he said, even if it’s a “logistical nightmare.” English schools will be following those in Denmark, Germany, France and elsewhere that are easing restrictions. Proponents say the effect of being away from the classroom has been felt keenly by the most disadvantaged families.

A report from the Institute for Fiscal Studies said school closures will almost certainly increase educational inequality. Wealthier children are spending 30% more time on home learning during lockdown — about 5.8 hours a day — than those in poorer families and have access to better resources like online tutors, it found.

Working parents, too, are increasingly frustrated about working from home with children. Sarah Hesz, a mother of three, says that after considering the risks, she plans to send her 5-year-old back to school next month.

“People are so torn, worried and confused about what is best,” said Hesz, who works for a childcare app. “There is a massive part of me that want my kids to be learning again, to be with their friends again. At the moment, it's just impossible. I can't home school my kids and work."

But it’s a tough sell for many, and one key concern is the risk of infection from children to adults. The confusion was highlighted when the doctors union, the British Medical Association, first backed teachers who oppose a June 1 reopening, only to change its stance days later.

The BMA said Wednesday that while there was growing evidence that the virus risk to children is extremely small, there is conflicting evidence about the likelihood of children spreading it to others. “A zero-risk approach is not possible,” it concluded. “This is about ‘safe’ being an acceptable level of risk.”

Jonathan Van-Tam, the deputy chief medical officer for England, acknowledged that data on how infectious children are is “pretty sparse.” “There are significant welfare and wellbeing issues for children who are out (of school) months and months on end. It’s delicate and difficult, and I accept that,” he said.

Jane Cooper, who teaches older children at Lostock Hall Primary School, said she was looking forward to seeing her pupils again. She knows the new normal won’t be easy, especially for younger children who want to cuddle or hold hands.

“We can’t really sit next to children and teach them as we normally do, it’s not as hands-on teaching,” she said, adding that her students "will understand it, but the little ones won’t be able to, and that’s a bit sad really.”

Jo Kearney contributed.

Flights to Cyprus to resume from select countries next month

May 22, 2020

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — Cyprus on Friday outlined plans for the phased resumption next month of commercial flights from a select number of countries with low COVID-19 infection rates to jump-start its vital tourism sector.

Transport Minister Yiannis Karousos said flights will begin in two phases — June 9 and 20 — from two groups of countries selected by an advisory body of medical experts. The first group is comprised of Greece, Malta, Bulgaria, Norway, Austria, Finland, Slovenia, Hungary, Israel, Denmark, Germany, Slovakia and Lithuania. The second group is made up of Switzerland, Poland, Romania, Croatia, Estonia and the Czech Republic. The list excludes the country’s two main tourism markets, former colonial ruler Britain, and Russia.

Karousos said starting June 9, passengers arriving from countries in either group must obtain three days prior to departure a health certificate confirming that they are virus-free. Starting June 20, passengers from the first group of countries won’t need health certificates, but those from the second group will still be required to obtain them.

Aircraft arriving from any country not included in either group will only be permitted to carry Cypriot citizens or foreign nationals who permanently reside in Cyprus, or anyone who has been granted special permission.

These passengers will also have to obtain a health certificate three days prior to departure. They can opt to be tested in Cyprus, but will have to stay in self-isolation for one day in designated accommodation.

Passengers arriving from any other country are required to self-isolate at home for 14 days. Anyone arriving from countries that don’t have labs capable of conducting specialized tests for the virus can be tested in Cyprus.

Passengers will have to cover costs relating to testing, quarantine accommodations or transport. Karousos said hotels that have been shuttered since a strict stay-at-home order was imposed in late March, and lifted earlier this week, will open their doors on June 1.

More countries will be added to the two groups in the coming days, the minister said. Tourism officials said medical experts will assess the course of the pandemic in the U.K. and Russia before flights from those countries can begin.

Marketing its year-round sunny skies, pristine beaches and Mediterranean cuisine to entice holidaymakers, Cyprus relies heavily on tourism. The sector directly accounts for 13 percent of the east Mediterranean island nation’s gross domestic product.

Government tourism officials estimate that the country will lose 70% of the initially anticipated 2.6 billion euros ($2.83 billion) tourism-generated revenues this year. Authorities are eager to get hotels and other businesses up and running to keep unemployment numbers from spiking and to buttress a still fragile economic recovery from a 2013 financial crisis that almost bankrupted the country.

But health officials insist that the resumption of flights and the arrival of foreign travelers won’t be allowed to jeopardize Cyprus’ so-far successful handling of the pandemic. To date, Cyprus — with a population of around 880,000 — has reported 927 confirmed coronavirus infections and 17 deaths.

China lawmakers gather as doubts swirl over pandemic safety

May 21, 2020

BEIJING (AP) — China is convening its biggest political gathering of the year and President Donald Trump has said he is considering meeting with world leaders in June as doubts simmer over how safe is safe enough with the pandemic still not under control.

From meatpacking plants in Colorado to garment factories in Bangladesh, workers are concerned over risks they face as they return to work after shutdowns. The safety questions apply even at the highest levels of the political spectrum.

Trump tweeted that having leaders of the Group of Seven major economies fly in next month for a summit at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland would be a “great sign to all" of things returning to normal.

In March, the president canceled the meeting because of the coronavirus pandemic, saying leaders would confer by video conference instead. The District of Columbia remains under stay-at-home orders at least through June 8, though Maryland began relaxing the restrictions last week. At the same time, leaders of the G-7 member nations are in some cases still grappling with the virus in their own countries or in various states of reopening their economies.

Trump's proposal for meeting around the original date of June 10-12 drew an ambiguous response from Japan, where the chief government spokesman, Yoshihide Suga, said he viewed the tweet as “an expression of the President’s intention to normalize the global economy quickly.”

Suga said such details are still being studied by the U.S. as host nation and that Tokyo was in discussions with Washington. China's communist leadership is taking extensive precautions to prevent any infections as it opens its National People’s Congress on Friday and a parallel meeting of advisers on Thursday. The meetings in Beijing were delayed for nearly two months due to the pandemic.

The number of fresh coronavirus cases in China has dropped recently, though clusters of infections have popped up in some areas. China reported two newly confirmed cases on Thursday. An outbreak at the congress would be a potential public relations nightmare as President Xi Jinping showcases Beijing's apparent success in curbing the coronavirus that emerged in the central city of Wuhan late last year.

Around the world, the effort to get back to business is raising worries over risks. Labor leaders and health experts have questioned the ability of recommended safety precautions to protect meatpacking workers, who have suffered severe outbreaks at plants in the U.S. Midwest. The recommendations by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are meant to keep meatpacking workers safe as they return to plants that were shuttered by the coronavirus.

But the federal guidelines have scant enforcement muscle and spell out that they are advisory, “not a standard or regulation,” and create “no new legal obligations.” “It’s like, ‘Here’s what we’d like you to do. But if you don’t want to do it, you don’t have to,’” said Mark Lauritsen, international vice president and director of the food processing and meatpacking division for the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union.

The pandemic is “the most massive workers’ safety crisis in many decades, and OSHA is in the closet. OSHA is hiding,” said David Michaels, an epidemiologist who was the agency’s assistant secretary of labor under President Barack Obama. Michaels called on OSHA to make the guidelines mandatory and enforceable, which would include the threat of fines.

Amid a wave of reopenings in the U.S., many Americans remain wary, according to a new survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. The poll says 83% of Americans are at least somewhat concerned that lifting restrictions in their area will lead to additional infections.

The poll also exposed a widening partisan divide, with Democrats more cautious and Republicans less anxious as President Donald Trump urges states to “open up our country." Only about a third of Republicans say they are very or extremely concerned about additional infections, compared with three-quarters of Democrats.

About 5 million people worldwide have been confirmed infected, and over 328,000 deaths have been recorded. That includes more than 93,000 in the U.S. and around 165,000 in Europe, according to a tally kept by Johns Hopkins University, based on government data. Experts believe the true toll is significantly higher.

With the virus far from vanquished, reopenings from pandemic shutdowns could prove to be a stop-and-start, two-steps-forward-one-step-back process. At the same time, worries over risks of going back to work are overshadowed for many by worries over losing their jobs, or of being unable to find new ones.

With more than 30 million Americans unemployed, more than 10% of U.S. households in a survey last week said they could not get enough of the food they needed some of the time or often. Almost a quarter of respondents said they will have difficulty paying their rent or mortgage or will defer payments, according to survey results released Wednesday by the U.S. Census Bureau.

The weekly U.S. jobless report, due Thursday, could show fewer people seeking unemployment than in recent weeks given that many people are being called back to work as restrictions ease. In some areas, especially retail, however, those jobs could be short-lived if people change their buying and shopping habits long-term.

The pandemic is proving a huge challenge, too, for China, whose robust economy has helped drive global growth for the past two decades. A major focus for the congress will be reviving growth that fell to its weakest since at least the mid-1960s in the first quarter.

Companies and the public are looking to the largely ceremonial meeting for details on how Beijing might tackle the downturn. The party’s ultimate goal is to persuade consumers — millions of whom have lost jobs or worry they might — to spend again. One way to do that is by example: the meeting in Beijing sent a signal that was not missed by Chinese who have endured weeks, and in many cases months, of lockdowns.

Zhou Yu, a Beijing bank employee, said he was reassured because the meetings show the epidemic is under control. “We resumed work in March, and almost all of us are back to work now,” said Zhou. He and his clients wear masks when they meet.

“Because we all pay attention to the precautions and disinfect working areas every day, there’s nothing to worry about," he said.

Kurtenbach reported from Bangkok. Associated Press reporters from around the world contributed.

'We're expendable': Russian doctors face hostility, mistrust

May 21, 2020

MOSCOW (AP) — There are no daily public displays of gratitude for Russian doctors and nurses during the coronavirus crisis like there are in the West. Instead of applause, they face mistrust, low pay and even open hostility.

Residents near the National Medical Research Center for Endocrinology, a Moscow hospital now treating virus patients, complained when they saw medical workers walking out of the building in full protective gear, fearing the workers would spread contagion.

“Maybe once the disease knocks on the door of every family, then the attitude to medics will change,” said Dr. Alexander Gadzyra, a surgeon who works exhausting shifts. The outbreak has put enormous pressure on Russia's medical community. While state media hails some of them as heroes, doctors and nurses interviewed by The Associated Press say they are fighting both the virus and a system that fails to support them.

They have decried shortages of protective equipment, and many say they have been threatened with dismissal or even prosecution for going public with their complaints. Some have quit and a few are suspected to have killed themselves.

Government officials insist the shortages are isolated and not widespread. Antipathy toward the medical profession is widespread in Russia, said social anthropologist Alexandra Arkhipova, who studies social media posts peddling virus conspiracy theories. More than 100 theories she studied say doctors diagnose COVID-19 cases so they can get more money; others say they help the government cover up the outbreak.

“It’s a crisis of trust that the epidemic underscored,” she said. “I haven’t seen this attitude anywhere else.” Trust in government institutions has always been low in Russia, according to opinion polls, and most of its hospitals are state-run.

Russia is struggling in the pandemic, with over 300,000 infections and 2,972 deaths. The government has disputed critics who have questioned the relatively low number of fatalities. Official statements and news reports in more than 70 Russian regions show that at least 9,479 medical workers have been infected with the virus in the past month, and more than 70 have died. Health care workers believe the death toll to be much higher and they have compiled a list of more than 250.

Dr. Irina Vaskyanina said at least 40 workers are infected at a hospital in Reutov, outside Moscow, where she headed a department handling blood transfusions. She also said insults and threats from superiors became common after she complained about working conditions to her bosses, to law enforcement and even to President Vladimir Putin.

“I handed in my notice," Vaskyanina said. “They're not letting me do my job. I love my job and I want to keep doing it, but I can't go on like this.” She said 13 of her 14 colleagues have also quit. Dr. Tatyana Revva, an intensive care specialist in the town of Kalach-on-Don, was summoned by police for questioning and slapped with disciplinary action after recording a video about equipment shortages. The hospital's head reported her to a prosecutor for “spreading false information” — an offense punishable by fines of up to $25,000 or a prison term.

“I am one reprimand away from being fired,” Revva told AP. Dr. Oleg Kumeiko, head of Revva's hospital, rejected the claims. He told the AP there were no shortages of protective equipment in the hospital, and said he had no intention of firing Revva. Disciplinary action against her was justified, he said, and "had nothing to do with her public activity."

“I don’t understand why they treat us like we’re expendable,” said Nina Rogova, a nurse in the Vladimir region 200 kilometers (120 miles) east of Moscow. She is recovering from the virus after getting it at work and she says she is being threatened with dismissal after she told local media about a lack of protective gear.

Doctors in the southern region of Chechnya who complained about equipment shortages later had to retract their statements as a “mistake” and apologize on TV. The predominantly Muslim region's leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, has a reputation for stifling dissent, and he has demanded they be fired.

Adding to the frustration is pay. Health workers say they haven't gotten bonuses the government promised them for working with coronavirus patients. In early April, Putin personally promised generous bonuses to monthly salaries — about $1,100 for doctors, $680 for nurses and paramedics, and $340 for orderlies.

A month later, social media was filled with photos of pay slips reflecting bonuses from 10 to 100 times smaller than promised. Dr. Yevgeniya Bogatyryova, a Moscow-area paramedic, told AP the April bonuses varied from $2 to $120. “They’re calculating the time ambulance doctors spend with a coronavirus patient and pay by the hour, apparently,” Bogatyryova said.

More than 110,000 people signed an online petition demanding the government keep its promise. Dozens of paramedics protested in the Nizhny Novgorod region 400 kilometers (240 miles) east of Moscow, and scores more from Siberia to southern Russia made videos demanding the bonuses.

“Whoever we ask in our management, our superiors, they say, ‘Putin promised you (bonuses), so Putin should pay you,’” Natalia Salomatova, an orderly at a hospital in the Siberian city of Chita, told the AP. April bonuses for her colleagues ranged from the equivalent of 41 cents to $6.86. Salomatova herself didn't receive any.

Only after Putin went on TV twice last week and angrily demanded that officials pay what was promised did medical workers in some regions start getting the payments. “Makes you wonder: Who should we protect the medics from, the infection or the administrators?” said Arkhipova, the social anthropologist.

Russia's Health Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Reports of health care workers resigning are surfacing. Over 300 quit in the western Kaliningrad region two weeks ago, dozens of paramedics reportedly resigned in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk in May and 40 workers gave notice at a hospital in the Vladimir region.

That could further cripple Russia's health care system, already impaired by a widely criticized reform that closed half of its 10,000 hospitals in 20 years, with thousands of layoffs. In December, Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova called the reform “horrible” and said it significantly affected the quality and the accessibility of health care.

“Now we’re facing the threat of a complete destruction of the medical community,” said Semyon Galperin, head of the Doctors Defense League rights group.

Irina Trofimova in Chita, Russia, contributed.

Germany cracks down on meat industry after virus outbreaks

May 20, 2020

BERLIN (AP) — The German government agreed Wednesday to ban the use of subcontractors and increase fines for breaches of labor law in the meat industry starting next year following a series of coronavirus outbreaks linked to abattoirs in recent weeks.

Clusters of COVID-19 cases among slaughterhouse workers across Germany highlighted grim conditions in the industry, which relies heavily on migrant workers from Eastern Europe. Labor Minister Hubertus Heil said problems in the industry were “structural” and required deep-rooted reform, noting that in some slaughterhouses up to 80% of workers are employed by subcontractors, or even sub-subcontractors.

The Cabinet plans to submit a bill that will require companies to directly employ any workers involved in slaughtering and meat processing from Jan. 1, 2021, though there will be exceptions for small artisanal businesses.

Ministers also agreed to double the current maximum fine of 15,000 euros ($16,425) if companies are found in breach of labor rules. Many workers in Germany’s industrial slaughterhouses are migrants from Romania and other low-income countries who live in shared housing and are transported to abattoirs in cramped shuttle buses, exposing them to greater risk of infection.

Spain's leader asks parliament for 2 more weeks of lockdown

May 20, 2020

MADRID (AP) — Spain’s prime minister appears before parliament on Wednesday to ask for its endorsement to extend the state of emergency that his government has used to rein in the country's coronavirus outbreak that has killed at least 27,000 people.

It would be the fifth two-week extension to the state of emergency, which is currently set to expire on Sunday. The government wants to extend it until June 7. “The path we are on is the only one that can possibly beat the virus,” Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez told a chamber with only a handful of members to limit contagion risks. “Thanks to all the parliament members who have supported the state of emergency because with their vote they have saved thousands of lives.”

Since the start of the national lockdown on March 14, Spain has lowered a rampant COVID-19 virus contagion rate that was well over 20% to under 1% over the past week. More than 230,000 infections have been confirmed by laboratory tests in Spain.

Sánchez argues that Spain still needs to keep a tight, centralized control over the health situation as it starts to loosen restrictions and restart economic activity. Small shops have reopened in most of the country, but not in hard-hit Madrid and Barcelona.

The vote is expected to be close, although Sánchez’s minority government made up of his Socialists and an anti-austerity party has maintained the important backing of the center-right Citizens party and Basque regionalist party PNV.

Sánchez’s support has been waning with every vote to extend the state of emergency, which gives the government the power to restrict constitutional rights such as free movement and assembly — key to its sanitary lockdown. The main opposition conservative Popular Party and the far-right Vox party have said they will vote “No.”

Both right-wing parties accuse the government of being responsible for the impact of the pandemic that threatened to collapse the nation’s health system managed by Spain's regions until the state of emergency centralized all efforts.

“You are like a headless chicken running around not knowing what to do,” Popular Party leader Pablo Casado told Sánchez. “To endorse your extension would be irresponsible.” Catalonia separatist parties, meanwhile, are clamoring for the end to what they consider an interference of the national government in their affairs.

The Citizens party gave its support after the government reduced its original petition of wanting a one-month extension and settling for two weeks. PNV was appeased by the government increasing the role of the regions in decision-making.

“Stop using the pandemic to seek political gains,” Citizens spokesman Edmundo Bal said. “We are facing a possible second outbreak. We need to move forward in an orderly manner.”

Joseph Wilson reported from Barcelona.

Nations reopen yet struggle to define 'a new normal'

May 20, 2020

ROME (AP) — As nations around the world loosen coronavirus restrictions, people are discovering that “the new normal” is anything but. Yet some realities have emerged: schools, offices, public transport, bars and restaurants are now on the front lines of post-lockdown life.

How each of those key sectors manages social distancing and tamps down on expected new outbreaks will determine the shape of daily life for millions as researchers race to develop a vaccine that is still likely months, if not years, away from being available to all.

What a return to normal looks like varies widely. For hungry migrant workers in India, it was finally being able to catch trains back to their home villages to farm while city jobs dried up. For hundreds of cruise ship workers stranded at sea for months, it was finally reaching shore Wednesday in Croatia. For wealthy shoppers, it was returning to the newly reopened boutiques of America’s iconic Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, California.

In Italy, where good food is an essential part of life itself, once-packed restaurants and cafes are facing a huge financial hit as they reopen with strict social distancing rules. The losses are forecast to pile up to 30 billion euros ($32 billion) this year.

“We have to turn upside down all the activity that we did before,” lamented chef Raffaele di Cristo, who now must wear a mask and latex gloves as he prepares food at the popular Corsi Trattoria in Rome. “Everything is changed. Slowly, slowly, we will try to understand and to adapt to this coronavirus.”

Corsi reopened for business Monday with half its tables removed to ensure the mandated 1-meter (3-foot) spacing between tables. Hand sanitizing gel was placed at the entrance and a new ordering system was installed so customers can read the menu on their phones.

Some shops in Italy have complained about a shortage of gloves keeping away customers. Veneto Gov. Luca Zaia said Wednesday he would change the rules on wearing gloves in clothing stores and shoe shops and substitute sanitizing gel instead.

Slovakia reopened theaters, cinemas and shopping malls on Wednesday, all with new restrictions on visitor numbers, even though it has had only 28 deaths from COVID-19. The head of the Dutch hospitality industry welcomed a decision to allow bars and restaurants to reopen on June 1, but warned about the impact of mandatory social distancing rules.

“The restrictions are unfortunately unworkable” for many businesses, said Rober Willemsen of Royal Hospitality Netherlands, adding that more government support is needed to ensure the survival of many bars and restaurants.

Education is also facing a radical rethink. Cambridge became the first university in Britain to cancel all face-to-face lectures for the upcoming school year, saying they will be held virtually and streamed online until summer 2021. Other institutions have taken different tacks: the California State University system has announced that most classes will be online for the fall. The University of Notre Dame in Indiana will bring students back to campus but redesigned its calendar to start the semester early in August and end before Thanksgiving, along with ordering masks, testing and contact tracing.

In South Korea, hundreds of thousands of high school seniors had their temperatures checked and used hand sanitizers as they returned Wednesday, many for the first time since late last year after their new term was repeatedly pushed back. Students and teachers were required wear masks and some schools installed plastic partitions around desks.

France is limiting spaces in its primary schools, giving priority to the children of essential workers and those in need. Some younger students even go on alternating days, while high schools remain closed.

In the new normal, people's gratitude at being able to shop or eat out again is mingling with worries about job security. Business was slow Wednesday at a Paris farmer’s market with a mixed mood among the masked, gloved vendors. A man selling peonies and petunias said he was glad to get out and see shoppers again, while a woman selling asparagus and tomatoes behind a makeshift plastic screen grumbled that her customers were buying less than usual.

Fears about job security are not unwarranted. Airline engine maker Rolls-Royce announced plans Wednesday to cut 9,000 workers as it grapples with the collapse in air travel due to the pandemic. In general, those jobs come with good pay and benefits, and losing them is a sharp blow to local communities.

Some businesses are adapting quickly to new realities. In Kenya, safari operators have resorted to sharing live broadcasts on social media in hopes that attention to endangered and other species doesn’t fade.

Many governments, including those in scores of U.S. states, are in fierce disagreement over what the new normal should even be. As beaches reopened in Barcelona, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez asked lawmakers to back a plan to extend the nation’s state of emergency by another two weeks until June 7. Spain’s main opposition, the conservative Popular Party, rejected the move.

“You are like a headless chicken running around not knowing what to do,” Popular Party leader Pablo Casado told Sánchez. “To endorse your extension would be irresponsible.” While infection rates have been falling in Asia and much of Europe, the pandemic is still spiking in Latin America. Brazil this week became the world’s third worst-hit country with more than 250,000 confirmed cases despite limited testing. In Lima, the capital of Peru, coronavirus patients are filling up the city’s intensive care beds.

“We’re in bad shape,” said Pilar Mazzetti, head of the Peruvian government’s COVID-19 task force. “This is war.” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned Wednesday that the pandemic could push millions into extreme poverty in Africa, where the virus has reached every country. Guterres said Africa needs more than $200 billion and “an across-the-board debt standstill” for struggling nations.

“(This must be )followed by targeted debt relief and a comprehensive approach to structural issues in the international debt architecture to prevent defaults,” he added. More than 4.9 million people worldwide have been confirmed infected by the virus, and over 323,000 deaths have been recorded, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University that experts believe is too low for reasons that differ country by country. The United States has seen nearly 92,000 deaths and Europe has had nearly 165,000.

Russia and Brazil are now behind only the United States in the number of reported infections, and cases are also spiking in India, South Africa and Mexico. Russia announced Wednesday that its coronavirus caseload has surpassed 300,000, with the death toll almost reaching 3,000.

Corder reported from the Hague and Blake from Bangkok. Associated Press writers around the world contributed to this report.

Russia says it scales down war games amid pandemic

May 19, 2020

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia's foreign minister said Tuesday that Moscow has scaled down its military drills amid the coronavirus pandemic. Sergey Lavrov said that the Russian military also has decided not to conduct any war games near the country's borders with NATO member nations during the outbreak.

Russia-West relations have sunk to post-Cold War lows after the 2014 Russian annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula and Moscow's support for a separatist insurgency in eastern Ukraine. Moscow has repeatedly voiced concern over the deployment of NATO forces in the Baltics, describing it as a threat to its security. Russia and the alliance also have blamed one another for conducting destabilizing military exercises near the borders.

WHO bows to calls from countries for independent virus probe

May 19, 2020

GENEVA (AP) — The World Health Organization bowed to calls Monday from most of its member states to launch an independent probe into how it managed the international response to the coronavirus, which has been clouded by finger-pointing between the U.S. and China over a pandemic that has killed over 300,000 people and leveled the global economy.

The “comprehensive evaluation," sought by a coalition of African, European and other countries, is intended to review "lessons learned” from WHO’s coordination of the global response to COVID-19, but would stop short of looking into contentious issues such as the origins of the new coronavirus. U.S. President Donald Trump has claimed he has proof suggesting the coronavirus originated in a lab in China while the scientific community has insisted all evidence to date shows the virus likely jumped into humans from animals.

In Washington on Monday, Trump faulted WHO for having done “a very sad job” and said he was considering whether to cut the annual U.S. funding from $450 million a year to $40 million. “They gave us a lot of bad advice, terrible advice,” he said. “They were wrong so much, always on the side of China.”

Later Monday, Trump tweeted a letter he had sent WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. In the letter, Trump said “the only way forward” is if WHO “can actually demonstrate independence from China.”

Trump said that unless WHO commits to “substantive improvements over the next 30 days,” he will make a temporary suspension of U.S. funding permanent. WHO's normally bureaucratic annual assembly this week has been overshadowed by mutual recriminations and political sniping between the U.S. and China. Trump has repeatedly attacked WHO, claiming that it helped China conceal the extent of the coronavirus pandemic in its early stages. Several Republican lawmakers have called on Tedros to resign.

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said Monday it was time to be frank about why COVID-19 has “spun out of control." “There was a failure by this organization to obtain the information that the world needed and that failure cost many lives,” Azar said. Speaking hours after Chinese President Xi Jinping announced China would provide $2 billion to help respond to the outbreak and its economic fallout, Azar said the U.S. had allocated $9 billion to coronavirus containment efforts around the world.

Tedros said he would launch an independent evaluation of WHO's response “at the earliest appropriate moment” — alluding to findings published Monday in a first report by an oversight advisory body commissioned to look into WHO’s response.

The 11-page report raised questions such as whether WHO’s warning system for alerting the world to outbreaks is adequate, and suggested member states might need to “reassess” WHO’s role in providing travel advice to countries.

In his opening remarks at the WHO meeting, Tedros held firm and sought to focus on the bigger troubles posed by the outbreak, saying “we have been humbled by this very small microbe.” “This contagion exposes the fault lines, inequalities, injustices and contradictions of our modern world," Tedros said. "And geopolitical divisions have been thrown into sharp relief.”

China, meanwhile, sought to divert attention to its renewed efforts to slow the coronavirus pandemic, with Xi announcing the $2 billion outlay over two years to fight it. Last year, China donated about $86 million to WHO.

U.S. National Security Council spokesman John Ullyot characterized China’s newly announced contribution as “a token to distract from calls from a growing number of nations demanding accountability for the Chinese government’s failure to meet its obligations.” He said that since China was “the source” of the outbreak, it had “a special responsibility to pay more and give more.”

Xi insisted that China had acted with “openness, transparency and responsibility" when the epidemic was detected in Wuhan. He said China had give all relevant outbreak data to WHO and other countries, including the virus’s genetic sequence, “in a most timely fashion.”

Xi said that in recent weeks, China has dispatched medical supplies to more than 50 African countries and that 46 Chinese medical teams were currently on the continent helping local officials. Other world leaders including the presidents of France, South Korea and South Africa and Germany's chancellor were also piped in to throw their support to the WHO, which has been put on the defensive from a Trump administration that has blamed it for mishandling the outbreak and showering excessive praise on China's response. The European Union and others staked out a middle ground.

The Trump administration has claimed that WHO criticized a U.S. travel ban that Trump ordered on people arriving from China. Trump ordered a temporary suspension of funding for WHO from the United States — the health agency’s biggest single donor — pending a review of its early response. The advisory body, echoing comments from many countries, said such a review during the “heat of the response” could hurt WHO’s ability to respond to it.

Xi said China supports the idea of a comprehensive review of the global response to COVID-19 and that it should be "based on science and professionalism led by WHO, and conducted in an objective and impartial manner.”

Tedros emphasized that WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak to be a global health emergency on Jan. 30, its highest level of alert, at a time when there were fewer than 100 cases outside of China. In the following weeks, WHO warned countries there was a narrowing “window of opportunity” to prevent the virus from spreading globally.

During the first few months of the outbreak, WHO officials repeatedly described the virus's spread as “limited” and said it wasn't as transmissible as flu; experts have since said COVID-19 spreads even faster. It declared the outbreak to be a pandemic on March 11, after the virus had killed thousands globally and sparked large epidemics in South Korea, Italy, Iran and elsewhere.

AP Medical Writer Maria Cheng reported from London. Zeke Miller in Washington contributed to this report. And Aamer Madhani contributed to this report from Chicago.

Italy opens churches as virus rules dictate how to eat, pray

May 18, 2020

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Italy and the Vatican allowed the first public Masses to be celebrated since March on Monday as coronavirus restrictions eased further, following a sharp confrontation between church and state over limits on worshiping in the era of COVID-19.

Guards in hazmat suits took the temperature of the faithful entering St. Peter’s Basilica, where Pope Francis celebrated an early morning Mass for a handful of people to commemorate the centenary of the birth of St. John Paul II.

Across town, the Rev. Jose Maria Galvan snapped on a latex glove and face mask before distributing Communion to the dozen parishioners attending the 7:20 a.m. Mass at his Sant’Eugenio parish. “Before I became a priest I was a surgeon, so for me gloves are normal,” he joked afterward. “I’m dexterous (with gloves) so the hosts don’t get away from me.”

It was all part of Italy’s next step in emerging from the West’s first coronavirus lockdown, with commercial shops and restaurants reopening and barbers giving long-overdue trims for the first time since March 10.

But with several hundred new infections still being recorded every day, the reopening is hardly a free-for-all, with strict virus-containing measures regulating everything from how you get your coffee to the way you pray.

The government has published 120 pages of detailed norms for the resumption of work, play, worship and commerce, with some of the most intricate protocols reserved for the resumption of public religious observance.

The fear is that the elderly, among the most religiously devout and also the most at-risk for infection, could be exposed to the virus with resumed religious services in the onetime European epicenter of the pandemic.

Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Orthodox and Siks have their own protocols, with at the very least masks required for the faithful and a one-meter distance kept at all times. The first protocol was inked with the country's Catholic bishops, after they issued a blistering public critique of Premier Giuseppe Conte's government when it refused to allow public Masses two weeks ago, during the first easing of restrictions.

The bishops cried their freedom to worship was being trampled on, suggesting they believed the state was violating the terms of the Lateran Treaty, the 1929 accord that regulates the relationship between the Italian state and the Vatican.

Eventually an accord was reached, but it imposes a series of restrictions on access and even the administration of the sacraments: At Sant'Eugenio, the Sunday 11 a.m. Mass usually exceeds 500 people. Now only 150 can attend. Everyone must wear a face mask and sit 1-meter apart.

There's no holy water or choir, and unused pews for the morning Mass were roped off with tape to keep them sanitized for when the bigger crowds come later in the day. Priests must wear gloves during Communion and “take care to offer the host without coming into contact with the hands of the faithful," according to the protocol. It goes without saying that the priest doesn't place the Eucharistic host on the tongue of the faithful, as is the Vatican's preferred way.

But Pope Francis has made clear he supports the measures, even if he bristled early on at the lockdown and said livestreamed Masses can never be a substitute for the real thing. In his Sunday noon prayer, he welcomed the resumption of communal church celebrations and the reception of sacraments but appealed for caution: “Please, let's go ahead (following) the rules and prescriptions we’ve been given to care for the health of each and everyone."

The Vatican has its own post-lockdown reopening norms, and as a sovereign state, is not beholden to the Italian government measures. But in some cases it is going beyond them, with the guards bearing thermo-scanners in St. Peter's Square taking the temperatures of anyone who wants to enter the basilica.

During a Mass later Monday in front of John Paul II's tomb in the basilica, Lucina Wodzisz, her husband and two boys wore face masks but the priest didn't. And he didn't use a latex glove when distributing Communion, either.

But Wodzisz was thrilled anyway to be able to celebrate the centenary of John Paul's birth by visiting his tomb. The Polish family is particularly devoted to the former Karol Wojtyla (the eldest Wodzisz son is named Karol) and had only hoped to pray before his tomb on the first day St. Peter's reopened to the public.

“We came to be close to the tomb, but we got a Mass!" she marveled. “It's a great sensation to be back."

Ukraine's overburdened doctors in desperate virus fight

May 18, 2020

CHERNIVTSI, Ukraine (AP) — A breathing machine at a Ukrainian hospital breaks down, leaving a coronavirus patient gasping helplessly for air. Dr. Olha Kobevko rushes from room to room to see if there is an electrician among her other patients who can fix it.

Eventually, she figures out a way to get the device working again on her own. “We are like in a war situation here, like on a front line!” she exclaims in despair. Kobevko, 37, is the only infectious disease specialist at the infection division of a hospital in the western city of Chernivtsi that is supposed to accommodate 60 patients but now holds about 100.

The deplorable conditions — broken or substandard equipment, a lack of drugs, low wages — reflects the meltdown of Ukraine’s health care system, which has been quickly overwhelmed by the coronavirus pandemic even with the country's relatively low number of cases.

Ukraine's corruption-plagued economy has been weakened by six years of war with Russia-backed separatists in the east. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s year-old administration inherited an underfunded health care system that was further crippled by a reform launched by his predecessor that drastically cut state subsidies.

It has left Ukraine's hospitals without vital equipment. The infectious disease wing of the main regional hospital in Chernivtsi was built more than a century ago when the city was still part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and it lacks a centralized oxygen supply system that is standard in any modern clinic.

The hospital's oxygen supply system is located in just one room, and nurses have to manually refill bags they call “oxygen pillows” every few minutes and carry them to patients elsewhere. “A patient would beg, ‘Air, air, give me air!’ and there is nothing you can do," Kobevko said. "You just keep squeezing the bag, unable to save a life. That is the most painful thing, and it costs very little to secure centralized oxygen supply.”

The sound of coughs muffled by oxygen masks mixes with the squeaking of medical equipment in the hospital’s old building as nurses rush through dimly lit corridors to change the oxygen bags. The air smells of ozone from the ultraviolet lamps used to disinfect the wards.

The critically ill are moved to a separate building that has a few ventilators, but it’s also filled beyond capacity and cannot always accept new patients, even those in serious condition. Ukraine has 18,616 confirmed coronavirus cases, with 535 deaths. Chernivtsi has 2,713 of those infections, a hot spot of contagion, along with another western city, Ivano-Frankivsk, 100 kilometers (60 miles) away, and the capital, Kyiv. Thousands of Ukrainians who had temporary jobs in Italy, Spain and other European countries returned home amid the pandemic and some carried the infection with them.

In the hospital's kitchen, workers nap on mattresses. But ambulance crews soon arrive with more patients, giving them little chance to sleep, even after an exhausting tour of duty. Svetlana Padynich is a medic on an ambulance crew that brings in COVID-19 patients during her 12-hour shifts.

Lately, workers on the crews have been falling ill. A week ago, one died of pneumonia caused by the virus. Another four medics at her station also have come down with pneumonia but are in stable condition.

“We are experiencing a staff shortage,” said Padynich, 42. “Half of ambulance personnel have gotten sick and those who remained have to carry a colossal load.” Padynich wears an FFP2 mask, which offers some but not complete protection, and she wears another medical mask underneath it.

“I understand that I’m taking high risks, but someone needs to work,” she said. Protective gear is in short supply, with most of it coming from private donors. Deliveries have been irregular. “I worry about my safety,” Padynich said. “I’m afraid of getting sick, but I fear infecting my family with COVID-19 even more.”

Because of that, she says she has not seen her mother since the start of the outbreak. Medical workers account for about a fifth of all coronavirus cases in Ukraine, with more than 50 getting infected daily.

Aware of the weaknesses in the health care system, the government ordered a strict lockdown on March 12, including closing most enterprises. But under pressure from desperate farmers, businessmen and others, it eased the restrictions May 11, allowing some stores, hair salons, beauty parlors and other ventures to reopen.

Doctors fear that move could trigger a new wave of contagion. “If we end the quarantine and leave the health care system in the same shape, it will bring a disaster,” Kobevko said. Government subsidies previously covered wages for health care workers and hospital utility bills. Under a new medical reforms that began last month, however, those funds have been sharply reduced, putting many clinics on the verge of closure.

Ukraine's president has sharply criticized the reforms ordered by his predecessor, warning it could mean closing more than 300 hospitals and leaving 50,000 medical workers jobless. “Except for the medics — the excellent professionals who are among the best in the world — we have nothing else,” Zelenskiy said.

Faced with the outbreak, the government has offered a subsidy to medical workers dealing with the outbreak that quadruples their monthly wage. Kobevko said her basic monthly salary of $175 — on a par with the nation's current minimum wage — reflects the general low regard of medical professionals in Ukraine. She gets an extra $25 in monthly hardship pay for working in the infectious disease clinic.

“It shows the government's lack of respect for our work,” she said. “That kind of indifference should scare not just me. We have nothing and are driven by enthusiasm, but we are running out of it.”

Yuras Karmanau reported from Minsk, Belarus.

Germany, France propose virus recovery fund for EU economy

May 18, 2020

BERLIN (AP) — The leaders of Germany and France agreed Monday on a one-off 500 billion-euro ($543 billion) fund to help the European Union recover from the coronavirus pandemic, a proposal that would add further cash to an arsenal of financial measures the bloc is readying to cope with the outbreak's economic fallout.

Following a video call, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron said the plan would involve the European Union borrowing money in financial markets to help sectors and regions that are particularly affected by the pandemic.

Crucially, the money would be disbursed in the form of grants rather than loans, with repayments made from the EU budget, an unprecedented proposal that overcomes long-standing objections in Berlin to the notion of collective borrowing.

“Because of the unusual nature of the crisis we are choosing an unusual path,” Merkel told reporters following the joint announcement. Macron said the proposal was a way “to make Europe move forward.”

“We must draw all lessons from this pandemic,” he said, insisting on the need for “solidarity” between EU member states. Macron acknowledged that a French-German deal alone “doesn’t mean an agreement from the 27.” The EU’s executive Commission would make its own proposal to EU member states and “we hope that the French-German deal will help,” he said.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen welcomed the proposal. “It acknowledges the scope and the size of the economic challenge that Europe faces, and rightly puts the emphasis on the need to work on a solution with the European budget at its core,” she said.

There has been concern in European capitals that the pandemic and the bloc’s initial uncoordinated response to it could boost anti-EU sentiment in member states. Merkel said it was important to ensure that all EU countries could respond to the economic challenge “and that requires this unusual, one-off effort that Germany and France are now prepared to take.”

“The goal is for Europe to emerge from the crisis stronger,” she said. National parliaments will have their say on the proposal, which is also likely to run into strong resistance from fiscal hawks in the bloc.

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said his country remained opposed to the idea of grants. “Our position remains unchanged,” Kurz wrote on Twitter. “We are ready to help most affected countries with loans. We expect the updated (EU's seven-year budget framework) to reflect the new priorities rather than raising the ceiling.”

Dutch Finance Ministry spokesman Jaap Oosterveer said the ministry was studying the plan and had no immediate comment. Merkel expressed cautious optimism, however, that the agreement between Berlin and Paris would win widespread support.

“I believe that if Germany and France send a signal, that's something which encourages the quest for consensus in Europe," she said. Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte called the proposal “a first, important step in the direction hoped for by Italy.”

But Conte added in his Facebook post Monday evening: “To overcome the crisis and to help businesses and families, the #RecoveryFund needs to be broadened.” He described himself as “confident of an ambitious proposal by @EU_Commission.”

So far, EU countries engage in only limited common borrowing, for instance through the European Investment Bank and the union’s bailout fund for crisis-hit governments, the European Stability Mechanism, but require eventual repayment by member states.

By using the financial clout of the whole bloc, bondholders get a high degree of certainty they will be paid back, meaning the EU can borrow on more favorable terms than individual member states, though at the price of collective liability.

The coronavirus crisis has raised concerns that Italy, which already has a debt pile equal to 135% of its annual economic output, could come out of the recession with so much added debt that bond investors would be reluctant to continue financing its debt, which could trigger a financial crisis.

Merkel noted that combined with an earlier stimulus package of 540 billion euros based on loans and guarantees the EU member states were mustering 1 trillion euros at the EU level, and a total of 3 trillion euros when combined with the multi-year EU budget and measures agreed at the national level.

The total is equivalent to almost 20% of the EU’s 2019 economic output. Macron and Merkel agreed that spending from the recovery fund would focus on areas that would benefit most from future investment, including digitalization, the green economy and pandemic resilience in the health sector.

Corbet reported from Paris. Frances D'Emilio in Rome, Raf Casert in Brussels, Mike Corder in The Hague and David McHugh in Frankfurt, Germany, contributed to this report.