In Russia and Ukraine, no social distance on crowded beaches

July 06, 2020

SOCHI, Russia (AP) — Tens of thousands of vacation-goers in Russia and Ukraine have descended on Black Sea beaches, paying little heed to public health measures despite the numbers of reported coronavirus cases remaining high in both countries.

Desperate for a break from the confinement of months-long lockdowns, few wear masks or try to maintain social distance as they bask in the sun on overcrowded beaches in the Russian city of Sochi and in the Ukrainian seaport of Odesa.

While popular vacation destinations in Europe are still closed to visitors from Russia and Ukraine as European nations move carefully to lift restrictions on foreign visitors, Black Sea resorts in Russia and Ukraine are filled to capacity from domestic tourism.

“We usually go abroad: the Emirates, Tunisia, Turkey, and we did plan to go again this year," Tatyana Kofler, a Russian who is spending her summer leave in Sochi, said. "But then our plans changed.” The owners of beaches that require a fee place lounge chairs at required intervals, but on the city's public beaches few visitors appeared concerned with trying to avoid COVID-19 by maintaining a safe distance.

Hotel owners are happy about the bonanza, and prices for rooms are soaring. “Our hotel is booked to the max, and the projections are very optimistic, because preliminary bookings indicate the load will remain very good up to November,” said David Vardanyan, a Sochi hotel owner.

In the past, many Russians who live in the eastern part of a country that spans 11 time zones took vacations in Thailand, China or Vietnam to save money on air travel. Those destinations remain off-limits to foreigners, too, for now, helping swell the numbers of people streaming westward to Sochi and the Crimean Peninsula that Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.

Last year, Sochi and other resorts in the Krasnodar region of Russia attracted 17 million tourists, most of them Russian, while about 7 million visited Crimea. In comparison, 18 million Russians spent their vacations abroad in 2019. Some 7 million traveled to Turkey, about 1.5 million visited Thailand, 1.2 million spent their vacations in Spain and about 1 million visited Italy among other foreign destinations.

Now, Russian sun-lovers are left with the narrow pebble beaches of Sochi or Crimea as their only beach vacation options. A 19-kilometer (12-mile) bridge to Crimea that opened in 2018 facilitated travel to the region, but it has suffered from freshwater shortages and rationing resulting from Ukraine cutting supplies. Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea, a move that Ukraine and most of the world regards as illegal, problems that overshadow the attractiveness of the Black Sea peninsula's beautiful coast and scenic mountains.

Both in Sochi and Crimea, popular hotels that offer European standards of comfort already are fully booked for the summer. “Tourists who traveled to Cyprus, Turkey, Greece or Spain during the past years have grown accustomed to a certain level of comfort,” Alexan Mkrtchian, head of the Pink Elephant tourist agency, said, according to the Interfax news agency. “Only 20 to 30 hotels meet those criteria.”

Mkrtchian noted that a jump in demand provoked a hike in hotel prices that jumped by 50% in Sochi and up to 100% in Crimea, costing a couple of hundreds dollars or more for lodging at an average 4-star hotel.

The flow of visitors to seaside resorts comes at a time when both Russia and Ukraine are continuing to report high daily numbers of new cases. Russia, which has the world's fourth-largest coronavirus caseload of more than 687,000 following the United States, Brazil and India, currently registers daily infection numbers topping 6,600. While Moscow has ended a lockdown as contagion dropped, many other regions of the vast country have kept restrictions in place.

Ukraine, which lifted most lockdown measures last month, has seen infections reaching new highs in recent weeks, prompting the authorities to consider re-imposing restrictions in some areas. In Ukraine's Odesa, traffic jams at the entrance to the city spread for kilometers (miles), and crowds besiege the city's night clubs after sunset. Vacationing visitors are flouting rules to wear masks in public and paying little attention to maintaining social distance. Officials are worried about a possible spike in coronavirus infections.

“The Ukrainians are afraid of the coronavirus less than anyone in the world," said Fazil Askerov, chairman of the Tourism Development Association in the Odesa region. “Our tourists are braver.”

Croats vote in close parliamentary race as virus spikes

July 05, 2020

ZAGREB, Croatia (AP) — Amid a spike of new coronavirus cases, voters in Croatia cast ballots on Sunday in what is expected be a close parliamentary race that could push the latest European Union member state further to the right.

The ballot is expected to produce no clear winner as neither the ruling conservatives nor their main liberal opponents appeared set to win a majority in the 151-member parliament. This means that a newcomer right-wing party led by a popular folk singer could play a key role in the future government. Miroslav Skoro's Homeland Movement has polled third despite public outrage over some of his staunchly hard-line and nationalist views.

Skoro's party is believed to have chipped away votes from the ruling Croatian Democratic Union, a conservative party that has dominated the political scene in Croatia since the independence in 1991. The HDZ is bidding for reelection while faced with a renewed surge in virus cases that followed reopening of the country's borders and easing of lockdown rules. Croatia is struggling to salvage its main source of revenue — tourism along the Adriatic Sea coast.

A country of 4.2 million people, Croatia has kept the outbreak largely under control, reporting around 113 deaths and some 3,100 confirmed infections. But Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic was criticized over an outbreak at a tennis tournament organized by top-ranked Novak Djokovic in the coastal town of Zadar.

Plenkovic's main opponents are Restart coalition led by the center-left Social Democratic Party, the main liberal group. They say the government is plagued by corruption and voters should choose a new beginning if they want the country to move forward.

Restart could also ally with a new green-left alliance further on the left, if they gain enough seats. The group led by Mozemo, or We Can, party is strong mostly in the capital Zagreb but not so much in other parts of Croatia.

Some 3.8 million people are eligible to vote but analysts say virus fears could keep many at home. Voters have been advised to take own temperature and stay away if they have a fever. Those who vote should bring their own pen and wear a mask.

Pints poured, unkempt hairdos cut, as England eases lockdown

July 04, 2020

LONDON (AP) — The pints were supped and the unkempt hairdos cut and styled as England embarked Saturday on its biggest lockdown-easing yet, one that many think came too soon given still-high levels of coronavirus infections and deaths.

In addition to the reopening of much of the English hospitality sector, including pubs and restaurants, for the first time in more than three months, couples can tie the knot once again, though wedding guests are limited to 30, and film buffs can go to the cinema. Whatever is being permitted again has to abide by social-distancing rules.

Museums and libraries also got the green light, but gyms, swimming pools, theaters and nail bars remain shut. Restrictions on travel and social contact were loosened as well; people from different households can now go into each other's homes and even stay the night.

Overall, it's the most dramatic easing of the lockdown and one gleefully taken up by those despairing in front of a mirror over the state of their hair. “It was doing my head in to be honest, I’m just glad it’s gone now,” William Brown, a 25-year-old plant engineer, said at Headley’s Barber Shop in Blaby, central England.

Owner Stephanie Headley, 35, was equally relieved to be back in business for the fist time since the full lockdown was announced on March 23. Headley said she was a “bit anxious" and has been inundated with appointment requests since the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson confirmed the latest easing of the lockdown last week.

"I can’t wait to see all the dodgy haircuts that have come out of quarantine,” she said. Though the easing of the lockdown was warmly welcomed by many, there are concerns the British government is being overly hasty, even reckless, in sanctioning the changes. The U.K. has experienced one of the world's worst outbreaks so far; the official coronavirus death toll of 44,198 is the third-highest behind the United States and Brazil.

Critics point to the experience elsewhere, particularly in some U.S. states, where the reopening of bars and restaurants is blamed for a spike in infections as drinkers abandon social distancing after imbibing a few of their favorite tipples.

The four nations of the U.K. — England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland — are moving at different speeds out of the lockdown. The restrictions in England, with a population of around 56 million, or 85% or the U.K.'s, have been lifted the most, triggering concerns that the Johnson government is being unduly influenced by economic factors.

Johnson says the decision to ease the lockdown is based on the scientific evidence that people are “appreciably less likely now to be in close proximity” with someone with the virus than at the height of the pandemic.

“This is a big turning point for us,” he said Friday. “We’ve got to get it right.” One pub stood out in Saturday's reopening. The Swan Inn in Ashford, in southeast England, managed to welcome customers even after a car crashed into its front in the early hours of the morning. Ray Perkins, who runs the pub, said it was “absolutely devastating” but that after a long night he didn't want to let anyone who had pre-booked down.

Though the lockdown has posed an existential threat to England’s 37,500 pubs, not all that could reopen did. Nik Antona, chairman of the Campaign for Real Ale, said early indications were that around half opted against as “they want to see what’s going to happen.”

The Tyne Bar in Newcastle, northeast England, questioned why the easing took place on a Saturday, traditionally the day of the week when most alcohol-related incidents take place. The establishment said it is “genuinely concerned that this could be a day of total chaos" and that it's “not worth the risk.” It is set to open on Monday instead.

The social-distancing guidelines inevitably mean that going to pubs and restaurants is going to be a different experience to the one enjoyed pre-lockdown. An array of operating regulations have to be observed, from registering customers upon entrance to making sure people are spaced at least one meter (3.3 feet) apart from the members of another household if other measures to keep people safe are in place, such as using hand sanitizers. The wearing of masks is optional, even for staff,

Still, customers said the rigmarole was worth it even though the weather was damp and drizzly across the country. Doug Evans, a 62-year-old retired oil explorationist, said most of the village of Burpham in southern England appeared at some point during the afternoon at the reopening of The George.

“Initially, it felt really odd walking into a pub, but within five minutes the world seemed normal again,” he said. One city that is not participating in the easing is Leicester, in central England. The government reimposed lockdown restrictions there, including the closure of schools and nonessential shops, after a spike in new infections. Police are out in force in the city to make sure people adhere to the local lockdown.

One local resident, Ali Patel, said some people just hadn't taken the virus as seriously as they should have and that's why Leicester is in lockdown again. “Some people took it seriously and other people didn’t, and it just shows that the people who didn’t turned out to spread it more," he said.

Jo Kearney in Blaby and Leicester in England contributed to this report.

Virus spike in Spain reveals plight of seasonal farm workers

July 04, 2020

LLEIDA, Spain (AP) — In the 20 years since he left his native Senegal, Biram Fall has never slept in the streets. This week, when he ran out of savings after failing to find work in northern Spain’s peach orchards, he still refused to do so.

As part of an army of cheap labor that follows the ripening of different crops across the country, the 52-year-old responded in May to an urgent call for workers in Lleida, a major gateway to surrounding fertile farmland.

But migrants eager to recover from the coronavirus-induced economic freeze exceed the seasonal workers needed. Those who can’t afford crammed shared apartments roam the city center endlessly, resting under porches in squares or in makeshift government shelters.

Refusing to risk contagion among them, Fall counted the few euros he had left from selling snails foraged along roadsides and packed his things. Pinching his forearm, he questioned: “Does anyone think that the virus cannot go through black skin? That it only infects white people?”

“We are being left to sleep in the streets, treated like if we were stray dogs,” he added as he dragged a trolley along a highway, a plastic bag with a neatly folded duvet hanging from the other arm. The pandemic may have slowed down in much of continental Europe, but amid dozens of infection clusters popping up across Spain, those among seasonal agricultural workers are particularly preoccupying health authorities as a possible vector for further spread.

In the town of Fraga, where fruit processing plants dot the surrounding farmland of lush orchards, 360 infections over the past two weeks have forced authorities to bring back the first localized restrictions since the country left behind a strict lockdown of nearly three months.

The nearby county around Lleida, population 200,000, has been the latest to go into lockdown, the Catalan regional authorities announced on Saturday, after infections in the province doubled in a week, from 167 to 325. As admissions to hospitals and ICUs are worryingly on the rise again, an inflatable emergency ward has been installed at the gates of a local hospital.

“We know that the health care crisis we face around Lleida has a strong social component as well,” regional health chief Alba Vergés said on Saturday about the farm workers after her government locked the county down.

Any uptick is being scrutinized in a country on edge after losing at least 28,300 people to COVID-19, according to official records. At the peak of the outbreak, back in April, fearing that a shortage of workers would leave fruit rotting in the trees, agricultural unions and business associations advertised jobs that have attracted many more applicants than expected. Hail has also destroyed crops in some counties, creating what Lleida Deputy Mayor Sandra Castro calls the “perfect storm” for a “social crisis on top of the ongoing health crisis.”

Two vast trade exhibition halls have been filled with temporary, equidistant beds for more than 200 workers. Temperatures are measured on arrival, those who show symptoms of COVID-19 are tested and positives go into quarantine facilities.

But Castro said her government can only do so much, especially regarding migrants with no permission to work who, according to the city’s estimate, make up more than half of those who showed up despite travel restrictions.

“Since we condemn them to live in the shadows, they are at a high risk of having their rights violated,” the city councilor said. “That’s a big frustration to begin with, before we can face any other issue.”

Up to 470,000 migrants could be living in Spain trying to find ways to legally work and live in Europe, according to PorCausa, a Madrid-based foundation focused on stimulating thought around the issue of migration.

In a recent analysis, PorCausa argued that regularizing the so-called “paperless” is not only fair but makes economic sense in a country that needs younger taxpayers. The issue is highly polarizing and a vote fishing ground for the far right. Meanwhile, the ruling left-wing coalition has stayed away from following the recent examples of Portugal and Italy, only extending some temporary work permits for the summer.

In Lleida, directionless migrants are a common sight and have led to complaints from residents, especially in this virus-ravaged year. But many agribusinesses keep failing to provide enough and adequate accommodation for their workers, as required by agreements with the unions, said Gemma Casal, an activist with the local Fruit with Social Justice platform.

She also said that authorities at all levels seem to improvise their response summer after summer. But the main problem, she added, lies within the agricultural model. Disproportionate power by large food distributors to set produce prices means “farmers end up outsourcing their labor costs to authorities who pay for shelters, aid groups or the migrants themselves,” Casal said.

Ignacio Gramunt runs a private farm in Fraga that yields an annual average of 500 tons of fruit where a dozen Bulgarian workers are picking flat nectarines bound for the German market. As the head of the local fruit wholesale exchange, he is also witness to how the squeeze on prices and investors seeking large-scale cost-saving operations are driving farmers out of business.

A net hourly pay of about 6.5 euros ($7.30) keeps locals away from the fields across the region. “Migrants are essential for the fruit industry,” Gramunt said. But he denies that the hiring of “paperless” migrants is widespread in the agricultural industry, a lifeline to the region. Farmers who do resort to them face fines of up to 6,000 euros for each illegal worker.

Fruit with Social Justice is considering promoting an industry-wide certificate of good practices that European consumers can identify because export licenses are currently granted based largely on the paper trail of labor contracts, allowing many companies to find loopholes and take advantage of the seasonal workers.

“European consumers seem to have awakened to exploitation by the garment industry in far-flung countries,” Casal said. “But here we have 21st century slavery within the EU’s borders and we do nothing.”

Pubs and restaurants reopen in England as lockdown eased

July 04, 2020

LONDON (AP) — England is embarking on Saturday on perhaps its biggest lockdown easing yet as pubs and restaurants have the right to reopen for the first time in more than three months. In addition to the reopening of much of the hospitality sector, couples can tie the knot once again, people can go and see a movie at their local cinema and many of those who have had enough of their lockdown hair can finally get a trim. In all cases, social distancing rules have to be followed.

Though the easing of the lockdown will be warmly welcomed by many, there are concerns that the British government is being overly hasty, even reckless, in sanctioning the changes, given the country's still-high coronavirus infection and death rates.

On Friday, another 137 virus-related deaths were recorded across the U.K., the large majority in England, taking the total to 44,131, by far the highest in Europe and third behind the United States and Brazil.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson says the decision to ease the lockdown is based on the scientific evidence that people are “appreciably less likely now to be in close proximity” with someone with the virus than at the height of the pandemic.

“Let’s not blow it now,” he said. In other countries, the reopening of bars and restaurants has been blamed for a spike in infections. The four nations of the U.K. — England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland — are easing the lockdown at different speeds.

French government ministers investigated over virus crisis

July 03, 2020

PARIS (AP) — A special French court ordered an investigation Friday of three current or former government ministers over their handling of the coronavirus crisis. COVID-19 patients, doctors, prison personnel, police officers and others in France filed an unprecedented 90 complaints in the Court of Justice of the Republic over recent months, notably over shortages of masks and other equipment as as the virus sped across Europe. The court usually only sees a few complaints a year.

The court, which deals with cases against top officials,said in a statement Friday that it threw out 44 of the 90 complaints, and is still studying 37 of them. The nine it deemed worth investigating target former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, who resigned hours before the court's announcement, Health Minister Olivier Veran or the former health minister, Agnes Buzyn.

They are accused of “failing to fight a disaster," and could face up to two years in prison and fines, if tried and convicted. That was the only charge the court retained among multiple accusations in the 90 complaints, which included allegations of manslaughter and endangering lives. A conviction on those charges carries the potential for heavier prison terms.

Ten of the cases were closed because they didn’t provide enough justification for an investigation, according to a judicial official. The court said another 34 cases, targeting different government ministers, were thrown out for technical problems.

President Emmanuel Macron and his government have acknowledged mask shortages and other missteps in the virus crisis. France was also short of testing capacity and criticized for not imposing confinement measures earlier.

Macron himself cannot be targeted by lawsuits while in office because sitting presidents have immunity from prosecution. On Friday, the French leader named as the new prime minister a longtime civil servant who coordinated France's strategy to reopen and recover economically from a two-month nationwide lockdown.

No mention was made of the investigation or legal troubles when Philippe resigned earlier in the day. Macron said he was reshuffling the government to focus on setting a “new path” for the remaining two years of his presidential term.

The Court of Justice of the Republic is the only French court where government ministers can be tried for their actions while in office, and was created in the wake of a major health scandal in the 1990s.

The new investigation is separate from dozens of lawsuits filed in other French courts against nursing homes or others accused of mismanaging the virus crisis. France has reported the fifth-highest number of coronavirus deaths worldwide, for a total of 29,893 in the pandemic. About half took place in nursing homes.

Croatia to hold election amid virus, political uncertainty

July 03, 2020

ZAGREB, Croatia (AP) — Croatia is holding a parliamentary election this weekend amid a coronavirus outbreak and with no clear winner in sight as none of the main contenders appears set to garner a majority of votes.

The ballot on Sunday will take place as Croatia, like other parts of Europe, contends with a renewed spike in reported virus cases that followed the reopening of borders and easing of lockdown rules. The country's current conservative government, which initially handled the public health crisis relatively successfully, has sought continued support from voters. But polls have suggested a liberal coalition has a slight lead over the ruling Croatian Democratic Union.

Here is a look at who's who on Croatia's political scene and what's at stake:

WHO ARE THE MAIN PLAYERS?

The governing Croatian Democratic Union, or HDZ, has dominated the political scene since steering Croatia to independence in 1991 from the former Yugoslavia and through the war that followed.

Staunchly nationalist in the past, the HDZ has moved toward the conservative center under the leadership of Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic. The shift has alienated some of the party's right-wing supporters.

The party's main challenger for the right to govern is the center-left Social Democratic Party, which allied with several smaller groups to form a joint Restart candidates' list. The alliance has urged voters to choose a new beginning as opposed to the ruling party's message of choosing a safe bet.

The Social Democratic Party led the Croatian government a few times in the past, and its candidate won the second round of the country's presidential election in January. Restart has topped pre-election polls, but analysts say the conservatives are not far behind.

WHO ELSE IS IN THE GAME?

None of the remaining parties are as strong as the main players, but two new groups have emerged in the election from both the left and the right. The right-wing Homeland Movement, which is led by folk singer Miroslav Skoro, is believed to be chipping away votes from the ruling HDZ party. Skoro ran for president last year and finished third in the election's first round.

On the left, a new green-left coalition led by the Mozemo, or We Can group, has gathered civic activists and gained ground particularly in the capital, Zagreb. The group has attracted voters who are disappointed with the center-left SDP's record in politics.

WHAT COULD HAPPEN AFTER THE VOTE?

If predictions prove right and no party gains a majority of the future parliament's 151 seats, a coalition government will have to be formed. This means post-election negotiations could take a while before a new Cabinet takes office.

Analysts think a right-wing coalition is more likely to emerge between the conservatives and Skoro's movement. The center-left Restart might try to form a majority with liberal Mozemo and other smaller groups, if they win enough seats.

FACTS ABOUT CROATIA

The predominantly conservative Catholic nation of 4.2 million people is best known for its beautiful Adriatic Sea coast and hundreds of islands that are usually packed with tourists during the summer holiday season. The walled city of Dubrovnik, the location of the fictional King’s Landing in the TV series “Game of Thrones,” is a globally famous destination.

Croatia's economy remains among the weakest in the European Union, and the country is struggling to avoid huge financial damage from the loss of tourism during the coronavirus pandemic. The last country to be admitted to the EU, Croatia also is a member of NATO.

WHAT IS THE VIRUS SITUATION?

Croatia's is seeing a spike of several dozen new cases of infections daily, but authorities say the situation is under control. Prime Minister Plenkovic has appealed to all right-leaning voters to continue backing his government, saying “This is no time for charlatans."

While Croatia had reported fewer than 3,000 virus cases and 110 deaths in all as of Thursday, Plenkovic's team was shaken after a cluster of new cases came out of a tennis tournament organized by top-ranked Serbian player Novak Djokovic in the coastal town of Zadar.

Several players, including Djokovic, have tested positive for the virus and Plenkovic faced criticism for not isolating after meeting them.

HOW IS VOTING ORGANIZED?

Polls open at 0500 GMT on Sunday and close 12 hours later. Exit polls are expected to be available immediately after polls close, while preliminary official results will start coming in an hour or two later.

Analysts say the virus outbreak could lead to low turnout among Croatia's 3.8 million voters. Authorities have urged voters to bring their own pens and to stay home if they have fevers. Face masks and hygiene supplies are mandatory at the polling stations.

UK to end quarantine for travelers from 'low-risk' countries

July 03, 2020

LONDON (AP) — The British government said Friday it is scrapping a 14-day quarantine rule for arrivals from a number of countries deemed "lower risk" for the coronavirus, including France, Spain, Germany and Italy.

The change takes effect July 10, just over a month after the U.K. began requiring international arrivals to self-isolate for two weeks. The full list of exempted countries will be announced later Friday, the government said. It is considered unlikely the United States, which has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, will be among them.

On Saturday, the government will also exempt several countries from its advice against overseas travel, meaning U.K. tourists can once again head abroad on vacation. Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said the changes are “good news for British people and great news for British businesses.” But he stressed that the government could re-impose quarantine restrictions “in countries we are reconnecting with.”

The changes announced apply only to England, a sign of friction between Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s central government and semi-autonomous administrations in the rest of the U.K. — Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has been particularly critical of Johnson’s approach to easing coronavirus lockdown measures and has taken a more cautious approach. The British government also made the announcement without securing reciprocal agreements that British travelers will not face quarantines. The Department for Transport said its “expectation is that a number of the exempted countries will also not require arrivals from the U.K. to self-isolate.”

Britain has the highest COVID-19 toll in Europe, with almost 44,000 confirmed deaths. The country is gradually emerging from a nationwide lockdown imposed in March, with bars, restaurants and hairdressers allowed to reopen in England on Saturday.

The European Union re-opened its borders this week to people from 14 countries including Canada, Japan, South Korea and Morocco — but not the U.S. Britain left the EU on Jan. 31 but continues to be bound by its rules during a transition period that lasts until the end of the year.

Coronavirus cases are rising in 40 of 50 US states

July 02, 2020

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the U.S. climbed to an all-time high of more than 50,000 per day on Thursday, with the infection curve rising in 40 out of 50 states in a reversal that has largely spared only the Northeast.

In yet another alarming indicator, 36 states are seeing a rise in the percentage of tests that are coming back positive for the virus. The surge has been blamed in part on Americans not wearing masks or following other social distancing rules as states lifted their lockdowns over the past few weeks.

The U.S. recorded 50,700 new cases, according to a tally kept by Johns Hopkins University. That represents a doubling of the daily total over the past month and is higher even than what the country witnessed during the deadliest phase of the crisis in April and May.

All but 10 states are showing an increase in newly confirmed cases over the past 14 days, according to data compiled by the COVID Tracking Project, a volunteer organization that collects testing information. The outbreaks are most severe in Arizona, Texas and Florida, which together with California have re-closed or otherwise clamped back down on bars, restaurants and movie theaters.

Nebraska and South Dakota were the only states outside the Northeast with a downward trend in cases. While some of the increases may be explained in part by expanded testing, other indicators are grim, too, including hospitalizations and positive test rates. Over the past two weeks, the percentage of positive tests in Georgia, Kansas and Tennessee has doubled. In Idaho and Nevada, it has tripled.

The surge in cases comes as Americans head into a Fourth of July holiday weekend that health officials warn could add fuel to the virus by drawing big crowds. Many municipalities have canceled fireworks displays. Beaches up and down California and Florida have been closed.

Florida reported more than 10,000 new confirmed coronavirus cases for the first time Thursday. That is six times higher than the daily count of less than a month ago. The state also reported 67 deaths for the second time in a week. Deaths per day are up about 30 percent from two weeks ago.

Meanwhile, the government reported that U.S. unemployment fell to 11.1% in June as the economy added a solid 4.8 million jobs. But the data was collected during the second week of June, before many states began to backtrack on restarting their economies.

Several Northeastern states have seen new infections slow down significantly, including New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island and New Jersey, which allowed its Atlantic City casinos to reopen Thursday, though with no smoking, no drinking and no eating.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday seemed confident the virus would soon subside, telling Fox Business: "I think that, at some point, that’s going to sort of just disappear, I hope.” The U.S. has reported at least 2.7 million cases and more than 128,000 dead, the highest toll in the world. Globally there have been 10.7 million confirmed cases and more than 516,000 dead, according to Johns Hopkins’ count. The true toll is believed to be significantly higher, in part because of limited testing and mild cases that have been missed.

Other countries are also reporting record numbers of cases. South Africa recorded more than 8,100 new cases, a one-day record. The country has the most cases in Africa, more than 159,000, as it loosens what had been one of the world’s strictest lockdowns.

“We have now entered a new and treacherous phase in the life cycle of this pandemic,” South African President Cyril Ramaphosa warned in a broadcast to the nation. India, the world’s second-most populous country with more than 1.3 billion people, surpassed 600,000 infections on Thursday after over 19,000 new cases were reported. India has reported nearly 100,000 new cases in the past four days alone.

Many industries and businesses have reopened across India, though schools, colleges and movie theaters are still closed. On the medical front, the World Health Organization said that smoking is linked to a higher risk of severe illness and death from the coronavirus in hospitalized patients, although it was unable to specify exactly how much greater the danger might be.

Associated Press' Cara Anna in Johannesburg contributed to this report. Coyle reported from New York. Rising reported from Berlin.

Europe contains jobless rate, but faces summer of discontent

July 02, 2020

SPERLONGA, Italy (AP) — Europe has limited the rise in unemployment caused by the pandemic with a wide array of government support programs, but that cannot hide widespread economic distress and anxiety among workers and small business owners.

First the good news: the unemployment rate in the 19 countries that use the euro only inched higher in May, to 7.4 % from 7.3% in April, official figures showed Thursday. Governments used labor market support programs to cushion the impact of the virus outbreak on workers. By comparison, the U.S. unemployment rate has hit 13.3%.

European governments pay part of workers' salaries in return for companies not laying them off. Governments have also deployed an array of loan programs and other assistance aimed at employers like Marco Chinappi, whose family runs the three-star Hotel Mayor in Sperlonga, an Italian beach town down the coast from Rome.

He was able to take advantage of a state-guaranteed bank loan of 25,000 euros ($28,000) at a low interest rate as well as measures to postpone paying some taxes. That helped him hire back his two seasonal workers, who each get 600 euros in support payments from the government.

“With great difficulty, two months of work, I got the loan guaranteed by the government. Thankfully, because we were really in crisis,” he said. “We didn’t have any money.” Chinappi said he still doesn’t know if the assistance will keep the business afloat, given the hotel was already having financial difficulties and guests are only starting to “timidly” book rooms that would normally have been full by now.

Gianni Cammisola, who sells cured meats, locally made quiche and imported Spanish jamon in the same town also relied on the government loan to keep his family-run business going. “I have a wife, two kids and I’m earning less this year. The 25,000 (euros) will let me feed the kids, especially if we have another lockdown,” he said. Cammisola estimates he lost 15,000 euros during the enforced closure, which coincided with the start of peak tourist season in the days around Easter and two big holidays April 25 and May 1.

But he knows that Sperlonga is lucky, since it typically caters to Roman and Neapolitan tourists, and said the recent June 29 holiday long weekend was packed. “We lost April and May. But last weekend was like Ferragosto,” he said, referring to the Aug. 15 holiday that marks the peak of the Italian summer tourist season. “Thanks be to God,” he said, making the sign of the cross amid his salamis.

The government support programs are being used across Europe to contain a surge in unemployment. In Germany, the eurozone’s largest economy, 6.7 million people were still on wage support programs in June. The program pays at least 60% of missing pay when workers are put on shorter hours or no hours.

The government support for wages is granted because the companies are not to blame for the economic trouble - countries around the world have had to limit business, travel and public life to limit the spread of the coronavirus. The idea is to support the recovery since companies will not have to recruit and train new workers, having kept their staff.

Another less positive factor limiting the jobless rate is that people have dropped out of the labor force and are no longer looking for work. That could be because they are limited by confinement measures, or because they have to take care of their children who are not in school or daycare because of the lockdowns.

Eurostat estimated that 12.1 million people were unemployed in the countries that use the euro. The agency said that in order to fully capture the unprecedented labor market situation, its upcoming quarterly labor survey to be published July 9 would have additional information about underemployment and job market dropouts.

The European Commission says the 19 countries that use the euro will see their economy contract 7.75% this year.

McHugh reported from Frankfurt, Germany.

U.S., South Africa report new record coronavirus rises

July 02, 2020

BERLIN (AP) — The United States and South Africa have both reported record new daily coronavirus infections, with U.S. figures surpassing 50,000 cases a day for the first time, underlining the challenges still ahead as nations press to reopen their virus-devastated economies.

The U.S. recorded 50,700 new cases, according to a tally kept by Johns Hopkins University, as many states struggled to contain the spread of the pandemic, blamed in part on Americans not wearing masks or following social distancing rules.

Surging numbers in California prompted Gov. Gavin Newsom to announce just ahead of the Fourth of July weekend that he was closing bars, theaters and indoor restaurant dining over most of the state, a region that includes about 30 million people and Los Angeles County.

“The bottom line is the spread of this virus continues at a rate that is particularly concerning,” Newsom said. Confirmed cases in California have increased nearly 50% over the past two weeks, and COVID-19 hospitalizations have gone up 43%. Newsom said California had nearly 5,900 new cases and 110 more deaths in just 24 hours.

Infections have been surging in many other states as well, including Florida, Arizona and Texas. Florida recorded more than 6,500 new cases and counties in South Florida were closing beaches to fend off large July Fourth crowds that could further spread the virus.

“Too many people were crowding into restaurants late at night, turning these establishments into breeding grounds for this deadly virus,” Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez said. Despite the fact that the U.S. has the highest number of infections and deaths in the world by far, President Donald Trump seemed confident the coronavirus would soon subside.

“I think we are going to be very good with the coronavirus,” he told Fox Business. “I think that, at some point, that’s going to sort of just disappear, I hope.” The U.S. has now reported nearly 2.7 million cases and more than 128,000 dead. Globally there have been 10.7 million coronavirus cases and more than 516,000 dead, according to Johns Hopkins' count. The true toll of the pandemic is believed to be significantly higher, in part because of limited testing and mild cases that have been missed.

In South Africa on Thursday, authorities reported 8,124 new cases, a new daily record. The country has the most cases in Africa with more than 159,000, as it loosens what had been one of the world’s strictest lockdowns.

Johannesburg is a new hot spot with hundreds of health workers infected and Gauteng province, which includes Johannesburg, has more than 45,000 confirmed cases. The African continent has more than 405,000 confirmed cases overall.

India, the world's second-most populous country with more than 1.3 billion people, surpassed 600,000 infections on Thursday after over 19,000 new cases were reported. India has reported nearly 100,000 new cases in the past four days alone.

Despite the surging numbers, the western beach of state of Goa, a popular backpacking destination, allowed 250 hotels to reopen Thursday after being closed for more than three months. Tourists will either have to carry COVID-19 negative certificates or get tested on arrival.

Many industries and businesses have reopened across the country, and Indians have cautiously returned to the streets. Schools, colleges and movie theaters are still closed. On the medical front, the World Health Organization says smoking is linked to a higher risk of severe illness and death from the coronavirus in hospitalized patients, although it was unable to specify exactly how much greater those risks might be.

In a scientific brief published this week, the U.N. health agency reviewed 34 published studies on the association between smoking and COVID-19, including the probability of infection, hospitalization, severity of disease and death.

WHO noted that smokers represent up to 18% of hospitalized coronavirus patients and that there appeared to be a significant link between whether or not patients smoked and the severity of disease they suffered, the type of hospital interventions required and patients’ risk of dying.

In Japan, the capital of Tokyo confirmed 107 new cases of coronavirus, nearly triple that of June 24, just before the number began to spike. Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike said many cases were linked to nightclubs and bars, and urged their workers to proactively be tested and take further safety measures.

“We need to use caution against the spread of the infections,” Koike said. South Korea confirmed 54 more COVID-19 cases as the coronavirus continued to spread beyond the capital region and reach cities like Gwangju, which has shut schools and tightened social restrictions after dozens fell sick this week.

Despite the spike in many U.S. states, several eastern states have seen their new infections slow down significantly, including New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island and New Jersey, which was going ahead Thursday with allowing its famous Atlantic City casinos to reopen.

Strict social distancing and other measures will be in place. Gamblers will not be allowed to smoke, drink or eat anything inside the casinos. They will have to wear masks in public areas of the casino and have their temperatures checked upon entering.

Coyle reported from Los Angeles.

Prague train with 500 tourists boosts Croatia tourism hopes

July 01, 2020

ZAGREB, Croatia (AP) — A train carrying about 500 tourists from the Czech Republic and Slovakia arrived to Croatia on Wednesday morning as the country seeks to attract visitors after easing lockdown measures against the coronavirus.

The train rolled into the station in the northern Croatian port of Rijeka after an all-night journey that started in Czech capital Prague. The tourists were then bused to their destinations along the Adriatic Sea coast.

The Croatian coastline is a leading European tourism destination, particularly for visitors from Central and Eastern Europe who can easily access it by car or train. “It was great," said a Czech tourist who identified himself only by his first name Filip. “The only thing that was different is that we had to wear face masks the whole time."

Croatia is hoping to salvage as much as possible of the summer tourism season, which has been badly hurt by the virus outbreak. The country’s economy is among the weakest in the European Union and largely dependent on tourism income.

“We are hoping that this will increase the number of tourists here. There are currently around 300,000 of them vacationing in Croatia," said Tourism Minister Gari Capelli, who welcomed the visitors in Rijeka.

Capelli said the train will run daily and that around 30,000 tickets already have been sold despite a renewed spike in virus cases with the easing of lockdown rules throughout Europe. Croatia has had 2,777 confirmed cases while 107 people have died. Millions of tourists normally visit Croatia each year, mostly staying at the Adriatic Sea coastline or on the islands.

Spain, Portugal leaders mark border reopening with pomp

July 01, 2020

BADAJOZ, Spain (AP) — The leaders of Spain and Portugal marked the reopening of their land border Wednesday, more than three months after shutting it because of the coronavirus pandemic. Spain’s King Felipe VI and Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez met with Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa and Prime Minister António Costa for border ceremonies in Badajoz on the Spanish side and later in Elvas, Portugal.

Wearing masks, which they removed to hear their national anthems played, the Iberian leaders toured a Moorish fortress and museum in Badajoz before visiting a 14th-century castle in Elvas, 20 kilometers (12 miles) away. They gave no speeches.

Spain has been one of Europe’s hardest-hit countries in the pandemic, with almost 250,000 cases and more than 28,300 deaths. A strict lockdown enabled Spanish authorities to bring the outbreak under control. Over the past week it has officially recorded almost 2,000 new cases.

Portugal avoided an exponential increase in cases during April and May, but stubborn outbreaks have occurred in recent weeks after a lockdown ended and several hundred news cases have been emerging every day. It has recorded 1,576 virus-related deaths.

Most worryingly, Portuguese authorities are battling community transmission in 19 of the Lisbon metropolitan area’s 118 parishes, located north of the capital. Beginning on Wednesday, people living in those parishes must stay at home when they can and no more than five people can gather together, among other measures.

The Iberian peninsula countries agreed to close their border to traffic, except for trucks and local cross-border workers, on March 17. The land border is more than 1,200 kilometers (750 miles) long.

EU reopens its borders to 14 nations but not to US tourists

June 30, 2020

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union will reopen its borders to travelers from 14 countries, and possibly China soon, the bloc announced Tuesday, but most Americans have been refused entry for at least another two weeks due to soaring coronavirus infections in the U.S.

As Europe’s economies reel from the impact of the coronavirus, southern EU countries like Greece, Italy and Spain are desperate to entice back sun-loving visitors and breathe life into their damaged tourism industries. American tourists make up a big slice of the EU market and the summer holiday season is a key time.

Citizens from the following countries will be allowed into the EU's 27 members and four other nations in Europe's visa-free Schengen travel zone: Algeria, Australia, Canada, Georgia, Japan, Montenegro, Morocco, New Zealand, Rwanda, Serbia, South Korea, Thailand, Tunisia and Uruguay.

The EU said China is “subject to confirmation of reciprocity,” meaning Beijing should lift all restrictions on European citizens entering China before European countries will allow Chinese citizens back in. Millions of travelers who come from Russia, Brazil and India will miss out.

The 31 European countries have agreed to begin lifting restrictions from Wednesday. The list is to be updated every 14 days, with new countries being added or dropped off depending on whether they are keeping the pandemic under control. Non-EU citizens who are already living in Europe are not included in the ban, nor are British citizens.

“We are entering a new phase with a targeted opening of our external borders as of tomorrow,” European Council President Charles Michel, who chairs summits of EU national leaders, tweeted. “We have to remain vigilant and keep our most vulnerable safe.”

American tourists made 27 million trips to Europe in 2016 while around 10 million Europeans head across the Atlantic each year. Still, many people both inside and outside of Europe remain wary about traveling in the coronavirus era, given the unpredictability of the pandemic and the possibility of second waves of infection that could affect flights and hotel bookings. Tens of thousands of travelers had a frantic, chaotic scramble in March to get home as the pandemic swept the world and borders slammed shut.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the United States has surged over the past week, and President Donald Trump also suspended the entry of all people from Europe’s ID check-free travel zone in a decree in March, making it extremely difficult for the EU to include the U.S. on their safe travel list for now.

In contrast, aside from a recent outbreak tied to a slaughterhouse in western Germany, the spread of the virus has generally stabilized across much of continental Europe. To qualify for the “safe” list, EU headquarters said that countries should have a comparable per capita number of COVID-19 cases to those in the 31 European countries over the last 14 days and have a stable or decreasing trend in the number of infections.

The Europeans are also taking into account those countries' standards on virus testing, surveillance, contact tracing and treatment and the general reliability of their virus data. For tourist sites and stores in Paris that are already feeling the pinch of losing clients from around the world, the decision not to readmit most American travelers is another blow.

In the heart of Paris, on the two small islands in the Seine River that are home to Notre Dame Cathedral and a wealth of tempting boutiques, businesses were already mourning the loss of American visitors during the coronavirus lockdown, and now the summer season that usually attracts teeming crowds is proving eerily quiet since France reopened.

“Americans were 50% of my clientele,” said Paola Pellizzari, who owns a mask and jewelry shop on the Saint-Louis island and heads its business association. “We can’t substitute that clientele with another.”

“When I returned after lockdown, five businesses had closed,” Pellizzari said. “As days go by, and I listen to the business owners, it gets worse.” American travelers spent $67 billion in the European Union in 2019, according to U.S. government figures. That was up 46% from 2014.

The continued absence of Americans also hurts the Louvre as the world’s most-visited museum plans its reopening on July 6. Americans used to be the largest single group of foreign visitors to the home of the “Mona Lisa.”

Sharmaigne Shives, an American who lives in Paris, is yearning for the day when her countrymen and women can return to the clothing shop where she works on Saint-Louis island and drive away her blues at having so few summer visitors.

“I hope that they can get it together and bring down their numbers as much as they can,” she said of the United States. “Paris isn’t Paris when there aren’t people who really appreciate it and marvel at everything,” Shives added. “I miss that. Seriously, I feel the emotion welling up. It’s so sad here.”

A trade group for the biggest U.S. carriers including the three that fly to Europe — United Airlines, Delta Air Lines and American Airlines — said it was “obviously disappointed” by the EU decision. “We are hopeful that the decision will be reviewed soon and that at least on a limited basis international traffic between the United States and the EU will resume," said Nicholas Calio, CEO of Airlines for America.

U.S. airlines hope the Europeans will give the U.S. credit if it implements steps such as temperature checks on passengers bound for Europe, which he said was discussed between U.S. government and EU officials.

Last year, United got 38% of its passenger revenue from international travel including 17% from flights between the U.S. and Europe, while Delta and American were slightly less dependent on those routes. Business travel on routes such as New York-London is highly profitable for all three.

In Brussels, EU headquarters underlined that the list “is not a legally binding instrument” which means the 31 governments can apply it as they see fit. But the bloc urged all member nations not to lift travel restrictions to other countries without coordinating such a move with their European partners.

Officials fear that such ad hoc moves could incite countries inside Europe to start closing their borders to each other again. Panic closures after the disease began spreading in Italy in February caused major traffic jams at crossing points and slowed deliveries of medical equipment.

In publishing its list, the EU also recommended that restrictions be lifted on all people wanting to enter who are European citizens and their family members, long-term EU residents who are not citizens of the bloc, and travelers with “an essential function or need,” regardless of whether their country is on the safe list or not.

John Leicester in Paris, David Koenig in Dallas, and Dee-Ann Durbin in Ann Arbor, Michigan, contributed to this report.

Australia ends Hong Kong extradition treaty, extends visas

July 09, 2020

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia suspended its extradition treaty with Hong Kong and extended visas for Hong Kong residents in response to China’s imposition of a tough national security law on the semi-autonomous territory, the prime minister said Thursday.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced a range of visas that will be extended from two to five years and offers of pathways to permanent residency visas. It is not clear how many Hong Kongers are expected to get the extensions.

The move comes after China bypassed Hong Kong’s Legislative Council to impose the sweeping security legislation without public consultation. Critics view it as a further deterioration of freedoms promised to the former British colony, in response to last year's massive protests calling for greater democracy and more police accountability.

The national security law prohibits what Beijing views as secessionist, subversive or terrorist activities or as foreign intervention in Hong Kong affairs. Under the law, police now have sweeping powers to conduct searches without warrants and order internet service providers and platforms to remove messages deemed to be in violation of the legislation.

“Our government, together with other governments around the world, have been very consistent in expressing our concerns about the imposition of the national security law on Hong Kong,” Morrison told reporters.

“That national security law constitutes a fundamental change of circumstances in respect to our extradition agreement with Hong Kong,” Morrison said. Britain, too, is extending residency rights for up to 3 million Hong Kongers eligible for British National Overseas passports, allowing them to live and work in the U.K. for five years.

Canada has suspected its extradition treaty with Hong Kong and is looking at other options including migration. In Australia, the most likely Hong Kongers to benefit from the new policies are the 10,000 already in the country on student and other temporary visas.

Acting Immigration Minister Alan Tudge said he expected the numbers of Kong Hongers who would come to Australia under the new arrangements would be “in the hundreds or low thousands.” Australia last offered “safe haven” visas to Chinese after the bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protesters around Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in 1989. More than 27,000 Chinese students in Australia at the time were allowed to stay permanently.

China last week warned Australia against “interfering in China’s internal affairs with Hong Kong.” Global Times, a Chinese Communist Party mouthpieces, this week warned that “no one should underestimate the repercussions to the Australian economy from a further deterioration of bilateral ties.”

“If the Australian government chooses to continue to interfere in China’s internal affairs, it should be expected that the ‘safe haven’ offer will result in a huge negative impact on the Australian economy, making the issue much more serious than many people would have anticipated,” the newspaper said.

China accused Australia of spreading disinformation when the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade issued a travel advisory this week warning that Australian visitors could be at risk of arbitrary detention.

The department’s latest advisory for Hong Kong on Thursday warned that visitors could be sent to mainland China to be prosecuted under mainland law. “You may be at increased risk of detention on vaguely defined national security grounds,” the advisory said. “You could break the law without intending to.”

Australia had negotiated an extradition treaty with China, but shelved it in 2017 when it became clear that the Australian Senate would vote it down. The separate Hong Kong treaty has been in place since 1993.

Chinese threats, weaker US alliance spur Australian military overhaul

By Andrew Beatty
Sydney (AFP)
July 1, 2020

Australia has unveiled plans to dramatically tool-up its military as threats from China mount, but some see collapsing trust in the United States alliance as an underlying motivation.

On paper, Australia's landmark defense review released Wednesday was all about a middle-ranking military power looking north at an increasingly belligerent emerging superpower and deciding it was time to get some of the world's most high-tech weapons.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison unveiled plans to buy missiles that could strike targets thousands of kilometres away, step-up cyber capabilities and invest in things that could define future warfare like hypersonic missiles, lasers and battlefield robots.

Australia's backyard, he said, had become the battleground of the 21st century and the country needed to wake up to the new reality.

But beyond real concerns about Chinese hacking, territorial seizures, economic coercion and "grey-zone" operations just short of open warfare lay an unspoken acknowledgement: America's defense umbrella -- which had long offered protection from these threats -- is looking very leaky.

"Australia is losing faith in the United States," Van Jackson, a former Pentagon official and expert on Asian security policy told AFP.

Policy officials cannot publicly admit it, he said, "but that's clearly what this is all about".

"It's not just that China's more aggressive in this region. It's China fears combined with US unreliability and strategic incompetence."

- Changing of the guard -

For much of the last century, Australian security relied on the United States.

After independence from Britain, Australia actively supported the US-led rules-based order and its forces fought in wars from Vietnam to Iraq. In return, it got the protection of the world's preeminent nuclear power.

But even before Donald Trump entered the Oval Office and threatened to set fire to decades-old security treaties, Washington had shown an increased reluctance to play security guard for countries rich enough to afford their own defense.

There is no guarantee the United States can continue to be a global policeman, even if it wanted to, observers note.

"I think they've been a bit rattled by the sheer unpredictability and unreliability of President Trump," Sam Roggeveen, director of the international security program at Sydney's Lowy Institute told AFP, referring to Australian policymakers.

"But I think they also recognize that no matter who is in charge in Washington, that the shift in the strategic balance from a US-led system to one where China is the leading strategic and military power in the region is inevitable."

"Our ally is not going to be in charge of the Asian strategic order over the long term. So we've got to prepare for that."

In response, Roggeveen said, Canberra decided Australia would "take greater responsibility for our own security."

That stops short of trying to develop an Australian nuclear deterrent, but "the intent here is to essentially make the costs of wanting to attack Australia too high," said Peter Jennings, head of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.

"(It is) to strengthen our capacity for independent military operations and to sustain those operations over a lengthy period of time without drawing on the US alliance."

But some worry Australia is entering an arena with enormous risk, and potentially opening the door to a conflict it cannot win and without commensurate investments in diplomacy and building alliances with other democracies.

"The big conversation really that the government needs to have with the Australian people, is what kind of risks are we prepared to run and what kind of costs are we prepared to pay if we want to confront China on various issues," said Roggeveen.

"If we're proposing to buy, or even to develop strike weapons... an adversary like China, they can throw that back at us multiplied by three, four or 10."

"I think that would be an escalatory step, which would actually destabilize our region, and ultimately would actually make our region more dangerous for Australia."

Source: Space War.
Link: https://www.spacewar.com/reports/Chinese_threats_weaker_US_alliance_spur_Australian_military_overhaul_999.html.

Kosovo's president to be questioned in war crimes inquiry

July 08, 2020

PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — Kosovo’s president said Wednesday that he would go to The Hague to be questioned by prosecutors investigating war crimes allegedly committed during and after a 1998-1999 armed conflict in Kosovo between ethnic Albanian separatists and Serbia.

Hashim Thaci said in a statement posted on Facebook that he was "invited by the Specialist Prosecutor’s Office to be interviewed” on Monday. The prosecutor's office connected to an international court set up in The Hague to look into allegations that members of the Kosovo Liberation Army committed war crimes and crimes against humanity during the 1990s war announced the indictment last month of Thaci and other former fighters.

Thaci was a commander of the Kosovo Liberation army, or KLA, that fought for independence from Serbia. Both the president and former Kosovo assembly speaker Kadri Veseli, who also was indicted, have denied responsibility for war crimes.

The indictment accuses them of being criminally responsible for nearly 100 murders of Serbs, Roma and Kosovo Albanian political opponents, as well as forced disappearances, persecution and torture. A pretrial judge at The Hague-based Kosovo Specialist Chambers hasn’t made a decision on whether to proceed with the case or throw it out.

Hundreds of former Kosovar independence fighters have been questioned by the Hague-based court since January of last year. War veterans have planned a demonstration for Thursday. Thaci has said that if the indictment stands he “will immediately resign as your president and face the accusations.”

The fighting in Kosovo left more than 10,000 dead, most of them ethnic Albanians. It ended after a 78-day NATO air campaign in 1999 that forced Serbian troops to stop their brutal crackdown against ethnic Albanians and leave Kosovo.

Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, a move Serbia refuses to recognize. Thaci called on Kosovo’s majority ethnic-Albanian population “to stand united in dealing with the challenges that our country is facing.”

“Civic unity, inter-ethnic coexistence, institutional stability, trust in the institutions, are necessary for Kosovo to make its vision to be part of NATO, of the European Union, and to maintain eternal friendship with the United States of America a reality,” he said.

Thaci’s indictment led to the postponement of a White House meeting between the leaders of Kosovo and Serbia that was organized by U.S presidential envoy Richard Grenell. Thaci was traveling to Washington for the discussions when the indictment was announced.

Kosovo Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic are scheduled to hold European Union-supervised talks in Brussels on Sunday, the first negotiations to normalize relations between the two countries in more than 19 months.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell will host the meeting. French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel plan to hold virtual preparatory talks with the three on Friday.

Semini reported from Tirana, Albania.

Princess Raiyah weds Faris Ned Donovan in the United Kingdom

By JT
Jul 07,2020

AMMAN — With the blessings of His Majesty King Abdullah, HRH Princess Raiyah married Faris Ned Donovan in the United Kingdom.

Her Majesty Queen Noor, Jordan’s Ambassador to the UK Omar Nahar and the Donovan family attended the brief ceremony, held in accordance with lockdown regulations due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, according to a Royal Court statement.

Her Royal Highness was engaged to Donovan on October 26, 2019.

Princess Raiyah, born in Amman in 1986, is the daughter of His Majesty the late King Hussein and Her Majesty Queen Noor.

She holds an undergraduate master’s degree in Japanese studies from Edinburgh University in Scotland, a master’s degree in Japanese literature from Columbia University in New York and is currently a PhD candidate in pre-modern Japanese literature at UCLA, the statement said.

Source: The Jordan Times.
Link: http://jordantimes.com/news/local/princess-raiyah-weds-faris-ned-donovan-united-kingdom.

Monuments and statues are falling. But what comes next?

July 08, 2020

TIERRA AMARILLA, N.M. (AP) — The dusty town of Tierra Amarilla perches in the shadows of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Here, five decades ago, this poor northern New Mexico community saw one of the most violent clash in civil rights history when armed Mexican American ranchers raided a courthouse in a dispute over land grants. It shocked the nation and helped trigger the Chicano Movement.

Today, there’s almost nothing in town to honor this historic moment, except for graffiti art on an abandoned gas station and a sentence on a marker. There's also almost no public art about the event anywhere.

As monuments and statues fall across the United States, activists and towns are left wondering what to do with empty spaces that once honored historic figures tied to Confederate generals and Spanish conquistadors. They also are debating how to remember civil rights figures and events in areas where they have been forgotten.

The opportunity to reimagine spaces has created a debate: whose history should the U.S. now honor and why? Should anything go on those empty podiums at all? Some advocates say monuments to the late U.S. Rep. Barbara Jordan or Mexican American civil rights leader Dolores Huerta should replace the fallen statues. Others say World War II Marine Sgt. Miguel Trujillo Sr., a member of the Isleta Pueblo who sued to get Native Americans the right to vote in New Mexico, or former slave-turned-abolitionist Olaudah Equiano should have monuments erected in their honor. Christy Symington, a London-based sculptor, has already created an image of Equiano that some advocates say should be replicated in now empty spaces.

“I almost think the pedestals just need to be left there (empty),” said Rev. Rob W. Lee, a senior pastor of Unifour Church in Newton, North Carolina, and a descendant of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, who now speaks out against Confederate monuments.

Lee said he sees the toppling of Confederate statues with Black Lives Matter graffiti as a move to reclaim Black lives from white supremacy. “I think it’s quite beautiful,” Lee said. “Leave it like that.”

Brett Chapman, a Tulsa, Oklahoma, attorney and descendant of Standing Bear, a Ponca chief and civil rights leader, said he’d like to see the fallen statues replaced by largely unknown social justice advocates. “There are so many people we can honor that will show how we’ve overcome oppression,” Chapman said. “It’ll be a chance for us to learn and reflect.”

On Saturday, protesters in Baltimore pulled down a statue of Christopher Columbus and threw it into the city’s Inner Harbor. That followed other episodes of Confederate and Spanish colonial statues getting toppled last month by demonstrators or after officials ordered their removal.

It’s also lead to statues of Presidents George Washington and Ulysses S. Grant getting vandalized. That has given some supporters of anti-racism protests pause. Cultural critic Thomas Chatterton Williams, the author of “Self-Portrait in Black and White,” said he understood the need to remove Confederate monuments but is uncomfortable with the vandalism of statues honoring the Founding Fathers and American Union Civil War figures.

“Mobs in the street tearing down Ulysses S. Grant statues is a really chilling sight,” Williams said. “We should understand the context (of history). But erasing these men from the public sphere seems like a bad road to go down to me.”

Vanessa Fonseca-Chávez, an assistant English professor at Arizona State University and author of the upcoming book “Colonial Legacies in Chicana/o Literature and Culture: Looking Through the Kaleidoscope,” said she can see the spaces honoring people who are not famous.

“What about the people who are living and breathing right now who made this place what it is today?” Fonseca-Chávez said. “Not a famous person. Just who we are. I think that could go a long way.”

France: Macron ousts security chief after police protests

July 06, 2020

PARIS (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron ousted his top security official Monday following protests over police brutality, as part of a government shakeup aimed at focusing on France’s post-pandemic economic recovery for the remaining two years of Macron’s term.

The man named as France's new interior minister, Gerald Darmanin, is facing a preliminary investigation into a rape accusation that he firmly denies. Macron's office said the probe was “not an obstacle” to Darmanin's appointment but wouldn't further comment on the ongoing investigation.

In a surprise move, Macron also named a provocative lawyer who has defended WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and suspected terrorists as head of the Justice Ministry. And a former Green Party lawmaker was appointed to lead the powerful Ministry for Ecological Transition after Macron came under criticism for lagging on promises to cut emissions.

The 42-year-old centrist leader, whose presidency has been buffeted by protests and now the virus crisis, promised that the new government would be one of “purpose and unity.” Macron tweeted that his 2017 campaign promises to modernize France and free up its businesses remain central to his agenda, but he “must adapt to the international upheavals and crises we are experiencing. A new path must be forged.”

First among the priorities that Macron listed is helping the world's sixth-largest economy recover from the battering delivered by the coronavirus pandemic. His new lineup includes some new faces but also leans heavily on loyalists as Macron seeks to steady the country.

One key change is at the Interior Ministry, which is in charge of police. Former budget minister Gerald Darmanin was named to replace Interior Minister Christophe Castaner, who had come under fire amid widespread French protests against racial injustice and police violence spurred by the death of George Floyd in the United States.

In response, Castaner initially announced a ban on the use of chokeholds in policing, but he then backed down in the face of counter-demonstrations and pressure by police unions. He also launched an experiment with expanded Taser use.

Darmanin, 37, a member of Macron’s young guard, is a former conservative who joined Macron’s centrist party in 2017 and is seen as outspoken but effective. The rape investigation casts as a shadow over his appointment. An preliminary probe was opened in 2017 after a woman said he raped her when she sought legal help in 2009. Prosecutors ordered it dropped the following year for lack of evidence, but last month the Paris appeals court ordered it reopened. Darmanin, the highest-ranking French official accused of sexual misconduct in the #MeToo era, says the encounter was consensual, and sued the woman for slander.

The new government reflects a balance of figures from the left and right and from outside politics altogether -- like Eric Dupond-Moretti, arguably France's most famous lawyer. Among his clients have been Assange; accomplices to Mohamed Merah, who killed Jewish children, a rabbi and paratroopers in a 2012 rampage around Toulouse; and former French government ministers accused of tax fraud or sexual harassment.

Two other important changes are at the Labor Ministry, whose new chief, Elisabeth Borne, will have to deal with a pending surge in unemployment, and the Ministry for Ecological Transition, to be led by former Green Party legislator Barbara Pompili.

Macron didn't change the finance or health ministers, posts central to helping France through the virus crisis and recession, or the foreign and defense ministers. The new government will be led by Prime Minister Jean Castex. who was appointed Friday. Macron last week ditched Edouard Philippe, who as prime minister steered France through its coronavirus lockdown and the first three years of Macron's presidency.

Castex is a career civil servant, and his low profile suggests that Macron doesn't want to be overshadowed should he choose to seek reelection in 2022. Macron has not yet said if he'll run for a second term.

John Leicester in Le Pecq, France contributed.

Aid ship declares emergency after 6 migrants attempt suicide

July 03, 2020

ROME (AP) — A sea rescue charity said Friday that its ship carrying rescued migrants declared an onboard state of emergency in the Mediterranean Sea after six migrants tried to kill themselves and the distress of others that no country would let them on land put the safety of the crew and other survivors at risk.

SOS Mediterranee, which operates the Ocean Viking, said in a statement that some of the 180 migrants aboard have started physical fighting among themselves or been threatening fellow survivors and crew members.

The charity said it lodged seven requests for permission to enter a safe harbor, but Italy and Malta said no. There were no immediate government responses from either country about the alleged refusals.

The migrants were rescued from the unseaworthy boats of people smugglers in the central Mediterranean during four operations between June 25 and June 30. SOS Mediterranee said the first operation took place in international waters where Italy and Malta have overlapping rescue jurisdiction, while the other rescues occurred in Malta's search-and-rescue area.

The people rescued include a pregnant woman and 25 minors, 17 of them traveling without relatives or guardians, the charity said. SOS Mediterranee said two migrants jumped overboard in what the organization said appeared to be suicide attempts and were rescued from the sea again, while three others were stopped before they plunged off the ship. It reported that another passenger tried to kill himself on board, the charity said.

It called the “concerning behavior and decline of mental health” of some of the rescued passengers a “direct result of the unnecessary standoff at sea and lack of solution” for a port. SOS Mediterranee expressed worry that “in addition to the acute psychological distress several of the survivors find themselves in, the deteriorating weather conditions pose an even greater threat to the lives of those who might try to reach shore by jumping off” the Ocean Viking.

Both Italy and Malta have taken a hard line on private rescue boats, expressing concern that such operations could encourage Libya-based human traffickers to keep launching migrants toward Europe in dangerous conditions.

The two countries have also insisted fellow European Union members take in more migrants as asylum-seekers since those who reach Europe's southern shores are often aiming to make nations in northern Europe their final destinations. Few nations have answered the Italian and Maltese appeals.