Federal task force kills Portland shooting suspect at arrest

September 04, 2020

LACEY, Wash. (AP) — A man suspected of fatally shooting a supporter of a right-wing group in Portland, Oregon, last week after a caravan of Donald Trump backers rode through downtown was killed Thursday as investigators moved in to arrest him, the U.S. Marshals Service said Friday.

The man, Michael Forest Reinoehl, 48, was killed as a federal task force attempted to apprehend him in Lacey, Washington, about 120 miles (193 kilometers) north of Portland. Reinoehl was the prime suspect in the killing of 39-year-old Aaron “Jay” Danielson, who was shot in the chest Saturday night, a senior Justice Department official told The Associated Press.

Federal agents from the FBI and the U.S. Marshals Service had located Reinoehl on Thursday after a warrant was issued for his arrest. During the encounter, Reinoehl was shot by a law enforcement officer who was working on the federal task force, the official said. The official could not discuss the matter publicly and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.

The official said Reinoehl had pulled a gun during the encounter. The U.S. Marshals Service said initial reports indicate the suspect produced a firearm. The U.S. Marshals Service fugitive task forces, comprised of deputy marshals, other federal agents and local law enforcement officers from a variety of agencies, are responsible for apprehending violent felons and other wanted suspects.

Thurston County Sheriff’s Lt. Ray Brady said four members of the fugitive task force fired their weapons, including two Pierce County Sheriff’s deputies, an officer from the Lakewood Police Department and an officer from the Washington State Department of Corrections.

Brady said investigators haven’t yet determined how many rounds were fired. The suspect was alone at the time of the shooting, Brady said, with no children or other people present. Brady said he doesn’t think the suspect lived at the address where he was shot, and it’s not clear what brought him to Lacey.

“We don’t know that specifically yet,” Brady said. “I do not believe that was his residence.” Reinoehl had described himself in a social media post as “100% ANTIFA,” suggested the tactics of counter-protesters amounted to “warfare,” and had been shot at one protest and cited for having a gun at another.

He had been been a regular presence at anti-racism demonstrations in Portland. Police on July 5 cited Reinoehl on allegations of possessing a loaded gun in a public place, resisting arrest and interfering with police.

On July 26, Reinoehl was shot near his elbow after he got involved in a scuffle between an armed white man and a group of young people of color. The man who was carrying the gun, Aaron Scott Collins, told The Oregonian/OregonLive that he and a friend had just left a bar when they saw the group harassing an older Black man. His friend began filming them with a phone, and the group confronted them, calling them Nazis, he said.

Reinoehl later that day spoke to an AP videographer. His arm was wrapped in a bloody bandage; he said he was on his way to meet protest medics so they could change it. He said he didn’t know what had started the altercation between Collins and the group, but that several people had decided to intervene when they saw Collins fighting with minors.

“As soon as the adults jumped in, he pulled out a gun,” Reinoehl said. “I jumped in there and pulled the gun away from people’s heads, avoided being shot in the stomach and I got shot in the arm.” Reinoehl also was wanted on a warrant out of Baker County in Eastern Oregon, where court records show he skipped a hearing related to a June case in which he has been charged with driving under the influence of controlled substances, reckless driving, reckless endangerment and unlawful possession of a firearm.

Police said he drove on an interstate at up to 111 mph (179 kph), with his daughter in the car, while racing his 17-year-old son, who was in a different vehicle. Protests have erupted daily in the Pacific Northwest city since the killing of George Floyd.

With unruly demonstrations in Portland nearing the 100-day mark, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown and other Democratic leaders on Thursday called for an end to violence even as federal agents were continuing to arrest protesters who allegedly assaulted law enforcement officers.

“The violence must stop,” Brown wrote. “There is no place for white supremacy or vigilantism in Oregon. All who perpetrate violent crimes must be held equally accountable.” The statement does not single out the small minority of left-wing protesters who have been setting fires, vandalizing buildings and throwing objects at police. But Brown’s spokesman, Charles Boyle, said it “is a collective call to action for an end to violence in Portland and affirms that those who commit violent acts must be held accountable.”

Brown’s condemnation of violence was also signed by almost two-dozen state and local politicians, a host of organizations including the local NAACP chapter, and the city’s professional sports teams: the Trailblazers NBA team, the Timbers soccer team and the Thorns women’s soccer squad.

Portland Police Chief Chuck Lovell has denounced protesters who broke windows and set a fire this week to a business in the upscale apartment building where Mayor Ted Wheeler lives. Protesters are angry that Wheeler has not stopped officers from using batons and tear gas against Black Lives Matter protesters. Wheeler now reportedly plans to move out of the building.

As of a week ago, 74 people were facing federal charges for crimes allegedly committed during demonstrations in Portland since at least May 29, U.S. Attorney Billy Williams said.

Associated Press writers Gene Johnson in Seattle, Gillian Flaccus in Portland, Oregon, Rebecca Boone in Boise, Idaho, and Andrew Selsky in Salem, Oregon, contributed to this report.

1 dead in Portland after Trump supporters, protesters clash

 August 30, 2020

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — One person was shot and killed in Portland, Oregon, as a large caravan of President Donald Trump supporters and Black Lives Matter protesters clashed in the streets, police said.

It wasn’t clear if the shooting late Saturday was linked to fights that broke out as a caravan of about 600 vehicles was confronted by counterdemonstrators in the city’s downtown. Police said the caravan had left the area around 8:30 p.m., and officers heard gunshots around 15 minutes later, according to a statement. Officers arrived at the shooting scene “within a minute,” police said, but the man who was shot did not survive.

An Associated Press freelance photographer heard three gunshots and then observed police medics attending to the victim, who appeared to be a white man. The freelancer said the man was wearing a hat bearing the insignia of Patriot Prayer, a right-wing group whose members have frequently clashed with protesters in Portland in the past.

Police said the man was shot in the chest. He was not immediately identified. It’s unclear who shot him. Homicide detectives were looking for more evidence, acknowledging that several images and videos had been posted on social media.

“It is important for detectives get a full and accurate picture of what happened before, during, and after the shooting,” a police statement said. “If anyone was a witness, has video, or has information about the homicide, they’re asked to contact the primary detectives.”

"This violence is completely unacceptable and we are working diligently to find and apprehend the individual or individuals responsible,” Chief Chuck Lovell said. Portland has been the site of nightly protests for more than three months since the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Many of them end in vandalism and violence, and hundreds of demonstrators have been arrested by local and federal law enforcement since late May.

In the two hours following the shooting, protesters gathered downtown and there was sporadic fighting and vandalism, police said. Some gave speeches in Lownsdale Square Park before the protest petered out. Ten people were arrested, police said.

The caravan had arrived downtown just as a planned protest was getting underway. The chaotic scene came two days after Trump invoked Portland as a liberal city overrun with violence in a speech at the Republican National Convention as part of his “law and order” re-election campaign theme. The caravan marked the third Saturday in a row that Trump supporters have rallied in the city.

On Sunday, Trump issued a flurry of tweets and retweets including several that blamed Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler for the death and one in which the president appeared to be encouraging his supporters to move into Portland.

“GREAT PATRIOTS!” Trump wrote as he shared video of his supporters driving into Portland to confront the protesters. Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf blamed local officials for failing "to protect their communities.”

“I’m asking Portland officials, so that’s the mayor, that’s the governor and that’s local law enforcement, to do their job to address any violent activity that is occurring in their streets,” Wolf told CBS' “Face the Nation.”

Trump and other speakers at last week’s Republican convention evoked a violent, dystopian future if Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden wins in November and pointed to Portland as a cautionary tale for what would be in store for Americans.

The pro-Trump rally’s organizer, who recently coordinated a similar caravan in Boise, Idaho, said in a video posted on Twitter Saturday afternoon that attendees should only carry concealed weapons and the route was being kept secret for safety reasons.

The caravan had gathered earlier in the day at a suburban mall and drove as a group to the heart of Portland. As they arrived in the city, protesters attempted to stop them by standing in the street and blocking bridges.

Videos from the scene showed sporadic fighting, as well as Trump supporters firing paintball pellets at opponents and using bear spray as counter-protesters threw things at the Trump caravan. The Black Lives Matter demonstrations usually target police buildings and federal buildings. Some protesters have called for reductions in police budgets while the city’s mayor and some in the Black community have decried the violence, saying it’s counterproductive.

Early Saturday morning, fires set outside a police union building that is a frequent site for protests prompted police to declare a riot. An accelerant was used to ignite a mattress and other debris that was laid against the door of the Portland Police Association building, police said in a statement. At least one dumpster had also been set on fire in the street nearby.

The commotion followed a sit-in in the lobby of the Portland mayor’s condominium building Friday night.

Associated Press freelancer Paula Bronstein contributed to this report.

Activists: Militias tolerated, Kenosha protesters arrested

August 29, 2020

KENOSHA, Wis. (AP) — Police officers in Kenosha were on alert after days of protests over the shooting of Jacob Blake by one of their colleagues, and they'd recently gotten a tip about “suspicious vehicles” from out of state.

So, after watching a group of people fill cans at a gas station Wednesday and then hop into a minivan with Oregon plates, the officers sped in. A bystander’s video shows officers leaping out of black SUVs with guns drawn. About 25 seconds later, an officer shatters the van’s passenger-side window with her baton, unlocks its door and pulls a person out.

The group turned out to be members of Riot Kitchen, a Seattle-based organization that serves food at demonstrations. Jennifer Scheurle, a member of its board of directors, said they were filling up gas cans to power a generator for their food truck.

The nine taken into custody in the SWAT-style operation Wednesday were among dozens of people arrested this week in the Wisconsin city. The arrests have highlighted activists’ complaints that police have been responding to protests over the white officer's shooting that left Blake, a Black man, paralyzed, even as they've tolerated armed militia groups.

The Riot Kitchen members were charged with misdemeanor disorderly conduct, but all were free by Friday morning. “We reject all claims that our crew was there to incite violence or build explosives,” said Scheurle, who was not among those in Kenosha. “Our nonprofit organization has always been and will always be about feeding people.”

Kenosha Police Chief Daniel Miskinis said at a Friday news conference that “just under 50” people had been arrested during the protests. The department later provided a list of 58 charges, more than half of them for curfew violations, but declined to specify the number of people arrested or provide names.

“I believe everybody out there in law enforcement has been friendly to both sides,” Miskinis said. An analysis of jail records since the day of Blake’s shooting shows about 45% the people facing charges seemingly related to the protests live outside Wisconsin.

Those arrested were almost 70% white and about two-thirds male. The vast majority were charged with misdemeanors or civil violations, although there were also some felonies. Miskinis said one person had been charged for having a “flamethrower.”

More than 20 of the people remained in jail Friday afternoon. Adelana Akindes, a 24-year-old from Kenosha, said she spent nearly a day in a crowded cell after being arrested Wednesday while walking toward the demonstrations carrying a shield.

Police had Akindes and three others lie on the ground as they put them in handcuffs, she said, adding that officers did not read their Miranda rights or say why they were being arrested. She was released on Thursday evening and charged with breaking curfew.

“They wanted to scare us,” said Akindes, who is Black. “They wanted to make an example of us.” The early days of demonstrations and unrest after Blake's shooting saw some people destroying buildings, setting fires and hurling objects at police, who responded at times with tear gas. The last three nights have been mostly peaceful, and police have not fired tear gas or pepper balls. But they have used tactics that local activists see as heavy handed.

On Thursday night, police pulled over several cars of people headed to protests. They arrested a group of people in one vehicle and searched the car of another group. “There has been no respect for anybody’s civil rights,” said Isaac Wallner, a 30-year-old Kenosha activist. “It’s been a police free for all. They do whatever they want.”

Wallner, who is Black, contrasted this with what he characterized as a tolerant, or even friendly, attitude police have taken toward the white men who've come to the city outfitted with heavy vests and long guns, including a 17-year-old charged with fatally shooting two people and wounding a third.

Earlier in the week, sheriff’s deputies shot pepper balls at protesters and arrested them when they failed to quickly leave after being told they were breaking curfew. But officers in an armored vehicle with “Sheriff” on the side were also recorded at night tossing water bottles to men carrying rifles.

“We appreciate you guys. We really do,” someone can be heard calling from the vehicle in a video of the exchange. Kenosha County Sheriff David Beth said Friday that the officer seen giving out water was not one of his deputies, and the person who said he appreciated what the armed civilians were doing “doesn’t mirror all of law enforcement’s perspective on what happened.”

Bleiberg reported from Dallas. Associated Press reporters Lindsay Whitehurst in Salt Lake City and Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin, contributed.

Seoul: North Korea kills S. Korean official, burns his body

September 24, 2020

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea said Thursday that North Korean troops fatally shot a South Korean government official who may have attempted to defect and set his body on fire after finding him on a floating object near the countries' disputed sea boundary.

South Korean officials condemned what they called North Korea’s “atrocious act” and urged it to apologize and punish those responsible. North Korea is unlikely to accept the South Korean demand, and ties between the rivals — already strained amid a deadlock in broader nuclear diplomacy — will probably suffer a further setback, observers say.

According to Seoul, the man disappeared from a government ship that was checking on possible unauthorized fishing in an area south of the boundary on Monday, a day before he was found in North Korean waters.

North Korea sent officials wearing gas masks aboard a boat near the man to learn why he was there on Tuesday afternoon. Later in the day, a North Korean navy boat came and opened fire at him, South Korea’s Defense Ministry said.

Sailors from the boat clad in gas masks and protective suits poured gasoline on his body and set it aflame, the Defense Ministry said, citing intelligence gathered by surveillance equipment and other assets.

It’s unclear how he ended up in North Korea. But a defense official said the man might have tried to defect to the North, citing acquired information. He refused to elaborate. The official, requesting anonymity citing department rules, said the South Korean official was wearing a life jacket and was on a small floating object when he was found in North Korean waters.

He said North Korea may have decided to kill him in line with its stringent anti-coronavirus rules that involve shooting anyone illegally crossing the border. Gen. Robert Abrams, the commander of U.S. troops in South Korea, said last month that North Korea had put special forces along its border with China to keep smugglers out and that they had “shoot-to-kill orders in place” aimed at preventing the virus from entering the country.

North Korea has steadfastly said there hasn’t been a single virus case in its territory, a claim widely disputed by foreign experts. Observers say a pandemic could cause devastating consequences in North Korea because of its broken public health care system and a chronic shortage of medical supplies.

South Korea sent a message to North Korea on Wednesday to ask about the missing official, but hasn't received a response, according to the South Korean Defense Ministry. Senior military officer Ahn Young Ho told reporters Thursday that South Korea strongly condemned North Korea’s “atrocious act” and urged it to punish those responsible. Top presidential official Suh Choo-suk said in a separate news conference that North Korea must apologize for its “act against humanity,” reveal the full details of the case and take steps to prevent similar incidents.

“For whatever reason, North Korea cannot justify its soldiers fatally shooting our citizen and damaging his body, though he was unarmed and had no intention of resistance,” Suh said. President Moon Jae-in called the incident “shocking,” “intolerable” and “very regrettable.” He ordered the military to strengthen its readiness.

Little is known about the late 49-year-old South Korean, except that he was among 18 officials aboard the government boat belonging to the Oceans and Fisheries Ministry. When his colleagues searched for him after his disappearance, they only found his shoes left on the ship’s stern. Days of searching involving aircraft and vessels were unsuccessful, according to the Defense Ministry.

The oceans ministry said Thursday it has no evidence indicating the late official tried to defect or accidentally fell from the ship. It said the official didn’t tell his colleagues about any plan to defect and left most of his belongings like clothes and daily necessities on the ship.

Several bloody naval skirmishes and two deadly attacks blamed on North Korea have occurred in recent years at the countries' poorly marked western sea boundary. The government ship was near South Korea’s Yeonpyeong Island, which was hit by North Korean artillery in 2010, killing four people.

The incident is expected to worsen already frosty ties between the Koreas, whose exchanges and cooperation programs have virtually been halted. In June, North Korea blew up an inter-Korean liaison office to protest South Korean civilians sending leaflets against the North across the border.

Some experts said the government explanation that the official might have attempted to defect lacked evidence. They said the government may want to prevent strong anti-North Korean sentiment to keep alive chances for talks between the nations.

“A public servant defecting to North Korea? I think it sounds a bit strange as he has stable job security,” said Choi Kang, vice president of Seoul’s Asan Institute for Policy Studies. “Why did North Korea shoot a man defecting to the North voluntarily? I can also say the burning of his body was an attempt to conceal evidence.”

Moon's liberal government has faced criticism by conservatives that it sympathizes too much with North Korea and failed to respond strongly enough to the North’s past provocations, such as the destruction of the liaison office and crude insults against the South.

In 2008, North Korean soldiers fatally shot a visiting South Korean tourist who wandered into a restricted area at the North's scenic Diamond Mountain resort. South Korea’s then conservative government responded by suspending tours to the resort.

The opposition conservative People Power Party urged Moon’s government to take stern action. “The reason for the government’s existence is protecting its people and their property,” it said in a statement.

Defections of South Koreans to North Korea are highly unusual. More than 30,000 North Koreans have fled to South Korea in the past 20 years for political and economic reasons. In July, however, a North Korean defector slipped back into North Korea, prompting the North to impose a lockdown of a border city and declare a state of emergency over virus concerns.

China uproots ethnic minority villages in anti-poverty fight

September 22, 2020

CHENGBEI GAN’EN, China (AP) — Under a portrait of President Xi Jinping, Ashibusha sits in her freshly painted living room cradling her infant daughter beside a chair labeled a “gift from the government.”

The mother of three is among 6,600 members of the Yi ethnic minority who were moved out of 38 mountain villages in China’s southwest and into a newly built town in an anti-poverty initiative. Farmers who tended mountainside plots were assigned jobs at an apple plantation. Children who until then spoke only their own tongue, Nuosu, attend kindergarten in Mandarin, China’s official language.

“Everyone is together,” said Ashibusha, 26. While other nations invest in developing poor areas, Beijing doesn’t hesitate to operate on a more ambitious scale by moving communities wholesale and building new towns in its effort to modernize China. The ruling Communist Party has announced an official target of ending extreme poverty by the end of the year, ahead of the 100th anniversary of its founding in 2021.

The party says such initiatives have helped to lift millions of people out of poverty. But they can require drastic changes, sometimes uprooting whole communities. They fuel complaints the party is trying to erase cultures as it prods minorities to embrace the language and lifestyle of the Han, who make up more than 90% of China's population.

At a time when the party faces protests by students in China’s northern region of Inner Mongolia over plans to reduce the use of the Mongolian language in schools, officials want to show they are sensitive to minority cultures.

They invited reporters to visit Chengbei Gan’en and four other villages — Xujiashan, Qingshui, Daganyi and Xiaoshan — that are part of what authorities see as a successful development project for the Yi in Sichuan province's Liangshan prefecture.

The initiative is one of hundreds launched over the past four decades to spread prosperity from China’s thriving east to the countryside and west. Mass relocations still are carried out because some mountainous and other areas are too isolated, said Wang Sangui, president of the China Poverty Alleviation Research Institute of Renmin University in Beijing.

“It is impossible to solve the problem of absolute poverty without relocation," he said. In Sichuan, which includes some of China’s poorest areas, 80 billion yuan ($12 billion) has been spent to date to relocate 1.4 million people, according to Peng Qinghua, the provincial party secretary. He said that included building 370,000 new homes and over 110,000 kilometers (68,000 miles) of rural roads.

In Chengbei Gan’en, 420 million yuan ($60 million) was spent to build 1,440 apartments in 25 identical white buildings, a clinic, a kindergarten and a center for the elderly. Craftspeople sell silver jewelry, painted cow skulls and traditional clothing that are popular with Han tourists. Yi women can study to become nannies, a profession in demand in urban China, in classes taught with pink plastic dolls.

Roadside signs call on people to speak the official language. “Mandarin, please, after you enter kindergarten.” “Speak Mandarin well, it’s convenient for everyone.” “Everyone speaks Mandarin, flower of civilization blooms everywhere.”

Murals on buildings depict the Yi with members of the Han majority in amicable scenes. One shows a baby holding a heart emblazoned with the ruling party’s hammer-and-sickle symbol. In one village, Xujiashan, annual household income has risen from 1,750 yuan ($260) in 2014 to 11,000 yuan ($1,600), according to its deputy secretary, Zhang Lixin.

Development initiatives can lead to political tension because many have strategic goals such as strengthening control over minority areas by encouraging nomads to settle or diluting the local populace with outsiders.

In Inner Mongolia, students boycotted classes this month over plans to replace Mongolian-language textbooks with Chinese ones. The party faces similar complaints that it is suppressing local languages in Tibet and the Muslim region of Xinjiang in the northwest. Xinjiang's Han party secretary said in 2002 the language of the Uighurs, its most populous ethnic group, was “out of step with the 21st century” and should be abandoned in favor of Mandarin.

The party boss for Liangshan prefecture acknowledged its initiative isn’t purely economic. Authorities want to eliminate “outdated habits,” said the official, Lin Shucheng. He listed complaints about extravagant dowries, too many animals butchered for funerals and poor hygiene.

“We are fighting against traditional forces of habit,” he said. At the same time, ruling party officials say they are preserving Nuosu, a Yi language, through bilingual education in schools and government support for a Nuosu newspaper and TV show.

“We protect and promote the learning, use and development of the Yi language,” the provincial party secretary, Peng, told reporters. The party might be willing to promote Nuosu because, unlike in Tibet or Xinjiang, the Yi demand no political change, said Stevan Harrell, a University of Washington anthropologist who has spent more than three decades visiting and studying the region.

“There is no ‘splittism’ in Liangshan,” Harrell said, using the party’s term for activists who want more autonomy for Tibet and Xinjiang. “So it is kind of safe to have the Yi language as a medium of education,” said Harrell. “And it scores points for the government against those people who rightly point out that Uighur and Tibetan languages are being severely suppressed.”

The region, like the rest of China, reeled from the coronavirus outbreak, said Lin, the Liangshan party boss. But he said anti-poverty work was back on track and authorities were confident they could meet official deadlines.

Older villagers welcome the jump in living standards. “You can eat whatever you like now,” said Wang Deying, an 83-year-old grandmother of five. “Now even the pigs eat rice.”

AP researchers Yu Bing in Beijing and Chen Si in Shanghai contributed to this report.

Born to prevent war, UN at 75 faces a deeply polarized world

September 22, 2020

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United Nations marked its 75th anniversary Monday with its chief urging leaders of an increasingly polarized, go-it-alone world to work together and preserve the organization’s most important success since its founding: avoiding a military confrontation between the major global powers.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ appeal for a revival of multilateralism — the foundation of the United Nations — was echoed by leaders of countries large and small, rich and poor. But despite largely positive speeches, it was clear that challenges lie ahead in collaborating to beat back the coronavirus pandemic, end numerous smaller conflicts from the Middle East to Africa, and achieve U.N. goals to eradicate extreme poverty and preserve the environment by a 2030 target.

“Today, we have a surplus of multilateral challenges and a deficit of multilateral solutions,” the U.N. chief said, stressing that COVID-19 has “laid bare the world’s fragilities,” which can only be addressed together.

“Climate calamity looms, biodiversity is collapsing, poverty is rising, hatred is spreading, geopolitical tensions are escalating, nuclear weapons remain on hair-trigger alert,” Guterres said. Appealing for a new multilateralism that draws on civil society, cities, businesses, local authorities and young people, Guterres said “no one wants a world government — but we must work together to improve world governance.”

The United Nations marked its actual 75th anniversary — the charter's signing in San Francisco on June 26, 1945 — at a scaled-down event. Monday’s mainly virtual official commemoration was a sobering assessment of the state of the world, the impact of the 193-member world body over seven decades and the struggles ahead. Some leaders appeared in native dress and in unusual settings, adding some color to prerecorded speeches.

The commemoration was suspended with 58 countries waiting to speak, primarily because many leaders spoke far longer than the three minutes they were allotted. No date was set to hear the remaining speakers.

As a sign of the commemoration’s importance, heads of government like Chinese President Xi Jinping and French President Emmanuel Macron spoke. U.S. President Donald Trump was first on the list of 182 speakers, but he didn't offer remarks.

In a snub to the United Nations, the United States instead was represented by its acting deputy U.N. ambassador, Cherith Norman Chalet. The White House had no immediate comment. “In many ways, the United Nations has proven to be a successful experiment,” Chalet said. But for too long, she added, it has resisted “meaningful reform,” lacked transparency and been “too vulnerable to the agenda of autocratic regimes and dictatorships.”

China’s Xi urged U.N. members to recommit to multilateralism and “work to promote a community with a shared future for mankind.” “Unilateralism is a dead end,” he said. “No country has the right to dominate global affairs, control the destiny of others or keep advantages in development all to itself. Even less should one be allowed to do whatever it likes and be the hegemon, bully or boss of the world.”

Macron said the United Nations has remained true to its promises made three-quarters of a century ago: “To save future generations from the scourge of war, to assert human rights and the equality of nations, and to promote social progress in greater freedom.”

But he warned that “our common home is in disarray, just like our world.” “Faced with the health emergency, faced with the climate challenge, faced with the decline in rights," Macron said, “it is here and now that we have to act, with those who want to and with those who can, by exploiting all possible spaces for cooperation.”

Guterres and many others said the founding of the United Nations in 1945 and the commitment to cooperation after two world wars and the Holocaust produced results. “Never in modern history have we gone so many years without a military confrontation between the major powers,” the secretary-general said. “This is a major achievement of which member states can be proud — and which we must all strive to preserve.”

Guterres cited other major U.N. victories over 75 years: peace treaties, decolonization, setting human rights standards, the end of apartheid in South Africa, eradication of diseases, a reduction in hunger, development of international law and landmark pacts to protect the environment.

But 25 years after world leaders adopted a platform to achieve equality for women, he said “gender inequality remains the greatest single challenge to human rights around the world.” German Chancellor Angela Merkel stressed that “the United Nations can be only as effective as its members are united” and urged new efforts “to do everything in our power” to find common responses and end “the most intractable security issues,” including conflicts in Libya and Syria.

Guyana’s President Irfaan Mohamed Ali, the head of what’s called the Group of 77 and China — the main U.N. bloc of developing countries that now has 134 member states — said the commemoration “must send a strong and positive signal to the peoples of the world of our commitment to multilateralism and our resolve to strive for peace, justice and development.”

Echoing broader global concerns, the president of Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro Obiang, said, “There is no justification for the huge economic gap between rich and poor countries today.” Similarly, Seychelles President Danny Faure warned that issues like climate change know no borders.

“I assure you that the smallest, poorest and weakest of nations can contribute ideas as innovative ... as the biggest, wealthiest and most powerful countries,” Faure said. Diplomats from the U.N. member nations managed to agree after sometimes difficult negotiations on a declaration to mark the U.N.’s anniversary, which was adopted Monday. It recalls the body's successes and failures and vows to build a post-pandemic world that is more equal, works together and protects the planet.

Richard Gowan, U.N. director for the Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think tank, said the declaration was weakened by the U.S. opposing strong language on climate change and Britain and others objecting to China trying to insert language including its hallmark phrase, “win-win.”

President Xi used it Monday in speaking about “Cold War mentality,” declaring “what we need to do is to replace conflict with dialogue, coercion with consultation and zero-sum with win-win.” Gowan said the dispute over the declaration was minor but “captures the real question that has emerged over the U.N. in 2020, exacerbated by COVID, which is: How is this organization going to navigate an era of U.S.-China tension?”

Amid those questions, the U.N. released results of “a global conversation” it launched in January, using surveys, polls and gatherings to determine what all kinds of people thought about the future. Guterres said the U.N.'s 75th anniversary is an ideal time to realize goals that were expressed, including speeding up the transition to zero carbon emissions, ensuring universal health coverage and ending racial injustice.

“We face our own 1945 moment,” he said. “We must meet that moment. We must show unity like never before to overcome today’s emergency, get the world moving and working and prospering again.”

Cara Anna contributed to this report from Johannesburg and Angela Charlton from Paris.

Longtime international correspondent Edith M. Lederer has been chief U.N. correspondent for The Associated Press since 1998.

Belarus, backers seek to block speeches at UN rights body

September 18, 2020

GENEVA (AP) — A representative of Belarus, backed by Russia, China and Venezuela, tried and failed to limit speeches as the U.N.'s top human rights body held an urgent debate Friday on alleged rights violations by Belarusian authorities under President Alexander Lukashenko.

The president of the Human Rights Council put an end to the repeated interruptions of speakers by the four countries — which in essence argued a breach of procedural rules. Elisabeth Tichy-Fisslberger, the Austrian ambassador in Geneva, allowed speakers who included Lukashenko's main election challenger to continue decrying a string of alleged rights violations in Belarus.

“The council’s consideration of the recent events in Belarus is timely,” U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet said in remarks delivered by her deputy. “Peaceful mass demonstrations have continued to contest the declared result of last month’s presidential elections.”

“We are witnessing thousands of arrests. Hundreds of reports of torture and other ill-treatment, including sexual violence and the reported torture of children,” Bachlet's statement said, referring to a police crackdown on post-election protests as well as alleged actions from a decade ago. “Excellencies, it is vital for the future of Belarus to break these cycles of increasing repression and violence.”

In a dramatic conflict at the normally staid Human Rights Council, Belarus' ambassador, Yury Ambrazevich, took the floor to insist that allowing U.N. human rights advocates and other speakers to address the council violated the rules, arguing that only national envoys should be allowed to speak. The council president overrode the objections.

Seconds after the former English teacher who placed second to Lukashenko in the disputed presidential election said in a video message that peaceful protesters were being deliberately beaten and raped in Belarus and some “have been found dead,” Ambrazevich broke in briefly.

"We request that the intervention by Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya be stopped," the Belarusian ambassador said, referring to the opposition leader and her remarks. Council president Tichy-Fisslberger brushed off the appeal, and the former presidential candidate finished her statement.

Ambrazevich, in his more elaborate response, shot back, faulting the "mass media and social networks" for showing a “lopsided picture of reality presented by the losers in the elections.” “We deny the unfounded accusations of sexual violence against protesters. There is no official record of this. There is no confirmation also of claims that people disappeared in association with the protests,” he said. “As with regards to political detentions, this has not taken place. Some people have been taken into custody in compliance with the legal procedural code.”

The debate, during which several European Union countries spoke out in favor of the speakers and decried rights violations in Belarus, came as the 47-member-nation council prepared to vote on a resolution presented by Germany that raises concerns about torture, “arbitrary deprivations of life,” and sexual and gender-based violence linked to the Aug. 9 presidential election.

The resolution also cited alleged intimidation, harassment and detention of opponents of Lukashenko's government before and after the election. The autocratic Lukashenko, who has ruled the ex-Soviet republic for 26 years, was declared the winner, but opposition activists have challenged the election as rigged.

The European Union and the U.S. government have called the vote neither free nor fair and urged the government to enter a dialogue with the opposition as post-election protests continue. The German resolution wants Bachelet to look into recent violations and report back to the council by year-end. That would entail a relatively fast-track response for the often deliberate and slow-moving council.

Germany’s move suggested speed was among its priorities. The resolution stops short of seeking more onerous, in-depth measures in the council’s arsenal, such as deploying a fact-finding mission or assembling a panel of experts to examine the situation.

The text cites allegations of “torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment by law enforcement and prison officials.” It calls on Belarus authorities to “cease the use of excessive force against peaceful demonstrators” and stop arbitrary arrests on political grounds and release all political prisoners, journalists and others detained around the election cycle.

A resolution setting up the urgent debate was adopted Monday on a 25-2 vote with 20 abstentions. Many European nations voted in favor and many African nations abstained.

Quarantine ordered for 2,500 students at elite Swiss school

September 24, 2020

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — Swiss health authorities have ordered a quarantine for a staggering 2,500 students at a prestigious hospitality management school in the city of Lausanne after “significant outbreaks" of the coronavirus that are a suspected byproduct of off-campus partying.

Authorities in Switzerland's Vaud canton, or region, said all undergraduates at the Ecole Hoteliere de Lausanne, known as the Lausanne Hospitality Management University in English, have been ordered to quarantine both on- and off-campus because the number of COVID-19 outbreaks because targeted closures were not possible.

The World Health Organization, national health authorities and others have cautioned that young people, who tend to have milder COVID-19 symptoms than older demographic groups, have been a key driver for the continued spread of the coronavirus in recent weeks, particularly in Europe.

“Significant outbreaks of infection have appeared at several levels of training, making a more targeted closure impossible that that involving the 2,500 students affected,” the Vaud regional office said in a statement. “Until Sept. 28, the students must stay home. For some, that means not leaving their housing on the hospitality school site.”

It noted that an early investigation showed that “one or more parties was at the origin of these many outbreaks of infection,” and reiterated authorities previous call for a ”responsible attitude" among party-goers such as by wearing masks, tracing their contacts, keeping alert for symptoms, and “social distancing.”

School administrators were taking “all necessary measures” to ensure that classes were continuing online, the statement said. University spokesman Sherif Mamdouh said Thursday that the situation was “not ideal” but that the university took precautions in recent months. He said that 11 students had tested positive for the coronavirus and none required hospitalization.

Mamdouh said the quarantine affects 2,500 undergraduates. The university has a total student body of about 3,500, including people pursuing advanced degrees. He said hundreds of students living in on-campus dormitories on campus will be subject to the quarantine.

Switzerland is not alone. The latest government figures in neighboring France show that 22% of the country’s currently active virus clusters emerged at schools are universities. The United States has also seen clusters linked to college students.

World Health Organization spokeswoman Margaret Harris said that while it is “unfair to just put it on the young people,” it's also unsurprising that teenagers and young adults might assume they don't need to worry about succumbing to the virus.

“Perceptions do indicate that they don't feel they are as at-risk as older groups” Harris said, particularly in the wake of data showing younger people typically have less-severe cases of COVID-19. “The message they have heard is: ‘You are out of jail, go out and play,’" she said. “We don't want to be the fun police, but we want people to have fun safely.”

Keaten reported from Geneva.

French defense chief misled nation on troops' virus safety

September 23, 2020

PARIS (AP) — France’s defense minister admitted to misleading the nation about virus protections for air force personnel who evacuated French citizens from the Chinese city of Wuhan last winter, and have been suspected of links to France’s first confirmed COVID-19 cluster.

The revelation by Defense Minister Florence Parly to a Senate investigating committee is a further blow to the credibility of French President Emmanuel Macron's centrist government as it battles rebounding infections.

With more than 10% of France's intensive care units again occupied with COVID-19 patients and cases rising fast among the elderly, the health minister announced the closure of all restaurants, bars and public places in the hard-hit Marseille region and restrictions on gatherings in a dozen other cities. The French military announced Wednesday it is deploying medical teams and equipment to the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe to relieve hospital strain.

Health Minister Olivier Veran stopped short of imposing new lockdowns, stressing the government's mantra that the French need to learn to live with the virus. “We are doing everything not to go towards lockdown,” he said. But he urged people to resume working from home and stop gathering with groups of family and friends.

In “enhanced alert zones,” which include Paris as well as other big French cities such as Bordeaux, Lyon and Nice, he said starting Monday meetings in public spaces would be limited to 10 people and bars would have to close at 10 p.m.

With over 31,400 confirmed virus-related deaths, France has the third-highest death toll in Europe after Britain and Italy. France is now reporting about 10,000 new infections a day, and both houses of parliament are investigating the government's handling of the pandemic.

As China locked down the city of Wuhan in January, the French government started repatriation flights for French citizens there. One such flight returned to France from Wuhan on Jan. 31, operated by 18 military personnel based in Creil, in the Oise region north of Paris, the defense minister said.

In February, regional health authorities announced a virus cluster in the Oise region and the first cases in France with no clear link to cases in China or Italy. Within weeks, France’s coronavirus case count had skyrocketed and the nation was in a lockdown.

The defense minister told public broadcaster France-2 in March that all the military personnel on that evacuation flight “had been tested and confined” upon return. But doubts have since been raised about that version of events.

A senator from the Oise region, Olivier Paccaud, pressed Parly during a hearing Tuesday about exactly what happened with the military personnel at Creil. "Do you maintain that these personnel were tested and confined? Was there not negligence in the way the military personnel were handled on their return from Wuhan?” he asked. “The residents of the Oise want the truth.”

Parly responded: “I said something inexact March 4 on France-2.” “The crew was subjected to an extremely strict health protocol, but which, in fact, did not include tests," she said. She said there was “probably zero” chance that the air base was at fault for the Oise cluster, noting that regional health authorities later found a possible case that dated to Jan. 14, two weeks before the evacuation flight. She insisted that the air force personnel didn’t stay in Wuhan and had no direct contact with the evacuated passengers.

Health officials have said the virus was probably circulating widely in France earlier than authorities realized, because of limited testing and little knowledge about COVID-19 early in the year. But Parly's admission drew new questions about whether the government misled or withheld information from the public as the virus spread the first time around - and whether to trust it as the virus strengthens again.

Veran warned Wednesday that at the current rate of spread, COVID-19 patients will fill 60% of the Paris region's intensive care units within a month. It's crucial, he said, "to break the contamination chain, the viral dynamic, before our healthcare system gets to the point of system overload.”

UK defends its new virus strategy but experts are skeptical

September 23, 2020

LONDON (AP) — The British government on Wednesday defended its strategy for combating a second wave of COVID-19 cases amid criticism that its new slate of restrictions will not be enough to stop coronavirus from spreading exponentially.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson unveiled the new rules — including a 10 p.m. curfew on bars and restaurants, increased use of face masks and once again encouraging people to work from home — in a televised address Tuesday night.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab told the BBC that the government’s approach was proportionate and enough to slow the spread of the virus as long as everyone complies with the rules. “I think that it’s a balanced approach, it’s a targeted approach and, actually, one that can make sure that we preserve the health gains that we’ve made, prevent the virus expanding exponentially, but also keep businesses, livelihoods and society open,'' Raab said.

Yet many health experts said they did not think the government’s plan would be sufficient to stop the country's rapid rise in new COVID-19 infections. The government's top medical advisers warned this week that new cases were doubling every seven days. They said that could lead to nearly 50,000 new cases a day by mid-October and 200 deaths a day by early November if nothing was done to slow transmission of the virus.

John Edmunds, the dean of epidemiology and population health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said the measures announced Tuesday are very limited and won’t be enough to get the virus back under control. He compared it to the nationwide lockdown imposed in March that closed most businesses and forced most people to stay home.

"We will have let the epidemic double and double and double again" until we take those broader measures, Edmunds told the BBC. “And then we’ll have the worst of both worlds, because then to slow the epidemic and bring it back down again … will mean putting the breaks on the epidemic for a very long time, very hard.”

The other nations in the U.K. — Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland — also tightened restrictions Tuesday, going further than England in some cases. The new restrictions touched off further worry about the fate of Britain's economy, as previous furlough measures meant to protect jobs are due to expire. The prime minister told the House of Commons on Wednesday that the government will introduce “further creative and imaginative schemes to keep our economy moving.”

Treasury chief Rishi Sunak plans to update lawmakers Thursday on plans “to continue protecting jobs through the winter.” Case numbers continued to climb. The U.K. government said Wednesday it had recorded 6,178 new confirmed coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, one of the highest daily totals since the pandemic began.

“We are testing much more than we were earlier on in the outbreak and our local health protection teams are working with local councils and directors of public health to manage the increase,” said Yvonne Doyle, medical director at Public Health England.

Many scientists fear another round of the outbreak's earlier path, when the virus spread swiftly through the country, hitting nursing homes hard. The U.K. has reported 41,825 people dying within 28 days of testing positive, Europe's highest death toll, but experts say all such numbers undercount the true impact of the pandemic due to limited testing and missed cases.

“I think we haven’t learned from our mistake back then and we’re, unfortunately, about to repeat it,” Edmunds said.

Europe adopts tougher virus restrictions as infections surge

September 21, 2020

LONDON (AP) — As the U.S. closed in on 200,000 coronavirus deaths Monday, the crisis deteriorated across Europe, with Britain working to draw up new restrictions, Spain clamping down again in Madrid and the Czech Republic replacing its health minister with an epidemiologist because of a surge of infections.

The push to reimpose tough measures in Europe to beat back a scourge that had seemingly been brought under control in the spring contributed to a drop on Wall Street. The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed nearly 510 points, or 1.8%, and the S&P 500 fell 1.2%.

In Britain, Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to announce a round of restrictions Tuesday to slow the spread of the disease. British Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty warned that cases are doubling every seven days and could lead to a rise in deaths in the coming weeks.

The chief medical officers of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland raised the nation's COVID-19 alert Monday from three to four, the second-highest level. More than 4,300 new infections were reported on Monday, a level not seen since early May.

“We have, in a very bad sense, literally turned a corner,” after weeks of rising infections, Whitty said. In France, where infections reached a record high over the weekend with more than 13,000 new cases in 24 hours, health authorities opened new testing centers in the Paris region to reduce lines and delays. Italy added Paris and other parts of France to its COVID-19 blacklist, requiring travelers from those regions to show proof of a negative test or undergo testing on arrival.

And the Norwegian capital of Oslo banned gatherings of more than 10 people in private homes after a spike in cases and strongly urged people to wear face masks when traveling on public transportation amid a strike by bus drivers that forced many commuters to take the tram.

“The situation in Oslo is serious. This development must be stopped, and we have to do it now,” Mayor Raymond Johansen said. Police in the Spanish capital of Madrid and its surrounding towns began stopping people going in and out of working-class neighborhoods that have been partially locked down to combat Europe’s fastest coronavirus spread.

Authorities said that starting on Wednesday, an estimated 860,000 residents must be able to show that their trips out of their neighborhoods are justified for work, study or medical reasons or face fines. Parks are closed and shops and restaurants in the affected zones are limited to 50% occupancy.

The targeted locations have some of the highest transmission rates in Europe. The measure has been met with protests from people who think the restrictions are stigmatizing the poor. The German city of Munich, with one of the country's highest infection rates, will allow only up to five people or members of two households to meet, and will restrict private indoor gatherings such as birthday parties, weddings or funerals to no more than 25 people.

The Czech Republic also faces the possibility of new restrictions after the government appointed epidemiologist Roman Prymula as health minister. In the spring, the country recorded a relatively low number of COVID-19 cases and deaths compared with hard-hit Western European countries such as Italy, Spain and Britain.

But after the government lifted most of its restrictions over the summer, confirmed cases began making a comeback and reached a record high last week. On Thursday, the day-to-day increase of new cases was higher than 3,000, almost the same number it was in the entire month of March.

Prymula said over the weekend that the loosening of restrictions was done too quickly. Elsewhere, the U.S. was on the verge of hitting 200,000 deaths, with health authorities deeply worried about the resumption of school and college and the onset of cold weather, which will force more people indoors. A widely cited model from the University of Washington predicts the U.S. death toll will double to 400,000 by the end of the year.

India recorded nearly 87,000 new coronavirus infections in the past 24 hours. The nation of 1.3 billion people now has over 5.4 million reported cases, and within weeks is expected to surpass the U.S., which has 6.8 million reported cases. Nevertheless, the Taj Mahal reopened to tourists for the time in six months, though visitors will have wear masks and undergo temperature screening.

Myanmar’s biggest city, Yangon, began its first day under a tightened lockdown because of a rise in cases. Only essential businesses can remain open. But there were glimmers of good news: All virus restrictions are being lifted across much of New Zealand with the exception of Auckland, the largest city. Health authorities reported no new infections on Monday, and the number of active cases was put at 62. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said officials have “reasonable confidence we are on the right track.”

And in Africa, the surge in cases has been leveling off after the continent's 54 countries joined an alliance praised as responding better than some richer countries, including the U.S. Over 33,000 deaths have been confirmed on the continent of 1.3 billion people.

Corbet reported from Paris. Associated Press writers Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin; Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark; Karel Janicek in Prague; Aritz Parra in Madrid; Nicole Winfield in Rome; and Tammy Webber in Fenton, Michigan, contributed to this report.

Europe scrambles to contain rise in coronavirus cases

September 21, 2020

BERLIN (AP) — Political pressure grew Monday for European governments to tackle the rising number of coronavirus case without resorting to a spring-style lockdown that would hit the continent's struggling economies.

Data released by the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control showed five countries in the region with more than 120 confirmed cases per 100,000 inhabitants in the last 14 days. Spain was ranked top of the grim table, with almost all of its regions colored crimson on a map that also showed swathes of dark red spreading across southern France, the Czech Republic, Croatia and Romania.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez met Monday with the president of the Madrid region, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, to coordinate a stronger response to the outbreaks as the country struggles to contain a second wave of the virus.

Díaz Ayuso, who heads a center-right coalition, has been one of the leading critics of the left-leaning central government even as her own administration has been blamed for not putting enough resources into primary care or contact tracers to identify possible new sources of contagion in the capital.

Madrid's rate of infection of 683 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in the past two weeks is nearly three times higher than the national average. Police in the Spanish capital and its surrounding towns began stopping people coming in and out of working-class neighborhoods that have seen 14-day transmission rates above 1,000 per 100,000 inhabitants. The measure has been met with protests from people who think the restrictions stigmatize the poor.

Some 860,000 residents are affected by the new restrictions, having to justify their trips out of their neighborhoods for work, study or medical reasons. Parks are closed and shops and restaurants must limit their occupancy to 50% in the affected zones.

Authorities say those unable to justify their trips will face fines starting Wednesday. COVID-19 has killed at least 30,000 people in Spain since the start of the outbreak, according to the country’s health ministry.

In the Czech Republic, Health Minister Adam Vojtech resigned Monday amid a record rise of coronavirus infections, saying his move should create space for a new approach to the pandemic. The central European country coped well with the first infection wave in the spring but has now faced a record surge. On Thursday it recorded more than 3,000 new cases, almost the same number as it did in all of March.

The Czech Republic has had a total of 49,290 infected with 503 deaths since the start of the pandemic. Neighboring Poland is also seeing a spike in new cases that experts link to the return to schools and offices, with a record 1,002 reported Saturday, and almost 750 Monday.

Britain’s chief medical officer Chris Whitty and chief scientific officer Patrick Vallance warned Monday that infection rates in the country are going in the “wrong direction’’ and the U.K. faces a challenging winter.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson huddled with ministers over the weekend to discuss the government’s reaction. Analysts expect the government to announce a slate of short-term restrictions that will act as a “circuit breaker” to slow the spread of the disease.

While death rates in Britain have remained relatively low recently, with a seven-day average of 21 deaths a day last week compared with a peak of 942 on April 10, public health officials warn that deaths are likely to rise.

There is particular concern that infections, currently affecting mainly working-age people, could creep back into the vulnerable elderly population and lead to a spike in deaths. French health authorities have started opening new testing centers in the Paris region to try to reduce queues and delays as the number of virus infections steadily increases.

In total, 20 new testing centers were scheduled to open in the French capital and its suburbs this week. Patricia Sakoun, whose son tested positive, came to one of the new centers in Paris hoping to quickly get a test for herself.

“I just told them I am sick, I need results quickly and they told me that the results will be ready in seven days,” she told The Associated Press. All people in France are allowed to get the test for free, whether they have symptoms or not.

Infections in France reached a new record-high this weekend with over 13,000 new cases in 24 hours. There have been at least 31,285 deaths in the country since the start of the pandemic — one of the highest death tolls in Europe.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel met Monday with members of her “Coronavirus Cabinet” to discuss measures aimed at preventing a second wave. The governor of Bavaria, Markus Soeder, warned conditions could worsen as temperatures drop in the coming weeks and people spend more time indoors.

The state capital, Munich, imposed local restrictions starting Thursday to rein in its galloping infection rates, including limiting the number of people allowed to meet in public to five or members of two households, and capping private indoor gatherings such as birthday parties, weddings or funerals at 25 people.

“We have to drastically reduce the number of people getting together,” Mayor Dieter Reiter said, criticizing the fact that many in Munich no longer adhere to social distancing rules. The city recorded 56 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in the past week.

While Germany as a whole has seen a smaller rise in new infections than many other European countries, Health Minister Jens Spahn cautioned that the spikes seen in neighboring nations would likely affect the German case numbers too.

The government plans soon to offer quicker tests and open dedicated walk-in “fever clinics” to separate patients with COVID-like symptoms from others. Spahn warned that weddings, bars, clubs, religious and family gatherings have emerged as the main sites where the virus is spread.

“The virus is the spoilsport, not us,” he said.

Aritz Parra in Madrid, Danica Kirka in London, Geir Moulson and Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin, Sylvia Corbet in Paris, Monika Scislowka in Warsaw, Poland, and Karel Janicek in Prague contributed to this report.

Sweden spared surge of virus cases but many questions remain

September 20, 2020

STOCKHOLM (AP) — A train pulls into the Odenplan subway station in central Stockholm, where morning commuters without masks get off or board before settling in to read their smartphones. Whether on trains or trams, in supermarkets or shopping malls — places where face masks are commonly worn in much of the world — Swedes go about their lives without them.

When most of Europe locked down their populations early in the pandemic by closing schools, restaurants, gyms and even borders, Swedes kept enjoying many freedoms. The relatively low-key strategy captured the world's attention, but at the same time it coincided with a per capita death rate that was much higher than in other Nordic countries.

Now, as infection numbers surge again in much of Europe, the country of 10 million people has some of the lowest numbers of new coronavirus cases -- and only 14 virus patients in intensive care. Whether Sweden’s strategy is succeeding, however, is still very uncertain.

Its health authorities, and in particular chief epidemiologist Dr. Anders Tegnell, keep repeating a familiar warning: It’s too early to tell, and all countries are in a different phase of the pandemic.

That has not stopped a World Health Organization Europe official from saying the continent could learn broader lessons from Sweden that could help the virus battle elsewhere. “We must recognize that Sweden, at the moment, has avoided the increase that has been seen in some of the other countries in western Europe,” WHO Europe’s senior emergency officer, Catherine Smallwood, said Thursday. “I think there are lessons for that. We will be very keen on working and hearing more from the Swedish approach.”

According to the European Center for Disease Control, Sweden has reported 30.3 new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in the last 14 days, compared with 292.2 in Spain, 172.1 in France, 61.8 in the U.K. and 69.2 in Denmark, all of which imposed strict lockdowns early in the pandemic.

Overall, Sweden has 88,237 reported infections and 5,864 fatalities from the virus, or 57.5 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants since the beginning of the crisis. The way Sweden's strategy was viewed outside the country seems to depend largely on what stage of the pandemic the observer was experiencing at the time. Initially, many abroad were incredulous at images of Swedes dining with friends in restaurants or sipping cocktails on the Stockholm waterfront. Some were envious that Swedish businesses were not forced to close.

Then came shock as the virus ripped through the country's nursing homes and hospices. By mid-April, more than 100 deaths were reported each day in Sweden, while mortality rates were falling elsewhere in Europe.

Today, as fears of a second wave grow across Europe, it's fashionable to praise Sweden, with reporters from France, the U.K. and elsewhere traveling to Stockholm to ask about its success. But a Swedish government commission investigating the handling of the pandemic will, undoubtedly, have hard questions to answer: Did authorities wait too long to limit access to nursing homes, where about half of the deaths occurred? Were they too slow to provide personal protective equipment to staff in those homes when shortcomings in the elderly care sector had long been known? Why did it take so long to set up wide-scale testing?

Tegnell also refuses to rule out a second wave of coronavirus infections in Sweden. A particular concern is the return of students to high schools for the first time since March. “We need to be very careful and find the first sign that something is going on so that we can do as much as possible to prevent it from escalating,” he told The Associated Press.

Localized outbreaks are expected, but rather than fight them with nationwide rules, officials plan to use targeted actions based on testing, contact-tracing and isolating patients rapidly. “It’s very important that we have quick and local response to hit down the virus without making restrictions for the whole country,” Health Minister Lena Hallengren said last week.

From the beginning, health officials argued that Sweden was pursuing a sustainable approach toward the virus that the population could adopt — for years, if necessary. “This is a marathon, not a sprint,” became a slogan repeated by ministers at every opportunity, given that neither a vaccine nor a cure yet exist.

While the rest of the world watched with envy at the freedoms that Swedes enjoyed amid lockdowns elsewhere, there were not as many as people have assumed. Gatherings were capped at 50, and congregating at bars was banned.

Most of the changes involved voluntary actions by citizens, rather than rules imposed by the government. This trust given to the population to shoulder personal responsibility in the pandemic puts Sweden at odds with most other countries that used coercive measures such as fines to force compliance.

This is often attributed to a Swedish model of governance, where large public authorities comprised of experts develop and recommend measures that the smaller ministries are expected to follow. In other words, the people trust the experts and scientists to develop reasonable policies, and the government trusts the people to follow the guidelines.

Swedes were asked to work from home when possible and maintain a social distance, and most willingly complied. While people now ride public transportation without masks, there are also far fewer people commuting than before.

Unlike most European countries that have mandated wearing face masks in public spaces, Sweden does not recommend their broad use, and people largely follow that recommendation. Health officials say face masks used outside health care facilities by untrained personnel can provide a false sense of safety that could see sick people leave home and ignore social distancing. Instead, they believe simple but nonnegotiable guidelines provide clear rules that can stay in place for long periods of time: staying home when showing symptoms of COVID-19, maintaining good hand hygiene and keeping social distancing.

In a country the size of California with only a quarter of that state's population of 41 million, and with low levels of transmission, most Swedes believe wearing masks makes little sense. Carol Rosengard, 61, who runs a center for disabled youth, has seen people wear masks improperly or take them off to smoke a cigarette or drink water.

“That's not how they should be handled,” Rosengard said, explaining her support for not imposing face mask rules on the population. That view is echoed by Hallengren, the health minister, who doesn’t totally dismiss the effectiveness of masks and sees their usefulness in cases of severe local outbreaks. At the same time, she rejects blanket rules for the entire country.

"People will not wear masks for years,” she said.

Associated Press reporters Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark, and Vanessa Gera in Warsaw, Poland, contributed.

Coronavirus pandemic shrinks Europe's monitoring of US vote

September 18, 2020

(AP) Europe's largest security organization said Friday that it has drastically scaled back plans to send as many as 500 observers to the U.S. to monitor the Nov. 3 presidential election and now will deploy just 30 because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe — which has observed U.S. elections since 2002 but is better known for monitoring voting in countries such as Belarus or Kyrgyzstan — has spent months trying to figure out how to safely keep tabs on an election it worries will be “the most challenging in recent decades” as Americans pick a president in the throes of a global health crisis.

The use of mail-in voting is expected to increase in many states this year, with voters seeing that as a safer alternative to casting ballots in-person during the pandemic. Although President Donald Trump has claimed that an increase in mail ballots could lead to a rigged election, there has been no evidence of widespread fraud involving voting by mail in the U.S.

The OSCE's mission originally was to have involved 100 long-term and 400 short-term observers to the U.S. starting this month, but health concerns and restrictions on travel prompted the Vienna-based organization to pare that back to 30 observers, spokesperson Katya Andrusz told The Associated Press.

Suddenly, what was going to be Europe's largest-scale U.S. election monitoring effort ever has become one of its smallest. The OSCE sent 49 observers for the 2018 midterms and about 400 for the 2016 presidential election.

“While we had planned to send a full-fledged election observation mission, the safety fears as well as continuing travel restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic are creating challenges,” Andrusz said in an email. The 30 are expected to head to the U.S. early next month and will stay through Nov. 3, she said, adding that none of the observers is from Russia.

Last March, the U.S. mission to the OSCE had requested observers, as all countries belonging to the group, including Russia, are obligated to do. The organization’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights has deployed monitors for U.S. voting since the 2002 midterm elections — the first since the 2000 presidential election recount that left the outcome unclear for weeks, raising questions among America’s allies about the integrity of its electoral politics.

Typically, the organization sends a small delegation months before an election to do a “needs assessment,” but that was conducted remotely in early June “due to the global health emergency and restrictions on cross-border travel,” officials said.

The European security group also has publicly criticized the Electoral College system in the U.S., saying it “does not provide for equality of vote" like a popular vote would do. Even if observers were granted access, many U.S. states don't allow them, and others leave it to the discretion of local elections officials. Only California, Missouri, New Mexico and Washington, D.C., expressly allow international monitors.

Calls have been mounting for extra scrutiny of November’s election — and not just with domestic observers, as the Carter Center intends to do. “The United States touts itself as the democratic model that nations around the world should emulate. But if America really wants to be the exemplar of democracy, then it should prove its elections are, in fact, free and fair, and let the world watch,” The Boston Globe said in an editorial last month.

In a July report expressing concern about the U.S. vote, the OSCE said the 400 short-term observers would include some who would be focused solely on media coverage in the days and hours leading up to the vote. It was unclear Friday whether the trimmed-down “limited observation mission” would include a media monitoring element.

“In an atmosphere of increased polarization, and accusations from all political sides on potential voter fraud and mistrust in the election process and results, the presence of external observers to assess the process will be highly valuable, adding an important layer of transparency," it said.

Timothy Rich, a professor of political science at Western Kentucky University, contends that “ensuring fair elections is an essential component of American democracy.” “International monitors have shown they can provide an effective means to reduce public concerns about fraud and voter suppression,” Rich wrote in a recent commentary for The Conversation.

EU says Belarus president's inauguration will deepen crisis

September 24, 2020

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union said Thursday that the swearing in of Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko to a sixth term during a secretive ceremony lacks democratic legitimacy, defies the will of the Belarusian people and will only deepen the country’s political crisis.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell reiterated that the 27-nation bloc did not recognize the result of the Aug. 9 election that kept Lukashenko in power after 26 years and said that “on this basis, the so-called ‘inauguration’...and the new mandate claimed by (him) lack any democratic legitimacy.”

Thousands of Belarus citizens have taken part in more than six weeks of rallies against the authoritarian leader’s reelection, which the opposition says was rigged. “This ‘inauguration’ directly contradicts the will of large parts of the Belarusian population, as expressed in numerous, unprecedented and peaceful protests since the elections, and serves to only further deepen the political crisis in Belarus,” Borrell said in a statement.

Lukashenko was sworn in Wednesday at an inaugural ceremony that was not announced in advance. Police and other security forces blocked off parts of the city and public transportation was suspended.

Borrell underlined the EU’s belief that “Belarusian citizens deserve the right to be represented by those they freely choose through new inclusive, transparent and credible elections,” He praised their courage.

On Monday, EU foreign ministers failed to impose sanctions on Belarus officials suspected of election fraud or of playing a part in a brutal security crackdown on the post-election protests, despite appeals from Lukashenko’s main opponent to take courageous action against his regime.

Cyprus continues to block the sanctions move until similar measures are slapped on Turkey for its disputed energy exploration in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. EU leaders will try to break the deadlock when they meet in Brussels on Oct. 1.

In an email statement to The Associated Press on Thursday, Danish Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod said “Lukashenko does not belong in a presidential palace. He belongs on the EU sanctions list.” “The secrecy surrounding his inauguration ceremony just illustrates that he has not been sworn in based on free and fair elections, but on election fraud and violence,” Kofod said.

Emergency tents, restrictions back as virus spikes in Madrid

September 18, 2020

MADRID (AP) — Many residents in Madrid will need a reason to leave their neighborhoods and will face limitations on group gatherings even stricter than the ones in place as authorities moved Friday to try to rein in Europe's fastest-spreading second coronavirus wave.

The long-awaited restrictions affect around 860,000 people, or 13% of the region's 6.6 million residents, in areas where one of every four new virus infections are being detected, regional chief Isabel Díaz Ayuso announced at a news conference.

The areas are also the poorest, more densely populated, and have a prevalent virus incidence above 1,000 cases per 100,000 for the past 14 days. The same rate for the whole of Europe, including the U.K., stood at 76, according to the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control, or ECDC.

The Madrid region’s deputy health chief had said earlier this week that the stricter restrictions would be “selective lockdowns,” but Díaz Ayuso said Friday that she wanted to avoid any mandatory stay-at-home orders.

“We need to avoid economic disaster,” she said. “It's not the time to confine all citizens, but rather to apply measures in areas we have perfectly identified.” Under the new rules, parks will be closed, shops and restaurants will need to work at 50% of their capacity and residents will need to justify that they are on their way to work, study or see a doctor in order to leave the targeted areas. Nearly 1 million quick antigen tests will also be performed, authorities said.

The Spanish capital's rate of transmission is more than double the national average, which already leads European contagion charts. On Friday, it reported more than 5,100 new infections for the city and its surrounding area, 200 more than the day before. The region's hospitals were treating 2,907 people (17% of the total hospital capacity) including nearly 400 in intensive care units, or 41% of those beds.

As yet another sign of how, slowly but steadily, beds are being taken up by COVID-19 patients, a line of green empty tents labelled with red crosses stood empty on Friday at the gates of Madrid's Gómez Ulla military hospital.

Spain’s Defense Ministry said that the tents were installed “protectively” to triage patients and avoid overcrowded emergency wards. Over 640,000 people have tested positive for the new virus in Spain, more than in any other European country, and at least 30,400 have died since the beginning of the pandemic, according to the Health Ministry’s official data.

In the capital, despite curbs on nightlife, outdoor smoking and limiting all group interaction to a maximum of 10 people — and to six starting from Monday — COVID-19 cases have continued stubbornly on the rise. The incremental measures haven't prevented the outbreaks from spreading widely, something that experts blame on looser observance of self-protection and, especially, a failure in diligent tracing of contacts of positive cases.

Some experts warned that more action was needed. “They are overthinking it. Action is needed," said Daniel López Acuña, who was director of emergencies at the World Health Organization, adding that the measures were “tardy and insufficient."

Rafael Bengoa, another former WHO official, said that with widespread community transmission, "is possible that very soon a full lockdown will be needed.” “It seems like we are learning too slow — we haven’t acted energetically enough,” Bengoa told Cadena SER radio.

The center-right coalition government in Madrid has been in turmoil, part internal infighting and part external criticism, as it struggled this week on what to do next. Díaz Ayuso has also been one of the biggest critics of the response to the pandemic by the national government, a left-wing coalition led by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.

Her government recovered control to handle the response in late June, once the central government lifted a state of emergency that had reined in a devastating first wave of the virus. But since then, Díaz Ayuso had been complaining that Sánchez's government wasn't helping enough.

After weeks exchanging blame for inaction, Sánchez and Díaz Ayuso have agreed to meet Monday with the only goal of “bending the curve,” both governments announced Friday. Part of the concern is Madrid’s capacity to spread infections to other parts of the country. Home to 3.3 million people in its urban area and as many more in its surrounding region, the city is also Spain’s economic powerhouse. It’s also centrally located at the heart of the Iberian Peninsula, bringing in workers from nearby provinces and visitors from elsewhere.

But so far it’s health centers that are shouldering the worst of the crisis. Famously underfunded for years, primary care doctors and nurses are now also performing thousands of virus tests per day, and have taken the burden of tracing contacts of those who come out as positive.

That’s causing increasingly longer delays in providing test results, leaving people like Raquel López, a 39-year-old sociologist on her 21st week of pregnancy, in self-imposed home isolation for five days as she waited to find out whether she had the virus.

Raquel, who took the test on Monday after finding out that a family she spent time with a week earlier had contracted the virus, was finally told on Friday that she’s negative. For days, nobody picked up the phone at her local health center, she said.

“But it could had been either way,” said López, who works from home. “My husband and I have been responsible and we haven’t gone out while waiting for the results, but what happens with people who can’t afford to miss work? Are they going to wait at home or go out there possibly infecting others?”

López lives in Vallecas, one of the working class neighborhoods where the new restrictions will be imposed from Monday. She’s angry at officials who promote the idea that people in impoverished areas are to blame for not using masks, keeping social distancing or completing quarantines.

“That’s not true. We are doing it the same way as the rest of Madrid,” she said. “The truth is that citizens are behaving much better than politicians.”

AP photographer Manu Fernández contributed to this report.

Virus clusters at French universities give Europe a lesson

September 18, 2020

PARIS (AP) — Can mandatory masks offer enough protection in lecture halls so packed that late arrivals have to sit on the floor? That's what worries many students at the centuries-old Sorbonne University in Paris as the coronavirus is on the rebound across France.

At least a dozen COVID-19 clusters have emerged since French campuses and classrooms opened this month. The clutches of cases are a warning sign for countries elsewhere in Europe, where most universities are readying to resume teaching and research in coming weeks.

“We go back to university in conditions that are a bit extreme, and we fear we might get COVID-19,” Elise Gilbert, 20, who is studying literature at the Sorbonne, said of the overcrowding students encountered.

France's experience so far stands in contrast to what's happening in Britain, where virus-driven changes on campuses mean university life will look a lot different this term. Germany and Italy are also adapting their delivery of higher education in response to the pandemic.

The French government was determined to get people back to classrooms to bridge education inequities that the pandemic has exacerbated. The government also urged workers to return to offices and job sites to resuscitate the economy and to "learn to live with the virus."

At universities, the main change this year is mandatory mask-wearing at all times. But keeping physical distances appears impossible in many places. Some students are raising their grievances on Twitter, using the hashtag #Balancetafac (“Squeal on your uni”) to share pictures of packed classrooms and corridors.

They describe situations where there's no soap to wash their hands and where rooms, sometimes with no windows to provide fresh air, are not being disinfected between lectures. “We are doing our best to respect social distancing, but sometimes we can’t,” Corentin Renoult, a 20-year-old Sorbonne journalism student, said.

Nevertheless, the Sorbonne is maintaining in-person classes for the time being. “It’s quite hard at the moment because we haven’t got any extra means," Franziska Heimburger, assistant director of the university’s English department, said. ".We don’t have any more teachers, we don’t have any more space, so we basically have to teach as best we can.”

Heimburger said instructors won't penalize students for pandemic-related absences. “I’ve had students who live with their grandparents and they are worried of taking (the virus) back home with them,” she said.

Many students also expressed anger when French authorities appeared to blame the country's recent virus outbreaks mostly on students attending parties. One factor in the overcrowding is more students are attending French universities. The number of students enrolled jumped by 270,000 to 2.8 million after the exam which allows high school students access to universities was canceled due to the pandemic. Students were instead granted access based on school grades, and many more qualified than usual.

The safety precautions differ broadly among schools. Some have strict public health measures in place, with small class size limits and a mix of in-person and online classes. But others have had to temporarily shut down after dozens of students tested positive in multiple sites, from engineering to medical and business schools. They moved teaching online, as when the country was locked down at the height of its epidemic which has killed some 31,000 people in France.

In the UK, most universities do not begin their fall terms until late September or early October, and are readying big changes. At the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, where the fall semester began Monday, many classes are being taught online — other than laboratory sessions or other practical instruction where hands-on learning is essential. Student societies are barred from meeting in person, and many students arriving from overseas will have to quarantine for two weeks in line with government protocols.

At University College London, only a quarter of the buildings will be occupied at one time. Teaching spaces will incorporate social distancing and everyone must wear face-masks. The university created an app for students to alert authorities if they have symptoms and plans to test up to 1,000 students and staff a day to keep the campus safe.

“I’ve got a public health expert team that are advising me when it’s appropriate to extend testing beyond those that are immediately symptomatic,'' Michael Arthur, the president and provost at UCL. “So I think we’re reasonably confident if we do have an outbreak — and I’m sure we will have, we’re just playing with statistics — that we can move in and contain it very rapidly.”

Student housing has been adapted to allow those who test positive to self-isolate. In Germany, most universities won't start lectures before next month, and they have introduced numerous rules to ensure distancing, increased hygiene and bans on students’ parties. They are also expanding online teaching.

Student associations in the Dutch university city of Delft sent a letter this week calling on students to “take responsibility” for reining in infections that are spreading quickly, particularly in student housing.

“The initiative is with students to prevent a local lockdown,” the associations said. “It’s not too late, but time is pressing.” Many Italian universities are reopening with distance learning this fall. Priority for physical classrooms was being given to first-year students, to aid their transition.

In the United States, dozens of universities have emerged as virus hot spots. Although students are being spaced apart in classrooms and dining halls, the virus has continued to spread in cramped dorm halls and through off-campus parties that have been blamed for thousands of cases.

The surge has prompted some universities to send students home and cancel in-person instruction for the rest of the term. U.S. officials are urging against that approach, saying it could spark outbreaks elsewhere. Instead, universities are being urged to keep students where they are and temporarily move classes online.

Danica Kirka in London, Jeff Schaeffer and Alex Turnbull in Paris, Frank Jordans in Berlin, Michael Corder in The Hague and Collin Binkley in Boston contributed.

EU fails to agree Belarus sanctions despite opposition plea

September 21, 2020

BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union foreign ministers failed on Monday to impose sanctions on Belarus officials suspected of election fraud or of playing a part in the security crackdown, despite appeals from President Alexander Lukashenko’s main opponent to take courageous action against his regime.

With pro-democracy rallies in Belarus now in their seventh week, the EU ministers were weighing whether to impose asset freezes and travel bans on around 40 people linked to irregularities in the Aug. 9 elections that gave Lukashenko a sixth term in office, and over the crackdown that followed.

Several countries want Lukashenko on the sanction list, but some would prefer to gradually ramp up pressure on him by adding names, including his, if he refuses to enter into dialogue with the opposition, rather than hit everyone at once.

Cyprus, notably, continued to block the sanctions move until similar measures are slapped on Turkey for its disputed energy exploration in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. EU leaders are now expected to try to break the deadlock when they meet in Brussels on Thursday.

“Although there is a clear will to adopt those sanctions, it has not been possible to do that today because the required unanimity was not reached,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told reporters after chairing the ministers’ meeting. “Cyprus is missing to give us unanimity."

Borrell said that the EU’s ability to forge a common foreign policy among 27 countries is on the line over the sanctions. “If we are not able to do that, then I understand perfectly that our credibility is at stake,” he said.

Even before the meeting began, Cypriot Foreign Minister Nikos Christodoulides said that the EU’s “reaction to any kind of violation of our core basic values and principles cannot be a la carte. It needs to be consistent.”

However, Borrell said that the ministers were united in their rejection of the results of the Aug. 9 election that swept Lukashenko back into office after 26 years in power and want to see new polls held under the guidance of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

“We are stressing our solidarity with the people of Belarus, their democratic aspirations and their call for a new free and fair elections under the OSCE’s supervision,” he said. He underlined that the EU has no “hidden agenda” in Belarus and he urged other countries not to interfere.

At talks over breakfast before the meeting started, Lukashenko’s main opponent, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, appealed to the ministers for their support and for the EU to call for fresh elections in Belarus.

“We did a lot to manage with this situation by ourselves, with only the strength of the Belarusian people, but now I understand that we need exterior help,” Tsikhanouskaya said, speaking in English. She is living in exile in EU member Lithuania after fleeing Belarus in fear for her safety and that of her children.

She urged Europe not to provide financial support to the regime, saying “it will only go for violence, for killing Belarusian people.” Tsikhanouskaya said “sanctions are very important in our fight” to help pressure the government and that while she understood that some European countries are reluctant to impose sanctions, she said that “at this meeting, I asked just to be more brave .”

Samuel Petrequin in Brussels and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report.

2 dead, 1 missing after storm pounds central Greece

September 19, 2020

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Two people have died and one is reported missing in central Greece region of Thessaly after a storm pounded parts of the country overnight and caused flooding. Authorities identified the two victims as an elderly woman found dead in her flooded home and a 63-year-old shepherd who was swept by rising flood waters.

They said a woman who ignored firefighter and police instructions not to drive into an area where a bridge spans a river is missing. The country’s firefighting service said early Saturday that it had fielded almost 2,500 calls from trapped residents in central and western Greece or about removing fallen trees that were blocking roads or had caused property damage. The service reported rescuing more than 600 people.

Greece’s train operator, Trainose, said service linking southern and northern Greece was suspended. Water from a river that burst its banks damaged at least two bridges and several buildings, including the local health center in the Thessaly town of Mouzaki, which has collapsed. Parts of the stricken area are without electricity.

France seeks EU sanctions on Turkey over energy tensions

September 18, 2020

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — France on Friday backed Cyprus' calls for the European Union to consider imposing tougher sanctions on Turkey if the Turkish government won't suspend its search for energy reserves in eastern Mediterranean waters where Cyprus and Greece claim exclusive economic rights.

French Minister for European Affairs Clement Beaune said sanctions should be among the options the 27-member bloc considers employing if Turkey continues to “endanger the security and sovereignty of a member state.”

“We believe that the European Union must be ready to activate...all available tools and certainly to resort to sanctions, if developments don't proceed in a positive direction," Beaune said after talks with Cypriot Foreign Minister Nikos Christodoulides in Nicosia.

EU leaders are set to hold a summit in a few days to discuss how to respond to Turkey's refusal to recall a warship-escorted research vessel it dispatched to a part of the eastern Mediterranean that Greece maintains is over its continental shelf. The dispute has ratcheted up military tensions between the two NATO allies.

The tensions appeared to ease in the last week, with Greek and Turkish officials having contact after Turkey temporarily pulled back the research vessel. But Ankara extended its gas search in waters southeast of Cyprus until mid-October.

Turkey doesn’t recognize ethnically divided Cyprus as a state and insists it have every right to prospect for hydrocarbons in the eastern Mediterranean. It has vowed vowed do defend its rightful claims to the region’s energy reserves, as well as those of breakaway Turkish Cypriots.

Cypriot officials insist the EU shouldn't set a “double standard" by imposing sanctions against Belarus for alleged voter fraud and police brutality while avoiding doing so when Turkey carries on its exploration at the expense of EU members.

Beaune said the EU cannot accept Turkish actions and that France has “committed" to resolving the issue while making its military presence felt in the eastern Mediterranean in support of its EU partners.

Migrants stranded at sea as powerful storm batters Greece

 September 18, 2020

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — A boat carrying dozens of migrants was stranded at sea Friday as hurricane-force winds and heavy rain battered the western coast of Greece, causing power outages and road closures.

Coast guard officials said due to the high winds, rescue boats were so far unable to approach the vessel believed to be carrying more than 50 migrants south of Greece's Peloponnese region. A powerful tropical-like storm named Ianos battered the western islands of Zakynthos, Kefalonia, and Ithaki overnight, causing flash flooding, property damage, power outages, and road closures mostly from downed trees, police and local authorities said. No injuries were reported. The storm, with winds exceeding 110 kilometers per hour (70 miles per hour), reached the western mainland Friday. Computer models suggested that the storm would not directly affect Athens but heavy rainfall was also expected in the Greek capital. Schools and stores were closed, and ferry services were suspended in many areas in western Greece as authorities advised residents to remain indoors.

"We are expecting the storm to progress with the same intensity for the six to nine hours in western Greece and then, weakened, see it head southward,” Civil Protection chief Nikos Hardalias said. “But areas that are not directly affected ... will see a large volume of water with heavy rainfall.”