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The United Nations, the European Union and the United States welcomed the release and exchange of prisoners in eastern Ukraine, which has been torn by a 6-year-old armed conflict.The U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he remained hopeful this “humanitarian action” ahead of Orthodox Easter “will serve as a positive step toward more progress, including a permanent cease-fire,” his spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.“Further disengagement of forces and unimpeded humanitarian access across the contact line is expected as part of ongoing peace efforts of international actors,” added Dujarric.Guterres urged all parties engaged in the conflict “to take further measures in order to enable progress” in the implementation of peace agreements.“Full implementation of the Minsk agreements is the only way to reach a sustainable and peaceful solution to the conflict in eastern Ukraine,” said Peter Stano, lead spokesperson for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy of the EU.“Russia and the armed formations that it backs must also ensure freedom of movement across the contact line for the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission” and other humanitarian actors, including the International Committee of the Red Cross, to reach all those still in detention, the statement reads.The EU also reaffirmed its strong support for Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity.Foreign ministers of France and Germany said in a joint statement that the release and exchange of prisoners related to the conflict in eastern Ukraine “represents significant progress” for the implementation of the Minsk agreements, and the conclusions of the summit in Paris on December 9, 2019, “with respect to upholding the cease-fire, mine clearance, the opening of new crossing points and the identification of new disengagement zones.”In a Twitter message, the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine welcomed the move and commended the country’s government on its “continued efforts to achieve a diplomatic solution to the Russia-instigated conflict in Ukraine.”It is also called on Russia “to immediately release all other Ukrainians who remain unjustly imprisoned and fully withdraw its forces from Ukrainian territory.”Thursday’s prisoner exchange was the third since Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was elected in a landslide last year on promises to end the conflict in eastern Ukraine, which began in 2014. More than 14,000 people have been killed, and it has heightened tensions between Russia and the West.
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China’s coronavirus crisis is expected to have tipped its economy into its first decline since at least 1992, data is set to show on Friday, raising pressure on authorities to prop up growth as mounting job losses threaten social stability.Beijing has succeeded in getting large parts of the economy up and running from a standstill in February, but analysts say policymakers face an uphill battle to revive growth as the coronavirus pandemic ravages demand at home and abroad.Analysts polled by Reuters expect gross domestic product (GDP) to have shrunk 6.5 percent in January-March from a year earlier. That would reverse a 6 percent expansion in the previous quarter and mark the first decline since at least 1992, when official quarterly gross domestic product (GDP) records started.China releases first-quarter GDP data at 0200 GMT on Friday, along with March factory output, retail sales and fixed-asset investment.Analysts at Nomura said they expected Beijing to deliver a stimulus package in the near-term, which could be financed by the central bank through various channels.“However, unlike previous easing cycles, when most of the new credit went to finance spending on infrastructure, property and consumer durable goods, this time we expect most of the new credit to be used on financial relief to help enterprises, banks and households survive the COVID-19 crisis,” they said in a note.For 2020, analysts polled by Reuters expected China’s economic growth to slow sharply to 2.5 percent from 6.1 percent in 2019, which would be the weakest clip since 1976, the final year of the decade-long Cultural Revolution that wrecked the economy.The pandemic has infected more than 2 million globally and killed more than 140,000. China, where the virus first emerged, has reported more than 3,300 deaths, although new infections have dropped significantly from their peak.In this April 12, 2020, photo, a Chinese couple walks past a worker wiping window panels at a clothing shop in Beijing.As China moves to ease travel restrictions and reopen factories, similar lockdowns now in effect in other major economies hit by the virus have significantly darkened the outlook for global demand.The world economy is expected to shrink 3 percent during 2020 in what would mark the steepest downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s, the International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday.The IMF expects China’s economy to grow just 1.2 percent in 2020, before rebounding by 9.2 percent in 2021.Uphill battleBeijing is scrambling to fend off mass job losses that could threaten social stability, while also keeping growing debt and financial risks under control.The global uncertainty has made it harder for Chinese leaders to set an economic growth target for 2020, given that the initial goal of around 6 percent now looks well out of reach, policy insiders said.Top policymakers are now likely to set a lower target lower than the initial one, ahead of the annual parliament meeting, they said.The meeting was originally scheduled for March 5 but was postponed due to the outbreak. No new date has been announced though sources have previously said it could be late April or early May.Sources have told Reuters that China is set to unleash trillions of yuan of fiscal stimulus to revive the economy, and the central bank will dole out more easing steps.On Wednesday, the central bank cut the interest rate on its medium-term lending facility by 20 basis points, paving the way for a similar cut in the benchmark lending rate on April 20. 
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Amid the coronavirus pandemic, the U.S. government has a three-stage prescription for restarting normal life in America.”We’re opening up our great country again,” announced President Donald Trump at a coronavirus task force briefing on Thursday where the guidelines were unveiled. “We’re going to be very vigilant and very careful.”A 14-day downward trajectory in COVID-19 cases and widespread coronavirus and antibody testing for hospital workers are suggested for individual states before beginning the phased restart of economies that are convulsing because of the highly infectious virus.In the first phase, schools and bars would remain closed. But places of worship, restaurants, movie theaters, gyms and sports arenas could reopen with strict physical distancing. Hospitals could perform elective surgeries.In Phase 2, schools could reopen, and nonessential travel could resume, but most employees would be encouraged to continue to telework.The third phase recommends “unrestricted staffing of work sites,” but would see the medically vulnerable resuming public interactions, with them practicing physical distancing unless they take precautionary measures.The Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, speaks about the coronavirus in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House, April 16, 2020.The medical members on the White House’s coronavirus task force — infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci, task force coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx and Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — endorsed the plan.The driving element for the plan was “the safety and health of the American public,” Fauci said. Trump previewed the plan earlier Thursday on a videoconference call with governors of the 50 U.S. states, telling them, “You’re going to call your own shots” on the economy’s reopening. Earlier in the week, in response to a VOA question during a White House briefing, Trump declared he “calls the shots” on such decisions. Amid some fierce bipartisan criticism that the president has no such powers over states, he backed away from his assertion of total authority. “We did not put a timeline on any of the phases,” Birx said, explaining that would be left up to state governors.”Not every state, not every region, is going to do it at the same time,” Fauci emphasized.Trump expressed optimism that as many as 29 states were ready to enter Phase 1 immediately.The president has made no secret of his impatience to revitalize the country’s economy as quickly as possible, with commerce and industry at their lowest levels of activity since the era of the Great Depression nearly a century ago.Over the past month, more than 20 million people in the United States have filed for unemployment benefits.”There’s death, and there are problems in staying at home, too,” Trump said Thursday.Many health experts, business leaders and governors have been hesitant to quickly end social distancing, concerned that lifting the restrictions without widespread COVID-19 testing poses serious health risks.Trump acknowledged there could be flare-ups, and if that occurs, “we’ll be able to suppress it, whack it.”Decisions by statesSeven U.S. states in the Northeast have extended their shutdowns until May 15.”What happens after that, I don’t know. We will see, depending on what the data says,” New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, whose state has been the hardest hit in the United States, told a news briefing on Thursday before the White House outlined its proposal.A person walks by a closed business in New York City, April 16, 2020. New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo announced during his daily COVID-19 briefing that the “New York State on PAUSE” order will be extended until May 15.Governors of seven U.S. Midwestern states announced on Thursday a consortium of their own to coordinate a regional response.Three governors from the West Coast have formed a similar effort on reopening their economies. Last week, Los Angeles, the second most populous city in the U.S., extended its restrictions to May 15. The District of Columbia, home of the federal government, did the same on Wednesday.The governor of the Midwestern state of Ohio tweeted Thursday, “I am an optimist and am confident that Ohioans will also live up to the challenge of doing things differently as we open back up beginning on May 1st.”I am an optimist and am confident that Ohioans will also live up to the challenge of doing things differently as we open back up beginning on May 1st.— Governor Mike DeWine (@GovMikeDeWine) April 16, 2020The number of COVID-19 deaths recorded in the United States on Wednesday rose by 2,500, a second consecutive daily record. The U.S. death toll in the global pandemic exceeds 32,000, higher than any other country has reported.The virus has also taken a toll on Trump’s job approval ratings. According to the latest Gallup poll, his public support stands at 43%.”The six-point decline in the president’s approval rating is the sharpest drop Gallup has recorded for the Trump presidency so far, largely because Trump’s ratings have been highly stable and have yet to reach the historical average for presidents (back to 1945) of 53%,” according to the pollster.
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Brian Dennehy, the burly actor who started in films as a macho heavy and later in his career won plaudits for his stage work in plays by William Shakespeare, Anton Chekhov, Eugene O’Neill and Arthur Miller, has died. He was 81. Dennehy died Wednesday night of natural causes in New Haven, Connecticut, according to Kate Cafaro of ICM Partners, the actor’s representatives. Known for his broad frame, booming voice and ability to play good guys and bad guys with equal aplomb, Dennehy won two Tony Awards, a Golden Globe and was nominated for six Emmys. He was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 2010. Actor called ‘a colossus’Tributes came from Hollywood and Broadway, including from Lin-Manuel Miranda, who said he saw Dennehy twice onstage and called the actor “a colossus.” Actor Michael McKean said Dennehy was “brilliant and versatile, a powerhouse actor and a very nice man as well.” Dana Delany, who appeared in a movie with Dennehy, said: “They don’t make his kind anymore.” Among his 40-odd films, he played a sheriff who jailed Rambo in “First Blood,” a serial killer in “To Catch a Killer,” and a corrupt sheriff gunned down by Kevin Kline in “Silverado.” He also had some benign roles: the bartender who consoles Dudley Moore in “10” and the levelheaded leader of aliens in “Cocoon” and its sequel. Eventually Dennehy wearied of the studio life. “Movies used to be fun,” he observed in an interview. “They took care of you, first-class. Those days are gone.” Dennehy had a long connection with Chicago’s Goodman Theater, which had a reputation for heavy drama. He appeared in Bertolt Brecht’s “Galileo” in 1986 and later Chekhov’s “Cherry Orchard” at far lower salaries than he earned in Hollywood. In 1990 he played the role of Hickey in Eugene O’Neill’s “The Iceman Cometh,” a play he reprised at the Goodman with Nathan Lane in 2012 and in Brooklyn in 2013. Played Willy LomanIn 1998, Dennehy appeared on Broadway in the classic role of Willy Loman, the worn-out hustler in Miller’s “Death of a Salesman” and won the Tony for his performance.  “What this actor goes for is close to an everyman quality, with a grand emotional expansiveness that matches his monumental physique,” wrote Ben Brantley in his review of the play for The New York Times. “Yet these emotions ring so unerringly true that Mr. Dennehy seems to kidnap you by force, trapping you inside Willy’s psyche.” He was awarded another Tony in 2003 for his role in O’Neill’s “Long Day’s Journey into Night.” At the podium, after thanking his family, co-stars and producers and complementing his competitors, he said: “The words of Eugene O’Neill — they’ve got to be heard. They’ve got to be heard, and heard and heard. And thank you so much for giving us the chance to enunciate them.” Started acting at age 14Dennehy was born July 9, 1938, in Bridgeport, Connecticut, the first of three sons. His venture into acting began when he was 14 in New York City and a student at a Brooklyn high school. He acted the title role in “Macbeth.” He played football on a scholarship at Columbia University, and he served five years in the U.S. Marines. Back in New York City in 1965, he pursued acting while working at side jobs. “I learned first-hand how a truck driver lives, what a bartender does, how a salesman thinks,” he told The New York Times in 1989. “I had to make a life inside those jobs, not just pretend.” His parents — Ed Dennehy, an editor for The Associated Press in New York, and Hannah Dennehy, a nurse — could never understand why his son chose to act. “Anyone raised in a first or second generation immigrant family knows that you are expected to advance the ball down the field,” Dennehy told Columbia College Today in 1999. “Acting didn’t qualify in any way.” First movie was ‘Semi-Tough’The 6-foot-3-inch Dennehy went to Hollywood for his first movie, “Semi-Tough” starring Burt Reynolds and Kris Kristofferson. Dennehy was paid $10,000 a week for 10 week’s work, which he thought “looked like it was all the money in the world.” Among his films: “Looking for Mr. Goodbar,” “Foul Play,” “Little Miss Marker,” “Split Image,” “Gorky Park,” “Legal Eagles,” “Miles from Home,” “Return to Snowy River,” “Presumed Innocent,” “Romeo and Juliet” and “Assault on Precinct 13.” He played the father of Chris Farley’s titular character in the 1995 comedy “Tommy Boy.” He played serial murderer John Wayne Gacy in the 1991 TV movie “To Catch a Killer” and union leader Jackie Presser in the HBO special “Teamster Boss” a year later. “I try to play villains as if they’re good guys and good guys as if they’re villains,” he said in 1992 He worked deep into his 70s, in such projects as SundanceTV’s “Hap and Leonard,” the film “The Seagull” with Elisabeth Moss and Annette Bening and the play “Endgame” by Samuel Beckett at the Long Wharf Theatre. His last foray on Broadway was in “Love Letters” opposite Mia Farrow in 2014.He is survived by his second wife, costume designer Jennifer Arnott and their two children, Cormac and Sarah. He also is survived by three daughters — Elizabeth, Kathleen and Deirdre — from a previous marriage to Judith Scheff. 
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Facebook will soon let you know if you saw or interacted with dangerous coronavirus misinformation on the site.  The new notice will be sent to users who have liked, reacted to or commented on posts featuring harmful or false claims about COVID-19 after the posts have been removed by moderators. The alert, which will start appearing on Facebook in the coming weeks, will direct users to a site where the World Health Organization lists and debunks virus myths and rumors. The latest move is part of an unprecedented effort by Facebook, Google and Twitter that includes stricter rules, altered algorithms and thousands of fact checks to contain an outbreak of bad information online that’s spreading as quickly as the virus itself.  Challenges remain. Tech platforms have sent home human moderators who police the platforms, forcing them to rely on automated systems to take down harmful content. They are also up against people’s mistrust of authoritative sources of information, such as the WHO.  “Through this crisis, one of my top priorities is making sure that you see accurate and authoritative information across all of our apps,” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote on his Facebook page Thursday. 40 million warning labelsThe company disclosed Thursday that in March it put more than 40 million warning labels over videos, posts or articles about the coronavirus that fact-checking organizations have determined are false or misleading. The number includes duplicate claims.  Facebook says those warning labels have stopped 95% of users from viewing the bad information.  “It’s a big indicator that people are trusting the fact checkers,” said Baybars Orsek, the director of the International Fact-Checking Network. “The label has an impact on people’s information consumption.”  But Orsek cautioned that the data Facebook provided should be reviewed by outside editors or experts, and called on the historically secretive company to release regular updates about the impact of its fact-checking initiative.  Orsek’s organization is a nonprofit that certifies news organizations as fact checkers, a requirement to produce fact-checking articles for Facebook. Facebook has recruited dozens of news organizations around the globe to fact-check bad information on its site. The Associated Press is part of that program.  Get the FactsFacebook will also begin promoting the articles that debunk COVID-19 misinformation, of which there are thousands, on a new information center called “Get the Facts.” Putting trustworthy information in front of people can be just as useful, if not more, than simply debunking falsehoods. Still, conspiracy theories, claims about unverified treatments, and misinformation about coronavirus vaccines continue to pop up on the site daily — sometimes circumventing the safeguards Facebook has implemented.  Facebook users, for example, viewed a false claim that the virus is destroyed by chlorine dioxide nearly 200,000 times, estimates a new study out Thursday from Avaaz, a left-leaning advocacy group that tracks and researches online misinformation.  The group found more than 100 pieces of misinformation about the coronavirus on Facebook, viewed millions of times even after the claims had been marked as false or misleading by fact checkers. Other false claims were not labeled as misinformation, despite being declared by fact checkers as false.  “Coronavirus misinformation content mutates and spreads faster than Facebook’s current system can track it,” Avaaz said in its report.  This is especially problematic for Italian and Spanish misinformation, the report said, because Facebook has been slower to issue warning labels on posts that aren’t in English. Avaaz also noted that it can take as long as 22 days for Facebook to label misinformation as such — giving it plenty of time to spread. Facebook did not immediately comment on the Avaaz report on Thursday. False claims about coronavirus treatments have been deadly.  Last month, Iranian media reported more than 300 people had died and 1,000 were sickened in the country after ingesting methanol, a toxic alcohol rumored to be a remedy through private social media messages.  
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A Catholic priest was charged in Kenyan court on Thursday with spreading the coronavirus, the second person to face such charges in Kenya.Kenya, which has 234 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and 11 deaths, has banned all public gatherings, limited the number of mourners at funerals, imposed a daily curfew and restricted movement in and out of four regions most affected.Catholic priest Richard Onyango Oduor was charged with having “negligently spread an infectious disease” after authorities said he failed to adhere to coronavirus quarantine rules following a visit to Italy.He denied the charges in a Nairobi court, and was freed on a 150,000 Kenyan shilling ($1,415) bond. He was ordered to spend another 14 days in quarantine and reappear in court on May 2.Archbishop Anthony Muheria, in charge of the Catholic dioceses of Nyeri and Kitui, told Reuters he could not comment on the case, and it was up to the authorities to determine whether the priest was at fault.Last week, another court charged Gideon Saburi, the deputy governor of the coastal region of Kilifi County, with spreading the coronavirus by going out in public without taking precautions. He also denied the charges as was freed on bond while being ordered to self-quarantine.Some African countries have had trouble persuading citizens to comply with restrictions imposed to curb the virus.Kenyan media have been awash with stories of people trying to circumvent restrictions, holding parties in their houses and parks due to bar closures. A lawmaker was arrested for holding a party at a restaurant in the capital on Easter weekend.Last week, some Botswana lawmakers were put in supervised quarantine after failing to observe an instruction to self-isolate. All of the country’s parliamentarians and President Mokgweetsi Masisi were asked to quarantine for 14 days after a health worker screening them tested positive.In South Africa, President Cyril Ramaphosa last week put its communications minister on leave for two months, one of which will be unpaid, for breaking the rules of a countrywide lockdown and having lunch with a former official. 
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In these dark times, clouded by fears of an enemy we can’t see and sheltered in homes we’re itching to leave, it’s reassuring to know that California’s sunsets over the Pacific are just as vivid. You just can’t enjoy them with sand between your toes.
Most beaches and virtually every other destination in California are closed because of the coronavirus outbreak. Though the outlook has improved, Gov. Gavin Newsom has written off the possibility of a typical summer. It could be one where you travel on the internet, have your temperature checked before being seated in a half-empty restaurant and worry about tan lines from your face mask.  
While it’s uncertain when life as we knew it will return, it’s clear this summer will be like no other.  
Newsom’s sobering message this week has foreshadowed warm days without large outdoor concerts, rides at amusement parks or trips to the coast.
His so-called road map to reopen the economy won’t have anyone packing their car for a trip on the open highway. It felt more like a chart of the stars that need to align before restrictions could ease.  
“There is no light switch here,” the Democratic governor said. “I would argue it is more like a dimmer.”  
California is trying to keep the virus from spreading further and stretching hospitals like it has in New York and Italy. Schools are closed, many businesses — including bars and dine-in restaurants — are shuttered, large gatherings are banned, and popular hiking trails and beaches are largely off-limits.
Hopes for a night under the stars at a Dodgers game in Los Angeles have faded. Dreams of eating funnel cake and watching pig races at the state fair in Sacramento evaporated. Visions of sunning on beaches and riding the waves vanished.  
To begin gradually loosening restrictions in place for about a month, Newsom said there must be widespread COVID-19 testing, which has already proved problematic. Public health officials also would have to chase down everyone exposed to someone infected with the virus. That’s no small task in the nation’s most populous state, with 40 million people spread across 750 miles (1,200 kilometers).
Any broad reopening would depend on a vaccine that could be more than a year away and evidence of “herd immunity,” meaning a sufficiently high percentage of people won’t get infected.  
For those who stayed home, observed social distancing and otherwise followed the rules, Newsom’s message sounded like something Californians can’t envision in summer: a rainy day. And this could last all season.  
“From the sound of it, it’s going to be a really dreary summer,” said Molly Rood, who usually heads to Hermosa Beach with a book after work or rides her bike or skateboard. “The governor didn’t outright say, ‘Hey, you guys aren’t going to the beach this summer.’ But he said pretty explicitly no mass gatherings will be likely in June, July, August. You put that together — no mass gatherings means no beach, because the beach has hundreds of people on it at once.”  
The feel of summer arrives early in California — a characteristic of the climate. Yosemite Falls is roaring, but the national park is closed and no tourists are there to be drenched in its mist.
The Coachella Music Festival would have kicked off a season of big outdoor concerts last weekend in the desert near Palm Springs. But that show and Napa Valley’s Memorial Day weekend festival BottleRock were postponed until October. San Francisco Pride, a massive LGBTQ gathering held each June, has been canceled.
There’s also no camping at state and national parks from the redwoods to the desert for the foreseeable future.  
Baseball would already be in play at five major league ballparks from San Diego to San Francisco. Now that season — and all other pro sports — are in jeopardy.
For David Brady, summertime is about being outdoors — hiking, biking, running or taking a stroll. And it means catching a baseball game at Angel Stadium in Anaheim.
“The absence of baseball right now is really palpable, because it’s April and every team has hope in April,” said Brady, a public policy professor at University of California, Riverside. And now, “no team has hope.”  
Before the pandemic came to California, the governor ordered people to stay home and face coverings were ubiquitous, Linda York had big plans for the summer.
The South San Jose resident looked forward to her son’s wedding in Maui, her aunt’s 100th birthday in Canada and an annual trip to see her mother-in-law in Michigan.  
She isn’t certain any of it will go forward after watching Newsom’s news conference Tuesday and feeling “major depression and disappointment.” She’s not sure she wants to get on a plane the rest of 2020.
“I was thinking he was going to say something a little more positive,” she said. “I almost feel like this year’s going to be a wash.”
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China on Thursday denied allegations in a U.S. State Department report that it was secretly testing nuclear weapons in violation of its international obligations.  Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told reporters at a daily briefing that the allegations about Chinese nuclear testing in the department’s Nuclear Compliance Reportwere “totally unfounded countercharges that confuse right and wrong.”  “China has always performed its international obligations and commitments in a responsible manner, firmly upheld multilateralism, and actively carried out international cooperation,” Zhao said. “The U.S. accusation against China is made of thin air, which is totally unfounded and not worth refuting.”  The 2020 Compliance Reportissued Wednesday accused China of failing to adhere to its non-proliferation commitments and suspend nuclear testing by maintaining a “high level of activity” last year at its Lop Nur test site in the far northwestern region of Xinjiang.  China has pledged not to test nuclear weapons, but like the U.S. and several other nations has yet to ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. China is an acknowledged nuclear power but claims it possesses only a fraction of the number of weapons maintained by the U.S. and Russia.  Zhao on Thursday pointed to the U.S. withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty and other agreements as grounds for discounting Washington’s accusations.  China, in contrast, has “made important contributions to upholding the international arms control and non-proliferation regime, as well as safeguarding international peace and security,” Zhao said.  He also said the U.S. had yet to destroy its stock of chemical weapons and was continuously bolstering its armed forces in a manner that “undermines the global strategic balance and stability and obstructed the process of international arms control and disarmament.”  “So, it is not qualified to be a judge or referee in this regard,” Zhao said.  
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Tanzania has canceled this year’s April 26 national holiday celebration commemorating the 1964 merger of Tanganyika and Zanzibar to become Tanzania as the country’s coronavirus tally rises.Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa said the Union Day observance was called off because of the pandemic.Majaliwa said President John Magufuli is redirecting the $217,000 set aside for the holiday celebrations to go toward fighting the coronavirus in the country.Meanwhile, the government’s 30-day order closing schools and universities and banning public gatherings is to expire Friday.Tanzania’s coronavirus tally rose to 53 on Wednesday, with four more people testing positive and three deaths reported.
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Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega appeared on Wednesday in a live broadcast on national television after being absent from public life for a month, raising questions about his health and whereabouts as the world reels from the novel coronavirus.Ortega, a 74-year-old former leftist guerrilla with chronic illnesses, gave no explanation for his 33-day absence but said that the Central American country is dealing with the coronavirus outbreak responsibly.”We have not stopped working, because if the people do not work, they die,” said Ortega. “We are a country of working people, people that will not die of hunger.”Ortega’s health has been a closely guarded secret and his absence from public life led to speculation about it.Over the years, Ortega has suffered two heart attacks and developed high cholesterol and other ailments, an official told Reuters last week. Since then, the president has been increasingly protective of his health, the official said.Now in his second stint as president after orchestrating a constitutional change to allow for reelections, Ortega said that Nicaragua has the lowest number of coronavirus infections, registering only nine cases and one fatality.”We have the capacity to attend to coronavirus patients,” Ortega said.Public health experts have questioned the accuracy of the official figures and urged the government to report how many people have been tested for the coronavirus.Nicaragua is one of the few countries that does not have social distancing measures, does not prohibit mass gatherings and has not canceled school and university classes as recommended by the World Health Organization. 
  
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Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and U.S. billionaire Bill Gates have joined the chorus of those expressing concern about U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to suspend U.S. funding for the World Health Organization.Carter, a Democrat, issued a statement Wednesday saying the United Nations agency “is the only international organization capable of leading the effort to control this virus.” He said he was “distressed” by the decision to withhold critically needed U.S. funding during an international epidemic.Gates, who is a major funder of the WHO, said the decision was “as dangerous as it sounds.”A man wears a mask to protect himself against the spread of the new coronavirus as he donates food for poor families in Turano favela, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, April 15, 2020.The United Nations and many leaders have criticized Trump’s timing for cutting the funds when they are most needed.The U.S. is the world’s largest contributor to the WHO, with its more than $400 million contribution in 2019, amounting to about 15 percent of the organization’s budget.Trump accused the Geneva-based organization Tuesday of failing to obtain independent reports about the coronavirus originating from China’s central city of Wuhan and relying instead on China’s official reports. Beijing officials initially tried to downplay the dangers of the new strain of coronavirus. Trump said the funding will be suspended pending an investigation into the WHO’s handling of the outbreak.The United States is now the worst-hit country with more than 637,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases as of Wednesday evening, out of more than 2 million infected people worldwide, according to the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center. Critics have blamed Trump for waiting too long to act, and some say he is now looking to shift the blame to China and the WHO.Returning to normalMeanwhile, all eyes are on coronavirus daily tolls as leaders try to determine how soon people’s lives can return to normal. Denmark is the first European country to reopen its schools, but students are seated at a distance from one another and have to follow a strict hygienic protocol. Several other European countries are planning to reopen schools and businesses in the coming weeks.The U.S. president is eager to restart the economy as soon as possible, but health officials and many state governors agree that the hoped-for date of May 1 would be too soon and could lead to a new wave of infections.California Governor Gavin Newsom said he would consider lifting lockdown orders only when the number of hospitalizations declines for at least two weeks. He also wants more widespread testing so officials have a better ability to track and isolate those who are infected, and he wants more protective gear for health care workers.The economy is a big worry for all, especially after the IMF said Tuesday that the world would be hit this year by the worst economic depression since 1930.Leaders of the G-20 industrialized nations have decided to put a partial moratorium on debt payments this year from the world’s developing countries. Many of them are in Africa, where the coronavirus has not spread as much as in Europe and the United States. But the number of new cases is creeping up, forcing leaders to impose protective measures.Workers in full protective gear disinfect the casket of a coronavirus victim at the Fontaine funeral home during a partial lockdown to prevent the spread of the disease in Charleroi, Belgium, April 15, 2020.Russian President Vladimir Putin announced Wednesday that small and medium-size companies in his country would receive financial aid of $162 per employee if they had preserved at least 90 percent of staff as of April 1.In New Zealand, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced she and other top officials were voluntarily cutting their salaries by 20 percent in a symbolic move acknowledging the country’s economic hardships in response to the outbreak.The British Home Office reported Wednesday that border police had found more than $1.25 million worth of cocaine in a shipment of protective masks in a truck at the Channel Tunnel. 
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U.S. President Donald Trump is threatening to adjourn Congress because lawmakers have not approved his candidates for senior posts in his administration, including his nominee to run the independent agency overseeing the Voice of America. “I have very strong power,” Trump declared Wednesday, referencing language in the second article of the U.S. Constitution that allows a president “on extraordinary occasions” to adjourn either or both chambers of Congress. “The Senate should either fulfill its duty and vote on my nominees or it should formally adjourn so I can make recess appointments,” Trump said. “We have a tremendous number of people that have to come into government. And now more so than ever before because of the virus and the problem.”  The Constitution requires nominees to a number of senior administration posts to be confirmed by a majority vote in the Senate. However, on occasions when Congress is not in session, the president may make a “recess appointment,” which expires if the candidate has not been confirmed by the end of the next full session. No president has ever exercised the specific authority to dissolve Congress in FILE – USAGM CEO nominee Michael Pack at his confirmation hearing, Sept. 19, 2019.Documentary filmmaker Michael Pack, whom Trump has selected to run the U.S. Agency for Global Media, is one of 15 key nominees awaiting confirmation by the Senate. Trump cited Pack by name (but erroneously identified the body he would head as USAGM’s predecessor agency, the Broadcasting Board of Governors). The president also noted his nominees for director of national intelligence, two members of the Federal Reserve Board and the undersecretary of agriculture responsible for administering food security programs as among those yet to be confirmed. Trump blamed the delay on Democrats, accusing the opposition party of “a concerted effort to make life difficult.” “The current practice of leaving town while conducting phony pro-forma sessions is a dereliction of duty that the American people cannot afford during this crisis,” the president said. “What they do, it’s a scam and everybody knows it.” Pack’s nomination has “been stuck in committee for two years, preventing us from managing the Voice of America — very important,” the president said. “And if you heard what’s coming out of the Voice of America, it’s disgusting. The things they say are disgusting toward our country. And Michael Pack would get in and do a great job, but he’s been waiting for two years — can’t get him approved.”  VOA respondsVOA management, in a response Wednesday evening, rejected Trump’s criticism. “For more than 75 years VOA has followed its mission of telling America’s story overseas and of bringing objective, fact-based information to places around the world that have no other access to it. As we have long said, we export the First Amendment,” said VOA Director Amanda Bennett in a prepared statement. FILE – VOA contributor Greta Van Susteren interviews President Donald Trump in Singapore, Aug 12, 2018. (White House photo by Shealah Craighead)“I believe in that mission. And, judging from the way our audiences are surging to us seeking information they can rely on in this coronavirus crisis, the world believes in our mission. It’s hard work, and it’s important work, perhaps more than ever before.”  In a subsequent email to VOA’s employees, Bennett added: “We have a lot of work to do. It’s hard work and it’s important work. Let’s not get distracted from the job in front of us.” Bennett was appointed to her position in the previous administration of Barack Obama and has been in the post for four years — a relatively long tenure for a VOA director. The veteran journalist and Pulitzer Prize recipient is the agency’s 29th director in 75 years. The White House launched an attack on VOA last week, which The New York Times termed “a bizarre broadside.”  China coverage at issueTrump’s social media director, Dan Scavino Jr., said American taxpayers were paying for China’s “very own propaganda, via the U.S. Government funded Voice of America.” As an example, he cited a posting on VOA’s Twitter account of an Associated Press video. The video showed a light show in Wuhan marking last week’s reopening of the city where COVID-19 was first detected.  Hours later, the White House, in its digital “1600 Daily,” accused VOA of creating graphics “with Communist government statistics to compare China’s coronavirus death toll to America’s.” In fact, VOA uses a widely respected tally by Johns Hopkins University to track coronavirus cases and deaths around the world. “V.O.A. too often speaks for America’s adversaries — not its citizens,” the White House  post read. The New York Times remarked that “the charges hurled at the 75-year-old broadcaster seemed so overheated that some readers worried that hackers had infiltrated the White House’s networks.” Bennett responded to last week’s criticism with a prepared statement noting that VOA is “thoroughly covering China’s disinformation and misinformation in English and Mandarin and at the same time reporting factually.” She added that VOA “has thoroughly debunked much of the information coming from the Chinese government and government-controlled media.” Pack, if confirmed, would take over from Grant Turner, who is serving as the USAGM CEO on an interim basis, following the resignation of John Lansing, who was an Obama appointee. Lansing was selected last September by the corporate board of National Public Radio to become NPR’s CEO.
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More than a decade of Boko Haram militant attacks have displaced over two million Nigerians in the north, with hundreds of thousands living in internally displaced people’s camps.  Medical experts worry the camps lack the spacing and sanitary conditions to prevent an outbreak of coronavirus, which has so far infected more than 370 people in Nigeria and killed 10.  Ifiok Ettang reports from Jos, Nigeria. 
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China has begun the second phase of clinical trials for a COVID-19 vaccine with 500 volunteer participants recruited from Wuhan, the initial epicenter of the outbreak, according to state media.It is the first Phase 2 human test for a COVID-19 vaccine in the global race to find a cure for the pandemic, the official Xinhua News Agency said Tuesday.China completed its Phase 1 trial at the end of March with 108 volunteers.  All of them reportedly have been released from medical observation and are in good health.While the first phase focused on the vaccine’s safety, the second phase inoculates many more people to determine how effective it is in protecting against infection. The trial reportedly started last Sunday by a research team led by Chen Wei, a virologist in China’s military.Video released by China’s state broadcaster CCTV Wednesday showed an 84-year-old man in Wuhan receiving a vaccination Monday, becoming the oldest volunteer in the Phase 2 trial.Unlike the Phase 1 trial, which had a maximum age of 60, Phase 2 has no age limit.  Because elderly patients have the highest death rates, this trial is trying to determine what the antibody response is in the elderly compared with the young. Phase 2 trials also typically determine how many doses are necessary to create immunity and create a profile of common reactions.A race, but not rushedChen’s team and U.S.-based biotechnology company Moderna Therapeutics appeared to launch Phase 1 clinical trials on the same day last month.  With Tuesday’s announcement, China appears to have become the first to enter the Phase 2 trial.In China, the global race for a vaccine is routinely framed as a competition on state media. A headline by Xinhua proudly reads China “is the first to enter Phase 2 clinical trials.” A video released on the CCTV website last week was titled “China vs. U.S. — Whose Vaccine With More Hope?”Wu Zunyou, chief expert in epidemiology at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said last month that it might take China just six months to determine if its vaccine is effective and safe.On the other hand, public health officials around the world have been warning that a COVID-19 vaccine cannot be rushed. They said a safe and effective vaccine may not be available to the public for at least 12 to 18 months.There have been tragic results in the past from flawed vaccine development, and some researchers have urged teams to use animal models, as well as extensive human clinical trials, to ensure the COVID-19 vaccine does not cause unintended side effects.The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that Phase 2 trials will last several months to two years, and Phase 3 trials can last several years.If Phases 1 and 2 are considered successful, China will proceed to Phase 3, which involves administering the vaccine to thousands of people. As China reports fewer coronavirus infections, medical authorities have indicated the experimental vaccine may be tested abroad.
 
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Dozens of immigrant children in U.S. custody and living in three Chicago-area shelters have tested positive for COVID-19, officials said Tuesday.
The Chicago-based Heartland Alliance operates shelters where children in the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement’s custody wait to be released to a relative or legal guardian. By Tuesday, 37 of 69 minors were positive, according to a statement.
Heartland officials called their prognosis “very good,” but declined to offer specifics on their medical treatment.
The Office of Refugee Resettlement, tasked with the custody and care of immigrant children caught traveling alone across the U.S.-Mexico border, said Tuesday that 21 children in Illinois and Texas shelters are currently COVID-19 positive and six others recovered. None required hospitalization. They couldn’t immediately explain the discrepancy with Heartland’s data, saying they were still compiling figures.
Federal officials have suspended placing children in states including New York and Washington over concerns with the outbreak. Officials with Heartland, which stopped taking new children last month, tested all children, added nurse practitioners and staff members are taking precautions like wearing gloves and masks.
Heartland’s National Immigrant Justice Center called for expediting family reunification, the subject of a court battle, saying in a statement they were “deeply concerned” about children and staff.
Federal officials said Tuesday they’re following federal safety guidelines, arguing the children’s safe release “to suitable sponsors may take longer” given the pandemic.
There are about 2,500 children in the office’s custody.
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Germany is offering to help rebuild parts of Notre Dame in Paris, a year after the famous cathedral was heavily damaged by fire. Officials suggested Wednesday that German craftsmen could remake some of the large clerestory windows located far above eye level and designed to let light and air into the cathedral. The German government said three glass-makers that conduct restoration work for cathedrals in Germany could offer “great expertise” to their French colleagues. Germany’s minister for culture, Monika Gruetters, said her country would shoulder the costs.  
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More than nine out of 10 people in Southeast Asia want the state to end wildlife trafficking, according to a new poll from the World Wildlife Fund that shows unprecedented consensus after COVID-19 spread from animals to humans. 
 
WWF International said that 93% of people polled in the region would like “action by their governments to eliminate illegal and unregulated wildlife markets,” which the organization said is the second biggest threat to global biodiversity, after habitat destruction. 
 
Although COVID-19 is believed to have broken out at a meat market in China, nations in Southeast Asia often act as transit hubs to get trafficked wildlife into China. Governments in the region have started to introduce more new laws to crack down on the illegal trade as a result. 
 
“People are deeply worried and would support their governments in taking action to prevent potential future global health crises originating in wildlife markets,” Marco Lambertini, the director general of WWF International, said last week. “It is time to connect the dots between wildlife trade, environmental degradation and risks to human health.” 
 
He added that taking action now “is crucial for all of our survival.” 
 
It is believed COVID-19 spread from an animal to a human in China in December, and reactions have ranged from foreign pundits snubbing Chinese who eat bats or snakes, to the government itself taking action to ban consumption of wild meat.A woman with a load of dogs on her tricycle cart arrives at a market for sale during a dog meat festival in Yulin in south China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, June 21, 2016.Neighbors in Southeast Asia now are starting to follow suit with exactly the kind of action desired by WWF survey respondents. 
 
In the Philippines for instance, the government is working on a draft law that includes as much as 20 years in prison for those found guilty of wildlife trafficking, according to Theresa Tenazas, a lawyer for the Philippine’s state Biodiversity Management Bureau. 
 
She said authorities must more closely regulate contact between humans and animals, particularly at wet markets.  
 
“The conditions of these markets are ideal for incubating new diseases and bolster their transmission,” she wrote in an analysis for the bureau. “They form one of the most detrimental bridges created by man over the natural barriers that previously separated humans and wild animals.”  
 
Vietnam has taken similar steps to crack down on the trade of wild animal products, and there is pressure on Thailand, Cambodia, and Myanmar to toughen restrictions as well. 
 
Southeast Asia is particularly at risk of viral contagion because of its close proximity to China. Outside of China, the Philippines was the first to report a death linked to COVID-19, while Thailand was the first to report a COVID-19 infection. 
 
“Our global connectedness means the risk of re-introduction and resurgence of the disease will continue,” World Health Organization director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Monday. 
 
The WHO has confirmed COVID-19 is a “zoonotic disease,” meaning humans first became infected with it from animals, most likely bats. While bats were consumed legally before China’s crackdown, other animal parts commonly trafficked to China through Southeast Asia come from pangolins, rhinos and elephants.  
 
Other viruses have spread from animals to humans, including SARS, MERS and Ebola, WWF said. 
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