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Master chocolatier Dominique Persoone stood forlorn on his huge workfloor, a faint smell of cocoa lingering amid the idle machinery — in a mere memory of better times.  Easter Sunday is normally the most important date on the chocolate makers’ calendar. But the coronavirus pandemic, with its lockdowns and social distancing, has struck a hard blow to the 5-billion-euro ($5.5-billion) industry that’s one of Belgium’s most emblematic. “It’s going to be a disaster,” Persoone told The Associated Press through a medical mask. He closed his shops as a precautionary measure weeks ago, and says “a lot” of Belgium’s hundreds of chocolate-makers, from multinationals to village outlets, will face financial ruin. For the coronavirus to hit is one thing, but to do it at Easter — when chocolate bunnies and eggs are seemingly everywhere — doubles the damage.  Yet amid the general gloom Belgians are allowing themselves some levity for the long Easter weekend. Some producers, like Persoone’s famed The Chocolate Line, offer Easter eggs or bunnies in medical masks, while the country’s top virologist has jokingly granted a lockdown pass to the “essential” furry workers traditionally supposed to bring kids their Easter eggs.  For young and old here, Easter Sunday usually means egg hunts in gardens and parks, sticky brown fingers, the satisfying crack of an amputated chocolate rabbit’s ear before it disappears into a rapt child’s mouth.  “People love their chocolates, the Easter eggs, the filled eggs, the little figures we make,” said chocolatier Marleen Van Volsem in her Praleen shop in Halle, south of Brussels. “This is really something very big for us.” The country has an annual per capita chocolate consumption of six kilograms (over 13 pounds), much of it scoffed during the peak Easter period.  “It is a really big season because if we don’t have this, then we won’t … be OK for the year,” Van Volsem said.  Persoone makes about 20% of his annual turnover in the single Easter week. This year, reduced to web sales and pick-ups out of his facility in western Belgium while his luxury shops in tourist cities Bruges and Antwerp are closed? “2% maybe, if we are lucky — not even.” Guy Gallet, chief of Belgium’s chocolate federation, expects earnings to be greatly reduced across the board this year. One of Belgium’s top chocolate producers Dominique Persoone stands in one of his production rooms with no workers, at his Chocolate Line warehouse in Bruges, Belgium, Friday, April 10, 2020.He said companies that sell mainly through supermarkets are doing relatively well but firms depending on sales in tourist locations, restaurants or airport shops “are badly hit.”  Persoone has a firm local base of customers but knows how tourists affect the books of so many chocolatiers.  “Of course, we won’t see Japanese people or Americans who come to Belgium for a holiday,” he said. “I am afraid if we do not get tourists anymore it will be a disaster, even in the future.” For most people, the coronavirus causes mild to moderate symptoms such as fever and cough. But for some, especially older adults and the infirm, it can cause pneumonia and in some cases death. The immediate challenge is to keep the Easter spirit — and the chocolatiers’ craft — alive in these trying times.  A big part is humor and the use of medical masks made of white chocolate is an obvious one. Persoone puts them on eggs.  “It is laughing with a hard thing. And on the other hand, we still have to keep fun, no? It is important to laugh in life.” Genevieve Trepant of the Cocoatree chocolate shop in Lonzee, southeast of Brussels, couldn’t agree more. And like Persoone, who donated sanitary gel no longer needed in his factory to a local hospital, Trepant also thought of the needy.  That’s how the Lapinou Solidaire and its partner the Lapinou Confine — the Caring Bunny and the Quarantined Bunny, both adorned with a white mask — were born. Customers are encouraged to gift Trepant’s 12-euro ($13) bunnies to local medical staff to show their support. Part of the proceeds go to charity.  One of the country’s top coronavirus experts also knows the medical virtues of laughter. Professor Marc Van Ranst told Belgian children that their Easter treats weren’t at risk.  Tongue well in cheek, he told public broadcaster VRT that the government had deeply pondered the issue of delivery rabbits’ movements in these dangerous times. The rabbits bring — Santa-like — eggs to the gardens of children, roving all over Belgium at a time when it is forbidden for the public at large.  “The decision was unanimous: it is an essential profession. Even the police have been informed that they should not obstruct the Easter bunny in its work,” he said.  There was a proviso, though. “Rabbits will deliver to the homes of parents, not grandparents,” who are more at risk from COVID-19, Van Ranst said. 
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The FDA commissioner says the models show the United States is close to the peak of the coronavirus outbreak, with federal social distancing guidelines due to expire at the end of April.  But exactly when the economy will be back up again is still too early to tell.  VOA’s Elizabeth Lee has more
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Strong storms pounded the Deep South on Sunday, killing at least six people in south Mississippi and damaging up to 300 homes and other buildings in northern Louisiana.Mississippi Emergency Management Agency director Greg Michel said one person killed was in Walthall County, two were killed in Lawrence County and three were killed in Jefferson Davis County. All three counties are more than an hour’s drive south of Jackson, near the Louisiana state line.The National Weather Service said strong winds were sweeping through other parts of Mississippi, and a tornado was spotted north of Meridian near the Alabama state line.Before the storms moved into Mississippi, the weather service reported multiple tornadoes and damaging winds over much of northern Louisiana. There were no immediate reports of serious injuries. Utility companies reported thousands of power outages.The mayor of Monroe, Louisiana, Jamie Mayo, told KNOE-TV that the storm damaged 200-300 homes in and around the city. Flights were canceled at Monroe Regional Airport, where siding was ripped off buildings and debris was scattered on runways. Airport director Ron Phillips told the News-Star the storm caused up to $30 million in damage to planes inside a hangar.In northwest Louisiana, officials reported damage to dozens of homes in DeSoto and Webster parishes, according to news outlets.The weather service said the greatest risk for strong Easter Sunday storms covered much of Mississippi, Alabama and western Georgia. That area was at “moderate risk” while much of the rest of the South was under at least a “marginal” risk, the weather service said.  The weather service said a broader area, from east Texas to the East Coast was under at least a “marginal” risk of storms.In Morgan County, Alabama, a church roof and steeple were damaged by lightning Sunday afternoon, Morgan County Emergency Management Agency Eddie Hicks told AL.com. Shoals Creek Baptist Church in Priceville was struck by lightning Sunday afternoon. No injuries were reported.  WBMA-TV reported that strong winds damaged buildings and snapped trees in Walker County, Alabama, north of Birmingham. 
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The spread of the coronavirus and militant attacks are significantly impacting gas production in northern Mozambique, experts warn.   The U.S. oil-and-gas company ExxonMobil, one of the largest foreign investors in the southeast African country, this week decided to delay its final decision on a major long-term investment in Mozambique’s restive Cabo Delgado region.“A final investment decision for the Rovuma liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in Mozambique, expected later this year, has been delayed,” the oil-and-gas giant said in a statement.  “ExxonMobil continues to actively work with its partners and the government to optimize development plans by improving synergies and exploring opportunities related to the current lower-cost environment,” it added.The company also announced its capital investments for 2020 to be about $23 billion, down from the previously announced $33 billion.While ExxonMobil acknowledged the impact of the coronavirus on the global economy, it didn’t indicate whether its decision on Mozambique projects was directly linked to the pandemic. Experts, however, believe COVID-19 has affected global energy prices, making it difficult for companies to raise project funding in the short term.  ExxonMobil didn’t immediately respond to a VOA request for comment.  As of Thursday, there have been 17 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in Mozambique.  Deteriorating security  Foreign companies such as Exxon, France’s Total, and Italy’s ENI are also worried by the deteriorating security around the gas-rich Cabo Delgado province and have been encouraging the Mozambique government to improve its response.“Mozambique is now under a state of emergency because of COVID-19 and this will divert resources and attention from Cabo Delgado,” said Alex Vines, director of the Africa program at Chatham House.   Cabo Delgado has been the center of a growing Islamist insurgency that began in 2017. Ever since, terror attacks carried out by Islamist militants, some of which are affiliated with the Islamic State (IS) terror group, have killed hundreds of civilians in terror attacks. 100,000 DisplacedThe violence has also displaced over 100,000 people in the impoverished province, according to the U.N.In its 2019 Human Rights in Africa report, released this week, London-based rights group Amnesty International said Cabo Delgado continued to experience armed attacks believed to be carried out by members of an extremist group, locally known as al-Shabab, the IS affiliate in Mozambique.  “The attackers invaded villages, set houses on fire, hacked villagers to death with machetes and looted their food. Although the government increased its military presence in the region, its response was inadequate,” the report said.   Increased attacks  But in recent weeks, militants have significantly increased their attacks on government forces throughout Cabo Delgado. IS has claimed responsibility for at least three of the recent attacks in the province.One of those attacks was on the town of Mocimboa de Praia, not far from several strategic LNG projects.  “Insurgent attacks should be of grave concern to the Mozambican government,” said Jasmine Opperman, an Africa analyst at the conflict monitoring group ACLED. “Following the Mocimboa de Praia attack, Total recalled all offshore vessels.”“Insurgents have demonstrated a capacity to move from acts of terror against civilians to targeting government infrastructure,” she told VOA.   In the recent attacks, “insurgents also showed a capacity to hold territory for short periods with the intent to create ‘liberated areas’ which allows for freedom of movement and access to food supplies,” Opperman added.David Matsinhe, a researcher for southern Africa at Amnesty International, told VOA that “it appears as if the insurgents are having a free reign in those districts, roaming around and attacking as they please, posting videos on social media to woo new recruits to replenish their ranks.”Increased attacks claimed militants in recent months have led gas firms including ExxonMobil and Total to request additional security deployments in areas of operation to protect personnel and infrastructure development.  In February, several international oil-and-gas companies made a formal request to the Mozambican government to send additional security to Cabo Delgado. There are approximately 500 soldiers deployed near gas production areas with the companies seeking an additional deployment of another 300.  While foreign companies have their own security personnel, Mozambican security forces usually provide protection in the general zone where these companies operate. Challenges  Analyst Opperman says the “COVID-19 has presented additional challenges” for the Mozambican government “such as containment, rotation of personnel,” noting that Exxon, which committed to $500 million in initial investment, “has seen disruption of early works due to coronavirus travel restrictions.”Amid these challenges, rights groups are expressing concerns about the ability of Mozambican security forces to protect and maintain the rule of law. “It is hard not to see this getting worse unless the virus decimates the armed groups too,” said Adotei Akwei, deputy director for Advocacy and Government Relations at Amnesty International.This would be particularly difficult in “larger parts of Mozambique where the state is so weak as to not be present or where it is present but there is no real economic activity going on,” he told VOA.  On the investment front, some experts believe Mozambique’s recovery from the current financial crisis would be provisional.“Mozambique’s advantage is that (its) gas assets are so world class, that I expect this funding shortfall to be a short-term problem unless the insecurity situation significantly deteriorates,” Vines of Chatham House predicted.But Calton Cadeado, who teaches peace and conflict at Joaquim Chissano University in Maputo, says the interruption of foreign investment will frustrate particularly young people in Cabo Delgado, who hope that such projects would create job opportunities in their region. “The government believes that this problem may be of short duration, and that 2022 will continue to be the year of expected financial funding,” he told VOA. “But realistically, this (coronavirus) pandemic and the consequent postponement (of foreign investment) could derail that.”Amancio Vilanculos of VOA’s Portuguese Service contributed to this report from Washington. 
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Arne Wilhelmsen, a founder of Royal Caribbean Cruises who helped shape the modern cruise industry, has died. He was 90.The Miami-based company said in a statement that Wilhelmsen died Saturday in Palma, Spain. No cause of death was given.As a member of the company’s board for three decades, Wilhelmsen saw the potential for the cruise industry to become one of the fastest growing segments of the vacation industry. He helped shift the hub of the industry to warm weathered places like South Florida, instead of transportation centers like New York.He also believed in building bigger and more efficient ships. Royal Caribbean now has 61 ships, including some of the largest cruise liners in the world.”At a time when the rest of the world thought cruising was a niche use for old transatlantic liners, Arne was already seeing glimmers of the growth that was possible,” said Richard Fain, RCL’s chairman and CEO. “He had a vision of the modern cruise industry when the ‘industry’ might have been a dozen used ships, total.”Wilhelmsen was born in Oslo, Norway in 1929. After earning an MBA at Harvard University, he worked as a chartering assistant for Norway’s EB Lund & Co. and later as a shipbroker in New York. In 1954, he joined his family’s shipping concern, Anders Wilhelmsen & Co AS, and became its president in 1961.He helped establish Royal Caribbean in 1968 with his family’s company, along with two other Norwegian shipping companies. In 2003, he stepped down from the board and was succeeded by his son, Alex.No further details on survivors was listed in the company’s statement, and a company representative did not immediately respond to an email inquiry.
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Greek forces are on heightened alert as reports have surfaced that Turkey is preparing to push through a fresh wave of migrants to Europe. Officials in Athens say, they fear that refugees infected with the coronavirus may be among the new wave of asylum seekers.Greek government officials contacted by VOA say the heightened alert follows intelligence reports showing Turkish authorities moving refugee groups from remote inland areas to Turkey’s western shores, where smugglers could secretly ferry then to Greek islands less than a few kilometers away.They say Greece’s coastguard, Air Force and Navy are increasing patrols along the Aegean waterway that divides Greece and Turkey… anticipating what they call an organized attempt by Ankara to push through thousands of asylum seekers to Europe.Whether that push will include migrants infected by the coronavirus remains unclear, officials told VOA.But on Sunday, leading Greek media reported that Turkey was in fact considering such a plan… hoping to exert fresh pressure on Europe to extract added financial aid for hosting nearly 4 million Syrian refugees and sparing the continent a fresh migration crisis.Relations between Athens and Ankara have been strained since Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced earlier this year that he would no longer block migrants and refugees from seeking entry to Europe.He rescinded that order late last month, moving tens of thousands of migrants who had amassed along the Greek-Turkish land border to secluded camps to cslow the spread of the coronavirus in his country.Turkey, though, has publicly vowed to open its border anew to migrants once it manages to contain the COVID-19 outbreak.That’s a threat officials in Athens are not underestimating. 
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The top U.S. infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, warned Sunday there is an “extraordinary risk” of the further spread of the ravaging coronavirus if the United States is reopened to business and a sense of normalcy too quickly on May 1, as President Donald Trump is considering.Fauci told CNN, “It’s not going to be a light switch” to regenerate U.S. commerce as government recommendations for safe distancing between people end on April 30.He held out hope that “at least in some ways” the country could return to work and routine day-to-day activities next month, but said it is likely to be different in various parts of the country.That depends, he said, on the number of coronavirus cases in specific communities and whether testing has shown that large majorities of people are not infected.Even with precautions, he said, “We know people will be getting infected. That’s just reality.”The U.S. coronavirus death toll has topped 20,000, the highest total of any country, with more than 534,000 confirmed cases. Current U.S. models predict that 60,000 or more could die in the country by July.Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn speaks during a coronavirus task force briefing at the White House, April 4, 2020, in Washington.Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn told ABC’s “This Week” show, “The models do show that we are very close to the peak,” but cautioned,  “This has been a really fast-moving outbreak, so we really have to take this day by day.”As for the May 1 date, Hahn said, “It is a target and obviously we’re hopeful about that target, but I think it’s just too early to be able to tell that we see light at the end of the tunnel. I think it’s just too early for us to say whether May 1 is that date.” Trump, mindful of the death toll and the fact that 17 million U.S. workers have lost their jobs in the last month, has said almost daily that he wants to reopen the country as soon as possible, with economic advisers pointing to the May 1 date as a target. But he says he will also listen to health experts on whether that is too soon.He has called the choice between two imperatives – protecting the health of Americans and restarting the world’s largest economy — the biggest decision of his life.Trump had originally called for reopening the country by Sunday, envisioning churches filled with worshipers on the Christian holy day of Easter. But he backed off as health experts, including Fauci, warned that reopening the country too quickly would lead to more coronavirus deaths.U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a Good Friday event for Easter in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, April 10, 2020.Trump marked the day with a Twitter video message to U.S. Christians, wishing them a Happy Easter. But he noted how different the day would be nationwide, with most state governors ordering their residents to stay at home and Trump recommending that Americans practice physical distancing from others by at least two meters through the end of April.“In many cases,” he said, “we’ll be separated physically only from our churches. We won’t be sitting near, next to each other, which we’d like to be, and soon will be again. But right now, we’re keeping separation; we’re getting rid of the plague. It’s a plague on our country like nobody’s ever seen.”“But we’re winning the battle,” Trump said. “We’re winning the war. We’ll be back together in churches right next to each other. Celebrate, bring the family together like no other. We have a lot to be thankful for. Happy Easter everybody.”Most U.S. churches kept their doors closed for Easter, but some defied state bans on large gatherings and held services.Trump in January, February and half of March minimized the severity of the coronavirus threat after the first outbreak in China before declaring a national emergency. On several occasions, he said there were few cases in the U.S. and that the disease would quickly dwindle to nothing.Workers wearing personal protective equipment bury bodies in a trench on Hart Island, Thursday, April 9, 2020, in the Bronx borough of New York, April 9, 2020.Some Trump advisers warned him of the advancing threat.Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said that “obviously” the country’s response could have been better.“It would have been better if we had a head start,” he said. “Often the recommendation (of scientists and medical experts) is taken, sometimes it is not.”He said the country’s high death toll “may have been a little bit better” if the U.S. had moved quicker toward social distancing and stay-at-home edicts.Fauci said he hopes that the U.S. voters will be able to vote in person at polling stations on Nov. 3 in the U.S. presidential election between Trump and the Democratic candidate, former Vice President Joe Biden.“I can’t guarantee it,” he said. “There’s always the possibility we could have a rebound” in a resurgence of the coronavirus.But if so, he said, “Hopefully we would respond better.” 
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Two U.S. astronauts say it’s hard to comprehend the changes on Earth that have occurred due to the coronavirus pandemic, as they prepare to return from the International Space Station.The astronauts, Andrew Morgan and Jessica Meir, have been in space for more than half a year, having left Earth before anyone had ever heard of the coronavirus, let alone gotten sick or died.Morgan said Friday from the space station that the crew has been trying to keep up with developments about the virus, but said, “It’s very hard to fathom” all that is going on.Morgan, who is an Army emergency physician, said he feels a little guilty returning to Earth when the crisis is already underway.Meir said, “We can tell you that the Earth still looks just as stunning as always from up here, so it’s difficult to believe all the changes that have taken place since both of us have been up here.”“It is quite surreal for us to see this whole situation unfolding on the planet below,” she said.Morgan said the pandemic has affected operations at NASA’s mission control, with the handover taking place “between shifts between two different rooms to minimize the contact.” He said NASA staff members are persevering through “their ingenuity and their professionalism” and said, “They’re going to return us to Earth safely, just like their predecessors did 50 years ago.”Apollo 13 anniversaryThe two U.S. astronauts, along with a Russian cosmonaut, Oleg Skripochka, will return to Earth on April 17, exactly 50 years after the U.S. Apollo 13 mission returned to Earth.That mission faced a crisis when the spacecraft’s oxygen tank ruptured two days into the trip, aborting the astronauts’ mission to the moon.“Once again, now there’s a crisis, and the crisis is on Earth,” Morgan said.Meir said she is looking forward to seeing her family and friends again, even if just virtually. She said she expects to feel more isolated on Earth than in space.“We’re so busy with so many other amazing pursuits and we have this incredible vantage point of the Earth below, that we don’t really feel as much of that isolation,” Meir said.Meir has been in space since September and Morgan since last July. They will return in a Soyuz capsule, landing in Kazakhstan.The Americans will leave three astronauts who arrived at the space station Thursday — NASA’s Chris Cassidy and Russians Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner.The launch of a Russian Soyuz rocket carrying those astronauts was carried out under tight restrictions because of the coronavirus. Support workers wore masks and kept their distance from the crew to prevent the possibility of the virus being taken to the space station. The crew members, who routinely go into quarantine ahead of launch day, stayed in isolation longer than normal because of the virus.Cassidy said Friday from the space station, “we knew as a crew we were going to be in quarantine about nine months ago or a year ago, those exact weeks, but we didn’t know the whole rest of the world was going to join us.”Following Thursday’s launch, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine tweeted his congratulations. “No virus is stronger than the human desire to explore,” he said.The next astronauts who visit the space station will be launched by SpaceX from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center, as early as next month. It will be the first launch of astronauts to the space station from the United States since NASA’s space shuttle program ended in 2011. 
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Coronavirus cases in the United States doubled this past week. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than half a million Americans have been diagnosed with COVID-19. But some say life will never be the same — even for those who will not contract the disease. VOA’s Carolyn Presutti shows us how the U.S. is ending up with two different populations.
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Mitch McConnell’s earliest childhood memory is the day he left the polio treatment center at Warm Springs, Ga., for the last time.He was just a toddler in 1944, when his father was deployed to World War II, his mother relocated the family to her sister’s home in rural Alabama and he came down with flu-like symptoms. While he eventually recovered, his left leg did not. It was paralyzed.Two long years later, after shuttling young McConnell to and from the center where then-President Franklin Roosevelt received polio care, his mother was told that day that her young son would be able walk into his life without a leg brace.She immediately took the 4-year-old shopping for a new pair of shoes.More than 70 years later, Senate Majority Leader McConnell walked into the U.S. Senate to pass a sweeping coronavirus rescue package — and shutter the chamber for the foreseeable future — as another dangerous flu-like virus fills the nation with anxiety, quarantines and unimaginable disruptions to American life.”Why does this current pandemic remind me of that? I think No. 1 is the fear,” said McConnell in an interview with The Associated Press.”And the uncertainty you have when there’s no pathway forward on either treatment or a vaccine and that was the situation largely in polio before 1954.”The two crises now bookend McConnell’s years, making the Kentucky Republican an unexpected voice of personal experience and reflection in what he calls these “eerie” times.It’s an unusual role for the famously guarded leader, who rarely says more when less will do, and relishes an image as a sly political tactician. But as more than 16,000 people in the U.S. have died from coronavirus, the echoes are all too familiar. So too is the solution, as he sees it, to care for the nation’s sick and produce treatments, and an eventual vaccine.”There’s hope that we’re going to get on top of this disease,” he said, “within a year, year and a half.”The polio epidemicPolio ignited a dreadful fear across the U.S. in those years, especially in summertime. The virus particularly struck children, forcing swift closures of schools and playgrounds and, in the sweltering heat, swimming pools. Towns shuttered, families isolated. Thousands died, others were hospitalized and some left permanently paralyzed or with post-polio syndrome. The Salk vaccine was still years away.FILE – The line of people awaiting polio shots at Evansville (Ind.) Municipal Stadium was still long, four hours after the clinic started, when this picture was taken, Aug. 9, 1959. During the eight-hour program, about 14,000 people received shots.”It was a scary virus,” said Stacey D. Stewart, president & CEO of March of Dimes, which started as FDR’s National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis but quickly took on the name that reflected the public service call for Americans to donate their dimes for a polio solution.”You didn’t understand how you got it,” she said, and because it impacted so many young people, for “so many parents, what’s worse for a parent than having your child get sick?”As a toddler, McConnell was taught to stay off his feet. His mother understood if he tried to walk too soon after the illness he might require a leg brace for the rest of his life. She began taking him on the hour drive each way to Warm Springs, where Roosevelt’s condition was a warning sign to Americans the disease spared no one. Back home, she would would run through the physical therapy with her son “like a drill sergeant,” he said.McConnell doesn’t remember much from those earliest days. Much of it he knows from his mother’s retelling and his own reading of books of the era. But he does remember what happened in the years after she bought him those saddle oxfords on their last trip home from Warm Springs. He couldn’t run as fast as the other kids. When he put on a swimsuit, his left leg had a narrower circumference, leaving him embarrassed. Even now, he says, he has trouble climbing stairs.  “I was lucky,” he said, choking up as he recalls his mother, “who was determined to see me walk again.” Of “tenacity, hard work and not giving up,” he said, “My mother instilled all that in me before I was 4 years old, and I think it’s been a guiding principle in how I lead my life.” ‘Let’s continue to pray for one another’One of the first things McConnell did when he was elected to public office in Kentucky, he writes in his memoir, was buy a new pair of shoes.  In the Senate last month, McConnell began linking past to the present “just as soon as it became clear that we were actually endangering each other to be together.” Senators were self-isolating and one, Rand Paul, announced he tested positive. With the Capitol all but shuttered, the Senate raced to approve the rescue package. The votes tallied, McConnell adjourned the Senate. “Let’s continue to pray for one another,” he said. “And for our country.” FILE – U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell waves to supporters with his wife, Elaine Chao, at his midterm election night rally in Louisville, Ky., Nov. 4, 2014.Now from a quiet Capitol Hill — he is working from the second floor of his townhouse, his wife Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao on the third — the two suddenly find themselves like other Americans stumbling through the new stay-at-home normal.  “We’re soldiering all through,” he said. It’s also bringing time for reflection. A year ago, he returned to Warm Springs for the first time. At what is now a historic site, he reviewed files about his condition, his visits. He learned he sometimes received treatments when Roosevelt did, including the week the former president died. Asked how his mom afforded his own medical care, he was stumped. Were there bills? “Honestly, I don’t know the answer to that,” he said. He said he would try to find out. One memory that does stand clear is the arrival of the polio vaccine, and the relief it brought a weary populace.  As Congress considers the next aid package, he said he wants more money for health care.  “I’ve had a normal life, but I’ve been acutely aware of the disease that I had and the relief that the country had when they found the vaccine,” he said. “We’re going to get that relief.” 
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Most of Thailand’s provinces have banned sales of alcoholic beverages, heeding a central government call to discourage festive celebrations for the Thai New Year as the country seeks to limit the spread of the coronavirus.Thailand is among Southeast Asian countries that are canceling or scaling back traditionally boisterous Buddhist New Year celebrations amid the global pandemic.The Thai New Year or water-splashing Songkran celebrations are usually held April 13-15, but this year the government has postponed the holidays that would normally be taken then.A 10-day ban on the sale of wine, beer and spirits in Bangkok went into effect on Friday. Forty-seven of Thailand’s 77 provinces have implemented bans to April 15 or until the end of the month, the interior ministry said in a statement.Bangkok, which typically closes off streets during April for traditional water fights, has called off the activities and urged businesses and malls to do likewise. The government has also urged Thais to refrain from traveling back to their hometowns as they would normally do for the New Year.On Saturday, Thailand reported 45 new coronvirus cases and two deaths, bringing its total to 2,518 confirmed infections and 35 deaths.
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Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson was making “very good progress” Saturday in his recovery in a hospital from coronavirus, officials said, as the country’s death toll from the disease approached the grim milestone of 10,000.The 55-year-old leader was spending his second full day out of intensive care at London’s St. Thomas’ Hospital, where he has been able to take short walks between periods of rest, according to Downing Street.”The prime minister continues to make very good progress,” a No. 10 spokeswoman said.News of his improvement contrasted with the latest official statistics showing Britain recorded nearly 1,000 daily COVID-19 deaths for the second consecutive day, one of the worst rates globally.The health ministry announced another 917 coronavirus hospital patients had died in the latest 24-hour period, down from the toll on Friday but still the country’s second highest yet.An 11-year-old was among the victims, according to England’s National Health Service (NHS).As of Saturday evening, the total number of COVID-19 fatalities in the U.K. was 9,892, while the number of confirmed cases climbed to 79,874, according to Johns Hopkins University’s Coronavirus Resource Center in Baltimore, Maryland. The actual number of cases was thought to be higher, because not everyone has been tested for the virus.FILE – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson holds a news conference addressing the government’s response to the coronavirus outbreak, at Downing Street in London, March 12, 2020.”The prime minister continues to make good progress, but these stark figures highlight the gravity of this national emergency,” interior minister Priti Patel told reporters at a daily briefing.’Keep others safe’Despite the sobering statistics, Stephen Powis, NHS England’s medical director, said there was a “leveling off” in the number of new cases and “the first signs of a plateauing of people who unfortunately need hospitalization.”He credited a nationwide lockdown introduced on March 23 for halting the virus’ spread, but added the mortality rate would be “the very final thing” to decrease.”We are confident that if everybody follows the instructions … then that will begin to translate in the next weeks into a reduction in the daily deaths,” Powis said.”I’m afraid this year it has to be for all of us a stay-at-home Easter.”Queen Elizabeth II echoed that in what was believed to be her first pre-recorded Easter address, released by Buckingham Palace on Saturday evening.”By keeping apart we keep others safe,” the 93-year-old monarch said. “We know that coronavirus will not overcome us.”Her resolute comments came a week after a rare televised address to the nation in which she told people to unite to beat COVID-19.Spirits liftedJohnson is the most high-profile leader to suffer from coronavirus infection, and his hospitalization is unprecedented for a British prime minister during a national emergency in modern times.He was admitted Sunday for a persistent cough and high temperature 10 days after self-isolating with the virus. A day later he was transferred to the intensive care unit as his condition deteriorated.The Conservative leader left the unit Thursday evening in “extremely good spirits” and waving at staff “in gratitude,” his spokesman has said.The Mail on Sunday reported Johnson’s friends had revealed he came close to death while in intensive care and said he owed his life to the hospital’s medical team.It remains unclear when he might be discharged from hospital and how quickly he would return to work once out.Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has been standing in for Johnson.The prime minister’s spokesman stressed Friday that his recovery was “at an early stage” and he would act only “on the advice of his medical team.”The Sun reported that Johnson’s spirits had been lifted this week by his pregnant fiancee Carrie Symonds, who sent him “love letters” and scans of their unborn child.Symonds, who has also suffered from coronavirus symptoms in recent weeks, and the British leader have reportedly not seen each other for nearly a month. Their baby is due this summer.Meanwhile, it is also uncertain when Britain might be able to lift the stringent social distancing regime.Implemented for an initial three weeks, the measures are set for a formal review next week and are likely to remain in place until at least the end of the month.
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The commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan has met with leaders of the Taliban insurgency under their bilateral peace-building agreement to discuss ways to reduce violence in the war-torn country, both sides said Saturday. 
 
A Taliban spokesman tweeted about the meeting with General Scott Miller, who also commands NATO’s non-combat Resolution Support mission in the country, saying it happened Friday night in Doha, Qatar, which hosts the insurgent political office.  
 
Suhail Shaheen wrote that the two delegations discussed details on how to implement the U.S.-Taliban agreement, which the two adversaries signed Feb. 29 in the Qatari capital with a goal to end the nearly 19-year-old Afghan war. FILE – U.S. Army General Scott Miller, center, commander of U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan, is seen at the presidential palace in Kabul, Afghanistan, Nov. 6, 2018. “General Miller met with Taliban leadership last night as part of the military channel established in the agreement. The meeting was about the need to reduce the violence,” a U.S. Forces spokesman told VOA. 
 
Shaheen said the U.S.-Taliban agreement’s “violations, particularly attacks and night raids in non-combat areas, came under serious discussion.” He added that the Taliban delegation “called for a halt to such attacks.” 
 
In a recent statement, the U.S. military denied insurgent allegations of breaches, noting the agreement allows foreign troops to act in defense of Afghan security forces if attacked by the Taliban. 
 
The accord binds insurgents not to attack U.S.-led foreign forces, who have committed to gradually withdraw from Afghanistan by July 2021, in return for Taliban counterterrorism guarantees. FILE – Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen is seen during talks in the Qatari capital Doha, July 7, 2019. 
The “conditions-based” troop drawdown also requires the Taliban to negotiate a sustainable peace and power sharing with other Afghan factions to end four decades of hostilities in the country. 
 
The Taliban and Washington both have said they are fully committed to uphold the agreement, which offers the best chance for Afghan peace, analysts say.  
 
But a lingering political dispute over who has emerged as the legitimate president of Afghanistan following the controversial September election, and a delay in releasing thousands of Taliban prisoners by the Kabul government, have blocked efforts to open the crucial peace talks between Afghan parties to the conflict.  
 
Incumbent President Ashraf Ghani has been officially declared the election winner, but his chief rival Abdullah Abdullah rejected the outcome as fraudulent, and both held competing inauguration ceremonies last month.  
 
The standoff has politically paralyzed the turmoil-hit country, with both the rival leaders seemingly not ready to give up their claims. FILE – Afghan presidential election opposition candidate Abdullah Abdullah (L) and Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani are seen after a press conference at the presidential palace in Kabul, Feb. 29, 2020.Under the U.S.-Taliban deal, the intra-Afghan talks were supposed to begin several weeks ago.  
 
The insurgent group maintains those negotiations can start only after Washington, as part of its commitments, helps to get the release of 5,000 Taliban prisoners from Afghan jails.  
 
The Taliban has committed to free 1,000 detainees, mostly Afghan security forces, from its custody. Discussions over the prisoner swap collapsed earlier this week, although the Afghan government has since freed 200 Taliban detainees after seeking written assurances the freed men would not return to the battlefield. 
 
But the Taliban has disapproved the release process, saying it violates provisions of the deal with the U.S., which requires unconditional freedom for insurgent inmates.  
  
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Iraq’s Prime Minister-designate Mustafa Kadhimi met with top members of the outgoing government Saturday to try to put together a new cabinet quickly, amid a rare level of support from the country’s political establishment at a time of serious internal and external crises.Amid reports the U.S. is deploying missile batteries to protect several key military bases against threats from Iran and its proxy militias, Kadhimi also appears to enjoy the support of Tehran and its local allies.Khattar Abou Diab, who teaches political science at the University of Paris, told VOA that Kadhimi  was a “personal friend” of Iran’s national security adviser, Admiral Ali Shamkhani, one of Tehran’s two point men on Iraq since Major General Qassem Soleimani was killed by a U.S. drone strike in early January.Abou Diab said Kadhimi, who is also the country’s intelligence chief, was “probably not the U.S.’s first choice to be Iraq’s new prime minister, but that Washington has had fairly good relations with him in the past and probably is prepared to live with his nomination.”US-Iraq dialogueU.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo proposed this week that Washington and Baghdad “hold a strategic dialogue in June” to discuss the presence of American forces in Iraq. Kadhimi told Iraqi TV on Friday that he would be a stickler for defending national sovereignty.He said that Iraq’s sovereignty was a “red line” and that he would not be flexible about it. Iraqi sovereignty, he insisted, will not be a subject for debate, and Iraq’s destiny is in the hands of its people, to whom it belongs.Kadhimi insisted that “no one, outside the government, should be allowed to bear arms,” but he left a loophole by confirming that the country’s Shiite Popular Mobilization Units, known as Hushd al-Shaabi, are a government entity.The U.S. has placed a $10 million bounty on the head of Sheikh Mohammed Kawtharani, head of the the pro-Iranian Iraqi Hezbollah militia, which is part of Hushd al-Shaabi. Washington suspects that Kawtharani is responsible for past attacks on American forces inside Iraq and also is preparing fresh attacks.Given the precipitous recent decline of oil prices, Iraq, a major oil exporter, is facing serious threats to its ability to pay its civil servants, in addition to meeting the many demands of protesters for better public services and less corruption, among other things.Dr. Paul Sullivan, a professor at the U.S. National Defense University, told VOA that Kadhimi “is a tough and smart fellow,” and as a veteran intelligence agency chief “likely has files on everyone of note and could call on those files to pressure people to toe the line.””[But] trying to create a peaceful and stable Iraq,” Sullivan added, “may be one of the toughest jobs out there. If the economy and jobs don’t turn around, even the toughest people cannot keep [the country] together for long.”
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The World Health Organization is expressing alarm at the large number of health workers becoming infected by the deadly coronavirus.  The U.N. health agency is appealing for international support to provide health workers with the supplies and other tools needed to keep them safe.
  
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says every single person has a role to play in ending this pandemic, which already has claimed more than 100,000 lives worldwide. Among the major players in this grisly drama are the frontline responders, the health care workers who tend to the sick and dying.   
  
While they are putting their lives on the line to save others, Tedros says health workers are not getting the support they need to keep them safe. FILE – World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is seen at a daily press briefing on the coronavirus, at the WHO headquarters, March 11, 2020, in Geneva.“In some countries there are reports of up to 10% of health workers being infected. This is an alarming trend. When health workers are at risk, we are all at risk,” he said.
    
Tedros said some health workers become infected outside health facilities, in their homes or communities.  But the majority are being infected within health facilities where they are exposed to the deadly virus throughout the day.   
  
Many become sick, he said, because they are not sufficiently trained or lack experience in recognizing COVID-19, and dealing with respiratory pathogens. He added that long hours tending to sick patients and lack of rest also can weaken resistance to the virus. 
    
“However, the evidence also shows that when health workers wear personal protective equipment the right way, infections can be prevented.  That makes it even more important that health workers are able to access the masks, gloves, gowns and other PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) they need to do their jobs safely and effectively,” Tedros said.A new United Nations Supply Chain Task Force has been set up to ease the equipment shortage. Tedros said the WHO and the World Food Program will be coordinating this effort.   
  
He said the supply chain may need to cover more than 30 percent of the world’s needs in the acute phase of the pandemic.  To meet this demand, he said, well over 100 million medical gowns and masks, respirators, diagnostic kits and other essential equipment will have to be shipped every month to areas most at risk.   
  
The storing and shipping costs, he said, are about $280 million. He noted the cost of procuring these supplies will be much greater.   
  
 
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Brazil is the first South American country to record more than 1,000 COVID-19 deaths. The Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center said early Saturday Brazil has nearly 20,000 confirmed cases of the virus with 1,074 deaths.  Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has been reluctant to impose quarantine restrictions to slow the spread of the disease.  He has said he is concerned about the economic impact of the restrictions.   The president has made fun of the coronavirus, calling it the “little flu.”  Almost all of Brazil’s governors have introduced quarantine measures.  Bolsonaro visited a hospital Friday without wearing a face mask. He was seen wiping his nose and shaking the hand of an elderly person, the BBC reported.  Medical experts are especially concerned about the impact the virus could have on Brazil’s poor and crowded neighborhoods and the country’s indigenous population.  A 15-year-old member of the Yanonami ethnic group died this week, the BBC reported.  He was the first indigenous person to die from the virus.  Bolsonaro’s popularity is falling.  Protests against him have been staged in several cities.     
 
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Nobuhiko Obayashi, one of Japan’s most prolific filmmakers who devoted his works to depicting war’s horrors and singing the eternal power of movies, has died. He was 82.The official site for his latest film, “Labyrinth of Cinema,” said that Obayashi died late Friday.Obayashi was diagnosed with terminal cancer in 2016, and was told he had just a few months. But he continued working, appearing frail and often in a wheelchair.”Labyrinth of Cinema” had been scheduled to be released in Japan on the day of his death. The date has been pushed back because of the coronavirus pandemic, which has closed theaters.”Director Obayashi fought his sickness to the day of the scheduled release of his film. Rest in peace, director Obayashi, you who loved films so much you kept on making them,” the announcement said.The film was showcased at the Tokyo International Film Festival last year, which honored him as a “cinematic magician” and screened several of his other works.Obayashi stayed stubbornly true to his core pacifist message through more than 40 movies and thousands of TV shows, commercials and other video.His films have kaleidoscopic, fairy tale-like imagery repeating his trademark motifs of colorful Japanese festivals, dripping blood, marching doll-like soldiers, shooting stars and winding cobblestone roads.”Labyrinth of Cinema” is an homage to filmmaking. Its main characters, young Japanese men who go to an old movie theater but increasingly get sucked into crises, have names emulating Obayashi’s favorite cinematic giants, Francois Truffaut, Mario Bava and Don Seigel.Obayashi’s “Miss Lonely,” released in 1985, was shot in seaside Onomichi, the picturesque town in Hiroshima prefecture where Obayashi grew up and made animation clips by hand.His other popular films include his 1977 “House,” a horror comedy about youngsters who amble into a haunted house, and “Hanagatami,” released in 2017, another take on his perennial themes of young love and the injustices of war that unfolds in iridescent hues.Obayashi was a trailblazer in the world of Japanese TV commercials, hiring foreign movie stars like Catherine Deneuve and Charles Bronson, highlighted in his slick film work that seemed to symbolize Japan’s postwar modernization.He was born in 1938, and his childhood overlapped with World War II, years remembered for Japan’s aggression and atrocities against its neighbors but also a period during which Japanese people suffered hunger, abuse and mass deaths. His pacifist beliefs were reinforced by his father, an army doctor, who also gave him his first 8-millimeter camera.His works lack Hollywood’s action-packed plots and neat finales. Instead, they appear to start from nowhere and end, then start up again, weaving in and out of scenes, often traveling in time.During an Associated Press interview in 2019, Obayashi stressed his believe in the power of movies. Movies like his, he says, ask that important question: Where do you stand?”Movies are not weak,” he said, looking offended at such an idea. “Movies express freedom.”He said then he was working on another film, while acknowledging he was aware of the limitations of his health, all the work taking longer.At the end of the interview, he said he wanted to demonstrate his lifetime goal for his filmmaking. He showed his hand, three fingers held up in the sign language of “I love you.””Let’s value freedom with all our might. Let’s have no lies,” said Obayashi.Obayashi is survived by his wife Kyoko Obayashi, an actress and film producer, and their daughter Chigumi, an actress.A ceremony to mourn his death was being planned, according to Japanese media, but details were not immediately available. The Tokyo city and central government have requested that public gatherings are avoided because of the pandemic.   
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