Sunday, May 17, 2020


Gedhun Choekyi Niyima: Tibetan Buddhism's 'reincarnated' leader who disappeared aged six

  • 17 May 2020Share this withthis with MessengShare this with TwitteShare this with Ema

A woman holds a candle in front of a picture of the Panchen Lama to mark his 31st birthday in 2020Image copyrightEPA

There is only one photograph in circulation of the Tibetan Gedhun Choekyi Niyima, one of the world's most famous "disappeared" persons.
It is little more than a snapshot, taken when he was just six years old. It shows a boy with rosy cheeks and an impassive look on his face.
That boy is now 31, and 17 May marks exactly 25 years since he and his family were disappeared by China, three days after he was identified as the reincarnated Panchen Lama, the second most important figure in Tibetan Buddhism.
Since he was taken, there has been no independent news on his fate.
Tibetans outside China are using the anniversary to call for his release. But only Chinese officials know where he is and, having said little for a quarter of a century, there is little expectation that they will offer new information now.
"Our mood is gloomy," admitted Sonam Tsering Frasi, the Tibetan government-in-exile's representative in London.
For those who want the Panchen Lama freed, it is an understandable position. The case shows the power wielded by China's leaders, who can make someone vanish completely with few consequences for either themselves or their country.



Media captionWhat might the Panchen Lama look like today?

The UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances has been trying to find out what has happened to Gedhun Choekyi Niyima since 1995, but it has discovered very little.
A few weeks before the 25th anniversary of his disappearance, it gave the BBC this statement about its efforts.
"The Government of China has responded several times, but the information provided was considered insufficient to clarify the case and it remains outstanding."
In 2013, the working group asked the Chinese government to allow it to visit the country.
In its annual report last year - six years after that request - it said it was still waiting for an answer.
"The working group hopes that a positive reply will be received soon," the report noted, perhaps a little optimistically.
Although Beijing is saying little, there are reasons why China might have wanted this particular six-year-old boy to disappear.
In Tibetan Buddhism, the Panchen Lama is outranked only by the Dalai Lama, who fled Tibet in 1959 and became an alternative source of power for Tibetans who resented Beijing's control of the Himalayan region.

A picture of the new Panchen Lama, chosen by China
Image captionChina chose its own Panchen Lama after the boy disappeared

It has been suggested, reasonably, that China did not want the Panchen Lama gaining the same authority and becoming a similar obstacle to its governance of Tibet.
After Gedhun Choekyi Niyima vanished, China chose its own Panchen Lama. Many believe it will also choose its own Dalai Lama when the current one dies.

China's changing narrative

Down the years, the Chinese government has provided some information about the missing Panchen Lama, even if it was just to deny anything was wrong.
Immediately after his disappearance, it told the UN working group that "there has never been a case of disappearance and kidnapping of the family of the reincarnated child".
It said the claim was a fabrication dreamt up by the "Dalai Lama group".
The following year, 1996, the story changed. China said a few "unscrupulous souls" had tried to smuggle the boy abroad and so his parents had asked for protection, which it was supplying.

The Tashilhunpo Monastery in Shigatse in Tibet, the home monastery of the Panchen LamasImage copyrightBBC/BRISTOW
Image captionThe Tashilhunpo Monastery in Shigatse in Tibet, the home monastery of the Panchen Lamas

Despite the security, Beijing said the boy and his family were living normal lives and did not want anyone to bother them, something it has repeated often since then.
Occasionally, the Chinese government offered a glimpse that not all was well.
In 1998, it told the working group that the Panchen Lama's mother was serving a prison sentence, although it is not clear what for or how long she was incarcerated.
At times there have been other sources of news.
In 2000, Robin Cook, then the British foreign secretary, said China had shown UK officials two photographs of a boy it said was the missing Panchen Lama.
One showed a child playing table tennis; in the other the boy was writing Chinese characters on a blackboard. The British were allowed to see the pictures, but not keep them.
In another encounter, Tibetan officials told me, on a reporting trip to Tibet in 2007, that the missing Panchen Lama would like to live in peace and does not want to be disturbed.
The last firm news, according to the Tibetan government-in-exile, based in Dharamsala in India, came two years ago when China told the UN that the Panchen Lama was living an ordinary life and had a job.
The Chinese government declined to update that information for this article.

'They took him and his family'

Professor Jeremy Sarkin, who served on the UN working group from 2008-20014, said China had clearly disappeared the Panchen Lama in contravention of UN human rights rules.
"The words the Chinese use do not refute reality. They took him and his family," he said. "We should be allowed to check he is safe."
The fact that China shies away from openly admitting what it has done is not unusual, said the professor, now at the Nova University of Lisbon. "No state wants to acknowledge they disappear people."
But Mr Sarkin said there was little anyone could do about the disappearance - and little pressure to try.
Robert Barnett, who has long followed Tibetan affairs, said China's repressive policies in Tibet had the support of most of its citizens.
"China hasn't succeeded in winning Tibetans over, but that doesn't matter if 1.4 billion Chinese people believe you are right," said the expert, now at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London.

The Dalai Lama holding the only known photograph of the Panchen LamaImage copyrightGETTY IMAGES
Presentational white space

But he said Chinese leaders would never be able to relax and enjoy their power in Tibet.
"It's a fragile construction. They will spend the entire time living in fear that the whole system might collapse."
That might be so, but it is testament to just how securely China controls Tibet that the Tibetan government-in-exile has rarely been able to use its own sources to get news of Gedhun Choekyi Niyima.
Two years ago, the Dalai Lama said he had "reliable information" that he was still alive, but there has been nothing since.
Sonam Tsering Frasi, the Tibetan government-in-exile's representative in London, said they could do little more than hold on to that one photograph of the six-year-old boy.
Mr Frasi said it is hung up by Tibetans in monasteries and homes outside China; the focus of prayers and reverence, and of the hope that one day they will get to see the man he grew up to be.


US presses China on Panchen Lama 25 years after disappearance
AFP/File / LLUIS GENE
Protesters hold pictures of the missing Panchen Lama recognized by the Dalai Lama in a 2013 demonstration outside the Chinese consulate in Barcelona

The United States on Thursday renewed calls on China to free the Tibetan identified 25 years earlier as the Panchen Lama and warned Beijing not to see the episode as a model for handling the Dalai Lama's succession.

On May 14, 1995, the exiled Dalai Lama, a Nobel laureate with a wide global following, recognized six-year-old Gedhun Choekyi Nyima as the reincarnation of the Panchen Lama, the second most senior figure in Tibetan Buddhism's largest school.

The boy was taken into custody three days later and has not been seen since, with human rights groups calling him the world's youngest political prisoner.

"We continue to press the Chinese authorities to release the Panchen Lama, to let him free, but (also) to let the world know where he is," said Sam Brownback, the State Department's ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom.

"This takes on, I think, an increased interest and focus and importance as the Chinese Communist Party continues to assert their right to appoint the next Dalai Lama," he told reporters.

"They don't have the right to appoint the next Dalai Lama any more than they (have) the right to appoint the next pope."

China's officially atheist government has made clear it could seek to name a successor to the 84-year-old Dalai Lama, evidently hoping that the global movement for Tibetan autonomy will wither away without the charismatic monk.

The 14th Dalai Lama, who has cut back on a hectic travel schedule but is not known to have serious health issues, has mused about breaking tradition to scuttle Beijing's plans.

He has spoken of appointing his own successor -- perhaps a girl -- while he is still alive or declaring the institution finished with him.

China appointed its own Panchen Lama, who has made a number of tightly scripted public appearances, even though many Tibetans do not recognize him.

In a rare statement on the Dalai Lama-appointed Panchen Lama, a pro-Beijing official in Tibet said in 2015 that the young man was healthy, enjoying an education and "does not want to be disturbed."


15MAY2020 

Coronavirus: How face masks are becoming fashionable

Nancy Pelosi wears a mask that matches her pink suit


Image copyrightImage caption
And with masks advised for the foreseeable future, people are finding ways to incorporate them into their outfits.

"Everyone is on it right now including designers. It is a necessary fashion statement right now," says Angel Obasi who runs the Instagram account Styleconnaisseur.
Ms Obasi posted images of a matching mask and suit outfit she wore to a Zoom wedding when the pandemic began. More than 100,000 people liked the images of her outfit on Twitter.
She told the BBC that she has worn the mask several times as it is "best for my style and obviously for keeping safe".
Ms Obasi isn't the only person ensuring she remains safe and fashionable. High-profile figures have also started to match their masks to their outfits.
Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, was dubbed "Leader of the House Majority, and of mask-to-pantsuit colour coordination" by Hillary Clinton on
 Thursday.
Ms Pelosi has sported a number of matching ensembles over the past month.
 Pelosi has sported a number of matching ensembles over the past month.





Slovakia's President Zuzana Caputova wears a protective face mask and poses for a photo with new members of the Slovak governmentImage copyrightREUTERS
Image captionSlovakia's President Zuzana Caputova (centre) has worn masks that match her outfits when out in public

President of Slovakia Zuzana Caputova received praise online for her matching mask ensemble which was dubbed by one social media user as "modern day corona".
With the trend rising, many fashion designers are taking note and now creating their own matching outfits. Givenchy even released their own mask and cap combo. However it will set you back £425 (£514).
One designer in Italy hit the headlines this month when she created the trikini - a matching bikini and face mask set.
Tiziana Scaramuzzo, owner of Elexia Beachwear, said she created the trikini as a joke but after she posted images of the set to social media, she was inundated with orders.
Room Shop Vintage in the US started selling matching mask and top sets when their head of manufacturing sent over images of a sample.
"Seeing the samples really sparked something in me and that is when we went forward with the idea," Shelly Horst co-founder of Room Shop Vintage told the BBC.
"The reception to our matching top/mask set has been really great. Our customers love a matching look. Having a mask that matches their top makes the mask more fun and whimsical to wear, something that is important in such as serious, scary time."
She said she expected the trend to continue.
"Going forward people will need multiple masks in rotation especially as things begin to open back up. Having a mask that matches exactly is a fun fashion move, but matching through colour stories will start to happen as well. Considering what mask to wear will become a part of planning an outfit."


It's not just matching sets that are becoming popular. Other designers are making masks as glamorous as possible, rhinestones and all.





Sefiya Sjejomaoh wears a diamante face maskImage copyrightREUTERS
Image captionSefiya Sjejomaoh makes colourful masks to match her personality

Sefiya Sjejomaoh told Reuters news agency that the pandemic should not get in the way of her sense of style.
"When you come out in a stylish mask or with an accessory such as this, it doesn't seem as though we're fighting a war.
"It seems more fun," she said.


How the Fashionable Face the New Coronavirus
May 15, 2020



In this Wednesday, April 15, 2020, photo, fashion designer Do Quyen Hoa shows off an embroidery face mask at her studio in Hanoi, Vietnam. The collection of face masks adorned with Vietnamese hand embroideries was created as the world is fighting against

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How the Fashionable Face New Coronavirus
by VOA


Many people around the world now wear masks, covers for their nose and mouth, when they go out in public. You see masks on people walking their dogs, buying food, riding bicycles and working at their jobs.

FILE PHOTO: A woman wearing a protective mask rides her bicycle during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Brussels, Belgium April 16, 2020. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir/File Photo

In many places the masks are required by law as a measure to prevent the spread of COVID-19. But commercial masks are in short supply. Most people agree that those rare objects should go to health care professionals and others on the so-called front lines of the fight against coronavirus.

So, mask-making has gotten more personal for the rest of us and more creative in design, as a result. It seems masks are becoming the fashion statement of 2020.

A street vendor wearing a face mask poses outside the central market in San Salvador on May 6, 2020, amid the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. (Photo by Yuri CORTEZ / AFP)

The online news media site Insider recently published photos of 17 of the most creative masks it found around the world. Many of the mask makers are artists, but not all. The photos include a knitted piece of pink and red from Icelandic-based cloth artist, Ýrúrarí. It is a large mask made to look like a big mouth with a long pink tongue hanging out.

The report also shows a smart design from leather worker Anissa Mekrabech of France. She created a mask with see-through material over the mouth. It permits people who read lips, because they can not hear, to continue to communicate during the pandemic

Some of the masks among the photos are beautiful. Some artists made masks covered in shiny, colorful jewels or mirror-like material. Another uses paint to create bright pictures on paper masks. A few of the masks are made of plastic and other waste material found on the street. One clothing designer even made a special mask to go with wedding clothes.

Fashion designer and tailor Friederike Jorzig presents a face mask for wedding dresses in her shop 'Chiton', as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues in Berlin, Germany, March 31, 2020. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch

Masks could be new little black dress

We might be covering our faces and mouths for quite a while. And not just for COVID-19. There are lots of possible viruses ahead. And there is air pollution and toxic dust, allergies and bad smells. So, are masks our fashion forward look?

Kenyan fashion designer Ruth Martin fits a protective face mask as part of her latest creation inside her studio, as a measure to stem the growing spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in downtown Nairobi, Kenya April 9, 2020. REUTERS/Nje

Fashion bible Vogue seems to think it might. On May 5, it published 92 Cloth Masks To Shop Now. Writer Sarah Spelling notes that that mask cover a large part of the face. So, she writes, it is not surprising people are looking for masks that look good. And the story directs readers how and where to buy them.

And, in Lithuania this week, Reuters reported on a special fashion show held in the capital, Vilnius. There were no live models or crowds around a runway. Instead, the city celebrated creative face covers in photographs on 21 huge signs around town. The billboards show men, women and children wearing masks as part of a so-called “Mask Fashion Week.”

A bicyclist rides next to a billboard, a part of a "Mask Fashion Week" during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Vilnius, Lithuania May 5, 2020. REUTERS/Andrius Sytas



Those shown in the photos include local artists, musicians, and other townspeople chosen at random. Even the mayor of the city is captured on a Mask Fashion Week sign.

Members of a local Facebook group called Mask Your Fashion chose the masks for the signs. Designer Julija Janus established the group to share new designs for masks and advice on how to make them at home.

“A mask is a good way to display your creativity, to express yourself. And it’s a good activity to do when you’re sitting at home with the kids”, said Janus.

Mask or no mask

An anti-government protester wearing a mask to help curb the spread of the coronavirus with Arabic that reads, "Revolution," attends a protest against the deepening financial crisis, in Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, April 27, 2020. Photo: AP

Masks can also be used, or not used, to make political or cultural statements. President Trump does not wear one, so far. He has said he does not think a mask would send the right message when he meets with world leaders. He also suggested his wearing one might cause unease among the American public.

But some people have criticized his lack of mask use in public. They argue the decision belittles the seriousness of the pandemic. And last month, Trump’s vice-president Mike Pence was denounced by many for not wearing a mask when he visited with a COVID-19 patient at the Mayo Clinic, a famous medical center in the American state of Minnesota.

Vice President Mike Pence visits the molecular testing lab at Mayo Clinic Tuesday, April 28, 2020, in Rochester, Minn., where he toured the facilities supporting COVID-19 research and treatment. Pence chose not to wear a face mask while touring the…

Pence later said he should have worn a mask at Mayo. And he put on a mask two days after for a visit to an American automobile factory.


I’m Caty Weaver=

Caty Weaver wrote this story for VOA Learning English, with reports from Associated Press, Reuters and others sources. Hai Do was the editor


Face mask fashionistas get creative in the age of coronavirus

Barbara Goldberg 
HEALTH NEWS APRIL 22, 2020 




FILE PHOTO: A woman wears a Wonder Woman mask as she waits in line at a Los Angeles Food Bank drive-through food giveaway as the global outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues, in Los Angeles, California, U.S., April 21, 2020. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson/File Photo

NEW YORK (Reuters) - In the weeks since the coronavirus pandemic put the world into a tailspin, the humble face mask has evolved into an American fashion statement.

Now available in a myriad of styles and patterns, the now-ubiquitous facial covering has quickly replaced the T-shirt as the coolest way for nearly anyone - from firefighters and National Basketball Association fans to punk rockers and cat lovers - to tell the world about what they love. “People are getting creative with these masks. I love the individuality,” said Johnny Pisano, a touring musician who has added masks to a line of T-shirts he sells online to his fans. His masks feature an image of Pisano performing his signature stage move - leaping into a split while playing bass guitar.In the United States, 55% of adults reported wearing masks out in public, according to an ABC/Ipsos survey released on April 10.

They are now mandatory in many U.S. grocery stores, doctors’ offices and wine shops, and many are following official orders to wear a mask when they leave home and cannot maintain social distancing to avoid disease spread.


The Custom Shop in Glastonbury, Connecticut, a drapery and upholstery workroom shut down by the pandemic, is helping to fill the new demand by using its fabrics to make masks.Requests have come in for flame-patterned fabrics for firefighters, lighthouses for nearby Lighthouse Surgery Center, and kittens for cat lovers, said shop manager Jose Moncada.

Even the NBA and Women’s National Basketball Association have officially begun selling cloth face coverings sporting logos from all 30 men’s teams and all 12 women’s teams for $15, promising proceeds will benefit Feeding America in the United States and Second Harvest in Canada.

If the mask rule stretches into the fall fashion season in New York, the pandemic epicenter as well as the nation’s trend-setting capital, some commentators expect coronavirus couture to go entirely black, a color favored by the city’s arbiters of taste.


Others predict the hottest masks in these unpredictable times will restore the idea that bright is beautiful, catching looks with flowery fabrics, python skins and trendy logos.”It’s a little power moment. Masks are going to be that powerful health accessory that adds to your total look,” said Avril Graham, executive fashion and beauty editor at Harper’s Bazaar.”You might even be having evening, glamorous masks made to accessorize a gown or cocktail dress. Because there will be social distancing for months to come,” Graham said.

Back in Brooklyn, Pisano the bass player has plans for 150 custom-made masks to sell on Etsy.com, inspired by Facebook fans who posted pictures of themselves in similar homemade masks. His leaping bass player logo helps him sell about 100 of his commemorative items a year, most of them T-shirts. But citing his “New York street-sense,” he sees only a limited window for masks to do good and a time ahead when they are used for more traditional or sinister purposes.”Right now, because of how it is, everything is cool. I’m just afraid when it’s over - and they want to rob your house,” Pisano said.

(This story corrects spelling of “ubiquitous” in second paragraph)

I admit I have a hard time spelling it too.









RACISM USA
Georgia rally for slain black jogger calls for removing district attorneys


Rich McKay, Brendan O'Brien

ATLANTA (Reuters) - Protesters on Saturday demanded the removal of two district attorneys accused of dragging their feet in arresting two white men suspected in the shooting death of a young black jogger in the Brunswick, Georgia area.



FILE PHOTO: Supporters of the Georgia NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) wearing protective masks protest after the death in February of Ahmaud Arbery, an unarmed young black man shot after being chased by a white former law enforcement officer and his son, at the Glynn County Courthouse in Brunswick, Georgia, U.S., May 8, 2020. REUTERS/Dustin Chambers/File Photo

Speeches rang out from the steps of the small coastal community’s courthouse during a rally that drew hundreds outraged by the video of the killing of Ahmaud Arbery, 25. Activists saw his death as the latest U.S. case of white perpetrators killing a black man and going unpunished. The father-and-son suspects were not arrested until weeks after the shooting, and just days after the video surfaced online.

Some of the protesters made a four-hour trek from Atlanta on Saturday morning. They chanted “Justice of Ahmaud” and “I am Ahmaud,” and also wore T-shirts memorializing Arbery. Local clergy led prayers for his family members, some of whom attended the rally.

“Ahmaud’s death won’t be in vain,” his aunt Thea Brooks said on the steps of the Glynn County Courthouse as other family members stood next to her. “We are going to fight for Ahmaud. We are going to get answers when it comes down to justice for Ahmaud.”

Speakers told the crowd that Jackie Johnson and George Barnhill - the district attorneys for the Brunswick and Waycross judicial circuits - must be removed from office for their handling of the case. It took 74 days after the shooting for the suspects to be arrested and charged.

“Racism is real in America and racism is real in Brunswick, Georgia and we come today to send a message to the racists and the supremacist that we will fight you with everything that we have,” said Rev. Timothy McDonald, the pastor of First Iconium Baptist Church in Atlanta said.


Atlanta civil rights attorney Mawuli Davis, 51, one of the organizers of the demonstration, said the case reflects a U.S. justice system that is biased in favor of whites.

“If it wasn’t for the video, this would have been swept under the rug,” he said in a Reuters interview on Friday.

The suspects, former police officer Gregory McMichael, 64, and his son Travis, 34, were ultimately arrested and charged on May 7 with aggravated assault and murder, after the Georgia Bureau of Investigation began to probe the case.

Last week, Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr asked the U.S. Justice Department to open a probe into how the case was handled by Johnson and Barnhill as well as the Glynn County Police Department.

According to Carr, both prosecutors recused themselves from the investigation. One of them, the Waycross district attorney, had provided police with a written opinion that no arrests should be made in connection with the Feb. 23 shooting.

Both defendants remain in jail without bond and have yet to enter a plea. No court date has been set yet.

The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating why charges were not brought sooner and whether to charge the suspects with federal hate crimes.

The elder McMichael’s attorneys, Franklin and Laura Hogue, said in a statement there had been a rush to judgment before the “full story” was known. His son’s lawyer, Bob Rubin, said in a news release that “Travis has been vilified before his voice could even be heard.”
Reporting by Rich McKay and Brendan O'Brien; Editing by Daniel Wallis and David Gregorio
WHO head says vaccines, medicines must be fairly shared to beat COVID-19
(Reuters) -
Scientists and researchers are working at “breakneck” speed to find solutions for COVID-19 but the pandemic can only be beaten with equitable distribution of medicines and vaccines, the head of the World Health Organization said on Friday.
"Traditional market models will not deliver at the scale needed to cover the entire globe,” 
WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a briefing in Geneva.

Global virus vaccine race heats up, but not without controversy



AFP/File / NICOLAS ASFOURIGovernments and private companies around the world -- like Sinovac Biotech in Beijing, seen here -- are working to develop a vaccine for the novel coronavirus

Global tensions simmered over the race for a coronavirus vaccine Thursday, as the United States and China traded jabs, and France slammed pharmaceuticals giant Sanofi for suggesting the US would get any eventual vaccine first.

Scientists are working at breakneck speed to develop a vaccine for COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, which has killed more than 300,000 people worldwide and pummelled economies.

From the US to Europe to Asia, national and local governments are easing lockdown orders to get people back to work -- while fretting over a possible second wave of infections.

Increased freedom of movement means an increased risk of contracting the virus, and so national labs and private firms are laboring to find the right formula for a vaccine.

The European Union's medicines agency offered some hope when it said one could be ready in a year, based on data from clinical trials already underway.

But Marco Cavaleri, the EMA's head of vaccines strategy, acknowledged that timeline was a "best-case scenario," and cautioned that "there may be delays."



AFP / MANDEL NGANUS President Donald Trump -- seen here visiting a medical supply distributor in Pennsylvania on May 14, 2020 -- has ratcheted up the rhetoric against China, after two US agencies accused Chinese hackers of trying to steal vaccine research

The race for a vaccine has exposed a raw nerve in relations between the United States and China, where the virus was first detected late last year in the central city of Wuhan.

Two US agencies warned Wednesday that Chinese hackers were trying to steal COVID-19 vaccine research -- a claim Beijing rejected as "smearing" its reputation.

US President Donald Trump, who has ratcheted up the rhetoric against China, said he doesn't even want to engage with Chinese leader Xi Jinping -- potentially imperiling a trade deal between the world's top two economies.

"I'm very disappointed in China. I will tell you that right now," he said in an interview with Fox Business.

"There are many things we could do. We could do things. We could cut off the whole relationship."

- 'Darkest winter' -




POOL/AFP / SHAWN THEW


Rick Bright, who was removed last month as head of the US agency charged with developing a coronavirus vaccine, says the government of President Donald Trump has no "master plan" to find a vaccine

On Capitol Hill, an ousted US health official told Congress that the Trump government had no strategy in place to find and distribute a vaccine to millions of Americans, warning of the "darkest winter" ahead.

"We don't have a single point of leadership right now for this response, and we don't have a master plan," said Rick Bright, who was removed last month as head of the US agency charged with developing a coronavirus vaccine.

The United States has registered nearly 86,000 deaths linked to COVID-19 -- the highest toll of any nation.


- France miffed at Sanofi -

World leaders were among 140 signatories to a letter published Thursday saying any vaccine should not be patented and that the science should be shared among nations.

"Governments and international partners must unite around a global guarantee which ensures that, when a safe and effective vaccine is developed, it is produced rapidly at scale and made available for all people, in all countries, free of charge," it said.


AFP/File / ERIC PIERMONT
France is angry after homegrown pharmaceutical giant Sanofi said any eventual coronavirus vaccine would go first to the United States

But a row erupted in France after drugmaker Sanofi said it would reserve first shipments of any vaccine it discovered to the United States.

The comments prompted a swift rebuke from the French government -- President Emmanuel Macron's office said any vaccine should be treated as "a global public good, which is not submitted to market forces."

Sanofi chief executive Paul Hudson said the US had a risk-sharing model that allowed for manufacturing to start before a vaccine had been finally approved -- while Europe did not.

"The US government has the right to the largest pre-order because it's invested in taking the risk," Hudson told Bloomberg News.

Macron's top officials are scheduled to meet with Sanofi executives about the issue next week.


AFP / PATRICK HERTZOG
The World Health Organization has warned that the coronavirus may never fade away -- here, a French patient infected with COVID-19 is transferred back to intensive care in a Mulhouse hospital after his condition worsened

The search for a vaccine became even more urgent after the World Health Organization said the disease may never go away and the world would have to learn to live with it for good.

"This virus may become just another endemic virus in our communities and this virus may never go away," said Michael Ryan, the UN body's emergencies director.

- US jobless claims rise -



AFP /Unemployment claims in the US

The prospect of the disease lingering leaves governments facing a delicate balancing act between suppressing the pathogen and getting their economies up and running.

In the US, more grim economic data emerged Thursday, with nearly three million more Americans applying for unemployment benefits.

That takes the overall total to 36.5 million -- more than 10 percent of the US population.

Further signs of the damage to businesses emerged when Lloyd's of London forecast the pandemic will cost the global insurance industry about $203 billion.

European markets closed down, but Wall Street rallied despite the new jobless claims. In a sign of progress, the New York Stock Exchange trading floor was due to reopen on May 26.

- A move to reopen -


AFP / SIMON MAINA
In Nairobi, public transport is operational, but passengers walk through a disinfectant tunnel as they prepare to board a commuter train at the main railway station before curfew

The reopening of economies continued in earnest across Europe, where the EU has set out proposals for a phased restart of travel and the eventual lifting of border controls.

"Maybe it's a mistake, but we have no choice. Without tourists, we won't get by!" Enrico Facchetti, a 61-year-old former goldsmith, said of Venice's reopening.

Japan -- the world's third largest economy -- lifted a state of emergency across most of the country except for Tokyo and Osaka.

And Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said national parks would partially reopen on June 1.

AFP / MARTIN BERNETTI
Aerial view of graves dug at the General Cemetery in the Chilean capital Santiago, which is on full lockdown after a massive spike in the infection rate

But in Latin America the virus continued to surge, with a 60 percent leap in cases in the Chilean capital of Santiago.

Authorities said 2,000 new graves were being dug at the main cemetery.

South Sudan reported its first COVID-19 death on Thursday.

And in Bangladesh, the first case was confirmed in the teeming Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh, which are home to nearly one million people.

burs-sst/acb
Deadly Rio police raid brings crowds into streets of quarantined

Ricardo Moraes

(This May 15 story corrects to read the byline as Ricardo Moraes without accent)



Residents react after a police operation against drug gangs at the Alemao slums complex in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil May 15, 2020. REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - A deadly police raid in Rio de Janeiro on suspected drug traffickers on Friday morning drew crowds into the streets of a neighborhood under quarantine, provoking criticism from residents and activists.

According to a Reuters witness and media reports, heavily armed police entered Rio’s “favela” shantytown known as Complexo do Alemao and killed at least 10 people. Police said they came under grenade and gunfire attack, a common occurrence in areas controlled by drug gangs.

When a Reuters photographer arrived shortly afterward, residents had carried five bodies to the entrance of the favela. Dozens of people, most of whom had no masks or any other protective equipment, were gathered in a tight intersection under a drizzle. Acquaintances and family members of the dead embraced and consoled one another.

“Social distancing? For who?” asked Fábio Felix, a left-wing lawmaker, on Twitter. “It’s incredible that the lives of the poor aren’t worth anything, even during a pandemic!”

Police said in a statement the incident would be reviewed by homicide detectives, following standard practice. The police said they came under heavy grenade and gunfire attack several times while in Complexo do Alemao, and recovered dozens of high-powered weapons. One police officer was injured.

Several residents complained that the government was offering little aid to contain the novel coronavirus, but was still engaging in violent police operations that risked spreading the virus through low-income communities.

The city of Rio had registered 1,509 deaths from the coronavirus and 11,264 confirmed cases by Thursday evening, according to municipal authorities, who say those figures are likely undercounting the outbreak due to a lack of testing.

Police violence has been rising rapidly in Brazil, where authorities including President Jair Bolsonaro have encouraged police to kill more. In violent Rio, police killed 1,810 people in 2019, the highest number since record keeping began in 1998.

“Within and outside the context of a pandemic, we demand that public security authorities respect human rights while policing,” the Brazilian office of Amnesty International said on Twitter.