Month: May 2020

The European Medicines Agency predicted that there could be licensed drugs to treat the new coronavirus in the next few months and that a vaccine might even be approved in early 2021, in a “best-case scenario.” Dr. Marco Cavaleri, who heads the European regulator’s vaccines department, told a media briefing on Thursday that approving medicines …

Read more “EU: Possible Virus Drug Approval ‘Before The Summer’”

European markets are all trading lower Thursday amid rising fears that the global economy is still in the grips of the coronavirus pandemic.London’s FTSE index is down a whopping 2.2% in midday trading, with the CAC-40 in Paris trading 1.8% lower and Frankfurt’s DAX index down 1.5%.Thursday’s selloff began earlier in Asia, with Tokyo’s Nikkei …

Read more “European Markets Sustain Major Losses”

German Chancellor Angela Merkel says she has “hard evidence” that Russia hacked the website of Germany’s parliament in 2015 and allegedly stole documents from her own parliamentary office. German news reports said prosecutors had issued an arrest warrant for a suspected member of the Russian military intelligence agency GRU. “I can say honestly that this pains me,” Merkel said during a question-and-answer session with lawmakers Wednesday. “On the one hand, I …

Read more “Merkel: ‘Hard Evidence’ of Russian Cyber Attack on German Parliament “

As people around the world wonder when the coronavirus might go away, experts say: Maybe never.The World Health Organization warned Wednesday that the new virus, which has infected 4.3 million people worldwide, may become endemic, just like the HIV virus, and that people may have to learn to live with it.It could stay embedded in …

Read more “WHO: Coronavirus ‘May Never Go Away’”

Colombia’s commerce regulator will be investigating whether Chinese-owned social media app TikTok complies with laws on the collection and treatment of children’s and adolescents’ personal data.The announcement Tuesday came four days after the Dutch Data Protection Authority (DPA) said it would begin looking into how TikTok handles the data of its millions of young users.TikTok …

Read more “Colombia, Netherlands to Probe TikTok’s Management of Children’s Data”

Spain – one of the nations hardest hit by the pandemic – is seeing its daily coronavirus death rate drop this week.  That is allowing a limited number of businesses to reopen after weeks of paralysis. Although business owners are happy to be open again, they continue to see their losses mount – and normality …

Read more “As Spain’s Death Rate Drops, its Economic Problems Rise”

The European Union Wednesday announced its plan to help European citizens salvage their summer vacations and resurrect Europe’s damaged tourism industry after months of coronavirus lockdowns.At a Brussels news conference, EU commissioners stressed safety as they announced their gradual, careful steps to restart travel and tourism among European countries.The commissioner’s over-arching advice is that EU …

Read more “EU Announces Plan to Reopen to Domestic Tourism”

Germany’s interior minister said Wednesday the country wants to end some COVID-19 checks at land borders by the middle of next month.Interior Minister Horst Seehofer told reporters Germany had set the goal of free travel in Europe by mid-June and would open borders with France, Luxembourg, Switzerland and Austria by Saturday.Seehofer said the plans are …

Read more “Germany Hopes to Open Borders by Mid-June”

The European Union unveiled Wednesday its plan to help citizens across the 27 nations salvage their summer vacations after months of tough coronavirus confinement and to hopefully resurrect Europe’s badly battered tourism industry. Around 150,000 people have died across Europe and Britain since the virus surfaced in northern Italy in February, but with the spread …

Read more “EU Unveils Its Plan to Save Summer Vacations”

Turkey is starting to ease COVID-19 restrictions, as the government claims success in containing the coronavirus. While infection and death rates are falling, concerns remain, the move may be premature, driven more by economic rather than health considerations. COVID-19 is the disease caused by the coronavirus.”May God gives us good business and protect us from …

Read more “Turkey’s Erdogan Eases COVID Restrictions Despite Complacency Fears”

Italy plans to reopen bars and restaurants after suffering one of the worst coronavirus outbreaks Europe has seen so far.  Getting around the country remains a concern, as social distancing guidelines all but forbid using mass transit.  VOA’s Arash Arabasadi reports that Italy’s capital built a special bike lane to keep commuters safe. …

The spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin has been hospitalized after testing positive for the coronavirus, according to Russian news agencies.     “Yes, I am sick. I am receiving treatment,” the Interfax news agency quoted Dmitry Peskov as saying Tuesday.     The 52-year-old Peskov said he last had a face-to-face meeting with Putin …

Read more “Putin’s Spokesman Peskov Hospitalized for Coronavirus”

Dutch authorities said Tuesday that five experienced surfers drowned when they went out in stormy weather off the coast of The Hague.      In a statement, the Dutch lifeguard service KNRM said the surfers were part of a group that entered the sea late Monday and likely could not deal with the combination of …

Read more “5 Surfers Drown in Rough Seas Off Dutch Coast”

In an effort to try to prevent importing new cases of the coronavirus, Spain is requiring people arriving from abroad to go into quarantine for two weeks. The country has started to emerge from a seven-week, strict lockdown after an explosion of cases made it one of the world’s COVID-19 hot spots. A health ministry order published Tuesday …

Read more “Spain Requires Visitors to Quarantine for 2 Weeks”