Azerbaijan’s government has been aggressive, at least, in taking advantage of the crisis to attack its political opposition. In a March 19 speech, Aliyev openly threatened opposition figures, calling them a “fifth column” that was taking advantage of coronavirus to sow panic. He warned that they may have to be “isolated” as a result
Rising coronavirus infections aren’t only testing Europe’s national governments to their limits but also straining European Union solidarity with the governments of member states shrugging off pleas for greater coordination. Instead, national governments have been paying little heed to Brussels and are pursuing their own ways of containing the virus and coping with the economic fallout, say diplomats and analysts
Turkey’s main city – Istanbul – is at the center of the country’s efforts to control the spread of the coronavirus. Almost 40 people have died in Turkey and the virus has infected more than 15-hundred people. Authorities are now ramping up restrictions, closing schools, shuttering entertainment venues and even halting prayers at mosques. As Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul, the city is learning to adapt to a new way of life
Los Angeles authorities have announced that all restaurants, bars and amusement parks will be closing amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Locals are spending their time in huge lines in grocery stores. But food is not the only thing people have been stocking up on in California – there are also lines in front of some gun stores
Azi Lhundup (Azhen Nengzhou) was found dead March 15 in a waiting room at the Sichuan provice Hongyan No.1 Police Station, where he was an official, according to Chinese state media
A village in northwestern Pakistan is under lockdown after a 50-year-old man became the first recorded coronavirus-related fatality in the country. Saadat Khan, who had an underlying heart condition, returned ill from a pilgrimage to Mecca. Coronavirus cases in Pakistan have soared to over 900 and there have now been seven recorded deaths
Particularly worrying is the situation of the overcrowded Congolese prisons, defined as “real places of daily death due to famine and lack of medical treatment. Prisoners survive only thanks to volunteers and food supplies from their families; given that, due to Covid-19, visits are no longer allowed in prisons, the NDSCI fears a massacre of prisoners in the very near future”
Zimbabwe’s unemployment rate is at around 85 percent, say independent economists. Thirty-five year old Farai Chitengwa told VOA via WhatsApp that for the past last 10 years on a good month he gets between $700 and $800 from soccer betting. It is his only source of income
This week, thousands of U.S. schools closed as officials sought to contain the new coronavirus. But the move presents new challenges for families who rely on the schools’ free meals and who don’t have the technology needed for their children to study at home
After the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv closed its subway system due to the coronavirus, a service matching drivers with people who need a lift began to flourish — apparently contradicting social distancing measures. Elsewhere in the city, other innovative means of dealing with the new situation of living in lockdown were also emerging