Several rights groups including Amnesty International urged Algerian authorities Thursday to free imprisoned journalist Khaled Drareni and end the “targeted harassment of independent media.”Drareni, the founder of the Casbah Tribune website, is a correspondent for French-language channel TV5 Monde and press freedom group Reporters Without Borders (RSF).He was arrested March 7 while covering an anti-government protest, accused of “inciting an unarmed gathering and damaging national integrity.” He was later released but then rearrested.”The authorities must immediately and unconditionally release Khaled and end the outrageous prosecution” against him, Heba Morayef, Amnesty’s Middle East and North Africa director, said in a statement.”He is being punished simply for daring to do his journalistic work independently and bravely,” she said. “Journalism should never be a punishable crime.”At the end of March, Drareni was ordered to be held in pre-trial detention, and is currently incarcerated in the Kolea prison, west of the capital, Algiers.Journalist’s trial postponedAnother Algerian journalist, Sofiane Merakchi, has been held on remand since last September. A correspondent for Lebanese channel Al Mayadeen, he is accused of “supplying images of protests” to foreign media. His trial has been postponed until May 21.Ahead of World Press Freedom Day on Sunday, Amnesty called for an end to “the unjustified restrictions imposed on journalists and independent media in Algeria.”This month, authorities have blocked three news websites that have covered Algeria’s anti-government protests.Two of them, Maghreb Emergent and Radio M, are accused of “defamation and insult” against Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune.A young blogger and supporter of the anti-government “Hirak” protest movement was placed in pre-trial detention in Setif east of Algiers on Monday for sharing memes mocking authorities and religion, according to his lawyer.”We call on authorities to free the journalists Khaled Drareni, Sofiane Merakchi and the blogger Walid Kechida, and end the blocking of news websites,” Wadih Al-Asmar, head of Brussels-based watchdog EuroMed Rights, said in a statement.Algeria ranks 146th out of 180 countries on RSF’s world FILE – Police detain a protester participating in a rally organized by journalists against alleged censorship of coverage of protests against a fifth term for then-President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, in Algiers, Algeria, Feb. 28, 2019.Weekly demonstrationsWeekly anti-government protests have rocked the North African country for over a year and stopped only because of the novel coronavirus outbreak, with the authorities banning marches — although the opposition had already called a halt to its street-based activities of its own accord.According to prisoners’ support group CNLD, 51 people are currently detained over links to the Hirak protest movement.Earlier this week, Amnesty urged the authorities to end “arbitrary prosecutions aimed at silencing Hirak activists and journalists” during the pandemic, and called for the release of detainees.The rights group said Thursday that authorities were endangering detainees’ health, “given the risks of a COVID-19 outbreak in prisons and places of detention.”
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 Some of the millions of American workers laid off because of the coronavirus are beginning to face a tough choice — return to work and risk infection, or stay home and risk losing unemployment payments.
The decision is most pressing in states where governors have started allowing businesses such as restaurants to reopen with social-distancing restrictions.
Tyler Price, 26, was called back to his job at Del Frisco’s Grille in the Nashville suburb of Brentwood. Tennessee allowed restaurants to open dining rooms at 50% capacity, with servers wearing masks and being tested for fever.
But Price, who has yet to receive any unemployment benefits, is wrestling with what do. He said he is “highly susceptible” to respiratory illness and was hospitalized with pneumonia as a child.
“I know what it feels like to be in a hospital, to be drowning in your own lungs,” said Price, who moved in with his mother near St. Louis after getting laid off. “It’s horrifying. It’s terrible. I don’t want to find myself there.”
He said waiting tables “is impossible to do under social distancing guidelines,” and he would prefer to draw unemployment payments.
On Thursday, the Labor Department reported that the business shutdowns and stay-at-home orders caused by the pandemic have led 30 million Americans to file for unemployment insurance, or roughly 1 of every 6 workers.
The design of the unemployment system adds to the pressure. If an employer calls back laid-off workers, they must report to work or are likely to lose their benefits.
That’s because unemployment insurance is designed to tide people over until they can get back to a job, said Michele Evermore, a senior policy analyst with the National Employment Law Project in New York.
“An unemployed worker cannot refuse suitable work and still continue to collect unemployment insurance,” Evermore said. “Presumably, the job you used to have is suitable.”
Fear of getting sick or worries that an employer isn’t providing adequate infection protection are generally not reasons someone can file for benefits. The latter concern is getting more complicated because some businesses are lobbying to keep employees and customers from suing them over coronavirus transmission.
Lacey Ward, a hairstylist in Omaha, Nebraska, filed for unemployment benefits in mid-March and is still waiting for the first payment. She’s been forced to drain her family’s savings and feels increasing pressure to return to work. Still, she is worried that Gov. Pete Ricketts’ decision to let salons reopen Monday could put her, her husband and two young sons at risk.
Ward, 38, said she would prefer to collect unemployment until the risk from the virus subsides and it’s clearer whether she can offer services like shampooing. She co-owns the salon but makes money only off her own clients.
“I would rather be safe than sorry,” Ward said. “We are not an essential field. I haven’t had my hair done in three or four months at this point. But what does it matter? Who are people seeing?”
Ward said she’s so concerned about spreading the virus that she plans to change clothes and wash her hair before she returns home.
“We’re playing with fire, physically touching another person,” she said.
Some workers are ready to go back. Kathryn Marsilli, 33, is a manager and server at The Collins Quarter restaurant in Savannah, Georgia.
She knows she may make less at work because of reduced business and would like a way for those with fears of the virus to stay home. But she said she wants to go back out of loyalty to the owner and because she’s not interested in trying to maximize her unemployment benefits.
“My future where I work is more important to me than trying to get what I can now,” Marsilli said.
Other workers may be tempted to hold on to unemployment. Especially in some low-wage regions, laid-off workers may receive more money with the state benefit and the additional $600 a week provided by Congress than they were on the job. The federal boost ends July 31.
Georgia labor officials are trying to balance the needs of business owners with the genuine concerns of workers. State Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said he’s telling businesses that are easing into reopening and don’t need all their employees to call in those who are willing to work and leave the others to the unemployment system.
Georgia also is allowing people to earn up to $300 a week before it begins to eat into their state unemployment benefit, meaning workers could earn more than $1,200 a week in total.
“It was a way we could get more people back to work at reduced hours,” Butler said. “Otherwise, why would you go back to work at all?”
Jennifer Holliday is a manager at a restaurant in Oklahoma City called Zio’s Italian Kitchen, which plans to reopen its dining room Friday. She said getting furloughed employees to return has been difficult. Many are not returning her phone calls or messages.
“There are some who want to just ride it out (until July) and take the unemployment,” Holliday said. “They don’t even have to apply” for other jobs.
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Євро зміцнився на п’ять копійок, свідчать дані на сайті Національного банку України.

4 травня офіційна вартість євро становитиме 29 гривень 29 копійок.

Долар втратив одну копійку й коштуватиме 26 гривень 96 копійок.
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Fake news about the coronavirus can do real harm. Polygraph.info is spotlighting fact-checks from other reliable sources here​.Daily DebunkClaim: The first clinical trial on remdesivir in treating COVID-19 proved a failure.Verdict: FalseRead the full story:
Despite the lifting of most strict lockdown laws, many stores are still shut, restaurants are restricted to takeaway and even when citizens go outside they still wear protective equipment and try to avoid each other.
— CNN, April 30​
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The U.N. refugee agency is warning of potentially devastating consequences for millions in South Sudan if the COVID-19 pandemic takes root and spreads uncontrollably throughout the country.South Sudan, the world’s youngest nation, was mired in war for decades before it gained independence in 2011 and for most of the time since.  Years of conflict, floods, a recent swarm of locusts and other natural disasters have left millions of people unable to meet their most basic needs.     The U.N. refugee agency warns this weakened population might be unable to ward off the coronavirus pandemic.    To date, says UNHCR spokesman Babar Baloch, only 35 cases of the disease have been confirmed in South Sudan.  But if the virus spreads rapidly, he tells VOA this situation could quickly turn into a humanitarian crisis.     “The threat of COVID, the pandemic, this would have deadly consequences for people where health structures are very weak, where 1.7 million people are displaced,” Baloch said.  “The communal fighting is a real threat today.”     A member of the South Sudanese Ministry of Health Rapid Response Team questions to a woman for testing at her home as she recently contacted with a confirmed COVID-19 coronavirus case in Juba, South Sudan on April 14, 2020.Baloch said the international community must step forward urgently and do something to prevent this from happening.  He said the country’s health facilities have been largely damaged or destroyed during years of warfare.He said internally displaced people are living in crowded sites with poor sanitary conditions.  He said many people lack access to clean water and hygiene facilities.   Baloch said preparations to tackle the pandemic should be taken now while the numbers of infections are still low.    “This is the time that we want to use to put in place infrastructure or support authorities and people on the ground that they are well prepared in case the numbers are going to go up … But let us not forget that the way this pandemic has been spreading,” Baloch said. “If you are not prepared we could see many lives in danger in South Sudan.”    The South Sudanese government has a high-level task force leading the battle against the coronavirus.     The task force said Wednesday that 28 people newly infected with the virus have been quarantined. It is urging South Sudanese to follow precautions meant to limit the virus’s spread.  Meanwhile, the U.N. refugee agency, working with South Sudanese authorities, has constructed five emergency treatment centers. Five more are set to be built in the coming weeks.     The agency says this and other assistance programs it is operating on behalf of refugees and internally displaced people are costly.   The UNHCR is appealing to international donors to be more generous than they have been so far, noting it has received only 11% of the $179 million it needs to meet the humanitarian needs of people inside South Sudan.  
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Національний банк України встановив опівдні 30 квітня довідкове значення курсу 26 гривень 97 копійок за долар, таким же є і офіційний курс на сьогодні.

На українському міжбанківському валютному ринку після ранкового зростання котирувань долара знову посилюється гривня. Станом на 13:10 торги відбуваються на рівні 26 гривень 92–95 копійок за долар, свідчать дані Finance.ua.

Міністр фінансів України Сергій Марченко минулого тижня назвав доцільною «поступову девальвацію гривні». «Однак політика курсоутворення – це компетенція виключно НБУ», – сказав Марченко.
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North Korea remains silent on the whereabouts and condition of its leader, Kim Jong Un, more than two weeks after he failed to appear at a major celebration in Pyongyang. The silence has helped fuel global rumors that Kim is sick or even dead. VOA’s Bill Gallo explains what we know about Kim’s status and why it matters. Yass Monem and Park Chin contributed.
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Верховна Рада підтримала розгляд за скороченою процедурою закону про банки, який зокрема, унеможливлює повернення «Приватбанку» колишньому власникові Ігорю Коломойському. «За» проголосували 255 народних депутатів.

Таким чином депутати можуть не розглядати 16 тисяч правок, поданих до законопроєкту.

Спрощену процедуру розгляду парламент застосовує вперше. Відповідні зміни до регламенту були внесені, щоб не розглядати усі 16 тисяч правок, адже це б суттєво затримало схвалення законопроєкту.

27 квітня комітет Верховної Ради з питань фінансів після кількаденного розгляду усіх правок рекомендував законопроєкт на розгляд.

Закон про банки є однією з умов для співпраці України з Міжнародним валютним фондом.
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But if you are going to be waylaid, then the Mountain State, which glories in its self-description as wild and wonderful, is an excellent place to contemplate one’s place in a World turned upside down. West Virginia, a scenic, slower-paced state in the tree-covered Appalachian Mountains, has been lightly touched in comparison with its neighbors — it was the last U.S. state to record a coronavirus case.  
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На українському міжбанківському валютному ринку 30 квітня долар частково відіграє втрати попереднього дня коли американська валюта подешевшала до рівня менш як 27 гривень за долар.

За даними Finance.ua, станом на 11:10 котирування становлять 26 гривень 98 копійок – 27 гривень 1 копійка за долар.

«Попит дещо зріс, що підтягнуло котирування вгору. Всі поспішають закрити свої операції перед кінцем місяця», – так оцінюють перебіг торгів експерти сайту «Мінфін».

Міністр фінансів України Сергій Марченко минулого тижня назвав доцільною «поступову девальвацію гривні». «Однак політика курсоутворення – це компетенція виключно НБУ», – сказав Марченко.
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