French actor Michel Piccoli, a prolific screen star who appeared in landmark films by directors such as Luis Bunuel – including in his Academy Award winning “The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie” —and Jean-Luc Godard, has died. He was 94.His family confirmed to French media Monday that he died last week, but they did not give a cause of death.Though less famous in the English-speaking world, in continental Europe and his native France Paris-born Piccoli was a stalwart of art house cinema.French movie star Michel Piccoli (L) stands next to prominent Egyptian movie critic Youssef Cherif Rizkallah at a press conference in Cairo, Egypt, Nov. 1987. (Photo: Diaa Bekheet)Beginning his career in the 1940s, he went on to make over 170 movies, working into his late eighties.His most memorable appearance came arguably during the French New Wave – starring opposite Brigitte Bardot in Godard’s 1963 masterpiece “Contempt,” with his dark hat and signature bushy eyebrows.But Piccoli’s performances for Europe’s most iconic directors will also be remembered, including for France’s Jean Renoir, Jacques Rivette and Jean-Pierre Melville, Britain’s Alfred Hitchcock and Spain’s Bunuel. For the Spanish director, Piccioli starred alongside Catherine Deneuve in the 1967 masterpiece “Belle de Jour” and in 1972’s “The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie,” which won the Best Foreign Film award at the Oscars in 1973.FILE – French actor Michel Piccoli talks with Swedish actress Liv Ullmann at the Cannes Film Festival, southern France, May 20, 1974.Despite starring in Hitchcock’s 1969 English-language espionage thriller “Topaz,” Piccoli’s career in Hollywood didn’t take off.In Europe, Piccoli won a host of accolades, including Best Actor in Cannes in 1980 for “A Leap In The Dark” by Marco Bellochio and a Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival in 1982 for “Strange Affair” by Pierre Granier-Deferre.The actor’s last major role was in 2011’s Nanni Moretti’s “We Have a Pope,” which premiered in competition at the Cannes Film Festival.Piccoli was married three times, to Éléonore Hirt, the singer Juliette Greco and finally to Ludivine Clerc. He had one daughter from his first marriage, Anne-Cordélia. Piccoli stayed with Clerc, whom he married in 1978, until his death. 
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Some schools in France have closed just a week after reopening, after students or staff tested positive for COVID-19, the education minister said Monday. Speaking to French radio RTL, French education minister Jean-Michel Blanquer confirmed that 70 new cases of the novel coronavirus were reported since 40,000 preschools and primary schools, roughly one-third of the country’s preschools and primary schools, opened last week. But Blanquer stood by the country’s decision to reopen schools, claiming that the relatively small proportion of schools being shuttered indicates how “strict” the measures and protocols around operating schools are. A teacher gives a lesson at the Cour de Lorraine elementary school in Mulhouse, eastern France, on its reopening day for pupils, May 18, 2020, as France eases lockdown measures taken to curb the spread of COVID-19.“This just illustrates the fact that we are strict … we are being prudent every time and enacting strict health protocols,” Blanquer said. The education minister emphasized the importance of children returning to school, saying education is “not secondary.” He did not specify how many of the positive tests were of students, teachers or staff. COVID-19 infections are rare in children, and theories that they may be asymptomatic carriers or super spreaders have largely been debunked. France has confirmed that nearly 180,000 cases of COVID-19 and just over 28,000 related deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.  
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A South Korean professional soccer club has apologized after being accused of putting sex dolls in empty seats during a match Sunday in Seoul.With stadiums empty as precautions against the spread of COVID-19, the Dalkom company offered to provide the management of FC Seoul with mannequins to help them fill their seats for the team’s first match Sunday and the team agreed. The company provided 30 mannequins in all – 28 female and two male.But during the televised match, some viewers noticed some of the female mannequins looked like sex dolls, and, in fact, carried advertisements for adult websites.In a statement, FC Seoul expressed “sincere remorse” over the controversy, and said they had been assured by the company they were using mannequins — not sex dolls — to mimic a home crowd during its 1-0 win over Gwangju FC at the Seoul World Cup stadium.FC Seoul said it was attempting to add “an element of fun” with the mannequins. 
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Observers say the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is using the coronavirus crisis to exploit prevention measures to consolidate its control. Syria’s health ministry has so far reported 59 cases of COVID-19, with three deaths, accounting only for people in areas under Assad’s control. But Western intelligence officials believe the official tally is far too low. Concerns are growing that the pandemic could devastate crowded displacement camps and conflict-ridden regions in Syria’s northwest and northeast.In this photo released on April 18, 2020, by the Syrian official news agency SANA, shows a Syrian woman with her sons wearing masks due to the coronavirus, as they walk on a street in Damascus, Syria.Sandy Alkoutami and Khulood Fahim, junior fellows at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, are tracking the Assad government’s response to COVID-19. From what they have seen, they say the coronavirus may be killing Syrians, but it seems to have boosted the government’s control by creating political openings for Bashar al-Assad. Sandy Alkoutami tells VOA that the Syrian regime has practiced misinformation and intimidation over COVID-19 from the start. “It sought to control and severely limit the amount of information about the virus in the country, the reporting, and the number of cases confirmed,” said Alkoutami. “Even with the increase of cases from Iran, which has a very close relationship with Syrians in the country as well as the regime, the Assad regime continued to deny any cases. It threatened hospitals and doctors that cited coronavirus cases. It deployed members of the secret police in hospitals across regime-held territories to control and oversee the narratives of coronavirus discussions and cases across hospitals.” Alkoutami and Fahim report a U.S.-based cybersecurity firm uncovered that Syrian authorities have planted spyware in citizens’ cell phones through a coronavirus prevention application. This new application, called “Covid19,” is a digital thermometer that serves as a decoy while the encrypted AndoServer malware spies on the user.   “There are a trove of malicious apps that are embedded with spyware that secretly spy on the users. One has a fake thermometer embedded in it.  It’s just a disguise while the malware is secretly spying on users. It points to the regime’s ability to infiltrate various spaces, not just physical and hospital ones, but also the cyberspace in a time of crisis,” said Alkoutami. 
 FILE – In this March 24, 2020 file photo, workers spray disinfectant to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, on a street lined with billboards showing Syrian President Bashar Assad, in Qamishli, Syria.Syria’s government controls the country’s biggest cities and says it has imposed several preventative measures to combat the virus including a night-time curfew, restricted travel between provinces, shut schools and universities, and banned gatherings at mosques and other public events. Only 64 percent of public hospitals are fully functioning and there is a shortage of trained staff, according to the World Health Organization. Syria’s health ministry says it is taking needed measures “to guarantee health security of the citizens and curb the infections.” Meanwhile, areas outside of Assad’s control in the northwest and northeast are vulnerable.  FILE – This April 19, 2020 photo shows a large refugee camp on the Syrian side of the border with Turkey, near the town of Atma, in Idlib province, Syria.Medics in in Idlib told the Washington, D.C.-based group, Refugees International, that they will be ill-prepared to handle a severe outbreak among the three million Syrians sheltering in the country’s last rebel-held area where the regime has bombed hospitals. Kurds in the northeast have set up a 120-bed hospital and carried out very limited COVID-19 and antibody testing, but fears remain over a lack of medical supplies where there are overcrowded displacement camps. 
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It’s easy to get a bit paranoid during these times of pandemic. Real estate agents in the U.S. say some of their clients are so worried, they’re looking for a bit of extra security. Lesia Bakalets has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. Camera: Yuriy Zakrevskiy  
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Do American workers need more financial help from the government? That’s the question being argued by U.S. lawmakers as another coronavirus relief bill now goes to the Senate. Many Democrats and Republicans have very different views on what it is going to take to help the U.S. economy after it was devastated by the pandemic. VOA’s Elizabeth Lee has the details.Camera: Elizabeth Lee  Produced by: Elizabeth Lee 
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На українському міжбанківському валютному триває тенденція останніх тижнів – повільне посилення гривні, яке відбувається під контролем Національного банку України.

За даними Finance.ua, станом на 10:45 за Києвом котирування становлять 26 гривень 58–60 копійок за долар, це на три копійки менше за рівень закриття торгів минулої п’ятниці, 15 травня.

Курс НБУ на 18 травня становить 26 гривень 64 копійки за долар.
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U.S. President Donald Trump has called his predecessor Barack Obama an “incompetent president” following Obama’s criticism of the U.S. response to the coronavirus pandemic. Obama told college graduates in a live-streamed speech on Saturday that “this pandemic has fully, finally torn back the curtain on the idea that so many of the folks in charge know what they’re doing.” He did not mention anyone by name.   Asked about the remark on Sunday, Trump said:  “Look, he was an incompetent president, that’s all I can say. Grossly incompetent.” The U.S. has become the global epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, with more than 1.5 million confirmed cases and close to 90,000 deaths. Critics have accused the administration of exacerbating the situation by ignoring the gravity of the outbreak in the crucial early weeks. Earlier Sunday, the top U.S. health official rejected the charge that the government had failed its people.  “It could have been vastly, vastly worse,” Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told CNN. He said the U.S. over the last two months was “able to flatten the curve” of the number of coronavirus cases in order to give health care workers a chance to deal with the onslaught of patients needing care. Trump said on Twitter, “Doing REALLY well, medically, on solving the CoronaVirus situation (Plague!). It will happen!”Doing REALLY well, medically, on solving the CoronaVirus situation (Plague!). It will happen!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) A youngster approaches a team of New York City police officers as they walk with face masks to hand out to anyone who needs or asks for one during the current coronavirus outbreak, Sunday, May 17, 2020, in Brooklyn Bridge Park in New York.Most of the country’s 50 states are beginning to relax restrictions on businesses, while urging residents to continue keeping a social distance of at least two meters between people, wearing masks in public, and avoiding congregations.  With millions of Americans suffering from cabin fever after two months of confinement at home, the reopening of bars and restaurants in some Midwestern states and beaches in the coastal states have attracted crowds as if there were no remaining health concerns from the pandemic.  The White House continues to blame China for the global pandemic. The White House trade adviser Peter Navarro reiterated Trump’s blame of China for the advance of virus from the central Chinese city of Wuhan to Europe and the United States.  Trump also accused the World Health Organization for siding with China and has suspended the U.S. contribution to the Geneva-based U.N. agency. “Yes, I do blame the Chinese,” Navarro told ABC News’ “This Week” show on Sunday. He said Beijing, “behind the shield of the World Health Organization — for two months — hid the virus from the world.”  Both China and the WHO have rejected the accusation. 
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Iran is warning the United States against threatening its tankers carrying fuel to Venezuela, where gasoline and oil are in desperately short supply despite Venezuela being a major oil production center. As many as five Iranian ships loaded with gasoline are believed to be on their way to the South American country. U.S. sanctions forbid Iran from selling oil and the U.S. is also pressuring all countries against supplying fuel to Venezuela, as part of Washington’s efforts to drive President Nicolas Maduro from power. Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif wrote a letter Sunday to United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres about Tehran’s concerns over whatever action the U.S. might take. Iran “reserves its right to take all appropriate and necessary measures and decisive action…to secure its legitimate rights and interests against such bullying policies and unlawful practices,” Zarif wrote. “This hegemonic gunboat diplomacy seriously threatens freedom of international commerce and navigation and the free flow of energy. Zarif said Iran would consider any “coercive measures” by the U.S. as a “dangerous escalation.”  Iranian officials delivered a similar message to the Swiss ambassador in Tehran who handles all U.S. interests in Iran.Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin brief reporters about additional sanctions placed on Iran, at the White House, Jan. 10, 2019, in Washington.U.S. officials have not yet said specifically how they plan to respond if Iran is sending gasoline to Venezuela. But the State Department, Treasury, and Coast Guard warned all global shipping companies and governments not to help Iran, or anyone else, dodge sanctions. U.S. President Donald Trump re-imposed sanctions on Iran when he pulled the U.S. out of the 2015 nuclear deal, leaving the Iranian economy in shambles. The U.S. has also imposed a variety of sanctions against Venezuela, whose economy was destroyed by a drop in global oil prices, corruption, and Maduro’s failed socialist policies. The sanctions have made it difficult for Venezuela to send crude oil to refineries. “We have to sell our oil and we have access to its paths,” Iranian cabinet spokesman Ali Rabiei says. “Iran and Venezuela are two independent nations that have had trade with each other, and they will.” 
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The first named tropical storm of the 2020 season is moving toward North Carolina after drenching eastern Florida.  The storm, named Arthur, formed in the Atlantic Ocean two weeks before the start of the official hurricane season.It swirled around the eastern coast of Florida last week, dumping a heavy rainfall on the area between Miami and Fort Lauderdale before moving north. Meteorologist say that Arthur will brush past North Carolina’s Outer Banks islands on Monday, bringing rain and high winds to the state’s coast.Officials have issued a warning asking residents in the eastern parts of North Carolina to be prepared for winds of up to 60 kilometers per hour starting late Sunday up until Monday morning. The winds could be strong enough to break some trees and cause some power outages.  But meteorologists do not expect the storm to make landfall.Arthur will bring dangerous waves and, together with the rainfall, they could flood low-lying areas of the coastal region. People are advised to stay away from the ocean.Weather officials say that as the system moves across the warm waters of the Gulf Stream, it could build up strength.  Sea surface are above the average across most of the Atlantic but are cooler in the North Atlantic.Arthur is expected to push away from the U.S. Coast after passing by North Carolina, in the middle of the week.In Florida, rains fell at the rate of almost 5 centimeters per hour, causing widespread flooding in Miami and the surrounding area. A severe thunderstorm with gusty winds and lightening hit the metro area again Saturday evening.The U.S. hurricane season typically starts June 1, but there have been exceptions. Last year, subtropical storm Andrea formed south of Bermuda a week before Memorial Day, but did not last long.   In 2018, tropical storm Alberto made a Memorial Day landfall along the Florida Panhandle, and made it all the way to lower Michigan in the north before dispersing.   Some tropical storms have formed in April. 
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Police in northwestern Pakistan have arrested two men on charges they murdered two teenage female relatives after a video was posted online of the victims allegedly acting intimately with a man.The brief mobile phone video showed a young man recording himself with three girls and reportedly kissing them. An area police officer said Sunday the girls, aged 16 and 18, were shot dead last week in the deeply conservative North Waziristan district, bordering Afghanistan.
 
Mohammad Nawaz said the suspects under detention are the father of the first victim and the brother of the second victim. He said the men had “confessed” to their crime “in the name of (family) honor,” telling police the slain girls were later buried in their native village.
 
The video was apparently shot nearly a year ago, but it only recently emerged on social media and went viral, the Pakistani English language newspaper Dawn reported.  
 
Police said they were searching for the third girl and the man in the video to ensure they do not suffer the same fate. The two were believed to be still alive, according to initial police investigations.
 
The Pakistani district is a predominantly ethnic Pashtun region where women often have few rights and live under a strict “honor” code, with limited freedom to venture out of their homes without being accompanied by a male relative.  
 
Despite being declared illegal four years ago, so-called incidents of “honor killings” continue to claim the lives of hundreds of women in Pakistan every year for allegedly bringing shame on their families.  
 
Pakistan’s leading independent rights watchdog in a statement Sunday condemned the “barbaric” murder of the teenage girls. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) demanded the perpetrators be brought to justice and steps be taken to ensure the security of the remaining people featured in the video scandal.
 
“Antiquated — and lethal — notions that ‘honor’ resides in women’s bodies and actions still prevail across Pakistan, and it will take far more than laws to effect a change when perpetrators of ‘honor’ crimes continue to act with impunity,” the statement said.
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Авіакомпанія «Міжнародні авіалінії України» закрила продаж квитків на міжнародні рейси до 1 липня, повідомив президент компанії Євгеній Дихне у Facebook.

«Ми аналізуємо те, що відбувається в країнах нашої потенційної маршрутної мережі, а також ситуацію в Україні (право на свободу переміщення по туристичних візах і загальний економічний стан населення країни). Наш прогноз плачевний, і Україна є частиною глобального тренду», – написав Дихне.

Він прогнозує, що авіаринок повернеться до рівня планів на 2020 рік не раніше, ніж у 2023 році. Цьогоріч дохід авіакомпаній має знизитися на 314 мільярдів доларів.

Міжнародні авіаперевезення зазнають збитків через викликані коронавірусом обмеження на пересування. За даними Центру системних досліджень при Університеті Джонса Гопкінса, у майже 4,7 мільйона людей у всьому світі виявили коронавірусну хворобу COVID-19.

ІНТЕРАКТИВНА МАПА: Розповсюдження COVID-19 у cвіті
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The Chinese ambassador to Israel was found dead Sunday inside his home in Herzilya, according to Israel’s foreign affairs ministry. Du Wei, the 57-year-old ambassador, assumed his post in Israel in February. Initial reports say the ambassador died of natural causes or health reasons. China’s foreign ministry spokeswoman tweeted her condolences for Du without giving details about his death.Deepest condolences to my colleage Ambassador Du Wei to Isreal!— Hua Chunying 华春莹 (@SpokespersonCHN) May 17, 2020The ambassador is survived by his wife and son, both of whom were outside of Israel at the time of his death.
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Five Iranian tankers likely carrying at least $45.5 million worth of gasoline and similar products are now sailing to Venezuela, part of a wider deal between the two U.S.-sanctioned nations amid heightened tensions between Tehran and Washington.The tankers’ voyage come after Venezuela’s socialist leader Nicolás Maduro already turned to Iran for help in flying in chemicals needed at an aging refinery amid a gasoline shortage, a symptom of the wider economic and political chaos gripping Latin America’s one-time largest oil producer.For Iran, the tankers represent a way to bring money into its cash-starved Shiite theocracy and put its own pressure on the U.S., which under President Donald Trump has pursued maximalist campaigns against both nations.But the strategy invites the chance of a renewed confrontation between the Islamic Republic and America both in the Persian Gulf, which saw a series of escalating incidents often involving the oil industry last year, and wider afield.“This is like a new one for everyone,” said Capt. Ranjith Raja, an analyst who tracks oil shipments by sea at the data firm Refinitiv, of the gasoline shipments. “We haven’t seen anything like this before.”All the vessels involved belong to Iranian state-owned or state-linked companies, flying under the Iranian flag. Since a pressure campaign on Iranian vessels began, notably with the temporary seizure of an Iranian tanker last year by Gibraltar, the country’s ships have been unable to fly flags of convenience of other nations, a common practice in international shipping.The ships all appear to have been loaded from the Persian Gulf Star Refinery near Bandar Abbas, Iran, which makes gasoline, Raja said. The ships then traveled around the Arabian Peninsula and through the Suez Canal into the Mediterranean Sea, according to data collected from the ship’s Automatic Identification System, or AIS, which acts as a tracking beacon.One of the vessels, the Clavel, listed its AIS destination as Caracas beginning May 12, according to log data from ship-tracking website MarineTraffic.com. The vessel later changed its destination as “TO ORDER” two days later, though the ship remains on a route that will see it leave the Mediterranean Sea and be in position to sail onto Venezuela.Another tanker, the Forest, changed its AIS destination to “S. AMERICA TO ORDER” on May 14.Three others, the Faxon, the Fortune and the Petunia, all appear on routes that could take them to Venezuela. Given the crushing U.S. sanctions imposed on Iran, also-sanctioned Venezuela appears to be the country that would have nothing to lose from accepting the shipments. Raja said Refinitiv had no data on any Iranian gasoline shipment ever going to South America before.TankerTrackers.com, a website focused on the oil trade at sea, first reported the ships likely were heading to Venezuela.The capacity of the five ships is some 175,000 metric tons. On the open market, the gasoline and product carried within them would be worth at least $45.5 million, though Iran likely reached a discounted, non-cash deal with Caracas given the circumstances the two nations face, Raja said.As news about the tankers grew, an Iranian news agency called Nour, believed to have ties to the country’s Supreme National Security Council, published an item on its website early Saturday trying to link a U.S. military exercise in the Caribbean to the tankers. That council includes members of Iran’s civilian government, its military and its paramilitary, hard-line Revolutionary Guard.“If the United States, like pirates, intends to create insecurity on international highways, it will take a dangerous risk that will certainly not go unnoticed,” the agency warned in its brief report.The Nour item, later picked up by other semiofficial news agencies in Iran, follows a pattern by Tehran of issuing veiled threats through such reports even as officials don’t directly acknowledge them.Quoted by a website affiliated to Iranian state television, Cabinet spokesman Ali Rabiei on Saturday said he did not have any information on the ships.“We have to sell our oil and we have access to its paths,” Rabiei said. “Iran and Venezuela are two independent nations that have had trade with each other and they will” in the future.But that all changed late Sunday, when Iran’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif wrote a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres saying the U.S. “piracy” threatened the “disruption of Iran’s fuel transmission to Venezuela.” Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s deputy foreign minister, issued a similar warning to the Swiss ambassador in Tehran, who looks out for American interests there.It remains unclear how the U.S. will respond to the tankers. On Thursday, the U.S. Treasury, State Department and Coast Guard issued an advisory warning the maritime industry of illegal shipping and sanctions-dodging tactics by countries including Iran.The advisory repeated an earlier promise of up to $15 million for information disrupting the Guard’s finances. It also warned anyone “knowingly engaged in a significant transaction for the purchase, acquisition, sale, transport or marketing of petroleum” faced U.S. sanctions.The U.S. State Department and the Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Analysts already have been warning about the growing chance for a renewed confrontation between the U.S. and Iran, whose government downplayed and then struggled for weeks with the coronavirus pandemic.In April, the U.S. accused Iran of conducting “dangerous and harassing” maneuvers near American warships in the northern Persian Gulf. Iran also had been suspected of briefly seizing a Hong Kong-flagged oil tanker just before that.Iran seized ships last summer and the U.S. accuses it of attacking tankers in the region amid tensions over Trump unilaterally withdrawing America from Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers in 2018.
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