Pandemic Stresses European Safety-Net Programs; Organ Transplant Deliveries Harder Under Travel Restrictions

The Associated Press: Europe’s Social Welfare Net Shows Signs Of Wear From Virus
Europe’s extensive social welfare net is showing signs of fraying under economic strain from the coronavirus, as protests erupted for a second day in Spain Friday against layoffs by French carmaker Renault, while Italy’s chief central banker warned that “uncertainty is rife.” Further afield, while New Zealand had all but eradicated the coronavirus with just one person in the nation of 5 million known to be still infected, developments elsewhere were generally grim. India reported another record increase in cases and Pakistan a record number of deaths. (Charlton, Barry and Perry, 5/29)

The Associated Press: Travel Disruptions Challenge Global Transplant Deliveries
Over the past two months, as air travel ground to a halt, Mishel Zrian has crisscrossed the Atlantic and the United States dozens of times, sleeping in empty airports and unable to return home to see his family in Israel, all in a race against time to deliver life-saving transplants. Zrian is a courier hired by Israel’s Ezer Mizion bone marrow donor registry, which has had to perform logistical acrobatics to get its transplants to their destinations amid the travel disruptions caused by the pandemic. (Goldenberg, 5/29)

The Wall Street Journal: Plan To Save World’s Crops Lives In Norwegian Bunker 
Six hundred miles from the North Pole, on an island the size of West Virginia, at the end of a tunnel bored into a mountain, lies a vault filled with more than 1 million samples of seeds harvested from 6,374 species of plants grown in 249 locations around the globe. The collection, the largest of its kind, is intended to safeguard the genetic diversity of the crops that feed the world. If disaster wipes out a plant, seeds from the vault could be used to restore the species. If pests, disease or climate change imperil a food source, a resistant trait found among the collection could thwart the threat. (McGinty, 5/29)

The Associated Press: Communion Ritual Unchanged In Orthodox Church Despite Virus
One by one, the children and adults line up for the centuries-old ritual of Holy Communion, trying to keep a proper social distance. The priest dips a spoon into the chalice of bread and wine, which the faithful believe is the body and blood of Christ, and puts it into the mouth of the first person in line. Then, with a move that would alarm an epidemiologist, he dips the spoon back into the chalice and then into the next person’s mouth. Again and again, through the entire congregation. (Becatoros and Kantouris, 5/29)

The New York Times: Playing By The Rules: Dutch Leader Offers A Sober Contrast In A Brash Era
In an era of brash populists thumbing their noses at laws and customs, Mark Rutte, 53, the prime minister of the Netherlands and one of the longest-serving European leaders, believes in playing strictly by the rules. The Dutch electorate is so accustomed to his humble ways that few people blinked an eye when Mr. Rutte said this week that, in accordance with Dutch policies on the coronavirus, he had not visited his 96-year-old mother in a nursing home in the weeks before her death. (Erdbrink, 5/28)

The Associated Press: Hello And Welcome: Robot Waiters To The Rescue Amid Virus
You can always count on a robot for perfect timing. When Shaosong Hu saw robotic waiters serving food in China last fall, he knew exactly what he wanted for his restaurant in the Dutch beachside town of Renesse. He just didn’t have a clue how useful they would prove. The coronavirus pandemic has turned a whimsical idea into perhaps a window into a dystopian future where a human touch may make people cringe with fear, and a waiter clearing the table sends a customer tense with stress — only to be relieved by a soothing brush with plastic. (Furtula and Casert, 5/29)

The New York Times: Its Coronavirus Caseload Soaring, India Is Reopening Anyway
Its coronavirus cases are skyrocketing, putting it among the world’s most worrisome pandemic zones in recent weeks. Nonetheless, India is reopening, lifting its lockdown at what experts fear may be the worst time. Migrant workers are becoming infected at an alarmingly high rate, leading to fresh outbreaks in villages across northern India. Public hospitals in Mumbai are so overwhelmed that patients have taken to sleeping on cardboard in the hallways. (Schultz and Yasir, 5/29)

The Washington Post: How One French Town Made Going To The Beach Safe Again
In La Grande-Motte, a resort town in the south of France, a “static beach” has spawned, letting people sunbathe six feet apart. (5/29)