New world news from Time: Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin Tests Positive for Coronavirus

(MOSCOW) — Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin says he has tested positive for the new coronavirus and has told President Vladimir Putin he will self-isolate.

First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov will temporarily perform Mishustin’s duties, but the prime minister said Thursday that he would stay in touch on key issues.

Mishustin, 54, was named prime minister in January.

During a video call, Putin voiced hope that Mishustin would continue taking part in drafting policies to shore up the Russian economy, which has been hurt by the virus pandemic. In Russia, the prime minister oversees the economy and answers to the president.

It was not immediately clear when Putin last met with Mishustin in person. The Russian president has minimized meetings and switched to holding video conferences with officials during the pandemic.

New world news from Time: A German Photographer Captures Ordinary People Adapting to Life Under Lockdown

When Ingmar Björn Nolting saw his grandmother in early April, it was from a distance of five meters. Roswitha Erler, 80, lives in the north-eastern German town of Minden and has been battling breast cancer—putting her at high risk of severe symptoms if she catches the coronavirus. “It was strange not being able to hug her,” says Nolting, who took his grandmother’s portrait outside her home. “The next time I can do that, I’ll really appreciate it.”

Inside Erler’s doorway hangs a sign that reads “I’m staying at home.” She was born five years after World War II ended, and told Nolting that life during the coronavirus pandemic feels similar to life during the post war years: everyone must stick together and do their part to keep Germany stable.

Taking his grandmother’s photo was one of the most challenging tasks in Nolting’s latest project. For the past month, the 24-year-old photographer has been traveling around Germany under strict precautions to document how different groups of people, from medical workers to asylum seekers to couples separated by newly erected border fences, have adapted to life in lockdown and sought to find some normalcy and creativity in these times.

Ingmar Björn Nolting—DOCKS CollectiveThe closed border between the German village of Sigmarszell and the Austrian village of Hohenweiler on April 18.

Ingmar Björn Nolting—DOCKS CollectiveEaster services are held at a drive-in cinema in Düsseldorf on April 10, as church services have been prohibited throughout Germany since March 16.

Ingmar Björn Nolting—DOCKS CollectiveMohamed and Saleh, both from Syria, photographed during quarantine at a refugee reception center in Suhl on March 27. More than 500 residents in the center have been under quarantine since March 13, after one resident was confirmed to have coronavirus.

Ingmar Björn Nolting—DOCKS CollectiveEvery Sunday, members of a church brass band “Posaunenchor Essingen” play at the same time around the town Essingen, as they cannot meet in person. Andrea and Rainer Zube, pictured here on April 19, play in a meadow.

Germany recorded its first case of coronavirus on January 21. More than three months on, there have been 160,059 confirmed infections and 6,314 deaths, according to April 29 data from Johns Hopkins University. Although Germany is Europe’s second largest country, with a population of 84 million people, it has managed to keep its outbreak relatively under control compared to its neighbors. Widespread testing and strict lockdown measures have meant Germany’s death rate is far below France, Spain, Italy and the U.K., which have each lost more than 20,000 citizens.

From March 16, Germany’s public life started to shut down. The country sealed off its borders with France, Germany and Switzerland on March 16, while Chancellor Angela Merkel urged people to stay at home and banned church, synagogue and mosque services. Days later, non-essential shops and restaurants were shut and gatherings of three or more people were barred. Under Germany’s 16-state federal system, only state and local governments can impose curfews. In some states, a full curfew was introduced, banning people from leaving their homes with a few exceptions.

For Nolting, the gravity of the situation hit when Merkel gave a rare television address on March 18. “This is serious,” she said, as the number of confirmed infections hit 5,800. “Since the Second World War—no challenge to our nation has demanded such a degree of common and united action.”

“That’s when I understood it was going to be very different from everything else I’ve experienced,” Nolting says. It’s also when the 24 year old photographer decided to document how life in Germany was changing, driven by a “need to visually document this in a more comprehensive, personal way.”

Ingmar Björn Nolting—DOCKS CollectiveHospital beds are set up on April 4 at a new hospital for treating coronavirus in an exhibition hall at the Hannover Messe trade fair in Hannover. Five hundred beds will be available across two halls.

Ingmar Björn Nolting—DOCKS CollectiveMarkus Küstner, an undertaker, is seen on April 17 before a funeral in the mourning hall of a cemetery in Dachsenhausen. According to official guidelines, no more than 10 people are allowed to attend a burial and mourners must keep a distance of at least five feet from one another.

Ingmar Björn Nolting—DOCKS CollectiveMichaela Schenker and her son Lukas take a walk through a forest near the village Ellenberg on April 19. Lukas lives in a home for people with mental disabilities and was not allowed to have visitors due to the pandemic. After developing symptoms of depression, his mother was able to get a special permit that allows them to meet for a walk once a week.

Within a matter of days, ordinary life had become impossible. “It showed me how fragile our systems are, how everything can change so quickly,” Nolting says. “People are forced to be creative when they need to be and, somehow, they find ways of doing what they love.”

Among those people was American organist Cameron Carpenter. Although large gatherings of more than 1,000 people have been banned until August 31 and music venues remain closed, many musicians have found news ways of reaching their audiences. Nolting photographed Carpenter rehearsing for a concert at the Konzerthaus, a Berlin venue that hosts more than 1400 people. Carpenter, who live streamed the performance so that his audience could access it online, said the empty concert hall gave him the ability to enhance the acoustic quality.

Nolting also photographed members of a church brass band in the southern town of Essingen, who have continued playing despite being unable to meet. Since the band stopped gathering six weeks ago, they have taken to playing in different spots around town every Sunday at 10:30 a.m. — keeping their distance from one another. On April 19, for instance, members Andrea and Rainer Zube, met on a meadow in Essingen to play the french horn and trumpet.

Keep up to date on the growing threat to global health by signing up for our daily coronavirus newsletter.

Ingmar Björn Nolting—DOCKS CollectiveMinakhanym Bagavova sews reusable hybrid face masks in the sewing room at the textile services company Sitex in Minden on April 8. Wearing face masks on public transport and shops became mandatory on April 27 for most people in Germany.

Ingmar Björn Nolting—DOCKS CollectiveThe entrance area of a store in Minden, Germany, April 9. German supermarkets have taken safety measures that include placing cashiers behind perspex windows and designating an employee to disinfect shopping baskets and carts at the entrance.

Ingmar Björn Nolting—DOCKS CollectiveRomanian seasonal workers, who came to Germany before the entry ban, work on an asparagus plantation near Staffelde on April 25. Despite the entry ban, the government has allowed 40,000 foreign harvest workers to come to Germany in April and another 40,000 May, in order to help plug the huge deficit of workers available. Around 100,000 foreign harvest workers are needed until the end of May.

In the southern city of Konstanz, Nolting captured scenes of friends and couples meeting a border fence that was recently created with the neighboring Swiss town of Kreuzlingen. Residents in both cities are usually able to cross the invisible line that separates Germany and Switzerland, but since the borders were shut on March 16, travel between the cities has been mostly forbidden. A couple weeks later, Swiss officials put up a second fence 1.5 meters away from the first to enforce social distancing rules, as too many people were making physical contact and passing each other objects through the fence.

Many people don’t even have the freedom to walk around their towns and cities. Throughout Germany, asylum-seekers and refugees have been confined to accommodation facilities after residents tested positive for coronavirus. Nolting visited a refugee center in the city of Suhl in central Germany, where more than 500 people were placed in quarantine on March 13 after one person tested positive for the coronavirus. When a small group of people rioted and tried to escape the center, more than 100 police and special service officers were reportedly deployed to the center on March 17.

On March 27, residents Mohamed and Saleh from Syria spoke to Nolting through a fence about the difficulties of the situation. “They said they lived through the war in Syria, so they don’t fear the virus,” Nolting says. “But there is one difference, they said, you can see the bombs. But you can’t see the virus.

Ingmar Björn Nolting—DOCKS CollectiveYoung men fool around on the banks of the river Weser in Minden on April 8. In most federal states in Germany people are allowed to move freely, while keeping a distance of at least five feet from others.

Ingmar Björn Nolting—DOCKS CollectiveCameron Carpenter rehearses before live streaming an Easter concert at the Konzerthaus Berlin concert hall on April 11. The empty concert hall offered new opportunities to position Carpenter’s tailor-made organ and loudspeakers for improved acoustic quality, something that would not have been possible with an audience present, according to Carpenter.

Ingmar Björn Nolting—DOCKS CollectiveA coronavirus drive-in test facility at the Nürtingen fairground on March 26. Germany’s weekly testing capacities were boosted to about 700,000 a week, a trade group said on April 28.

Ingmar Björn Nolting—DOCKS CollectiveRoswitha Erler, the photographer’s grandmother, who has breast cancer, shelters in her house in Minden on April 8.

A month later, at the time of publication, Nolting was in the north-western state of Westphalia, some 300 miles from his home in Saxony. He says he does not know when his project will end. It depends on how long the pandemic keeps Germany’s residents confined to their homes and accommodation facilities. As restrictions are being gradually eased, with certain shops reopening last week and some schools set to open their doors from May 4, normalcy appears to be on its way back for some, slowly.

But for Erler, it could be months before she can safely leave her home. Nolting is reassured by the amount of support she’s receiving. “It’s been nice to see my family be so caring towards her. My aunt delivers food and everything she needs to her door, we call her everyday,” Nolting says. “She’s coping well, somehow.”

Please send tips, leads, and stories from the frontlines to virus@time.com

New world news from Time: Turkey Sends Second Shipment of Medical Supplies to U.S.

(ANKARA, Turkey) — A second Turkish military plane took off from an air base near Ankara on Thursday carrying more medical aid to the United States which has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.

The cargo plane is carrying a second consignment of personal protective equipment, including masks, hazmat suits and disinfectants, the Defense Ministry announced.

Turkey also dispatched a planeload of medical supplies on Tuesday that included 500,000 surgical masks, 4,000 overalls, 2,000 liters (528 gallons) of disinfectant, 1,500 goggles, 400 N-95 masks and 500 face shields.

The items dispatched Thursday were sent in boxes displaying the words of 13th-century Sufi Poet Jalaluddin Rumi in Turkish and English: “After hopelessness there is so much hope and after darkness there is much brighter sun.” The government didn’t immediately provide a breakdown of what was in the shipment.

Turkey’s deputy foreign minister, Selim Yavuz Kiran, and the U.S. Ambassador to Turkey, David Satterfield, were at the military airbase to see the plane off.

“We stand fully with our strategic partner,” Kiran later tweeted.

Separately, a Turkish military plane carrying medical supplies, including masks and disinfectants, also left for South Africa late on Wednesday, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s spokesman said meanwhile, that Turkey was sending medical supplies including masks, overalls and test kits to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.

“Turkey will continue to stand by the Palestinian people,” the spokesman, Ibrahim Kalin, wrote on Twitter. “Keep Keep humanity alive so that people can live.”

Turkish officials say the country has donated medical supplies to a total of 55 countries — including Britain, Italy and Spain.

New world news from Time: Europe’s Employment Aid Keeps Jobs From Vanishing — for Now

(PARIS) — Christian Etchebest’s Parisian bistro is a shadow of its usual bustling self. Five lunch specials sit in neat paper bags on the bar awaiting takeout customers — a tiny fraction of his normal midday business before the coronavirus.

A skeleton staff rotates in daily at La Cantine du Troquet near the banks of the Seine River, just blocks from the Eiffel Tower. One day they packaged a streamlined version of his Basque menu: sausages with a celery and beetroot remoulade, mashed potatoes and a dessert of strawberries with lemon sauce.

Yet Etchebest isn’t facing bankruptcy — not yet anyway — thanks to a French government program that lets him put staff on reduced hours and makes up most of their lost salary, on the condition they are not fired. That is giving him a chance to keep his team together, awaiting the day when restrictions are lifted and sit-down meals are again allowed at this restaurant and his six others across Paris.

Similar programs are keeping hard-hit businesses across Europe afloat, preventing millions of workers from losing their jobs and income for now, and thousands of bosses from seeing their trained staff scatter. Some 11.3 million workers in France are getting up to 84% of net salary. The government estimates the cost at 24 billion euros ($26 billion), with half of all private sector employees expected to take part.

In Germany, some 3 million workers are being supported, with the government paying up to 60% of their net salary if they are temporarily put on shorter or zero hours. Those with children get 67%, and many companies such as Volkswagen add more.

The impact of the pandemic and the cushioning provided by such short-work programs were underlined in reports released Thursday that showed the unemployment rate in the 19-country eurozone edged up only by a tenth of a point to 7.4% in March despite a record economic contraction. GDP tanked 3.8% quarter-on-quarter in the first three months of the year and is forecast to slide even more in the second quarter.

The work support programs are different from jobless benefits. They are only for temporary shutdowns that are no fault of the business itself. And they are no panacea. Such programs can’t save jobs that disappear due to long-term slowdowns in customer demand or to technological changes. But it gives workers and bosses breathing space and hope, preventing the unnecessary destruction of viable businesses.

“I will roll up my sleeves up and I will fight for all my restaurants,” Etchebest said. “For the majority of my staff to remain with me and so on. What else can I say? I can’t contemplate the contrary … I will fight for it until the end.”

His chef, Thierry Lararralde, was weathering the crisis financially thanks to the support. “I can’t say I’m struggling; my net salary is around 3,000 euros ($3,222 a month), I am making 700 euros ($750) less.” He is making ends meet by spending less on gas and cooking at home: “It’s cheaper, we adapt.”

The takeout crew pushed aside their masks to eat together, Etchebest slicing a rare roast beef on a wooden board for them.

Etchebest realizes the road ahead could be tough after they re-open with fewer tables due to social distancing requirements.

“I am fully aware we will have 40%, 50% less of business,” he said, adding that some employees with health risks may not return. “I think everyone needs to adapt their business model — financially and operationally.”

Economist Holger Schaefer at the German Economic Institute in Cologne said short-work support gives employers more options than the stark choice of keeping people or firing them.

“I can say, ‘You come 70% of the hours, or 50% or 30%.’ One doesn’t have to say either all or nothing,” he said. “When the crisis is past and the demand for labor rises, then the business owner has exactly the right staff available right away and doesn’t have to find new people.”

The support also bolsters the entire economy. “When someone is afraid that their job will be lost in the near future, that person limits their consumption, they don’t buy a new car and spend less money, and that has in turn an effect on the macro-economy,” Schaefer said.

Short-work schemes proved their value during the Great Recession in Germany, where 1.4 million workers took part. The unemployment rate only edged up, from 7.3% in January 2009 to 7.5% in December that year, even as the economy shrank a painful 5%. Growth then quickly rebounded.

It’s the flip side of a European labor market, where worker protections are often blamed for deterring hiring in good times and where income taxes are higher to pay for the safety nets. It took seven years for unemployment to drop from a peak of over 12% in 2013 in euro-currency countries to 7.3% in February.

Femke Zimmermann, manager of Brasserie Berlage in The Hague in the Netherlands, has her eye on re-opening even as she spends most days at home looking after her 1-year-old and 5-year-old sons while the restaurant’s owners pay her with government help.

For now, she is not overly worried about losing her job. She stays in contact with her team and asked them to come in to give the restaurant a two-day spring clean.

“They hate sitting at home. They want to do something for the business,” she said.

Athens waiter George Sakkas, 26, is getting by on a Greek government program that lets businesses suspend workers’ contracts and replaces their pay with a flat stipend of 800 euros ($870). Businesses that take the help cannot fire staff.

“The stipend definitely helped,” he said, noting the amount was roughly what he would make anyway.

“In the beginning we didn’t know about the stipend, so (the closing) hit us very badly,” he said. “When the stipend arrived it gave us some breathing space.”

___

McHugh reported from Frankfurt, Germany. Associated Press writers Mike Corder in The Hague, Netherlands; Angela Charlton in Paris and Theodora Tongas in Athens contributed to this report.