The United Nations nuclear agency said it passed a resolution Friday urging Iran to allow inspectors access to two sites where undeclared nuclear material was believed to have been used or stored.The resolution was adopted at an International Atomic Energy Agency meeting at the United Nations. Iran has not allowed access to the sites for months, leading to heightened diplomatic tensions.Britain, France and Germany proposed the resolution, which is supported by the U.S.The resolution “calls on Iran to fully cooperate with the agency and satisfy the agency’s requests without any further delay, including by providing prompt access to the locations specified by the agency.”The resolution, which China opposes, puts more pressure on Tehran to stop blocking access to the sites. Iran maintains the IAEA has no legal authority to inspect the sites, where activities are believed to have taken place earlier this century, before Iran agreed to the 2015 nuclear pact with global powers.The U.S. withdrew from the deal in 2018. The other signatories, Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia, have since tried to preserve the agreement. 
…

The dusty streets of rural South Africa are a far cry from the bright lights of “America’s Got Talent,” but that’s where the members of the Ndlovu Youth Choir find themselves coping with the coronavirus pandemic.
With an electrifying mix of vocals and dance moves, the group made the finals of the U.S. television show last year. Sold-out performances across the U.S. and Europe followed, as well as a recording contract.
But COVID-19 halted their international tour and landed them back where they began, Moutse Valley in South Africa’s Limpopo province, one of the country’s poorest regions.
“We were supposed to go to Germany for a performance, but it got canceled. We are used to touring the world, doing shows everywhere, and during this corona time it’s been very difficult and frustrating,” said Sandile Majola, 26, a member of the chorus and its manager.
The virus has created new risks for singing together, but this “cultural catastrophe,”  as one British arts group called COVID-19, is not stopping the young singers.  
Ndlovu is the Zulu word for elephant, and like the pachyderm the choir members are showing determination to move forward.
The group was formed in 2008 to help orphans and children of HIV patients, said Hugo Tempelman, a Dutch doctor who 30 years ago started a medical clinic that has become a wide-ranging community development project, the Ndlovu Care Group.
 
The project had more than 600 child-headed households in the orphan and vulnerable children program, he said.
“We tried to assist those kids with food programs and tried to give them a more resilient way of surviving, through life skills,” Tempelman said.
He saw a bigger need for the children’s development.  
“When I saw the kids go home, I still didn’t see a smile. And I thought that if we want to provide hope, we must give them something that they can be proud of,” he said.  
He came up with the idea of a youth choir.  
“Of course, you start a choir, because Africa sings,” he said. “Africa sings everywhere. They sing at a funeral, they sing at a birth. They sing their moods.”
In 2016 the choir became more professional with the help of donors. Two years later their rendition of the Ed Sheeran song “Shape of You” won them an audition on “America’s Got Talent” and their captivating performances skyrocketed them to fame.In this photograph taken Thursday May 21, 2020, Dr. Hugo Tempelman sits for an interview at a clinic in the Moutse Valley, 160 kms (100 miles) north east of Johannesburg, South Africa. Tempelman is the founder of the Ndlovu Youth Choir. Finalists of…The 38 young singers are used to overcoming adversity and, with Tempelman’s help, they are coming up with a new plan.
Pulling down his face mask, choir manager Majola described how all the singers, ranging in age from 13 to 26, have been tested for COVID-19 and have been cleared to sing together.
A recording and filming studio has been constructed at the community theater and they have begun rehearsing new material for an online show.
“We are getting together for the first time since lockdown started,” said Majola with excitement.  
The group’s performances of “Africa” and “Higher Ground” have had millions of viewers on YouTube and now the group hopes to highlight new material.
“I still receive emails from people all over the world,” Majola said. “I just got one this morning of someone saying he was depressed and couldn’t get out of bed, until he saw our performance and it gave him hope.”
Choir director Ralf Schmitt said the group is rehearsing new material for their first album with Simon Cowell’s label, a division of Sony Music. Livestream performances are also planned.  
“We are all excited. We’ll be recording with some international artists from around the globe,” Schmitt said.  
The album is scheduled for release at the end of the year, but the choir intends to release a song, “We Will Rise,” to mark the birthday of Nelson Mandela on July 18.
“It’s an inspirational song about how we can work together to overcome this coronavirus,” Schmitt said. 
…

European governments are working with the United States on plans to overhaul the World Health Organization, a top health official for a European country said, signaling that Europe shares some of the concerns that led Washington to say it would quit.The European health official, who spoke on condition of anonymity while discussing initiatives that are not public, said Britain, France, Germany and Italy were discussing WHO reforms with the United States at the technical level.The aim, the official said, was to ensure WHO’s independence, an apparent reference to allegations that the body was too close to China during its initial response to the coronavirus crisis early this year.”We are discussing ways to separate WHO’s emergency management mechanism from any single country influence,” said the official.Reforms would involve changing the WHO’s funding system to make it more long-term, the official said. The WHO now operates on a two-year budget, which “could hurt WHO’s independence” if it has to raise funds from donor countries in the middle of an emergency, the official said.U.S. President Donald Trump has accused the WHO of being too close to China and announced plans to quit and withdraw funding.European countries have occasionally called for reform of the WHO but have generally shielded the organization from the most intense criticism by Washington. In public the European position has usually been that any reform should come only after an evaluation of the response to the coronavirus crisis.Evaluation and reformBut minutes of a videoconference of EU health ministers last week suggested European countries were taking a stronger line and also seeking more European influence at the WHO in future.The German and French ministers told their colleagues “an evaluation and reform of the WHO was needed,” the minutes said.That was stronger wording than in a resolution last month which the EU drafted, and which was adopted by all 192 WHO member countries. That resolution called for an evaluation of the response to the coronavirus crisis, but it stopped short of calling for reforms.The German and French ministers also told their colleagues, “The EU and its MS (member states) should play a bigger role at the global level,” the minutes showed.A spokesperson for the German health ministry said Berlin sought stronger engagement with the WHO ahead of Germany taking over the EU presidency on July 1.A German government source told Reuters the aim of the intervention at the health ministers’ meeting was to encourage debate among EU member states about how to reform the WHO. Asked whether Germany was now pushing for quicker changes, instead of waiting until after the crisis, the official said: “Reforms of international organizations normally take years, not months.”A French health ministry spokesman also said the WHO would be on the agenda of Germany’s presidency of the EU, and Paris would work on it with Berlin. France backed WHO reform, but changes should follow the evaluation of the organization’s handling of the COVID-19 crisis, he said.A British government spokesperson said Britain worked with organizations including the WHO “to encourage and support transparency, efficiency and good management.”The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the WHO did not respond to requests for comment.The WHO drew criticism for public praise of China’s efforts to combat the new coronavirus in the early days of the crisis, even as evidence emerged that Chinese officials had silenced whistleblowers.The EU and its governments funded around 11 percent of the WHO’s $5.6 billion budget in the 2018-19 period, and the United States provided more than 15 percent. China covered just 0.2 percent. 
…

South Korea’s unification minister resigned Friday over heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula, days after the North destroyed its liaison office with the South.President Moon Jae-in “accepted Unification Minister Kim Yeon-chul’s offer to resign,” the presidency said in a statement, without offering further details.Kim, the key official for relations with the North since April of last year, offered to quit the post on Wednesday, taking responsibility for the worsening of inter-Korean relations.On Tuesday, North Korea used explosives to destroy the building on its side, angered by South Korean propaganda leaflets and aid supplies crossing the border into the North.Inter-Korean relations had frozen for months after the collapse of a Hanoi, Vietnam, summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump. 
…

A State Department official resigned Thursday over President Donald Trump’s response to racial tensions sweeping the country over the deaths of black people in police custody, The Washington Post reported.Mary Elizabeth Taylor, the assistant secretary of state for legislative affairs, said in her resignation letter that Trump’s actions “cut sharply against my core values and convictions.” At 30, Taylor was the youngest person to hold her position, and she was also the first black woman in the job, according to the Post.“The President’s comments and actions surrounding racial injustice and Black Americans cut sharply against my core values and convictions,” Taylor said in her resignation letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, which was obtained by the Post. “I must follow the dictates of my conscience and resign as Assistant Secretary of State for Legislative Affairs.”Taylor’s resignation follows weeks of turmoil sweeping the United States following the death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis. Protesters demanding justice for Floyd and others, along with reforms to address police brutality, have taken to the streets, and the president has struggled to meet the moment.He has referred to protesters as “thugs,” and his administration forcefully pushed aside peaceful protesters near the White House so he could go to a nearby church and pose holding a Bible.The State Department declined to comment in response to a question from The Associated Press.“We do not comment on personnel matters,” the State Department said in an emailed response to a request for information about Taylor’s resignation. There was no immediate explanation for why State Department officials, including Pompeo and other top aides, had chosen to comment extensively on the decision to fire the department’s Inspector General Steve Linick in May.In her role in the Trump administration, Taylor helped guide more than 400 presidential appointments through the Senate, including those of Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch and CIA director Gina Haspel, the Post reported.  
…

Scores of demonstrators in Guatemala are demanding President Alejandro Giammattei ease coronavirus lockdown restrictions, even as the death toll in the Central American nation tops 400.A motorcade of protesters and others on foot rallied outside the Congress in Guatemala City on Thursday, calling on the government to start relaxing restrictions and reopen the economy.Attorney Giovanni Fratti said the government is causing what he called a time bomb situation and that it should reopen the economy immediately, adding that advanced economies such as the United States and Italy, with more COVID-19 cases than Guatemala, are already reopening their economies.The demonstration comes a week after the government said it is considering increasing lockdown restrictions if COVID-19 cases continue rising.Guatemala has reported more than 11,800 cases and more than 430 deaths.   
…

Dame Vera Lynn, the woman whose voice boosted British spirits during the darkest days of World War II, has died at 103.Her family did not give a cause of death when it announced her passing Thursday in East Sussex.Along with Winston Churchill’s, Lynn’s was the most recognized and renowned British voice of World War II.She was known as the “Forces’ Sweetheart,” serenading Allied soldiers and the British people with such sentimental but optimistic ballads as “We’ll Meet Again,” “The White Cliffs of Dover” and “A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square.”FILE – Singing star Vera Lynn tries on a lampshade in London, Nov. 30, 1961.She also hosted “Sincerely Yours,” a hugely popular BBC radio show during the war that included messages to British soldiers and sailors overseas and songs she sang at their request.Lynn also toured army camps, entertaining British troops in person.”What they needed was a contact from home,” she said. “I entertained audiences from 2,000 to 6,000. And the boys would just come out of the jungle and sit there for hours waiting until we arrived and then slip back in once we’d left.”Her popularity endured after the war.A decade before the Beatles, her 1952 recording of “Auf Wiedersehen Sweetheart” made her the first British singer to top the American record charts.She also found renewed fame when director Stanley Kubrick played her vintage recording of “We’ll Meet Again” near the end of his 1964 film “Dr. Strangelove.”Long after she retired, a 2009 compilation album, “We’ll Meet Again — The Very Best of Vera Lynn,” was a top-selling recording in Britain.Prime Minister Boris Johnson said her “charm and magical voice entranced and uplifted our country in some of our darkest hours. Her voice will live on to lift the hearts of generations to come.”Buckingham Palace said Queen Elizabeth plans to send a personal note of condolence to Lynn’s family. 
…

Wall Street closed mixed Thursday after the number of jobless claims came in higher than expected and coronavirus case numbers remained discouraging.The Dow Jones industrial average fell 39.51 points after being down as much as 271 points at one time. But the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite Index were each up a fraction.Analysts said that investors were disappointed at the latest jobless claims number and that worries of a possible second coronavirus wave persisted.  European investors were also concerned about a resurgence of COVID-19. Major indexes in London, Frankfurt and Paris were all down less than 1%.Asian markets were mixed Thursday. Tokyo and Hong Kong were both down a fraction, but Shanghai was up slightly and the Sensex index in Mumbai climbed 2%.
…