The original content of Democracy Now! Headlines appears under the Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 License (United States). For more, including their other shows and media, visit www.democracynow.org. May 8, 2020 European Leaders Hold Low-Key VE Day Commemorations as Belarus Plans Parade --------------------------------------------------------------------------- European leaders, including Britain's Boris Johnson, France's Emmanuel Macron and Germany's Angela Merkel, are marking VE Day today with low-key ceremonies on this 75th anniversary of the surrender of Nazi Germany in 1945. In Belarus, which suffered heavily under Nazi occupation, authorities are planning to hold a massive military parade in the capital Minsk despite a surge in coronavirus cases. Belarus's longtime authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko has refused to impose any major restrictions on public gatherings, and medical experts believe a surge in COVID-19 deaths in Belarus is largely going unreported. .