Author: CensorBiz

Days after he crossed the country to start college, Ryan Schmutz received a text message from Utah State University: COVID-19 had been detected at his dorm.  Within 10 minutes, he dropped the crepes he was making and was whisked away by bus to a testing site.”We didn’t even know they were testing,” said Schmutz, who is 18 and from Omaha, Nebraska. “It all really happened fast.”Schmutz was one of about 300 students quarantined to their rooms last week, but not because of sickness reports or positive tests. Instead, the warning bells came from the sewage.  Colleges across the nation — from New Mexico to Tennessee, Michigan to New York — are turning tests of waste into a public health tool. The work comes as institutions hunt for ways to keep campuses open despite vulnerabilities like students’ close living arrangements and drive to socialize. The virus has already left its mark with outbreaks that have forced changes to remote learning at colleges around the country.The tests work by detecting genetic material from the virus, which can be recovered from the stools of about half of people with COVID-19, studies indicate. The concept has also been used to look for outbreaks of the polio virus.Sewage testing is especially valuable because it can evaluate people even if they aren’t feeling sick and can detect a few cases out of thousands of people, experts say. Another wastewater-flagged quarantine of around 300 students at the University of Arizona, for example, turned up two cases. Both were students who were asymptomatic, but they could potentially still have spread the virus.  “That’s just tremendously valuable information when we think about the setting of a college dorm, and how quickly this disease can spread through that population,” said Peter Grevatt, CEO of The Water Research Foundation, which promotes studies of water and wastewater to ensure water quality and service.Wastewater tests also flagged the possible presence of the virus at University of Colorado residence halls.Utah has used the method more widely, including to track an outbreak at a meatpacking plant. The British, Italian and Dutch governments have also announced similar monitoring programs, and the Massachusetts-based company Biobot tests wastewater from cities around the country.The method remains imprecise, though. It can spot infection trends, but it can’t yet pinpoint how many people have the virus or the stage of infection. That means it’s not yet quite as useful on a larger scale in cities, which don’t always have a university’s scientific resources or ability to require people to get tested.  The technology is being closely studied, though, and it is evolving rapidly, Grevatt said, adding that it’s best used along with other methods like contact tracing.  It’s not a panacea for colleges either. Utah State, for example, can only closely monitor sewage from the relatively small portion of students who live on campus — not the thousands of other people who come and go every day. The university has an enrollment of about 28,000.  And this week, Utah State’s positive wastewater test could be narrowed only as far as four residence halls that share the same sewer system. The test came back positive late Aug. 29, and the quarantine started the next day. Students were required to stay in their rooms, eating meals delivered by a “COVID care” team and barred from walking more than a few steps outside the residence hall.The buildings are laid out in apartment-style suites, and students were released from quarantine in small groups if every roommate in a suite tested negative. The tests had turned up four coronavirus cases as of Thursday.  Schmutz, who tested negative along with his roommates, didn’t miss much in-person class time during his four-day quarantine.  But he’s a little disconcerted that he and his family weren’t told about the sewage testing.  “It felt like we were kind of out of the loop on everything. It’s definitely hard to process,” he said.  Utah State has heard from parents and students similarly frustrated, though many others are grateful, spokeswoman Emilie Wheeler said.  “They see it as a noninvasive early detection system,” she said.  The program is relatively inexpensive, too. The school takes samples daily to monitor several living areas, and the tests are run by a team of students.  “Wastewater has a story to tell about the public health status of communities,” Grevatt said. “There’s so many folks working on this right now. It’s just remarkable to see how quickly it has moved forward.”
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Greece is beefing up land patrols to stem a rising tide of illegal migrants trickling in from neighboring Turkey. With tensions between the two NATO allies at their highest in years, Athens fears Ankara may move to weaponize refugees, sparking a fresh migration crisis on top of a lingering energy dispute. Greek authorities say they are mobilizing scores of special border guards to scour sprawling fields and marshland along the Evros region that divides Greece and Turkey.Hundreds more will also be deployed on Greece’s Aegean islands to stop illegal sea crossings.United Nations statistics show that illegal land entries into Greece from Turkey, have doubled in the last month alone, stoking concerns of a new migration crisis as tensions between the feuding countries have flared over energy rights in eastern Mediterranean Sea.Migration Minister Notis Mitarachis explains the Greek position.”We want Turkey to conform to agreements it has signed to stem the flow of illegal immigration,” he said. “Any attempt to weaponize the suffering of refugees for geopolitical interests will not be tolerated.” FILE – Migrants walk in Edirne at the Turkish-Greek border, Monday, March 9, 2020.Greece fended off a major migration push from Turkey earlier this year after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan temporarily lifted his country’s border controls, allowing refugees and migrants to make their way freely into Europe. Greece claimed to have thwarted what it called “an enemy invasion” of hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers into the country earlier this year and has kept its defenses on alert in the Evros region since then.The border reinforcement also comes amid a flurry of media reports saying that Turkey was withdrawing 40 tanks from Syria, moving them instead to the Greek-Turkish border.Turkey has not explained the deployment but Kostas Lavdas, a professor of international relations at Panteon University in Athens, says Greece must be ready for war.It may be a simple rotation of forces, he said, because Turkey has several military fronts open. Regardless the reason, he said, Turkey has repeatedly shown that it wants to be ready for all scenarios relating to Greece, including war.Greece, he said, may want to avoid that but it also needs to be prepared for it.FILE – Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks with Turkish drilling ship, Fatih, in background, in Istanbul, Aug. 21, 2020.Relations between the two countries have deteriorated dangerously in the past month as Turkey has sent an exploration ship near a cluster of Greek islands, to hunt for undersea oil and gas in a patch of the eastern Mediterranean which Athens says only it has the right to survey.Turkey rejects the claims, saying islands are not entitled to what is known as an exclusive economic zone …. Ankara instead believes it has the right to explore the oil and mineral rich East Mediterranean seabed after a recent maritime agreement it concluded with Libya.Erdogan has agreed to engage in talks with Greece to over decades-old differences over air and sea rights but said this weekend he would do anything to defend his country’s interests.He said, either Athens will heed to diplomacy or it will re-live bitter memories of war.Greece has sought recourse with the United Nations, submitting what it called a bulky dossier of alleged violations by Turkey in recent weeks. The United Nations has made no response. 
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Protesters once again took to the streets of Belarus Sunday, the latest in nearly a month of demonstrations following disupted elections that left longtime president Alexander Lukashenko in power. Tens of thousands took to the streets of Minsk Sunday in numbers comparable to previous weekends, waving red and white opposition flags and chanting slogans. Human rights groups have said at least 70 protesters were detained Sunday. A police barricade with two water cannons is set blocking a street during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus, Sept. 6, 2020.Lukashenko, in power since 1994, claimed victory in elections August 9. Opposition parties, along with the United States and the European Union, say the poll was heavily rigged.     More than 7,000 protesters have been arrested, and widespread evidence of abuse and torture has been reported. At least four people were reported to have died during the demonstrations.  FILE – Belurus opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya takes part in an U.N. General Assembly online debate from Vilnius, Lithuania, Sept. 4, 2020.Belarus’ main opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya has been in Lithuania since the election for what she says is her own safety. In an interview with VOA, Tsikhanouskaya said she is working to organize new elections despite Lukashenko’s refusal to do so. “Our plan is absolutely clear. It’s organization of new elections, fair and transparent,” she said. 
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An experimental, reusable Chinese spacecraft returned to its designated landing site Sunday after two days in orbit, China’s official Xinhua news agency reported.The agency described the flight as successful, adding that it “marked the country’s important breakthrough in reusable spacecraft research” that could offer low-cost round trips to space for peaceful purposes.Chinese state media have not yet published images or video footage of the launch or landing of the spacecraft. They have not provided details on the technologies tested, either.Chinese social media and some commentators have compared the craft to the U.S. Air Force X-37B, an autonomous, Boeing spaceplane that can stay in orbit for long periods of time before returning to Earth on its own.The Chinese spacecraft was launched into orbit Friday from the northwestern Jiuquan Satellite Center with a Long March 2F, the type of rocket that has been used to put crewed and uncrewed Shenzhou spacecraft into orbit.   
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A strict coronavirus lockdown in the Australian city of Melbourne is being extended by two weeks. The Victoria state capital has been at the center of a second wave of infections. Authorities have said the restrictions will be eased in the months ahead if rates of new infections continue to fall.Melbourne is living through Australia’s toughest coronavirus lockdown. It was reimposed in July and is being extended because the number of new COVID-19 cases has not dropped enough. The lockdown will stay in place until the end of the month.Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews warned that without these strict measures the state risks a “third wave” of infections.He said a cautious approach is the only way forward.“We cannot run out of lockdown,” he said. “We have to take steady and safe steps to find that COVID-normal and make sure that in opening up, we can stay open.”There will be some minor easing of regulations in Melbourne, a city of 5 million.A nighttime curfew will start an hour later, playgrounds will reopen, and more outdoor exercise will be allowed. Bigger changes will only come in the months ahead if the number of new daily COVID-19 cases continues to fall. Officials say if they drop to below five by October 26, the curfew would be ended.Outside Melbourne, the rest of Victoria state will have restrictions eased slightly more quickly.Dozens of people were arrested Saturday at anti-lockdown protests in Australia’s major cities. The demonstrations were driven largely by fringe groups promoting virus-related conspiracy theories.Their actions have been described by the authorities as “selfish.” The Victoria government says obeying the restrictions is “the only option” to ultimately bringing the lockdown to an end.Victoria is at the center of Australia’s coronavirus crisis, accounting for three-quarters of total infections and 90% of all fatalities.The pandemic, and the closure of many businesses during lockdowns across the country, has sent the Australian economy into recession for the first time since 1991. Unemployment is rising, and the authorities are warning that the recovery could take years.Australia has recorded about 26,000 COVID-19 cases, and more than 750 deaths.  
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Thousands of Israelis took to the streets of Jerusalem again Saturday demanding the prime minister’s resignation.The protesters convened outside Benjamin Netanyahu’s official residence, decrying alleged corruption and his handling of the coronavirus pandemic.”I came here in order to make Bibi Netanyahu go away,” said Shlomit Cohen, a protester from the Galilee, using Netanyahu’s nickname. “We are tired; that’s enough. We don’t want him anymore.”The demonstrations against Netanyahu have continued for more than a month, and Saturday’s rally came as Israel is dealing with record numbers of coronavirus infections.“Now here it’s a protest against the government, and a lot of people are coming here for different reasons,” said protester Reut Peretz, 23. “Some people are coming here to protest the police violence, some people are coming here to protest the corruption, Bibi corruption. But the thing that unites everyone is the government — that everyone wants the government to change because there is a lot of unemployment in the country and because of the handling of the coronavirus.”Netanyahu has denied any wrongdoing and has dismissed the protesters as “leftists” and “anarchists,” accusing Israeli media of encouraging them.Police intervened to clear the protesters near the official residence of the prime minister and arrested at least a dozen of them, including a man who police said “was dressed up as a woman in a provocative way.”According to Johns Hopkins University data, Israel has more than 129,000 coronavirus cases and more than 1,000 COVID-19 deaths. The country, with a population of 9 million people, is in a recession and unemployment has spiked to above 20%.
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New York’s attorney general on Saturday moved to form a grand jury to investigate the death of Daniel Prude, a Black man who died earlier this year after Rochester police placed a hood over his head and held him down.“The Prude family and the Rochester community have been through great pain and anguish,” Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement about Prude’s death, which has sparked nightly protests and calls for reform. She said the grand jury would be part of an “exhaustive investigation.”Prude’s death after his brother called for help for his erratic behavior in March has roiled New York’s third-largest city since video of the encounter was made public earlier this week, with protesters demanding more accountability for how it happened and legislation to change how authorities respond to mental health emergencies.“This is just the beginning,” Ashley Gantt, a protest organizer, said by email after James’ announcement. “We will not be stopped in our quest for truth and justice.”Protesters gathered Saturday for a fourth night on the street where Prude, naked and handcuffed, was held face-down as snow fell. Policy body camera video shows officers covering Prude’s head with a “spit hood,” designed to protect police from bodily fluids, then pressing his face into the pavement for two minutes.Prude died March 30 after he was taken off life support.Demonstrators clash with police officers a block from the Public Safety Building in Rochester, N.Y., Sept. 4, 2020, after a rally and march protesting the death of Daniel Prude.The Monroe County medical examiner listed the manner of death as homicide caused by “complications of asphyxia in the setting of physical restraint.” Excited delirium and acute intoxication by phencyclidine, or PCP, were contributing factors, the report said.A police internal affairs investigation cleared the officers involved of any wrongdoing, concluding in April that their “actions and conduct displayed when dealing with Prude appear to be appropriate and consistent with their training.”James’ office opened its investigation the same month. Under New York law, deaths of unarmed people in police custody are often turned over to the attorney general’s office, rather than handled by local officials.Gov. Andrew Cuomo earlier this week called on James to expedite the probe.“Today, I applaud Attorney General Tish James for taking swift, decisive action in empaneling a grand jury,” Cuomo said in a statement. “Justice delayed is justice denied and the people of New York deserve the truth.”Advocates say Prude’s death and the actions of the seven now-suspended Rochester police officers demonstrate how police are ill-equipped to deal with people suffering mental problems.Having police respond can be a “recipe for disaster,” The National Alliance on Mental Illness said in a statement Friday.Prude’s death “is yet another harrowing tragedy, but a story not unfamiliar to us,” the advocacy group said. “People in crisis deserve help, not handcuffs.”Stanley Martin, an organizer of Free the People Rochester, told reporters: “We do not need violent workers with guns to respond to mental health crises.”Activists have marched nightly in the city of 210,000 on Lake Ontario since the police body camera footage of the encounter with Prude were released by his family Wednesday.Friday night’s protest resulted in 11 arrests, police said. As they had the night before, officers doused activists at police headquarters with a chemical spray to drive them from barricades around the building.As the night wore on, demonstrators were pushed further back, as police fired what appeared to be pepper balls. Fireworks were shot off and a bus stop was set on fire.Prude’s family has said he appeared to be spiraling into crisis in the hours before his encounter with police.“You’re trying to kill me!” the 41-year-old man is heard saying.A police union has defended the officers involved in the encounter, saying they were strictly following department training and protocols, including using the mesh hood. 
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More than 410,000 Americans could die from COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, by January 1, 2021, according to the latest model by the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.The United States reported more than 188,500 deaths as of Saturday and more than 6,200,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. If the IHME model, released Friday, is correct, that would mean an estimated 222,000 more deaths over the next 3½ months.“We expect the daily death rate in the United States, because of seasonality and declining vigilance of the public, to reach nearly 3,000 a day in December,” the institute, which bills itself as an independent research center, said in an update of its periodic forecasts.It previously projected 317,697 deaths by December 1.FILE – Kellie Dick, left, a University of Oklahoma senior from Shawnee, and Abhi Nath, a senior from Norman, voice concerns about OU’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic during a demonstration, Sept. 3, 2020, in Norman, Okla.However, the researchers at IHME said, if the use of face masks became nearly universal, the predicted 222,000 deaths could be reduced by half. Conversely, if restrictions are eased, the toll could be much higher by New Year’s.“Increasing mask use to the levels seen in Singapore would decrease the cumulative death toll to 288,000, or 122,000 lives saved compared to the reference scenario,” it said.”If a herd immunity strategy is pursued, meaning no further government intervention is taken from now to Jan. 1st, the death toll could increase to 620,000,” according to IHME’s briefing.Other predictionsThe IHME model is one of the more aggressive of the 35 models used to forecast COVID-19 deaths. The ensemble forecast by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which came out Thursday, predicted 211,000 U.S. deaths from COVID-19 by September 26.The model’s outlook for the world was even more dire, with deaths projected to triple to 2.8 million by January 1, 2021.FILE – A man trims his beard while others bathe in the Hooghly River in Kolkata, India, Sept. 3, 2020. India has been reporting the highest single-day coronavirus caseload in the world every day for more than three weeks.India reported 86,432 new COVID-19 cases Saturday, taking its total infections to 4,023,179, according to Johns Hopkins University.The U.S. and Brazil are the only countries that have more cases than India.The U.S. leads the world in COVID infections with 6,243,849, while Brazil has 4,092,832, according to Johns Hopkins.The coronavirus has brutalized some locations in Mexico so badly that local governments have run out of death certificates.Mexican officials say a million new forms have been printed.Mexico has recorded 66,851 COVID-19 deaths, placing it only behind the U.S, Brazil and India in the number of pandemic deaths on the Johns Hopkins listing.The U.S. has recorded 188,507 deaths, Brazil has 125,521 and India has 69,561, Johns Hopkins said.FILE – A city health worker takes a resident’s blood sample, part of a program that aims to administer 20,000 COVID-19 tests in Rio de Janeiro’s poor neighborhoods, at Morro da Providencia favela, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sept. 3, 2020.Toll on health workersAmnesty International said this week that 1,320 health workers in Mexico had died from the coronavirus pandemic, the worst in any country in the world.Amnesty’s report highlighted the deadly toll COVID-19 has had on frontline workers. Overall, at least 7,000 health workers have died of the virus.According to a Reuters analysis of data from the Mexican government, health care workers in that country are four times more likely to die than that sector’s workers in the U.S.New cases continue to pop up in South Korea, which at one time had seemed to quash the virus. Authorities said Saturday that 115 of the 168 new cases were in metropolitan Seoul.New Zealand said Saturday that it had recorded its 24th COVID-19 death. Joseph Williams, a doctor and the former prime minister of the Cook Islands, was the 24th victim.
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Afghanistan’s warring factions are set to begin their first direct peace talks early next week in Qatar amid U.S.-led international calls for them to seize the “historic opportunity” to end the country’s long war.The U.S.-brokered dialogue, known as intra-Afghan negotiations, will bring to the table in Doha representatives of the Afghan state and the Taliban insurgency, which runs its political office in the capital of the Gulf nation.The Taliban announced on Saturday the names of their 21-member negotiating team, led by Mawlavi Abdul Hakim, a hardline insurgent cleric and a close confidant of the Taliban’s reclusive chief, Hibatullah Akhundzada. Hakim has been heading the Islamist group’s own judicial system enforced in Taliban-held Afghan areas.“We have formed a strong and inclusive team for intra-Afghan negotiations. It mostly comprises members of the Rehbari Shoura [Taliban leadership council], and the Islamic Emirate’s [Taliban] chief justice has been appointed as the team leader,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told VOA.Officials said the negotiating teams would try to agree on a permanent cease-fire and a political power-sharing arrangement to govern Afghanistan.The peace process stems from a February agreement Washington sealed with the Taliban to extricate American troops from the country and close the longest U.S. war. The landmark accord was negotiated and signed in Doha on February 29.Afghan Minister of Economy Mustafa Mastoor told an online forum Saturday evening that Kabul’s negotiating team was “fully ready” to depart to Doha “most probably tomorrow [Sunday].”Cease-fireAn insurgent cease-fire is a priority for Kabul, but it may not come up in the inaugural interaction with the Taliban, the minister told the forum organized by the Pakistan-based Jinnah Institute think tank.”The first meeting definitely is to break the ice and just to meet each other and then start with the easier issues and going towards the difficult ones,” Mastoor said.FILE – Stefano Pontecorvo talks to The Associated Press in Islamabad, Pakistan, March 4, 2019.Stefano Pontecorvo, NATO’s civilian representative to Afghanistan, in his address to the forum cautioned that the dialogue would not be easy and that both sides would need to show “flexibility, good faith and determination” to end the deadly conflict.”First and foremost, a significant reduction in violence must top the negotiation agenda to give people confidence in the process and its outcome. Popular support is essential for a durable outcome,” Pontecorvo said.“This moment for peace is unique, and the stakes are high. The Afghan people and the world are watching. They will not forget or forgive whoever loses this occasion,” the NATO envoy warned.’Political disunity’Pontecorvo noted with concern that political differences among leaders in Kabul could undermine the work of the state negotiating team.”There is no doubt whatsoever that the perceived political disunity of Afghan leadership is a concern for all of us, for NATO and for the international community, as it also impacts on the cohesiveness of the team,” he said.Meanwhile, U.S. peace envoy to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad, who signed the deal with the Taliban, was traveling to Doha to advance ongoing efforts to promote the immediate start of the negotiations.FILE – Washington peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad attends the inauguration ceremony for Afghan President Ashraf Ghani at the presidential palace in Kabul, Afghanistan, March 9, 2020.“The Afghan people are ready for a sustainable reduction in violence and a political settlement that will end the war. Afghan leaders must seize this historic opportunity for peace. … Now is the time to start,” said a pre-visit State Department announcement.Began after 9/11The war in Afghanistan began with the U.S.-led military invasion of the country to punish and remove the Taliban from power days after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on America that al-Qaida leaders plotted from sanctuaries in Afghanistan.Since then, more than 150,000 people, including Afghan civilians and local as well as foreign military troops, are estimated to have been killed and millions left homeless in the poverty-stricken country.The U.S.-Taliban deal requires Washington to withdraw all American and allied troops from Afghanistan by July 2021 in return for insurgent counterterrorism assurances. The Taliban have also pledged to seek political reconciliation with other Afghan factions to end decades of hostilities in the country.The U.S. has reduced the number of its troops in the country from around 13,000 to 8,600 since signing the deal with the Taliban. President Donald Trump said last month that the number of troops would be reduced to between “4,000 and 5,000″ by the November U.S. Election Day.The intra-Afghan talks were originally scheduled for March 10, but months of delays over a prisoner swap between the Taliban and the Kabul government, as stipulated in the deal, hampered U.S. diplomatic efforts to kick-start the dialogue.
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About 20 U.S. professional basketball teams will convert their venues into pandemic-safe voting centers for the 2020 presidential election. The move is part of a deal with the NBA players, who briefly halted their participation in the season-ending playoffs to protest racial injustice and police brutality. VOA’s Mariama Diallo reports the latest arena to announce its plans is New York City’s Barclays Center, home to the Brooklyn Nets.
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Egyptian security forces have arrested two journalists, including one sick with COVID-19, the latest step in a sweeping crackdown on news media during the pandemic, an international press watchdog reported Friday.On separate days in late August, officers burst into the homes of Hany Greisha and El-Sayed Shehta without warning, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Friday. Both work as editors for Al-Youm Al-Sabae, or Seventh Day, a prominent pro-government news outlet.Greisha was ordered detained for 15 days on charges of spreading false news and joining a terrorist group, CPJ said, citing his family’s official complaint to the Egyptian Journalists’ Syndicate.FILE – Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi delivers an address at the Ittihadiya presidential palace in Cairo, Egypt, May 26, 2017.Under President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, Egyptian prosecutors have frequently brought vague terrorism-related charges against reporters, secular activists and online critics, in addition to Islamist political opponents, drawing widespread scorn from human rights monitors.Earlier this week, security forces raided Shehta’s home in northern Egypt, confiscating his laptop, cellphone, money and IDs, CPJ said, adding that it remained unclear whether he faces any charges. The deputy managing editor had been in quarantine after testing positive for the coronavirus a few days earlier, according to a statement from his wife.Officers took Shehta to a police station in the Nile Delta city of Zagazig, where he collapsed and lost consciousness, CPJ reported. He remained shackled to a hospital bed in the city.The Interior Ministry did not respond to requests for comment by The Associated Press, and a government media officer did not answer calls seeking comment.It was not immediately clear why security forces targeted the two editors. Egypt’s counterterrorism legislation broadly empowers authorities to exert tight controls over traditional media and crack down on all kinds of dissent. Amnesty International released a report earlier this year detailing how a growing number of journalists at state-owned media outlets have landed in jail for expressing their private views on social media.The coronavirus pandemic has presented new challenges for the government. When infections surged this summer, threatening to overwhelm hospitals, authorities arrested journalists who questioned official virus statistics and doctors who complained about their working conditions. As of Friday, the country had reported more than 99,000 cases, including 5,479 deaths, one of the highest death tolls in the region.Outbreaks in prisonAlthough Egypt’s daily virus case count has declined in recent weeks, reports of suspected coronavirus outbreaks in the country’s crowded prisons have increasingly come to light. In July, a prominent Egyptian journalist who had been jailed on charges of broadcasting false news died of COVID-19 just days after his release, stoking fears of unchecked contagion in what rights groups describe as packed and dirty cells.”Egyptian authorities should be urgently releasing journalists from its prisons because of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Sherif Mansour, CPJ’s regional program coordinator. “Instead, [Egypt] is diligently rounding up more to throw in jail — including now one who was sick and in quarantine.”
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Six Belarusian journalists detained earlier this week while covering an anti-government protest in Minsk were sentenced to three days in jail, as authorities continued their crackdown on dissent and media freedom following a disputed election that gave President Alexander Lukashenko a sixth-straight term.
 
The verdicts came just ahead of a scheduled address by Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the self-exiled presidential candidate who has become a leader of the Belarusian opposition, to the U.N. Security Council later on September 4.
 
The journalists were covering a student rally demanding the resignation of Lukashenko on September 1 when they were detained by police near the Dinamo district stadium.
 
A district court in the capital sentenced the journalists to three days’ administrative arrest after finding them guilty of participating in an illegal rally, an accusation they denied.
 
They were later released having already served their terms while in pretrial detention.
 
The reporters work for the Belarusian independent news website Tut.by, the local Komsomolskaya Pravda v Belarusi daily, and the independent news agency BelaPAN.
 
Hundreds of thousands of citizens have taken to the streets across Belarus to protest the “rigged” results of the August 9 vote.Belarus Opposition Leader Appeals to UN to Stop Human Rights Abuses in Her CountrySviatlana Tsikhanouskaya tells UN that ‘a nation cannot and should not be a hostage to one man’s thirst for power’The protesters are calling on the 66-year-old Belarusian leader to step down after 26 years in power, release all political prisoners, and hold free and fair elections.
 
The authorities have tried to halt the protest movement with threats and the prosecution of protesters, political activists, and journalists covering the demonstrations.
 
On September 4, police detained several student protesters gathered inside the Minsk State Linguistic Institute. A witness said the students started singing the French national anthem La Marseillaise, which contains words about the fight against tyranny, when riot police entered the building and dragged the students away.
 
Officials at the institute had warned students it would call in the police unless they halted their protests.
 
Those detained were later released from police custody after reportedly being charged with taking part in illegal rallies.
 
The Interior Ministry earlier said that a total of 26 people were detained during protests in Minsk on September 3 for violating the law on public events, adding that seven of them will remain in pretrial detention.
 
A photographer working for the news outlet Tut.by., Zmitser Brushko, was detained for a few hours and charged with petty hooliganism for allegedly pushing a police officer.
 
The crackdown on protests, strikes, and the media has drawn condemnation from human rights groups, media freedom watchdogs, and the international community.
 
On September 3, Britain and Canada said in a joint statement to the Permanent Council of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) that they were “extremely concerned” by the treatment of journalists and independent media in Belarus.
 
“Though the strain faced by independent media has been made evident before, during, and after the presidential elections, in the past week Belarusian authorities have made greater moves to hinder the free press,” the statement said, adding that more than 70 independent news websites had been blocked.
 
About 50 journalists were detained on August 27-28 for accreditation checks and some foreign reporters were subsequently deported and banned from Belarus for five years, it also noted.
 
At least 17 journalists, including four from RFE/RL’s Belarus Service, had their accreditations revoked. 
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Portland police made multiple arrests overnight on Friday as the Oregon city nears 100 days of demonstrations against U.S. racism and police brutality, which have at times turned violent.
 
Police arrested 27 people, mostly on charges of interfering with law enforcement or disorderly conduct after not complying with orders to clear the area where they assembled and throwing items at officers.
 
“Officers began to make targeted arrests and in some cases moved the crowd back and kept them out of the street,” according to a press release issued on Saturday.
 
One arrested protester was injured with a “bleeding abrasion” on her head, police said.
 
Demonstrations against racism and police brutality have swept the United States since the death in May of George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man who died after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes.
 
In Rochester, New York on Friday night nearly 1,000 demonstrators marched downtown to protest the March death of black man Daniel Prude in police custody. Police used pepper balls to clear protesters during protests the night before, according to local news reports.
 
Portland has become the epicenter of demonstrations, with protests taking place nightly over the last three months calling for policing and social justice reforms. These have at times turned into clashes between demonstrators and officers, as well as between right- and left-wing groups.
 
Police shot and killed a self-declared anti-fascist activist in Washington state on Thursday night as they moved in to arrest him on suspicion he fatally shot a right-wing counterprotester last weekend in Portland.
 
The administration of President Donald Trump deployed federal forces to Portland in July to crack down on the protests. Trump signed a memo on Wednesday that threatens to cut federal funding to “lawless” cities, including Portland.
 
His Democratic challenger in the Nov. 3 presidential election, Joe Biden, has accused Trump of stoking violence with his rhetoric.
 
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Officials in Bangladesh said Saturday that at least 11 people have died following a blast likely caused by a leak in a gas pipeline at a mosque outside Dhaka during evening prayers Friday.The Dhaka Tribune reported that 26 people are being treated at Sheikh Hasina National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery in Dhaka.The victims have burns covering at least 60% to 70% of their bodies, according to Fatullah police station Officer-in-Charge Aslam Hossain.Narayanganj Fire Service’s Deputy Assistant Director Abdullah Al Arefin said apparently all six air conditioners on the mosque’s ground floor exploded.  He said fire officials suspect “that gas had leaked from the pipeline and accumulated inside as the windows were closed. The explosion was probably triggered due to sparks when someone tried to switch on or off the ACs or fans.”  
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The World Health Organization says it is unlikely a safe, effective vaccine
against COVID-19 will be available for widespread use before the middle of next year.  Urging people to lower their expectations, health officials say the development of a safe, efficacious vaccine takes time and cannot be rushed.  As it is, the WHO reports remarkable progress is being made toward this end. It notes at least six to nine candidate vaccines have begun Phase 3 clinical trials.
 
WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris says many thousands of people participate in these carefully crafted trials. She says a vaccine must be proven to be safe and seen to provide protection against the coronavirus in at least 50% of subjects before it can be approved for public use.   
 
Harris says the safety of the vaccine has to be monitored at all stages of the research, making this a lengthy process.
    
“The good news is the manufacturers are already putting bets on which one is likely to be the vaccine.  And, they are all working on how they can scale-up production of vaccines, once we know which ones are the ones we will roll out.… But, in terms of realistic timelines, we are really not expecting to see widespread vaccination until the middle of next year,” she said.FILE – A poster advertises a hunt for volunteers for a study of a possible COVID-19 vaccine, in Binghamton, New York, July 27, 2020.Harris told VOA that the WHO does not tell governments when a vaccine should be made available for emergency or general use. She said that is a decision for countries to make for themselves.  However, she cautioned against raising false hopes about the prospect of an imminent vaccine that would vanquish the pandemic.
 
“What we have been saying over and over is nobody should be sitting there waiting for the magic bullet. You know, thinking that the vaccine is going to solve all this or that there will be a wonder drug. What we have to do now is do the things we know suppress this virus…. And those are the basics—the hand-washing, the social distancing that we are doing, the mask-wearing,” she said.   
    
According to Harris, the WHO believes all nations must work together in the search for a vaccine. She said sharing and comparing data is important and will result in a vaccine that protects everybody.
 
Harris called this a global public good. She said a vaccine not only is essential but must be provided in all parts of the world, adding that unless everybody is protected, nobody is protected.
 
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More than a week after Category 4 Hurricane Laura ripped through the southwestern corner of Louisiana, state officials report more than 230,000 residents remain without power Friday. Another 175,000 are without water.“People around the country don’t realize how bad it is here,” Michelle Lee of Lake Charles, Louisiana, told VOA. “Entergy says we won’t have power for four or five weeks. Some people say they don’t think it’ll be until November.”Gov. John Bel Edwards said Thursday that power has been restored for nearly 400,000 people, but that the remaining outages would likely be the hardest ones to fix. The reason for this, he said, was that thousands of miles of electrical wires, thousands of utility poles and many hundreds of transmission towers were damaged by the storm.Lake Charles officials said this is a main reason residents have been unable to return to the city of 80,000, which was hit early August 27 with winds of more than 240 kph — the most powerful hurricane to reach Louisiana since 1856.“Why come back right now if you don’t have to?” Lee said. “I have friends who are in hotel rooms in New Orleans and Texas, and why not? A hot shower is a lot better than what we’ve got here. There are people in Lake Charles living in homes with a tree through the roof and with no water or power. I know people who are sleeping in cots on their porch or in tents in their backyard.”Edwards estimated that more than 11,000 people are being sheltered by the state, some in large emergency shelters, but the majority in hotel rooms in cities around Louisiana.Lee said she tried to find a place for herself and her two dogs but didn’t have any luck.“At first I was told I could find a place to stay in Baton Rouge, so I drove there, but then they said, ‘No, go to Metairie.’ So I drove to Metairie and they said, ‘No, go to Alexandria.’ It was a mess,” Lee said.The lucky oneAfter driving more than 800 miles during the evacuation, Lee was afraid her old car might die, stranding her and her dogs. She was also worried about missing work at an auto repair shop if she couldn’t return to Lake Charles.“I don’t have a lot of great options,” she said. “I didn’t want to go into one of the big shelters, because I didn’t think it was safe with COVID. Even if I managed to find an open hotel room, as far as I can tell, the emergency vouchers are gone, and that would be a lot of money for me to pay out of pocket.”Michelle Lee says the RV park she calls home looked ‘like a war zone’ after Hurricane Laura tore through. (Courtesy Michelle Lee)She decided to try her luck back home.Just three days after the hurricane, Lee and her dogs returned to the RV park they’d lived in since Lee’s daughter left for college. (Lee playfully calls it “the cheap life.”) She was horrified by what she saw.“When I left before the storm on Wednesday, there were 20 RVs in the lot,” she said. “When I got back, there were only two that were livable. The rest were tipped over on their sides, or had been split completely in half. It looks like a war zone.”Fortunately for Lee, one of the RVs still habitable was her own. She is now living in her wind-damaged motorhome with her two dogs, as well as a couple and their dog whose RV was destroyed. Lee doesn’t have running water, and the only electricity they have is when they run the generator, which Lee says is getting expensive.“It’s another $150 a week to run the generator, the RV is kind of crowded and I’d really like a warm shower, but I still think I’m one of the lucky ones,” she said. “At least I’m home and I can go to work.”Far from homeOlivia Dean also evacuated the day before the storm. She and the nearly 15 family members and friends she’s traveling with, including her grandparents and several uncles, have yet to make it home, though.She said they have been unable to get an emergency voucher to cover their housing costs. This has forced them to move from one hotel to another across Texas as they search for more affordable options.“I can’t believe how much these hotels are costing us,” Dean said. “But, stuck between a pandemic and a disaster, we don’t really have a better option.”Dean said the group is eager to return home so they can go to work and check on their property. They are finding it difficult, however, to get information that would tell them if it’s safe to return.“I was able to find one stranger on Facebook to go by the property and take a picture so we knew what the damage was like,” she said, referring to the social media groups that pop up in the wake of disasters to help get information and assistance to victims.Olivia Dean hasn’t been able to go home. She knows her apartment house lacks water, and she says she doubts the building has power. (Courtesy Olivia Dean)She said she knows her building lacks water, either because it has been turned off or it is contaminated. She also doubts her apartment building has power because no one in that area has electricity unless they use a generator.“One of the buildings looks like the roof and side were torn off, but ours looks like it might be OK. We can’t really tell,” Dean said.For natural disaster victims like Dean and Lee, the lack of information causes the most frustration, they said.“The governor said the disaster wasn’t as bad as expected, but that’s tough to hear when you know so many people who have lost everything,” Dean said. “Nobody wants to hear how bad it isn’t right now. It’s bad enough.”Lee agreed, adding she worries that statements like that from local officials will lead to less urgency for the rest of the country to help rebuild the region.“We might not be as well-known as New Orleans or New York or Miami, but we have 78,000 people here and most don’t have power,” Lee said. “I’m worried people will hear what the governor says and think maybe we don’t need the help. But, trust me, we do.”In a press conference Thursday, Gov. Edwards acknowledged the progress that has been made clearing debris, but noted that the storm “left a long trail of devastation and just catastrophic damage.”Olivia Dean hasn’t been able to go home. She knows her apartment house lacks water, and she says she doubts the building has power. (Courtesy Olivia Dean)“We clearly have a very, very long way to go,” he said, adding that “this is very much going to be a marathon, not a sprint.”For residents like Lee and Dean, the marathon has just begun.“It’s going to be weeks until I see any sort of assistance from FEMA,” Lee said. “An inspector hasn’t even made it to our RV park, so my application is still pending. I’m just hanging on the best I can until I get some help — that’s all I can do.” 
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A bitter dispute between China and the Czech Republic threatens to affect relations between Europe and Beijing. A delegation from the Czech senate visited Taiwan this week – which China claims as part of its territory. Strongly worded threats from Beijing against the delegation have prompted criticism from EU leaders. As Henry Ridgwell reports, the dispute comes as Europe hardens its language towards China. 
Camera: Henry Ridgwell
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