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Hot, dry conditions and intense winds across California are threatening to reinvigorate what has already been the worst fire season in state history, officials warned on Tuesday.Gusty winds in California’s north and extreme heat in its south are creating conditions that could fan wildfires that began earlier in the summer as well as spark new ones, leading state and federal authorities to urge residents to prepare.The National Weather Service issued a heat advisory for a wide swath of Southern California as temperatures topped 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 degrees Celsius). The agency asked residents to exercise caution with any fire sources.Strong winds, low humidityThe California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) said strong winds and low humidity could ramp up blazes in Northern California starting Wednesday.”While good progress has been made on a number of fires, this could hamper containment efforts,” Daniel Berlant, Cal Fire assistant deputy director, said on Twitter on Tuesday. “It means if a new fire breaks out, that that fire is going to be able to burn very rapidly.”Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), which provides power to much of California, said Monday it was considering proactively shutting off power as soon as Wednesday to as many as 50,000 state residents to mitigate fire risk.Over 4 million acres burned This year, wildfires have burned over 4 million acres in California — twice the total of 2018 which had been the highest on record. Five of the six largest fires in state history were in 2020. Thirty-one people have died, and over 9,200 structures have been destroyed.Fall has tended to be California’s peak wildfire season, but state officials say the season is growing longer each year.Experts say droughts and climate change from fossil fuels have made poorly managed forests much more flammable, leading to extreme fire activity. 
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Severe flash floods in western Cambodia caused by heavy rainfall have killed at least 11 people, local media reported, Tuesday, October 13. Footage carried by a local broadcaster showed villagers in Pursat province being evacuated by authorities, Monday, October 12. At least 2,400 families have been evacuated from flood zones and 75,000 hectares of land have been flooded, with several main roads inundated across the provinces, local media reported.  The military and police were deployed in several areas to assist in evacuations. (Reuters)
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Thousands of conservative Muslims marched in Indonesia’s capital on Tuesday demanding that the government revoke a new law they say will cripple labor rights, with some clashing with police. Authorities blocked streets leading to the Presidential Palace in Jakarta, where clashes between riot police and rock-throwing demonstrators, including workers and students, broke out last Thursday. The protests spread and turned violent in some cities across the world’s most populous Muslim nation, but calm had largely returned to Jakarta over the past four days. On Tuesday, the normally clogged streets of Jakarta were nearly empty of cars, embassies were closed and many businesses were shuttered for the day after several Muslim groups announced they would stage protests. Waving black flags bearing the Islamic declaration of faith, several thousand demonstrators, many wearing white Islamic robes, filled a major thoroughfare.  The Job Creation Law approved by Parliament last week is expected to substantially change Indonesia’s labor system and natural resources management. It amended 79 previous laws and is intended to improve bureaucratic efficiency as part of efforts by President Joko Widodo’s administration to attract more investment to the country. The demonstrators say the law will hurt workers by reducing severance pay, removing restrictions on manual labor by foreign workers, increasing the use of outsourcing, and converting monthly salaries to hourly wages.Police officers protect themselves with their shields during a protest against the new Job Creation Law, in Jakarta, Indonesia, Oct. 13, 2020. Protest organizer Shobri Lubis told the crowd, including members of the Islamic Defenders Front vigilante group, that they support workers and students in fighting for the rejection of the law. “It’s undeniable that the Job Creation Law is more intended for foreign economic domination in Indonesia and not to side with local workers,” he said.  Protesters chanted “God is Great” and “We stand with workers” near the blocked roads. Clashes broke out in the afternoon when riot police used tear gas to try to disperse protesters who were attempting to reach roads leading to the heavily guarded palace compound and the Chinatown area. Protesters hurled rocks, bricks and bottles. Tuesday’s protest was organized by a conservative Muslim alliance that held mass protests in 2016 against Jakarta’s ethnic Chinese Christian governor, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, that led to him being imprisoned for blasphemy. Widodo said on Friday that the new law was meant to improve workers’ welfare. He said the widespread protests resulted from disinformation about the legislation. He urged those who were dissatisfied with the law to challenge it in the Constitutional Court and avoid violent protests. Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s largest economy, is eagerly courting foreign investment as a key driver of economic growth in a nation where nearly half the population of 270 million is younger than 30.  
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Cristina Lozano, a junior at New York University (NYU), has been staying at the chic W New York Hotel, a 1911 beaux arts-style building that overlooks Union Square Park and offers a short walk to the Empire State Building.The hotel is booked until next summer, when prices are advertised from the $400s to the $600s a night. For now, the place belongs to Lozano and others like her, who are living in single rooms that her university is using as campus housing during the COVID-19 pandemic.“Living in the hotel is the exact same price as most of the dorms, which I find a bit weird because I don’t have a kitchen and I am not getting many of the same amenities dorms have,” said Lozano. “If I wasn’t on scholarship, I probably wouldn’t want to pay to live in the hotel.”Some students are living on-campus, others in off-campus apartments, some are sharing homes or hotels, and many have remained at home with their families during the pandemic, which has upended how students go to college and university in 2020.Lozano was randomly assigned to the hotel after applying for on-campus housing earlier this year. A service comes every Tuesday to clean the bathrooms and bring clean sheets. Students receive a discount in the hotel restaurant, she said.“The hotel has a huge lobby, but they closed off the sitting area because of COVID-19. They don’t want people loitering in the hotel,” said Lozano. “There is hotel elevator music playing, which is funny, and very different from what you would experience in a dorm.”On the weekends, the farmers market in Union Square brings a lot of foot traffic near the W, Lozano said.People buy pumpkins at an outdoor market in Union Square Park, New York, Oct. 5, 2020. (Credit: John Nacion/STAR MAX/IPx)Lozano, like other on-campus housing residents, is not allowed to have guests and is required to wear a mask at all times. She said she’s comfortable with her situation.“I am happy, honestly, because I think you are in a different mindset if you are closer to school, even though I live in Manhattan,” said Lozano. “Once you are out of the house and in that college mindset, have your college routine and your college friends who are in your classes, I think you are more focused overall.”Social life in New York City has changed dramatically because of COVID-19. To buy alcohol at a restaurant or bar, you have to order food, which has centered the social scene around going out to eat, Lozano said.“In my immediate social group, a lot of my friends are off-campus in apartments, so they will invite people over,” she said. “But what used to be a group of 30 is now a group of five.”A younger crowd of college students and people in their 20s can be seen out on the weekends, Lozano said.“More so toward the East Village, you see people go to bars and restaurants later in the night to socialize,” she said. “In the street, you see people not wearing masks as much, but most people are wearing masks, and it seems like people really care about it here.”NYU is among the universities that offer COVID-19 testing for students. Lozano has already been tested twice since returning to school about two weeks ago. NYU requires students living on campus or going to in-person classes to be tested weekly.Students wait in line at a testing site for the COVID-19 set up for returning students, faculty and staff on the main campus of New York University (NYU) in Manhattan in New York City, Aug. 18, 2020.“I think the protocol is actually really admirable,” she said. “You go downstairs in your dorm and you pick up a saliva test, which is way easier to administer yourself, and you just have to return it back to the dorm before the deadline.”Since Lozano is living at the W, she has to go to a neighboring dorm to pick up and drop off her tests.Most of Lozano’s friends live within walking distance from her, although she occasionally will take public transportation to get around the city.“I take the subway, but I definitely take it with caution,” she said. “The train can be really packed, as if nothing ever happened, especially during rush hours.”While it’s mandated by state law to wear a mask on the subway, Lozano said she doesn’t see that being enforced by authorities.“That’s one of my concerns about being on a train is if someone sitting across from you isn’t wearing a mask, it’s not like you’re in a position to tell them to put their mask on,” she said.While housing at the hotel is temporary for students at NYU, the university has not updated the students about when they will be moved out.“The situation is really scary, but I feel pretty safe given what I am doing and the precautions I am taking,” said Lozano.Off-campus housingStudents living in off-campus housing have expanded freedom while still living close to campus. Although, local jurisdictions have placed restrictions on the number of guests allowed in a residence due to COVID-19.Despite these restrictions, off-campus housing can leave universities with little control over students’ behavior and whereabouts.Julia Seungyeon Han is an international student from Seoul, South Korea, studying to get her master’s degree in applied mathematics and statistics at the State University of New York-Stony Brook. She is living in a one-bedroom apartment off-campus.Han made the decision to return to campus to take an in-person Real Analysis course at the university. Han was able to find her off-campus apartment through a friend.“Exposure to COVID-19 is the greatest fear,” she said. “Since the school is reporting several positive cases, there is a risk of encountering positive ones whom I do not know and where they will appear.”Han said she worries that if she got COVID-19, her student insurance would not provide adequate health care coverage. Also, she said if she left the U.S., her student visa status would become unstable, and getting back into the U.S. to go to school might become problematic.Han stated that she notices most students at the university wearing masks at all times.“It is not allowed to get into any of the buildings in school without wearing face masks,” she said. “There are a lot of signs and posters to let the students know that they should keep social distancing in all buildings, including libraries and lecture rooms.”SUNY-Stony Brook offers free COVID-19 testing for students taking in person classes, according to Han. She said she doesn’t socialize with her friends in person while at school.“I often go to the main library to study, but I don’t go to school to interact with my friends,” said Han. “I spend time and socialize with my friends through online platforms, such as Facebook or Instagram.”Sophia Michaelson, a junior at Syracuse University, is living off-campus in an apartment complex with two of her sorority sisters. Since moving into her apartment more than three weeks ago, Michaelson has already noticed several gatherings in the complex close to Syracuse’s main campus.Sophia Michaelson’s apartment complex, acquired from Google maps.“I’ve noticed a lot of other apartments will have people over. Since many of those students are in Greek Life, sometimes the parties will get relatively large for how small the apartments are,” she said. “I feel like that definitely can’t be safe in regard to COVID-19.” Students often don’t wear masks in the apartment complex as the hallways are outdoors, Michaelson said.Michaelson and her roommates signed their lease for the apartment back in October 2019, before the spread of the virus. While Michaelson is legally bound to her lease, there was a window before the start of the lease in August in which she could break her lease agreement for $500. She and her roommates decided to keep their lease despite COVID because of the freedom provided by living off-campus.“I definitely am happy with this arrangement in a COVID-19 scenario, because we were considering living in our sorority house, and that would have limited our freedom to do stuff,” said Michaelson. “For example, we wouldn’t have been able to have people over that didn’t live there, but now I can see my friends to whatever extent I’m comfortable with.”Living off-campus, Michaelson is allowed to use on-campus facilities with her student ID card, as long as she continues to update her COVID-19 status with the university. Like many universities, Syracuse offers a COVID-19 portal for students to upload their negative or positive test results, and it also provides contact tracing for students.Kasey Borduas, a junior at the University of Maryland, was supposed to live in her sorority house — considered on-campus housing — but opted out at the last minute for fear UMD would send their students home mid-semester because of COVID-19.Instead, she rented an apartment close to campus with three roommates.“It was a financial sacrifice my family decided was worth it because if I didn’t pay for an apartment, I would have had to stay home for the semester,” said Borduas, from Madison, Connecticut.While Borduas enjoys the freedom of living off-campus, she said she is cautious about the virus.“I go out to dinner, but we follow the rules all the time and always have our masks on,” she said. “I’m trying to find a new normal as much as I can, but I feel like isolating myself completely would be sort of pointless.”Borduas and her roommates live in an apartment building where she has noticed people wearing masks inside, but outside less so. Social scenes at UMD also have changed, according to Borduas. Bars at UMD now require everyone to stay seated.“I have noticed loud music from some rooms, but we play loud music, too, and there are three people in our room,” she said. “I don’t necessarily think people are throwing parties, I just think people are trying to have as much fun as they can.”UMD requires students to self-report positive cases. Borduas and her roommates decided that if one of them tested positive for COVID-19, they would all quarantine together as an apartment.Quarantining for many students living off-campus with roommates is a constant issue. UMD offers COVID-19 testing for students through their health center, and testing is a requirement for students to use on-campus facilities.Uncertainty for college students continues as the fall semester commences. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill sent students home in August because of a large COVID-19 outbreak.Students wear masks on campus at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, N.C., Aug. 18, 2020.The University of Wisconsin Madison announced early in the semester it would quarantine two dorms on-campus and switch to remote learning for two weeks.Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut, recently banned off-campus students from campus indefinitely after 10 students living off-campus tested positive for COVID-19.And despite the uncertainty, 76% of college students planned to return to campus this fall if given the option, according to a College Reaction poll taken in July. 
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Hundreds of Tanzanian firefighters and citizens are trying to contain a fire on Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest mountain at 5,895 meters.   The Citizen newspaper reports that National Park spokesman Pascal Shelutete said the initial investigation found the fire started Sunday by porters servicing climbers at the Whona rest area. Shelutete told reporters Tuesday the fire, used to warm up food, ignited dry grass and shrubs. The fire is confined to the Mandara and Horombo trails, Shelutete said, which are no higher than 2,700 meters above sea level. So far, there are no reports of casualties from the fire on the popular site, which attracts tens of thousands of climbers each year, many determined to reach the peak. Reuters reports more than two hundred university students from the College of African Wildlife Management, which is near the mountain, are providing food and water for firefighters trying to contain the blaze.  
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In the wake of heat waves, global warming, forest fires, storms, droughts and a rising number of hurricanes, the U.N. weather agency is warning that the number of people who need international humanitarian help could rise 50% by 2030 compared to the 108 million who needed it worldwide in 2018.
 In a new report released with partners on Tuesday, the World Meteorological Agency says more disasters attributed to weather are taking place each year. It said over 11,000 disasters have been attributed to weather, climate and phenomena like tsunamis that are related to water over the last 50 years — causing 2 million deaths and racking up $3.6 trillion worth of economic costs.
 
In one hopeful development over that period, the average number of deaths from each separate weather disaster per year has dropped by one-third, even as the number of such events and the economic costs from them have both surged.
 
The 2020 State of Climate Services report, compiled by 16 international agencies and financing institutions, calls on governments to put more money into early-warning systems that can improve countries” ability to prepare for, respond to and mitigate the impact of such natural disasters.
 
“While COVID-19 generated a large international health and economic crisis from which it will take years to recover, it is crucial to remember that climate change will continue to pose an on-going and increasing threat to human lives, ecosystems, economies and societies for centuries to come,” said WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas.
 
“Recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic is an opportunity to move forward along a more sustainable path towards resilience and adaptation in the light of anthropogenic climate change,” he said.
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The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) will set up an office at Cambodia’s national police headquarters to help track down American criminals, at a time when Washington is seeking to repair strained relations with a close ally of China. The office will serve to support Cambodian police in efforts to arrest American fugitives and to fight terrorism, police spokesman Chhay Kim Khoeun said on Tuesday.   “Before, we cooperated on a case-by-case basis and now we are having an office to work with the objective to work fast,” Chhay Kim Khoeun told Reuters. Chhay Kim Khoeun said he did not know about the timeframe for when the office would be established.   In an email statement to Reuters, the U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh declined to comment on the FBI office but said the two institutions had an established relationship. “A joint FBI-Cambodian National Police task force established to fight crimes against children, money laundering, and financial crime is now operational. Our law enforcement cooperation makes both our countries safer,” it said.   An agreement was made last year to create the task force, which would also address organized crime, money laundering and locate international fugitives, the embassy said. Ties with the United States have been frosty in recent years, with Cambodia’s government angered by Washington’s criticism of the dissolution of the main opposition party and arrest of rival politicians and activists. Last week, the Pentagon expressed concern about the razing of a U.S.-funded Cambodian navy tactical headquarters, which Prime Minister Hun Sen said was for renovations.   Cambodia has repeatedly denied reports there was a secret deal with China, its biggest economic and diplomatic ally, to place forces at the base. 
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Cuba is easing coronavirus restrictions in an effort to jumpstart the economy by reopening retail businesses, government offices and resuming airports operations across the island except in the capital, Havana, where an outbreak occurred in August. The popular beach resort town of Varadero will begin welcoming international visitors Thursday. All tourists arriving in Cuba are required to undergo mandatory testing and their hygiene practices will be monitored during their visit. Everyone in Cuba is required to wear face masks and maintain a safe distance from one another.  The pandemic has reportedly choked the lifeblood of Cuba, the island’s $3 billion tourism industry, which has suffered since March when the first coronavirus cases were reported.  The Associated Press reports the pandemic has mostly been controlled across Cuba,  with President Miguel Díaz-Canel saying some communities have not logged any new cases in several months.  The island nation has reported 6,000 COVID-19 cases and 123 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.   
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U.S. President Donald Trump’s doctor says the president has tested negative for COVID-19 on “consecutive days” as Trump traveled to Florida for his first campaign rally since being diagnosed with the disease earlier this month.In a memo released Monday by the White House, Dr. Sean Conley said Trump was tested using a newer rapid coronavirus test from Abbott Laboratories. He did not say when Trump was tested.Conley said the negative tests, along with other clinical and laboratory data, “indicate a lack of detectable viral replication.” He also repeated an assessment that he gave over the weekend that Trump is no longer infectious to others.Trump returned to the campaign trail Monday for a busy week that includes stops in Florida, Pennsylvania, Iowa, North Carolina and Wisconsin, his first campaign travel since his positive test for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, on Oct 2. Trump spent several days at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and completed his COVID-19 treatment at the White House.Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, speaks during a House Subcommittee on the Coronavirus crisis hearing, July 31, 2020 on Capitol Hill in Washington.Dr. Anthony Fauci, speaking on CNN before Trump left the White House for Florida, questioned the wisdom of holding an event like this. Test positivity rates, he noted, are climbing in parts of the Sun Belt.“We know that that is asking for trouble when you do that,” Fauci, the nation’s top infectious-disease expert, said on CNN.Trump described himself Sunday as being “in very good shape” and said he was no longer taking any medication.FILE – President Donald Trump walks out of Walter Reed National Military Medical Center after receiving treatment as a COVID-19 patient, in Bethesda, Maryland, Oct. 5, 2020.“I beat this crazy, horrible China virus,” Trump said in a telephone interview on Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures” show. “It seems like I’m immune, maybe a long time, a short time, maybe a lifetime.”Those who recover from COVID-19 are likely to be immune for some period of time, Fauci told CNN on Monday, but there are cases emerging in which patients are reinfected weeks or months later, he added.Trump said he had a “protective glow” after being treated with several medications during his hospital stay and after returning to the White House last week.A short time after the television interview, Trump said of the coronavirus on Twitter, “I can’t get it (immune), and can’t give it. Very nice to know!!!”Twitter disabled some sharing options on the tweet and labeled it for violating “Twitter Rules about spreading misleading and potentially harmful information related to COVID-19.”Facebook did nothing to the same post by Trump on its platform.The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has provided limited information about immunity and reinfection. A person who has recovered from COVID-19 may have low levels of the virus in their bodies for up to three months after diagnosis and not be infectious to others.“This science does not imply a person is immune to reinfection with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, in the three months following infection,” the CDC said. The coronavirus has killed nearly 215,000 people in the United States and infected more than 7.8 million Americans, according to Johns Hopkins University data. The U.S. leads the world in the number of confirmed cases and deaths, according to Johns Hopkins.Some medical experts have also voiced skepticism that Trump could be declared contagion-free so soon, according to the Associated Press.It also was unclear what — if any — added precautions and safety measures the campaign planned to take to prevent the trips from further spreading a virus that has already infected many of the president’s closest aides and allies, including his campaign manager and the head of the Republican Party, according to the AP.CDC guidelines for limiting exposure to the coronavirus is washing your hands, wearing a face mask that covers your mouth and nose when around others, and socially distancing by keeping at least 2 meters between you and others. 
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With three weeks until Election Day, a handful of swing states is expected to determine if former Vice President Joe Biden can deny President Donald Trump a second term. That has the rival campaigns focusing on Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania at the start of a critical week.  “The corrupt political class is desperate to regain their power by any means necessary,” Trump said Monday night in Sanford, Florida. “We’re the ones standing in their way.”  Trump accused Biden of being owned by “radical globalists” and having handed control of the Democratic Party to “the socialists, the Marxists and the left-wing extremists.”  It was the president’s first campaign rally since his hospitalization for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.  “Everyone is going to have the same damn thing,” Trump said of his coronavirus treatment that included an experimental, hard-to-produce and expensive cocktail of antibodies, as well as an intravenous anti-viral medication currently authorized only for emergency use.Supporters watch as President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at Orlando Sanford International Airport, Oct. 12, 2020, in Sanford, Fla.“I feel so powerful. I’ll walk into that audience,” said Trump, the Republican Party incumbent who declared he was now immune from the virus. “I’ll kiss everyone in that audience. I’ll kiss the guys and the beautiful women.”  Few in the airport rally crowd of thousands, which was packed together outdoors for Trump’s hour-long speech, wore a mask.    While Air Force One was in flight to Florida, the White House released a memo from the president’s physician, Sean Conley, stating Trump tested negative for the coronavirus for two consecutive days, but he did not specify which days.  The medical team’s assessment is “that the president is not infectious to others,” said Conley, who accompanied Trump to Florida on Monday.  U.S. President Donald Trump throws a face mask from the stage during a campaign rally, his first since being treated for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), at Orlando Sanford International Airport in Sanford, Florida, Oct. 12, 2020.Meanwhile, Vice President Mike Pence campaigned in Ohio on Monday.  Pence’s speech, at a construction company in Columbus, was interrupted several times in the opening minutes by protesters. One man shouted questions to the vice president, including “How do you call yourself a Christian?” before being rebuked loudly by the crowd and escorted out.  The demonstration was organized by a progressive group founded by U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, according to a political marketing company.  Democratic presidential candidate Biden also visited Ohio on Monday.U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden delivers remarks at a Voter Mobilization Event campaign stop at the Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal in Cincinnati, Ohio, Oct. 12, 2020.“The blinders have been taken off the American people,” Biden told union autoworkers in Toledo at a drive-in rally where the honking of about 30 car horns replaced applause. “They’ve seen what the combination of the pandemic, the economic crisis, the racial inequality we’re facing and what’s going on internationally. They’re ready to step up. They know we have to change.”  Later in the day, Biden spoke in Cincinnati, where he talked about the nearly 215,000 people in the country who have died of COVID-19 and predictions that another 200,000 might be dead by the end of January, “all because the president is only worried about one thing — the stock market — because he refused to follow science.”  On Tuesday, Biden heads to Florida, while Trump is to hold a rally in Pennsylvania. According to the Real Clear Politics average of recent polls, the challenger enjoys a comfortable 7-percentage-point lead in Pennsylvania, considered one of the most critical states by both campaigns. In Florida, Biden has a smaller 3.7-percentage-point lead over the president. “We’re winning by a lot more now than we were four years ago,” Trump said Monday evening, disputing the polls in Florida.  The two candidates are essentially tied in Ohio, based on the average of recent surveys, a state Trump won by 8 percentage points against Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in 2016.Biden supporters gather outside of a campaign event held by U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden in Cincinnati, Ohio, Oct. 12, 2020.In that election four years ago, Trump narrowly beat Clinton in Florida and Pennsylvania.   Florida and Ohio are crucial for Trump’s reelection, and Pennsylvania is important for a Biden win, said Spencer Kimball, the director of Emerson College Polling.  “No Republican wins the presidency without Ohio and the way Michigan is looking, Florida could give Biden a victory by itself,” Kimball, also an assistant professor at the college, told VOA. “If Pennsylvania stays with Trump, that would be tough for Biden as his native state and likely suggests he will do poorly in the Midwest.”  Regardless of which candidate captures the most ballots nationwide, the key to victory for the presidency is earning a minimum of 270 electoral votes, determined by the combined number of the state’s members of the U.S. House and Senate.  Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania have a combined total of 67 electoral votes.  California has the most electoral votes at 55 — a state in which Biden is assured victory, according to pollsters.  Texas has 38 electoral votes and most political observers expect Trump to repeat his 2016 victory there, although Biden is pulling within 5 points in some recent polls.   
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The head of the World Health Organization is warning against a strategy of pursuing herd immunity to stop the coronavirus pandemic, calling the idea unethical.At a news briefing Monday in Geneva, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said health officials should only try to achieve immunity through vaccination, not through exposing people to the virus.Herd immunity happens when a population is protected from a virus because a threshold immunity has been reached in that society.“Never in the history of public health has herd immunity been used as a strategy for responding to an outbreak, let alone a pandemic. It’s scientifically and ethically problematic,” Tedros said.The WHO estimates that about 10% of the world has contracted the coronavirus. It is not yet known what percentage rate of infection is needed to achieve herd immunity.Tedros noted that to obtain herd immunity from measles, about 95% of the population must be vaccinated, while for polio, the threshold is about 80%.Virus can survive 28 daysIn another development Monday, scientists in Australia discovered that the coronavirus, which causes the COVID-19 disease, can survive on solid common surfaces for as long as 28 days.In a study published in Virology Journal, researchers at CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization), Australia’s national science agency, found the SARS-CoV-2 virus was “extremely robust,” surviving on smooth surfaces at 20 degrees Celsius, compared to the flu virus, which lasts for 17 days in the same circumstances. The scientists at CSIRO also found the SARS-CoV-2 virus stopped being infectious after about 24 hours at 40 degrees Celsius.The scientists at CSIRO found the novel coronavirus can survive on such common surfaces as paper banknotes, glass and stainless steel.In EuropeIn Britain, Prime Minister Boris Johnson unveiled a new coronavirus alert system for the country during a speech in Parliament. Instead of a blanket nationwide lockdown, the government’s new system designates areas as medium, high and very high risk.Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks during a coronavirus briefing in Downing Street, London, Oct. 12, 2020.Under the first tier, areas with relatively low infection rates will have limited restrictions on restaurants and bars, with the restrictions gradually tightening up to the third tier, when restaurants and bars will be forced to close. Lawmakers will vote on the move on Tuesday.The new system is being implemented as Britain reaches what a spokesman for Johnson described as “a critical juncture.” The nation is experiencing a dramatic surge of new cases, especially in the northern cities of Liverpool, Merseyside, Manchester and Newcastle. Britain has nearly 43,000 coronavirus deaths, one of the highest numbers in Europe.At the Vatican, four Swiss Guards, the corps that protects the pope, tested positive. The Vatican said the men have been isolated, and officials are tracing and notifying anyone with whom the men had contact.Pope Francis recently drew criticism on social media for his decision not to wear a mask during a Wednesday audience.In Spain, supporters of the far-right Vox Party held protests by car across the country against coronavirus restrictions. Protesters honked horns and waved Spanish flags out of their car windows.People wave Spanish flags during a drive-in protest organized by Spain’s far-right Vox party against the government’s handling of the nation’s coronavirus outbreak in Madrid, Oct. 12, 2020.French Prime Minister Jean Castex refused to rule out further lockdowns on Monday after health officials reported about 43,000 new infections over the weekend.“Nothing should be ruled out when we see the situation in our hospitals,” Castex told broadcaster France Info. Government officials are set to review health data on Wednesday and consider further restrictions in some areas.In Belgium, organizers of the Brussels auto show canceled the January event which typically draws 500,000 visitors to the capital city.ElsewhereMore than 37.6 million people around the world have been diagnosed with the novel coronavirus, and more than 1 million people have died, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. India officially topped 7 million total infections on Sunday, second only to the United States, which has more than 7.7 million confirmed cases.Medical workers in protective suits collect swabs for nucleic acid tests during a city-wide testing following COVID-19 cases in Qingdao, Shandong province, China, Oct. 12, 2020.Health authorities in the eastern Chinese coastal city of Qingdao will test all 9 million of its citizens after reporting nine new coronavirus cases on Sunday, all of them linked to a hospital that treats infected travelers from overseas. The new cases include four confirmed infections and five asymptomatic cases, making them the first recorded locally transmitted asymptomatic infections in China since Sept. 24, according to the Bloomberg news service. 
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Dressed in a bright pink vest, Rita Brown is practicing yoga outside her house. But Rita is no ordinary yogi, she’s an Ugandan refugee, who also happens to be a yoga instructor living in the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya. Rita arrived in Kakuma from Uganda in 2000 after fleeing conflict between a rebel group and the local community. Rita was only 7 years old. Rita took up yoga in 2019 through the Africa Yoga project. After completing her training, she started offering classes to refugees and humanitarian workers in Kakuma. Some research suggests that yoga enhances social well-being and can also improve some symptoms of depression and sleep disorders. Rita adds that yoga has also helped her cope with the hardships of growing up in a refugee camp for many years without parents. Now a mother of one, with a diploma in social studies, she has come to accept her life. She is among the first professional refugee yogis in the camp. She has moved her classes online because of COVID-19 restrictions, reaching even more people with her message of self-acceptance and mental well-being. Personal initiatives like Rita’s toward addressing mental health are in line with UNHCR, the U.N. Refugee Agency’s priority to ensure access to mental health for refugees in the camp. During the pandemic and the ensuing lockdown measures that came into effect, psycho-social counselors have been providing virtual counselling to people of concern, including those in quarantine and isolation facilities. Toll free helplines are also available to ensure people have unhindered access to counsellors and other mental health services. Through her online classes, Rita is already doing her part to address some of these issues. UNHCR and its partners are providing counselling and other services as part of COVID-19 interventions, but more funding and support is required to ensure refugees and their hosts get the help they need. 
(Reuters) 
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Israel’s Cabinet has approved an agreement on normalizing relations with the United Arab Emirates, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday he and Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan have agreed to meet soon. The Israeli parliament is expected to vote on ratifying the agreement later this week. Netanyahu and Sheikh Mohammed spoke by telephone and in separate statements Monday said they discussed a range of topics, including peace and cooperation in the Middle East. Israel and the UAE signed the U.S.-brokered agreement at a White House ceremony last month where Israel also signed a similar deal with Bahrain. FILE – Bahrain’s FM Abdullatif al-Zayani, Israel’s PM Benjamin Netanyahu, US President Donald Trump and United Arab Emirates (UAE) FM Abdullah bin Zayed participate in the signing of the Abraham Accords, at the White House, Sept. 15, 2020.They are the third and fourth Arab states to make such agreements with Israel, following Egypt in 1979 and Jordan in 1994. 
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Two American economists won the 2020 Swedish Central Bank (Sveriges Riksbank) Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel.   The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said that it awarded the prize to Paul R. Milgrom and Robert B. Wilson “for improvements to auction theory and inventions of new auction formats.”  The honorees will equally split the $1.1 million award.  The Nobel Prize in Economic Science was not included in Alfred Nobel’s will.  It was created in 1968 by the Swedish Central Bank in Memory of Alfred Nobel to mark its 300th anniversary. It was first awarded in 1969 and has been funded by the bank since then. Harvey J. Alter, Michael Houghton and Charles M. Rice, are seen on a screen as they are announced as the winners of the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, in Stockholm, Oct. 5, 2020. (C. Bresciani/TT News Agency/via Reuters)Three scientists — two Americans and one Briton — shared the medicine prize for the discovery of the Hepatitis C virus.  Three other scientists — one Briton, one American and one German — won the physics prize for their discoveries related to black holes. The prize in chemistry was awarded to two scientists — one French and one American — for developing a method of gene editing. An American poet won the Nobel Prize in literature for an “unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal.”    FILE – A World Food Program worker arranges relief packages for humanitarian aid for Africa to combat the outbreak of the coronavirus disease, at the Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, April 14, 2020.The World Food Program (WFP) won the Nobel Peace Prize for its efforts to combat the threat of hunger.   
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The Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Miami Heat 106-93 Sunday night to capture the National Basketball Association Championship. LeBron James led the Lakers with 28 points, 14 rebounds and 10 assists on his way to being named the NBA Finals Most Valuable Player. James has now won championships with three different teams, and the Lakers have tied the Boston Celtics with a league record 17 overall titles. Miami pushed the best-of-7 series to six games despite dealing with injuries to some of its key players, including Bam Adebayo, who missed two games.Los Angels Lakers fans celebrate after the Lakers defeated the Miami Heat in Game 6 of the 2020 NBA Finals to win the NBA Championship, Oct. 11, 2020.Sunday night’s contest was in little doubt after Los Angeles built a 64-36 lead at halftime. The Heat battled back in the fourth quarter, outscoring the Lakers 35-19, but the late charge was not enough. Los Angeles dedicated its season to former star Kobe Bryant who died in a helicopter crash in January. Players league-wide also endured a four-and-a-half-month layoff due to the coronavirus before returning to play at the end of July.  The NBA successfully employed a bubble strategy of having players live and play at a single site in Florida in order to prevent infections. The start date for the next NBA season, which during a normal year would have begun this month, has not yet been set. 
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The Trump administration on Sunday called on Congress to pass a stripped-down coronavirus relief bill using leftover funds from an expired small-business loan program, as negotiations on a broader package ran into resistance. The administration proposal, which Democrats dismissed as inadequate, was the latest twist in on-again, off-again talks to try to secure more stimulus, as the economy struggles to recover from coronavirus-related shutdowns that threw millions of Americans out of work. In a letter to lawmakers, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said they would continue to talk to Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi to try to reach agreement on a comprehensive bill. But they said Congress should “immediately vote” on legislation to enable the use of the unused Paycheck Protection Program funds, which total around $130 billion. “The all or nothing approach is an unacceptable response to the American people,” they wrote. A spokesman for Pelosi, the lead Democratic negotiator, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Representative Nita Lowey, the Democratic chairwoman of the House Appropriations Committee, rejected the administration’s offer in a statement later Sunday as “woefully inadequate.” “We can only reopen our economy and set the foundation for a strong recovery if we support state and local governments on the frontline of this crisis,” Lowey said in a statement. White House spokesman Brian Morgenstern told reporters the unused funds would be used to reopen the Payroll Protection Program, which expired earlier this year, to “allow businesses to continue to use it to keep their employees employed.” President Donald Trump on Friday offered a $1.8 trillion coronavirus relief package in talks with Pelosi after urging his team on Twitter to “go big” — moving closer to Pelosi’s $2.2 trillion proposal. That came days after Trump abruptly called off negotiations until after the Nov. 3 election in which he is seeking re-election. Trump’s reversal and higher offer drew criticism from Senate Republicans, some of whom are uneasy about the national debt and whether a deal would cost Republicans votes next month. Federal Reserve officials have urged Congress to be aggressive. The head of the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank said the recovery had “flattened out,” indicating the need for further stimulus. “A lot of people are suffering. A lot of small businesses are suffering,” Minneapolis Fed chief Neel Kashkari said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday. White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said on CNN’s “State of the Union” that Republicans would eventually come around. “I think if an agreement can be reached, they will go along with it,” he said, adding there would be “further efforts of negotiation” on a package this week. 
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The Iraqi government has reached a deal with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) over security in the northern city of Sinjar, Iraqi officials said Friday.  Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi “sponsored a historic agreement which will strengthen the federal authority in Sinjar based on the constitution in terms of governance and security,” Kadhimi’s spokesperson Ahmad Mulla Talal said on Twitter. The agreement “ends the authority of intruding groups and paves the way for the reconstruction of the city and the full return of its people in coordination with the Kurdistan Regional Government,” Talal added. Sinjar, home to the Yazidi religious minority, was seized by the Islamic State (IS) in 2014 when the terror group carried out a genocidal campaign against the Yazidis, killing many men and enslaving thousands of Yazidi women and girls.  Nearly 3,000 kidnapped women and girls are still missing after many were trafficked and enslaved in other IS-held territory, according to the U.N.  Since the military defeat of IS, many groups have been competing to claim the Yazidi town, including Iraqi forces, Kurdish Peshmerga, Shiite militias and armed groups affiliated with the Turkey-based Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) terror group.  FILE -Recruits of PEJAK, the Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan, a splinter group of the PKK, the Kurdistan Workers Party, take defensive positions near the PEJAK training camp in the Qandil mountain range, northern Iraq.Tensions among these groups have reportedly caused security challenges in Sinjar, delaying the return of thousands of Yazidi survivors to their homes. ‘New chapter’   The U.N. Special Representative for Iraq, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, said in a statement the agreement would usher in “a new chapter for Sinjar” and help “displaced people to return to their homes, accelerate reconstruction and improve public service delivery.”   Masrour Barzani, KRG’s prime minister, said in a statement, “the normalization of Sinjar will ensure that its people can determine their own future,” adding that, “Baghdad and Erbil have agreed to work together to solve all issues around security, governance and service provision in Sinjar under the terms of the agreement.” The United States has welcomed the deal, describing it as an important step toward resolving Sinjar’s longstanding political and security challenges. “We hope the agreement announced Oct. 9 will create conditions that foster the revival of Sinjar and the safe and voluntary return of those who were displaced by ISIS,” U.S. State Department spokesperson, Morgan Ortagus, said in a statement Saturday, using another acronym for IS. “The interests of Sinjaris, particularly the victims of genocide, should remain at the heart of any plan to restore lasting peace and security.”  Desire to return    Activists said Yazidis have been eagerly waiting for an agreement between Iraqi and Kurdish authorities over Sinjar for many reasons.   “One is that Yazidis have been living in camps in Kurdistan for over four years now after the genocide and they want to go back to their homeland so desperately,” said Dawood Saleh, a Yazidi survivor of the IS 2014 onslaught.    Another reason, Saleh told VOA, is that “Yazidis cannot defend their rights unless they are back in Sinjar. It is their homeland and the only castle that Yazidis use as a shelter whenever there is a risk.”   The agreement, however, lacks the inclusion of many Yazidis, he said, and it’s also unclear the impact some sections of the agreement will have on the public.But one article in the deal stipulates the recruitment of 2,500 men to be part of a new security force in Sinjar. For that purpose, Iraqi spokesperson Talal said 1,500 Yazidi men would be recruited from displacement camps.   The PKK factor    Turkey, which views the PKK as a terrorist organization, also welcomed the agreement between Baghdad and the KRG. “We hope this agreement to be carried out in a way that would enable re-instating the control of the Iraqi authorities in Sinjar, the eradication of DAESH and PKK terrorist organizations and their extensions in the region …” Turkey’s foreign ministry said in a statement on Saturday, using an Arabic acronym for IS. Turkey has occasionally conducted bombing campaigns against PKK militants and their affiliates in Sinjar and other parts of northern Iraq.  Yerevan Saeed, a researcher at the Middle East Research Institute in Erbil, says while the agreement is important, it doesn’t seem comprehensive.  “For example, the Autonomous Administration Council in Sinjar, which has governed the area since 2014, was not included,” he told VOA.  “The question is whether the agreement was really to pave the way for the people of Sinjar to take care of their own affairs, return home and live in peace or it was to make Turkey happy,” Saeed said.  The Autonomous Administration Council in Sinjar was established by Sinjar Resistance Units (YPS), an armed group affiliated with the PKK. The Iraqi government regards the council as part of the PKK.
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