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Legislators said their final farewells to Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Friday, September 25, as her coffin was taken from the Capitol to Arlington National Cemetery where she will be buried. ––––––––– READ MORE: Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, paid their respects to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg as she became the first woman and first Jewish person to lie in state in the U.S. Capitol. Biden and his wife were among the last of the attendees to approach Ginsburg’s casket to bid her farewell at a relatively brief and solemn ceremony in the Capitol’s National Statuary Hall. After House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told the gathering she had the “high honor to welcome Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to lie in state in the Capitol of the United States,” Rabbi Lauren Holtzblatt delivered the eulogy. “All of the days of her life she pursued justice. Even in illness, she changed the course of American law,” Holtzblatt said. “And even when her views did not prevail, she still fought.”  ––––––––– LINK: https://www.voanews.com/usa/ginsburg-first-woman-jewish-person-lie-state-us-capitol 
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Russian President Vladimir Putin has proposed a pact with the United States to avoid interfering in each other’s elections and other domestic affairs.
 
Putin cited what he called the “risk of large-scale confrontation in the digital sphere,” according to a Kremlin statement Friday.
 
Earlier this week, the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence briefed members of Congress about what it said were active attempts by Russia, China, Iran and other nations to undermine the 2020 U.S. election set to take place in November.
 
U.S. intelligence agencies earlier concluded Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
 
Other Western governments have also accused Russia of utilizing both hackers and social media disinformation campaigns to undermine their elections. Russia has denied the accusations.
 
Putin’s statement, which was read aloud by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in a video released by the ministry, comes amid Kremlin accusations that Western countries are mounting a “disinformation” campaign against Russia over last month’s poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in Siberia.
 
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The Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center reported early Friday that the U.S. is on the brink of having an astounding 7 million COVID-19 cases.  India follows the U.S. with 5.8 million and Brazil has 4.6 million cases. Brazil’s rising caseload has prompted the country to announce the delay of Rio de Janeiro’s annual Carnival parade held in February, during the South American country’s summer.   Millions of people take to the city’s streets for the annual rambunctious event.It is the first time the event has been delayed.  It was not immediately clear when or if the 2021 iteration of the world-famous parade will take place. Hair loss is the latest reported side effect of the coronavirus.  An account in The New York Times says doctors have noticed a recent uptick in the numbers of patients reporting the loss.  The hair loss is happening not only to people who have had the virus, but also those who have not. Doctors say they believe that in both instances the hair loss can be attributed to stress. “There’s many, many stresses in many ways surrounding this pandemic, and we’re still seeing hair loss because a lot of the stress hasn’t gone away,” Dr. Shilpi Khetarpal, an associate professor of dermatology at the Cleveland Clinic, told The Times. People drink at the outside tables of a bar in Soho, in central London on September 24, 2020, on the first day of the new earlier closing times for pubs and bars in England and Wales, introduced to combat the spread of the coronavirus. – Britain has…Britain tightens restrictions
Last call came early Thursday at pubs and bars in England and Wales, as Britain tightened the rules to try to curb a coronavirus surge. The new restrictions, announced Tuesday by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, mean that any establishment serving food or drink must close by 10 p.m. The new rules apply in Scotland from Friday, while Northern Ireland is still considering a curfew. British pubs traditionally close at 11 p.m. But some stay open later, depending on their location and the day. “I don’t think it’s gonna help, it’s too little too late, as usual,” Joyce, a skeptical drinker in her 50s at a pub in the East London neighborhood of Dalston, told AFP.  “You’re just displacing the problem,” she said. Britain announced 6,634 new cases Thursday, the biggest daily number since the pandemic began. Britain is performing about 220,000 tests a day.European Commissioner for Health, Stella Kyriakides attends a news conference on the updated coronavirus disease (COVID-19) risk assessment, in Brussels, Belgium, Sept. 24, 2020EU urges decisive action
Across the English Chanel, European Union health officials urged member states Thursday to “act decisively” to put in place and utilize measures to stop the spread of the coronavirus and a potential surge in cases like the one earlier this year that prompted widespread lockdowns.“We are at a decisive moment. All member states must be ready to roll out control measures, immediately and at the right time, at the very first sign of potential new outbreaks,” said Stella Kyriakides, commissioner for health and food safety. She added, “This might be our last chance to prevent a repeat of last spring.”More than 3 million cases have been reported across the EU and Britain since the pandemic began, according to the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control.Kyriakides noted some EU countries are experiencing higher numbers of new infections than they had in March at the peak of the outbreak in the region, saying, “It is abundantly clear that this crisis is not behind us.”France’s health ministry reported Thursday the number of people hospitalized in intensive care units due to the coronavirus surpassed 1,000 for the first time since early June.In the Netherlands, health officials said Thursday the number of new infections rose to 2,544, a record high for a single day.Poland’s health ministry also reported a record daily rise in cases and attributed the trend to people making more contact with others after restrictions were lifted.Sweden sounds alarm
Sweden, which opted not to put in place many of the stricter coronavirus lockdown measures seen elsewhere in Europe, is experiencing a situation Prime Minister Stefan Lofven called worrying.”The caution that existed in the spring has more and more been replaced by hugs, parties, bus trips in rush hour traffic, and an everyday life that, for many, seems to return to normal,” Lofven told reporters.He said people will be glad about the right steps they take now and suffer later for what is done wrong.Lofven urged people to follow social distancing guidelines and hygiene measures, and said, if necessary, the government would introduce new measures to stop the spread of the virus. Indonesia experiences surge A similar message about the need for continued vigilance and good practices came Thursday from Indonesia’s COVID-19 task force as that country saw another record increase in new cases. COVID-19 is the illness caused by the coronavirus.”Over time, we’ve seen that the people have lowered their guards,” task force spokesman Wiku Adisasmito told reporters. “It’s almost like they don’t have empathy even when they see every day so many new victims.”The governor of the capital, Jakarta, extended coronavirus restrictions there until October 11 in order to help hospitals cope with demand. An ultra-Orthodox Jewish man wearing a face mask during a nationwide three-week lockdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus, swings a chicken over his head as part of the Kaparot ritual, in Bnei Brak, Israel, Sept 24, 2020.Israel reimposes full lockdown In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Thursday that the country is returning to a full lockdown, effective Friday, and lasting for two weeks as its infection rate spirals out of control.  Schools, entertainment venues and most businesses will be closed, while restaurants will be limited to delivering food. Residents will be required to stay within 500 to 1,000 meters of their homes, except for work and shopping for food and medicine, while outdoor gatherings will be strictly limited to 20 people.  
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Paris police say a suspect believed to have wounded four people in a knife attack near the former offices of satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo has been arrested.A Paris police official said that while authorities initially thought two attackers were involved, they now believe it was only one person, who was detained near the Bastille plaza in eastern Paris.
It is unclear what motivated the attack Friday or whether it had any link to Charlie Hebdo, which moved offices after they were attacked by Islamic extremists in 2015.
Police did not release the identities of the attackers or the wounded, who include two people in “absolutely urgent” condition, the official said. The official was not authorized to be publicly named.
Prime Minister Jean Castex cut short a visit to a suburb north of Paris to head to the Interior Ministry to follow developments.
The trial in the Charlie Hebdo attacks is currently underway across town. Murmurs broke at the terrorism trial of 14 people, including 3 fugitives, accused of helping the attackers in the January 2015 killings, as the news filtered through.
The widows of the Charlie Hebdo attackers are scheduled to testify Friday afternoon.
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South Korea said on Friday that North Korea’s leader has apologized for the killing of a South Korean official.Yonhap news agency quotes the South’s presidential palace as saying Kim Jong Un called the incident “unexpected” and “unfortunate,” and apologized “for disappointing President Moon and South Koreans.”The North’s approach was extremely unusual. No North Korean leader has apologized to the South on any issue before.On Thursday, the 47-year-old South Korean fisheries official who had been reported missing on Monday was interrogated in the North’s waters before being shot dead and his body cremated, the South’s military said, adding that the reason the man was shot remained unknown.”Our military strongly condemns such an atrocity, and strongly demands North Korea provide an explanation and punish those who are responsible,” General Ahn Young-ho from South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said.South Korean military said the man had disappeared from a patrol boat and he was likely trying to defect to the North. 
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Coronavirus cases are surging across most of Europe. France, Spain and Britain are seeing precipitous increases. But some countries, notably Italy and Germany, have yet to see a second wave of the pandemic, although their numbers are also rising, but far less steeply.In the past two weeks, Italy recorded slightly fewer than 35 new cases per 100,000 inhabitants, compared to nearly 315 in Spain, around 200 in France, and 76.5 in Britain, where the number of people testing positive for the coronavirus is now almost three times as many as at the end of August, according to British government data.Italy was the first European nation to be struck by the coronavirus pandemic and suffered one of the world’s worst death tolls earlier this year. But the rolling average of new cases in Italy the past week has remained at just under 1,500 infections a day. In Britain, it is nearly 4,000 a day, and more than 10,000 in both France and Spain.For British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the reason for Britain’s big surge in infections is because it is a “freedom-loving country.” Britons are less inclined to follow government-dictated rules voluntarily, he noted this week. But he is now urging them to do so, with the added incentive of tough fines if they fail to comply.Johnson’s comments that the British are more liberty-loving than Italians or Germans prompted outrage in Italy.“Italians also love freedom. But we also care about seriousness,” Italian President Sergio Mattarella said.But many public health officials and infectious disease experts say there is, in fact, little evidence that Italians or Germans have been any better at voluntarily observing mask-wearing rules than the British, French or Spanish, especially when it comes to the young.Disdain for pandemic rules was evident among young Italians this summer. In Lazio villages and towns surrounding Rome, and further afield in Umbria and Marche, traditional piazza gatherings outside bars for an evening aperitivo were full of young people with masks pulled down, despite their close proximity to each other, VOA found on several trips over the past three months.“The clock stopped for us for months,” Paolo, 25, an unemployed college graduate, told VOA. “No longer,” he added, downing a beer in a village square in Sutri, half an hour’s drive from Rome.In northern Lazio in August, frustrated town mayors and the provincial president of Viterbo issued a joint statement urging citizens to obey the rules, warning that police had been instructed to enforce mask-wearing and social-distancing regulations.“There is no evidence that individual and social behaviors like the use of masks, social distancing or no gatherings have been better in Italy than elsewhere,” Dr. Nino Cartabellotta, a leading public health expert, told digital news website The Local this week.Other experts disagree and maintain voluntary compliance has been higher in Italy than many other European countries, especially in large cities in the north of the country, which were especially hard-hit by the pandemic earlier in the year.Either way, Italian police are ready to enforce the rules more rigorously than their counterparts in Britain, who have been reluctant to do so on grounds that they do not have the workforce.On Monday, Italy’s Interior Ministry announced that police had carried out more than 50,000 checks nationwide on people to ensure they were observing rules and visited nearly 5,000 businesses to ensure compliance with pandemic protocols.More than 200 people were fined by police for non-compliance. Three companies were ordered to shut.Early lockdown, states of emergencyAside from more rigorous police enforcement, many infectious disease experts suspect Italy is seeing a slower uptick in cases largely because it is reaping the benefits of ordering a nationwide lockdown earlier than other European countries, and because the government has reopened far more gradually and cautiously than its neighbors.Many restrictions are still in place or are reintroduced quickly when case numbers warrant. Italian authorities closed schools much quicker than other European countries earlier in the year, and they have been much slower in reopening them.In mid-August as confirmed case numbers climbed, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte moved quickly to shutter bars and nightclubs.Italy’s central government has been able to move quicker than some other European governments when pandemic circumstances warrant it, largely due to state-of-emergency powers that allow Conte to rule by decree. The government secured parliamentary approval for a six-month state of emergency on January 31, when the first two cases of coronavirus were confirmed in Rome.In July, the state of emergency was extended to the end of October, and Conte has made it clear he is ready to ask Parliament for another extension of special powers, which make it easier for ministers and regional governors to declare red zones, close businesses and direct more resources to hospitals.Emergency powers allowed the government to move quickly last month to require Italian vacationers returning from viral hot spots overseas to undergo coronavirus tests on arrival at airports and seaports or within 72 hours after arriving at their homes.Contact tracingExperts also credit the slower uptick in case numbers in Italy to better contact tracing and ensuring that self-isolation requirements are observed.Italy is testing about 100,000 people a day, far fewer than Britain, which is testing around 250 million daily. But Italian authorities have been more effective in tracing the contacts of those infected, said Italy’s deputy health minister, Pierpaolo Sileri. He credits Italy’s testing and tracing system in helping to avoid the dramatic resurgence of the virus seen elsewhere in Europe.Italian government officials say more than two-thirds of Italians who tested positive for the coronavirus in the past few weeks took tests not because they had symptoms but because they were identified through contact tracing.Track and trace in Italy is the responsibility of local and regional health authorities — a far more decentralized approach than that adopted in Britain, whose centralized system has struggled to trace the contacts of those infected.According to Bing Jones, a doctor in the English town of Sheffield who is involved in test and tracing, few contacts are identified.“We probably are at less than 10% and falling,” he told Britain’s Independent newspaper.Germany’s test-and-trace method is also managed at local and regional levels and being credited with helping to keep a viral resurgence at bay. According to a recent study of Britain’s Imperial College, an effective testing and tracing system can reduce the reproduction rate of the virus by around a quarter.Italian and German public health officials warn that their countries are unlikely to escape a second wave of the pandemic. They just hope they can do a good job subduing it more quickly. 
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Facebook’s highly anticipated independent oversight board, a group that will be empowered to overrule the company’s leadership on issues pertaining to the platform’s content moderation decisions, plans to launch in October, just in time for the November U.S. presidential election.The board was created by Facebook after the platform was criticized for its handling of problematic content, most recently a backlash over its decision to take no action in response to posts from U.S. President Donald Trump containing misinformation about mail-in voting and inflammatory language directed toward the Black Lives Matter anti-racism protests that erupted over the summer.Other platforms that contain user-generated content, such as Twitter, have taken measures to combat misinformation online, including attaching fact-checking warning labels to posts.Facebook has not yet announced whether the board will hear cases related to the election. Representatives from the company said that the board did not consider cases involving Trump’s posts in its preliminary hearings.  Reviewing removed postsMembers of the oversight board will review appeals only over posts that Facebook has taken down initially, instead of taking into consideration content that the company leaves up. It will also deal only with individual posts that fall under the areas where Facebook exercises editorial control.Content that is regulated by Facebook includes algorithms that shape how much distribution a post receives, taking down or leaving up Facebook groups, pages, and events, and whether to leave specific pieces of content up on the site.The board has been harshly criticized for starting by reviewing appeals concerning posts that were taken down, which experts say will have little impact on addressing problems like misinformation and hate speech that are rampant on the platform. Critics say that the long-awaited board has not moved fast enough to curb these issues before the election.  Prioritizing casesAccording to the board’s website, the criteria for the prioritization of cases has not been decided and is being debated by the board’s 20 members. While tens of thousands of cases are expected to be presented to the board, leaders say that the board will take only a small number of cases each year, most likely in the “tens or hundreds.”Board members include lawyers, academics, journalists and policy experts from around the world, who collectively speak 27 different languages and represent having lived in 29 different countries.Preparation leading up to the board’s launch includes educating members on Facebook’s community standards, international human rights law and receiving technical training on case management rolls that will allow members to receive and consider appeals.
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Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives are working on a $2.2 trillion coronavirus stimulus package that could be voted on next week, a key lawmaker said Thursday, as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi reiterated that she is ready to negotiate with the White House.With formal COVID-19 relief talks stalled for nearly seven weeks, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal said new legislative efforts got under way this week after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said in congressional testimony that lawmakers needed to provide further support for an economy reeling from the pandemic.”The contours are already there. I think now it’s about time frame and things like that,” Neal told reporters when asked about the potential for new legislation.He predicted a vote could come within days.”I assume, since the House is scheduled to break for the election cycle, then I think next week’s … appropriate,” said Neal, adding that Pelosi would determine when a legislative package might be introduced.House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy dismissed the new initiative as partisan. Pelosi also faces pressure from moderate House Democrats who say they want to see bipartisan aid proposals that have a chance of becoming law.”If it’s a messaging exercise, it’s worthless,” Rep. Dean Phillips, a freshman Democrat from Minnesota, told CNN. He said the effort risked looking like Senate Republicans who had unsuccessfully pushed their own partisan coronavirus aid bill.”Many of us are getting sick of that,” Phillips said.Stocks reacting positively to the announcements from Congress, with the S&P reaching a session high shortly after, before paring some gains.Formal talks between Pelosi, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows broke down without a deal on August 7, with the two sides far apart. Pelosi and Mnuchin have since spoken by phone.”We’re ready for negotiation,” Pelosi told reporters Thursday, saying she had last spoken to Mnuchin on Wednesday.Pelosi and Schumer, who initially sought a $3.4 trillion relief package, have since scaled back their demands to $2.2 trillion. Neal said a new legislative package would be somewhere near $2.2 trillion. Some media reports said it could be $2.4 trillion.But it was not clear whether the White House would agree to such a sum. Meadows has said that Trump would be willing to sign a $1.3 trillion relief package.Meanwhile, Senate Republicans, who have not been involved directly in the negotiations, initially proposed a $1 trillion bill, which was rejected by many Republicans who thought it too large and by Senate Democrats who said it was too small.Senate Republicans later tried and failed to bring a smaller $300 billion bill to the floor.
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As the Jerusalema dance challenge sweeps across Africa, in Zimbabwe the wildlife are joining in.  Staff at a Zimbabwe sanctuary for rescued wildlife have seen their online dance video with elephants, giraffes and other animals go viral. Columbus Mavhunga reports from Harare.Camera:  Blessing Chigwenhembe Produced by:  Jon Spier 
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A new study released this week describes how binge drinking — consuming too much alcohol, too fast — affects the brain, leading to anxieties and other cognitive issues.The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) defines binge drinking as a man consuming five or more drinks in about two hours; four drinks for a woman. The CDC reports the habit is growing problem in the United States, especially among young people, with 1 in 6 adults binge drinking about four times a month.Previous research examined the long-term effects of binge drinking on the brain, but this latest study, published Tuesday in the journal Science Signaling, focused specifically on immediate effects of binge drinking on the brain.To do this, the researchers from the University of Porto in Portugal gave an alcohol solution to mice, equivalent to 10 days of binge drinking, which spurred immune cells in mice brains to destroy the synapses — or connections — between neurons, leading to anxiety and other cognitive issues.University of Porto researcher João Relvas, co-author of the study, said in an interview, “Even for a short period of time, excessive drinking is likely to affect the brain, increasing the level of anxiety, a relevant feature in alcohol abuse and addiction.”Dangers of alcohol ‘underestimated’Relvas said further studies in humans could reveal the exact drinking patterns that spark synaptic dysfunction. But for now, Relvas cautioned that people should pay attention to their intake and follow public health guidelines on drinking in moderation.”The dangers of alcohol drinking, especially amongst the younger population, have been widely underestimated and excessive alcohol drinking is socially relatively well tolerated,” Relvas said.He said studies like theirs should help increase public awareness and education among people young and perhaps change the way society looks at alcohol consumption.Dietary guidelines determined by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and U.S. Department of Agriculture define moderate drinking as up to one drink per day for women and up to two drinks per day for men.
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Crews fought wildfires threatening the famed Mount Wilson Observatory in southern California, starting Tuesday, September 22, and continuing through Wednesday. The Bobcat Fire has already blackened an area of California larger than the city of Atlanta, and its spread created the need for new evacuations Monday. Mount Wilson Observatory sits atop the San Gabriel mountains near vital communication towers. California has already had more of its land burned by wildfires this summer than in any previous full year, with about 3.4 million acres burned since mid-August. (REUTERS) 
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Thousands of Belarusians staged mass demonstrations Wednesday night to denounce the secret inauguration of President Alexander Lukashenko.Security forces in the capital, Minsk, turned water cannons on protesters and dragged scores of them away after news broke on state Belta news agency that the 66-year-old Lukashenko was sworn in for his sixth term, defying mass demonstrations demanding an end to his 26-year rule in the wake of controversial elections last month.   Lukashenko insists he won the August 9 election in a landslide — garnering 80% of all ballots — despite widespread claims at home and abroad the vote was heavily rigged to keep him in power.    “We didn’t simply choose a president. We defended our values, our peaceful life, our sovereignty, and our independence,” said Lukashenko in addressing a grim audience of several hundred officials bussed in for the occasion.   “I cannot, I have no right to abandon Belarusians.”    Yet for all Lukashenko’s insistence on a mandate, there were few signs of celebration.   Authorities shut down Minsk for Lukashenko’s motorcade in advance of the event, which was not broadcast on state television.  Neither were foreign dignitaries — including representatives from Russia, Lukashenko’s closest ally —  on hand.  In an interview with VOA’s Igor Tsikhanenka, U.S. Senator Jack Reed, a member of the Senate Armed Services committee, said the clandestine ceremony is another indication that Lukashenko has lost the support of the Belarusian people.  “The Belarusian people have really demonstrated great courage and great commitment,” Reed said. “They’ve been undaunted by terror, by oppression, assaulted by the police forces. And they keep coming back. And they really recognize that Lukashenko must go and they’re doing all they can peacefully to get him to go.”  Within hours, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya — Lukashenko’s main rival in the election — issued her own statement rejecting the event as a “farce.”     “Today, hidden from the people, Lukashenko tried to carry out his own inauguration,” said Tikhanovskaya, calling him neither the “legal nor legitimate head of Belarus.”  “I — Svetlana Tikhanovskaya — am the sole leader who was elected by the Belarusian people. And our goal is now to build a new Belarus together.”  Tikhanovskaya has said she would call for free and fair elections once Lukashenko had been removed from power.  Several European nations — including Germany, Denmark, and the Baltic nations — announced they would no longer recognize Lukashenko’s government.   “The fact that this ceremony took place secretly and without the participation of society — is very telling,” said Steffen Seibert, the German government’s official spokesperson in a statement first reported by the Interfax news agency.   “After that, Lukashenko can no longer count on any democratic legitimacy,“ added Seibert.  The sentiment was echoed by the European Union Thursday, which dismissed the event as a “so-called inauguration” in  a written statement from Brussels.“This ‘inauguration’ directly contradicts the will of large parts of the Belarusian population, as expressed in numerous, unprecedented and peaceful protests since the elections, and serves to only further deepen the political crisis in Belarus.”The EU has called for sanctions against those responsible for vote manipulating and subsequent violence against peaceful protesters.   Russia — which has been Lukashenko’s main backer amid the political turmoil — made no formal statements but has previously said it recognizes Lukashenko as the legitimate leader of the country for now.   For six consecutive weeks, hundreds of thousands have rallied to demand Lukashenko’s resignation over what they argue was a deeply flawed election.   Key candidates were arrested ahead of the vote — including Tikhanovskaya’s husband — which prompted her surrogate candidacy.    A woman holding a dog talks to Belarusian law enforcement officers during an opposition protest against the inauguration of President Alexander Lukashenko in Minsk, Belarus, Sept. 23, 2020.Public anger has also stewed over a crackdown in the wake of the vote that has seen more than 7,500 arrests and police violence against protesters.    Hundreds have emerged from police custody with searing bruises and tales of torture at the hands of Lukashenko’s security agents.   Lukashenko’s response has been to target any remaining leaders of the opposition in recent weeks.  He has also labeled the democratic uprising a western-backed plot aimed at expanding NATO’s presence eastward in a bid to secure Russian backing.    In a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Russian resort city of Sochi earlier this month, Putin offered a degree of support to his beleaguered Belarusian counterpart — including $1.5 billion in loans and the presence of Russian paratroopers. 
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Prominent Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong was arrested Thursday for taking part in a protest at the height of the city’s pro-democracy unrest last year, but he vowed to continue resisting China’s crackdown on dissent.
 
The arrest of the territory’s most high-profile dissident is the latest in a string of arrests of government critics and comes after China imposed a sweeping new national security law on Hong Kong in late June.
 
Wong was arrested for “unlawful assembly” over a 2019 demonstration against a government ban on face masks that was imposed before the coronavirus pandemic, his lawyer said.
 
The 23-year-old , who now faces three separate cases, said after being bailed that he was also held for violating the “draconian” anti-mask law, which has since been ruled unconstitutional.
 
Wong’s lawyer told AFP he was re-arrested when he reported to a police station concerning another case currently being tried.
 
“Wong is accused of participating in an unlawful assembly on October 5 last year, when hundreds marched to oppose an anti-mask ban the government rolled out,” lawyer Jonathan Man said.
 
A police spokesman confirmed a 23-year-old was arrested for “knowingly participating in unauthorised assembly” while violating the mask ban.
 
Wong told reporters after he was bailed: “No matter what happens, I will continue to resist and hope to let the world to know that how Hong Kongers choose not to surrender.”
 
At the time of the October 5 march, Hong Kong had already been battered by four months of increasingly violent pro-democracy protests.
 
The city had ground to a halt following a night of chaos in which hardcore protesters trashed dozens of subway stations, vandalised shops with mainland China ties, built fires and blocked roads.  
 
Hundreds of protesters, almost all masked, staged the unsanctioned demonstration through the popular shopping district of Causeway Bay, a day after the city’s leader Carrie Lam outlawed face coverings by invoking colonial-era emergency powers not used for half a century.
 
Under Hong Kong’s current anti-virus measures, face masks are now mandatory in all public places.
  Jailed twice
 
China’s security law, which was imposed in late June, was designed to stamp out the demonstrations and targets acts deemed to be secession, subversion, terrorism and foreign collusion.  
 
Beijing has described it as a “sword” hanging over the heads of its opponents as it pushes to return stability. Critics say it has blanketed the city in fear, and UN rights experts warned its broad wording posed a serious risk to Hong Kong’s freedoms.
 
Wong – who spent most of his teenage years leading protests and has twice been jailed – recently told AFP he constantly wonders how long it will be before the police’s new national security unit comes for him.
 
The security law has already swept up two of his closest comrades.
 
Fellow former student leader Nathan Law has fled to Britain and is now wanted for national security crimes, according to Chinese state media.  
 
Agnes Chow — who has led protests alongside Wong since they were just 15 — is one of 22 people arrested under the new law so far. She has been released on bail.
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North Korea shot, killed, and immediately cremated a South Korean civilian official who went missing earlier this week near the two countries’ disputed western sea border, according to South Korea’s military.  Seoul’s National Defense Ministry said Thursday the man was questioned in North Korean waters, before being shot to death, doused with oil, and then set on fire by troops wearing gas masks, apparently all on orders from a superior. South Korean officials did not reveal how they knew those details, citing only “diverse intelligence.”     “Our military strongly condemns this brutal act and strongly urges the North to explain this and punish those responsible,” Lt. Gen. Ahn Young-ho of the South Korean military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff told a press briefing. “We also warn North Korea that all responsibility for this incident lies with it.”  North Korea’s military has not responded to Seoul’s request for more information, according to South Korean defense officials. Pyongyang has not publicly commented on the incident.  The unidentified 47-year-old official, who worked for the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, disappeared Monday while on duty aboard a patrol boat off the South Korean border island of Yeonpyeong. He was reported missing about 10 kilometers south of the Northern Limit Line, the de facto inter-Korean sea border.   The circumstances of the man’s disappearance are not clear. South Korean military officials believe he may have been trying to flee to North Korea. The report did not say why the man would have defected to the North.  Past incidents  Earlier this week, South Korean police said they arrested a defector who was trying to return to North Korea via a military training site in the border town of Cheorwon.     In July, a 24-year-old man who had fled North Korea successfully swam back into the country, after being accused of rape in South Korea. That incident prompted the North to lock down a border area, ostensibly because of coronavirus concerns.    Earlier this month, the top U.S. commander in South Korea, General Robert Abrams, said North Korea had issued “shoot-to-kill” orders to prevent the coronavirus from entering the country from China.FILE – Visitors wearing masks to avoid the spread of COVID-19 fill out a form which is mandatory to get into a hospital in Seoul, South Korea, Aug. 26, 2020.The coronavirus-related security zones were first reported by the Daily NK, a Seoul-based news website with sources in North Korea. The outlet said the new rules stipulated that anyone “breaking rules or disrupting public order near the border will be shot without warning.” The rules apply to all areas of the country, it said. Raises tensions    The shooting incident is awkwardly timed for South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who this week used a video speech at the United Nations General Assembly to call for an end-of-war declaration between North and South Korea.   The left-leaning Moon, who desperately wants to improve ties with Pyongyang before he leaves office in 2022, has been trying to convince the North to return to the dialogue and cooperation that marked the beginning of his five-year term.  North Korea earlier this year cut communications channels with the South and blew up the two countries’ de facto embassy after complaining about South Korean activists who launched balloons filled with anti-Pyongyang propaganda across the border.   The two countries have been in a technical state of war, since their 1950s conflict ended in a truce and not a peace treaty.  Though tensions sporadically break out, deaths – especially involving civilians – are rare. The last time a South Korean civilian was shot dead in North Korea was in 2008, when a North Korean soldier killed a South Korean tourist who had wandered into a restricted area at a mountain resort.   
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