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Wildfires burning across the U.S. region known as the Pacific Northwest, including northern California, Oregon, and Washington, have consumed thousands of homes, businesses and towns. More than a million hectares of land have been destroyed. The fires have killed at least 35 people across the region.  The smoke and flames of the blazes have combined to envelope the cities of San Francisco, Seattle, and Portland with some of the worst air quality in the world.  An Associated Press description of the conditions said, “The smoke filled the air with an acrid metallic smell like pennies.” The massive clouds of smoke enveloping the region have endangered the health of millions of residents.Evacuees from the Riverside Fire stay in tents at the Milwaukie-Portland Elks Lodge, Sunday, Sept. 13, 2020, in Oak Grove, Ore.Air quality across the Pacific Northwest state of Oregon was characterized by state environmental officials as “hazardous” or “very unhealthy.” Tens of thousands of people have had to flee their homes. Visibility was less than a half kilometer in some places, according to the National Weather Service, making it dangerous to drive.  U.S. President Donald Trump has largely avoided commenting on the wildfires, but he plans to visit California Monday for an update on the blazes, some of the worst in years.  In the past, he has blamed the region’s wildfires on poor forest management.  Oregon Governor Kate Brown disagrees. She said on Sunday on Face the Nation on CBS that the fires are “a wake-up call for us that we’ve got to do everything in our power to tackle climate change.” The governors of California and Washington agree with her.  
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With many teachers opting out of returning to the classroom because of the coronavirus, schools around the U.S. are scrambling to find replacements and, in some places, lowering certification requirements to help get substitutes in the door. Several states have seen surges in educators filing for retirement or taking leaves of absence. The departures are straining staff in places that were dealing with shortages of teachers and substitutes even before the pandemic created an education crisis. Among those leaving is Kay Orzechowicz, an English teacher at northwest Indiana’s Griffith High School, who at 57 had hoped to teach for a few more years. But she felt her school’s leadership was not fully committed to ensuring proper social distancing and worried that not enough safety equipment would be provided for students and teachers. Add the technology requirements and the pressure to record classes on video, and Orzechowicz said it “just wasn’t what I signed up for when I became a teacher.” “Overall, there was just this utter disrespect for teachers and their lives,” she said. “We’re expected to be going back with so little.” When school leaders said teachers would be “going back in-person, full throttle, that’s when I said, ‘I’m not doing it. No.’” Teachers in at least three states have died after bouts with the coronavirus since the start of the new school year. It’s unclear how many teachers in the U.S. have become ill with COVID-19, but Mississippi alone reported 604 cases among teachers and staff. In cases where teachers are exposed to the virus, they could face pressure to return to the classroom. The Trump administration has declared teachers to be “critical infrastructure workers” in guidance that could give the green light to exempting them from quarantine requirements. Throughout Indiana, more than 600 teacher retirements have been submitted since July, according to state data. Although the state gets most of its teacher retirements during the summer, surveys suggest more retirements than usual could happen as the calendar year progresses, said Trish Whitcomb, executive director of the Indiana Retired Teachers Association. “I’ve gotten more (teachers) calling me back saying, ‘Well, I’m going to go ahead and retire,’” Whitcomb said. “Some still wanted to go back in the classroom, but they didn’t think the risk was worth it. They looked at their grandkids and the life they have, and I think they’re saying, ‘I’m just not going to do it.’” In Salt Lake County, Utah, the state’s most populated metropolitan area, more than 80 teachers have either resigned or retired early because of concerns about COVID-19 in schools. More than half of those happened in one of the county’s five school districts, Granite School District. All the district’s teachers who left were fined $1,000 for failing to give 30 days’ notice. Mike McDonough, president of the Granite Education Association teachers union, said the departures stem from frustration over how the schools have reopened. In Granite, most students will return to in-person instruction for four days a week, and there are few opportunities for teachers to instruct solely online. Some teachers waited until the last minute, hoping that the district would change its reopening plan. But checking out of the classroom was “the only way to keep themselves safe,” he said. “Teachers are still scared and overwhelmed,” McDonough said. “I have heard from teachers that are just heartbroken to leave the classroom, but they didn’t feel safe going back. They don’t want that level of risk, and they have no other choice but to get out.” Education leaders in states including Arizona, Kansas, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Texas have said they are bracing for worsening teacher shortages as the pandemic drives away some educators. To try to maintain staffing levels in classrooms, the Missouri Board of Education made it easier to become a substitute teacher under an emergency rule. Instead of the previous requirement — 60 hours of college credit — eligible substitutes now only need to obtain a high school diploma, complete a 20-hour online training course and pass a background check. Iowa responded similarly, relaxing coursework requirements and the minimum working age for newly hired substitutes. In Connecticut, college students have been asked to step in as substitutes. Michele Femc-Bagwell, director of the teacher education program at the University of Connecticut, said the school has been getting requests to use fifth-year graduate students as substitute teachers. Heavy class loads and internship responsibilities, though, limit their availability to one day a week. Many who work as substitutes are retired teachers such as 67-year-old Margaret Henderson, of Phoenix, who said she will not return as she had planned. “I don’t want to get called into a classroom where a teacher has called out because of the virus or to quarantine. … And we know that’s going to happen more and more,” Henderson said. “There are still uncertainties about the safety of reopening the school buildings. Can you blame (substitutes) for not wanting to go in?” In rural Iowa’s Hinton Community Schools, Hinton High School Principal Phil Goetstouwers said the school is already down to a third of the substitute teachers it had last year. More than half of those are also willing to sub in other districts, he said, making it even more troublesome when teachers are absent. Allen Little, who retired as a math teacher in Sioux City, Iowa, this past spring, said the “complexities” of teaching during the pandemic made him decide to retire three years earlier than he had planned. Although he anticipated returning to work as a part-time substitute this fall, fears about the virus are holding him back. He encouraged his son, who is studying to be a social studies teacher and who considered getting experience as a substitute, to weigh the risks carefully. “We’re thinking about students, our schools, our community with every decision we make,” Little said. “But we also have to think about ourselves and our families. What’s best for us, maybe more and more of us … is not being inside the classrooms right now.” 
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As the Western U.S. struggles with wildfires, local officials are calling on President Donald Trump and other leaders to address climate change, which they say has led to a record year of fires. Trump is scheduled to visit Sacramento, California, on Monday to meet with state officials for a wildfire briefing.
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ByteDance, the Chinese company behind the wildly popular video sharing app TikTok, has rejected Microsoft’s bid to buy the app and appears to be leaning toward a deal with investors led by Oracle.  The Trump administration has given ByteDance until September 20 to make a deal or stop operating inside the U.S.  On Sunday, the Microsoft’s corporate headquarters in Redmond, Washington. (Photo: Diaa Bekheet)In a statement, Microsoft said its proposal “would have been good for TikTok’s users, while protecting national security interests. To do this, we would have made significant changes to ensure the service met the highest standards for security, privacy, online safety, and combatting disinformation.”The fate of TikTok in the U.S. hangs in the balance as it approaches the Trump administration deadline. In recent months, the video app has become a focus of U.S.-China tensions with the administration accusing the company of being answerable to the Chinese government, a claim that TikTok has denied. In August, President Donald Trump issued an executive order banning TikTok and WeChat, the Chinese messaging app. But even with security concerns about TikTok, Americans have continued to download the app. By end of first quarter 2020, TikTok saw more than 300 million downloads in the U.S., according to Go.Verizon’s data.  Microsoft together with Walmart pursued a deal with ByteDance. A second group of investors led by Oracle emerged as a possible bidder. Oracle is one of the few Silicon Valley firms with top executives who have held fundraisers for President Trump. As the negotiations progressed, the Chinese government changed its export rules stopping TikTok from selling its valuable recommendation algorithm, dubbed “For You,” which queued up the next video for a user to watch. It’s unclear if any deal with Oracle would involve the algorithm. 
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 Landslides triggered by torrential rain swept through two villages in Nepal on Sunday, killing at least 12 people, a government official said.Ten people were killed and 21 are missing after a massive landslide swept away homes and people in Barahbise, 100 km (62 miles) east of Kathmandu near the border with the Tibet region of China, Nepali government official Murari Wasti said.Two others died in a landslide in Baglung in the northwest.Both landslides struck the villages before dawn and people could not escape to safety, rescuers said.”Rescuers are looking for those who are missing,” Wasti told Reuters.The latest fatalities took the death toll from landslides and flash floods in the June-September monsoon season to 314. At least 111 people remain missing and 160 have been injured, Wasti said.
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Dust clouds pass through a residential neighborhood in Turkey’s capital city, Ankara, Saturday, September 12.  The storm darkened the sky during daytime hours. Six people suffered minor injuries from debris flying during the storm, according to the city’s mayor. The storm was probably caused by a lack of rain in recent days, according to the Turkish State Meteorological Service. (Reuters) 
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Israelis are delighted the government has reached another peace deal with an Arab country, this time Bahrain, following last month’s agreement with the United Arab Emirates.  Analysts say the Gulf states see the deals as a way to discourage potential attacks from Iran.  But Palestinians are furious at the deal, calling Bahrain’s move “another knife in the back.” President Donald Trump announced the latest Arab-Israeli peace deal was in Washington on the anniversary of the September 11th 2001, terrorist attack.   “There’s no more powerful response to the hatred that spawned 9/11 than the agreement that we’re about to tell you,” he said. “You will hear something today. It’s very very important not only for the Middle East but for the world. In the spirt of peace and cooperation both leaders also agree that Bahrain will fully normalize its diplomatic relations with Israel.”   He said the deal will include an exchange of ambassadors, and a series of agreements in fields including high tech and tourism. In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was clearly pleased, especially as he faces growing anger among the public for what many say is his mishandling of the COVID-19 crisis. The rate of new infections in Israel per day is among the highest in the world.FILE – Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announces full diplomatic ties will be established with the United Arab Emirates, during a news conference on Aug. 13, 2020 in Jerusalem.“It took us a full 26 years from Israel’s second peace agreement with an Arab state to the third peace agreement, and now it’s taken us only 29 days from the third peace agreement to the fourth.  What a change,” he said. “I want to express my appreciation for His Majesty the King of Bahrain for joining the Circle of Peace, and my appreciation for crown prince Mohammed Bin Zayed for working with Israel and the United States to expand the circle of peace.” Netanyahu will be in Washington on Tuesday, alongside President Trump and the foreign ministers of the UAE and Bahrain, to sign the peace deals.  There is no mention of military alliance in the deals, but many analysts see the Gulf states acting in order to give themselves extra protection from any Iranian attack.   Senior Palestinian official Saeb Erekat is one who holds that point of view.  FILE – Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat speaks during an interview with Reuters in Ramallah, Aug. 11, 2013.”The Bahrain-Israeli agreement to normalize relations is now part of a bigger package in the region. It’s not about peace, it’s not about relations between countries,” he said. “We are witnessing an alliance, a military alliance being created in the region, maybe they want to call it an Arab-Israel NATO. As far as we, as far as Palestinians are concerned, big Israel can bring 193 ambassadors to Tel Aviv, but then what? I am what needs to be solved, I am the problem. They are my problem. I am what needs to be solved and the only way to have peace in this region is to solve the Palestinian question.”  Israeli analysts said that Bahrain is close to Saudi Arabia, and the deal could only have been reached with tacit Saudi approval. Some Israelis now believe it is only a matter of time before the Saudi kingdom itself makes peace with Israel.  Meanwhile, the first business deals between Israel and the UAE are being signed, and direct flights between the two countries are set to start next month.  
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Authorities were searching Sunday for a gunman who shot and wounded two Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies who were sitting in their squad car — an apparent ambush that drew an angry response from the president and sparked an anti-police protest outside the hospital where the deputies were being treated. The 31-year-old female deputy and 24-year-old male deputy underwent surgery Saturday evening, Sheriff Alex Villanueva said in a late-night news conference. Both graduated from the academy 14 months ago, he said.  The deputies were shot while sitting in their patrol car at a Metro rail station and were able to radio for help, the sheriff said. Villanueva, whose department has come under fire during recent protests over racial unrest, expressed frustration over anti-police sentiment as he urged people to pray for the deputies. “It pisses me off. It dismays me at the same time,” he said. The department tweeted video of the shooting that shows a person open fire through the passenger-side window of the patrol car. “The gunman walked up on the deputies and opened fire without warning or provocation,” the department stated. The video sparked thousands of reactions, including from President Donald Trump, who responded, “Animals that must be hit hard!” Protesters gathered outside the the hospital where the injured deputies were being treated. “To the protesters blocking the entrance & exit of the HOSPITAL EMERGENCY ROOM yelling “We hope they die” referring to 2 LA Sheriff’s ambushed today in #Compton: DO NOT BLOCK EMERGENCY ENTRIES & EXITS TO THE HOSPITAL,” the sheriff’s department tweeted. “People’s lives are at stake when ambulances can’t get through.” A radio reporter who was near the protest scene was taken into custody, KABC-TV reported. The sheriff’s department later tweeted that the reporter interfered with the arrest of a male protester. “The female adult, who was later identified as a member of the press, did not identify herself as press and later admitted she did not have proper press credentials on her person,” the department stated. After being released, Josie Huang, a reporter for radio station KPCC, tweeted that she had seen the statements from sheriff’s officials and had “thoughts and videos to share soon after a little rest.” The executive editor of the station, Megan Garvey, expressed outrage over the arrest and said her reporter appeared to be wearing her credentials and had shouted her KPCC affiliation. Meanwhile, the search for the gunman continued. Capt. Kent Wegener said officers were blanketing the area in search of the suspect seen on the video opening fire with a pistol.  “We have a very, very generic description,” he said. The incident happened around 7 p.m. a short distance from the Compton sheriff’s station.  
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There are almost 29 million COVID-19 infections worldwide.   The United States remains the country with the most infections, with more than 6.4 million cases.   India has eclipsed Brazil to take over the second spot with 4.7 million cases.  Infections in India’s largest state, Maharashtra, home to financial capital Mumbai, topped 1 million Saturday, stifling the country’s attempts to reinvigorate its economy. Brazil has 4.3 million cases. Students wear protective masks as they arrive for classes at the Immaculate Conception School while observing COVID-19 prevention protocols, Sept. 9, 2020, in The Bronx borough of New York.An article in The New England Journal of Medicine suggests that universal face mask wearing “might help reduce the severity of disease and ensure that a greater proportion of new infections are asymptomatic.” If that premise is correct, the article suggested, face mask wearing could become a form of inoculation “that would generate immunity and thereby slow the spread of the virus” during the global wait for the development of a vaccine.   The daily number of new coronavirus cases reached an all-time high of 1,007 Saturday in the United Arab Emirates, surpassing levels during a May peak. Authorities warned residents last week to comply with preventive measures when daily infections jumped fivefold over a month ago. Refugees and migrants from the destroyed Moria camp sleep on the side of a road, on the island of Lesbos, Greece, Sept. 13, 2020.On the Greek Islands of Lesbos Saturday, asylum seekers peacefully protested the construction of a replacement camp after successive fires this week destroyed the overcrowded Maria camp, forcing them sleep in the open for a fourth consecutive night.  The protesters were demanding to leave the island after the camp, built to accommodate 2,750 people, became so overcrowded that the fires left more than 12,000 in need of emergency shelter. Officials said the fires were deliberately set by some camp residents angered about the imposition of new lockdown measures after 35 people tested positive for COVID-19. The British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca has resumed trials of its experimental COVID-19 vaccine after getting permission from safety monitors, the company announced Saturday. A test tube labeled with the Vaccine is seen in front of AstraZeneca logo in this illustration, Sept. 9, 2020.“Clinical trials for the AstraZeneca Oxford coronavirus vaccine, AZD1222, have resumed in the UK following confirmation by the Medicines Health Regulatory Authority that it was safe to do so,” the company said in a statement. The pharmaceutical company paused the trials Tuesday because a volunteer participant became ill after receiving the experimental drug. The company issued a statement that day saying the pause in testing was a “routine action, which has to happen whenever there is a potentially unexplained illness in one of the trials, while it is investigated, ensuring we maintain the integrity of the trials.” AstraZeneca’s drug is one of nine vaccine candidates in late stage Phase 3 human trials around the world. The company began enrolling 30,000 volunteers August 31, and the vaccine was being tested in smaller groups in Brazil and in other South American countries before the trials were temporarily suspended.   
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Authorities on the Greek island of Lesbos have moved more than 300 homeless migrants and refugees into temporary facilities after a rash of fires razed the notoriously overcrowded Moria camp, leaving more than 12,000 asylum seekers without shelter in the biggest humanitarian crisis to grip the country in five years.Scores of bedraggled refugees were seen Sunday lining up before the soaring fence gates of Kara Tepe to check into the temporary encampment after living in the rough for four days.Many of the migrants were seen carrying infants, flimsy tents and plastic bags stuffed with the personal belongings they managed to salvage before fleeing Moria.The cause of the fires remains under investigation, but authorities contacted by VOA have pointed to arson, suggesting they were part of an organized bid by refugees angered by quarantine orders imposed after 35 people tested positive for COVID-19.“We are seeing an active push by authorities today to get these people off the streets and into the new temporary camp,” regional governor Kostas Moutzouris told VOA. “The problem is that many of them are resisting, and large numbers of them have gone into hiding thinking this is their chance to make it to the mainland, and then potentially, to the heart of Europe.”On Saturday, thousands of the refugees took to the streets, banging plastic bottles and demanding that they be allowed to continue their journeys to the heart of Europe, rather than be moved to a different facility.Refugees and migrants from the destroyed Moria camp protest after the news about the creation of a new temporary camp, on the island of Lesbos, Greece, Sept. 12, 2020.The protest, led by young children holding cardboard signs reading “We need freedom,” was mostly peaceful, but brief scuffles broke out as militant youth moved to break police cordons, forcing authorities to fire tear gas to disperse protesting crowds.Lesbos has been overwhelmed by Europe’s migration crisis, seeing more than a million refugees stream to its rugged shores from Turkey in 2015.The Moria facility was built to house some 2,300 refugees. Since then, rising tides of illegal migration have forced authorities to squeeze in 10,000 additional people, drawing fierce criticism from international aid organizations and the United Nations for the camp’s appalling living conditions.Human Rights Watch said in a statement that the Moria fires “highlight the failure of the European Union’s approach of confinement.” It demanded that European nations begin shouldering their responsibility for asylum seekers, while Greece also makes sure it respects human rights.Migrants arrive at a temporary camp near Mytilene town, on the northeastern island of Lesbos, Greece, Sept. 12, 2020.Lesbos locals and authorities, meanwhile, insist on the migrants’ complete evacuation, resisting attempts by the government to reopen Moria or to set up any additional camps other than that in Kara Tepe.That new facility has a capacity of around 3,000, leaving the fate of at least 9,000 refugees in limbo.“There is no way we are allowing for any more room,” Moutzouris said. “If that happens, then Lesbos is doomed for good.”Locals plan to protest government designs for additional refugee accommodation on Tuesday. 
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