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Botswana’s National Assembly has rejected a call to rearm its game rangers that was driven by a surge in rhinoceros poaching in recent years. Guns were taken away from the rangers in 2018, but an opposition party lawmaker had moved a motion to rearm the wildlife officers.Botswana’s legislators voted against a proposal brought before the National Assembly by an opposition member of Parliament, Kgoborego Nkawana.The motion to rearm wildlife officers was defeated Friday, with all ruling party members voting against it.Nkawana had argued recent poaching incidents necessitated equipping the rangers with guns.“It is a big loss,” Nkawana said. “This would have been an opportunity to save our rhinos and other animals, particularly up in the north.  Maybe over time we can see how we can address the government over that issue.” Most of the poaching takes place in the thickets of Botswana’s vast Okavango Delta.Ministry of Environment, Natural Resources Conservation and Tourism Permanent Secretary Oduetse Koboto said the disarmament of the wildlife officers unit in 2018 was not behind the rise in poaching incidents.“It is not like in the past, the strategy succeeded because there was something different that was done,” Koboto said. “It is simply because the environmental conditions changed drastically [in the Delta].”Koboto said rangers’ anti-poaching efforts are focused farther from the Delta, in areas where there is less threat of armed poachers like the Kgalagadi wildlife preserve.“When it comes to anti-poaching, their [rangers] efforts are largely focused in Kgalagadi,” he said. “Those firearms, they had them in Kgalagadi and not in the Delta. This is where I am failing to find the relationship between arms and rhino poaching. Even if they could be having them [firearms] today, they could be sitting with them in Kgalagadi.”Conservationist Map Ives says the fight against poaching needs other interventions, rather than a military approach.“The war against poaching will not be sorted out by military means alone,” Ives said. “You need to have crime investigators, and intelligence networks need to stretch between countries in SADC.”Minister of Environment, Natural Resources Conservation and Tourism Philda Kereng recently said the National Assembly government was reviewing legislation preventing rangers from carrying weapons.Botswana government officials say rhino poaching has slowed significantly in recent months, after a robust dehorning and translocation exercise.
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Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar has committed to ending a months-long blockade of oil facilities, the U.S. Embassy in the country said in a statement Saturday, although oil ports and fields remained shut.The statement said the eastern-based Libyan National Army (LNA) had conveyed “the personal commitment of General Haftar to allow the full reopening of the energy sector no later than Sept. 12.”It came after the United States had led efforts to end the oil shutdown amid a wider diplomatic push to cement a cease-fire and a political agreement between rival factions based in the east and west of the country.Haftar’s LNA and its backers imposed the blockade in January, reducing Libya’s oil output from more than 1 million barrels per day (bpd) to less than 100,000 bpd, and further deepening Libya’s economic collapse.Although authorities in eastern Libya have allowed some stored oil products to be exported in order to ease a power generation crisis in eastern Libya, they have stopped short of lifting the blockade.
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The operator of a Japanese-owned bulk carrier that crashed into a reef in late July, causing a widespread oil spill in Mauritius, will pay at least $9.4 million over several years to fund environmental projects and support local fishing communities.The spill took place near the coastal areas of southeast Mauritius, an area of international importance because of its environmentally protected ecosystems and wetlands. Experts say about 1,000 tons of fuel leaked from the ship into the surrounding blue lagoons — a favorite location for the filming of numerous Bollywood movies because of its turquoise waters, which now are stained black.Mauritius previously asked Japan to provide at least $34 million to assist with the lasting ramifications of the spill.Mitsui O.S.K. Lines said Friday that the Mauritius Natural Environment Recovery Fund would be used to support mangrove protection, coral reef restoration, and the protection of seabirds and rare species.In addition, the company said, it will continue to support local fishing and tourism, though details of that support have not been announced.The Mauritius government has estimated the country has sustained $30 million in damage as a result of the spill.Early this week, the maritime authority of Panama, where the ship is registered, announced it was in the early stages of an investigation into the spill and suggested human error caused the accident. The ship’s captain and first officer have been arrested and charged with endangering safe navigation.Recently, tens of thousands of individuals protested in Mauritius over the government’s slow response to the spill and the discovery of dozens of dead dolphins, whose cause of death has not yet been determined.
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A Pakistani journalist has been arrested in the port city of Karachi, accused of spreading hateful content against the country’s military on social media, according to police authorities and the journalist’s family.Bilal Farooqi, who works for the English-language Express Tribune newspaper, was arrested at his home on September 11.”Through his [social media] posts, Bilal Farooqi defamed the Pakistan Army and anti-state elements used these posts for their vested interests,” a police report seen by Reuters said.The report also alleged that his online activity spread religious hatred and incited mutiny against the military.Farooqi’s family told local media that police seized his mobile phone during a search of their home.Journalists and press freedom advocates have accused the Pakistani military and its agencies of pressuring media outlets to smother critical coverage.His arrest is the latest in a series of such moves against journalists who have been critical of the government or militaryIt also comes days after Prime Minister Imran Khan insisted that Pakistan has a free media.Police cited the country’s cybercrime law that critics say contains vague language that can be used to criminalize basic online activities.The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights earlier this week expressed concern at instances of incitement to violence against journalists and human rights activists.”We have raised our concerns directly with the government and we have urged immediate, concrete steps to ensure the protection of journalists and human rights defenders who have been subjected to threats,” it said in a statement.
 
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The U.N. refugee agency is calling for long-term solutions for thousands of migrants on Greek islands who were rendered homeless by fires that devastated the Moria asylum center on the island of Lesbos.An estimated 11,500 asylum seekers are living in the open since a series of fires, which started five days ago, ravaged Greece’s Moria asylum center.No casualties have been reported, but the blaze destroyed everything, leaving everyone without shelter.The U.N. refugee agency reports thousands of vulnerable people, including very young children, pregnant women, elderly people and people with disabilities, are sleeping in the streets, fields, and beaches.UNHCR spokeswoman Shabia Mantoo says her agency is helping Greek authorities protect and assist asylum seekers affected by the fires. She says the UNHCR is providing emergency aid to ensure people do not sleep in the open.“The coronavirus pandemic also is adding to an already desperate situation. People tested positive [for] COVID need to be provided with special care, isolation and treatment arrangements and medical support. The UNHCR has advised all those previously staying in the center to restrict their movements until temporary solutions are found,” Mantoo said.Greek soldiers set up UNHCR tents to accommodate asylum seekers left without shelter after fires at a refugee camp on Lesbos Island, Greece, Sept. 11, 2020.The Moria center, Europe’s largest refugee camp, was meant to house 3,000 people. At times, the camp population in this squalid, tented settlement swelled to more than 20,000. This is a consequence of increasing numbers of people fleeing war, persecution and extreme poverty, and the refusal of other European countries to share the burden by accepting asylum seekers.Mantoo said the situation must change because it is no longer tenable. Long-term solutions must be found for refugees and asylum seekers stuck in overcrowded, unsafe conditions on the Greek islands.“UNHCR has long been highlighting the need to address the situation and conditions for asylum seekers on the Aegean Islands. The incidents at Moria demonstrate the long-standing need to take action to improve living conditions, alleviate overcrowding, improve security, infrastructure and access to services in all five reception centers on the Greek islands,” Mantoo said.The U.N. refugee agency is appealing to European countries to do more to protect asylum seekers. It urges them to quickly relocate unaccompanied children and other particularly vulnerable people from their precarious situation on the islands.
The agency welcomes recent announcements by some European countries to take in unaccompanied minors and families with children from Greece. 
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One of Germany’s most experienced diplomats had to wait three months this year before Warsaw would approve his appointment as Berlin’s ambassador to Poland.The official acceptance of an envoy by a host government is normally a formality, especially between allies — as well as an event used to highlight neighborliness and friendship. But Arndt Freytag von Loringhoven, one of Germany’s most experienced diplomats, hasn’t received a warm welcome in the Polish capital.A begrudging Polish government on September 1 finally issued its acceptance of his selection. However, it could not resist referring once again to the cause of the delayed approval, noting that Poles remain sensitive to the “great unhealed wound” of World War II.The ostensible objection to the selection of Freytag von Loringhoven, NATO’s first chief of intelligence and deputy head of Germany’s foreign intelligence agency, as envoy was that his father was a German army officer who served in Adolf Hitler’s entourage in the final weeks of the war.“What is strange for us is that Berlin didn’t realize their pick could cause resentment,” said a senior Polish official.FILE – Arndt Freytag von Loringhoven, NATO’s first chief of intelligence and deputy head of Germany’s foreign intelligence agency, speaks at the World Summit on Counter-Terrorism, in Herzliya, Israel, Sept. 4, 2018.For Germans, the objection has been bewildering. Freytag von Loringhoven’s father was a career officer, and he wasn’t charged subsequently with any war crimes. He went on to become a general in Germany’s postwar armed forces.The spat over Freytag von Loringhoven’s appointment is just one of a series of recent ugly disputes partly rooted in the past that has brought German-Polish relations to an alarming low. Poland’s ruling nationalist conservative Law and Justice Party, known as PiS, has accused Germany of seeking to recover territory it lost to Poland after 1945, and it has repeatedly declared that Germany should compensate Poland for the damage wrought on the country during World War II, a conflict triggered by Nazi Germany’s invasion of Poland.On the day Poland formally accepted Germany’s new ambassador, which happened to be the 81st anniversary of the beginning of the war, a Polish parliamentary commission announced it had finalized the amount of reparations it wants Germany to pay. The number has not been formally disclosed, but Warsaw in the past has estimated wartime damages at around a trillion euros.FILE – Bernd Freytag von Loringhoven poses in front of a painting of his ancestors at his home in Munich, Germany, April 29, 2005. Freytag von Loringhoven, who was part of Adolf Hitler’s entourage in the final weeks of World War II, died in 2007.Poland’s prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki says Poland lost 6 million people in the war and “many more than any other country that has received vast reparations … The Germans razed to the ground over a thousand Polish villages,” he said in a recent interview.Germany has repeatedly denied it owes Poland money after Warsaw waived all war reparations in 1953.For Germans, the reappearance of wartime history is frustrating. They believe they have accepted moral responsibility for the war and have done much to atone for the past as well as to shape a new peaceful Germany that has helped build the European Union.They see the PiS as seeking to whip up anti-German feeling solely for domestic political reasons — it plays well to the party’s core supporters in the poorer eastern half the country and may have helped the PiS-aligned Andrzej Duda win reelection in a tight presidential race in July.The main Polish opposition parties agree.Not only Poland
However, it isn’t just relations between Berlin and Warsaw that are being affected by war memories, or what Germans see as their weaponization.Beneath the surface, war-tied resentments are bubbling in other parts of Europe, too, with possible important ramifications for the consolidation of the EU, a bloc founded partly to ensure European nations would cease squabbling and to avert the chance of any future conflict emerging among them.Pollsters have noted a rise in anti-German sentiment in the southern European states of Italy and Spain, and in Greece, where the country’s post-2008 debt crisis and Germany’s handling of it still grates. In Hungary and elsewhere in Central Europe, as well as Italy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel is blamed for encouraging the 2015 migrant influx into Europe with her open-door policy for asylum-seekers.FILE – Chancellor Angela Merkel arrives for a meeting of her Christian Union parties faction at the Reichstag building in Berlin, Germany, Sept. 8, 2020.Some observers predict resentment toward Germany will only grow in the coming months for two main reasons.The first is that poorer European nations will become ever more frustrated with a widening gap between their economic performance and Germany’s, which is likely to weather the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic better.“The EU is supposed to be a convergence machine, spreading prosperity rather than embedding differences between rich and poor countries,” The Economist magazine noted recently. “It has not worked out that way,” it added.That uneven economic recovery risks fueling populist nationalist anger in the countries that lose out, a possible development Merkel has noted is a risk. In June she backed an EU economic recovery fund, arguing it would serve as “a political instrument against populists and radicals.”The second is that Germany is increasingly becoming the undisputed dominant political force on the European stage, thanks to its economic clout and partly as a result of Britain’s exit from the EU, say analysts. Many of the key posts in Brussels are held by Germans, including the presidency of the European Commission, and no major proposal can be adopted by the EU without Berlin’s approval.
 
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Afghanistan’s warring sides started negotiations for the first time, bringing together the Taliban and delegates appointed by the Afghan government Saturday for historic meetings aimed at ending decades of war.
 
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo attended the opening ceremony in Qatar, where the meetings are taking place and where the Taliban maintain a political office. The start of negotiations was the latest in a flurry of diplomatic activity by the Trump administration ahead of the U.S. presidential election in November.  
 
“Each of you carry a great responsibility,” Pompeo told the participants. “You have an opportunity to overcome your divisions.”
 
While Saturday’s opening was about ceremony, the hard negotiations will be held behind closed doors. There the sides will be tackling tough issues. This includes the terms of a permanent cease-fire, the rights of women and minorities, and the disarming of tens of thousands of Taliban fighters and militias loyal to warlords, some of them aligned with the government.
 
The Afghan sides are also expected to discuss constitutional changes and power sharing during the talks in Qatar’s capital of Doha.  
 
Even seemingly mundane issues like the flag and the name of the country – the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan or as the Taliban’s administration was known when it ruled, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan —- could find their way onto the negotiation table and roil tempers.
 
Among the government-appointed negotiators are four women, who vowed to preserve women’s rights in any power-sharing deal with the hard-line Taliban. This includes the right to work, education and participation in political life, all denied women when the Taliban ruled Afghanistan for five years.  
 
The Taliban were ousted in 2001 by a U.S.-led coalition for harboring Osama bin Laden, the architect of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on America.
 
No women are on the Taliban’s negotiation team, led by their chief justice Abdul Hakim. The insurgent movement has said it accepted a woman’s right to work, go to school and participate in politics but would not accept a woman president or chief justice.The Taliban delegation attends the opening session of peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban, in Doha, Qatar, Sept. 12, 2020.Deeply conservative members of the government-named High Council for National Reconciliation, which is overseeing the talks, also hold that women cannot serve in either post.
 
At the opening ceremonies, there was some sign of Taliban changes in attitudes. Several Taliban jostled to take photographs of leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar as he addressed the ceremony. Photography was banned during the Taliban rule as against Islam.
 
Baradar said the Taliban envisioned an Islamic system that embraces all Afghans, without elaborating. He also urged patience as the negotiations proceeded, urging both sides to stick with the talks even in the face of problems.
 
“The negotiation process may have problems, but the request is that the negotiations move forward with a lot of patience, with a lot of attention, and it should be continued with such kind of attention,” he said. “We want to give them (people of Afghanistan) this assurance that with full honesty we continue the Afghan peace negotiation, and we try for peace and tranquility, we will pave the ground in Afghanistan.”
 
Abdullah Abdullah, who heads Kabul’s High Council for National Reconciliation, said in his remarks that the sides do not need to agree on every detail, but should announce a humanitarian cease-fire.
 
Both sides will be “peace heroes” if negotiations bring about a lasting peace that protects Afghanistan’s independence and leads to a system based on Islamic principles that preserves the rights of all people, said Abdullah.
 
Pompeo warned that their decisions and conduct will affect both the size and conduct of U.S. assistance.  
 
He encouraged the negotiators to respect Afghanistan’s rich diversity, including women and ethnic and religious minorities. He said that while the choice of Afghanistan’s political system is theirs to make, the U.S. has found that democracy and rotation of political power works best.
 
“I can only urge these actions. You will write the next chapter of Afghan history,” he said.
Pompeo spoke the day after the 19th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. He said the U.S. will never forget the 9/11, and that America welcomes the Taliban commitment not to host terrorist groups, including al-Qaida, which was responsible for the carnage.  U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo talks at the opening session of peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban, in Doha, Qatar, Sept. 12, 2020.The intra-Afghan negotiations were laid out in a peace deal Washington signed with the Taliban on Feb. 29. At that time the deal was touted as Afghanistan’s best chance at peace in 40 years of war.
 
Yet Abdullah noted that since that agreement was reached, 1,200 people have been killed and more than 15,000 wounded in attacks across the country. The United Nations has urged a reduction of violence and criticized civilian casualties on both sides.
 
The current talks had been originally expected to begin within weeks of the signed agreement between the Taliban and the U.S.  
 
But delays disrupted the timeline. The Afghan government balked at releasing 5,000 Taliban prisoners, which was stipulated in the deal as a sign of good faith ahead of the negotiations. The Taliban were required to release 1,000 government and military personnel in their custody.
 
Political turmoil in Kabul further delayed talks as Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and his rival in controversial presidential polls the year before, Abdullah Abdullah, squabbled over who won, with both declaring victory.
 
The Taliban refusal to reduce the violence further hindered the start of talks.  
Still the complete withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan does not hinge on the success of the talks.
 
Washington’s withdrawal is contingent on the Taliban honoring commitments to fight terrorist groups, in particular the Islamic State affiliate in Afghanistan, and ensure that Afghanistan cannot again be used to attack America or its allies.
 
The U.S. has refused to give specific of the guarantees citing security reasons, but the withdrawal of U.S. troops has already begun. President Donald Trump has said that by November, about 4,000 soldiers will be in Afghanistan, down from 13,000 when the deal was signed in February.
 
“Washington’s goals are very simple: It wants intra-Afghan talks happening as soon as possible, because these give the White House political cover for an imminent withdrawal,” said Michael Kugelman, deputy director of the Washington-based Wilson Center’s Asia program.  
 
“Trump likely wants a peace deal before the election, so that he can garner political benefits galore and pitch himself as a Nobel Peace Prize candidate. But presumably even he realizes it’s wildly unrealistic to expect a deal so soon. These types of negotiations tend to be measured in years, not weeks.”
 
The talks in Doha follow the Trump administration-brokered recognition of Israel by two Gulf Arab nations – Bahrain on Friday and the United Arab Emirates in August.
 
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The judge in the criminal case against four former Minneapolis, Minnesota, police officers charged in George Floyd’s death disqualified four local prosecutors on Friday because of “sloppy” work, while a special prosecutor said the defendants had “acted together” and should face trial together.The hearing before Hennepin County District Court Judge Peter Cahill focused on various motions in the criminal case arising from Floyd’s death, which led to protests in the United States and other countries against racism and police brutality.It was the first time all four defendants — Derek Chauvin, J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao — appeared together since the May 25 death of Floyd, a Black man who died in police custody. Chauvin, who is white, knelt on Floyd’s neck for about nine minutes. He faces the most serious charge of second-degree murder.While Cahill did not rule on any major motions, he dealt a blow to the prosecution by disqualifying Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman and three other lawyers in his office from participating in the case because of a meeting they had with the medical examiner with no outside attorneys present. The medical examiner is the official who investigated the cause of death.“It was sloppy not to have someone present. Those four attorneys are off the case,” Cahill said. “They are now witnesses.”After the hearing, Floyd’s relatives and lawyers pushed back against the assertion made by defense attorneys in court filings that Floyd, who had the powerful opioid pain medication fentanyl in his system, died of an overdose rather than cardiopulmonary arrest, the official cause of death.“The only overdose that killed George Floyd was an overdose of excessive force and racism by the Minneapolis Police Department,” lawyer Ben Crump said outside the courthouse. “It is a blatant attempt to kill George Floyd a second time.”Neal Katyal, a special attorney for the state, said a joint trial was justified given that the evidence was similar for all four defendants and because separate trials would force relatives to repeatedly relive the trauma of Floyd’s death.“I have seen a lot in my life, and I can barely watch the videos,” Katyal, a lawyer and the U.S. Justice Department’s former acting solicitor general, said about the bystander videos of Chauvin pinning Floyd to the pavement.“These defendants acted together, they were on the scene together, they were talking to each other during the nine minutes Floyd was on the ground,” Katyal said.Kueng, Lane and Thao have all been charged with aiding and abetting both second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter for not taking action to help Floyd.All four defendants have opposed a prosecution motion to consolidate their cases into one trial. They have requested that their cases be moved outside Minneapolis and have filed motions to dismiss the charges.Robert Paule, an attorney for Thao, said combining the cases would force him to defend against the prosecution and navigate the potentially conflicting interests of the other defendants.“You are bringing in a group of bobcats in a bag and letting them loose in a courtroom at all once,” Paule told the hearing.More than 100 protesters gathered outside the Family Justice Center in Minneapolis, which was barricaded with a fence and concrete blocks, chanting “Black lives matter,” “no justice, no peace” and “indict, convict, send those killer cops to jail.”Cahill said it was premature to decide whether to move the trial. He said he wanted to send a questionnaire to potential jurors to see how they had been affected by media coverage, and whether a fair jury could be selected in Hennepin County.Cahill said he was leaning toward having an anonymous jury, citing potential security threats. The judge said a trial would likely last six weeks, including two weeks for jury selection. 
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Some hospitals in the U.S. have been turning down part of their allocated supply of remdesivir, the COVID-19-fighting drug made by Gilead Sciences, the U.S. Health and Human Services Department confirmed Friday.From July 6 to September 8, state and territorial public health systems accepted about 72% of the remdesivir they were offered by HHS, a spokesperson confirmed Friday to Reuters. Hospitals then bought about two-thirds of what the states and territories accepted.The government has been leading the distribution of the drug, but that effort expires at the end of the month, and some hospitals are stockpiling remdesivir because they don’t know what the availability of the drug will be after September and want to be prepared if the pandemic flares this winter.Gilead did not respond to a request for comment from Reuters.Hospital say their supplies of the drug are adequate partly because they are only using it to treat the sickest patients despite the Food and Drug Administration greenlighting its use in more cases.Dr. Adarsh Bhimraj, an infectious disease specialist at the Cleveland Clinic, said he is skeptical about using remdesivir in patients with moderate COVID-19, especially given the price.The resulting surplus of remdesivir, which costs $3,120 for a six-vial intravenous course, contrasts the early days of the pandemic, when the new drug was in short supply in some regions.For the first time since mid-March, Canada has gone 24 hours without reporting a death from COVID-19, according to public health agency data released late Friday.Canada has 9,214 deaths from COVID-19 and 137,676 confirmed cases of the coronavirus disease as of Friday, according to Johns Hopkins University data.Clown Tapetito, wearing protective gear amid the new coronavirus, poses for a photo before disinfecting a home free of charge, in El Alto, Bolivia, Sept. 11, 2020.Most of the country’s provinces are easing their pandemic restrictions and schools are opening for in-person classes, leading to a mild uptick in infections in the last few days. The rest of the provinces, including British Columbia have added new curbs to halt the spread of the virus.Health officials say Canada’s experience with SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, helped them to be better prepared. SARS killed 44 people in Canada, the only country outside Asia to report deaths from that outbreak in 2002 and 2003.Canada’s first recorded case of coronavirus was in Toronto, on January 25.India recorded nearly 100,000 new COVID-19 cases in one day Thursday. The South Asian nation said Friday there had been 96,551 new cases in the previous 24-hour period.India has a total of 4.5 million COVID cases.With more than 6.4 million infections, the United States is the only country that has more COVID infections than India.In the U.S. cases of COVID-19 are “increasingly rapidly among young adults,” according to a research letter from Harvard, published at the online site of the JAMA medical journal.The study included 3,222 young adults between the ages of 18 and 34.The investigation found that the young adults “experienced substantial rates of adverse outcomes: 21% required intensive care, 10% required mechanical ventilation, and 2.7% died.”Patients with morbid obesity, hypertension, and diabetes were at “greater risks of adverse events.” The young adults with more than one of the conditions, the researchers found, “faced risks comparable with those observed in middle-aged adults without them.”  Black and Hispanic patients made up more than half of the patients who required hospitalization.A separate Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report says an investigation of symptomatic outpatients from 11 U.S. health facilities found that people who tested positive for COVID-19 were twice as likely to have reported dining at a restaurant than those who tested negative.Johns Hopkins University reports there are more than 28 million cases of COVID-19 cases worldwide with more than 913,000 deaths.   
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Florida felons must pay all fines, restitution and legal fees before they can regain their right to vote, a federal appellate court ruled Friday in a case that could have broad implications for the November elections.Reversing a lower court judge’s decision that gave Florida felons the right to vote regardless of outstanding legal obligations, the order from the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the position of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and the GOP-led state Legislature, leaving voting rights activists aghast.Under Amendment 4, which Florida voters passed overwhelmingly in 2018, felons who have completed their sentences would have voting rights restored. But the legal dispute arose after lawmakers the next year moved to define what it means to complete a sentence.In addition to prison time served, lawmakers directed that all legal financial obligations, including unpaid fines and restitution, would also have to be settled before a felon could be eligible to vote.The appeals court agreed with the Republican lawmakers, a decision that voting rights advocates called an affirmation of a “pay-to-vote” system that primarily disenfranchises minorities and poor people.”This ruling runs counter to the foundational principle that Americans do not have to pay to vote,” said Julie Ebenstein, senior staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union’s Voting Rights Project. “The gravity of this decision cannot be overstated. It is an affront to the spirit of democracy.”In a 200-page ruling on a 6-4 vote, the full 11th Circuit said the Constitution’s due process clause was not violated by the passage of the law implementing Amendment 4.”States are constitutionally entitled to set legitimate voter qualifications through laws of general application and to require voters to comply with those laws through their own efforts,” Chief U.S. Circuit Judge William Pryor wrote in the majority opinion. “So long as a state provides adequate procedures to challenge individual determinations of ineligibility — as Florida does — due process requires nothing more.”Four judges issued a dissenting opinion. They argued in part that it is sometimes extremely difficult for returning felons to know what outstanding financial obligations they may still have and that the state should create a mechanism to provide that information.”In light of the chaos created by the majority’s holding that (financial obligations) must be satisfied according to the ‘every-dollar’ method, countless scores of individuals will be uncertain of their eligibility to vote,” wrote U.S. Circuit Judge Beverly Martin in the dissent.”With its constitution amended in this way, Florida gained an obligation to establish procedures sufficient to determine the eligibility of returning citizens to vote, and to notify them of their eligibility in a prompt and reliable manner,” the dissenters added.But Pryor wrote that it’s not the state’s responsibility to create a system to let felons know what they owe.”The Due Process Clause does not require States to provide individual process to help citizens learn the facts necessary to comply with laws of general application,” he wrote.DeSantis spokesman Fred Piccolo said in an email that the court’s decision affirms that “all terms of a sentence means all terms.””There are multiple avenues to restore rights, pay off debts, and seek financial forgiveness from one’s victims,” Piccolo added. “Second chances and the rule of law are not mutually exclusive.”The amendment permanently bars convicted murderers and rapists from voting, regardless of financial debts. Still, other felons in Florida who have completed prison sentences and would otherwise be eligible but have not paid fines and other legal obligations — estimated in March to number about 774,000 — represent a significant bloc of voters, should they be allowed to cast ballots. Some of them may have settled their debts since that initial March estimate.The state does not track how many felons have registered to vote since Amendment 4 passed, but its backers estimate that the monetary requirement and the coronavirus pandemic have limited the number to 100,000, far less than those potentially eligible.The Florida Rights Restoration Coalition has raised more than $4 million to help pay court costs. Donations have come from retired basketball star Michael Jordan as well as More Than a Vote, an organization dedicated to maximizing Black voter turnout that counts basketball star LeBron James and comedian Kevin Hart among its backers. Still, the total owed could be as high as $3 billion.The ruling could influence the election outcome in November. Florida is considered a must-win state in President Donald’s Trump’s bid for reelection and is famed for its razor-thin statewide election results. Democrats had hopes of gaining support from thousands of former felons in Florida.Paul Smith, vice president at the Campaign Legal Center, which is pushing for full voting rights for most felons, slammed the ruling.”This is a deeply disappointing decision,” Smith said. “While the full rights restoration envisioned by Amendment 4 has become less likely to be realized this fall, we will continue this fight for all Florida voters, so the full benefits of Amendment 4 will someday be realized.”U.S. Rep. Val Demings, a Democrat from Orlando who was considered as a vice presidential nominee by Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, said she is introducing a bill in Congress to prohibit states from denying voting rights to American citizens, regardless of prior criminal convictions.”A criminal conviction does not erase a person from our communities or our country,” said Demings, who is Black and a former Orlando police chief. 
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President Donald Trump awarded the Medal of Honor to Sergeant Major Thomas “Patrick” Payne of the U.S. Army at the White House on Friday for his actions during a daring nighttime hostage rescue of 75 prisoners being held by ISIS in Iraq.Payne, an Army Ranger, is the first U.S. service member to receive the military’s highest award for heroism in support of the fight against ISIS.While he was deployed to Iraq in 2015 to support Operation Inherent Resolve, Payne led a combined assault team that liberated hostages at an Islamic State compound. After freeing dozens of captives, Payne received a distress call from another team stationed on the roof of a nearby building that was on fire and taking enemy fire from multiple sides.”Sergeant Payne knowingly risked his own life by bravely entering the building under intense enemy fire, enduring smoke, heat and flames to identify the armored door imprisoning the hostages,” the White House said in a statement.Trump described the rescue near Kirkuk as “one of the largest and most daring rescue missions in American history,” according to the New York Post.“As the building began to collapse, Payne received orders to evacuate but he refused to do so. He didn’t want to leave anyone behind. Pat ran back into the burning building that was collapsing two more times. He saved multiple hostages and he was the last man to leave,” Trump said during the ceremony.Payne’s role in the rescue operation on October 22, 2015, resulted in the freeing of 75 people being held by ISIS and the deaths of 20 enemy fighters killed in action. The 36-year-old sergeant major was awarded the medal on the 19th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks against the U.S.”Sergeant Major Payne is part of the 9/11 generation and joined the Army out of a sense of patriotism and duty to serve his country,” said the White House statement. Payne, raised in South Carolina, has brothers serving in the Army and the Air Force.Payne has served on 17 deployments, including to Iraq, Afghanistan and Africa, averaging nearly one tour a year. While serving on a tour in Afghanistan in 2010, a grenade blast injured Payne’s knee and he was awarded a Purple Heart.“Pat, you embody the righteous glory of American valor,” Trump said during his remarks before placing the medal around Payne’s neck. “We stand in awe of your historic, daring and gallant deeds. You truly went above and beyond the call of duty to earn our nation’s highest military honor.” 
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Singer-songwriter Jesse Colin Young made history with the “Youngbloods” on their classic ‘60s peace anthem “Get Together.” Earlier this year, Jesse released his 19th solo album “Dreamers” and this is his first album of new material since 2006’s “Celtic Mambo.”  **This interview originally aired on Nov. 12, 2019. 
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