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Amnesty International condemned Malta on Tuesday for using what it described as “illegal tactics” in the Mediterranean against immigrants making the dangerous crossing from North Africa. The approach taken by the Maltese government might have led to avoidable deaths, it argued, in a report that alleged a string of human rights abuses against illegal immigrants. Amnesty’s report was released hours after U.N. rights agencies on Monday called on Malta and the European Union to end the latest humanitarian crisis on board a cargo ship off the Maltese coast. “The Maltese government has resorted to dangerous and illegal measures for dealing with the arrivals of refugees and migrants at sea,” Amnesty said. “This escalation of tactics included arranging unlawful pushbacks to Libya, diverting boats towards Italy rather than rescuing people in distress and illegally detaining hundreds of people in ill-equipped ferries off Malta’s waters,” Amnesty said. MaltaThe signing of an agreement between Valletta and Tripoli in late May “to prevent people from reaching Malta” further exposed them to brutal treatment upon return to Libyan refugee camps, Amnesty said in the 34-page report. “Some of the actions taken by the Maltese authorities may have involved criminal acts being committed, resulting in avoidable deaths, prolonged arbitrary detention and illegal returns to war-torn Libya,” it said.   Malta PM rejects responsibility Malta and Italy in April closed their ports to migrants as the coronavirus pandemic closed its grip on the two countries, with Malta saying it needed all its resources to fight the disease. Since the start of the year Malta has received 2,161 illegal immigrants “and the resources and efforts necessary to ensure reception, access to protection and protection from COVID-19 are undoubtedly considerable for such a small country,” said Amnesty. That did not however “relieve Malta of the responsibility to indicate a place of safety for the people rescued under its coordination,” Amnesty said. The Amnesty report came as yet another cargo ship carrying rescued migrants was being denied permission to dock, its shipping company said this week. The Maersk Etienne on August 4 rescued the 27 migrants at the request of the Maltese authorities, which has since declined to let it into port. The U.N.’s refugee agency (UNCHR) as well as International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the International Chamber of Shipping “called for the immediate disembarkation … of the people trapped on board the ship.” The Maltese government did not immediately comment on the Amnesty report, but Prime Minister Robert Abela said Sunday the situation on the Maersk Etienne “was not Malta’s responsibility,” as the ship was sailing under a Danish flag. “While I understand the humanitarian aspect of migration, I have to understand the interests of the Maltese,” Abela told the Malta Today online newspaper. Amnesty’s report is titled “Waves of impunity: Malta’s violations of the rights of refugees and migrants in the Central Mediterranean.” 
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Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan recently directed authorities to release hundreds of female prisoners who are awaiting trial for minor offenses or who have served most of their prison terms.Rights advocates have hailed the move, hoping it will help ease the plight of the country’s female prison population.Khan’s directive last week stemmed from a new, official study that found women’s jails are rife with poor conditions and that authorities often ignore laws meant to protect female inmates.The report by the federal Human Rights Ministry said that of the 1,121 women in prison as of mid-2020, nearly 67% had not been convicted of any offense and were detained while awaiting conclusion of their trial.The government has pledged to pay the financial penalties outstanding against female prisoners whose remaining sentences are less than three years so they could be released immediately.Khan has also asked for “immediate reports on foreign women prisoners and women on death row for humanitarian consideration” and possible release.“Inmates of jails in Pakistan do not often have a reason to collectively rejoice, but a humane decision by the federal government will have many female prisoners doing precisely that,” the English-language daily DAWN wrote in its editorial on Khan’s announcement.Need for reformOn Monday, Human Rights Watch (HRW), responding to the official actions, noted that the ministry’s report had highlighted “the massive scale of mistreatment” of women prisoners in Pakistan and the need for broad and sustained prison reform.“While an important step, this report can only bring change if Pakistani authorities follow its recommendations and end widespread abuse,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at the global organization.The official report has found that 134 women had children with them in prison, some as old as 9 and 10, despite the legal limit of 5 years.“A critical lack of funding in the prison health care system has meant that mothers whose children are with them in prison often lack essential health care, leaving both the women and the children at risk of contracting infections,” HRW said.The outbreak of the coronavirus in Pakistan prompted the Supreme Court in April to warn authorities that inmates in the country’s overcrowded prisons could become victims of the pandemic.The court ordered Khan’s government to reduce prison congestion by freeing prisoners suffering from a mental or physical illness, inmates 55 years or older, male prisoners without any past convictions who are awaiting trial, as well as women and juvenile inmates.OvercrowdingPakistan’s overall prison population officially stands at more than 73,000 inmates, with most of them living in cramped conditions. Government estimates put the total capacity of prisons across the country at nearly 58,000.Most of the detainees are said to be awaiting trial and have not been convicted. Critics say court cases in Pakistan can take years, if not decades, to conclude, even ordinary disputes, because of a shortage of judges and lawyers, and rampant corruption, particularly in the lower judiciary.A government study released earlier this year had also highlighted widespread problems in Pakistani prisons. It found that almost 2,400 prisoners at the time suffered from chronic contagious diseases such as HIV, hepatitis and tuberculosis.“The Human Rights Ministry report is an opportunity for the Pakistan government to take meaningful steps to improve the treatment of women in prisons in the country and start a much-needed process of systemic, large-scale prison reform,” Adams said. 
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An estimated 45 million people in southern Africa are food insecure, with the number of people without access to adequate, affordable and nutritious food up 10% from last year, the World Food Program said Monday.The coronavirus pandemic, coupled with climate change and the struggling economies of several countries, are the main causes of the food insecurity, said international aid organizations in a webinar organized by the Foreign Correspondents Association of Southern Africa.Zimbabwe is the country affected the most, with the number of its food insecure people expected to reach 8.6 million by the end of this year, World Food Program director in southern Africa, Lola Castro, said.”We are going to see levels of food insecurity that we have never seen for many years,” in 13 of the region’s 16 countries, Castro said.”We have chronic underlying causes that we know very well, and they are basically mostly related to climatic shocks … drought, floods or big cyclones,” Castro said.She said COVID-19, the disease caused by the coonavirus, was an additional emergency that has enormously hurt the livelihoods of many poor people in the region. Lockdowns have made large numbers of people unemployed, increasing food insecurity, she said.Many farmers, especially women, had been severely affected by COVID-19 and its impact on food production, ActionAid Africa humanitarian adviser Chikondi Chabvuta said.”Southern Africa has faced impacts of climate change for the past four years nonstop. … I have witnessed the short-lived hope in people’s eyes these past four years when seeds are distributed or exchanged in the hope for a better yield next season, only to be disappointed by more climate disasters,” she said.”COVID-19 is exposing the existing systematic weaknesses of the regional policies meant to develop resilient food security,” Chabvuta said. “This includes reliance on imports for agricultural production for food supply.”  Zimbabwean farmer Juliet Hove said lack of access to water and the markets were also major problems for small-scale farmers in her country.According to Hove, COVID-19 restrictions on movements were preventing small-scale farmers from traveling to marketplaces to sell seeds and produce, reducing their ability to earn an income. 
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Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday granted an absolute pardon to a U.S. Marine convicted in the 2014 killing of a transgender woman, days after his office blocked a court order for the marine’s early release.Lance Corporal Joseph Scott Pemberton was convicted of homicide in December 2015. In October the year before, he met Jennifer Laude at a bar in Olongapo, about 150 kilometers from the capital of Manila. They went to a nearby motel, and just 30 minutes after checking in, staff found Laude dead, slumped over the toilet.Duterte’s spokesman, Harry Roque, said that the pardon didn’t wipe out Pemberton’s conviction.“The president has erased whatever punishment that Pemberton still faced,” he said, according to The New York Times.  “What was never erased in the mind of the president is the conviction of Pemberton, who is a killer.”’
Roque, a former lawyer for Laude’s family, released a harsher statement last week when a trial court ordered Pemberton’s early release.“As former Private Prosecutor for the Laude family, I deplore the short period of imprisonment meted on Pemberton who killed a Filipino under the most gruesome manner,” Roque tweeted. “Laude’s death personifies the death of Philippine sovereignty.”Statement on the early telease of Pemberton: As former Private Prosecutor for the Laude family, I deplore the short period of imprisonment meted on Pemberton who killed a Filipino under the most gruesome manner. Laude’s death personifies the death of Philippine sovereignty— Harry Roque (@attyharryroque) September 2, 2020Foreign Minister Teodoro Locsin said the president’s pardon was meant “to do justice.”
“Cutting matters short over what constitutes time served, and since where he was detained was not in the prisoner’s control—and to do justice—the President has granted an absolute pardon to Pemberton,” tweeted Locsin.  Cutting matters short over what constitutes time served, and since where he was detained was not in the prisoner’s control—and to do justice—the President has granted an absolute pardon to Pemberton. Here at the Palace.— Teddy Locsin Jr. (@teddyboylocsin) September 7, 2020 
Lawyers for Laude’s family, alongside human rights advocates, criticized the move as an effort to curry favor with the U.S.“There is so much disrespect in the manner by which Jennifer was killed — reflective of the disrespect the U.S. has for the Philippines’ democracy and sovereignty,” said Virginia Lacsa Suarez, a lawyer for Laude’s family, according to The New York Times.Cristina Palabay, of human rights group Karapatan, told Reuters, “We view this as not only a mockery of justice but also a blatant display of servility to U.S. interest.”  
For his part, Duterte defended the decision as a fair one, in a televised address Monday. 
“If there is a time when you are called upon to be fair, be fair,” he said.
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A social media post by Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman apparently ridiculing Serbia’s president after he signed a U.S.-sponsored agreement between Serbia and Kosovo has triggered a rare spat between traditional allies Moscow and Belgrade.
        
Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova posted a photo showing Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic sitting across from U.S. President Donald Trump at his Oval Office in Washington. She posted that along with another photo, the iconic scene from thriller “Basic Instinct” showing Sharon Stone being questioned by police as she sits cross-legged in a chair.
        
Zakharova mocked Vucic in a comment on the Facebook post, saying he was invited to the White House to be interrogated.
        
Vucic and other Serbian officials reacted furiously.
        
“The primitivism and vulgarity she showed speaks about herself, but also about those who have given her the job,” Vucic told the pro-government Pink TV.  
        
Later Sunday, Zakharova apologized on Twitter, saying her post had been misinterpreted. Her boss, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, spoke Sunday with Vucic, stressing the “sincerely close ties” between the two states, the Serbian president’s office said.
        
Vucic said while he was in Washington, he defended Serbia’s close ties with Russia, including an arms purchase, and his refusal to impose Western sanctions against Moscow over its policies in Ukraine.
        
Marko Djuric, an official with Vucic’s ruling party, defended him on Twitter.  
        
“This president did not say a single bad word against Russia, not even in that place (the White House.) … I will not allow you to attack proud Serbia. Shame on you!” Djuric wrote.
        
Although formally seeking membership in the European Union, Serbia under Vucic has been forging close political, economic and military ties with Russia and China.
        
Trump announced Friday that former wartime foes Serbia and Kosovo have agreed to normalize economic ties as part of U.S.-brokered talks that include Belgrade moving its Israeli embassy to Jerusalem, and mutual recognition between Israel and Kosovo.  
        
The announcement provided Trump with a diplomatic win ahead of the November presidential election and furthers his administration’s push to improve Israel’s international standing.
        
The agreement also calls on Serbia to diversify its energy supplies, which are now fully in Russia’s hands – something unlikely to be approved by Moscow.
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Campaigners are urging Australia to restart a refugee program that has left thousands of people stranded overseas.  Australia closed its international borders in March because of the coronavirus pandemic.    The Refugee Council of Australia has estimated that about 4,000 refugees with humanitarian visas allowing entry into Australia are currently stranded overseas.  They are unable to travel because Australia’s international border was closed to foreign nationals in March to curb the spread of COVID-19.       David Odeesh is an Iraqi refugee in Australia.  His sister and her family were granted humanitarian visas in January and had planned to reunite with him in March.     The family had escaped the Islamic State terror group in their home city of Mosul in northern Iraq and fled to Lebanon, where they remain.     Odeesh says his sister is struggling to survive in a small apartment in Beirut and he is pleading with the authorities in Canberra to let the family come.     “They have all the documents ready, all the approval, and, unfortunately, what happened this pandemic — COVID-19 — everything stops, the border closed.  I hope [the] Australian government hear our voice and change this decision,”  he said.   The family has said it has applied twice for special permission from the government in Canberra to fly to Australia. The requests have been denied.  Australia’s international borders are expected to stay closed until 2021.     Campaigners believe refugees should, like citizens and permanent residents, be allowed into the country.     The Department for Home Affairs has appeared unmoved.  It has said the border restrictions “have been successful in slowing the spread of coronavirus in Australia”.
12,700 refugees were resettled in Australia in 2018.  The majority were from Iraq, with others escaping Myanmar, Syria and Afghanistan.       The government has said Australia has one of the world’s “most generous” resettlement programs and has given sanctuary to almost 900,000 refugees since the end of the World War II.     However, its detention of asylum seekers who try to reach Australia by sea in offshore camps in the South Pacific has drawn repeated international condemnation.  In response, Canberra has insisted the policies were a deterrent, and have prevented migrants risking their lives crossing treacherous waters in unseaworthy vessels.    
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The metro system in India’s capital began a phased reopening Monday with only the city’s yellow line up and running. For now, trains will run for four hours in the morning and four hours in the evening.  The New Delhi metro, India’s largest metro system, closed in March, as did all the other metros around the country, when the country went into lockdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus.  That effort, however, has not proved as successful as Indian authorities would like. Only the U.S. has more COVID-19 cases than India’s more than 4.2 million.   All passengers are undergoing thermal screening for high temperatures upon entering Delhi’s metro stations. Travelers are also required to wear face masks and observe social distancing in the stations and on the trains.   Security personnel have been deployed to the stations to ensure that regulations are observed.  Passengers must use a smart card to travel, as no tokens or cash transactions will be permitted.   Officials say the stations will be sanitized every four hours.  
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Typhoon Haishen made landfall on the South Korean coast Monday, a day after battering southern Japan.   Forecasters at the Korea Meteorological Administration say Haishen reached the southern city of Ulsan with maximum sustained winds of 126 kilometers an hour.  The storm has already affected the nearby port city of Busan, cutting off power to thousands of homes, forcing authorities to evacuate nearly 1,000 residents and grounding as many as 300 passenger flights to and from the region.  The weather agency says Haishen is expected to weaken to a tropical storm within the next 24 hours. Haishen, which means “sea god” in Chinese, left nearly 500,000 households without power on Japan’s southern island of Kyushu Sunday. Nearly 2 million people were ordered to evacuate several southern Japanese islands as the typhoon bashed the region.  At least 32 people were injured on Kyushu.   Haishen is the second typhoon to hit southern Japan and the Korean Peninsula in less than a week.  Typhoon Maysak flooded homes and vehicles and knocked down trees and traffic lights after making landfall in Busan last Thursday, leaving at least two people dead.  Maysak was also blamed for the sinking of a cattle ship, which capsized and sank in the East China sea Wednesday. At least two of the 43 crewmen on board were rescued. The ship was also carrying nearly 6,000 cattle, bound for China.  
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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson talked tough on Sunday ahead of a crucial round of post-Brexit trade talks with the European Union, saying Britain could walk away from the talks within weeks and insisting that a no-deal exit would be a “good outcome for the U.K.”With talks deadlocked, Johnson said an agreement would only be possible if EU negotiators are prepared to “rethink their current positions.”The EU, in turn, accuses Britain of failing to negotiate seriously.Britain left the now 27-nation EU on Jan. 31, 3½ years after the country narrowly voted to end more than four decades of membership. That political departure will be followed by an economic break when an 11-month transition period ends on Dec. 31 and the U.K. leaves the EU’s single market and customs union.Without a deal, the new year will bring tariffs and other economic barriers between the U.K. and the bloc, its biggest trading partner. Johnson said the country would “prosper mightily” even if Britain had “a trading arrangement with the EU like Australia’s” — the U.K. government’s preferred description of a no-deal Brexit.British chief negotiator David Frost and his counterpart Michel Barnier are to meet in London starting Tuesday for the eighth round of negotiations.The key sticking points are access for European boats to U.K. fishing waters and state aid to industries. The EU is determined to ensure a “level playing field” for competition so British firms can’t undercut the bloc’s environmental or workplace standards or pump public money into U.K. industries.Britain accuses the bloc of making demands that it has not imposed on other countries it has free trade deals with, such as Canada.Frost told the Mail on Sunday newspaper that Britain was “not going to compromise on the fundamentals of having control over our own laws.””We are not going to accept level playing field provisions that lock us in to the way the EU do things,” he said.The EU says a deal has to be struck before November to allow time for parliamentary approval and legal vetting before the transition period expires.Johnson gave an even shorter deadline, saying an agreement needed to be sealed by an EU summit scheduled for Oct. 15.”If we can’t agree by then, then I do not see that there will be a free trade agreement between us, and we should both accept that and move on,” he said.Barnier said last week he was “worried and disappointed” by the lack of progress and said the U.K. had not “engaged constructively.”Without a deal, British freight firms have warned there could be logjams at ports and supplies of key goods in Britain could be “severely disrupted” starting Jan. 1.French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Sunday that talks were “not going well” and dismissed British attempts to drive a wedge between EU nations on issues such as fishing. Le Drian said the 27 nations remained united.”We would prefer a deal, but a deal on the basis of our mandate,” he told France Inter radio. “There is room for action, but the whole package, including the fishing package, needs to be taken up in order to avoid a ‘no deal.'”
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A guy walks into a bar, which still isn’t allowed in Texas.But Jeff Brightwell owns this bar.Two months into an indefinite shutdown, he’s just checking on the place — the tables six feet apart, the “Covid 19 House Rules” sign instructing drinkers not to mingle. All the safeguards that didn’t keep the doors open, because Dot’s Hop House & Cocktail Courtyard is a bar under Texas law. And bars, in a pandemic? “Really not good,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s infectious disease expert, told Congress in June.But some governors are warming up to the idea of opening bars again. Thousands of bars forced to close after massive virus outbreaks swept across the U.S. this summer could be starting to see a glimmer of hope as cases drop off and the political will for continuing lockdowns fades. For some states, it is a gamble worth trying, only a few months after a rush to reopen bars in May and June ended in disaster.”Our governor waved the magic wand, put us out of business and offered us nothing,” said Brightwell, whose Dallas bar typically employs around 50 people. He says his industry has been scapegoated.Bars remain under full closure orders in more than a half-dozen states, including hard-hit ones like Texas but also Connecticut, which has one of the nation’s lowest positivity rates. And even in states already letting bars operate, restrictions vary from one county to the next. The rules can tighten or loosen abruptly, reflecting the unease among governors.Arkansas has one of the highest infection levels in the U.S. and is letting bars operate at partial capacity. Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s defense: No spread has been linked to bars.Experts say outbreaks nationwide have proved otherwise. Even in recent weeks, new outbreaks tied to college students returning to campus have resulted in bars shutting down again from Alabama to Iowa, undermining confidence that the time is right.Still, governors are looking for a way. California began letting some bars in a few small counties reopen, though not in cities where the vast majority of the population lives. Next might be Florida, where bars have been closed since June and Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, a top ally of President Donald Trump, has mused whether bar closings even work since restaurants are serving alcohol anyway.”Everything’s open except the nightclubs and the pubs, and that’s something we’re going to address,” DeSantis said recently.In Texas, where 3 in 4 of the state’s 13,400 deaths blamed on COVID-19 have occurred since July, the infection rate has dipped below the 10% positivity rate that Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has set as one criteria for letting bars back in business. He has teased that an another announcement about next steps in reopening could come early as this week, which won’t come soon enough for the right wing of his party, which for months has blasted him over the lockdowns and a statewide mask mandate.The decision is dicey for governors who, pressure from bar owners aside, have faced less blowback from keeping bars shut than other sectors. Polls showed about half of Americans favored requiring bars and restaurants to close when cases surged, and experts say the risks of bars are by now proven — the combination of cozy spaces, loud music forcing people to lean in close and rounds of drinks relaxing even the best intentions to social distance.Videos of crowded clubs have made bars symbols of rowdy rule-breakers, the ones ruining a return to normal for the rest of us.”It’s way too soon. And it’s going to be too soon until we have a vaccine,” said Esmeralda Guajardo, the public health administrator in Cameron County on the Texas border, where hard-partying booze cruises on South Padre Island this summer drew fury from local officials.For months, bar owners have protested outside state capitols, sued their governors and even sold alcohol in open defiance of closing orders. None have led to bars reopening any sooner. Hundreds in Texas have ramped up kitchens in order to legally operate as restaurants.It hasn’t spared thousands of bars from ruin. More than 5,400 bars nationwide went dark in July, according to Yelp, which tracks the status of businesses on their website. More than 40% were permanent closures.Mark McClellan, former head of the Food and Drug Administration who has been advising Abbott on Texas’ reopening, said the first reopening of bars in Texas was too soon, but he can see a case to be made that waiting for a vaccine is too long.”This is part of our economy and there are jobs at stake,” he said. “It’s hard to reopen dance clubs and night clubs for similar kinds of reasons. If we’re going to try it, we need to learn what went wrong from the June reopening.”McClellan said more enforcement of rules at bars is one step. Last month, some Texas bars hired a lobbying group and pledged to screen the temperature of every patron at the door, a step that would go further than restaurants.”I’ve been to restaurants and seen my customers,” said Greg Barrineau, who runs two bars in San Antonio called Drink Texas. “They haven’t stopped drinking.”
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Several thousand people protested Sunday for the independence of Hungary’s University of Theatre and Film Arts following the imposition of a government-appointed board, which they say will undermine its autonomy.The management of the school, which nurtured many of Hungary’s most famous directors and filmmakers, resigned Monday in protest over the changes, which have also prompted several top theater directors to quit their teaching roles.Attendants of the rally formed a chain in the streets of central Budapest before the crowd gathered at a main square outside Parliament, demanding autonomy for the school and freedom for artistic endeavor and education.Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s supporters have long argued that it was time for a shift in culture towards conservative values to end what they call the domination of the arts in Hungary by liberals and left-wingers.”For a university to be able to operate autonomously is the foundation of democracy,” said Marta Barbarics, who attended the rally. “If a university cannot teach in a way as its citizens deem appropriate then there are serious problems, and the leadership of a university does not quit for no reason.” 
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Days after he crossed the country to start college, Ryan Schmutz received a text message from Utah State University: COVID-19 had been detected at his dorm.  Within 10 minutes, he dropped the crepes he was making and was whisked away by bus to a testing site.”We didn’t even know they were testing,” said Schmutz, who is 18 and from Omaha, Nebraska. “It all really happened fast.”Schmutz was one of about 300 students quarantined to their rooms last week, but not because of sickness reports or positive tests. Instead, the warning bells came from the sewage.  Colleges across the nation — from New Mexico to Tennessee, Michigan to New York — are turning tests of waste into a public health tool. The work comes as institutions hunt for ways to keep campuses open despite vulnerabilities like students’ close living arrangements and drive to socialize. The virus has already left its mark with outbreaks that have forced changes to remote learning at colleges around the country.The tests work by detecting genetic material from the virus, which can be recovered from the stools of about half of people with COVID-19, studies indicate. The concept has also been used to look for outbreaks of the polio virus.Sewage testing is especially valuable because it can evaluate people even if they aren’t feeling sick and can detect a few cases out of thousands of people, experts say. Another wastewater-flagged quarantine of around 300 students at the University of Arizona, for example, turned up two cases. Both were students who were asymptomatic, but they could potentially still have spread the virus.  “That’s just tremendously valuable information when we think about the setting of a college dorm, and how quickly this disease can spread through that population,” said Peter Grevatt, CEO of The Water Research Foundation, which promotes studies of water and wastewater to ensure water quality and service.Wastewater tests also flagged the possible presence of the virus at University of Colorado residence halls.Utah has used the method more widely, including to track an outbreak at a meatpacking plant. The British, Italian and Dutch governments have also announced similar monitoring programs, and the Massachusetts-based company Biobot tests wastewater from cities around the country.The method remains imprecise, though. It can spot infection trends, but it can’t yet pinpoint how many people have the virus or the stage of infection. That means it’s not yet quite as useful on a larger scale in cities, which don’t always have a university’s scientific resources or ability to require people to get tested.  The technology is being closely studied, though, and it is evolving rapidly, Grevatt said, adding that it’s best used along with other methods like contact tracing.  It’s not a panacea for colleges either. Utah State, for example, can only closely monitor sewage from the relatively small portion of students who live on campus — not the thousands of other people who come and go every day. The university has an enrollment of about 28,000.  And this week, Utah State’s positive wastewater test could be narrowed only as far as four residence halls that share the same sewer system. The test came back positive late Aug. 29, and the quarantine started the next day. Students were required to stay in their rooms, eating meals delivered by a “COVID care” team and barred from walking more than a few steps outside the residence hall.The buildings are laid out in apartment-style suites, and students were released from quarantine in small groups if every roommate in a suite tested negative. The tests had turned up four coronavirus cases as of Thursday.  Schmutz, who tested negative along with his roommates, didn’t miss much in-person class time during his four-day quarantine.  But he’s a little disconcerted that he and his family weren’t told about the sewage testing.  “It felt like we were kind of out of the loop on everything. It’s definitely hard to process,” he said.  Utah State has heard from parents and students similarly frustrated, though many others are grateful, spokeswoman Emilie Wheeler said.  “They see it as a noninvasive early detection system,” she said.  The program is relatively inexpensive, too. The school takes samples daily to monitor several living areas, and the tests are run by a team of students.  “Wastewater has a story to tell about the public health status of communities,” Grevatt said. “There’s so many folks working on this right now. It’s just remarkable to see how quickly it has moved forward.”
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