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More than 410,000 Americans could die from COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, by January 1, 2021, according to the latest model by the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.The United States reported more than 188,500 deaths as of Saturday and more than 6,200,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. If the IHME model, released Friday, is correct, that would mean an estimated 222,000 more deaths over the next 3½ months.“We expect the daily death rate in the United States, because of seasonality and declining vigilance of the public, to reach nearly 3,000 a day in December,” the institute, which bills itself as an independent research center, said in an update of its periodic forecasts.It previously projected 317,697 deaths by December 1.FILE – Kellie Dick, left, a University of Oklahoma senior from Shawnee, and Abhi Nath, a senior from Norman, voice concerns about OU’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic during a demonstration, Sept. 3, 2020, in Norman, Okla.However, the researchers at IHME said, if the use of face masks became nearly universal, the predicted 222,000 deaths could be reduced by half. Conversely, if restrictions are eased, the toll could be much higher by New Year’s.“Increasing mask use to the levels seen in Singapore would decrease the cumulative death toll to 288,000, or 122,000 lives saved compared to the reference scenario,” it said.”If a herd immunity strategy is pursued, meaning no further government intervention is taken from now to Jan. 1st, the death toll could increase to 620,000,” according to IHME’s briefing.Other predictionsThe IHME model is one of the more aggressive of the 35 models used to forecast COVID-19 deaths. The ensemble forecast by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which came out Thursday, predicted 211,000 U.S. deaths from COVID-19 by September 26.The model’s outlook for the world was even more dire, with deaths projected to triple to 2.8 million by January 1, 2021.FILE – A man trims his beard while others bathe in the Hooghly River in Kolkata, India, Sept. 3, 2020. India has been reporting the highest single-day coronavirus caseload in the world every day for more than three weeks.India reported 86,432 new COVID-19 cases Saturday, taking its total infections to 4,023,179, according to Johns Hopkins University.The U.S. and Brazil are the only countries that have more cases than India.The U.S. leads the world in COVID infections with 6,243,849, while Brazil has 4,092,832, according to Johns Hopkins.The coronavirus has brutalized some locations in Mexico so badly that local governments have run out of death certificates.Mexican officials say a million new forms have been printed.Mexico has recorded 66,851 COVID-19 deaths, placing it only behind the U.S, Brazil and India in the number of pandemic deaths on the Johns Hopkins listing.The U.S. has recorded 188,507 deaths, Brazil has 125,521 and India has 69,561, Johns Hopkins said.FILE – A city health worker takes a resident’s blood sample, part of a program that aims to administer 20,000 COVID-19 tests in Rio de Janeiro’s poor neighborhoods, at Morro da Providencia favela, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sept. 3, 2020.Toll on health workersAmnesty International said this week that 1,320 health workers in Mexico had died from the coronavirus pandemic, the worst in any country in the world.Amnesty’s report highlighted the deadly toll COVID-19 has had on frontline workers. Overall, at least 7,000 health workers have died of the virus.According to a Reuters analysis of data from the Mexican government, health care workers in that country are four times more likely to die than that sector’s workers in the U.S.New cases continue to pop up in South Korea, which at one time had seemed to quash the virus. Authorities said Saturday that 115 of the 168 new cases were in metropolitan Seoul.New Zealand said Saturday that it had recorded its 24th COVID-19 death. Joseph Williams, a doctor and the former prime minister of the Cook Islands, was the 24th victim.
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Afghanistan’s warring factions are set to begin their first direct peace talks early next week in Qatar amid U.S.-led international calls for them to seize the “historic opportunity” to end the country’s long war.The U.S.-brokered dialogue, known as intra-Afghan negotiations, will bring to the table in Doha representatives of the Afghan state and the Taliban insurgency, which runs its political office in the capital of the Gulf nation.The Taliban announced on Saturday the names of their 21-member negotiating team, led by Mawlavi Abdul Hakim, a hardline insurgent cleric and a close confidant of the Taliban’s reclusive chief, Hibatullah Akhundzada. Hakim has been heading the Islamist group’s own judicial system enforced in Taliban-held Afghan areas.“We have formed a strong and inclusive team for intra-Afghan negotiations. It mostly comprises members of the Rehbari Shoura [Taliban leadership council], and the Islamic Emirate’s [Taliban] chief justice has been appointed as the team leader,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told VOA.Officials said the negotiating teams would try to agree on a permanent cease-fire and a political power-sharing arrangement to govern Afghanistan.The peace process stems from a February agreement Washington sealed with the Taliban to extricate American troops from the country and close the longest U.S. war. The landmark accord was negotiated and signed in Doha on February 29.Afghan Minister of Economy Mustafa Mastoor told an online forum Saturday evening that Kabul’s negotiating team was “fully ready” to depart to Doha “most probably tomorrow [Sunday].”Cease-fireAn insurgent cease-fire is a priority for Kabul, but it may not come up in the inaugural interaction with the Taliban, the minister told the forum organized by the Pakistan-based Jinnah Institute think tank.”The first meeting definitely is to break the ice and just to meet each other and then start with the easier issues and going towards the difficult ones,” Mastoor said.FILE – Stefano Pontecorvo talks to The Associated Press in Islamabad, Pakistan, March 4, 2019.Stefano Pontecorvo, NATO’s civilian representative to Afghanistan, in his address to the forum cautioned that the dialogue would not be easy and that both sides would need to show “flexibility, good faith and determination” to end the deadly conflict.”First and foremost, a significant reduction in violence must top the negotiation agenda to give people confidence in the process and its outcome. Popular support is essential for a durable outcome,” Pontecorvo said.“This moment for peace is unique, and the stakes are high. The Afghan people and the world are watching. They will not forget or forgive whoever loses this occasion,” the NATO envoy warned.’Political disunity’Pontecorvo noted with concern that political differences among leaders in Kabul could undermine the work of the state negotiating team.”There is no doubt whatsoever that the perceived political disunity of Afghan leadership is a concern for all of us, for NATO and for the international community, as it also impacts on the cohesiveness of the team,” he said.Meanwhile, U.S. peace envoy to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad, who signed the deal with the Taliban, was traveling to Doha to advance ongoing efforts to promote the immediate start of the negotiations.FILE – Washington peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad attends the inauguration ceremony for Afghan President Ashraf Ghani at the presidential palace in Kabul, Afghanistan, March 9, 2020.“The Afghan people are ready for a sustainable reduction in violence and a political settlement that will end the war. Afghan leaders must seize this historic opportunity for peace. … Now is the time to start,” said a pre-visit State Department announcement.Began after 9/11The war in Afghanistan began with the U.S.-led military invasion of the country to punish and remove the Taliban from power days after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on America that al-Qaida leaders plotted from sanctuaries in Afghanistan.Since then, more than 150,000 people, including Afghan civilians and local as well as foreign military troops, are estimated to have been killed and millions left homeless in the poverty-stricken country.The U.S.-Taliban deal requires Washington to withdraw all American and allied troops from Afghanistan by July 2021 in return for insurgent counterterrorism assurances. The Taliban have also pledged to seek political reconciliation with other Afghan factions to end decades of hostilities in the country.The U.S. has reduced the number of its troops in the country from around 13,000 to 8,600 since signing the deal with the Taliban. President Donald Trump said last month that the number of troops would be reduced to between “4,000 and 5,000″ by the November U.S. Election Day.The intra-Afghan talks were originally scheduled for March 10, but months of delays over a prisoner swap between the Taliban and the Kabul government, as stipulated in the deal, hampered U.S. diplomatic efforts to kick-start the dialogue.
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About 20 U.S. professional basketball teams will convert their venues into pandemic-safe voting centers for the 2020 presidential election. The move is part of a deal with the NBA players, who briefly halted their participation in the season-ending playoffs to protest racial injustice and police brutality. VOA’s Mariama Diallo reports the latest arena to announce its plans is New York City’s Barclays Center, home to the Brooklyn Nets.
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Egyptian security forces have arrested two journalists, including one sick with COVID-19, the latest step in a sweeping crackdown on news media during the pandemic, an international press watchdog reported Friday.On separate days in late August, officers burst into the homes of Hany Greisha and El-Sayed Shehta without warning, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Friday. Both work as editors for Al-Youm Al-Sabae, or Seventh Day, a prominent pro-government news outlet.Greisha was ordered detained for 15 days on charges of spreading false news and joining a terrorist group, CPJ said, citing his family’s official complaint to the Egyptian Journalists’ Syndicate.FILE – Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi delivers an address at the Ittihadiya presidential palace in Cairo, Egypt, May 26, 2017.Under President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, Egyptian prosecutors have frequently brought vague terrorism-related charges against reporters, secular activists and online critics, in addition to Islamist political opponents, drawing widespread scorn from human rights monitors.Earlier this week, security forces raided Shehta’s home in northern Egypt, confiscating his laptop, cellphone, money and IDs, CPJ said, adding that it remained unclear whether he faces any charges. The deputy managing editor had been in quarantine after testing positive for the coronavirus a few days earlier, according to a statement from his wife.Officers took Shehta to a police station in the Nile Delta city of Zagazig, where he collapsed and lost consciousness, CPJ reported. He remained shackled to a hospital bed in the city.The Interior Ministry did not respond to requests for comment by The Associated Press, and a government media officer did not answer calls seeking comment.It was not immediately clear why security forces targeted the two editors. Egypt’s counterterrorism legislation broadly empowers authorities to exert tight controls over traditional media and crack down on all kinds of dissent. Amnesty International released a report earlier this year detailing how a growing number of journalists at state-owned media outlets have landed in jail for expressing their private views on social media.The coronavirus pandemic has presented new challenges for the government. When infections surged this summer, threatening to overwhelm hospitals, authorities arrested journalists who questioned official virus statistics and doctors who complained about their working conditions. As of Friday, the country had reported more than 99,000 cases, including 5,479 deaths, one of the highest death tolls in the region.Outbreaks in prisonAlthough Egypt’s daily virus case count has declined in recent weeks, reports of suspected coronavirus outbreaks in the country’s crowded prisons have increasingly come to light. In July, a prominent Egyptian journalist who had been jailed on charges of broadcasting false news died of COVID-19 just days after his release, stoking fears of unchecked contagion in what rights groups describe as packed and dirty cells.”Egyptian authorities should be urgently releasing journalists from its prisons because of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Sherif Mansour, CPJ’s regional program coordinator. “Instead, [Egypt] is diligently rounding up more to throw in jail — including now one who was sick and in quarantine.”
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Six Belarusian journalists detained earlier this week while covering an anti-government protest in Minsk were sentenced to three days in jail, as authorities continued their crackdown on dissent and media freedom following a disputed election that gave President Alexander Lukashenko a sixth-straight term.
 
The verdicts came just ahead of a scheduled address by Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the self-exiled presidential candidate who has become a leader of the Belarusian opposition, to the U.N. Security Council later on September 4.
 
The journalists were covering a student rally demanding the resignation of Lukashenko on September 1 when they were detained by police near the Dinamo district stadium.
 
A district court in the capital sentenced the journalists to three days’ administrative arrest after finding them guilty of participating in an illegal rally, an accusation they denied.
 
They were later released having already served their terms while in pretrial detention.
 
The reporters work for the Belarusian independent news website Tut.by, the local Komsomolskaya Pravda v Belarusi daily, and the independent news agency BelaPAN.
 
Hundreds of thousands of citizens have taken to the streets across Belarus to protest the “rigged” results of the August 9 vote.Belarus Opposition Leader Appeals to UN to Stop Human Rights Abuses in Her CountrySviatlana Tsikhanouskaya tells UN that ‘a nation cannot and should not be a hostage to one man’s thirst for power’The protesters are calling on the 66-year-old Belarusian leader to step down after 26 years in power, release all political prisoners, and hold free and fair elections.
 
The authorities have tried to halt the protest movement with threats and the prosecution of protesters, political activists, and journalists covering the demonstrations.
 
On September 4, police detained several student protesters gathered inside the Minsk State Linguistic Institute. A witness said the students started singing the French national anthem La Marseillaise, which contains words about the fight against tyranny, when riot police entered the building and dragged the students away.
 
Officials at the institute had warned students it would call in the police unless they halted their protests.
 
Those detained were later released from police custody after reportedly being charged with taking part in illegal rallies.
 
The Interior Ministry earlier said that a total of 26 people were detained during protests in Minsk on September 3 for violating the law on public events, adding that seven of them will remain in pretrial detention.
 
A photographer working for the news outlet Tut.by., Zmitser Brushko, was detained for a few hours and charged with petty hooliganism for allegedly pushing a police officer.
 
The crackdown on protests, strikes, and the media has drawn condemnation from human rights groups, media freedom watchdogs, and the international community.
 
On September 3, Britain and Canada said in a joint statement to the Permanent Council of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) that they were “extremely concerned” by the treatment of journalists and independent media in Belarus.
 
“Though the strain faced by independent media has been made evident before, during, and after the presidential elections, in the past week Belarusian authorities have made greater moves to hinder the free press,” the statement said, adding that more than 70 independent news websites had been blocked.
 
About 50 journalists were detained on August 27-28 for accreditation checks and some foreign reporters were subsequently deported and banned from Belarus for five years, it also noted.
 
At least 17 journalists, including four from RFE/RL’s Belarus Service, had their accreditations revoked. 
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Portland police made multiple arrests overnight on Friday as the Oregon city nears 100 days of demonstrations against U.S. racism and police brutality, which have at times turned violent.
 
Police arrested 27 people, mostly on charges of interfering with law enforcement or disorderly conduct after not complying with orders to clear the area where they assembled and throwing items at officers.
 
“Officers began to make targeted arrests and in some cases moved the crowd back and kept them out of the street,” according to a press release issued on Saturday.
 
One arrested protester was injured with a “bleeding abrasion” on her head, police said.
 
Demonstrations against racism and police brutality have swept the United States since the death in May of George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man who died after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes.
 
In Rochester, New York on Friday night nearly 1,000 demonstrators marched downtown to protest the March death of black man Daniel Prude in police custody. Police used pepper balls to clear protesters during protests the night before, according to local news reports.
 
Portland has become the epicenter of demonstrations, with protests taking place nightly over the last three months calling for policing and social justice reforms. These have at times turned into clashes between demonstrators and officers, as well as between right- and left-wing groups.
 
Police shot and killed a self-declared anti-fascist activist in Washington state on Thursday night as they moved in to arrest him on suspicion he fatally shot a right-wing counterprotester last weekend in Portland.
 
The administration of President Donald Trump deployed federal forces to Portland in July to crack down on the protests. Trump signed a memo on Wednesday that threatens to cut federal funding to “lawless” cities, including Portland.
 
His Democratic challenger in the Nov. 3 presidential election, Joe Biden, has accused Trump of stoking violence with his rhetoric.
 
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Officials in Bangladesh said Saturday that at least 11 people have died following a blast likely caused by a leak in a gas pipeline at a mosque outside Dhaka during evening prayers Friday.The Dhaka Tribune reported that 26 people are being treated at Sheikh Hasina National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery in Dhaka.The victims have burns covering at least 60% to 70% of their bodies, according to Fatullah police station Officer-in-Charge Aslam Hossain.Narayanganj Fire Service’s Deputy Assistant Director Abdullah Al Arefin said apparently all six air conditioners on the mosque’s ground floor exploded.  He said fire officials suspect “that gas had leaked from the pipeline and accumulated inside as the windows were closed. The explosion was probably triggered due to sparks when someone tried to switch on or off the ACs or fans.”  
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The World Health Organization says it is unlikely a safe, effective vaccine
against COVID-19 will be available for widespread use before the middle of next year.  Urging people to lower their expectations, health officials say the development of a safe, efficacious vaccine takes time and cannot be rushed.  As it is, the WHO reports remarkable progress is being made toward this end. It notes at least six to nine candidate vaccines have begun Phase 3 clinical trials.
 
WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris says many thousands of people participate in these carefully crafted trials. She says a vaccine must be proven to be safe and seen to provide protection against the coronavirus in at least 50% of subjects before it can be approved for public use.   
 
Harris says the safety of the vaccine has to be monitored at all stages of the research, making this a lengthy process.
    
“The good news is the manufacturers are already putting bets on which one is likely to be the vaccine.  And, they are all working on how they can scale-up production of vaccines, once we know which ones are the ones we will roll out.… But, in terms of realistic timelines, we are really not expecting to see widespread vaccination until the middle of next year,” she said.FILE – A poster advertises a hunt for volunteers for a study of a possible COVID-19 vaccine, in Binghamton, New York, July 27, 2020.Harris told VOA that the WHO does not tell governments when a vaccine should be made available for emergency or general use. She said that is a decision for countries to make for themselves.  However, she cautioned against raising false hopes about the prospect of an imminent vaccine that would vanquish the pandemic.
 
“What we have been saying over and over is nobody should be sitting there waiting for the magic bullet. You know, thinking that the vaccine is going to solve all this or that there will be a wonder drug. What we have to do now is do the things we know suppress this virus…. And those are the basics—the hand-washing, the social distancing that we are doing, the mask-wearing,” she said.   
    
According to Harris, the WHO believes all nations must work together in the search for a vaccine. She said sharing and comparing data is important and will result in a vaccine that protects everybody.
 
Harris called this a global public good. She said a vaccine not only is essential but must be provided in all parts of the world, adding that unless everybody is protected, nobody is protected.
 
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