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One of the hottest air temperatures recorded anywhere on the planet in at least a century, and possibly ever, was reached on Sunday afternoon at Death Valley in California’s Mojave Desert where it soared to 130 Fahrenheit (54.4 Celsius).
An automated observation system run by the U.S. National Weather Service in the valley’s sparsely populated Furnace Creek reported the record at 3:41 p.m. at the crest of an extreme heat wave, a more frequent occurrence because of climate change.
It was a dry heat: Humidity fell to 7%. But it felt “insanely hot” all the same, according to meteorologist Daniel Berc at the weather service’s Las Vegas bureau. A heat wave roasting much of the Western United States would continue all week, he said on Monday.
“It’s literally like being in an oven,” he said in a telephone interview. “Today is another day we could take another run at 130F.”
Tourists on Monday took selfies by an outdoor thermometer at the Death Valley visitor center while avoiding touching metal surfaces with bare skin.
Those who live and work in Furnace Creek, which had a population of 24 in the 2010 census, saw cause for pause in the record.
“We are seeing more records being broken at a daily and monthly level,” said Brandi Stewart, a public information officer for Death Valley National Park who can see the Furnace Creek weather station from her window. “It is significant that we’re seeing more records breaking.”
A temperature of 134F (56.7C) was recorded in Death Valley in July 1913, and Kebili, Tunisia, is said to have hit 131F in July 1931, according to the World Meteorological Organization. But recent research by Christopher Burt, an extreme weather expert, has led some meteorologists to view these older records as the results of observer error.
Climate change has pushed global temperatures to new highs. In Europe, northern Spain broke local heat records in July, while wheat fields in France caught fire.
Forests across Siberian Russia are seeing unprecedented wildfires, while the Arctic sea ice shrank to a record low for July due to melting.
In Furnace Creek, staff and guests at The Oasis hotel were being urged to wear hats and sip water relentlessly while outside, according to general manager John Kukreja.
He tells guests that extreme heat does strange, deceptive things to the body.
“You’re going to sweat and the sweat’s going to dry instantly and you’re never going to know you actually felt hot,” he said. “Your hair stands on end. It’s almost like you feel like you’re cold, like goose bumps.” 
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A former CIA officer and contract linguist for the FBI has been charged with spying for China, including by disclosing secret tradecraft and information on sources to intelligence officers, according to  court documents unsealed Monday. Alexander Yuk Ching Ma is accused of revealing government secrets to Chinese intelligence officers in a hotel room in Hong Kong during a three-day period in March 2001, and of continuing to remain in touch with them even after he took a job with the FBI. Ma was charged in federal court in Honolulu with conspiring to gather and communicate national defense information for a foreign nation. He was arrested last week after a recent sting operation in which prosecutors say Ma accepted cash from an undercover law enforcement officer and revealed that he wanted the “motherland” to succeed. No defense lawyer was listed on court records for him. The case was first reported by NBC News. 
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Haiti school children are returning to class for the first time in five months after the government closed schools because of the coronavirus outbreak. One parent told the Associated Press, Monday’s reopening of school was good for the future of children, citing education as the basis of development for all countries. President Jovenel Moise ordered schools, airports, factories and seaports closed in late March after two people tested positive for the coronavirus.Principal Jean Marc Charles delivers face masks to pupils, to prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease, before attending to the first day of school after holidays, at Lycee National de Petion Ville, in Port au Prince, Aug. 10, 2020.The United Nations says the limited availability of clean water makes it difficult for people to follow recommendations of health experts to frequently wash their hands to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.  So far, Haiti has confirmed more than 7,800 coronavirus cases and more than 190 deaths.  
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Former first lady Michelle Obama hailed presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden as a capable leader for a country of “compassionate, resilient, decent people,” while sharply criticizing President Donald Trump as lacking the ability to understand the feelings and experiences of others. Capping the first of four nights of an extraordinary virtual Democratic national convention on Monday, Obama strongly argued that Trump had failed to adequately respond to economic and social crises and the coronavirus pandemic at home while turning away from international alliances built by previous administrations. “Let me be as honest and clear as I possibly can,” she said in a prerecorded speech. “Donald Trump is the wrong president for our country. He has had more than enough time to prove that he can do the job, but he is clearly in over his head.”  “He cannot meet this moment,” she added, in delivering the keynote address of the opening night. “He simply cannot be who we need him to be for us.”  Trump ridiculed the Democratic effort during a stop at the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport earlier Monday, en route to a political gathering in Mankato, Minnesota.  “When you hear a speech is taped, it’s like there’s nothing very exciting about it, right?” Trump said to laughs from his supporters.President Donald Trump waves as he steps off Air Force One upon arrival, Monday, Aug. 17, 2020, at Andrews Air Force Base, Md. Trump is returning from Minnesota and Wisconsin.Virtual convention The coronavirus pandemic pushed the Democratic Party to abandon its plans to hold this week’s nominating convention in the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, shifting instead to a virtual event with a mix of taped and lived remarks with politicians, celebrities and citizens from different parts of the country. Next week, Republicans will hold their convention in much the same manner, with limited convention activity in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Trump making his presidential renomination acceptance speech from the White House.  Obama headed a parade of prominent Democrats and lesser-known Americans – as well as a handful of dissident Republicans — who spent more than two hours praising Biden as the man best suited for addressing a historic public health, economic and racial justice crisis while portraying Trump as incapable of meeting the challenges.  Biden served as vice president for eight years under Obama’s husband, former President Barack Obama.  Michelle Obama cast Biden as capable of meeting the country’s current challenges. “I know Joe. He is a profoundly decent man, guided by faith,” Michelle Obama said. “He was a terrific vice president. He knows what it takes to rescue an economy, beat back a pandemic and lead our country. She cited the country’s ongoing battle with the novel coronavirus that has killed more people in the United States than any other nation, the millions of people who have lost their jobs, and the protests against racial inequality and police brutality that have taken place in cities all across the country. “Whenever we look to this White House for some leadership or consolation or any semblance of steadiness, what we get instead is chaos, division, and a total and utter lack of empathy,” Michelle Obama said.In this image from video, former first lady Michelle Obama speaks during the first night of the Democratic National Convention, Aug. 17, 2020.Republican figures Monday night featured several Republican figures, including former New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman and one-time presidential candidate and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Meg Whitman, making unusual appearances at the opposing party’s convention to endorse Biden as a better choice for the country than Trump.    Former Ohio Governor John Kasich, who ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016, said the country is “at a crossroads” and being led down “the wrong road” by a president who has pitted one person against another.    “Joe Biden is a man for our times,” Kasich said. “Times that call for all of us to take off our partisan hats and put our nation first for ourselves, and of course, for our children.”  The first night of the four-night convention also included statements of support from many of the Democrats who last year joined in what became a crowded field for the party’s nomination to take on Trump in November.Virtual crowd applauds former first lady Michelle Obama on the all virtual 2020 Democratic Convention hosted from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Aug. 18, 2020.The last candidate opposite Biden in the race, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, said the nation is facing an “unprecedented moment” with a number of challenges, including the coronavirus pandemic, systemic racism and climate change. “We have a president who is not only incapable of addressing these crises but is also leading us down the path of authoritarianism,” Sanders said.  In a nod to the role he and his staff have had in shaping the party’s platform since he dropped out of the race, Sanders said, “Many of the ideas we fought for, that just a few years ago were considered radical, are now mainstream.” He highlighted several policy issues, including Biden’s support for a higher minimum wage, making it easier for workers to join unions, paid family leave, universal early education, affordable child care, rebuilding infrastructure and fighting climate change. “The truth is that, even before Trump’s negligent response to this pandemic, too many hard-working families have been caught on an economic treadmill with no hope of ever getting ahead. Together we must build a nation that is more equitable, more compassionate and more inclusive,” Sanders said. “I know that Joe Biden will begin that fight on day one.”In this image from video, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks during the first night of the Democratic National Convention on Aug. 17, 2020.Mail-in ballots Several of the night’s speakers also addressed Trump’s stated opposition to expanding voter access to casting ballots by mail, something many states are allowing in order to have fewer people show up to polling sites amid the pandemic. Those voicing support for such voting, and the U.S. Postal Service, included Senator Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada. “Despite what the president says, voting by mail has been a secure, proven option for decades,” she said. “In 2016, 33 million Americans voted by mail. Even Donald Trump has requested an absentee ballot twice this year.” The convention continues Tuesday with former President Bill Clinton, Biden’s wife, Jill, former Secretary of State John Kerry and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer among the speakers.  Biden’s vice presidential running mate, California Senator Kamala Harris — the first Black woman and first South Asian American on a national party ticket in the U.S – anchors the Wednesday night lineup, along with former President Obama, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Biden is set to officially accept the party’s nomination Thursday night. He plans to give his address in his home state of Delaware with only aides and political advisers present. Meanwhile, Trump and Vice President Mike Pence are visiting several political battleground states this week to try to upstage the Democrats, including a stop Thursday by Trump near where Biden grew up in the northeastern Pennsylvania city of Scranton. 
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A U.S. military patrol returned fire at a checkpoint manned by pro-Syrian regime forces in northeast Syria, reportedly killing one soldier and wounding two others.“Coalition and Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), conducting a routine anti-ISIS security patrol near Tal Al-Zahab, Syria, encountered a checkpoint occupied by pro-Syrian regime forces,” the U.S.-led international coalition against the Islamic State (IS) terror group said in a statement Monday.“After receiving safe passage from the pro-regime forces, the patrol came under small-arms fire from individuals in the vicinity of the checkpoint,” the statement said, adding that “coalition troops returned fire in self-defense.”🔴On 8/17, @CJTFOIR & @cmoc_sdf, conducting a routine anti-ISIS security patrol near Tal Al-Zahab, encountered a checkpoint occupied by pro-Syrian regime forces…the patrol [was attacked]. Coalition troops returned fire in self-defense. No Coalition casualties. Full Statement 👇🏽 pic.twitter.com/3qWFrZh1wR
— OIR Spokesman Col. Myles B. Caggins III (@OIRSpox) US soldiers stand at an oil field in the countryside of al-Qahtaniyah town in Syria’s northeastern Hasakeh province near the Turkish border, on Aug. 4, 2020.Oil deal reactionThe U.S. still has about 700 troops in the area who, according to U.S. officials, are protecting the region’s oil fields and preventing IS from reemerging.Last month, U.S. officials said an American firm has reached a deal with Kurdish-led authorities in northeast Syria to develop and export crude oil in areas under their control.The Syrian government has condemned the move, describing it as stealing Syria’s oil.Some experts believe Monday’s incident and other recent provocations by forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad highlight a growing hostility toward U.S. actions in Syria.“The regime wants to express its disapproval of the oil deal by destabilizing the areas where the U.S. has military presence,” said Sadradeen Kinno, a Syrian researcher who follows developments in the country’s northeast.Last week, the SDF issued a statement in which it accused the Syrian government and other forces of creating chaos in the eastern province of Deir el-Zour. The accusation came after recent assassinations of powerful Arab tribal leaders in Deir el-Zour.“We could see more of these provocations by the Assad forces, but they cannot escalate further because the regime fears a direct confrontation with U.S. troops,” Kinno told VOA.National Security Correspondent Jeff Seldin contributed to this article. 
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Ongoing opposition protests in Belarus saw the largest turnout yet over the weekend, following days of public rallies against the disputed reelection of President Alexander Lukashenko.Hundreds of thousands of peaceful demonstrators gathered in Minsk and other Belarusian cities demanding free and fair elections. Protesters are seeking the release of all political prisoners, justice for perpetrators of human rights abuses and the resignation of Lukashenko.An unprecedented wave of protests have swept across Belarus in recent days after users on social media started sharing videos and photos showing security officers brutally repressing demonstrators angered by the official results of the disputed presidential election. On August 9, incumbent President Lukashenko claimed victory with more than 80% of the vote. It was his sixth consecutive win since 1994, when he took over the country.Independent exit polls are officially banned in Belarus, but according to civil society activists and members of opposition, Lukashenko’s support was only because of extensive vote rigging. Activists claim that the president’s opponent – Svetlana Tikhanovskaya – won the race with 65-70% of the vote. Tikhanovskaya had entered the race after authorities jailed her husband, Sergei Tikhanovsky, a popular blogger who tried to launch a presidential campaign.Several grass-roots groups have created “channels” on Telegram, a popular messaging app, where they have uploaded thousands of videos of the dramatic scenes. The videos, which have chronicled the protest and also carried personal testimonies from demonstrators who say they were tortured in detention centers, have outraged Belarusians and galvanized the protest movement.VOA is publishing several videos of the events shared on Telegram.Warning: some of these images are violent and graphic.  Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 1 MB480p | 1 MB540p | 1 MB720p | 4 MB720p | 6 MBOriginal | 5 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioDrone footage of central Minsk, Belarus, during the protest for free and fair elections, August 16.  Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File640p | 2 MB852p | 2 MB960p | 3 MB1080p | 9 MB1080p | 12 MBOriginal | 14 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioProtesters chant (President Alexander) “Lukashenko – to paddy-wagon” in the regional city of Grodno, Belarus, August 16. Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 1 MB480p | 1 MB540p | 1 MB720p | 3 MB720p | 4 MBOriginal | 4 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioLenin Square in the regional city of Mogilev, Belarus, August 16.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 4 MB360p | 5 MB360p | 6 MBOriginal | 11 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioWarning: These graphic videos appear to show a member of a special police or military unit firing his weapon in the direction of Alexander Taraikovsky, considered the first victim of the Belarusian protests, in Minsk, August 10. Taraikovsky appears unarmed in the video. The government claims Taraikovsky died after an improvised explosive device went off in his hands.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 2 MB480p | 3 MB540p | 4 MB720p | 9 MBOriginal | 13 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioWarning: These graphic videos appear to show a member of a special police or military unit firing his weapon in the direction of Alexander Taraikovsky, considered the first victim of the Belarusian protests, in Minsk, August 10. Taraikovsky appears unarmed in the video. The government claims Taraikovsky died after an improvised explosive device went off in his hands.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File640p | 1 MB852p | 1 MB960p | 2 MB1080p | 5 MBOriginal | 11 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioSeveral members of the Belarusian riot police beat a protester who lies on the ground, in Minsk, August 11.  
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The Indian Air Force deployed a Mi-17 helicopter on Monday, August 17, to airlift a man stranded for hours amid rapid flowing water at a flooded dam in central Chhattisgarh state, India. Local media reported that the man had jumped into the water on Sunday, August 16, but was unable to return to shore because of the rapid water caused by heavy rains. The Indian Air Force was eventually called in to help Monday morning after several failed rescue attempts, local police said. Surat city of western India’s Gujarat state was also hit by severe flooding on Sunday. Local television showed footage of rescuers distributing food and water to residents amid flooded streets and partially submerged buildings. The annual monsoon season is vital for India as half of its cropland lacks irrigation. But excessive rains cause many problems such as floods, landslides and water-borne diseases. (REUTERS) 
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Sudan, Egypt and Ethiopia have agreed to present draft proposals on how to manage Addis Ababa’s controversial Nile hydroelectric dam by Tuesday according to Sudan’s water ministry.In a Sunday statement the ministry said, “After lengthy discussions, the attendees decided to resume negotiations … to work on unifying the texts of the agreements submitted by the three countries.”The decision was announced amid talks led by the African Union (AU) between water and foreign ministers from the three countries about the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD).Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly, speaks during the opening session of the Arab Economic Forum in Beirut, Lebanon, May 2, 2019.Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly and his Sudanese counterpart Abdalla Hamdok, who met in Khartoum over the weekend, expressed their support for the AU-led negotiations over the Ethiopian dam and water rights.Sudan and Egypt agree that negotiating with Ethiopia is the only way to resolve disputes over the dam, but Sudan warned Egypt against making any “unilateral procedures” without consulting with Khartoum first, said Sudan information minister Faisal Mohammed Saleh.“The two sides also reiterated their commitment to the negotiation as the only means in achieving the interest of the people in this region and they are confident towards success of the current intervention of the African Union in the talks,” Saleh said.Sudan’s Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok speaks inside Friendship Hall in Khartoum, Sudan, Dec. 25, 2019.Hamdok and Madbouly outlined principals that could help during the African Union-sponsored talks, according to Saleh, such as “just usage of the Nile without causing any damage on any side, based on the related international law.”The $4 billion dam on the Blue Nile River has been a point of contention between the three countries since Ethiopia broke ground on the project in 2011.A number of mediators including officials from the Trump administration have tried and failed to come up with a solution.Acting Sudanese Foreign Minister Omar Ismail Gamardin told the Sudan News Agency a final draft agreement is in the works.“We are expecting consultants from the African Union to help the three countries in drafting the agreement,” he said.Egypt and Sudan, which insist that Ethiopia not fill the reservoir until a deal is reached, view the dam as a threat to their vital water supplies, while Ethiopia considers the dam crucial to its plans for economic development.The dispute came to a head in July, when Ethiopia announced it had finished the first stage of filling the dam’s 74 billion cubic-meter reservoir.Carol Van Dam Falk contributed to this report. 
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South Africa, with the continent’s highest burden of COVID-19, has reached the peak of the pandemic, the president and top health officials say. President Cyril Ramaphosa announced a loosening of restrictions but noted that he is not yet breathing a sigh of relief. VOA’s Anita Powell reports from Johannesburg on how the nation reached this milestone.Camera:  Zaheer Cassim, Henry Ridgwell  
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Geoff Woolf gave his sons a love for literature. When he got sick with COVID-19, they turned to books to help him — and others.
 
The 73-year-old retired lawyer was hospitalized in London in March, and within days he was on a ventilator in intensive care. Unable to visit, his family could only watch from afar with frustration and dismay.
 
Then sons Nicky, a 33-year-old journalist, and Sam, a 28-year-old actor, had an idea: Maybe literature could help him and other patients.
 
“He always said if he was in hospital for a long time, he would be able to deal if he had a book,” Sam said.
 
The brothers loaded an e-reader with Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” — “his comfort read,” according to Sam — and played it for their unconscious father.
 
Doctors said, “‘We can’t tell you he’ll definitely hear it. But we also can’t tell you he won’t,’” Sam said. “There is power in hearing a voice.
 
The brothers set out to acquire more devices for other patients. As they came to terms with the likelihood of losing their father, they saw the project, which they named Books for Dad, as a legacy.
 
Nicky and Sam recruited a team of volunteers to load e-readers, donated by audiobooks company Audible, with content, including classic novels, thrillers and podcasts. They delivered an initial batch of 20 — disinfected and individually bagged — to the hospital treating their father, along with single-use headphones donated by British Airways. Soon they were distributing dozens more to other hospitals around the U.K.
 
Books for Dad is a boon to hospitals looking for ways to keep patients stimulated. Often patients are too sick to read a physical book, and some don’t have their own electronic devices. Even if they do, patchy WiFi can hamper audio and video streaming.
 
Lisa Anderton, head of patient experience at University College London Hospital, said the “brilliant” initiative can help both coronavirus and other patients.
 
Hospitalization is stressful even in the best of times, and the ability to “pop your headphones on and just listen to something that takes you somewhere else, I think really changes how people feel and how people cope with what can be an alien as well as a very busy environment,” Anderton said.  
 
From the initial donation, Books for Dad has kept growing, and the brothers plan to distribute 5,000 e-readers to British hospitals over the next six months and add books for children and young adults to their content.
 
As the project expanded, Geoff Woolf had secondary infections, organ failure and a major stroke. Doctors began to discuss the possibility of switching off life support.  
 
Then, after almost four months of hospitalization including 67 days on a ventilator, he began to improve. In late July he was discharged from Whittington Hospital, workers applauding as he was wheeled out of the ward en route to a specialized neurological hospital where his recovery continues.  
 
His sons know he has a long road ahead.
 
“But considering the place where he was, which was ‘Goodbye,’ it is remarkable that he has come back to a state where he is aware, he understands what’s going on,” Sam said. “Communication is very difficult. But he has comprehension, and with comprehension there’s the capacity for a life worth living.”
 
What the brothers once thought would be a project honoring a life cut short has now become a legacy of their love for their father, they said.
 
“And how much his love of literature meant to us,” Nicky added, “and how meaningful it was to be able to pass that on to other people.”
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The death toll from Sunday’s attack and subsequent hours-long siege at a beachfront hotel in Somalia has risen to at least 15.  The al-Shabab militant group claimed responsibility for the attack.   Officials and witnesses told VOA Somali that just before 6 p.m. local time, a suicide car bomb exploded outside the Elite Hotel at Mogadishu’s popular Lido Beach. Moments later four armed gunmen stormed the hotel.    Security forces arrived at the scene immediately after the attack began and took over from hotel guards the responsibility for ousting the attackers.     Ismail Mukhtar, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Information, said all four of the attackers who stormed the hotel were shot dead.      Paramedics and civilians carry an injured person on a stretcher at Madina hospital after a blast at the Elite Hotel in Lido beach in Mogadishu, Somalia, Aug. 16, 2020.Troops rescued more than 200 people from the hotel, including the owner, Abdullahi Mohamed Nur, a lawmaker and former minister.  At least 18 people were injured.    The head of the Somali journalists’ union, Mohamed Ibrahim Moalimuu, was among the witnesses sitting outside the Elite Hotel when the explosion occurred.   He told VOA Somali that he arrived at the hotel 15 minutes before the explosion along with his friend Abdirazak Abdi Abdullahi, who works for the state-controlled radio station. Abdullahi was killed by the militants after the first gunshots were fired, Moalimuu said. Al-Shabab is an al-Qaida-affiliated group that has been carrying out attacks in Somalia, targeting civilian and government installations. The group has lost control of almost all of the major towns to the Somali government and African Union forces but still controls large parts in the countryside and is capable of carrying out deadly attacks.  
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