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South Korea, which had effectively contained one of the world’s first coronavirus outbreaks, is seeing a COVID-19 resurgence, with officials warning the country could be on the verge of another large-scale eruption.  Health authorities reported 197 cases Monday – the fourth consecutive day of triple digit new infections. That represents a major setback after having kept daily new cases mostly in the low-to-mid double digits for more than four months. The outbreak is especially concerning since most of the new cases are in the densely populated Seoul metropolitan area, home to more than half of the country’s population. Seoul was not hit hardest by South Korea’s first COVID-19 surge, which was centered around the southeastern city of Daegu in late February and early March.  Though the number of daily infections is still much lower than in the spring, authorities warn the current outbreak could be more dangerous. That is in part because the virus is spreading in multiple locations, whereas the country’s spring outbreak mainly stemmed from a single religious community.  “We are seeing cluster infections simultaneously and sporadically at various venues,” including churches, cafes, and restaurants, said Vice Health Minister Kim Ganglip during a Monday briefing. “These are the initial signs of a large-scale infection.”Visitors wearing face masks to help protect against the spread of the coronavirus pose to take pictures at the Gyeongbok Palace in Seoul, South Korea, Aug. 17, 2020.South Korea won widespread praise for its coronavirus containment, which utilized widespread and immediate testing, data-driven contact tracing, and quick isolation of those impacted. As a result, South Korea’s economy never fully closed and, in many ways, life has continued as normal.  Now, authorities are asking residents to stay at home as much as possible for two weeks. They have banned indoor gatherings of more than 50 people and outdoor gatherings of more than 100 people. Sporting events like baseball games, which had only recently begun allowing a small number of fans, will once again play in empty stadiums.  The virus is especially spreading at churches. The worst outbreak has been at the Sarang Jeil Church, a Presbyterian megachurch in Seoul, where 312 cases have been identified. Authorities are trying to test about 4,000 members of the church, but so far have only tested half that number and say they are having difficulty locating other congregants they suspect may be carrying the virus. The church’s firebrand pastor, Jun Kwang-hoon, is a prominent critic of South Korea’s left-leaning president, Moon Jae-in and has repeatedly spurned the government’s coronavirus prevention measures.  Though large gatherings are banned because of COVID-19 concerns, Pastor Jun appeared at a major anti-government rally in downtown Seoul over the weekend, where he complained the government had “poured the virus” on his church.  At his briefing Monday, Vice Health Minister Kim warned against “false rumors” that the government is intentionally making church members’ coronavirus test results positive. “The PCR testing cannot be manipulated,” Kim said. “If you don’t get tested, you will put at risk the health and safety of your loved ones and neighbors.” Authorities say some Sarang Jeil Church members attended the rallies Saturday, which attracted an estimated 10,000 people. In a Facebook message Sunday, President Moon vowed “very stern and strong” measures in response to the gatherings.  “It is a clear challenge to the national disease control and prevention system, and an unforgivable act that threatens the lives of the people,” Moon said.  
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Feminist activists took to the streets of Mexico City Sunday to protest gender violence and inequality. Miguel Barrera, founder of the human rights group Marabunta Brigade that organized the march said the demonstration was to highlight the killing of women in general and recent cases of violence against women. “This mobilization concentrates several specific complaints, which are the point of it. Meaning that it does have to do with femicide, but these are cases (of violence against women) that have been around for one or two weeks making a lot of noise (meaning getting a lot of attention) in Mexico City,” Barrera said.A demonstrator holds a flare during a protest against the violence against the women in Mexico City, Aug. 16, 2020.Protesters were holding banners reading: “Do not touch me”. “Why is violence not in quarantine?” “Femicide Mexico” and chanting slogans against sexual assaults against women.  A strong female police force that almost quadrupled that of protesters were present as the demonstrators marched through the streets of the city. Although the march was generally peaceful, a clash between some demonstrators and police erupted and at least one demonstrator was injured. According to official data, 3,825 women died because of violence in 2019, averaging more than 10 per day, an increase of 7% compared to 2018.   A significant majority of all crimes in Mexico are not unpunished. 
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Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is calling the lawmakers back into session from a summer recess to vote on funding for the U.S. Postal Service as the new postmaster general proposes cost-cutting measures.Democrats fear that the cuts in service are aimed at delaying the delivery of mail-in ballots in the November 3 presidential election.FILE – U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, left, is escorted to a meeting in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office on Capitol Hill in Washington, Aug. 5, 2020.Postmaster General DeJoy is a wealthy Republican donor and a Trump appointee. He has yet to say if he will testify. But Schumer says he should be removed if he “refuses to come before Congress.”White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows denies charges that Trump is trying to manipulate the voting process.“The president of the United States is not going to interfere with anybody casting their votes in a legitimate way whether it’s the post office or anything else,” Meadows told CNN Sunday.But he says the White House is afraid that an avalanche of mail-in ballots will postpone the results of the 2020 election.  “A number of states are now trying to figure out how they are going to go to universal mail-in ballots,” Meadows said. “That’s a disaster where we won’t know the election results on Nov. 3 and we might not know it for months, and for me that’s problematic because the Constitution says that then a Nancy Pelosi in the House would actually pick the president on Jan. 20.”The number of mailed-in ballots is expected to skyrocket this year because voters may be afraid to stand in line at polling stations to vote in person during a pandemic.  As US Expands Mail-in Voting, Delays in Results Could Sow Doubt Due to concerns about the spread of the coronavirus, a growing number of U.S. states are expanding options for voting by mail instead of in person for the November presidential election. Voting by mail has a long history in the U.S., dating back to the Civil War. However, President Donald Trump claims mail-in voting will lead to election fraud or months of uncertainty following the vote.  White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara reports.Nine of the 50 states are planning to conduct their voting in November almost exclusively by mail. Millions of voters in other states can get a mail-in ballot if they ask for one. Trump and first lady Melania Trump have already requested mail-in ballots in their adopted home state of Florida.Trump has said there is a difference between a mail-in ballot and an absentee ballot that is needed when a voter will be away from his precinct on Election Day.Many analysts say there is no evidence that voting by mail gives one party an advantage over the other and says making it harder to cast a ballot through the mail could backfire on the Republicans, who tend to be older voters who may prefer to vote by mail rather than in person in a pandemic.
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Japan was hit by its biggest economic contraction on record in the second quarter as the coronavirus pandemic crushed business and consumer spending, keeping policymakers under pressure for bolder action to prevent the recession from deepening.While the economy is emerging from the doldrums after lockdowns were lifted in late May, many analysts expect any rebound in July-September growth to be modest as a renewed rise in infections keep consumers’ purse-strings tight.Gross domestic product (GDP) shrank an annualized 27.8% in April-June, government data showed Monday, marking the biggest decline since comparable data became available in 1980.It was the third straight quarter of contraction and slightly bigger than the median market forecast for a 27.2% drop.”The big decline can be explained by the decrease in consumption and exports,” said Takeshi Minami, chief economist at Norinchukin Research Institute.”I expect growth to turn positive in the July-September quarter. But globally, the rebound is sluggish everywhere except for China.”Private consumption, which accounts for more than half of Japan’s economy, plunged 8.2% for the quarter, as lock-down measures to prevent the spread of the virus kept consumers at home.The drop, which exceeded analysts’ forecast of a 7.1% fall, was the biggest quarterly decline on record.Capital expenditure declined 1.5% in the second quarter, less than a median market forecast for a 4.2% fall.External demand, or exports minus imports, shaved a record 3.0 percentage point off GDP, as the pandemic dampened global demand, the data showed.Japan has deployed massive fiscal and monetary stimulus to cushion the blow from the pandemic, which hit an economy already reeling from last year’s sales tax hike and the U.S.-China trade war.While the economy has re-opened after the government lifted state of emergency measures in late May, a worrying resurgence in infections cloud the outlook for business and household spending. 
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Germany’s antitrust authority has launched an investigation into Amazon’s relationship with third-party traders selling on its site, its head was quoted as saying Sunday.”We are currently investigating whether and how Amazon influences how traders set prices on the market-place,” Andreas Mundt, president of the Federal Cartel Office, told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung daily.Germany is Amazon’s second-biggest market after the United States.During the first few months of the COVID-19 pandemic, when many stores were closed and shoppers flocked online, Mundt said there had been complaints that Amazon had blocked some traders because of allegedly overly high prices.”Amazon must not be a controller of prices,” he said, adding that Amazon had responded to his office’s requests for information and those statements were being evaluated.The cartel office was not immediately available to comment.An Amazon spokeswoman said the company’s policies were designed to make sure its partners set competitive prices.”Amazon selling partners set their own product prices in our store,” the spokeswoman said. “Our systems are designed to take action against price gouging,” she said, adding that those who had concerns should contact its support team for its merchants.Up until 2013, Amazon had prevented traders from offering their products via other online sites at a lower price than on its marketplace, a policy Germany’s antitrust watchdog forced it to abandon.Last year, Amazon reached a deal with the German authority to overhaul its terms of service for third-party merchants, prompting the office to drop a previous seven-month investigation. 
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A rare summer thunderstorm brought lightning that sparked several small blazes in Northern California on Sunday and stoked a huge forest fire that has forced hundreds of people from their homes north of Los Angeles.  More than 4,500 buildings remained threatened by the wildfire, which was burning toward thick, dry brush in the Angeles National Forest. Firefighters already battling the blaze in steep, rugged terrain in scorching heat faced more hurdles Saturday when hundreds of lightning strikes and winds up to 15 mph (24 kph) pushed the flames uphill.”We set up a containment line at the top of the hills so the fire doesn’t spill over to the other side and cause it to spread, but it was obviously difficult given the erratic wind and some other conditions,” said fire spokesman Jake Miller.The Lake Fire was just 12% contained as of Sunday morning and has burned nearly 28 square miles (72 square kilometers) of brush and trees. Fire officials said 33 buildings had been destroyed, including at least a dozen homes.  Temperatures were expected to hit the mid 90s to 100s, Miller said, a slight drop from Saturday when the mercury hit 111 degrees (44 Celsius) on Saturday at the firefighters’ base camp. Thunderstorm and gusty wind could return in the late afternoon.Thunderstorm and excessive heat were also a concern for firefighters battling a blaze that blackened almost 4 square miles (10 square kilometers) in the foothills above the Los Angeles suburb of Azusa. The fire, believed to be started Thursday by a homeless man, is only 3% contained.Many areas of the state saw triple-digit temperatures through the weekend and the combination of prolonged heat and smoke from wildfires sent ozone pollution to levels not seen in a decade in some areas. Air quality may reach unhealthy to very unhealthy levels in several regions of Southern California on Sunday and Monday afternoons, the South Coast Air Quality Management District said.  In Northern California, a thunderstorm moving rapidly from the Pacific Ocean onshore brought thunder and more than 4,000 lightning strikes, some of which ignited small fires and knocked out power across the San Francisco Bay Area.  Wind gusts reached 75 mph (121 kph), according to the National Weather Service.  “This is probably the most widespread and violent summer thunderstorm event in memory for Bay Area, & it’s also one of the hottest nights in years,” tweeted Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles.Unsettling weather triggered an unusual warning by the weather service of a fire-induced tornado at an out-of-control forest fire that broke out north of Lake Tahoe on Saturday afternoon.  A massive fire cloud known as a pyrocumulonimbus formed over the fire, which started east of the town of Loyalton. When high winds came into contact with the fire and whipped it into the air, a spectacular tornado-shaped spiral of flames was formed.  The fire has burned at least 31 square miles (80 square kilometers) and triggered evacuation orders for sparsely populated portions of Plumas, Lassen and Sierra County, said Tahoe National Forest spokesman Joe Flannery.  Firefighters aided by water-dropping helicopters and air tankers faced “extreme fire behavior,” he said, and worked through the night to extinguish spot fires and protect threatened structures.  At one point, the fast-moving fire jumped a highway and came dangerously close to a fire truck. A fire crew from Truckee tweeted a video of firefighters dragging hoses as they ran alongside a moving truck that was dodging the flames.
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Malawi President Lazarus Chakwera has announced government’s plans to reopen schools early September, despite a surge in COVID-19 cases.  In his weekly national address Saturday evening President Chakwera said only schools which meet the government’s safety standards on coronavirus prevention will be allowed to reopen. But health experts warn of further spread of the disease should the schools fail to put up necessary measures to contain the spread.Malawi’s government announced the indefinite closure of schools on March 20 before the country registered its first three cases of COVID-19, on April 2.   But as of Saturday, Malawi had confirmed 5,026 cases and 157 deaths.   In his weekly national address on Saturday, Chakwera said the decision to reopen the schools stems from strides Malawi is making in its fight against COVID-19.   He says “although the number of those who have been found with the virus has now passed 5,000, only 5% have gotten sick enough to need hospitalization. Even among the 389 health workers, who have contracted the virus, we have lost only one and the rest are in recovery.”   The daily update by the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 shows over half of the confirmed cases have so far recovered.   This leaves the country with 2,246 active cases out of nearly 40,000 people so far tested across the county.   Chakwera said such efforts are worth being commended.   He says “It is because of their organization that we are now able to set some benchmarks for the restoration of social order and the recovery of the economy. For instance, in the education cluster of the taskforce, guidelines have already been developed on what schools need to do to reopen safely.”   The move to reopen schools is an apparent response to a request from education activists who last week met Chakwera and told him the closure of schools was jeopardizing the future of students, especially girls.   They cited hundreds of girls across the country who have fallen pregnant and others getting married since the schools closed.   Titus Divala, an expert in epidemics at Malawi’s College of Medicine, warns that the good number of recoveries form COVID-19 should not be a ticket for complacency. “The unfortunate thing that will happen is that once we reopen the number of cases may increase again, the number of deaths may increase again. So what will happen is that now there will be a huge burden on an innocent sector that has single-handedly fought the epidemic from the beginning, health sector.” Earlier this week, Ministry of Health announced guidelines for school authorities to follow once schools are reopened. These include temperature checks, documentation of persistent cough or shortness of breath, and routine documentation of students from families affected by COVID-19. The Health Ministry also recommended washing of hands with soap and water or using hand sanitizer for students, wearing a face mask and observing physical distance. However Chakwera said the government will from this week start assessing the readiness of each school so that only schools that meet safety standards can reopen.  
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Suspected militants have carried out an attack on a beachfront hotel in the Somali capital Mogadishu.  Officials and witnesses told VOA Somali that a car bomb exploded outside Elite hotel at Mogadishu’s Lido Beach. Moments later armed gunmen stormed the hotel.  A firelight is reported inside the hotel between the militants and hotel guards. Details on the attack are still coming in. 
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Here in crowded camps in South Sudan, former enemies are meant to be joining forces after a five-year civil war so they can help the shattered country recover. But they can barely find enough food.The Associated Press spoke to women, both former rebel fighters and government troops, who are among tens of thousands of people being trained as a unified security force. It’s meant to be a major step in the 2018 peace deal ending the war that killed nearly 400,000 people.Visits to a handful of camps found squalid conditions, with food supplies expired or stolen by corruption. With few sanitary products available, the women use random pieces of cloth, even strips of bedsheets, for their periods. While some seek informal work in nearby communities to get by, the threat of sexual assault — even by male trainees — makes others wary of venturing too far.“I’m describing the situation as disgusting,” said Nyaluel Makuei. The 36-year-old mother of seven said she has dedicated her life to serving her country, but she finds little support now.“Even if you get a piece of soap you still stink and smell bad,” she said. “Some of our sisters left the center because of that situation.” At times, she said, meals are just porridge mixed with salt to satisfy hunger because the camp’s supply of beans turned rancid.The women who once fought on opposing sides now identify themselves as members of South Sudan’s unified force, an effort to leave their past behind. But they are reminded of their country’s persistent troubles — insecurity, graft, poverty — at every turn.Some in the international community warn that South Sudan’s implementation of the peace deal is in peril. A United Nations panel of experts this year said the training camps host far fewer people than the goal of 83,000, and government soldiers make up a “significantly smaller percentage” than former rebel fighters.Most government forces remain in barracks elsewhere. “Many key commanders instructed their forces to remain outside of the security reunification process, retain their weapons and stand ready to re-engage in active fighting,” the U.N report said.Instruction in the training camps is limited to “basic moral orientation, rather than any substantive military training,” it added.Meanwhile, vicious intercommunal fighting in parts of South Sudan has killed hundreds of people this year. A well-trained, properly provisioned security force is needed.“I am acutely aware that the peace implementation remains painfully slow and far below your expectations,” President Salva Kiir said last month.At the Toufigia police training center in Malakal, which hosts more than 3,000 people, women reported selling tea or making charcoal to find money to survive.Veronica Akiij, 41, said she decided to work as a tea lady to support her family. Awin Deng, 39, said she stayed up at night baking bread to sell. She hopes to be part of the first batch of police officers to graduate from training but has seven children to support.“We are tired of this situation,” said Nyakuma Oyen, 25.During a recent tour of the training sites, Defense Minister Angelina Teny acknowledged the challenges. “It is not your fault, because 1,000 South Sudanese pounds ($7) cannot buy you a sack of flour. The situation is forcing you to do that,” she said of the informal work.South Sudan’s civil war largely destroyed the health system and other basic services, leaving women especially exposed. Human rights groups and medical charities reported many women were raped after going out to find water or wood.That threat remains, even for the trainees.At the Panyier training center in Bor, which hosts more than 1,800 people, nurse Monica Achol Agwang said she has examined many cases of sexual assault.“Some get pregnant and experience a miscarriage during training in the field,” the 38-year-old said. Transferring women to town for proper treatment is difficult, with poorly constructed roads and frequent flooding.Dozens of people have HIV, an alarming rate, she said. And yet there isn’t enough medicine even for other sexually transmitted diseases.Now the COVID-19 pandemic has arrived. Abul Malual, a 29-year-old mother of five who arrived at the training center in January, said people are sleeping 10 to a tent meant to house six people.That’s on top of the indignity of asking for sanitary pads and receiving none. And food supplies have been erratic for months, Malual said.The head of the Panyier training center, Brig. Gen. John Aciek Ajith, accused the government’s Joint Transitional Security Committee of not delivering needed aid since June. He has requested help from other military divisions.But Maj. Gen. Chol Martin with the military’s Division 8 said his soldiers are no longer receiving their salaries and most have started to support themselves by fishing or selling charcoal.He said he tries to help by allowing them to sell food from the storeroom. Most of the food is expired, Martin said, and yet some soldiers eat it, making them ill.The co-chair of the Joint Transitional Security Committee, Gen. Wesley Welebe Samson, said the blame for the lack of support lay elsewhere, including with the Joint Defense Board, the country’s highest security command.“Our mission regularly has been seized by others who are looking for food and medical supplies,” he said. Contracts for supplies are signed by the government’s National Transitional Committee and “we are not involved.”There are now more than 47,000 trainees across South Sudan, Samson said.“These are human beings. They need to eat. The stores are supposed to be full of food,” he said. He confirmed that most trainees leave the centers to find food elsewhere.At the Kaljak police training center in Bentiu, which hosts some 3,000 people, women reported much of the same — little food, no medicines, no soap or sanitary pads. Some forage for green leaves to eat.“Our situation is horrible,” said Mary Stephanose, 37.Others are pregnant. A 30-year-old who gave only her first name, Mary, said she is in her sixth month but rarely has the chance for a checkup. “I cannot even attend the training or stand well because I feel dizzy,” she said.Some trainees stood for portraits, wearing flip-flops, their pregnancies swelling their cloth wraps. Few uniforms were in sight. 
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Telephone lines between the United Arab Emirates and Israel were open on Sunday in a development the Israeli communications minister hailed as important for normalizing ties between the countries. It was not clear when exactly a block on telephone calls made from the UAE to Israel was lifted, but historically calls had not been possible. Reuters made several calls from the UAE to Israel on Sunday. The UAE’s Telecoms Regulatory Authority did not immediately respond to a request to comment. More Israeli news websites that were previously blocked in the UAE were also able to be viewed on UAE internet connections on Sunday. Israel and the UAE on Thursday announced an agreement that will lead to a full normalization of diplomatic relations between the two states. “I congratulate the United Arab Emirates on the unblocking,” Israeli Communications Minister Yoaz Hendel said on Twitter. “Many economic opportunities will now open up, and these trust-building steps are important for advancing the countries’ interests.” The UAE’s two main telecoms operators Du and Etisalat did not immediately respond to requests for comment. 
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Today marks the 10th anniversary of the passing of Zofia Korbonska, a member of the anti-Nazi resistance movement who later immigrated to the United States as a political refugee from Soviet Communism and long served the Voice of America (VOA) Polish service.Born in Warsaw in 1912, Korbonska (née Ristau) was a member of the Polish Underground Army, which fought against the Nazis. Daily, she risked her life writing and coding secret shortwave radio transmissions sent from Poland to the Polish government-in-exile in London. A number of her dispatches that reached the free world were broadcast back into occupied Europe by the BBC. They broke news about Gestapo murders of the Polish intelligentsia, Nazi extermination of Polish Jews, and medical experiments on women prisoners at concentration camp.In addition to her clandestine radio work, Korbonska was also a partner in the work of her husband, Stefan Korbonski, the leader of Poland’s anti-Nazi civil resistance and the last head of the Polish Underground State. (He was later honored in 1980 by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations for taking great risks to save Jews.) Shortly after the end of World War Two, Korbonska and Korbonski were arrested in Poland by the NKVD Soviet secret police but were released after several lengthy interrogations. Fearing another arrest, they escaped to Sweden in 1947, hiding in a ship transporting coal.After they found refuge in the United States, Korbonska was hired by VOA in 1948 on the recommendation of former U.S. Ambassador to Poland Arthur Bliss Lane. She worked first in New York and later in Washington, D.C., using the pen name “Zofia Orłowska” to protect her family and friends in Poland. She continued to serve VOA for over three decades, writing and recording occasional programs in the 1980s even after her retirement.In 2006, Korbonska was awarded the title of honorary citizen of the capital city of Warsaw. She also received from the president of Poland one of the country’s most prestigious civilian awards. She died in Washington, D.C., on August 16, 2010. Zbigniew Brzezinski, national security adviser to President Jimmy Carter, delivered a eulogy at her funeral, in which he stated, “Zofia Korbonska — heroically brave in battle, prudent in political exile — was an example of what a dedicated and successful service in a great cause entails.”The U.S. Agency for Global Media and VOA will always honor Zofia Korbonska and all of their journalists, past and present, whose reporting has advanced freedom and democracy.  
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