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The U.S. National Hurricane Center says Hurricane Larry is expected to hit Newfoundland, on Canada’s northeast coast, late Friday as a Category 1 hurricane. In its latest report, forecasters with the hurricane center say Larry is 745 kilometers southwest of Cape Race, Newfoundland, and has maximum sustained winds of about 130 kph. It was moving quickly to the north-northeast about 46 kph and is expected to move faster as the day goes on and reach southeastern Newfoundland Friday night. Southeastern Newfoundland is expected to see hurricane conditions late Friday, with periods of heavy rain, high winds and heavy surf that could cause coastal flooding.  Meteorologists with The Washington Post report European weather models show the remnants of Larry will be swallowed by the jet stream over the next two to three days and bring heavy snow to eastern Greenland on Sunday and Monday. Meanwhile, hurricane center forecasters are watching a tropical disturbance over the western Caribbean Sea and portions of Central America and the Yucatan Peninsula.   They forecast that system will move north-northwest into the Bay of Campeche and merge with a pre-existing system by Sunday, and a named tropical depression or storm is likely to form before the system moves onshore along the western Gulf of Mexico coast Sunday or Monday. The Washington Post meteorologists, again looking at European weather models, say that storm could bring as much as 12 centimeters of rain to the Houston, Texas, area between Sunday and Wednesday of next week.  
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Friday that all-out war with neighboring Russia was a possibility, and that he wanted to have a substantive meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Asked at the Yalta European Strategy (YES) summit if there could really be all out-war with Russia, which seized the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine in 2014 and backs pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine’s east, Zelenskiy said: “I think there can be.” “It’s the worst thing that could happen, but unfortunately there is that possibility,” he added, speaking in Ukrainian. Kyiv says the conflict in eastern Ukraine has killed 14,000 people since 2014. Zelenskiy said relations with the United States had improved, but he bemoaned the fact that Ukraine had not received a clear answer to its request to join the NATO military alliance — a move that would be certain to infuriate Moscow. “We have not received … a direct position on Ukraine’s accession to NATO,” he said. “Ukraine has been ready for a long time.” He said a refusal to admit Ukraine would weaken NATO while playing into Russia’s hands. FILE – A Ukrainian soldier is seen at fighting positions on the line of separation from pro-Russian rebels near Donetsk, Ukraine, April 19, 2021.Tensions between Kyiv and Moscow increased earlier this year when fighting in eastern Ukraine intensified and Russia massed more troops near the border. Moscow accused Ukraine of losing interest in peace talks, while Zelenskiy pushed in vain for a meeting with Putin in the conflict zone. “Honestly, I don’t have time to think about him,” Zelenskiy said on Friday. “I’m more interested in whether we can really meet substantively, not declaratively as he does with some states,” he added. “It seems to me that today … they do not see the sense in resolving issues. End the war and resolve conflict issues quickly — they don’t want this.” 
 
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Russia has been treading carefully in its dealings with the Taliban, engaging with them but so far withholding formal recognition of Afghanistan’s new rulers.Russian President Vladimir Putin and his aides have been quick to cheer the U.S.-led NATO withdrawal from Afghanistan, presenting it as a strategic setback for Washington. But they fear Afghanistan falling apart and being plunged into a protracted civil war, which could allow the country to become a sanctuary once again for jihadists to hatch plots against Russia and its Central Asian allies, according to Western diplomats and analysts.Commenting last week, Putin said NATO’s 20-year intervention had accomplished nothing. “The result is zero, if not to say that it is negative,” he said. Like his Western counterparts, though, the Russian leader appears also to have been surprised by the speed of the collapse of the government of President Ashraf Ghani and the Taliban’s sweep of the country. When the Taliban seized Kandahar on August 13, Putin’s envoy to Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov, said he doubted the Taliban would take control of Kabul any time soon. They seized it within two days.FILE – Russian envoy to Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov, left, speaks with Taliban representatives prior to their talks in Moscow, May 28, 2019.With Afghanistan right on its doorstep, there are more downsides and risks for Russia from NATO’s departure arguably than there are for the Western powers, and the Kremlin is casting a wary glance south, according to Paul Stronski, who was director for Russia and Central Asia at the U.S. National Security Council from 2012 to 2014. “Russia has been eying the departure of U.S. troops from Afghanistan with schadenfreude. But the Kremlin does not relish the prospect of an unstable Afghanistan,” Stronski wrote in a commentary for the Carnegie Endowment, a think tank in Washington.“Even though Moscow has publicly cheered the removal of U.S. and NATO troops from the region, Russian officials are sober-minded enough to appreciate the downsides of their departure,” he says. “The key question now is whether Moscow is equipped to deal with a combustible situation along its southern flank that is unfolding far more quickly than anyone might have expected,” he added.Midweek, top Russian and Indian security officials met in Delhi to discuss the implications of the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan. In the subsequent readouts of their talks for the press, Nikolay Patrushev, the secretary of Russia’s Security Council and a key Putin adviser, and Indian counterpart Ajit Doval highlighted the security dangers, with their officials saying global militant groups operating from Afghanistan pose a threat to Central Asia and to India. They agreed to deepen counterterrorism cooperation.FILE – Taliban fighters atop Humvee vehicles parade along a road to celebrate the withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan, in Kandahar, Sept. 1, 2021, following the Taliban’s military takeover of the country.“U.S. withdrawal and Taliban triumph generate an acute security challenge for Russia,” according to Pavel Baev of the Brookings Institution. A former researcher in the Soviet Union’s Ministry of Defense, he says the problem for the Kremlin is the NATO withdrawal “yields no rewards” and presents Moscow with a security “black hole” on its southern flank. Like their Western counterparts, Russian security chiefs are trying to judge whether the Taliban will abide by the promises its leaders made in political talks in Doha, Qatar, to stop Afghanistan once again from turning into a sanctuary for al-Qaida and other global jihadist groups.The Kremlin also is alarmed by the prospects of an increase in opiate drug trafficking, which alone may earn the Taliban $416 million a year, according to a U.N. assessment.Taliban leaders have said they won’t permit any opium poppy cultivation. But with a financial crunch looming for the country — and for the militant group — there are widespread doubts that they will — or can — keep to that promise. Afghanistan is estimated to be responsible for about 80 percent of global opium and heroin supplies.In July, following a string of bilateral talks with the Taliban, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the Taliban leadership was “rational.” He added: “They are sane people. They clearly stated that they have no plans to create problems for Afghanistan’s Central Asian neighbors.”FILE – Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, second left, speaks as he attends a conference on Afghanistan with representatives of the Taliban, in Moscow, Russia, Nov. 9, 2018.Baev believes that statement was “an exercise in wishful thinking.” “The best Russian diplomats can hope for is to dissuade the shrewd leadership of the Taliban from launching cross-border attacks northwards,” he says. The Taliban remains proscribed in Russia as a terrorist organization. Its ties with Central Asian jihadists, including Chechen separatists who the Taliban allowed to train in Afghanistan, prompted President Putin in September 2001 to acquiesce regarding the U.S. building military bases in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan to facilitate the U.S.-led NATO invasion of Afghanistan. Putin also allowed the U.S.-led coalition to use Russian airspace for the invasion.The Kremlin appears to be readying for the worst, and it has been for some time. In 2012, it signed an agreement with Tajikistan to extend its lease on a military base in Dushanbe until 2042, and in 2016 it started modernizing the base and rearming it, including with armed Orlan-10 drones.Last month, the Russian, Tajik and Uzbek militaries held joint exercises on the Afghan border. Recently, Russia’s defense minister Sergei Shoigu pledged to strengthen military cooperation with the former Soviet republics of Central Asia.
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In an interview Thursday, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama said there are questions about how the U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan was handled, “but we need to first save the lives [of Afghans].”Rama, whose country is temporarily hosting 4,000 Afghan refugees, said that as a NATO member country, Albania has to take its “share of responsibility” to protect those who worked with the organization in Afghanistan.Rama told Mirwais Rahmani of VOA’s Afghan Service that Afghan refugees can stay in Albania for as long as they wish.This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.VOA: Mr. Prime Minister, thank you so much for your time. Albania was one of the first countries that offered to host Afghan refugees. Tell us why.Prime Minister Edi Rama: Because of who we are. We have a very proud history of having built our life in this country for generations based in our first common law, which says that the house of the Albanians belongs to God and the guest. The accurate translation would be the traveler. And then there is a whole explanation of the duty behind the knock at the door of whomever is behind the door and in whatever situation he, she or they are, you have to open the door and you have to offer shelter to the traveler that is lost or needs refuge or needs to be fed or whatever. So, that is first. Second is our history. Our grandparents did something fascinating and thanks to them, Albania became the first and the last European country that had more Jews after the war than before and independent from their religion.And many Jews were saved by being hidden from Muslim armies. Because we have Muslims and Christians here but independent from their religion, Albania was protecting Jews. And then we were like the Afghans 30 years ago. So, it was at that time us demanding help and knocking on others’ doors for shelter.Now it’s the time to give what we got. And finally, I would say that we owe it to our children. Our children need to inherit this attitude, and every generation should cultivate it when the chance is being presented because, God forbid, we become a cynical rich country.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 | 3 MB1080p | 9 MBOriginal | 16 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioEdi Rama: Thirty years ago, “it was at that time us demanding help and knocking on others’ doors for shelter. Now it’s the time to give what we got.”VOA: I’m sure you saw the chaos and tragedy in Kabul airport during the last two weeks of August. Many believe it was a result of hasty withdrawal of U.S. and NATO forces from Afghanistan. What’s your take on this?Rama: As I said and I want to repeat, for sure what happened in the last weeks and what the world saw live from Kabul, from the airport, from the scenes of desperate people losing gravity and falling from the sky will absolutely raise many questions – many questions about our civilization, about our democratic world, about NATO, about the future of NATO and how we should see and shape it. But it’s not the time to enter in this (conversation) until the last person that is in need is saved from whatever the danger might be for him or her in Afghanistan. We should take care of human lives, and then of course, the discussion will follow. But on the other hand, I have to say that, you know, it’s quite hypocritical to put the blame on the United States and on the administration and just wash their hands like Pontius Pilate. After all we have been in this together. Yes, there are questions, of course, and the withdrawal had its problems, and it’s obvious but we need to first save the lives. And the blame on the withdrawal, the whatever mismanagement of the withdrawal, the dramatic episodes of the withdrawal, should not be alibis or should not be instruments to forget the real thing – the lives of people.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 3 MB480p | 4 MB540p | 4 MB1080p | 13 MBOriginal | 22 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioEdi Rama: “The withdrawal had its problems and it’s obvious, but we need to first save the lives.”VOA: I talked to some Afghan evacuees in Albania. Their main concern is the uncertainty surrounding the process of their application. An Afghan evacuee, while thanking your government for the warm hospitality, had a question for you: in case their application or resettlement process takes months or years, will the Albanian government provide them with health services and education opportunities for their children?Rama: Thank you for the question. It’s a very good question. First of all, they should forget months. It will not be months. It will be more than months because the mass of applications and the massive bureaucratic work that has to be done back in the [United] States for so many people that have been parked, as they said, in different places in Europe or elsewhere, is huge. So, it will be more than months. Secondly, we have already decided that we will offer them free health care.The concern of the kids and the young students is a common concern. So, we are working to come up with a plan, we are working to be able to create a network of teachers because we can put them right away in our schools. But it’s in Albanian, and we need to somehow give them some continuity to have their language and English, so we are working on that. And we will not let them, you know, drag in the places they are for more than months without sending those kids to school, without being able to see a future. At the same time, I would invite all of them to think about integrating while waiting – they are great people.VOA: The U.S. might not take in those Afghans who fail security background checks, or their cases are rejected. How will Albania deal with such a scenario? Are you ready to take in those Afghans who will have no other place to go, or is there any alternative solution?Rama: They are at home here. They should feel at home here, and if they want to stay, they are welcome. We will never tell them to leave the country because they don’t fulfill criteria. We’ll never tell them they have to apply for a visa clearance in Albania. We suffered a lot from visa regimes, and we are not going to be now a visa regime country for them, so they are more than welcome to stay.VOA: What’s Albania’s reaction to the Taliban’s government in Afghanistan? Will Albania, as a country that hosts hundreds, if not thousands, of Afghans, recognize a government led by the Taliban?Rama: Albania had its Taliban. They were not Islamic Taliban. They were Marxist and Leninist Taliban. And we saw religion being bombed. We saw God being declared illegal. We saw our own culture of the 20th century being bombed. We saw the jailing of artists, of writers, of play writers. We saw a total lack of freedom of expression. We saw full nationalization, and private property being dumped and being bombed and so many other things that, you know, you have seen in that country. Every comparison has its weakness. So, I’m not going further. But no, we will not be part of any club that will recognize this regime.Let me add this. While I said this, I say also the other thing, that it’s important to build communication, it’s important to talk with that regime. Because for the sake of all that need to be helped, demands it. So, one of the strengths of our Taliban regime was that not only didn’t they want to talk to others, but the others didn’t want to talk to them. So, this is something to be remembered.
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With no masks in sight, buzzing offices and concerts drawing tens of thousands, Denmark on Friday ditches vaccine passports in nightclubs, ending its last COVID-19 curb.The vaccine passports were introduced in March 2021 when Copenhagen slowly started easing restrictions.They were abolished at all venues on Sept. 1, except in nightclubs, where they will be no longer necessary from Friday.”We are definitely at the forefront in Denmark as we have no restrictions, and we are now on the other side of the pandemic thanks to the vaccination rollout,” Ulrik Orum-Petersen, a promoter at event organizer Live Nation, told AFP.On Saturday, a sold-out concert in Copenhagen will welcome 50,000 people, a first in Europe.Already on Sept. 4, Live Nation organized a first open-air festival, aptly named “Back to Live,” which gathered 15,000 people in Copenhagen.”Being in the crowd, singing like before, it almost made me forget COVID and everything we’ve been through these past months,” said Emilie Bendix, 26, a concertgoer.Denmark’s vaccination campaign has gone swiftly, with 73% of the 5.8 million population fully vaccinated, and 96% of those 65 and older.’Aiming for free movement'”We’re aiming for free movement… What will happen now is that the virus will circulate, and it will find the ones who are not vaccinated,” epidemiologist Lone Simonsen told AFP.”Now the virus is no longer a societal threat, thanks to the vaccine,” said Simonsen, who works at the University of Roskilde.According to the World Health Organization, the Scandinavian country has benefitted from public compliance with government guidelines and the COVID-19 strategy adopted.”Like many countries, Denmark has, throughout the pandemic, implemented public health and social measures to reduce transmission. But at the same time it has greatly relied on individuals and communities to comply voluntarily,” said Catherine Smallwood, WHO Europe’s emergency officer.With around 500 daily COVID-19 cases and a reproduction rate of 0.7, Danish authorities say they have the virus under control.Health Minister Magnus Heunicke has however vowed that the government would not hesitate to swiftly reimpose restrictions if necessary.Authorities insist that the return to normal life must be coupled with strict hygiene measures and the isolation of sick people.The WHO still considers the global situation critical and has urged caution.”Every country needs to remain vigilant as and when the epidemiological situation changes,” Smallwood said.Denmark has said it will keep a close eye on the number of hospitalizations — just under 130 at the moment — and conduct meticulous sequencing to follow the virus.A third dose has also been available to risk groups since Thursday.Simonsen said the vaccines have so far provided immunity from variants “but if escape variants (resistant to the vaccine) were to appear, we will have to rethink our strategy.”Christian Nedergaard, who owns several restaurants and wine bars in Copenhagen, said that while everyone is happy about the return to normal life, “the situation is still complicated.””The memory of coronavirus will fade very quickly from some people’s minds but not for everyone, and for restaurants this period has for sure been a game-changer,” he said.”The industry needs to think about how to become more resilient.”Travelers entering Denmark must still present either a vaccine passport or a negative PCR test, and masks are mandatory in airports. 
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Tropical Storm Olaf strengthened into a hurricane in the Pacific on Thursday as it churned toward the beach resorts of Los Cabos on Mexico’s Baja California peninsula, meteorologists said. Olaf was packing maximum winds of 145 kilometers per hour (90 mph), making it a Category 1 hurricane, the lowest on the five-level Saffir-Simpson scale, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. At 7 p.m. local time (0000 GMT Friday) the storm was about 72 km (45 miles) southeast of the seaside resort of Cabo San Lucas and moving northwest at 16 kph (10 mph), it reported. Mexico’s National Meteorological Service warned that Olaf was likely to make landfall as a Category 2 storm. A hurricane warning was in effect for a stretch of Baja California coastline from Los Barriles to Cabo San Lazaro. The storm was expected to move near or over the southern part of the peninsula on Thursday night and into Friday, forecasters said. “Preparations to protect life and property should be rushed to completion,” the hurricane center said. A dangerous storm surge was expected to be accompanied by large, damaging waves near the coast, it added, warning that heavy rainfall may trigger “significant and life-threatening flash flooding and mudslides.” Authorities set up storm shelters, and schoolchildren in the state of Baja California Sur were told to stay home on Friday. Ports were closed for smaller boats, and 24 flights were canceled at the Los Cabos and La Paz airports. The hurricane comes at a time when Mexico is still recovering from a 7.1 magnitude earthquake and major flooding in parts of the country. 
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Britain has approved plans to turn away boats illegally carrying migrants to its shores, deepening a rift with France over how to deal with a surge of people risking their lives by trying to cross the Channel in small dinghies. 
 
Hundreds of small boats have attempted the journey from France to England this year, across one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes. The summer surge happens every year, but it now is larger than normal as alternative routes have been shut down. 
 
Border officials will be trained to force boats away from British waters but will deploy the new tactic only when they deem it safe, a British government official who asked not to be named said on Thursday. 
 
Michael Ellis, Britain’s acting attorney-general, will draw up a legal basis for border officials to deploy the new strategy, the official said. 
 
Home Secretary Priti Patel told French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin that stopping people making their way from France on small boats was her “number one priority.” 
 
Patel had already irritated the French government earlier this week when she indicated Britain could withhold about $75 million (54 million pounds) in funding it had pledged to help stem the flow of migrants. 
 
Darmanin said Britain must honor both maritime law and commitments made to France, which include financial payments to help fund French maritime border patrols. 
 
“France will not accept any practice that goes against maritime law, nor financial blackmail,” the French minister tweeted. 
 
In a letter leaked to British media, Darmanin said forcing boats back toward the French coast would be dangerous and that “safeguarding human lives at sea takes priority over considerations of nationality, status and migratory policy.” 
 
Britain’s Home Office, or interior ministry, said: “We do not routinely comment on maritime operational activity.” 
 
Politically charged 
 
Charities said the plans could be illegal and some British politicians described the idea as unworkable. 
 
Channel Rescue, a citizen patrol group that looks for migrants arriving along the English coast, said international maritime law stipulated that ships have a clear duty to assist those in distress. 
 
Clare Mosely, founder of the Care4Calais charity, which helps migrants, said the plan would put the lives of migrants at risk. “They’re not going to want to be sent back. They absolutely could try and jump overboard,” she said. 
 
Tim Loughton, a member of parliament for the ruling Conservatives, said the tactics would never be used because people would “inevitably” drown. 
 
“Any boat coming up alongside at speed would capsize most of these boats anyway and then we’re looking at people getting into trouble in the water and drowning,” he said. 
 
A spokesman for Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the government was exploring a range of safe and legal options to stop the boats. 
 
The number of migrants crossing the Channel in small dinghies has risen this year after the British and French governments clamped down on other forms of illegal entry such as hiding in the back of trucks crossing from ports in France. 
 
The numbers trying to reach Britain in small boats – about 13,000 so far in 2021 – are tiny compared with migrant flows into countries such as Lebanon and Turkey, which host millions of refugees. 
 
But the issue has become a rallying cry for politicians from Johnson’s Conservative Party. Immigration was a central issue in the referendum decision in 2016 to leave the European Union. 
 
France and Britain agreed in July to deploy more police and invest in detection technology to stop Channel crossings. French police have confiscated more dinghies, but they say they cannot completely prevent departures. 
 
British junior Health Minister Helen Whately said the government’s focus was still on discouraging migrants from attempting the journey, rather than turning them back. 
 
Britain’s opposition Labour Party criticised the new approach as putting lives at risk and it said the priority should be to tackle people-smuggling gangs. 
 
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Leaders of the BRICS nations discussed Afghanistan at a virtual summit Thursday, with participants underscoring the importance of preventing terrorists from using Afghan soil to stage attacks on other countries.  Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi hosted the five-nation group that comprises Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The talks come weeks after the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan led to a geopolitical shift in Asia. Russian President Vladimir Putin, China’s President Xi Jinping, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro joined Modi for the online summit. Speaking at the opening of the summit, Putin said the withdrawal of the United States and its allies from Afghanistan “has led to a new crisis” and the “entire international community will have to clear up the mess as a result.” He said the situation stemmed from “irresponsible attempts to impose alien values from outside and this intention to build so-called democracy” without taking into account historical features and traditions resulting in “destabilization and chaos.” In wrapping up the summit, the BRICS nations called for “refraining from violence and settling the situation by peaceful means to ensure stability in the country.”  Afghanistan is of major concern to three of the five countries in the group – Russia, India and China. Putin said the country should not become a threat to its neighbors or a source of terrorism and drug trafficking.  In late August, the U.S. completed a withdrawal of its troops from Afghanistan to end a 20-year war.  Observers say China and Russia will use the opportunity to step into the void left by the U.S., although Moscow is wary of the Islamist ideology of the Taliban and the threat posed by foreign militant groups to Central Asia.India’s concern   New Delhi, meanwhile, finds itself isolated with the takeover by the Taliban, which has long been an anti-India group. New Delhi has emphasized that its main concern is about Afghan territory being used by terror groups that target India such as the Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad.   The group adopted what it called a Counter Terrorism Action Plan and said in its declaration, “We stress the need to contribute to fostering an inclusive intra-Afghan dialogue so as to ensure stability, civil peace, law and order in the country.” The statement also emphasized the need to address the humanitarian situation and to uphold human rights, including those of children, women and minorities.  The summit, held for a second year in the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic, expressed “regret” at the glaring inequity in access to vaccines, especially for the most vulnerable populations, and highlighted the need for access to affordable shots for the world’s poorest. The declaration also said cooperation on the study of the origins of the coronavirus is an important aspect of the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. The coronavirus causes COVID-19. The BRICS group was formed to enhance cooperation among the world’s major emerging economies, which account for 40% of the global population and 25% of global gross domestic product. Their first summit was held in 2009.  
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Teams working on two continents have marked similar milestones in their respective efforts to tap an energy source key to the fight against climate change: They’ve each produced very impressive magnets.  On Thursday, scientists at the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) in southern France took delivery of the first part of a massive magnet so strong its American manufacturer claims it can lift an aircraft carrier.Almost 20 meters (about 60 feet) tall and more than 4 meters (14 feet) in diameter when fully assembled, the magnet is a crucial component in the attempt by 35 nations to master nuclear fusion.Massachusetts Institute of Technology scientists and a private company announced separately this week that they, too, have hit a milestone with the successful test of the world’s strongest high-temperature superconducting magnet that may allow the team to leapfrog ITER in the race to build a “sun on earth.”Unlike existing fission reactors that produce radioactive waste and sometimes catastrophic meltdowns, proponents of fusion say it offers a clean and virtually limitless supply of energy. If, that is, scientists and engineers can figure out how to harness it — they have been working on the problem for nearly a century.Rather than splitting atoms, fusion mimics a process that occurs naturally in stars to meld two hydrogen atoms together and produce a helium atom — as well as a whole lot of energy.Achieving fusion requires unimaginable amounts of heat and pressure. One approach to achieving that is to turn the hydrogen into an electrically charged gas, or plasma, which is then controlled in a donut-shaped vacuum chamber.This is done with the help of powerful superconducting magnets such as the “central solenoid” that General Atomics began shipping from San Diego to France this summer.Scientists say ITER is now 75% complete and they aim to fire up the reactor by early 2026.”Each completion of a major first-of-a-kind component — such as the central solenoid’s first module — increases our confidence that we can complete the complex engineering of the full machine,” said ITER’s spokesman Laban Coblentz.The goal is to produce 10 times more energy by 2035 than is required to heat up the plasma, thereby proving that fusion technology is viable.Among those hoping to beat them to the prize is the team in Massachusetts, which said it has managed to create magnetic field twice that of ITER’s with a magnet about 40 times smaller.The scientists from MIT and Commonwealth Fusion Systems said they may have a device ready for everyday use in the early 2030s.”This was designed to be commercial,” said MIT Vice President Maria Zuber, a prominent physicist. “This was not designed to be a science experiment.”While not designed to produce electricity itself, ITER would also serve as the blueprint for similar but more sophisticated reactors if it is successful.  Proponents of the project argue that even if it fails, the countries involved will have mastered technical skills that can be used in other fields, from particle physics to designing advanced materials capable of withstanding the heat of the sun.All nations contributing to the project — including the United States, Russia, China, Japan, India, South Korea and much of Europe — share in the $20 billion cost and benefit jointly from the scientific results and intellectual property generated.The central solenoid is just one of 12 large U.S. contributions to ITER, each of which is built by American companies, with funds allocated by Congress going toward U.S. jobs.”Having the first module safely delivered to the ITER facility is such a triumph because every part of the manufacturing process had to be designed from the ground up,” said John Smith, director of engineering and projects at General Atomics.The company spent years developing new technologies and methods to make and move the magnet parts, including coils weighing 250,000 pounds, across their facility and then around the globe.”The engineering know-how that was established during this period is going to be invaluable for future projects of this scale,” Smith said.”The goal of ITER is to prove that fusion can be a viable and economically practical source of energy, but we are already looking ahead at what comes next,” he added. “That’s going to be key to making fusion work commercially, and we now have a good idea of what needs to happen to get there.”Betting on nuclear energy — first fission and then fusion — is still the world’s best chance to drastically cut greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050, said Frederick Bordry, who oversaw the design and construction of another fiendishly complex scientific machine, the Large Hadron Collider at CERN.”When we speak about the cost of ITER, it’s peanuts in comparison with the impact of climate change,” he said. “We will have to have the money for it.”
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Organized crime, a struggling economy, and repression continue to drive many Central Americans from their homelands with increasing numbers opting to head for Spain, rather than the United States.  More than 120,000 Hondurans make up the largest group of Central Americans in Spain. Alfonso Beato in the northeastern Spanish city of Girona filed this report, narrated by Jonathan Spier.Camera:  Alfonso Beato Produced by:  Rod James 
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The next nine months will determine the fate of 20 people on trial for the 2015 terror attacks in Paris. Of the ten-man team believed to have carried out the coordinated assault, just one is still alive. Salah Abdeslam was among the 14 suspects in court on Wednesday, the first day of the trial that could see him imprisoned for life. Six are still wanted.There was tight security as the accused arrived at the Paris courthouse for the start of the nine-month trial.Twenty people are charged in connection with the series of attacks on November 13th, 2015, that left 130 people dead and more than 350 injured.Six are still on the run, or possibly dead, and will be tried in absentia.Fourteen of them are in court – including the man believed to be the sole survivor of the 10-man cell that carried out the attacks.Salah Abdeslam fled to Belgium, abandoning his suicide vest. He was finally arrested there four months later.In court at the start of proceedings Wednesday, when asked to state his name, Abdeslam replied that there was only one god, Allah, and that he had forsaken all to become a fighter for the Islamic State group.ISIS claimed responsibility for planning and carrying out the attacks on the Bataclan concert hall, the Stade de France football stadium, and several cafes and restaurants in eastern Paris.Lawyer Victor Edou, representing eight survivors from the Bataclan, says it was very hard for his clients to hear Abdeslam’s words.“It was very violent, very difficult for them to take,” he said, adding that they know the next nine months will not be easy.But the survivors and families of the victims hope the lengthy proceedings will provide them with some answers.FILE – Medics stand by victims in a Paris restaurant, Nov. 13, 2015.It has taken six years for this case to come to trial.In part because, as ISIS carried out more attacks – in Nice, Brussels, Barcelona and elsewhere – it became clear to investigators that there were links between the different cells. Several of those on trial in Paris also face trial in relation to the deadly bombings in Brussels in March 2016.The sheer scale of this case also meant it took more time to prepare.Some 18,00 people are civil participants in the case – they include the survivors and families of the victims.More than 330 lawyers are involved, and there 542 tomes of legal documents.The high-security courtroom was specially constructed for this trial; and there are severe restrictions on who has access.The proceedings are being filmed for posterity and are transmitted live to several rooms in the courthouse for the overflow of journalists and participants.The accused face a range of charges including murder, attempted murder, providing guns and money, and terrorist conspiracy.They face up to life in prison. 
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Russia’s parliamentary elections in less than two weeks’ time are shaping up to be the least free since Vladimir Putin came to power 21 years ago, warn opposition leaders and independent election observers. Polling data suggests that just 26% of Russians are ready to vote for the ruling United Russia Party in parliamentary elections on September 19 — its lowest rating since 2008. Nonetheless few Putin opponents doubt United Russia will win the elections handsomely, thanks to ballot-rigging, the silencing of Putin critics, the barring of independent candidates, voter intimidation and cash handouts to voters. “The thinly veiled bribery of voters, all sorts of manipulations, mobilizing administrative [resources] and persecution of the critics of the regime — these are the election tactics of Putin and his party in 2021,” according to Fyodor Krashennikov, an opposition political commentator. Krashennikov recently left Russia for Europe, joining an exodus of opposition figures who say they’re being chased out by a crackdown on dissent, which has seen dozens of independent media outlets and civic groups forced to shut after being designated “foreign agents” or extremist organizations in a ramping up of repression up ahead of the elections.  FILE – Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny gestures during a hearing on his charges for defamation in the Babuskinsky District Court in Moscow, Russia, in this photo taken from a footage provided by the Babuskinsky District Court, Feb. 16, 2021.Alexei Navalny, the most well-known Putin critic, has been in jail since January on old fraud charges, which he and some Western governments see as politically motivated. His nationwide political organization, accused by the Kremlin of being extremist, has been dismantled. Other Putin critics have been blocked from standing as candidates for the Russian Duma, including former lawmaker Dmitry Gudkov, who fled Russia in June fearing he would face criminal charges if he didn’t.  ‘A hardcore autocracy’ 
  
“Since I left Russia in 2014, it is absolutely shocking how many businesspeople, academics, journalists, politicians, lawyers, NGOs leaders I used to know there who are now dead, in prison, or in exile. Simply shocking,” Michael McFaul, a former US ambassador to Russia, tweeted Tuesday. “You never know who they are coming for next,” says Maria Snegovaya, a visiting scholar at America’s George Washington University. She argued in a recent podcast discussion hosted by the Atlantic Council, a New York-based think tank, that 2021 will mark the year when Russia shifted into becoming “a hardcore autocracy.” She believes the mounting crackdown on dissent — which has escalated since the near-fatal poisoning last year of Alexei Navalny and protests against his jailing — is a Kremlin reaction to rising unhappiness with Putin’s government.  FILE – Riot police detain a man during a rally in support of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny in Moscow, Russia, Jan. 31, 2021. 
“Discontent runs across the political spectrum and there are way fewer supporters of the regime,” she says. Although she cautions that the anti-Putin opposition is fragmented in terms of political affiliation and shouldn’t be seen automatically as translating into support for liberal democratic ideas.Russians will vote in elections held between September 17-19 for the State Duma — the lower house of the Russian Parliament — as well as for several regional heads and municipal governments. A view of a poster announcing the upcoming Russian parliamentary and local elections in front of the building of the State Duma, the lower chamber of Russia’s parliament, in Moscow on Sept. 8, 2021.State-owned or state-controlled Russian media outlets have been dismissing claims about a rigged poll, saying it is a Western-inspired campaign to discredit Russia’s elections and that fake news will soar as voting day approaches. A group of Kremlin-friendly experts, the Independent Public Monitoring, predicted in a report Wednesday that over the next few days there will be a rise in fake news stories about public-sector workers being compelled or bribed into voting for United Russia. “There will be extensive speculation about allegedly unequal rules of electioneering, as well as the persecution of opposition candidates,” the authors of the report told TASS, the Russian state-owned news agency. “In their opinion, provocations and information attacks will enjoy concerted support from Western journalists, politicians and government officials. When the election campaign is over, the West will refuse to recognize the legitimacy of the new State Duma and make vigorous attempts to trigger protests inside Russia,” TASS reported.But an opinion poll published Wednesday by the state funded VTsIOM pollster suggested 14% of all employees working at industrial plants in Russia have been pressured by their bosses to register to vote and more than half of respondents to the survey said their managers had raised the elections with them.  
 
European Union officials say that the sudden wave of Russia state-owned media reports about a Western conspiracy is a preemptive exercise to try to tarnish any criticism of the Kremlin. “By inventing sinister ‘Western’ plots and provocations, the pro-Kremlin media and pundits willfully ignore and obscure the dark reality on the ground: reprisals against critics and elimination of political opposition with methods that range from cold-blooded to bizarre, censorship and restriction of media freedoms,” according to the EU’s External Action Service.  FILE – A participant takes a selfie in front of a banner during a congress of the political party Yabloko in Moscow, Russia, April 3, 2021. A banner reads: ‘Yabloko is changing.’Bizarre tactics have included running spoiler candidates against the few remaining independent candidates in a bid to sow confusion. In St. Petersburg, Boris Vishnevsky, a member of the liberal opposition Yabloko party and a longtime Kremlin critic, complained Sunday that two of his opponents for a seat in the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly have adopted his name and altered their appearance to look like him in order to reduce his votes.“At each election for many years now we say that these were the dirtiest and most dishonest elections ever, and then at the next ones we repeat the same phrase,” Vishnevsky said. Election observers The absence of election monitors is also alarming opposition politicians. Last month, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, OSCE, announced it will not send observers to Russia’s elections for the first time in nearly three decades because of “major limitations” imposed by Russian authorities on the mission. “We very much regret that our observation of the forthcoming elections in Russia will not be possible,” said Matteo Mecacci of the OSCE in an August statement. “But the ability to independently determine the number of observers necessary for us to observe effectively and credibly is essential to all international observation. The insistence of the Russian authorities on limiting the number of observers we could send without any clear pandemic-related restrictions has unfortunately made today’s step unavoidable,” he added.Russia’s main nationwide vote monitoring group, Golos, was also labeled a month ahead of the parliamentary elections as a ‘foreign agent’ by the Kremlin and although it has vowed to continue its work there are fears it could be prohibited from conducting election monitoring.Vote monitors fear that there will be even more opportunities to rig election results without their presence. They also note that the authorities in six major regions and in Moscow have been encouraging Russians to vote online. Electronic voting in Russia has increased in recent years but in 2020 in a plebiscite on constitutional amendment, serious anomalies emerged in the online voting in Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod Oblast with more people voting than were registered, in one precinct by 217%.Residents of Donetsk and Luhansk, the Moscow-backed breakaway oblasts in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, are also being allowed — and urged — by Russian authorities to vote in these elections.People hold Russia’s national flag and flags of it’s ruling United Russia party, during a rally at war memorial complex Savur-Mohyla, marking the 78th anniversary of the liberation of the Donbas region from the Nazi occupation,  outside the rebel-held city of Donetsk, Ukraine, Sept. 8, 2021. More than 600,000 residents of the oblasts hold Russian passports, and they are seen by the Kremlin as “additional reserves of loyal voters,” according to Russian commentator Konstantin Skorkin.It is the first time they will be allowed to vote in Duma elections. Last year, Russian passport-holders in Donetsk and Luhansk were permitted to vote in the plebiscite amending the Russian constitution to allow Putin to run again for two more presidential terms. They were bused over the border and voted in the Russian region of Rostov, but only 14,000 did so. This time they will be able to vote online. 
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Haiti’s government published a draft new constitution Wednesday and again promoted the idea that such reform is needed as the country remains mired in crisis since the assassination of President Jovenel Moise.”A new constitution would not be a panacea to resolve all of our problems,” Prime Minister Ariel Henry said. “But if we manage to agree on this way of organizing governance in a more balanced and efficient way, it will be a point of departure for other agreements on the future of our country.”Haitian politicians and everyday people are deeply divided over how their poor and disaster-prone nation should be run right now, as it tries to recover from the killing of Moise in his residence on July 7.The government formed after the assassination, led by Henry, wants general elections to be held as soon as possible, while the opposition says there should be a transitional government for two years.Besides legislative elections — which actually should have been held in 2018 but were delayed — and presidential elections, the government wants to push through a constitutional reform that Moise had already begun.The new charter would strengthen the powers of the president, at the expense of parliament.It would do away with the position of prime minister and create a vice presidency, which would be filled at the same time as the president in a single round of voting.Such an arrangement is designed to help Haiti avoid the gridlock it is painfully used to in getting things done: now, every time there is a new government, parliament needs to approve the prime minister’s policy agenda, and this is always tied up in endless debate among lawmakers.Defenders of the new constitution say it would help battle the chronic problem of corruption by making it easier to hold trials in regular courts of government officials, cabinet ministers and the president once he or she leaves office.As it stands now, the rarely used procedure for trying such officials is for the lower house of parliament to bring charges and the senate to hold a trial.”Immunity is not synonymous with impunity,” said Mona Jean, a lawyer who sits on the committee that drafted the new constitution. “A government job must not be a source of illicit enrichment.”Henry did not specify how he thinks the new constitution should be voted on.Moise had proposed a referendum, scheduled by the electoral administration for Nov. 7, but the idea proved controversial, with critics saying it violates the current constitution.It was written in 1987 after the fall of the Duvalier dictatorship and forbids “any popular consultation aimed at modifying the constitution through a referendum.” 
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Four migrant defense groups in Mexico announced Wednesday that they had sought court injunctions to block what they called “massive” deportations, arguing the government was violating due process and Mexican and international law governing asylum.The groups said one legal action was filed September 3 in the southeastern state of Tabasco and another in Mexico City.The groups contend the government is acting illegally by expelling migrants “before dawn and at unestablished [border] points” and also by participating in chain expulsions of migrants first flown from the U.S. to southern Mexico and then carried over land by Mexican officials to the border with Guatemala. The migrants are not told of the possibility of seeking protection in Mexico, the groups said.The migrants expelled from the United States are removed under so-called Title 42 authority, a health provision enacted during the Trump administration with the justification of the COVID-19 pandemic but continued under the Biden administration.Flights, then busingMost recently, the U.S. has been flying non-Mexican migrants to airports in Mexico’s southern states of Chiapas and Tabasco. Mexican immigration authorities then bus them to the Guatemala border, even though many of them are not Guatemalan. In August, there were 34 such flights. U.N. agencies have expressed concern as well.The four organizations — Asylum Access, the Foundation for Justice, Without Borders and the Institute for Women in Migration — argue that the expulsions violate the ban on removing people with international protection needs and and that they don’t take into account the higher interest of children or the perspective of gender.In recent days, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has insisted Mexico respects the rights of migrants. The government has been criticized over sometimes violent clashes with migrants trying to walk north from the southern city of Tapachula.The president has said simply containing migrants in southern Mexico is not sustainable and sent a letter this week to U.S. President Joe Biden insisting the U.S. do more to address the root causes of migration in the region.
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Lawyers for a Colombian businessman say they’re exploring their options after a court in the West African country of Cape Verde rejected their appeal to halt his extradition to the United States.The Cape Verde high court’s written judgment, dated August 30 but published Tuesday on the court’s website, said Alex Saab must stand trial in the United States.Saab is wanted on charges of laundering money through U.S. banks in connection with a Venezuelan bribery scheme. He has been held in Cape Verde since June 12, 2020, when he was arrested while his private plane stopped for fuel en route to Iran.Venezuela’s socialist government had protested his arrest, saying Saab was acting as a special envoy to seek food, medical supplies and fuel for the South American country.The U.S. government has imposed strict sanctions on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and others in his administration.’Political battle’Geraldo Almeida, one of Saab’s attorneys, told VOA’s Portuguese Service that the case had turned into a “political battle taking into account” the U.S. government’s power.Almeida said he and others on Saab’s defense team were not “throwing in the towel.”But João Resende-Santos, a law professor at the Higher Institute of Legal and Social Sciences in Cape Verde, told VOA that no further appeals are available.  “The next step is the foreign affairs ministry to communicate to the U.S. Embassy in Cape Verde about the court’s decision. This administrative process is brief and the U.S. Embassy has 45 days to bring Alex Saab to the U.S.,” he said.  In early January, Cape Verde’s Court of Appeal in Barlavento ruled that Saab should be extradited to the United States. The defense appealed to the country’s Supreme Court, which in March upheld the lower court’s verdict.Saab and another Colombian businessman, Alvaro Pulido Vargas, were indicted in July 2019 in U.S. federal court in Miami for allegedly joining in a bribery scheme from late 2011 through at least September 2015, according to a U.S. Justice Department news release.The men allegedly laundered approximately $350 million from bank accounts in Venezuela “to and through bank accounts located in the United States,” the Justice Department said.This report originated in VOA’s Portuguese Service.
 
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Turkey is voicing caution over Afghanistan’s interim government as it continues talks with the Taliban on restarting air traffic at the Kabul airport.Turkey was among the first countries calling for talks and engagement with the Taliban after it swept to power last month. But the Taliban’s announcement of an interim government this week saw Turkish President Recep Tayyip calling for a cautious approach.”As you know, right now, it’s hard to call it permanent, but an interim cabinet has been announced,” Erdogan said Tuesday.  He said, “We don’t know how long this interim cabinet will last. All we have to do is to follow this process carefully.”Those Fleeing Afghanistan Struggle to Survive in TurkeyVOA reporters meet people who say the Taliban are killing government workers and other ‘enemies’ as they take over areas of Afghanistan But Erdogan said talks between the Taliban and Qatar on restarting full operations at the Kabul airport were making progress although he warned key issues remained unresolved. On Monday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said the Taliban’s insistence on being the one to provide the airport’s security remains a key obstacle.Cavusoglu said, “the Taliban or Afghan forces could ensure security outside the airport. But inside,” he said, “there should be a security company trusted by the international community”. He added that “Otherwise, even if airlines, including Turkish Airlines, are keen to fly there, insurance companies would not allow it.”Despite Turkey’s participation in NATO’s twenty-year-long military presence in Afghanistan, the Taliban reached out to Ankara with calls to put the airport back into operation. Turkey is NATO’s only Muslim member, and it shares historical ties with Afghanistan.  Asli Aydintasbas, a senior fellow of the European Council, says Ankara says believes hese factors could help Turkey play a key role in Afghanistan.Taliban Tells Turkey Continued Troop Presence in Afghanistan Is ‘Unacceptable’Taliban spokesman tells VOA it will view Turkish troops as invaders and a violation of the deal with US”They will want to see as if they can position Turkey as a diplomatic conduit, as a diplomatic sort of go-between, between western countries and the Taliban,” said Aydintasbas.The reopening of the Kabul airport is key for European countries and the United States in efforts to evacuate their citizens who are still in Afghanistan as well as Afghan nationals who once worked for NATO and western embassies.After meeting his Turkish counterpart, German foreign minister Heiko Maas underlined Turkey’s importance in efforts to reopen the airport, offering to help finance the operation. But retired Turkish ambassador Selim Kuneralp says Ankara must deal delicately with the Taliban.”It seems to me they would be a risk in appearing to be too close to the Taliban to be their protectors, so to speak, in the eyes of the West, not just the United States but the European Union too,” said Kuneralp. “If you appear to be close to them, then you would be painted with the same brush.”Ankara’s cautious approach to the new Afghan government and Turkish calls calling for scrutiny of the Taliban’s treatment of women and ethnic minorities could be signs of a growing awareness of Turkey’s need to remain aligned with its Western allies over Afghanistan.
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Twenty people linked to the November 2015 terrorist attacks in France went on trial in Paris Wednesday in proceedings expected to last nine months.Six defendants are being charged in absentia. Reports say five of the six are presumed dead in Iraq or Syria. Nine Islamic State terrorists, mostly from France and Belgium, left a trail of horror in a multi-pronged attack at the national stadium, various bars and restaurants and at a concert at the Bataclan Theater. A total of 130 people were killed, 90 of them at the concert hall. At least 490 people were injured.A 10th member of the terror cell and the only one still alive, Salah Abdeslam, was arrested in Brussels four months after the November 13, 2015, strikes. He is accused of helping the others.  In his court appearance, Abdeslam, 31, called himself an “Islamic State soldier.” When asked what his profession was, he said, “I gave up my job to become an Islamic State soldier.”This courtroom sketch shows Salah Abdeslam (R), the prime suspect in the November 2015 Paris attacks, and co-defendants Mohamed Amri (L) and Mohamed Abrini (C) on Sept. 8, 2021, the first day of the trial of the November 2015 Paris attacks.Even though most of the alleged perpetrators are dead, some hope the trial will bring closure to the families of the victims.”This trial is really an important step for the victims, those who have been wounded or injured, and those who lost members of their families,” Michael Dantinne, professor of criminology at the University of Liege, told France 24.  He added that “it is only a step in the recovery process of the victims” and that “it won’t have any magical effect.”  The trial is being held in a specially constructed court in Paris and described as the biggest in France’s modern day legal history. Some information in this report comes from the Associated Press, AFP and the Reuters news agency. 
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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas are hosting talks Wednesday with a group of partners and allies to discuss the situation in Afghanistan, including efforts to continue the flow of humanitarian aid to the country after the Taliban’s takeover. A U.S. State Department official said ahead of the ministerial meeting that one theme of the discussion would be seeing if the Taliban lives up to its commitments and the expectations of the international community.U.S. Secretary of State Blinken speaks to members of the U.S. embassy and Mission Afghanistan in Doha, Sep. 7, 2021.Before traveling to Germany, Blinken stressed during a visit to Qatar that the United States and others are calling on the Taliban to follow through on its pledge to allow anyone with valid travel documents to leave Afghanistan if they choose to do so. The issue has been a focus since the United States withdrew from Afghanistan at the end of August, ending a two-decade military presence and a final effort to evacuate thousands of people from the country. Many people who wanted to leave Afghanistan were unable to do so before the U.S. withdrawal. The State Department said Wednesday’s meeting would also likely involve discussion of counterterrorism issues and upholding basic human rights in Afghanistan. 
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A powerful 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck southern Mexico late Tuesday near the beach resort of Acapulco, in Guerrero state, leaving at least one person dead. Guerrero state governor Hector Astudillo told a local television a man was struck by a falling utility pole in the nearby city of Coyuca de Benitez. The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake had a preliminary magnitude of 7.0 and was centered 17 kilometers northeast of the resort city of Acapulco, in Guerrero state. In a video message, Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said there were no reports of major damages in Guerrero, or elsewhere in the region, including Oaxaca, and Mexico City, where people were running into the streets when buildings began to sway. Mexico’s National Civil Defense said it was conducting reviews in 10 states, but had not received reports of victims nor serious damage.    One of the deadliest earthquakes to strike Mexico occurred off the Michoacán coast on September 19, 1985, killing 10,000 and causing catastrophic damage in the region, including Mexico City. Some information for this report came from the Associated Press. 
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At least 17 patients died after floods swept through a hospital in central Mexico, disrupting the power supply and oxygen therapy, authorities said Tuesday.   The facility in the town of Tula in Hidalgo state was inundated after a river overflowed following heavy rain, the government said on Twitter.   “In this honorable job there are good, very good, bad and very bad days; today is one of the latter days,” President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador tweeted. “I am very saddened by the death of 17 hospital patients,” he added.   The hospital was flooded in a matter of minutes, and a power cut disrupted oxygen treatment, said Zoe Robledo, general director of the Mexican Institute of Social Security, which operates the facility. The rest of the 56 patients were reported to have been taken to other hospitals.   According to Mexican media, the victims included COVID-19 patients who needed oxygen therapy to stay alive. Images showed medical personnel pushing patients’ stretchers through the water.   The government deployed the military as well as water and electricity board workers to deal with the fallout in Tula, which bore the brunt of heavy rains that have drenched swathes of Mexico. Two people died in Ecatepec, a suburb of Mexico City where flooding turned streets into rivers, officials said. “A lot of water has fallen throughout the Valley of Mexico (where the capital is located) and it will continue to rain,” Lopez Obrador warned. “People living in low-lying areas, for now, move to shelters or high places with family or friends,” he said. 
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Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro got a rousing reception from tens of thousands of people gathered in the capital Tuesday in an Independence Day show of support for the right-wing leader embroiled in a feud with the country’s Supreme Court. Bolsonaro, in an address inaudible to many in the crowd far from the loudspeakers, lashed out at the high court and said the nation can no longer accept what he characterized as political imprisonments — a reference to arrests ordered by Justice Alexandre de Moraes.  He warned that the court could “suffer what we don’t want.” The crowd began chanting, “Alexandre out!” His speech followed a helicopter flyover, with those on the ground seized with euphoria at the sight. They shouted, “Legend!” and “I authorize!” — a slogan widely understood as blanket approval of his methods. Some carried banners calling for military intervention to secure Bolsonaro’s hold on power. Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro delivers a speech during a demonstration in his support in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on September 7, 2021, on Brazil’s Independence Day. – Fighting record-low poll numbers, a weakening economy and a judiciary he says is…Bolsonaro has called on the Senate to impeach de Moraes, who has jailed several of the president’s supporters for allegedly financing, organizing or inciting violence or disseminating false information. In Sao Paulo, where the president was scheduled to speak in the afternoon, Bolsonaro supporters crammed into the broad Avenue Paulista downtown for a significantly larger rally than the one in Brasilia, while in Rio de Janeiro, they gathered on the road alongside Copacabana Beach. All three cities also featured smaller protests against the president.  Bolsonaro spent almost two months calling on supporters to take part in rallies across the country on Independence Day that could show his continuing political appeal despite slumping poll ratings and a string of setbacks. Critics feared the demonstrations could take a violent turn. Some said they were afraid Bolsonaro could be preparing a tropical version of the January 6 riot in Washington, where supporters of President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol alleging he had been robbed of a reelection victory.  Like Trump, Bolsonaro was elected on a pledge to go after a corrupt, entrenched political class. He has also said he might reject the 2022 election results if he loses. Along Brasilia’s esplanade, there was a festive mood, with cold drinks and the scent of grilled meat.  At least 100 military police with riot shields stood in front of Congress, and several dozen formed two lines behind barricades on the road leading to the Supreme Court. At least twice, groups of demonstrators tried to get past the barriers, but officers repelled them with pepper spray.  About 10,000 officers were scattered around the area for the demonstrations, security officials said. Regina Pontes, 53, stood atop a flatbed that advanced toward the police barriers. She said the Brazilian people have every right to enter the area. “You can’t close the door to keep the owner out,” she said. The world’s second-highest COVID-19 death toll, a drumbeat of accusations of wrongdoing in the government’s handling of the pandemic, and surging inflation have weighed on Bolsonaro’s approval ratings. Polls show his nemesis, former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, could trounce him in a runoff if he enters the race.  Tuesday’s demonstrations “may show that he has millions of people who are ready to stand up and be with him, even when Brazil’s economy is in a bad situation, inflation near 10%, the pandemic and all that,” said Thomas Traumann, a political analyst. “If Bolsonaro feels he has the support of millions of Brazilians, he will go further in his challenging of the Supreme Court,” Traumann added. Bolsonaro’s clash with the Supreme Court has raised fears among his critics, given his frequently expressed nostalgia for the nation’s past military dictatorship. On the eve of Tuesday’s protest, he signed a provisional measure sharply limiting social media platforms’ ability to remove content, restrict its spread or block accounts. A 69-year-old farmer from Minas Gerais state, Clever Greco, came to Brasilia with a group of more than 1,000 others. He said Brazil’s conservatives back Bolsonaro’s call for the removal of two Supreme Court justices by peaceful means. But Greco also likened his trip to deploying for war. “I don’t know what day I’ll go back. I’m prepared to give my blood, if needed,” Greco said. “We’re no longer asking; the people are ordering.”  The U.S. Embassy in Brasilia last week warned Americans to steer clear of the protests. “The risk (that) we see scenes of violence and an institutional crisis that’s unprecedented in Brazil’s recent history still remains and is considerable,” said Paulo Calmon, a political science professor at the University of Brasilia. 
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El Salvador became the first country to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender Tuesday, but the rollout stumbled in its first hours and President Nayib Bukele said the digital wallet used for transactions was not functioning. For part of the morning, El Salvador’s president became tech support for a nation stepping into the world of cryptocurrency. Bukele marshaled his Twitter account — with more than 2.8 million followers — to walk users through what was happening.  Bukele explained that the digital wallet Chivo had been disconnected while server capacity was increased.  The president said it was a relatively simple problem. “We prefer to correct it before we connect it again,” Bukele said. He encouraged followers to download the app and leave comments about how it was going. Meanwhile, the value of Bitcoin plummeted early Tuesday, dropping from more than $52,000 per coin to $42,000, before recovering about half of that loss — an example of the volatility that worries many. Government employees open the customer service area of a Chivo digital wallet machine, which exchanges cash for Bitcoin cryptocurrency, at Las Americas Square in San Salvador, El Salvador, September 7, 2021.The government has promised to install 200 Chivo automatic tellers and 50 Bitcoin attention centers. The Associated Press visited one of the automatic tellers in San Salvador’s historic center, where attendants waited to help citizens, who initially didn’t show much interest.  Asked if he had downloaded the Chivo app, Emanuel Ceballos said he had not. “I don’t know if I’m going to do it. I still have doubts about using that currency.” José Martín Tenorio said he was interested in Bitcoin but had not downloaded the app, either. “I’m running to work. Maybe at home tonight.” In Santa Tecla, a San Salvador suburb, young attendants were waiting to assist people at a help center. Denis Rivera arrived with a friend because they had been trying to download the digital wallet app without success.  He said he didn’t understand why some people “have been scandalized” by Bitcoin. “We’ve been using debit and credit cards for years, and it’s the same electronic money,” he said. He was in favor of it and planned to use the $30 offered by the government as an incentive to try it out. “I’m going to see how efficient it is and practical it can be, and based on that, decide if I keep using it or not.”  Miguel Menjivar, left, sells bread on a street in San Salvador, El Salvador, before sunrise September 7, 2021, on the day all businesses have to accept payments in Bitcoin, except those lacking the technology to do so.José Luis Hernández, owner of a barbershop in the area, came looking for information. “I have a small business and I want to know how to use the application and how are the rates and all of that,” Hernández said. AP confirmed that at least three international fast food chain restaurants were accepting bitcoin payments through the Chivo digital wallet.  David Gerard, author of “Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain,” said Tuesday’s Bitcoin volatility likely had little to nothing to do with El Salvador. “My first guess was shenanigans, because it’s always shenanigans,” Gerard said via email. “Bitcoin basically doesn’t respond to market forces or regulatory announcements,” Gerard said. “That sort of price pattern, where it crashes hugely in minutes then goes back up again, is usually one of the big guys burning the margin traders.” Because Bitcoin is so thinly traded, it could also have been a big holder making a large sale to have cash, thus sending the market for a ride, Gerard said. Three face-to-face public opinion surveys performed recently showed that most Salvadorans did not agree with the government’s decision to make Bitcoin legal currency. Bitcoin joins the U.S. dollar as El Salvador’s official currencies. In June, the Legislative Assembly enacted the Bitcoin law, and the Central American Bank for Economic Integration is providing the government with technical assistance. The law says that Bitcoin can be used for any transaction, and any business with the technological capacity to do so must accept payment in the cryptocurrency. The government will back Bitcoin with a $150 million fund. To incentivize Salvadorans to use it, the government offered $30 worth of credit to those who use Chivo. Critics have warned that the currency’s lack of transparency could attract increased criminal activity to the country, and its wild swings in value could quickly wipe out users’ savings. Opposition groups marched in El Salvador to demand the derogation of the law that allows Bitcoin use.  Bukele has said the cryptocurrency — originally created to operate outside government-controlled financial systems — would help attract investment and save Salvadorans money when they transfer earnings in the United States back home to relatives in El Salvador. But its use would be voluntary. 
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Mexico’s Supreme Court unanimously ruled on Tuesday that penalizing abortion is unconstitutional, a major victory for advocates of women’s health and human rights, just as parts of the United States enact tougher laws against the practice.The court ruling in the majority Roman Catholic nation follows moves to decriminalize abortion at the state level, although most of the country still has tough laws in place against women terminating their pregnancy early.”This is a historic step for the rights of women,” said Supreme Court Justice Luis Maria Aguilar.A number of U.S. states have recently taken steps to restrict women’s access to abortion, particularly Texas, which last week enacted the strictest anti-abortion law in the country after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene.The Mexican ruling opens the door to the possibility for the release of women incarcerated for having had abortions. It also could lead to U.S. women in states such as Texas deciding to travel south of the border to terminate their pregnancies. In July, the state of Veracruz became just the fourth of Mexico’s 32 regions to decriminalize abortion.
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Twenty people linked to the November 2015 terrorist attacks in France are going on trial in Paris Wednesday in proceedings expected to last nine months.  Six defendants are being charged in absentia. Reports say five of the six are presumed dead in Iraq or Syria.  Nine Islamic State terrorists, mostly from France and Belgium, left a trail of horror in a multi-pronged attack at the national stadium, various bars and restaurants and at a concert at the Bataclan Theater. A total of 130 people were killed, 90 of them at the concert hall. At least 490 people were injured.A 10th member of the terror cell and the only one still alive, Salah Abdeslam, was arrested in Brussels four months after the November 13, 2015, strikes. He is accused of helping the others.”This trial is really an important step for the victims, those who have been wounded or injured, and those who lost members of their families,” Michael Dantinne, professor of criminology at the University of Liege, told France 24.He added that “it is only a step in the recovery process of the victims” and that “it won’t have any magical effect.”The trial will be held in a specially constructed court in Paris and is described as the biggest in France’s modern day legal history.Some information in this report came from the Associated Press and AFP.
 
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