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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Monday there would be “tough times ahead” for businesses, as another international company announced it was suspending operations due to the COVID-19 pandemic.Johnson spoke with reporters as it was announced that Cineworld will temporarily close 127 theaters in Britain and 536 theaters in its U.S. Regal movie theater chain following news that the latest James Bond film will be postponed again.The closings will affect 40,000 employees in the United States and 5,000 in Britain.Johnson, while encouraging people to support their local movies theaters, said that despite government efforts to support jobs impacted by the pandemic, “clearly there are going to be tough times ahead.” He encouraged people to support their local movie houses that observe COVID-safe practices. Johnson also acknowledged that more than 15,000 coronavirus cases had been missed and not been transferred into the computer database due to a technical glitch. He said the cases, which were all positive between Sept. 25 and Oct. 2, and their contacts had been identified once the error was discovered.Johnson said the current infection rate in Britain was “pretty much where we thought we were,” and the next few days would tell whether the extra restrictions put in place in several parts of the country were working.He said if people followed the measures put in place in their areas, the so-called “rule of six” — limiting gatherings to six or less — self-isolation following contact, masks and hand-washing, he had “no doubt that we will be able to get on top of it, as indeed we did earlier this year.””This is all very much in our hands collectively,” he said.
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The World Health Organization says roughly one in 10 people around the world may have been infected with the coronavirus.  The head of the health emergencies program at the World Health Organization, Michael Ryan, said Monday that the agency’s “best estimates” indicate 10 percent of the world’s population could have contracted the virus.  That estimate, which would amount to more than 760 million people, is more than 20 times the number of confirmed cases in the world and would still leave more than 90 percent of the population susceptible to the virus. Speaking to a special session of the WHO’s 34-member executive board in Geneva, Ryan said the figures vary between countries but the estimate means “the vast majority of the world remains at risk,” adding that “we are now heading into a difficult period.” The number of confirmed worldwide cases tallied by the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center surpassed 35 million Monday, a week after surpassing 1 million coronavirus deaths. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is seen outside the BBC headquarters, as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues, in London, October 4, 2020.Several European nations hit their own pandemic milestones with Germany reporting Monday its total confirmed cases exceed 300,000, Britain recording 500,000 cases, and Spain becoming the first European country to surpass 800,000 total coronavirus cases. In Britain, Prime Minister Boris Johnson sought on Monday to play down a failure in his country’s testing data system that did not initially show 16,000 coronavirus test results. “To be frank, I think that the slightly lower numbers that we’d seen didn’t really reflect where we thought that the disease was likely to go,” Johnson said. Also Monday, Britain’s Cineworld, the second-largest movie theater chain in the world, announced it would temporarily close its British and U.S. theaters. Coronavirus lockdown orders and restrictions on group gatherings have badly hurt the movie industry. Cineworld said the move would affect 45,000 jobs.  To address broader job losses in the country’s economy, the British government on Monday launched a new $300 million program aimed at helping people get back to work.  In the United States, about two-thirds of U.S. states reported an increase in new coronavirus cases in the past week, mostly in the West and Midwest, according to data tracked by the Washington Post. The United States has recorded more than 7.4 million cases of coronavirus and nearly 210,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins.  A man walks with his family, Sunday, Oct. 4, 2020, in the Borough Park neighborhood of New York. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo says he’s ordering schools in certain New York City neighborhoods closed within a day to slow a flare-up of the coronavirus.New York Governor Andrew Cuomo ordered schools in several coronavirus “hot spots” around the state to close beginning on Tuesday, including parts of the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens. U.S. President Donald Trump remained hospitalized Monday after testing positive for COVID-19 last week.  In New Zealand, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Monday that restrictions in the city of Auckland would be lifted Wednesday.  The measures were put in place to stamp out an outbreak in the country’s largest city in August, which threatened to reverse New Zealand’s progress toward eliminating the coronavirus.  In France, starting Tuesday, Paris bars will close for two weeks and restaurants will begin using new sanitary protocols, according to the prime minister’s office.   France on Sunday reported 12,565 new cases of coronavirus, while 893 COVID-19 patients had been admitted into intensive care over the past week.   Iceland’s government announced new coronavirus restrictions Monday following a spike in cases. The government ordered bars, gyms and entertainment venues to close and sharply reduced the number of people allowed to gather in public. In Russia, Moscow’s Ministry of Education announced that city schools would switch to a distance learning format as cases have climbed to more than 10,000 per day in Russia. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced Monday she is self-isolating after attending a meeting last week with someone who tested positive for COVID-19. Von der Leyen said she tested negative on Thursday and would be tested again Monday.  
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Social activists in Brazil say the coronavirus pandemic is causing an increase in the number of homeless people in country’s largest city, Sao Paulo. Many lost their jobs and found themselves risking their health by crowding into long lines for food distribution. At the Sao Miguel Arcanjo Church, volunteers try to help, but it’s a tiny effort against a mountain of challenges facing the population.  Edgar Maciel reports from Sao Paulo.Camera: Edgar Maciel 
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European Commission Chair Ursula von der Leyen said Monday that she will self-isolate after learning she was exposed last week to someone who has tested positive for COVID-19.  Von der Leyen was in Portugal’s capital, Lisbon on September 29, where she attended several meetings and met with various Portuguese officials.In a message posted on Twitter Monday, the head of the European Union’s executive branch said she was told one of those meetings was attended by “a person who yesterday (Sunday) tested positive.”   In subsequent tweet Monday, von der Leyen said her latest test came back negative, but added she would continue isolating until Tuesday evening.    Her isolation will keep her close to work: She has a small living quarters next to her office in the EU headquarters in Brussels.Two weeks ago, EU Council President Charles Michel was forced to postpone a summit of EU leaders because he was quarantining.
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In Madrid, the mayor has bowed before the law of the land, but has vowed to take Spain’s central government to the courts to try to reverse new more restrictive coronavirus lockdown rules.  In Marseilles, the mayor has expressed her fury with Emmanuel Macron’s government for ordering the closure of all restaurants and bars in France’s second largest city, saying nothing justifies the order.  In a string of northern English towns the anger is echoed. There, mayors are also questioning the orthodoxy of lockdowns, arguing that infection rates are trending up even in locked-down towns. FILE – A sign promoting social distancing is hung on a post near the Crown and Anchor pub following a spike in cases of COVID-19 to visitors of the pub in Stone, Britain, July 30, 2020.They are not going as far as to ignore government instructions, although last week, Andy Preston, mayor of Middlesbrough, a struggling post-industrial town in Yorkshire, came close, suggesting at one point he might defy the order.Preston has bemoaned the central government’s decision to ban households mixing in pubs, restaurants and public spaces in the town of 138,000, saying new strict rules will have a detrimental effect on jobs as well as on mental health.   FILE – A view shows a Teeside University lecture taking place at the Middlesbrough’s Town Hall, in Middlesbrough, Britain, Sept. 28, 2020.Preston is not alone. City and regional leaders in several European countries are becoming increasingly frustrated with the pandemic restrictions central governments are imposing from on high. Local leaders say they are better placed to know when and how to tighten restrictions, or whether they are needed at all. They fear central governments are not getting the balance right between protecting lives and saving livelihoods and businesses. Resurgence The emerging pattern of pushback coincides with an alarming rise in infection rates in Europe. National governments are warning that the surge in cases, if not contained could end up overwhelming hospitals. A general view taken from a wheel shows people gathering during a protest against the government’s restrictions, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Konstanz, Germany, Oct. 4, 2020.The surge in cases is now being seen, too, in Italy and Germany, countries that had appeared to be bucking the trend. They were thought to have been squelching a second wave of infections being seen in neighboring countries. But on Saturday, Italy reached its highest daily tally since 24 April with authorities reporting 2,844 new infections, up from 2,499 cases the day before.  Italy is one of the few countries where regional and local authorities tend to be even keener on lockdowns than central government, often imposing restrictions ahead of direct orders from Rome. People wear face masks as local authorities in Rome order face coverings to be worn at all times out of doors in an effort to counter rising coronavirus disease (COVID-19) infections, Oct. 2, 2020.In Campania, the regional president Vincenzo De Luca Saturday ordered all residents to wear face masks when they are outside their homes. “There is no third way. Masks must be worn on the face, not on the elbow. If the alternative is between having people dying on the street or taking a pleasant stroll, there will be no doubt … everything will close.” Campania is one of Italy’s most densely populated and poorest regions and it is now registering  the highest daily tally of new infections in the country. “We must return to the strict behavior of February, March and April, otherwise we get sick,” he warned.  Anger building But in other countries municipal frustration is boiling amid mounting fears of permanent economic damage. In both Britain and France, local leaders complain they are not being consulted before the announcement of new restrictions and are given no opportunity to help shape the rules.“The Marseille town hall was not consulted,” complained Michèle Rubirola, the mayor, last week after the government imposed tighter restrictions on the city. The decision to shutter restaurants and bars and left her “astonished and angry,” she said. Bars and restaurants owners demonstrate agianst the closure orders due to COVID-19, in Marseille, southeastern France, on Oct. 2, 2020.The city’s first deputy mayor, Benoît Payan, criticized the restrictions and said the government had ignored a plea for a 10-day reprieve to show that the city’s own measures were working.“Once again our territory is being sanctioned, punished, singled out,” he says. “Our city has been put in virtual confinement without anyone having been consulted. Marseille deserves better than being beaten down, or of serving as an example,” he added. Many small business owners in Marseille agree with their local leaders. One restaurant owner, Laurent Catz, told Le Figaro newspaper the decision was “catastrophic” for his business.” “We cannot ignore the health situation but it is almost a death sentence for the profession,” he said. “We are still recovering and we are being shut down again.” Another restaurateur, Frédéric Leclair, told the newspaper: “I have trouble understanding this decision, especially since I have a beautiful terrace where I can enforce social distancing. FILE – A man wearing a face mask walks past the closed terrace of a restaurant near Le Vieux Port in Marseille, southern France, on Sept. 28, 2020.Lack of uniformity in determining the reasons for lockdowns is not helping Britain’s ruling Conservatives to calm mounting frustration. Some city mayors and opposition parties in Britain are questioning whether bias dictates which towns and areas get locked-down.Jonathan Ashworth, a senior Labor party politician, told the BBC: “Because there is no clear guidelines as to why an area goes into restrictions and how an area comes out of restrictions then there is a suspicion that there is political interference – I hope there isn’t. But until the government publishes clear guidelines, that suspicion will always linger.” The government is being accused by some of sparing wealthy Conservative voting areas from local coronavirus lockdowns. Critics point out that Labor-voting areas with comparatively lower infection rates have been facing tougher restrictions than their more affluent neighbors.  Dominic Harrison, director of public health in the town of Blackburn, wrote to ministers last week warning that more economically challenged boroughs were “ being placed into more restrictive control measures at an earlier point in their … case rate trajectory.” Other critics complain that districts represented by Cabinet ministers tend to escape local lockdown orders, despite sometimes having higher case numbers than districts ordered to shutter.   Government officials say the incidence rate is “only one of a set of considerations regarding when it is appropriate to impose and release restrictions.” A Health Ministry spokesperson said in a statement: “While we recognize how much of an imposition these measures are, they are based on the latest scientific evidence in order to suppress the virus and protect us all while doing everything possible to support the economy.”  But critics of the regional and local lockdowns warn the economic consequences are now becoming too hard to bear and risk leaving a permanent scar. The issue of public health versus public welfare and wealth is likely only to become more heated, say analysts, as unemployment rises and a rising number of businesses close permanently.   Pragmatism, individualism  Municipal and regional critics of central government-dictated lockdowns appear to be catching the public mood in some countries. “National solidarity and unthinking compliance is evolving into a more pragmatic, individualist mood,” according to commentator Janice Turner. “Every time the rules change, they lose a little more faith,” she says. The rules are becoming white noise and as they do so “more people will resort to what they think is right,” she adds.   A “Zero Covid” strategy won’t work long-term, critics warn. Government officials across Europe counter they are only following the science. But this is now being questioned by some scientists themselves, who say the trade-offs are not something they should decide.FILE – A man sits in an empty cafe in London, Sept. 24, 2020.“Both the virus and the ways of tackling it cause harm and need to be balanced: for example, how much should young people’s education be compromised to protect older people from infection? This is a ‘wicked problem’ with no winners in which we are trying to trade jobs, freedoms and health against each other,” says Graham Medley,  professor of infectious disease modeling at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Writing in The Times newspaper he said: “While scientists can ensure that any strategies are underpinned by the best evidence and research, they should have no greater say in them than economists, ethicists, historians and the wider public. The question of whether New Zealand’s approach is ‘better’ than Sweden’s is as much a social as a scientific one,” he added.  FILE – Medical staff prepare to take a COVID-19 tests at a drive through community based assessment center in Christchurch, New Zealand, Aug. 13, 2020.New Zealand and Sweden have pursued dramatically different pandemic strategies. Sweden has taken a much softer more hands-off approach, while New Zealand put in place lockdown measures earlier this year even before their first case was recorded. In Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, the president of greater Madrid’s regional government, has warned that more restrictions will be “the ruin of Madrid and the ruin of Spain.” The Spanish economy contracted by 18.5% in the second quarter of this year. What she has dubbed “arbitrary rules” will result in “queues of hungry people again and unemployment figures that will multiply tenfold.” On the streets of Middlesbrough last week, the town mayor’s frustration with the new more restrictive rules appeared to resonate with many locals saying they fear that combating the virus is elbowing out the equally important goal of saving livelihoods.  Paula Hoare, 27, told reporters, “The mayor is sticking up for the town where there is already massive poverty.”   
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Seven bodies were found in a region straddling the French-Italian border near Nice on Sunday after torrential rains swept houses and roads away, officials in both countries said.Five of the bodies were discovered in northwestern Italy, including four washed up on the shore between the towns of Ventimiglia and Santo Stefano al Mare, near the French frontier. Some of the corpses might have been swept down the coast from France.Two more were found in France, including a shepherd found by an Italian search and rescue team. The other body was found in a vehicle that had been swept away by flash-flooding in the village of Saint-Martin-Vésubie.It brings to nine the number of people found dead after fierce rains and howling gales lashed the border area on Friday. French firefighters said another 21 people were missing, eight of them known to be as a direct result of the storm.The bad weather caused millions of euros in damage, with several road bridges swept away in Italy, and streets in some towns littered with debris, mud and overturned cars.Officials in the Piedmont region reported a record 630 mm (24.8 inches) of rain in 24 hours in Sambughetto, near Switzerland, more than half its annual average rainfall.In Limone Piemonte, a three-story house was swept off its foundations and into a river. In the nearby village of Tanaro, floodwaters destroyed the local cemetery, sweeping away dozens of coffins.In France, almost 1,000 firefighters were drafted into the Alpes-Maritimes region to look for the missing and re-establish communications. More than two dozen primary and secondary schools in the area are closed until further notice, local authorities said.Up to 500 mm (19.5 inches) of rain fell in less than 10 hours, a volume not seen since records began, Prime Minister Jean Castex said on Saturday.
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Police in Minsk, Belarus used water cannon to disperse crowds as protests against President Alexander Lukashenko continued for the ninth straight Sunday. An estimated 100,000 people took to the streets of the capital Sunday.Since the longtime president claimed victory in a contested election August 9, protesters have regularly taken to the streets demanding his resignation and the release of political prisoners.Lukashenko maintains he won the poll in a landslide — garnering 80% of all ballots — despite widespread claims at home and abroad the vote was heavily rigged to keep him in power.For Belarus Protesters, Battle is for Long HaulDemonstrations intensified after an embattled Lukashenko was secretly sworn in for yet another term, but protesters realize the end may not come soonOver the weekend, Belarus canceled the accreditation of all foreign journalists.Late last week, the European Union imposed sanctions on about 40 Belarusian officials accused of falsifying the election results and cracking down on the subsequent protests. Lukashenko was not on the list.Public anger has stewed over the crackdown in the wake of the protests that have seen more than 7,500 arrests and police violence against demonstrators.Hundreds have emerged from police custody with bruises and tales of torture at the hands of Lukashenko’s security agents.Lukashenko has said the protests are encouraged and supported by the West and accused NATO of moving forces near Belarusian borders. The alliance has denied the accusations.
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Heavy fighting continued Sunday between Armenian and Azerbaijan forces in Nagorno-Karabakh, a primarily ethnic Armenian region in Azerbaijan.Azerbaijani officials said Armenian forces had begun attacking Azerbaijan’s second largest city, Ganja. Unverified videos on Twitter from government officials show damaged buildings.Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry rejected accusations that Azerbaijan’s military had targeted civilians. Officials in Nagorno-Karabakh have said nearly 200 of their service personnel had been killed. Azerbaijan confirmed the deaths of at least 24 civilians.Armenian, Azerbaijani Forces Continue to ClashOngoing conflict over breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh is threatening to erupt into all-out warIn a statement released Sunday, the International Committee of the Red Cross condemned the violence.“All feasible measures must be taken to protect and spare civilians and civilian infrastructures like hospitals, schools and markets. Water supply for civilians must also be protected. These are obligations under international humanitarian law,” Martin Schüepp, ICRC Eurasia regional director in Geneva, said in the statement.Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said late Saturday that his forces “raised the flag” over the strategic town of Madagiz and had taken several villages.The Armenian Defense Ministry said separatist forces in Nagorno-Karabakh had fended off a large Azerbaijani attack, and spokeswoman Shushan Stepanian pointed to intense fighting “along the entire front line,” saying Armenian forces had shot down three Azerbaijani planes.Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry denied any aircraft were shot down and said Armenian personnel had shelled civilian territory.     Azerbaijan has not offered details on military casualties.Vahram Poghosyan, a spokesman for Nagorno-Karabakh’s president, said Saturday on Facebook that intelligence showed that about 3,000 Azerbaijanis were killed in the fighting, without providing details.Armenian Defense Ministry spokesman Artsrun Ovannisian said later Saturday that 2,300 Azerbaijani troops were killed, including about 400 in the previous day; however, this claim cannot be verified.President Aliyev has demanded the withdrawal of Armenia from Nagorno-Karabakh as the only way to end the fighting.Meanwhile, Nagorno-Karabakh authorities have called on the international community to “recognize the independence” of the enclave as “the only effective mechanism to restore peace.” Armenian and Azerbaijani forces ignored calls this past week by the United States, France and Russia for an immediate cease-fire in Nagorno-Karabakh, as fighting escalated to levels not seen since the 1990s. The three countries co-chair the OSCE Minsk Group, which is tasked with finding a peaceful solution. The OSCE is the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.Armenian separatists seized Nagorno-Karabakh, formerly an autonomous territory within Azerbaijan, in a bloody war in the 1990s that killed an estimated 30,000 people.     Talks to resolve the conflict have been halted since a 1994 cease-fire agreement among Armenia, Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh.  Peace efforts collapsed in 2010.
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Authorities in Chile have arrested a police officer who allegedly threw a teen-ager from a bridge into a river bed during a protest.The 16-year-old boy was in stable condition with head trauma and a wrist fracture following the incident in Santiago, Chile’s capital, on Friday. Dozens of people protested on Saturday outside the clinic where he is being treated, condemning police and carrying signs that said: “He did not fall, they threw him.”The incident raised more concerns about police conduct since protests about a wide range of social and economic problems erupted in Chile a year ago. Some 31 people have died in the unrest and numerous allegations of human rights violations were filed against police.The North Central Prosecutor’s Office of Santiago accused the police officer of “causing” the youth to fall and said attempted murder charges would be filed on Sunday.However, Enrique Monrás, chief of police in Santiago’s western area, said the youth had lost his balance and fallen over the bridge railing after the police attempted to arrest him. Ambulances were summoned so that they could provide prompt assistance, Monrás said.The government said in a statement that it condemns any violation of human rights. It said a police officer who “does not comply with the protocols or the law” must be investigated and tried in the courts. 
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The South Pacific archipelago of New Caledonia has voted to remain part of France, election authorities announced. Officials said 53.26% of more than 180,000 registered voters rejected independence in a referendum Sunday. At least 80% of eligible voters went to the polls. In a tweet, French President Emmanuel Macron called the vote a “mark of confidence in the Republic.”  “Together we will build the New Caledonia of tomorrow,” he wrote. Les Calédoniens ont confirmé leur souhait de maintenir la Nouvelle-Calédonie dans la France. C’est une marque de confiance dans la République. J’entends aussi la voix de ceux qu’anime la volonté de l’indépendance. Nous construirons tous ensemble la Nouvelle-Calédonie de demain.— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) October 4, 2020New Caledonia’s economy is supported by about $1.5 billion in French subsidies each year and many have said they fear the economy will collapse without those payments.   While the territory already enjoys a large degree of autonomy, it does heavily rely on France for some matters, including defense and education.   The referendum is part of a process that started in 1988 to end years of violence between the supporters and opponents of independence from France. A decade later, a deal was reached to have the independence vote in 2018. Although voters said “no” to independence two years ago, the deal allowed for two more referendums to be held by 2022.   Under colonial rule, the territory’s indigenous Kanaks had been confined to reserves and excluded from much of the island’s economy.   Political analysts say the Kanaks tend to back independence, while the descendants of European settlers lean toward maintaining the connection to France.  
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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson does not particularly wish for the Brexit transition period to end without a new trade deal in place but believes that Britain could live with such an outcome, he said on Sunday.   With the Dec. 31 expiry of the transition period fast approaching, Johnson and the head of the EU’s executive, Ursula von der Leyen, agreed in a phone call on Saturday to step up negotiations on a post-Brexit deal.   “I think it’s there to be done,” Johnson said during an interview on BBC television.   “Alas, there are some difficult issues that need to be fixed, and there’s no question that the EU needs to understand that we’re utterly serious about needing to control our own laws and our own regulations, and similarly they need to understand that the repatriation of the UK’s fisheries … is very important.”   Asked whether he was worried about the potential impact of a no-deal situation in the middle of the COVID pandemic, Johnson said: “I don’t want the Australian WTO-type outcome, particularly, but we can more than live with it.   “I think the people of this country have had enough … of being told that this will be impossible or intolerable. I think we can prosper mightily under those circumstances.”   The government last week told importers and exporters they would have to complete extra paperwork whether there was a deal or not and that a lack of preparation on their part could lead to 100 km queues of trucks.   That prompted accusations from the opposition that ministers were setting up industry to take the blame for any chaos that might follow a botched Brexit.   The EU says that any deal must be sealed by the end of October, or in the first days of November at the latest, to leave enough time for ratification by the bloc before the end of the year.   More trade talks are due in London next week and in Brussels the following week before the 27 national EU leaders meet over Oct. 15-16 to assess progress. London has also said it wants clarity by Oct. 15 on whether a deal is possible or not.   An estimated trillion euros ($1.17 trillion) of annual trade would be at stake if they fail to reach an agreement. ($1 = 0.8537 euros)      
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Belgium has arrested and charged three men suspected of involvement in the 1994 Rwanda genocide.A spokesperson for the Belgian federal prosecutor’s office said in a statement Saturday that the three had been “charged with serious human rights abuses.”Eric Van Duyse said two had been arrested Tuesday in Brussels and the third had been arrested Wednesday in Hainault province.Van Duyse did not give any details about the suspects but said that their identities had been verified with the help of testimony from witnesses in Rwanda.He said one of the men is under electronic surveillance and the other two are in detention.Van Duyse said whether the men will be tried will depend on information compiled by the investigating magistrate and the prosecutor’s office.The arrests were first reported Friday by the Belgian weekly magazine Le Vif.About 800,000 people, mostly Tutsis and some moderate Hutus, were killed in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.The U.N.’s International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda indicted more than 90 people and tried 80 of them before it ceased operation in 2015.Since 2001, Belgium has held five trials for Rwandans implicated in the killings, giving prison terms up to 20 years.A Belgian court found former senior Rwandan official Fabien Neretse guilty of genocide in December and sentenced him to 25 years in prison.
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Guatemalan authorities said Saturday they have disbanded a caravan of migrants heading north from Honduras, bound for the U.S. border, sending more than 3,000 back home over the past few days.Since Thursday, when thousands of migrants began crossing into Guatemala without permission, authorities said most had “opted to return” and were sent back to Honduras on buses.The caravan had split into two groups Friday, with one headed for the Peten region of northern Guatemala, and the other for the Mexican border city of Tapachula.The group headed for northern Guatemala ran into a roadblock manned by police and soldiers, where so many of their fellow migrants were turned around.A few small groups of migrants could still be seen walking along the highway Saturday morning.Olvin Suazo, 21, and three friends, all farm workers in their early 20s from Santa Barbara, Honduras, said they would continue north.Guatemalan Vice Minister of Foreign Relations Eduardo Sanchez called on Honduras to stop such large groups of migrants, calling them a health risk amid the pandemic.The migrants are headed to the U.S. because of poverty exacerbated by widespread job losses sparked by the pandemic in Latin America.Their journey came two years after a caravan that formed shortly before the U.S. midterm elections and became a campaign issue. Those migrants initially received support from communities along the way, particularly in southern Mexico.But Mexico deployed National Guard troops and immigration agents to intercept large groups of migrants after U.S. President Donald Trump, who is seeking reelection, threatened tariffs on Mexican imports if it did not stem the flow of migrants to the U.S. border.Mexico’s migration authority chief Francisco Garduno said this week the government would deploy hundreds of military and immigration personnel to its border to prevent the caravan from entering the country.Mexican President Lopez Obrador suggested the caravan was associated with the November 3 U.S. presidential election.“It has to do with the election in the United States,” Obrador told reporters. “I don’t have all the elements, but I think there are indications that it was put together for this purpose. I don’t know to whose benefit, but we’re not naive.”The Trump administration said Thursday it would admit a record low 15,000 refugees during the coming year.Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has vowed to raise the refugee cap to 125,000, saying accepting persecuted people is consistent with American values. 
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Iran has temporarily released French-Iranian academic Fariba Adelkhah, who has been in jail after being convicted of security breaches, her lawyer said Saturday on Twitter.”Fariba Adelkhah has come out [of prison] on leave with an electronic ankle bracelet,” Saeid Dehghan said in a tweet, without giving any other details of the release.There was no immediate official statement on the case from Iran’s judiciary.France had in June demanded that Adelkhah, 61, an anthropologist held since 2019, be released immediately, saying her detention was harming trust between the two countries.Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards have arrested dozens of dual nationals in recent years, mostly on espionage charges.In March, Iran granted temporary release to British-Iranian aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, along with thousands of other prisoners, following concerns about the spread of the coronavirus in prisons.In March, Iran and France exchanged prisoners: academic Roland Marchal for engineer Jalal Ruhollahnejad.Since then, however, there had been little sign that Adelkhah would be released. She was sentenced in May to six years in prison on security-related charges.Relations between France and Iran have improved over the last year but remain tense because of Iran’s nuclear activities, its ballistic missile program and regional activities.
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Heavy fighting continued between Armenia and Azerbaijan forces Saturday in the conflict over the separatist territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, officials from both countries said.Armenian and Azerbaijani forces seemingly ignored calls this week by the U.S., France and Russia for an immediate cease-fire in Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnic-Armenian breakaway province inside Azerbaijan.Armenian Defense Ministry officials said they had repelled a large attack by Azerbaijan along the front line and shot down three planes.Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry denied any planes being shot down and said Armenian personnel had shelled civilian territory.Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev said his forces had taken control Saturday of the strategic village of Madagiz.The attacks took place after Stepanakert, the regional capital, came under fire by Azeri forces, media reports said.The fighting has killed at least 150 people on both sides in the turbulent South Caucasus region since fighting began September 27, the two countries said.Azerbaijan’s president has demanded the withdrawal of Armenia from Nagorno-Karabakh as the only way to end the fighting.Both sides previously had dismissed the demands for a truce in the disputed region, where fighting has escalated in recent days to levels not seen since the 1990s.Armenian separatists seized Nagorno-Karabakh from Azerbaijan in a bloody war in the 1990s that killed an estimated 30,000 people.Talks to resolve the conflict have been halted since a 1994 cease-fire agreement among Armenia, Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh.Peace efforts in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, mediated by the Minsk Group, composed of the United States, France and Russia, collapsed in 2010.
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Two people died and nine people were missing in France and Italy after a storm hit along the border of the two countries, bringing record rainfall in places and causing flooding that swept away roads and damaged homes, authorities said Saturday.The storm, dubbed Alex, ravaged several villages around the city of Nice on the French Riviera. Nice Mayor Christian Estrosi called it the worst flooding disaster in the area for more than a century after flying over the worst-hit area by helicopter.”The roads and about 100 houses were swept away or partially destroyed,” he told French news channel BFM.”I have been particularly shocked by what I saw today,” French Prime Minister Jean Castex told a news conference after visiting affected areas, adding he was concerned that the death toll could rise.Roads, bridges goneAt least eight people were missing in France, authorities said. These included two firefighters whose vehicle was carried away by a swollen river, according to local witnesses cited by several French media.Television images from both countries showed several roads and bridges had been swept away by floodwater, and numerous rivers were reported to have left their banks.In Italy, at least two people died — one a firefighter hit by a falling tree and another a man in his 30s whose car was swept into a river after a road subsided, local authorities said.As night fell, one Italian was still unaccounted for, while another 16 people earlier feared missing, including a group of six German trekkers, had all been found safe.Officials in the Piedmont region reported a record 630 mm (24.8 inches) of rain in just 24 hours in Sambughetto, close to the border with Switzerland. The Piedmont regional chief, Alberto Cirio, called on the government to declare a state of emergency.The water level in the River Po jumped by 3 meters (9.84 feet) in just 24 hours.Villages cut offEric Ciotti, a member of the French parliament who is from one of the worst affected villages in the area, Saint-Martin-Vésubie, said several villages located in steep-sided valleys of the mountainous region were cut off.Meteo France said that 500 mm (19.69 inches) of rain was registered over 24 hours in Saint-Martin-Vésubie and close to 400 mm in several other towns — the equivalent of more than three months of rain at this time of the year.There was more rainfall than on October 3, 2015, when floods caused the death of 20 people in and around the French Riviera city of Cannes, Jérémy Crunchant, the director of civil protection, told France Info.In Venice, a long-delayed flood barrier system successfully protected the lagoon city from a high tide for the first time on Saturday, bringing big relief following years of repeated inundations.
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The United Nations reports widespread human rights violations are rampant in both government- and rebel-controlled areas of Ukraine, as well as in the Russian-annexed Crimean Peninsula.The report by the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights has been submitted to the U.N. Human Rights Council.There is immediate concern about the increase in violence in the lead-up to local elections October 25 in government-controlled areas of Ukraine. Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Nada Al-Nashif says extreme right-wing groups are attacking peaceful political gatherings, the offices of political parties, and political activists in their homes.“We are further concerned that the impunity accompanying these acts of violence creates a climate of fear and self-censorship encouraging further attacks. … The office also documented attacks against members of the media, as well as attacks against LGBTI people, and people perceived to be LGBTI,” Al-Nashif said.Al-Nashif says the credibility of the election will depend upon the ability of Ukrainian authorities to protect people from these attacks so they can exercise their right to vote freely and without fear.Justice system violationsThe report highlights widespread human rights violations in the Ukrainian justice system, including arbitrary arrest and detention, unreasonable trial delays, and the use of torture and coerced confessions.Al-Nashif says access to justice remains out of reach in the self-proclaimed Russian-backed republics in eastern Ukraine.“Individuals are often held incommunicado and subjected to torture and ill-treatment in order to extort confessions,” she said. “Cases are dealt with behind closed doors, with individuals denied access to lawyers of their choice.”The report details human rights violations in Crimea by the Russian occupying power against Crimean Tatars, including torture, forced confessions and the suppression of religious practice for several groups, including Protestants, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Muslims and Messianic groups.Ukraine’s First Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs Emine Dzhaparova corroborates the U.N. report. As a Crimean Tartar herself, she is particularly critical of Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea and of its alleged repressive actions to shut down the voices of dissent.
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Hundreds of Honduran migrants are encountering problems from Guatemalan and Mexican security forces as they continue their journey to the United States.
 
Fears of a confrontation intensified Friday as about 1,000 migrants, who lacked food after walking hundreds of kilometers from Honduras, were blocked by about 100 police and army soldiers at a roadblock in northern Guatemala.
 
Saturday morning, hundreds of the migrants who entered Guatemala without registering were bused back to the Guatemalan border after running into the roadblock.
 
Small groups of migrants were still walking before dawn Saturday along the highway where the roadblock is located, but a short while later none of the estimated 1,000 migrants remained in the area. Undeterred, many of the migrants’ plan to continue their trek to the U.S.
 
Guatemalan authorities said the original group of about 2,000 migrants was split after 108 agreed to return to Honduras, some traveling north to the roadblock, and others walking, hitching rides or catching buses to Guatemala City.
 
Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei promised to apprehend the migrants and send them back to the border, declaring they represent a health threat during the COVID-19 pandemic.
 
The migrants are heading to the U.S. as Latin America suffers from widespread job losses sparked by the pandemic.
 
Their journey comes two years after a caravan was formed shortly before the U.S. midterm elections and became a hot campaign issue. The migrants initially received support from communities along the way, particularly in southern Mexico.
 
But Mexico deployed National Guard troops and immigration agents to intercept large groups of migrants after U.S. President Donald Trump, who is seeking reelection, threatened tariffs on Mexican imports of it did not stem the flow of migrants to the U.S. border.
 
Mexico’s migration authority chief Francisco Garduno said this week the government would deploy hundreds of military and immigration personnel to its border to prevent the caravan from entering the country.
 
Mexican President Lopez Obrador suggested the caravan was associated with the November 3 U.S. presidential election.   
 
“It has to do with the election in the United States,” Obrador told reporters. “I don’t have all the elements, but I think there are indications that it was put together for this purpose. I don’t know to whose benefit, but we’re not naive.”
 
The Trump administration said Thursday it would admit a record low 15,000 refugees during the coming year.
 
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has vowed to raise the refugee cap to 125,000, saying accepting persecuted people is consistent with American values.
 
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A festive, jubilant crowd thronged Berlin’s historic Brandenburg Gate 30 years ago Saturday, celebrating the reunification of Germany less than a year after the Berlin Wall had fallen.Located in Berlin’s eastern communist sector, the Brandenburg Gate had been inaccessible to West Germans for 28 years. But not on October 3, 1990, with strains of Beethoven’s Ode to Joy in the background as exultant crowds marked the dawn of a new era in German and European history.“The day has come in which for the first time in history the whole of Germany has found its lasting place in the circle of Western democracies,” declared Richard von Weizsäcker, the federal German president who was suddenly the head of state of a larger Germany.“Farewell to an unloved country,” Britain’s ambassador to East Germany, Patrick Eyers, wrote in his final dispatch to London as envoy on the eve of German reunification.“At midnight tonight the German Democratic Republic will cease to exist as a state,” he wrote. “In what mood do the people of the GDR come to unity? … My impression is one of deep emotion, of contentment mixed with a certain trepidation in the face of the uncertainties ahead. But none of them is looking back.”Back in London, then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher shared the trepidation. She had opposed speedy reunification, fearing a united Germany would dominate Europe, changing the power dynamics of the European Union. She also feared that Soviet hardliners might view it as a humiliation, prompting them to undermine then-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, complicating the unwinding of the Cold War.“I fear that he will feel isolated if all the reunification process goes the West’s way,” she said in a quote by her biographer, Charles Moore.The following year, Soviet hardliners did try to oust Gorbachev in a bungled coup attempt. Thatcher’s position pitted her against many in her own Cabinet and other European leaders, as well as against George H. W. Bush’s White House. Bush aides thought she was being impractical and that rapid German reunification was inevitable. They dubbed her a “Cold warrior” who was over-anxious about the consequences of German reunification.Thirty years on, the old East-West divide remains at play. In the third and final volume of his authorized Thatcher biography, Herself Alone, published last year, Moore, a former editor of Britain’s Daily Telegraph, notes that one of the Russians who became convinced that his country had been humiliated by the West during this era-shattering period was Vladimir Putin, a former a KGB officer who served in East Germany.In 2017, Putin described the manner of German reunification as Gorbachev’s “mistake” and criticized him during an interview for failing to secure binding guarantees from the West that there would be no eastward expansion of NATO. Gorbachev had initially called for a united but neutral Germany – a proposal rejected by West Germany, the U.S. and Poland, another newly emerging democracy on Russia’s border.Gorbachev backed down.Difficult adjustmentIn the years following reunification, many East Germans became increasingly disillusioned as they struggled to adjust themselves to new realities.Many began to feel that they had not been reunited with their Western cousins, but instead had been taken over by them. They complained of Westerners disparaging their achievements and disdaining their educations as subpar. Many older East Germans lamented the increased pace of life, based more on commercial principles. They mourned the loss of predictability, while all too often forgetting the constraints and repression of communism.With inefficient factories closing, unemployment soared with some towns seeing one in five workers jobless, souring the vision of “blooming landscapes” they had been promised by German chancellor Helmut Kohl when the wall came down. Berlin pumped billions of euros into the East but many older East Germans complained that at least under communism they were guaranteed work and free health care. Many youngsters left, shrinking Germany’s population in the East by 2.2 million, leaving their parents and grandparents feeling like second-class citizens. There was a surge of support for a newly formed socialist political party, the Linkspartei – or “Left” party.Three decades on, the former East Germany is catching up economically with its Western sibling, but a series of reports and studies in the runup to Saturday’s 30th anniversary of German reunification suggests stark divides remain. “I had hoped that in this … 30th year after German reunification, we would be further along than we are,” said Marco Wanderwitz, the government ombudsman for the former communist East Germany.German politicians point to a narrowing of the per capita GDP gap between its eastern and western regions as an example of the resounding success of German reunification. Per capita GDP in eastern Germany has reached 79.1%, a gain of 42 percentage points since 1990. Ironically, in some areas, Germans in the country’s east are doing better than their counterparts to the west. Women in the former GDR are more likely to work full time in part because of better childcare facilities, a legacy of the region’s communist past.But one government study shows that, on average, salaries in the East are only 88.8% of those in the West. Eastern Germany has more people out of work and lower property values. “In an extraordinary manner, in many ways Germany looks like it’s still divided,” the left-leaning daily newspaper TAZsaid. Der Spiegel magazine laments that the “feelings of mistrust and alienation between East and West have not disappeared.”A government report overseen by Wanderwitz also sadly notes the lack of satisfaction Germans in the East feel toward the political system. While more than 90% of western Germans think democracy is the “best suited form of government,” only 78% of East Germans agree. Wanderwitz notes: “Trust in state institutions is also some cases is at a shockingly low level.” Even so, he says that while “some things have taken longer than planned … in many areas we can basically say: unity accomplished.”Easterners, known as Ossies, say unity will be accomplished only when they are taken more seriously. They say their origins determine their position in society and their prospects far more than they do for Westerners. They complain they are underrepresented in the top echelons of German public life. Chancellor Angela Merkel, who was born in the East, is one of the few Ossies in the top political ranks of the country, and not one dean in Germany’s 81 universities is from the former communist half of the country. In last year’s regional government elections, the East saw a surge in support for the anti-immigrant, nationalist far-right AfD party, testimony to the rift between the country’s prosperous West and its still-adjusting East.
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Armenian and Azerbaijani forces continued fighting Saturday for the seventh day over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, ignoring international calls for a cease-fire.   
 
Armenia says the territory’s capital, Stepanakert, was the target of bombing by Azeri forces.  
 
Authorities in the breakaway territory have warned that the “last battle” for the region has begun. They called on the international community Saturday to “recognize the independence” of Nagorno-Karabakh as “the only effective mechanism to restore peace.”
 
In a statement issued late Friday, the second this week, the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Igor Popov of Russia, Stéphane Visconti of France, and Andrew Schofer of the United States, expressed their “alarm at reports of increasing civilian casualties” and strongly condemned the continued violence.  
 
“Targeting or threatening civilians is never acceptable under any circumstances,” the statement said, adding that “the co-chairs call on the sides to observe fully their international obligations to protect civilian populations.”
 
Armenia responded positively Friday to a call by the Minsk Group for a cease-fire between its forces and Azerbaijani forces, engaged in a conflict that is threatening to escalate into all-out war.Armenia is “ready to engage” with the OSCE Minsk Group “to reestablish a cease-fire regime based on the 1994-1995 agreements,” the country’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement Friday.
 
Azerbaijan’s president has demanded the withdrawal of Armenian forces from Nagorno-Karabakh as the only way to end the fighting.
 
Both sides previously had dismissed demands for a truce in the disputed region, where fighting has escalated in recent days to levels not seen since the 1990s.  Dozens of people have been killed and hundreds of others injured in the fighting that erupted September 26.
 
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A festive, jubilant crowd thronged Berlin’s historic Brandenburg Gate 30 years ago Saturday, celebrating the reunification of Germany less than a year after the Berlin Wall had fallen.Located in Berlin’s eastern communist sector, the Brandenburg Gate had been inaccessible to West Germans for 28 years. But not on October 3, 1990, with strains of Beethoven’s Ode to Joy in the background as exultant crowds marked the dawn of a new era in German and European history.“The day has come in which for the first time in history the whole of Germany has found its lasting place in the circle of Western democracies,” declared Richard von Weizsäcker, the federal German president who was suddenly the head of state of a larger Germany.“Farewell to an unloved country,” Britain’s ambassador to East Germany, Patrick Eyers, wrote in his final dispatch to London as envoy on the eve of German reunification.“At midnight tonight the German Democratic Republic will cease to exist as a state,” he wrote. “In what mood do the people of the GDR come to unity? … My impression is one of deep emotion, of contentment mixed with a certain trepidation in the face of the uncertainties ahead. But none of them is looking back.”Back in London, then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher shared the trepidation. She had opposed speedy reunification, fearing a united Germany would dominate Europe, changing the power dynamics of the European Union. She also feared that Soviet hardliners might view it as a humiliation, prompting them to undermine then-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, complicating the unwinding of the Cold War.“I fear that he will feel isolated if all the reunification process goes the West’s way,” she said in a quote by her biographer, Charles Moore.The following year, Soviet hardliners did try to oust Gorbachev in a bungled coup attempt. Thatcher’s position pitted her against many in her own Cabinet and other European leaders, as well as against George H. W. Bush’s White House. Bush aides thought she was being impractical and that rapid German reunification was inevitable. They dubbed her a “Cold warrior” who was over-anxious about the consequences of German reunification.Thirty years on, the old East-West divide remains at play. In the third and final volume of his authorized Thatcher biography, Herself Alone, published last year, Moore, a former editor of Britain’s Daily Telegraph, notes that one of the Russians who became convinced that his country had been humiliated by the West during this era-shattering period was Vladimir Putin, a former a KGB officer who served in East Germany.In 2017, Putin described the manner of German reunification as Gorbachev’s “mistake” and criticized him during an interview for failing to secure binding guarantees from the West that there would be no eastward expansion of NATO. Gorbachev had initially called for a united but neutral Germany – a proposal rejected by West Germany, the U.S. and Poland, another newly emerging democracy on Russia’s border.Gorbachev backed down.Difficult adjustmentIn the years following reunification, many East Germans became increasingly disillusioned as they struggled to adjust themselves to new realities.Many began to feel that they had not been reunited with their Western cousins, but instead had been taken over by them. They complained of Westerners disparaging their achievements and disdaining their educations as subpar. Many older East Germans lamented the increased pace of life, based more on commercial principles. They mourned the loss of predictability, while all too often forgetting the constraints and repression of communism.With inefficient factories closing, unemployment soared with some towns seeing one in five workers jobless, souring the vision of “blooming landscapes” they had been promised by German chancellor Helmut Kohl when the wall came down. Berlin pumped billions of euros into the East but many older East Germans complained that at least under communism they were guaranteed work and free health care. Many youngsters left, shrinking Germany’s population in the East by 2.2 million, leaving their parents and grandparents feeling like second-class citizens. There was a surge of support for a newly formed socialist political party, the Linkspartei – or “Left” party.Three decades on, the former East Germany is catching up economically with its Western sibling, but a series of reports and studies in the runup to Saturday’s 30th anniversary of German reunification suggests stark divides remain. “I had hoped that in this … 30th year after German reunification, we would be further along than we are,” said Marco Wanderwitz, the government ombudsman for the former communist East Germany.German politicians point to a narrowing of the per capita GDP gap between its eastern and western regions as an example of the resounding success of German reunification. Per capita GDP in eastern Germany has reached 79.1%, a gain of 42 percentage points since 1990. Ironically, in some areas, Germans in the country’s east are doing better than their counterparts to the west. Women in the former GDR are more likely to work full time in part because of better childcare facilities, a legacy of the region’s communist past.But one government study shows that, on average, salaries in the East are only 88.8% of those in the West. Eastern Germany has more people out of work and lower property values. “In an extraordinary manner, in many ways Germany looks like it’s still divided,” the left-leaning daily newspaper TAZsaid. Der Spiegel magazine laments that the “feelings of mistrust and alienation between East and West have not disappeared.”A government report overseen by Wanderwitz also sadly notes the lack of satisfaction Germans in the East feel toward the political system. While more than 90% of western Germans think democracy is the “best suited form of government,” only 78% of East Germans agree. Wanderwitz notes: “Trust in state institutions is also some cases is at a shockingly low level.” Even so, he says that while “some things have taken longer than planned … in many areas we can basically say: unity accomplished.”Easterners, known as Ossies, say unity will be accomplished only when they are taken more seriously. They say their origins determine their position in society and their prospects far more than they do for Westerners. They complain they are underrepresented in the top echelons of German public life. Chancellor Angela Merkel, who was born in the East, is one of the few Ossies in the top political ranks of the country, and not one dean in Germany’s 81 universities is from the former communist half of the country. In last year’s regional government elections, the East saw a surge in support for the anti-immigrant, nationalist far-right AfD party, testimony to the rift between the country’s prosperous West and its still-adjusting East.
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Scotland First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has called on a lawmaker from her own ruling Scottish National Party to resign after she traveled by train following a positive test for COVID-19. Westminster Member of Parliament Margaret Ferrier was suspended Thursday by her party after breaking self-isolation rules to attend Parliament in London while awaiting results of a coronavirus test, which later came back positive. After experiencing symptoms consistent with COVID-19, the 60-year-old lawmaker sought out testing on Saturday, and then traveled from Glasgow to London on Monday because she was “feeling much better.” She received the positive results later that evening, just hours after speaking for four minutes during a coronavirus debate in the Commons chamber. Ferrier returned to Scotland by train Tuesday morning despite the positive test results. It is mandatory for people in Britain to self-isolate if they test positive for the coronavirus, with fines of 1,000 pounds for those who violate the rule. Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon speaks during the Scottish government’s daily briefing on the coronavirus outbreak, at St. Andrew’s House, Edinburgh, in this handout picture released by the Scottish Government on Oct. 2, 2020.From her Twitter account Friday, the first minister said, “I’ve spoken to Margaret Ferrier and made clear my view that she should step down as an MP. I did so with a heavy heart—she is a friend & colleague—but her actions were dangerous & indefensible. I have no power to force an MP to resign but I hope she will do the right thing.”Ferrier apologized for her actions via Twitter on Thursday, saying there was no excuse. “Despite feeling well, I should have self-isolated and waited for my test, and I deeply regret my actions.” Ferrier said she took full responsibility and urges everyone not to make the same mistakes she has. She also said she notified the police and the House of Commons regarding her actions. There has been no reaction regarding Sturgeon’s call for her to resign. 
 
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French President Emmanuel Macron Friday called Islam “a religion that is in crisis all over the world,” in a speech addressing what he calls “separatism” in France’s Islamic community.
 
In remarks delivered in the western Paris suburb of Les Mureaux, Macron said Islam is a religion in deep crisis worldwide, even in countries where it is the majority religion, because of “tensions between fundamentalism and political projects … that lead to very strong radicalization.”
 
The French president said in France there is a “parallel society” of radical Muslims thriving outside the values of the nation, a “separatism” as he describes it, that thrives in some neighborhoods around the country, where Muslims with a radical vision of their religion take control of the local population to inculcate their beliefs.
 
But Macron said everyone can share in the blame for this so-called separatism.
 
“We ourselves have built our own separatism, that of our neighborhoods. This is the ghettoization that our republic, initially with the best intentions in the world, allowed to take place,” said the French leader Friday.He noted France’s concentration of populations into districts according to their origins, which has also concentrated educational and economic difficulties as well.
 
Macron said where French secular society failed Islamic youth, radicals stepped in.
 
The French president said the government will offer legislation in December to “reinforce secularism and consolidate republican principles.”Macron to Outline France’s Controversial Anti-Separatism BillFrance’s Muslim community – Europe’s largest – worries new law could deepen anti-Islamic sentimentsHe called secularism “the cement of a united France,” and added: “Let us not fall into the trap laid by … extremists, who aim to stigmatize all Muslims.”
 
During his speech, Macron repeatedly stressed the importance of schools in instilling secular values in young people and said that the government would require private schools to agree to teach them. Beginning next year, with few exceptions, the 50,000 French children who are currently educated at home would be required to attend school with fellow students, he said.
 
The bill would include additional education funding as well.
 
The remarks come as a trial is underway in Paris over the deadly January 2015 attacks on satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo and a kosher supermarket by French-born Islamic extremists. Last week, a man from Pakistan stabbed two people near Charlie Hebdo’s former offices in anger over its publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad. 
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President Donald Trump has tested positive  for the coronavirus, joining a small group of world leaders who have been infected. Trump is 74, putting him at higher risk of serious complications. Here’s a look at other leaders who have had the virus. Some are sending Trump their wishes for a speedy recovery.Boris Johnson
The British prime minister was the first major world leader confirmed to have COVID-19, after facing criticism for downplaying the pandemic. He was moved to intensive care in April after his symptoms dramatically worsened a day after he was hospitalized for what were called routine tests. He was given oxygen but did not need a ventilator, officials said. He later expressed his gratitude to National Health Service staff for saving his life when his treatment could have “gone either way.” Prince Charles, the heir to the British throne, also tested positive in March and showed mild symptoms.Jair Bolsonaro
The Brazilian president announced his illness in July and used it to publicly extol hydroxychloroquine, the unproven malaria drug that he’d been promoting as a treatment for COVID-19 and was taking himself. For months he had flirted with the virus, calling it a “little flu,” as he flouted social distancing at lively demonstrations and encouraged crowds during outings from the presidential residence, often without a mask.  Juan Orlando Hernandez
The Honduras president announced in June that he had tested positive, along with two other people who worked closely with him. Hernández said he had started what he called the “MAIZ treatment,” an experimental and unproven combination of microdacyn, azithromycin, ivermectin and zinc. He was briefly hospitalized and released. He has added his voice to growing pleas for equitable access to any COVID-19 vaccine, asking the recent U.N. gathering of world leaders, “Are people to be left to die?”  Alexander Lukashenko
The president of Belarus, who dismissed concerns about the virus as “psychosis” and recommended drinking vodka to stay healthy, said in July he had contracted it himself but was asymptomatic. Belarus is one of the few countries that took no comprehensive measures against the virus. Other top officials in former Soviet states who were infected include Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin.Prince Albert ii of Monaco
The palace of Monaco in March said the ruler of the tiny Mediterranean principality tested positive but his health was not worrying. He was the first head of state who publicly said he was infected.Alejandra Giammattei
The Guatemalan president said he tested positive for the virus in September. “My symptoms are very mild. Up to now, I have body aches, it hurt more yesterday than today, like a bad cold,” he said during a televised address. “I don’t have a fever, I have a bit of a cough.” He said he’d be working from home.Jeanine Anez
The virus drove the Bolivian interim president into isolation in July, but she said she was feeling well.  Juis Abinader
The newly elected president of the Dominican Republic contracted and recovered from COVID-19 during his campaign. He spent weeks in isolation before the country’s July election.Iran
Iran, the epicenter of the Mideast’s initial coronavirus outbreak, has seen several top officials test positive. Among them are senior Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri and Vice President Massoumeh Ebtekar. Cabinet members have tested positive, too.  India  
Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu, 71, recently tested positive but his office said he had no symptoms and was quarantined at home. Home Minister Amit Shah, the No. 2 man in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, was hospitalized for COVID-19 last month and has recovered. Junior Railways Minister Suresh Angadi last week was the first federal minister to die from COVID-19.Israel
Israel’s then-Health Minister Yaakov Litzman tested positive in April and recovered. Litzman is a leader in Israel’s ultra-Orthodox community, which has seen a high rate of infection as many have defied restrictions on religious gatherings. The minister for Jerusalem affairs, Rafi Peretz, tested positive over the summer as cases surged nationwide and recovered.South Africa
The country’s defense minister, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, mineral resources and energy minister, Gwede Mantashe, and labor minister, Thulas Nxesi, were infected as cases surged in June and July.South Sudan
Vice President Riek Machar was among several Cabinet ministers infected.Gambia
Vice President Isatou Touray tested positive in July along with the ministers of finance, energy and agriculture.  Guinea-Bissau
Prime Minister Nuno Gomes Nabiam in April said he tested positive.
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