Canada’s attorney general says the requirements for extraditing Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou to the United States on charges of bank fraud have been met, documents submitted in a British Columbia court show.Meng, 48, was arrested in December 2018 on a warrant from the United States, which alleges that she misled the bank HSBC about Huawei’s business dealings in Iran.Meng has been under house arrest in Vancouver since then, fighting extradition, and has said she is innocent. Her case has caused a diplomatic row between Canada and China, which has demanded that Meng be released. China detained two Canadians after Meng’s arrest.The documents, which were filed last week and released to media Friday, are a precursor to the formal hearing on committal, or whether Meng should be extradited to the United States. Those hearings will take place in April 2021.The documents outline the evidence in support of Meng’s custody and conclude that the test for committal has been met.Assessment of charges’ potentialThe extradition hearings are not a full trial on the charges laid by the United States, the documents state, only whether there is the potential for those charges to be found valid.”The evidence demonstrates that Ms. Meng deliberately made dishonest representations to HSBC in an attempt to preserve Huawei’s relationship with the bank,” lawyers for the Canadian Minister of Justice and Attorney General David Lametti wrote.”Since Ms. Meng concedes that she is the person sought for prosecution for the conduct set out in the extradition request, all of the formal requirements for committal are established.”Huawei declined to comment and pointed instead to its past legal submissions on its arguments.In May, a judge in British Columbia’s Superior Court found that the legal standard of double criminality — meaning that Meng’s actions could be considered a crime in both Canada and the United States — had been met, dealing a blow to hopes for a quick end to the trial.The next hearings, scheduled for August 17-21 in Vancouver, will discuss whether the attorney general’s assertion of privilege in declining to release some documents requested by Huawei relating to Meng’s initial arrest is valid.Hearings for the trial are scheduled to wrap up in April 2021, although the potential for appeals of the decision from either side means the case could drag out over several years.
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A COVID-19-induced hunger pandemic in Latin America and the Caribbean could threaten the stability of countries in the region, the World Food Program said. Latin America is the region with the most confirmed COVID-19 cases globally, accounting for more than a quarter of the more than 17 million cases reported by Johns Hopkins University. The disease is driving hunger and food insecurity in a region already facing economic, social and political instability, as well as drought and the start of the hurricane season, WFP said.   The agency projects the number of people in Latin America and the Caribbean facing severe food shortages in coming months will rise to 16 million.WFP Executive Director David Beasley recently visited a farming project run by the WFP in Ibarra, in Ecuador’s Imbabura Province.   In a video from the site, Beasley addressed the economic devastation created in Latin American countries by COVID-19. He said many farmers are barely eking out a living because of the pandemic, which is preventing them from selling their crops.   “Just in the areas where WFP [is] in this region alone, we have seen a substantial increase in over 11 million people that are marching toward the brink of starvation,” he said. “So, it is devastating, and it is why we must act, and we must act now so that we can bring some hope to people. Otherwise you will have political destabilization, mass migration, economic deterioration, supply chain disruption and many people will starve, in addition to COVID itself.”   The World Food Program said people in Haiti, countries along Central America’s Pacific coast — especially Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador — as well as Venezuelan migrants in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru are most at risk of starvation and death.    The COVID and hunger pandemics must be tackled together, Beasley said, because they feed upon each other. The WFP is calling for $328 million to provide crucial aid in the region.   
 
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U.S. officials frowned upon the opening of an Iranian supermarket in Venezuela’s capital, saying Thursday that any presence of Iran in the Western Hemisphere is “not something we look very favorably on.”  
 
Acting Assistant Secretary for U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs Michael Kozak told journalists in a call that the opening of the market shows this is like an alliance of “pariah” states.
 
“I would be surely surprised if Venezuela is able to obtain much benefit from Iran,” said Kozak in his response to a reporter’s question about the supermarket. “Iran is willing to play around, is willing to sell stuff to Venezuela when Venezuela really does not have the money to be buying very much.”
 
An Iranian cargo ship docked in Venezuela in June carrying food for the new market in Caracas, weeks after the Islamic Republic had already sent five tankers loaded with gasoline to the fuel-starved nation. The recent deliveries signal a newly blossoming relationship between the two nations in defiance of stiff financial sanctions by the Trump administration against each of them.  
 
The new Megasis supermarket, in the east of Caracas, was launched Wednesday amid a tightening of the coronavirus quarantine. The inauguration was a private event attended only by Venezuelan government officials, Iranian diplomatic personnel and businessmen, according to images a journalist for the Telesur television channel posted on her Twitter account.  
 
The supermarket is expected to open to the public this week.
 
Kozak described Iran on Thursday as “the world’s biggest sponsor on terrorism.”
 
“Iran is not going to save Venezuela from the situation it has put itself in, but it does put itself in a more dangerous situation by playing these games,” he said.
 
Megasis is headed by Iranian businessman Issa Rezaei, who runs a chain of 700 supermarkets in Iran.  
 
On Tuesday, Rezaei said on Twitter that “our goal is commercial.” He also said he is buying Venezuelan products like mangos, pineapples and wood to take to Iran.
 
Venezuela has the world’s largest oil reserves, and critics of President Nicolás Maduro point to the nation’s reliance on Iran for gasoline as an example of the socialist government’s failure.  
 
The U.S. seeks to oust Maduro, backing his political rival Juan Guaidó.  
 
Maduro blames many of the problems on U.S. sanctions and other measures to undermine his rule. He says the U.S. wants to install a puppet government so it can exploit Venezuela’s vast resources.
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Argentinian authorities are battling the country’s largest locust invasion this year, in the northern province of Formosa.The plague of locusts is said to be double the size of two other swarms.Officials fear the locusts, known for destroying crops, will jeopardize the food supplies for livestock.Hector Emilio Medina, the director of Argentina’s National Locusts Control Program, told the Associated Press the locusts are very difficult to control.Medina also warned a new locust cloud was just spotted in the Bolivian region of Macharetí.The alert comes as Argentina, Bolivia and Paraguay are appealing to their neighbors, Brazil and Uruguay, to seek financial help to upgrade the regional detection systems. 
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Meteorologists say Tropical Storm Isaias could strengthen into a hurricane and threaten the East Coast of the U.S., after causing power outages and small landslides across Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.The U.S. National Hurricane Center said late Thursday that Isaias is moving with maximum sustained winds of 95 kph.The Associated Press reports that the storm’s powerful winds in Puerto Rico, still recovering from other hurricanes and earthquakes, has transformed “several streets into fast-flowing rivers and toppled trees and some telephone and electrical cables.”More than 100,000 people are without fresh water.According to AP, 14 percent of Puerto Rico’s cell towers are out.Emergency workers had to rescue several families who were reluctant to leave their homes for public shelters because of fear of being exposed to the coronavirus at the shelters.Isaias also blew down trees in the Dominican Republic. Police arrested surfers who refused to heed warnings to find shelter. The U.S. National Hurricane Center has issued a tropical storm watch for parts of Florida’s east coast, and the government of the Bahamas issued a similar warning for swaths of its territory.Other areas under a tropical storm watch or warning include parts of Haiti, the Dominican Republic and the Turks and Caicos Islands.A tropical storm warning means that tropical storm conditions are expected somewhere within the warning area within 36 hours. A tropical storm watch means that tropical storm conditions are possible within the watch area, generally within 48 hours.The latest forecast map shows Isaias striking the Florida coast as a hurricane Saturday afternoon and working its way up the Atlantic seaboard.U.S. President Donald Trump has signed an emergency declaration for Puerto Rico, which has yet to fully recover from 2017’s Hurricane Maria and a recent series of earthquakes.Isaias is the ninth named storm of a busy Atlantic hurricane season. This is the earliest date a storm beginning with the letter “I” has formed.  
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The resurgence of the coronavirus in many countries is “driven in part by younger people letting down their guard during the Northern Hemisphere summer,” World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Thursday.Young adults, many without masks, are ignoring social distancing recommendations to pack bars, nightclubs, and beaches that have been reopened since authorities lifted coronavirus restrictions.“The majority of young people infected tend to have more mild disease. But that’s not always consistent,” said Maria Van Kerkhove, a WHO epidemiologist who called nightclubs “amplifiers of transmission.”Young people who show mild or no symptoms can spread the virus to more-vulnerable older people.In Brazil, President Jair Bolsonaro, who tested positive for the coronavirus on July 7 and then negative last Saturday, said that after 20 days indoors he had mold on his lungs. He is being treated with antibiotics. He had repeatedly referred to COVID-19 as “a little flu.”Brazil, as of Thursday evening, had 2.6 million confirmed cases and 91,263 deaths, according to the Muslims queue up to enter a disinfection chamber set up as a precaution against the new coronavirus outbreak, upon arrival for an Eid al-Adha prayer at Al Mashun Grand Mosque in Medan, North Sumatra, Indonesia, July 31, 2020.“We are concerned that … we will see an increase in cases as we have seen in [other] countries” where restrictions have been eased too soon,” WHO Regional Director for Africa Matshidiso Moeti said.She said more than 20 African countries have recorded more new cases than in the previous weeks, with South Africa accounting for the most but increases also reported in Kenya, Madagascar, Nigeria, Zambia and Zimbabwe.Moeti said Uganda, Seychelles and Mauritius are doing well in controlling the virus.Cuba reported nine new cases Thursday, and 37 new cases earlier this week. Just 10 days ago, Cuba reported no new cases for the first time since the outbreak began in March. However, it has reported no deaths for more than two weeks.Cuba has so far been relatively successful in fighting COVID-19, but the island’s top epidemiologist, Francisco Duran, said Thursday that Cubans are getting careless.“People are holding different types of gatherings without taking into account distancing and often without even using a face mask,” he said. “Each small peak underscores a lack of discipline … prompting stricter measures.”Muslim women wearing face masks as precaution against the new coronavirus outbreak, take a selfie after an Eid al-Adha prayer at a mosque in Jakarta, Indonesia, July 31, 2020.In Florida, Key West police arrested a couple who tested positive for COVID-19 for being in public in defiance of a quarantine order.Neighbors who videotaped the couple strolling and shopping gave the tapes to police.The couple’s arrest is among the first in the state for violating a quarantine.Florida, with 461,000 coronavirus cases and 6,600 deaths, is second only to California, which has 492,000 confirmed cases and 8,965 deaths, among U.S. states.National Geographic magazine is reporting that the first dog in the United States sickened by COVID-19 has died.Buddy, a 7-year-old German shepherd in New York became ill in April while his owner was recovering from the coronavirus.Buddy had the same symptoms as human patients, including difficulty breathing. He was euthanized earlier this month after he started vomiting and urinating blood and could no longer walk.Buddy’s doctors said he was also suffering from cancer. Doctors say humans with pre-existing conditions are more susceptible to COVID-19.The WHO says pet-to-people transmission of the coronavirus is unlikely.National Geographic says 12 dogs and 10 cats have tested positive for coronavirus in the U.S. 
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Tropical Storm Isaias could strengthen into a hurricane and threaten the East Coast after battering Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, according to U.S. forecasters. The A man guides a tow truck under a downed power line pole after Tropical Storm Isaias hit the area in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, July 30, 2020.President Donald Trump has signed an emergency declaration for Puerto Rico, which has yet to fully recover from 2017’s Hurricane Maria and a recent series of earthquakes. Tropical Storm Isaias knocked out power across Puerto Rico and caused widespread flooding and a number of small landslides. More than 100,000 people were in need of fresh water. Emergency workers had to rescue several families who were reluctant to leave their homes for public shelters because of the coronavirus.  Isaias also blew down trees in the Dominican Republic. Police arrested surfers who refused to heed warnings to find shelter. Isaias is the ninth named storm of a busy Atlantic hurricane season. This is the earliest date a storm beginning with the letter “I” has formed. 
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Tropical Storm Isaias is churning across the Caribbean after forming near Puerto Rico on Wednesday night.Isaias became the earliest ninth named storm on record in the Atlantic, eclipsing a nearly 15-year record set by Irene, which formed on August 7, 2005.Tropical storm warnings are in place for much of the Caribbean, including Puerto Rico, U.S. and British Virgin Islands, St. Martin, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Turks and Caicos, and part of the Bahamas.Heavy rains, flash flooding and strong winds are expected for the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico on Thursday.The current path of Tropical Storm Isaias could move the storm towards Florida by this weekend.
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Mexico’s Supreme Court has rejected an injunction that could have decriminalized abortions in the Gulf State of Veracruz, in the mostly Conservative Catholic country.The Supreme Court judges voted Wednesday 4-1 against removing articles from the criminal code concerning abortion in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, saying the Veracruz Legislature did not fail to act on the federal government’s instruction because there was already law on the subject.Activist Pascale Brennan, who favors legalized abortion, said the majority of judges based their decision on technical issues with the order rather than on the issue of abortion itself.Brennan said he and others favoring abortions will continue their pursuit of legalized abortions in Veracruz, where the procedure is now only allowed in the case of rape, with a police report verification and only within 90 days.Just two of Mexico’s 32 states allow for legalized abortion, Oaxaca and Mexico City.  
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El Salvador’s former defense minister, General David Munguía Payes, is under house arrest, a week after he was detained for being involved in a pact with gangs. A judge on Wednesday issued the order for General Payes, who prosecutors allege acted as part of a criminal conspiracy when he failed to carry out his duties for a gang truce to lower the country’s soaring murder rate in 2012. One prosecutor said, the decision for Munguía’s house arrest order was based on concerns about his hypertension. Aside from being confined to his house, Munguía is barred from contacting others implicated in the case. The Associated Press said, the administration of former President Mauricio Funes allegedly made a pact with the Mara Salvatrucha and Barrio gangs to reduce the country’s murder rate in exchange for jailed gang leaders being transferred from maximum security to medium security prisons. Funes, who denies any collusion with gangs, fled to Nicaragua, where he was granted citizenship last year. It’s unclear if Funes will be returned to El Salvador, where he faces charges, including embezzlement.  
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Brazil’s decision to seek charges against political cartoonists has been met with derision by experts who say authorities should focus on addressing the issues the artists satirized, including poor policing and a weak pandemic response, instead of trying to silence the media.The government of President Jair Bolsonaro is investigating five cartoonists and one blogger over satirical cartoons that his government alleges violate national security.On June 15, Brazilian Minister of Justice André Mendonça issued a series of tweets calling on federal police and prosecutors to investigate Renato Aroeira for a June 14 illustration that showed Bolsonaro using a paintbrush to transform the Red Cross medical symbol into a swastika.Bolsonaro, who had previously tested positive for the coronavirus, has been widely criticized for sidelining medical experts in Brazil’s handling of the pandemic, which has become the worst in the world outside of the United States.Mendonça also called for an investigation into Ricardo Noblat, a prominent journalist who runs a blog for the Brazilian weekly Veja, for reposting Aroeira’s cartoon on his Twitter feed.  
 
The Justice Ministry says the cartoon violates Article 26 of the National Security Law, which criminalizes slander and defamation of heads of state and allows up to four years in prison.
 
The opposition party, Sustainability Network, requested that the court suspend the investigation.
 
The request was criticized by at least one lawmaker, who argued on Twitter that by associating the president with Nazis, the cartoon had pushed the boundaries of freedom of expression.
 
In a separate case, Folha de São Pauloreported on June 13 that four of its contributing cartoonists – Alberto Benett, Laerte Coutinho, João Montanaro and Claudio Mor – were named in a criminal complaint filed by Defenda PM, a military police association.Defenda PM said the cartoons, published in December 2019, “embarrassed” their members by depicting an incident of police activity that triggered a stampede resulting in civilian deaths.
 
The Ministry of Justice did not respond to VOA’s email requesting comment.
 
The Brazil embassy in Washington referred VOA to a June 15 tweet by Bolsonaro’s special secretary for social media, which says “false accusation of crime is a crime.”
 
“Noblat and the cartoonist are accusing the president of the very serious crime of Nazism,” a translation of the tweet read. “Unless they prove their accusation, which is impossible, they incur false imputation of crime and will answer for that crime.”FILE – Demonstrators unfurl a banner with a cartoon image of Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro with a paintbrush, insinuating he transformed a red cross into a swastika, during an anti-Bolsonaro protest, in Brasilia, Brazil, June 21, 2020.International rights groups condemned the legal action.”A hallmark of strong, secure, legitimate government is its ability to weather the mere lampoons of an impudent cartoonist,” Terry Anderson, executive director of Cartoonists Rights Network International (CRNI), told VOA. “Evidently Brazil has no such governance.”Deaths by stampedeDefenda PM said the December 2019 Folha de São Paulo cartoons humiliated their members.The cartoons were published in response to a Dec. 1 police chase in Paraisopolis, Sao Paulo’s second-largest slum, in which officers opened fire near a street party of about 5,000 people, triggering a stampede that killed nine.A January report by Rio de Janeiro’s Public Security Institute – a state-government subsidized civic research and community outreach organization – says police were responsible for 43% of all violent deaths in that state in 2019.Reuters last month reported that Brazil omitted complaints of police violence from an annual human rights report, sparking allegations of a cover-up of excessive force by law enforcement.”The criminal complaint filed by Defenda PM, a military police association, against four cartoonists and Folha de São Paulo newspaper, is also an example of the attempt to use the criminal system to intimidate and harass people who express opinions that should be protected in a democracy,” said César Muñoz, Americas senior researcher for U.S.-headquartered Human Rights Watch.”Defenda PM said that their cartoons ’embarrass’ military police officers,” he added. “What should embarrass them is not the cartoons, but the almost daily release of videos and other evidence showing military police using violence against unarmed people and breaking the law.”The Brazilian Association of Investigative Journalism (ABRAJI) echoed that sentiment, expressing concern that Brazil’s top justice officials would invoke national security laws to “defend the President of the Republic from a critical cartoon on his government.””While every citizen has the legal right to seek compensation when he feels his honor has been injured, using the power of the state and a law created during a dark period in the country’s history is disproportionate,” said ABRAJI board member Maria Esperidião, alluding to the National Security Law’s 1969 inception under a Brazilian junta.”The strategy suggests that the real objective was to intimidate the press and restrict freedom of expression,” she said. “Therefore, it gives the impression that the state is using its power against civil society.”Concerns about crackdownAnderson, of the cartoonists network, said the spate of criminal cases – and timing amid the pandemic – represents the realization of long-held concern for members of his organization.COVID-19: The Hit on Press FreedomAmid emergency measures and lockdowns globally, journalists are arrested, attacked or blocked from reporting on COVID-19.”In June we released a statement articulating our fears about irreparable damage to the profession of cartooning during and after the global pandemic, the primary reason being the convenient pretext it provides to authoritarians, populists and nationalists to further lean in to their most repressive impulses,” he added.”Thus far that would seem to be borne out by what is occurring in Brazil, where a beleaguered leader, who all objective observers agree has presided over a disastrous response to COVID-19, now leads an administration that has developed a marked sensitivity to cartoons.”Some information for this report came from the Associated Press and Reuters.
 
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Brazilian healthcare workers are urging the International Criminal Court to investigate President Jair Bolsonaro’s government for crimes against humanity for its handling of the coronavirus pandemic. A complaint containing evidence statements from unions representing more than one million healthcare workers has been submitted to the Hague-based court. FILE – Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro, who is infected with COVID-19, wears a protective face mask as he attends a Brazilian flag retreat ceremony outside his official residence the Alvorada Palace, in Brasilia, Brazil, July 22, 2020.The unions accuse Bolsonaro’s administration of being “criminally negligent” in its management of the COVID-19 outbreak, jeopardizing the lives of healthcare professionals and the general public. Bolsonaro has been at odds with many of the country’s governors, opposing restrictions to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, including stay at home measures. Bolsonaro, who just tested negative for the coronavirus after being infected with the virus for nearly three weeks, has repeatedly said, the restrictions hurt the country’s economy.   Brazil has the highest number of COVID-19 cases in Latin America, with more than 2.4 million cases and more than 87,000 deaths. 
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The initial hearing into corruption charges against the former CEO of the Mexican state run petroleum company known as PEMEX, Emilio Lozoya Austin, is set for Tuesday. Lozoya will appear before the judge via video-conference from a hospital where he has been since he was extradited  from Spain last Friday. He was said to be in poor health when he arrived back in Mexico. Lozoya, who headed  Pemex from 2012 to 2016 under Mexico’s former president, Enrique Pena Nieto, is denying charges he took bribes and was involved in money laundering.  Prosecutors say Lozoya asked for and obtained $4 million from Brazilian company Odebrecht, and then moved the cash into the coffers of Nieto’s 2012  election campaign and diverted some of the money for his personal use.  
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Inmates at a prison in central Bolivia staged a rooftop protest Monday, demanding medical services after the deaths of three inmates, including one suspected of having the novel coronavirus. Inmates held up banners calling attention to their plight, including one banner that read, “We want COVID-19 tests.”   A relative of one of the inmates complained that there are no doctors and no medicine.  She said the inmates are dying inside the facility. She implored that authorities cannot let them die, that we are all human beings and we cannot allow the authorities to do this.Inmates protest on the roof of a San Sebastian prison, asking for better medical attention amid the pandemic and to be given the results from previously administered COVID-19 tests, in Cochabamba, Bolivia, July 27, 2020.One inmate said authorities are aware of the deaths of inmates and police. But until today they have not received information about the deaths of other inmates. The demonstrators heightened concerns over their health follows the suspected coronavirus deaths of 23 people in the San Pedro jail in the capital, La Paz.   Officials are reportedly awaiting tests to see if those who died in the La Paz jail were infected with COVID-19. So far, Bolivia has confirmed more than 71,000 coronavirus cases and more than 2,600 deaths. 
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Many Roman Catholic churches in Mexico City, including its main cathedral, celebrated the first Mass Sunday after three months of lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic. Restrictions, however, are still in place, including mandatory face masks, shortened services, and church occupancy not more than 20%. “We are filled with joy to be able to receive our faithful and to be with them at this time when it has been so hard for them not to participate in the celebrations,” Auxiliary Bishop Salvador Gonzalez Morales said. Observing the sanitary measures to protect themselves from COVID-19, parishioners were nevertheless happy to attend Mass. “I felt very happy because I had been wanting to come for a long time and I couldn’t.  The Church wasn’t open. And now I was very pleased to be able to visit the Blessed Sacrament, to talk to him,” Maria Juana Flores, a church attendee, said. Another parishioner felt spiritually empowered to be able to go to church. “Peace and quiet. The spirit, one receives a spiritual force that lifts us up, right?” Hugo Perez, a church attendee, said. Mexican federal authorities left the decision on opening places of worship to state governments and city councils. The Mexican clergy has been hit hard by the coronavirus, with 46 priests, six deacons and three nuns dead as of July 15, according to data provided by the Catholic Multimedia Center of Mexico. The country now has over 385,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases and more than 43,000 deaths. 
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The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees is warning that unlawful and arbitrary incarceration of refugees and asylum seekers is putting them and the general public at heightened risk of COVID-19. The U.N. refugee agency is calling for their urgent and immediate release.Some countries are reportedly using the coronavirus pandemic as an excuse to lock up refugees and asylum seekers for longer periods of time.  The U.N. agency says refugees are fleeing war and persecution. It says they are not criminals and should not be detained without due legal process.   The agency says refugees and asylum seekers often are forced to live in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions.  It says social distancing in these settings is impossible and access to medical care and clean water is limited.    UNHCR spokesman Charlie Yaxley tells VOA the risk of a catastrophic outbreak of COVID-19 in one of these detention centers is great and could jeopardize public health. “Should somebody become infected with the virus, it could potentially spread quickly amongst the other detainees, but also amongst those who work and guard the centers themselves and therefore potentially risking further spreading even outside the centers,” he said.  The UNHCR says unlawful detention of refugees is not restricted to countries in conflict, such as Libya.  It says it also is widely used as an administrative procedure in all regions — in Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas.     Yaxley says the detention of refugees should be a measure of last resort, adding that children should never be held in immigration detention.  He says this can never be considered to be in the child’s best interest.     The UNHCR, he says, is calling for the immediate release of all children from detention as well as for refugees and asylum seekers being arbitrarily or unlawfully detained.   “We believe that releasing asylum seekers from detention is in the public health interest, not only of the United States, but for all countries… The detention of adults should only take place in exceptional circumstances and the detention of children, irrespective of their immigration status, should never happen at all,” he said.    The UNHCR urges governments to expand and implement community-based alternatives to detention, including other options for newly arriving refugees and asylum seekers.     It says detention center conditions should be improved while alternatives are being prepared.  It adds the UNHCR should continue to have access to asylum seekers and refugees held in these locations.  
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Argentina’s government reaffirmed on Saturday that it would not budge from its latest proposal to restructure around the $65 billion in debt but signaled it would be willing to negotiate on the fine print around the deal.The South American country is facing a standoff with bondholders after creditor groups joined forces to reject the government’s proposal earlier in July and put forward one of their own.The government has repeatedly said it cannot offer more, though sources told Reuters this week it would be willing to negotiate key contractual terms.“Argentina wishes to and will contribute to the development of contractual instruments that enhance the success of sovereign restructuring initiatives when they enjoy meaningful creditor support,” the Economy Ministry said in a statement.The ministry said the bondholder group’s counterproposal called for “yet more generous financial terms for the creditors compared to Argentina’s current offer,” while requesting that Argentina cover fees and expenses of the creditors’ advisers.“Those aspects of the counterproposal that seek to impose additional burdens on an economy that is choking in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis … cannot be accommodated,” the ministry said in the statement.Analysts say a gap of about 3 cents on the dollar between the sides at the negotiating table should be bridged in last-ditch talks ahead of a current August 4 deadline for a deal to avoid a messy legal standoff.Creditors’ legal demands include that amendments be made to the 2016 indenture for new debt issued in exchange for ‘Macri’ bonds, to prevent the government from using ‘Pac-Man’ style measures to make future changes to any agreement.Argentina has been in default since May, the country’s ninth, and is headed for 10-12 percent economic contraction this year due to the impact of COVID-19, deepening a recession that began in 2018. 
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The U.N. refugee agency is increasing efforts to protect tens of thousands of Venezuelan refugees and migrants in Brazil and the communities hosting them from the COVID-19 pandemic, which already has claimed nearly 83,000 lives in the country.Brazil is the second worst affected country in the world and the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic in Latin America. Venezuelans comprise most of the 345,000 refugees and asylum seekers in the country.
 
They have found a safe haven in Brazil from the economic hardship and political oppression in their country but now find themselves at high risk of becoming infected and even dying from COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.
 
The U.N. refugee agency says the pandemic is disproportionately affecting the most vulnerable. Those include the poorest, indigenous populations and other native communities, as well as refugees. UNHCR spokesman Babar Baloch says his agency has been helping local and national authorities prevent the spread of the disease since its onset.
 
“We have been scaling-up our support to help mitigate the threat of the virus among refugees, migrants and the local communities hosting them by providing infrastructure to strengthen the national health system, cash assistance, hygiene items and life-saving information such as informative sessions on preventive measures.,” Baloch said.
 
Baloch says the number of refugees who have contracted the virus is unknown because of the absence of data. He says the UNHCR is aware of at least 19 COVID-19 related deaths among refugees, of whom nine were indigenous Venezuelan refugees.
 
“UNHCR is also addressing rising humanitarian and health needs among refugees living on the streets, and in the overcrowded shelters and unsanitary conditions in the northern regions of Brazil, including in the Amazonas, Roraima and the Para states,” Baloch said.Amazonas state is one of the most affected regions in Brazil. It has more than 92,000 confirmed cases, including more than 3,000 COVID-19-related deaths.
 
Baloch says the UNHCR is expanding its information and preventive campaign in the region in an effort to limit the spread of the coronavirus, He says information sessions are being given in indigenous languages to make sure life-saving messages reach local residents. 
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Forecasters issued a hurricane warning for parts of the Texas coast as Tropical Storm Hanna threatened to bring heavy rain, rough waters and strong winds Saturday, all while another tropical storm approached the Caribbean.Hanna was centered about 300 kilometers east of Corpus Christi, Texas, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said Friday night. The storm had maximum sustained winds around 85 kph and was moving west at 17 kph.Hanna was forecast to make landfall as a hurricane Saturday afternoon or early evening. A hurricane warning is in effect for Baffin Bay to Mesquite Bay, a span that includes Corpus Christi. A storm surge waring is in effect for Baffin Bay to Sargent. A tropical storm warning is in effect from the mouth of the Rio Grande River to Baffin Bay and from Mesquite Bay to San Luis Pass.Forecasters said Hanna could bring 13 to 25 centimeters of rain and coastal swells that could cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions.Hanna broke the record as the earliest eighth Atlantic named storm, according to Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach. The previous record was Harvey on August 3, 2005, Klotzbach tweeted.Tropical Storm Gonzalo was also the earliest Atlantic named storm for its place in the alphabet. The previous record was held by Tropical Storm Gert, which formed on July 24, 2005. So far this year, Cristobal, Danielle, Edouard and Fay also set records for being the earliest named Atlantic storm for their alphabetic order.Gonzalo was moving at 30 kph while its maximum sustained winds weakened to 65 kph, according to the National Hurricane Center’s Friday night update. It was centered about 550 kilometers east of the southern Windward Islands.Officials said that those in the Windward Islands should monitor the storm as it is expected to approach the islands Saturday. Some strengthening was possible, but the storm is expected to weaken as it moves into the Caribbean Sea.A tropical storm warning has been issued for St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Tobago and Grenada and its dependencies. A tropical storm warning is in effect for several places, including St. Lucia, Tobago and Grenada. Forecasters said Gonzalo could bring 5 to 13 centimeters of rain. 
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The U.S. National Hurricane Center is watching two tropical storms, one in the Gulf of Mexico, the other in the Caribbean, that are expected to make landfall late Friday and early Saturday. Forecasters say Tropical Storm Gonzalo was, just after midday Friday, in the far western Atlantic Ocean just outside the Caribbean Sea, about 715 kilometers east of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. A hurricane-hunter aircraft indicated Gonzalo’s maximum sustained winds at the time were about 75 kilometers per hour.  There had been some concern Gonzalo could strengthen into a hurricane, but the hurricane watches for Barbados and St. Vincent and the Grenadines have been dropped. Those islands remain under a tropical storm warning and are expected to experience heavy rain and the potential for flash flooding. The storm is expected to weaken as it moves west in the Caribbean Sea. Gonzalo became the earliest named seventh tropical storm of the Atlantic hurricane season on Wednesday, shattering the 15-year record of Tropical Storm Gert. Meanwhile, the southern coast of Texas is bracing for Tropical Storm Hanna, which is expected to make landfall near Corpus Christi early Saturday. The storm is strengthening, and just after midday Friday it had maximum sustained winds of 85 kilometers per hour and was about 375 kilometers east of Corpus Christi. Forecasters predicted the storm, along with its damaging winds, would produce heavy rainfall and the possibility of life-threatening flash floods. A storm surge is also expected to flood areas in and around Corpus Christi with 30 centimeters to 1 meter of water, depending on the tides.
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Tropical Storm Gonzalo is churning across the Atlantic toward the Caribbean.The U.S. National Hurricane Center expects Gonzalo will reach the Windward Islands by late Friday or early Saturday.   A tropical storm watch is in effect for Tobago and Grenada. A hurricane watch has been issued for Barbados and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.The Hurricane Center says Gonzalo could strengthen into a hurricane but is expected to lose intensity as it moves into the Caribbean Sea.Gonzalo became the earliest named seventh tropical storm of the Atlantic hurricane season on Wednesday, shattering the 15-year record of Tropical Storm Gert.  Meantime, the Hurricane Center issued an advisory that Tropical Storm Hanna, which organized in the Gulf of Mexico late Thursday could make landfall along the coast of the southwestern U.S. state of Texas Saturday.
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Voters in Bolivia will have to wait until October before choosing the country’s next president because of the coronavirus pandemic.Bolivia’s Supreme Electoral Tribunal moved the election date from September 6 to October 18. The vote had initially been set for May 3.The president of the tribunal, Salvador Romero, said the new date of the election generates better conditions for health protection, convenience for voting from abroad, the arrival of international observation missions, as well as favoring the logistics throughout the territory by all departmental electoral tribunals.Romero rejected the claim by the controlling party in the legislature that lawmakers had to approve the change in date.Movement Toward Socialism is the party of former President Evo Morales, who was ousted last year and replaced by interim president Jeanine Áñez.Bolivia has confirmed more than 64,000 cases of the coronavirus and more than 2,300 deaths.   
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An overhaul of Haiti’s penal code that punishes marriage officiants who refuse to perform same-sex weddings is provoking outcry among religious leaders in the socially conservative Caribbean nation.  The tension is emerging in a nation that has never spelled out LGBT rights and same-sex unions have never been recognized and homosexuality has never been expressly codified as illegal.At the heart of the current discussion is the rewrite of the 185-year-old penal code, decreed by Haitian President Jovenel Moise last month. It voids the work of lawmakers who were drafting legal reforms before parliament recessed and the COVID-19 pandemic arrived in the country.  Published in an official government newsletter on June 24, the reforms would go into effect in 2022 unless a new parliament rejects the document.
 
Critics object to the sweeping changes issued by decree as well as the new penal code’s treatment of sexual minorities that, on paper, would make Haitian tribunals among the most LGBT-friendly in the Caribbean, a region where sexual minorities have faced centuries of repression. Outcry from the pulpitDr. Francoise St. Vil Villier, president of the National Spiritual Council of Haitian Churches. (Photo: Renan Toussaint / VOA)”The people don’t need immorality, the people don’t need homosexuality,” Dr. Francoise St. Vil Villier, president of the National Spiritual Council of Haitian Churches, said during a press conference. “Anyway, [LGBT people] have always been here, we don’t bother them, we look them in the eye. But legalizing it in Haiti? We say no.” 
“A penal code cannot be immoral, because its purpose is to sanction those who commit crimes against society,” countered Marie Ghislaine Monpremier, Haiti’s minister for women’s affairs. 
The new penal code tacitly allows homosexuality, as it contains no provisions punishing same-sex relations. And, it sets forth fines and possible prison sentences for officiants who refuse to perform same-sex weddings.  Port-au-Prince Pastor Gary St. Hubert, a Protestant, decried the provision.
 
“People will do what they want, but you can’t legalize it,” St. Hubert told VOA Creole. “You can’t force me — if a man comes to my church and asks me to marry him to another man — to do it or face arrest. Then there’s no democracy!”
 
Several pastors have given the government until July 25 to rescind the new penal code, promising street protests if no action is taken.
 Yaisah Val, 46, a transgender woman, watches a movie with her husband, Richecarde Val, 28, in their home in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.Human rights observers note that, as a civil matter, same-sex unions are not currently recognized in Haiti. In fact, there have seen unsuccessful legislative initiatives to fine and imprison married gay and lesbian couples over the past few years.
 
LGBT advocates say denunciations of the new penal code are misguided.
 
“There’s a difference between penal code and civil code. It’s the civil code which deals with marriage, not the penal code,” said Djennifer Mercer in a statement posted in French on the Facebook page of Kouraj, Haiti’s most prominent LGBT rights group.  Government weighs inHaiti’s Presidential Press Secretary Eddy Jackson Alexis (Photo: Yves Manuel / VOA)Presidential Press Secretary Eddy Jackson Alexis addressed the controversy in a recent press conference and promised broader consultations with the public.”There are lies being told about this document. They say it is what it is not,” he said, adding that articles have been cited that are not even part of the penal code. “To re-establish the truth, the government will address the people. The prime minister is meeting with sectors of civic society so that they may once again express their opinions.”
 Voices in Port-au-Prince  Most people VOA Creole asked about the new penal code on the streets of Port-au-Prince oppose it, reflecting views that LGBT advocates say predominate in Haiti and have long contributed to a climate of hostility towards sexual minorities.
 This Haitian mother of three boys says she is against the president’s new penal code articles regarding homosexuality. (Photo: Matiado Vilme /VOA)”Was the president drunk or on drugs when he came up with this idea?” a street vendor said.  
 
“If he signed this decree God will strike him down, because [according to the Bible] that is how Sodom’s life was destroyed,” a female merchant said. “We should all revolt against this document, we don’t want it.”
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Peru President Martín Vizcarra says 3,688 people were mistakenly not included in the previously reported death toll of those killed by the novel coronavirus.The revised death toll is at least 17,455.The new tally adds victims who died from March to the end of June. But it is unclear if more people who died of the virus this month may have gone uncounted.Vizcarra blames the miscount partly on the chaos created by the sudden impact of the pandemic. Vizcarra said Wednesday, a commission will be formed so the government can review the figures it receives from thousands of bureaus around the country that report to the National Death System, which keeps the official nationwide count.Peru’s more than 360,00 coronavirus cases is secondly only to Brazil in Latin America. 
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