Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny demanded Monday that Russia return the clothes he was wearing when he fell ill last month, saying the items are important evidence in the investigation of his poisoning.Navalny became sick while flying to Moscow on Aug. 20 and was taken to a hospital in Omsk. He wrote in his blog Monday that before being sent to Germany for treatment two days later, his clothes were taken from him.”Considering Novichok was found on my body, and that infection through contact is very likely, my clothes are a very important piece of evidence,” he said.A German military lab determined Navalny was poisoned with the nerve agent Novichok, a substance Western governments have accused Russia of using in the past, including against a former spy in Britain in 2018.Russia has not opened an investigation into the incident involving Navalny, saying its labs have found no indications he was poisoned. The Kremlin has also denied any involvement.Russian dissident Alexei Navalny, not seen in photo, on a stretcher is transferred into an ambulance before being driven to an airport, at the Omsk Ambulance Hospital, in Omsk, Russia, Aug. 22, 2020.Germany has threatened economic sanctions against Russia in response to what Foreign Minister Heiko Maas called a “serious crime,” while British Prime Minister Boris Johnson called the use of a chemical agent “outrageous.”The Trump administration has said it is working with allies “to hold those in Russia accountable.”Doctors in Germany put Navalny under an induced coma for more than a week as part of his treatment. After waking up, Navalny has reported his condition improving, including regaining more of his mental and physical abilities.Navalny has been a frequent critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin and worked on anti-corruption efforts in Russia. He has been jailed numerous times on charges that he and his supporters said were politically motivated. 
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Western European states are scrambling to curb a second coronavirus wave of infections by re-imposing pandemic restrictions lifted just weeks or months ago. But their governments say they are determined to avoid further stressing their stricken economics by re-introducing national lockdowns.  The big question is whether this will be possible. From Britain, which has banned social gatherings of more than six and is threatening punitive fines for transgressors, to Spain, where Madrid is now under lockdown, authorities are struggling to contain alarming second-wave surges while keeping schools open and encouraging people still to head to work.  A woman holds a sign reading ‘Public school: sustainable, free, active, in defense of children” as teachers and students take part in a protest calling for a ‘safe education’ in Malaga, Spain, Sept. 18, 2020.Officials in European capitals say it will ultimately be in the hands of public, if lockdowns are necessary. They hope better adherence to social distancing rules and more conscientious mask-wearing will help reverse infection surges — or at least slow them.  “If we want to avoid national measures and more action we can, but we can only do that if everybody follows the rules,” Britain’s health minister Matt Hancock said.  A national lockdown could be prevented if the “significant minority” of rule-breakers changed behavior. He urged people to report anyone breaching isolation orders or the rule of six, warning police would “come down hard on people who do the wrong thing.”  The snitching appeal has prompted an outcry from some quarters with critics saying it would turn Britain into a nation of score-settling busybodies. In Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon, the first minister of the devolved government, said last week, “No-one wants to see another full-scale lockdown. And above all we want to keep schools and childcare open because we know how important that is to the education and to the broader wellbeing of children and young people.”  But she added: “The bottom line here is this virus is on the rise again. Cases are rising quite rapidly.” The government’s chief scientific adviser, Patrick Vallance, said at a Downing Street news conference Monday that Britain was fast approaching a tipping point, warning that without tough measures the country could be seeing 50,000 new cases a day.  Customers eat sunday lunches at tables outside restaurants in Soho, in London. Sept. 20, 2020.England’s chief medical officer, Christopher Whitty outlined the dilemma the British government is facing, much as European neighbors. “If we do too little this virus will get out of control. If we go too far it will impact and damage the economy.” He urged everyone to observe the regulations just a day after thousands ignored the rules and crowded the seaside resort town of Blackpool. “You cannot in an epidemic just take your own risk, unfortunately you are taking a risk on behalf of everybody else, it’s important we see this as something we do collectively,” Whitty said. New infection highs  Britain is seeing daily infections rise to four-month highs, and cases might be doubling every day, according to health officials. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is due to make a nationwide television address Tuesday to announce a further tightening of restrictions on ordinary life. The British government is set to introduce fines of up to $13,000 for people who breach self-isolation rules.  Commuters walk across the London Bridge during the morning rush hour, in London, Britain, Sept. 21, 2020.The government’s scientific advisers have been advising Johnson to act more quickly than he did in March and have been urging an immediate two-week “circuit breaker” of a national lockdown just to help interrupt the pandemic and reduce hospital admissions.  But Johnson has come under pressure from finance ministers and business to ignore the circuit-breaker idea. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, reportedly has warned Johnson that a further national shutdown of the hospitality and leisure industry would be devastating to the economy.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.Pub and restaurant owners say the hospitality industry is now in existential crisis, with almost a million jobs at risk. A nighttime curfew aimed at discouraging partying is among the options Johnson is considering, a Downing Street official confirmed to VOA.  Opponents of stringent new measures include much of the British press. Most newspapers say the country cannot afford a second national lockdown.“The one thing that we cannot afford to do is to shut up shop again,” according to the influential newspaper The Times. It says targeted measures have an important role to play. “When the government introduced national restrictions in March, it did not have a system in place for dealing with smaller flare-ups. Now that it does, it should do as much as it can locally and regionally,” the paper concluded. But a simultaneous series of regional lockdowns could soon mean the country is itself locked down in all but name, say some commentators. More than ten million people are under lockdowns in parts of northern England already — and London might have to be put under a lockdown within days or weeks, according to the city’s mayor Sadiq Khan. France French officials, too, are struggling with how to balance public health needs without further crippling the country’s damaged economy.People eat lunch at a deserted Le Petit Chatelet restaurant in the Quartier Latin as the country battles to contain the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) while ensuring that economic and social activities can continue, in Paris, Sept. 18, 2020.A regional and local approach is also being adopted. In Nice, officials have banned gatherings of more than 10 people in public spaces and reduced opening hours for bars. New restrictions have also been imposed in the cities of Bordeaux and Marseilles.  A woman wearing a protective face mask walks past a sign showing the area where wearing a protective mask is mandatory, in Bordeaux, southwestern France, Sept. 16, 2020.France reported 13,498 new confirmed COVID-19 cases Saturday, setting another record in daily additional infections since the start of the epidemic in March. The new cases pushed the cumulative total to 442,194 as the seven-day moving average of daily new infections rose to more than 9,700, compared with a low of 272 at the end of May, two weeks after the lockdown was lifted. As with most of their western European counterparts, French officials say a sharp increase in the number of tests being conducted is partly behind the surge in numbers, but they add the virus is circulating much faster, too.  FILE – Municipal police officers wearing face masks talk to a woman, at the Promenade des Anglais, as they check that safety restrictions are being practiced, after France reopened its beaches to the public in Nice, May 22, 2020.Most of the recent surge was seen among younger people but the spikes are now being seen among the middle-aged and elderly — a pattern France’s neighbors are seeing. Hope  Some officials are hopeful the second wave of the coronavirus is likely to be less deadly as the first. Treatments have been refined and there is more understanding of COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus. People are more wary, despite rule-breakers, and the elderly are aware they need to shield at home. Governments in most western European states are also now more vigilant about nursing homes and have been increasing testing in them. Some infectious disease experts argue mutant strains are more contagious, but causing less serious illnesses. The chief of a French research hospital, microbiologist Didier Raoult, the director of IHU Méditerranée Infection in Marseilles, told French senators last week: “They are less severe, so something is happening with this virus, which makes it different. The mutations we have a rather degraded version of the initial form. At least that is our impression.” FILE – French medicine professor Didier Raoult wears a disposable face mask as he stands before a Senate commission on the management of the COVID19 pandemic by French State institutions on Sept. 5, 2020 in Paris.Other infectious disease experts disagree with Raoult, who was immersed in controversy earlier this year when he claimed hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malaria drug, could be used to cure COVID-19.  He was widely criticized for insisting that a small trial he conducted of the drug proved its effectiveness.  Raoult is not alone in arguing the coronavirus has changed and is less deadly. The Italian doctor who oversaw the treatment of former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi during his recent hospitalization in Milan for COVID-19 has also expressed a similar view about the changing nature and less aggressive of the virus. But Italy’s public health officials say there’s little supporting evidence to show that is the case. German officials are watching nervously the pandemic developments unfolding in neighboring countries. Germany has seen a rise in cases, recording 2,297 new infections of coronavirus on Saturday, according to the Robert Koch Institute, the country’s disease control and prevention agency. That’s the highest number of new daily infections since the end of April. FILE – A protestor with a social distancing barrier, takes part in a demonstration against COVID-19 measures, in Berlin, Sept. 1, 20202. Sign reads ‘Corona Hygiene Concept for everyday life.’But the surge is not on the same scale as other Western European countries. German Health Minister Jens Spahn said Monday that Germany will sooner or later see imported cases from Spain, Austria and the Netherlands. Countries like Spain have infection dynamics that are out of control, Spahn told public broadcaster Deutschlandfunk.  
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Several global banks moved large sums of allegedly illicit funds over a period of nearly two decades, despite red flags about the origins of the money, BuzzFeed and other media reported Sunday, citing confidential documents submitted by banks to the U.S. government.The media reports were based on leaked suspicious activity reports (SARs), filed by banks and other financial firms with the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).  The SARs, which the reports said numbered more than 2,100, were obtained by BuzzFeed News and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and other media organizations.In all, the ICIJ reported that the files contained information about more than $2 trillion worth of transactions between 1999 and 2017, which were flagged by internal compliance departments of financial institutions as suspicious. The SARs are in themselves not necessarily proof of wrongdoing, and the ICIJ reported the leaked documents were a tiny fraction of the reports filed with FinCEN.Five global banks appeared most often in the documents — HSBC Holdings Plc, JPMorgan Chase & Co, Deutsche Bank AG, Standard Chartered Plc and Bank of New York Mellon Corp, the ICIJ reported.The SARs provide key intelligence in global efforts to stop money laundering and other crimes. The media reports on Sunday painted a picture of a system that is both under-resourced and overwhelmed, allowing vast amounts of illicit funds to move through the banking system.A bank has a maximum of 60 days to file SARs after the date of initial detection of a reportable transaction, according to the Treasury Department’s Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. The ICIJ report said in some cases the banks failed to report suspect transactions until years after they had processed them.The SARs also showed that banks often moved funds for companies that were registered in offshore havens, such as the British Virgin Islands, and did not know the ultimate owner of the account, the report said.Among the types of transactions highlighted by the report: funds processed by JPMorgan for potentially corrupt individuals and companies in Venezuela, Ukraine and Malaysia; money from a Ponzi scheme moving through HSBC; and money linked to a Ukrainian billionaire processed by Deutsche Bank.”I hope these findings spur urgent action from policymakers to enact needed reforms,” said Tim Adams, chief executive of the trade group Institute of International Finance, in a statement. “As noted in today’s reports, the impacts of financial crime are felt beyond just the financial sector – it poses grave threats to society as a whole.”In a statement to Reuters, HSBC said “all of the information provided by the ICIJ is historical.” The bank said as of 2012, “HSBC embarked on a multi-year journey to overhaul its ability to combat financial crime across more than 60 jurisdictions.”Standard Chartered said in a statement to Reuters, “We take our responsibility to fight financial crime extremely seriously and have invested substantially in our compliance programs.”BNY Mellon told Reuters it could not comment on specific SARs. “We fully comply with all applicable laws and regulations, and assist authorities in the important work they do,” the bank said.JPM did not immediately respond to a request for comment but said in a statement to BuzzFeed that “thousands of employees and hundreds of millions of dollars are devoted to helping support law enforcement and national security efforts.”In a statement on Sunday, Deutsche Bank said the ICIJ had “reported on a number of historic issues.” “We have devoted significant resources to strengthening our controls and we are very focused on meeting our responsibilities and obligations,” the bank said.FinCEN said in a statement on its website on Sept. 1 that it was aware that various media outlets intended to publish a series of articles based on unlawfully disclosed SARs, as well as other documents, and said that the “unauthorized disclosure of SARs is a crime that can impact the national security of the United States.”Representatives for the U.S. Treasury did not immediately respond to an email for comment on Sunday. 
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A fire broke out Sunday evening in the reception and identification center for asylum-seekers on the Greek island of Samos but is now “under control,” according to police and firefighter sources.”The fire is under control but two or three containers were destroyed without causing any injuries,” a police source said. Refugees stay in containers.  According to the fire department press office, “three containers were removed as a precaution when the fire broke out.”  “The firefighters are there, there is no risk of the fire spreading,” an official with the firefighters’ press service told AFP.UN: Rehousing of Moria Fire Victims on Lesbos Island Proceeding Smoothly A police operation to transfer the asylum seekers to the new site has been proceeding smoothly with no use of force or incidence of violence    This disaster, which broke out around 8:30 p.m. local time (5:30 p.m. GMT), comes 10 days after two large fires ravaged the large camp of Moria on the island of Lesbos, known for its overpopulation and sordid living conditions.  On the streets for several days, most of the asylum-seekers expelled from Moria, about 10,000 people according to the authorities, were installed in a camp hastily set up by the government near the port of Mytilene, the capital of Lesbos.The Samos reception and identification center is one of five centers set up during the 2015 migration crisis on five Greek islands in the Aegean Sea (Lesbos, Samos, Kos , Leros, Chios) to stem the number of migrants arriving in Greece from neighboring Turkey.The living conditions in the Samos camp — which is smaller than that of Moria, with nearly 6,000 people despite its initial capacity for 650 asylum-seekers — are also very difficult, including inadequate hygienic conditions.The camps for asylum-seekers in Greece have been isolated since mid-March because of COVID-19, while the rest of the country returned to normal in early May.  According to authorities, 21 cases of COVID-19 have been detected in the Samos camp so far.
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Syrian opposition sources said Russian jets bombed rebel-held northwestern Syria on Sunday in the most extensive strikes since a Turkish-Russian deal halted major fighting with a cease-fire nearly six months ago.   Witnesses said the warplanes struck the western outskirts of Idlib city and that there was heavy artillery shelling in the mountainous Jabal al-Zawya region in southern Idlib from nearby Syrian army outposts. There were no immediate reports of casualties.   “These thirty raids are by far the heaviest strikes so far since the cease-fire deal,” said Mohammed Rasheed, a former rebel official and a volunteer plane spotter whose network covers the Russian air base in the western coastal province of Latakia.   Other tracking centers said Russian Sukhoi jets hit the Horsh area and Arab Said town, west of the city of Idlib. Unidentified drones also hit two rebel-held towns in the Sahel al-Ghab plain, west of Hama province.   There has been no wide-scale aerial bombing since a March agreement ended a Russian-backed bombing campaign that displaced over a million people in the region which borders Turkey after months of fighting.   There was no immediate comment from Moscow or the Syrian army, who have long accused militant groups who hold sway in the last opposition redoubt of wrecking the ceasefire deal and attacking army-held areas.   The deal between Turkish President and Russian President Vladimir Putin also defused a military confrontation between them after Ankara poured thousands of troops in Idlib province to hold back Russian-backed forces from new advances.   Western diplomats tracking Syria say Moscow piled pressure on Ankara in the latest round of talks on Wednesday to scale down its extensive military presence in Idlib. Turkey has more than ten thousand troops stationed in dozens of bases there, according to opposition sources in touch with Turkish military.   Witnesses say there has been a spike in sporadic shelling from Syrian army outposts against Turkish bases in the last two weeks. Rebels say the Syrian army and its allied militias were amassing troops on front lines.  
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For Rahaf al Mohammed, the Moria refugee center was a living hell, but now, after militant arsonists last week razed what has been frequently described as the worst in Europe, she refuses relocation to a new, fenced encampment 10 kilometers south.“Not good,” the 29-year-old Syrian mother said, “It is like [a] prison. Terrible prison.”“We went [there] but left [the] next day because [there was] no food, no electricity, no water, and no bottom [to] our tent,” she said, pushing a baby carriage back to Moria. “We slept on dirt and rocks. My babies [are] now sick.”Independent verification of the conditions at the new, heavily guarded Kare Tepe camp was not possible.Many of the 12,500 migrants and refugees left homeless after the ferocious blaze, though, attest to the same conditions, forcing most of them to return to Moria, seeking shelter in its chaotic, and now razed, sprawl of tarpaulin tents, crooked prefab structures and the acrid smell of burnt plastic.An aerial view of destroyed shelters following a fire at the Moria camp for refugees and migrants on the Island of Lesbos, Greece, Sept. 9, 2020.Under a scorching Greek sun this week, teams of bedraggled Afghan migrants were seen prying out mangled rods to erect flimsy tents. Others, mainly young men, used a broken irrigation pipe deep in an adjacent olive grove to shower in the open.“At least here,” said Mohammed Amir, 17, “we are at peace. Small aid groups come and help us. They give us food that we can eat three times a day.“Inside Kara Tepe,” the Afghan said, “food comes only once, and it is rotten.“There is no way, I am not going back there,” he said. His four sisters, in colorful head scarves and green plastic face masks, nodded in agreement.The stakes, though, are high. With more than 13,000 asylum seekers on the island, Lesbos remains a dangerous bottleneck in Europe’s migrant crisis.Worse yet, the troubled Kara Tepe transfer complicates government efforts to manage the country’s worst humanitarian crisis in five years, when more than 1 million refugees, mainly from Syria, flooded Europe in the biggest migration push since World War II.Government officials warn they may use force to round up and rehouse all migrants.Greek officials wearing personal protective equipment arrive in an area where refugees and migrants from the destroyed Moria camp are sheltered on the island of Lesbos, Sept. 18, 2020.In recent days, some 70 female officers in protective white suits and masks were deployed to help move women and children to Kara Tepe.More than 8,000 were checked in to the new sprawl of crisp white tents by the weekend. It remained unclear, however, whether the camp’s new residents would remain.“There are many Afghan men going around warning women and children not to resettle because they will burn this camp, also,” Abdirahman Chama, a 38-year-old migrant from Somalia said.“More importantly,” he said, “if you are out and have a chance to escape this island and go to the West, why go back in?“I will try to go Germany, but anywhere else will also be good.”Only recognized refugees can move to another EU member state, a status, together with its documentation, the government has told Lesbos’ homeless asylum seekers they can only obtain as residents of the new camp.Earlier this week, Germany agreed to take in 1,553 people from 408 families whose protected status has been confirmed by Greek authorities. Belgium and France are expected to follow suit, with the government vowing to empty Lesbos of its refugees by Easter.A woman with a baby holds a document before entering the new temporary refugee camp in Kara Tepe, on the northeastern island of Lesbos, Greece, Sept. 18, 2020.Until then, though, locals remain vigilant.“You think we would be relieved seeing this camp in our backyards destroyed,” said Stelios Panagopoulos, a coffee shop owner in the town of Moria, about a kilometer and a half north of the dreaded refugee camp.“We are now more scared than ever because militant migrants remain at large, and they are out there hiding in the fields and surrounding mountains, taking revenge on us, slaughtering our livestock and destroying our properties,” he said.Earlier this year, a farmer from Moria was barred from leaving the country and ordered to pay about $6,000 in fines for firing a warning shot at a migrant intruder. He has since been released and the migrant was detained.Last week, and after fleeing detention during the camp fire, the migrant returned, allegedly setting fire to the farmer’s barn.Authorities contacted by VOA suspect he was among the ringleaders of the Moria blaze.At least seven refugees, including two minors, have been arrested in connection with the fire.“There is one solution,” al Mohammed, the Syrian mother said, “we [must] all leave. It will be better for all.” 
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Facebook has told Ireland’s High Court it cannot see how its services could operate in the European Union if regulators freeze its data transfer mechanism, the Sunday Business Post reported, citing court documents seen by the paper.The U.S. social media giant last week said that the Irish Data Protection Commission, its lead EU regulator, had made a preliminary decision that the mechanism it uses to transfer data from the EU to the United States “cannot in practice be used.”Facebook requested and secured a temporary freeze on the order and a court review in the Irish High Court, which is due to consider the issue in November. In an affidavit submitted to the court to request that the order be frozen, Yvonne Cunnane, Facebook Ireland’s head of data protection and associate general counsel, said it was not clear how the company could continue providing services in the EU if the Irish order is enforced, the Sunday Business Post reported.”It is not clear to (Facebook) how, in those circumstances, it could continue to provide the Facebook and Instagram services in the EU,” the newspaper quoted the affidavit as saying.The affidavit has not been made public, a High Court spokesman said, and a Facebook spokeswoman did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.In a Sept. 9 blog post that first confirmed the investigation by the Irish regulator, Facebook said it “relied on the mechanism in question – under what are known as standard contractual clauses (SCCs) – to transfer data to countries outside the EU and that a ban would have “a far reaching effect on businesses that rely on SCCs.”The Irish investigation follows a ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union in July on when SCCs can be used legally.The ruling was in response to EU concerns that the surveillance regime in the United States might not respect the privacy rights of EU citizens when their personal data is sent to the United States for commercial use. 
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With precision and boundless energy, a team of carpenters used medieval techniques to raise up — by hand — a 3-ton oak truss Saturday in front of Notre Dame Cathedral, a replica of the wooden structures that were consumed in the landmark’s devastating April 2019 fire that also toppled its spire.The demonstration to mark European Heritage Days gave the hundreds of people a firsthand look at the rustic methods used 800 years ago to build the triangular frames in the nave of Notre Dame de Paris.It also showed that the decision to replicate the cathedral in its original form was the right one, said Gen. Jean-Louis Georgelin, who heads the cathedral’s reconstruction.“It shows … firstly that we made the right choice in choosing to rebuild the carpentry identically, in oak from France,” Georgelin said in an interview. “Secondly, it shows us the … method by which we will rebuild the framework, truss after truss.”A debate over whether the new spire should have a futuristic design or whether the trusses should be made of fireproof cement like in the Cathedral of Nantes, which was destroyed in a 1972 fire, ended with the decision in July to respect Notre Dame’s original design and materials.Carpenters put the skills of their medieval colleagues on show in front of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France, Sept. 19, 2020. French President Emmanuel Macron wants the cathedral reopened in 2024 in time for the Paris Olympic Games.A total of 25 trusses are to be installed at an unknown date in the cathedral nave. Philippe Gourmain, a forestry expert working on the cathedral project, said the carpentry phase will not come before 2022.“The problem of Notre Dame is not a carpentry problem. We have the wood. We know how to do it,” Gourmain said. “The big issue is regarding the stone.”Some stones — which support the carpentry — were damaged by the fire and “it’s not so easy now” to find similar stone, he said.French President Emmanuel Macron wants the cathedral reopened in 2024 in time for the Paris Olympic Games, a deadline that many experts have called unrealistic.For the moment, the delicate task of dismantling melted scaffolding, which was originally erected to refurbish the now-toppled spire, continues. That job, started in early June, will be completed in October.The soaring cathedral vaults are also being cleared of debris by 35 specialists on ropes. The organ with its 8,000 pipes was removed for repair in early August.It is not yet known what technique will be used to create and install the wooden trusses.Carpenters showcase medieval techniques in front of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France, Sept. 19, 2020. A total of 25 trusses are to be installed at an unknown date in the cathedral nave.The truss mounted for the weekend display is a replica of truss No. 7, more advanced that the first six trusses, which were “more primitive,” said Florian Carpentier, site manager for the team from Carpenters Without Borders team that felled the trees and used axes to cut the logs for the wooden frame. With rope cables and a rustic pulley system, the carpenters slowly pulled the truss they built in July from the ground where it was laid out.“It’s a moment to see, ancestral techniques that last. There is the present and the past and it links us to our roots,” said Romain Greif, an architect who came with his family to watch the display. “It’s an event.”In a final touch, once the No. 7 truss replica was raised on high, a carpenter shinnied up the wooden beams — to cheers — to tie an oak branch to the top of the triangular structure, a symbol of prosperity and a salute to the workers, a tradition still honored in numerous European countries. 
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A late draft to the Tour de France, Neilson Powless didn’t have time to scramble together a turtle necklace, the spirit animal of his Native American tribe, or paint one of their wampum bead belts on the frame of the bike that he’s ridden for three punishing weeks, over 3,300 kilometers of roads.But although unable to carry the Oneida Tribe’s symbols with him, the Tour rookie has become a powerful symbol himself as the first tribally recognized Native North American to have raced in the 117-year-old event.Not only has Powless survived cycling’s greatest and most grueling race, he distinguished himself in a crop of exciting young talents who helped set this Tour alight. Crossing the finish in Paris on Sunday will, he hopes, resonate on reservations back in the United States.”My main hope is that I can be a positive role model for young Indigenous kids who have a lot going against them,” Powless, who turned 24 during the race, told The Associated Press. “I think finishing the Tour de France is a testament to years of hard work and dedication to a lifelong dream. Hopefully I can help drive kids to setting their mind to a goal and going after it.””It must make it a lot easier when you can see somebody else who is doing it, or has done it,” he added.Neilson Powless of the US rides during the 16th stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 164 kilometers from La Tour-du-Pin to Villard-de-Lans, Sept. 15, 2020.Word of Powless’ feats in France has filtered back to the Oneida Nation in Wisconsin. The tribal chairman, Tehassi Hill, says the cyclist is blazing “a trail of journey, hope and inspiration.””Whenever one of our own, from the Oneida community, are in the spotlight, it definitely does not go unnoticed. Neilson’s journey and accomplishments, I’m sure are spoken of at many gatherings here in Oneida,” Hill told the AP.”Even during a pandemic, he did not falter or give up on his dreams,” the Oneida leader added. “This is an important message not only to our youth here in Oneida, but to everyone in our community.”Powless traces his Oneida heritage to his grandfather, Matthew Powless. The ex-U.S. Army paratrooper lived on the Stockbridge-Munsee Reservation in Wisconsin. He coached boxing and occasionally showed off his tribal smoke-dancing skills to his grandson. He died at age 80 in 2015.”I saw him dance once or twice when I was younger, but I wish I could have watched him more,” said Powless, who grew up in Roseville, California. “He tried to get me into boxing for a few years and I would train at the gym he coached at sometimes when we would visit.”The good news for American cycling is that Powless saw his future on a bike, instead. His main job at this Tour has been to ride in support of his team leader, veteran Colombian rider Rigoberto Uran. But Powless has also shown off his own strengths, particularly on arduous climbs. On his birthday, during Stage 6, he was part of a small group that powered to the front of the race in a fight on the slopes of the Mont Aigoual, with stunning views across southern France. He placed fourth at the top.”An amazing experience,” he said. “The win would have been nice.”He distinguished himself again two days later, placing fifth on the brutal Stage 8 of climbing in the Pyrenees.”This Tour will be a massive point of growth for him,” Jonathan Vaughters, his boss at the EF Pro Cycling team, told the AP. “Where that heads him is still unknown. But he certainly is coming out of the Tour a much better rider than he went in.”The Tour confirms he is its first Native North American competitor. The cyclist hasn’t made a fuss of his heritage. Vaughters says he only found out that Powless is one-quarter Oneida from the rider’s dad just days before he took the Tour start on August 29. Still, when pressed, Powless proudly points out that he has a tribal ID recognizing him as one of the 16,500 Oneida members.”The tribe has helped me financially with schooling. I have family on the reservation,” he said. “It’s not that I just had a blood test one day and decided ‘Oh, I guess I’m Native American.’ It is something I have, like, sort of grown up with and it has been part of my whole life and the tribe recognizes that as well.”Told just days before the Tour that he was on the team, Powless says he didn’t have time to discreetly decorate his bike or source a replacement for the turtle necklace he broke last year.Still, based on his performances, he’ll surely be back and able to fix that at future Tours.”Normally I would have a painting of the Oneida bead belt, the wampum belt, somewhere on my bike, my garment, my shoe,” he said. “Just something really small, most people wouldn’t even really see it. It’s just something that I have always tried to keep close to me.”  
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Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny said he is recovering his verbal and physical abilities at the German hospital where he is being treated for suspected nerve agent poisoning but that he at first felt despair over his condition.Navalny, the most visible opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin, fell ill on a domestic flight to Moscow on August 20 and was transferred to Germany for treatment two days later. A German military lab later determined that the Russian politician was poisoned with Novichok, the same class of Soviet-era agent that Britain said was used on a former Russian spy and his daughter in England in 2018.Navalny was kept in an induced coma for more than a week while being treated with an antidote. He said in a Saturday post on Instagram that once he was brought out of the coma, he was confused and couldn’t find the words to respond to a doctor’s questions.”Although I understood in general what the doctor wanted, I did not understand where to get the words. In what part of the head do they appear in?” Navalny wrote in the post, which accompanied a photo of him on a staircase. “I also did not know how to express my despair and, therefore, simply kept silent.””Now I’m a guy whose legs are shaking when he walks up the stairs, but he thinks: ‘Oh, this is a staircase! They go up it. Perhaps we should look for an elevator,'” Navalny said. “And before, I would have just stood there and stared.”The doctors treating him at Berlin’s Charite hospital “turned me from a ‘technically alive person’ into someone who has every chance to become the Highest Form of Being in Modern Society again — a person who can quickly scroll through Instagram and without hesitation understands where to put likes,” he wrote.The Kremlin has repeatedly said that before Navalny’s transfer to Berlin, Russian labs and a hospital in the Siberian city of Omsk found no sign of a poisoning. Moscow has called for Germany to provide its evidence and bristled at the urging of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other Western leaders to answer questions about what happened to the politician.”There is too much absurdity in this case to take anyone at their word,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Friday.Peskov also accused Navalny’s colleagues of hampering a Russian investigation by taking items from his hotel room out of the country, including a water bottle they claimed had traces of the nerve agent.Navalny’s colleagues said that they removed the bottle and other items from the hotel room in the Siberian city of Tomsk and brought them to Germany as potential evidence because they didn’t trust Russian authorities to conduct a proper probe.  
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Tadej Pogacar was left as shocked as fans, pundits and fellow riders after pulling off one of the biggest upsets in Tour de France annals when he claimed the overall lead by stunning odds-on favorite Primoz Roglic in Saturday’s final time trial.The 21-year-old Slovenian Pogacar started the decisive day second overall, 57 seconds behind his compatriot, and it seemed unthinkable that he could achieve what he did over 36.2 kilometers with a 5.9-kilometer final climb at an average gradient of 8.5%.Yet Pogacar, who is set to become the youngest race winner since 1904, beat Roglic by 1:56 to open a 59-second gap ahead of Sunday’s largely processional ride into Paris.”This is just incredible. In the morning, I was just happy to be in second place but then I had a really good day and I’m now just starting to realize that I’m in yellow,” Pogacar told a news conference.”Going into the third week of a grand tour I always feel good. Some days a bit worse, some days a bit better. I guess my genetics are really good. I have to thank my parents probably.”Barring a crash on Sunday, he will hold the yellow jersey, the white jersey for the best Under-25 rider in the race and the polka dot jersey for the mountains classification after having won three stages.”I was never thinking of the yellow jersey because it’s the biggest race in the world,” he said.Yet his UAE Emirates team believed in Pogacar more than he did.”They had confidence in me, and the team was prepared, they knew that I could do it,” he said.”For myself, I was thinking about the second place after the Col de la Loze on Wednesday. That day, I was a solid second and I wanted to secure second place.”Pogacar was not even born when American Greg LeMond pulled off a similar upset in 1989 by overturning a 50-second deficit to win the Tour by just 8 seconds from France’s Laurent Fignon in the final time trial.”I started watching the Tour around 2009-10. Back then I didn’t really know what it was all about,” Pogacar said.”I was cheering for (Alberto) Contador, (Andy) Schleck, guys like this. It was training and then TV all day. Now I’m here and I’m just so happy to be in yellow.”Pogacar’s triumphant season is not finished yet as he heads as a marked man to the world championships next week before riding the Ardennes classics, and possibly the Flanders classics, toward the end of the rescheduled season.  
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Police in London clashed with protesters Saturday at a rally against coronavirus restrictions, even as the mayor warned that it was “increasingly likely” that the British capital would soon need to introduce tighter rules to curb a sharp rise in infections.Scuffles broke out as police moved in to disperse hundreds of demonstrators who gathered in London’s central Trafalgar Square. Some protesters formed blockades to stop officers from making arrests, and traffic was stopped in the busy area.The “Resist and Act for Freedom” rally saw dozens of people holding banners and placards, such as one reading “This is now Tyranny,” and chanting “Freedom!” Police said there were “pockets of hostility and outbreaks of violence towards officers.”Britain’s Conservative government this week banned social gatherings of more than six people in a bid to tackle a steep rise in COVID-19 cases in the country. Stricter localized restrictions have also been introduced in large parts of England’s northwestern cities, affecting about 13.5 million people.But officials are considering tougher national restrictions after Prime Minister Boris Johnson confirmed Friday that Britain is “now seeing a second wave” of coronavirus, following the trend seen in France, Spain and across Europe.London Mayor Sadiq Khan said the city may impose some of the measures already in place elsewhere in the U.K. That may include curfews, earlier closing hours for pubs and bans on  household visits.People sit on a street closed to traffic to try to reduce the spread of coronavirus so bars, cafes and restaurants can continue to stay open, in London, Sept. 19, 2020. New lockdown restrictions in England appear to be in the cards.”I am extremely concerned by the latest evidence I’ve seen today from public health experts about the accelerating speed at which COVID-19 is now spreading here in London,” Khan said Friday. “It is increasingly likely that, in London, additional measures will soon be required to slow the spread of the virus.”Cases climbThe comments came as new daily coronavirus cases for Britain rose to 4,322, the highest since early May.The latest official estimates released Friday also show that new infections and hospital admissions are doubling every seven to eight days in the U.K. A survey of randomly selected people, not including those in hospitals or nursing homes, estimated that almost 60,000 people in England had COVID-19 in the week of September 4, about 1 in 900 people.Britain has Europe’s highest death toll in the pandemic with 41,821 confirmed virus-related deaths, but experts say all numbers undercount the true impact of the pandemic.In a statement, British police said the protesters Saturday were “putting themselves and others at risk” and urged all those at the London rally to disperse immediately or risk arrest.
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U.N. officials say a cease-fire that took effect in July in eastern Ukraine appears to be holding and has resulted in a significant drop in civilian casualties.The cease-fire between the Ukrainian government and Russian-backed separatists is giving rise to hope that the period of relative calm, the longest since the conflict began in April 2014, might result in a permanent peace.The conflict, which broke out after Russia’s illegal annexation of the Crimean Peninsula, has killed more than 13,000 people.
Since the cease-fire began July 27, the U.N. Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine says security incidents in eastern Ukraine have dropped by 53 percent. It adds there has been an even larger reduction in civilian casualties.Jens Laerke, spokesman for the U.N. Organization for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, says security incidents have dropped from 533 in July to 251 in August, and five civilian casualties were reported in August compared with 13 the previous month.’Sense of normality’“Our colleagues in Ukraine tell us that this improvement has given people on both sides of the ‘contact line’ that divides eastern Ukraine a sense of normality and people hope that it will become sustainable,” he said. “But they also report that up till now, they have not observed changes in terms of humanitarian access that could lead to a scaling up of humanitarian work, and that is largely due to restrictions imposed in response to COVID-19.”Laerke notes all five official crossing points were closed in late March because of the coronavirus pandemic. He says two have since reopened. However, he says crossings across the contact line are largely limited to those granted humanitarian exemptions.
The Ukrainian government stopped funding government services in areas controlled by rebels in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions when the conflict began. People living there are required to register as displaced people and cross the contact line into government-controlled areas to receive benefits.That is creating hardships for elderly people, especially those who are ill and disabled. The U.N. calculates up to 1.2 million people are unable to receive their pensions and social benefits because they cannot cross the contact line to obtain them.
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Belarusian police detained hundreds of protesters in central Minsk on Saturday, a witness said, as around 2,000 people marched through the city demanding that President Alexander Lukashenko step down.
 
Belarus, a former Soviet republic closely allied with Russia, has been rocked by mass street protests since Lukashenko claimed a landslide victory in an Aug. 9 presidential election that his opponents say was rigged. He denies their accusation.
 
Saturday’s protesters, most of them women, briefly scuffled with police who then blocked their path and started picking people one by one out of the crowd, the witness said.  
 
In one location, dozens of female protesters could be seen encircled by men in green uniforms and black balaclavas outside a shopping mall as they shouted “Only cowards beat women!”Police officers detain Nina Baginskaya, 73, during an opposition rally challenging official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus, Sept. 19, 2020.Among the detained was 73-year-old opposition activist Nina Baginskaya who has become an icon of the protest movement after scuffling with armed policemen last month.
 
One female protester was taken away in an ambulance after lying on the ground, apparently unconscious.
 
Lukashenko’s crackdown on the protests has prompted the European Union to weigh fresh sanctions against his government.
 
The president, who has ruled Belarus for 26 years, says the protesters are being backed by foreign powers. Earlier this month he secured a $1.5 billion lifeline from Moscow. 
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The Detroit home where American civil rights activist Rosa Parks took refuge after the historic bus boycott has been rebuilt as an art project in Naples, Italy. Parks’ niece saved the two-story home from demolition in Michigan following the 2008 financial crisis. She donated it to an American artist who rebuilt it for public display in Germany, and now in Italy, after failing to find a permanent place for it in the United States. VOA correspondent Mariama Diallo reports.
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Britain’s newest ambassador to China has gotten off to a rocky start after posting a photo on social media that some viewers interpreted as an endorsement of the hard-line policies of Chinese President Xi Jinping.Caroline Wilson, appointed in June to lead Britain’s diplomatic mission in Beijing as of this month, posted the photo on Twitter after a meeting with Liu Xiaoming, China’s envoy to Britain.In the photo, Liu beams with apparent delight as the two hold what appears to be a gifted book, the latest in a series of tomes laying out Xi’s thoughts on governance.Wilson described the occasion on Twitter as a “valuable meeting with @AmbLiuXiaoMing before heading to Beijing.” Her new subordinates at the British Embassy in Beijing subsequently retweeted the posting.As of Friday morning, Wilson’s tweet had generated more than 1,000 comments, and while a handful praised her as “the perfect person for this absolutely pivotal role,” the vast majority considered the posting highly problematic.“Even Liu XiaoMing didn’t choose to upload this photo,” one commentator wrote, though the Chinese envoy did post several other photos from the meeting. Many others shared the views of a writer who commented, “How could she uphold UK values while holding ‘Xi Jinping Thought’?”Among the most scathing comments was one from a writer who uploaded a 1938 photo of then-British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain shaking hands with Adolf Hitler. Another writer said Wilson’s gesture was “no different than holding Mao’s little red book.”A tweet that had generated almost 500 likes by Friday lodged a more serious charge, that Wilson is too eager to please Xi.Foreign ministry responseA spokesperson from the British foreign ministry defended Wilson’s tweet, telling VOA their country has “a policy of engagement with China and our approach will remain consistent even if difficulties emerge.”“We must have a calibrated approach and use engagement to raise matters on which the U.K. cannot agree or compromise with China, including on human rights and Hong Kong,” the spokesperson said.That argument is not persuasive to Roger Garside, a former British diplomat whose latest book, Coming Alive: China After Mao, focuses on contemporary China.“As a former British diplomat myself, who served twice in Beijing, I am appalled by this behavior by our Ambassador-designate to the PRC,” Garside wrote from London in response to VOA’s request for comment. “It goes beyond anything I have witnessed from a British diplomat.”Garside summed up the reaction to Wilson’s tweet as a “stream of well-deserved outrage.”’Hard looks’Clive Hamilton, a professor of public ethics in Australia, also responded to a request for comment from his home in Canberra:“I think the foreign policy establishment is lagging [behind] the political shift that has taken place in Britain this year. It has yet to wake up to the [Communist Party of China]’s ambitions and ruthless modus operandi.”Hamilton added: “The danger is that instead of advocating Britain’s policies in Beijing, she will end up advocating China’s policies in London.”Wilson has already attracted “hard looks” from critics of China’s ruling Communist Party within her own party, said Hamilton, the author of Hidden Hand, which warns that the Chinese Communist Party is determined to mold the world in its own image.He said there has been no public criticism “as far as I know, but I’ve heard indirectly that some have expressed dismay in private.”
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European countries announced new coronavirus restrictions Friday, one day after the World Health Organization warned infections have started to spread again across the continent at “alarming rates.”
 
In Spain, which has more cases than any other European country with more than 620,000, the regional government of Madrid ordered a lockdown effective Monday in some of the more impoverished areas after a spike in infections there. While movement in the area will be restricted, people will still be allowed to go to work.
 
Authorities in Nice, France, have banned gatherings of more than 10 people in public spaces and cut bar operating hours, after new restrictions were imposed earlier this week in Bordeaux and Marseilles.
 
Britain said it is considering a new national lockdown after cases nearly doubled to 6,000 a day in the latest reporting week. British Health Minister Matt Hancock said another lockdown should be a last resort but that the government would do whatever is necessary to contain the virus.
 New lockdown in Israel
 
Israel begins a second lockdown Friday because of a sharp jump in the number of coronavirus cases.  
 
The three-week-long restrictions come just as the country is set to begin the Jewish holidays.   
 
Israelis are allowed to travel no more than 500 meters from their houses. Exceptions include those purchasing medicine, seeking medical services, “helping someone in distress,” transferring a minor between parents, and obtaining “essential treatment for animals.”Israeli police officers wearing face masks to protect against coronavirus secure a check point on the first day of three-week lockdown in Bnei Brak, Israel, Sept 18, 2020.And in Iran, a senior Iranian official said the country should be on “red alert” after it reported 3,049 new cases Friday, the highest daily gain since early June.  
 
“The color classification doesn’t make any sense anymore,” Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirchi said in an interview with Reuters. “We no longer have orange and yellow. The entire country is red.”
 
India’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said Friday that 96,424 new infections and more than 1,000 COVID-related deaths were reported in the last 24 hours.  
 
In North America, Canada has decided to extend the closure of the border its shares with the United States to non-essential travel until October 21, after seeing an increase in infections in recent weeks. Canadian Public Safety Minister Bill Blair said Friday such decisions would continue to be based on public health advice to protect its citizens. The closing was first announced on March 18 and have been extended each month since.  
 US minorities affected
 
And in the U.S., the U.S. data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week revealed that members of minorities younger than 21 years old are disproportionately affected by COVID-19 compared with white Americans in the same age group.
 
Between February 21 and July 31, 121 people younger than 21 died of the disease, according to data compiled from 27 states. More than 75% of those young people were Hispanic, Black, American Indian and Alaska Native, even though they represent 41% of the U.S. population.FILE – A “promotora” (health promoter) from CASA, a Hispanic advocacy group, tries to enroll Latinos as volunteers to test a potential COVID-19 vaccine, at a farmers market in Takoma Park, Maryland, Sept. 9, 2020.The CDC report also found that 75% of those who died had at least one underlying health condition such as asthma, obesity, neurologic and developmental conditions or cardiovascular conditions.  
 
Researchers pointed out that certain social conditions, including crowded living environments, food and housing insecurity, and wealth and education gaps, could be contributing factors in the high fatality rates among minority children.
 Vaccine trust tumbles
 
Nearly half of Americans, or 49%, said they definitely or probably would not get an inoculation if a coronavirus vaccine were available today, while 51% said they would, according to a Pew Research Center poll conducted earlier this month.
 
The 49% who lean toward rejecting the inoculation cited concerns about side effects from the vaccine.  
 
On Friday, the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Research Center reported there are more than 30 million COVID-19 infections worldwide and almost 950,000 deaths.  
 
The United States has more cases than anywhere else in the world with 6.6 million, followed by India with 5.1 million cases and Brazil with 4.4 million. 
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Denmark’s prime minister announced Friday new COVID-19-related restrictions after a resurgence of coronavirus infections in recent weeks.
 
At a news conference in Copenhagen, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said Denmark will lower the limit on public gatherings to 50 people, down from 100, and bars and restaurants will close at 10 p.m. She said both measures will take effect Saturday and stay in effect until October 4.
 
In recent weeks, Frederiksen said, Denmark has seen daily infections rise after a relaxing of lockdown measures imposed between March and May. She said 454 new coronavirus infections had been registered in Denmark over the prior 24 hours, close to an April record of 473.  
 
The prime minister said the COVID-19 reproduction rate, which indicates how many people one infected person on average transmits the virus to, is at 1.5 in the country.  
 
Denmark is part of a growing list of European countries re-imposing or tightening COVID-19 restrictions in the face of surging infections rates that follow relaxed lockdown measures.
 
Britain, France and Spain have all locked down regions or at least tightened restrictions in targeted areas after seeing cases surge this week. British Health Minister Matt Hancock said a second nationwide lockdown could happen if cases continue to surge.
 
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The European Commission presented a series of measures Friday aimed at tackling structural racism and discrimination, acknowledging a blatant lack of diversity among the European Union’s institutions.  The bloc’s executive arm set out its action plan for the next five years, which includes strengthening the current legal framework, recruiting an anti-racism coordinator and increasing the diversity of EU staff.  The European Commission’s vice president for values and transparency, Věra Jourová, said that recent anti-racism protests in the U.S. and Europe highlighted the need for action.  “We have reached a moment of reckoning. The protests sent a clear message, change must happen now,” Jourová said. “It won’t be easy, but it must be done.  “We won’t shy away from strengthening the legislation, if needed,” she said. “The commission itself will adapt its recruiting policy to better reflect European society.”  The current College of Commissioners, which oversees EU policies, is made up of 27 members, one from each EU country. All the members of the team set up last year by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen are white.  Under the plan, data on the diversity of commission staff will for the first time be collected on the basis of a voluntary survey that will help define new recruitment policies.  Meanwhile, the new coordinator for anti-racism will be in charge of collecting the grievances and feelings of minorities to make sure they are reflected in EU policies.  The EU said that more than half of Europeans believe that discrimination is widespread in their country. According to surveys carried out by the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights, or FRA, 45% of people of North African descent, 41% of Roma and 39% of people of sub-Saharan African descent have faced such discrimination.  The EU’s racial equality directive will also be assessed, with possible new legislation introduced in 2022. In the wake of the Black Live Matters protests triggered by George Floyd’s death in the U.S., the European Commission said it would look carefully into discrimination by law enforcement authorities such as unlawful racial profiling. Meanwhile, the EU agency for fundamental rights will continue to collect data on police attitudes towards minorities.  The European Commission also wants to combat stereotypes and disinformation by setting up a series of seminars and promoting commemorative days linked to the issue of racism. It also encouraged member states to address stereotypes via cultural and education programs, or the media. A summit against racism is planned next year.  “Nobody is born racist. It is not a characteristic which we are born with,” said Helena Dalli, the EU commissioner for equality. “It’s a question of nurture, and not nature. We have to unlearn what we have learned.”  Earlier this year, the European Parliament approved a resolution condemning the Floyd’s death and asking the EU to take a strong stance against racism. 
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British Health Minister Matt Hancock said Friday the government is contemplating a second nationwide lockdown as new COVID-19 cases continue to surge in Britain. Hancock commented in two interviews as a new lockdown went into effect in northeastern Britain. Hancock said there has been an acceleration in the number of cases over the last couple of weeks, and the number of people hospitalized with the disease caused by the coronavirus has been doubling about every eight days. FILE – Britain’s Health Secretary Matt Hancock holds the daily coronavirus disease news conference at 10 Downing Street in London, May 21, 2020. (Credit: Pippa Fowles /10 Downing Street/Handout)The health minister said a nationwide lockdown is “the last line of defense,” and the government would prefer isolated, regional lockdowns. But he said the government will do what it must “to protect lives and livelihoods.” Hancock urged British citizens to follow the “rule of six,” with no public gatherings of more than six people; obey local restrictions in their area; and self-isolate if they have tested positive. The Johns Hopkins University says Britain has the fifth-largest number of deaths from COVID-19 after the United States, Brazil, India and Mexico. COVID-19 cases started to rise again in Britain this month, with between 3,000 and 4,000 positive tests recorded daily in the last week, but that is behind France and its more than 10,000 cases a day, officials say. On September 17, Britain recorded 21 deaths from the disease, and the total stands at 41,794, according to Johns Hopkins. 
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FBI Director Christopher Wray told lawmakers Thursday that Russia is not letting up in its efforts to sway the outcome of the November presidential election, backing earlier assessments from U.S. counterintelligence officials that Moscow’s main goal is to damage the campaign of Democratic candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden. Wray, testifying before the House Homeland Security Committee, described the Kremlin’s influence operations as “very, very active” on social media, on its own state-run media and through various proxies. Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Christopher Wray testifies before a House Committee on Homeland Security hearing, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Sept. 17, 2020.The aim of these influence operations is “primarily to denigrate Vice President Biden and what the Russians see as kind of an anti-Russian establishment,” he said. The FBI director’s comments are in line with a rare public assessment in early August about threats to the U.S. election provided by the nation’s top counterintelligence official, William Evanina. FILE – Director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center William Evanina speaks during the Reuters Cybersecurity Summit in Washington, Oct. 31, 2017.”What concerns me the most is the steady drumbeat of misinformation and amplification of smaller cyber intrusions,” Wray said. “I worry they will contribute over time to a lack of confidence [among] American voters.”That would be a perception, not reality. I think Americans can and should have confidence in our election system and certainly in our democracy,” he added. No Signs of Cyberattacks Targeting US Election SystemsTop US officials seek to reassure voters with less than 50 days until the November presidential electionDuring lawmakers’ questioning, Wray also rejected concerns about the expected increase in the use of mail-in ballots for the November election, despite repeated warnings from Trump that voting by mail will lead to massive fraud. “We have not seen, to date, a coordinated national voter fraud effort in a major election,” he said, echoing assurances given by senior U.S. law enforcement and intelligence officials who spoke to reporters on the condition of anonymity just last month. US Officials Reject Claims of Rigged Presidential ElectionSenior intelligence and law enforcement officials say there is ‘no information’ to support claims that someone could use mail-in ballots to manipulate outcome of upcoming electionWray’s assurances, though, appear to leave him at odds with Trump, who later Thursday sent out a series of tweets warning that the use of mail-in ballots will result in a “RIGGED ELECTION” and “lead to massive chaos and confusion!” Just out: Some people in the Great State of North Carolina have been sent TWO BALLOTS. RIGGED ELECTION in waiting!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 17, 2020Unsolicited Ballots are uncontrollable, totally open to ELECTION INTERFERENCE by foreign countries, and will lead to massive chaos and confusion!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 17, 2020Antifa and US protests The FBI director also appeared to clash with Trump, and Republican lawmakers, over antifa, a left-wing protest movement that has been increasingly visible in demonstrations that have spread across the country. Trump has tweeted repeatedly about classifying antifa as a terrorist organization. Major consideration is being given to naming ANTIFA an “ORGANIZATION OF TERROR.” Portland is being watched very closely. Hopefully the Mayor will be able to properly do his job!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 17, 2019Consideration is being given to declaring ANTIFA, the gutless Radical Left Wack Jobs who go around hitting (only non-fighters) people over the heads with baseball bats, a major Organization of Terror (along with MS-13 & others). Would make it easier for police to do their job!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 27, 2019But Wray repeatedly shied away from that sort of description Thursday. “We look at antifa as more of an ideology or a movement than an organization,” he told lawmakers, adding there is no evidence that antifa is behind any sort of coordinated campaign to incite violence at protests that have gripped parts of the country. “Much of the violence that we’re seeing does not appear to be organized or attributed to any one particular group or movement,” the FBI director said. Instead, he described attempts by antifa and other movements, like the right-wing Boogaloo Boys, to instigate violence as ad hoc. Boogaloo Boys Aim to Provoke 2nd US Civil War Group goal is to co-opt practically any anti-government event – from anti-lockdown demonstrations to Black Lives Matter protests – to violently confront government”We are seeing, in certain pockets, more kind of regionally organized folks coalescing, often coordinating on the ground in the middle of protests,” Wray said, adding that such attempts can even cross ideological lines, such as in one incident earlier this month in which two self-described Boogaloo Boys attempted to join with the Palestinian terror group Hamas. ICYMI: Self-described “Boogaloo Bois” charged w/attempting to provide #Hamas firearms/parts Per @FBI 30yo Michael Solomon of Minnesota & 22yo Benjamin Teeter of #NorthCarolina are part of a sub-group called the “Boojahideen” & felt their anti-US gvt views aligned w/Hamas— Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) September 4, 2020Wray’s explanations about antifa, however, did not sit well with Republican Representative Dan Crenshaw, from Texas, who has been supportive of the president. “It seems strange to me that we can’t call it a group,” Crenshaw told Wray.  “This is an ideology that organizes locally. It coordinates regionally and nationally. It wears a standardized uniform. It collects funds to buy high-powered lasers to blind federal officers,” Crenshaw said. “It just seems to be more than an ideology.” But Wray said the FBI’s focus is on violence and criminology, and not ideology, which is protected under freedom of speech. “I, by no means, mean to minimize the seriousness of the violence and criminality that is going on,” he said. “To be clear, we do have quite a number of properly predicated investigations into violent anarchist extremists, any number of who self-identify with the antifa movement.” US-based extremists Wray also told lawmakers the FBI sees U.S.-based violent extremists, whether influenced by jihadist ideology or ideology emanating domestically, as the biggest threat to the country. “Racially motivated violent extremism is, I think, the biggest bucket within that larger group,” he said, noting there have been a total of 120 arrests for domestic terrorism this year. 
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Poland’s governing alliance appeared to be in disarray early Friday, as a dispute over animal rights measures highlighted divisions in the ruling camp, raising the possibility of early elections if differences cannot be resolved. Tensions within the alliance led by the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party came into the open after some members did not support the measures, which passed in parliament with opposition support. The dispute over changes to animal rights laws, which are seen as an appeal to younger voters, halted talks on overhauling ministries and threatened deeper problems for the coalition. The measures, which would ban fur farming and curb the slaughter of animals, were opposed by all lawmakers from the ultra-conservative United Poland party. Other lawmakers abstained. Polish farmers take part in a demonstration against a proposed ban on fur farms and kosher meat exports in Warsaw, Poland, Sept. 16, 2020.PiS lawmaker and Agriculture Minister Jan Krzysztof Ardanowski, who had openly criticized the bill, voted against it. Opponents of the bill within the ruling alliance said it would alienate voters in PiS’s rural heartlands and hurt farmers. Poland produces millions of furs a year, and the sector employs about 50,000 people. The country is also one of Europe’s biggest exporters of halal and kosher meat, with 2017 shipments of more than 70,000 tons. Talks had been under way between PiS, United Poland and the more liberal Accord over plans to reduce the number of ministries, potentially concentrating power in the hands of PiS. “Negotiations … have been suspended due to the situation we have in the Sejm,” or parliament, PiS lawmaker and Deputy Parliament Speaker Ryszard Terlecki said before the vote. Asked about ruling as a minority government, Terlecki said this would not be possible. “If that happens, we’ll go to elections. Alone, of course.” In 2007, PiS decided to go for early elections and lost power, making the party well aware of the risks of such a move. 
 
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Social media companies are taking down videos and images that could be vital in prosecuting serious crimes, according to a new report from Human Rights Watch. Facebook, YouTube and Twitter are increasingly using artificial intelligence algorithms to remove material deemed offensive or illegal. Human Rights Watch says vital evidence is being missed or destroyed. Henry Ridgwell reports.
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Britain’s health secretary, Matt Hancock, has announced new lockdown measures on the northeast of England after a significant surge in coronavirus cases there. Hancock told parliament that beginning Friday, people in the region would not be allowed to socialize with others outside their households or support groups. Restaurants and bars would be allowed to provide only table service, and “leisure and entertainment venues” would have to close between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m.  The health secretary told parliament Thursday the government does not take the steps lightly, and it understands the impact the restrictions can have on families, business and communities. But, he said, “We must follow the data and act. And the data says that we must act now.” Earlier this week, the British government had tightened restrictions across the country, banning social gatherings of more than six people. Residents across England have been struggling to access the COVID-19 testing system since an increase in cases raised the demand for tests. Hancock said the huge spike in demand for coronavirus testing for people who do not have symptoms was creating challenges in the system, after members of parliament shared stories of people without symptoms not being able to get tested. Reuters news agency reports official statistics show Britain recorded 3,991 new positive cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, compared with 3,105 the day before. The news agency also reported a further 20 new deaths from COVID-19. Britain’s overall death toll from the virus is 41,773, the highest in Europe, according to Johns Hopkins University. 
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