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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Peruvian President Martin Vizcarra told lawmakers Friday that he had committed no crime and would not be cowed ahead of an impeachment hearing. “I am here, with my head high and my conscience clear,” Vizcarra said in a speech to Congress, adding that the country should not be “distracted” from real challenges. “Let’s not generate a new crisis, unnecessarily, that would primarily affect the most vulnerable,” he said.  Peru has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, along with an economic contraction. Lawmakers planned to vote later Friday on whether to oust Vizcarra from office. The impeachment proceeding is centered on the president’s relationship with a little-known singer, Richard Cisneros, who was given $50,000 in government contracts.  FILE – Event organizer Richard Cisneros arrives to the National Congress to deliver documents for an ongoing investigation into his hiring at the Ministry of Culture, in Lima, Peru, Sept. 11, 2020.Most experts expect Vizcarra to survive the vote. Two-thirds of lawmakers would need to approve the vote to remove him from office. Congress voted last week to begin impeachment hearings against Vizcarra on the ground of moral incompetence, following allegations he tried to interfere in a probe into government contracts given to Cisneros.  The move by Congress was fueled by opposition legislators airing secretly recorded audio that appears to show Vizcarra orchestrating a strategy with his aides to answer questions about his meetings with the singer.  Cisneros claims the $50,000 worth of contracts were legal, according to media reports.  Earlier this week, the country’s top court rejected a request by Vizcarra to stop the impeachment proceedings.  
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Journalists at Canal 12 News, one of Nicaragua’s two remaining independent news broadcasters, face an uncertain future after a court in the capital, Managua, ordered the station’s assets seized as part of a tax case that one of its editors says is political retaliation.The freeze affects Nicavision S.A., which operates Canal 12. The court order enforces a demand by the country’s tax agency that Canal 12 pay more than U.S. $500,000 in taxes due from 2011 to 2013, according to Managua weekly newspaper Confidencial.Judge Luden Quiroz García’s September 11 order to seize the broadcast facilities, station vehicles and the owner’s personal estate is the latest in a series of audits and asset seizures faced by news organizations that report critically on the government of President Daniel Ortega.“The government is going to try to silence the few TV stations that are left and telling the stories they don’t want to hear,” Canal 12 News director Marcos Medina told VOA.In Nicaragua, the majority of large media outlets are owned by members of Ortega’s family or his political allies.“This perverse action threatens freedom of the press and expression,” tweeted the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights. “We demand that the regime desist from its strategy of intimidating journalists and destroying independent media.”FILE – Nicaragua’s President Daniel Ortega.Officials at the Nicaraguan General Income Directorate, the country’s tax agency, and Managua’s embassy in Washington did not respond to requests for comment. The Ortega government, which is currently observing a weeklong holiday, has not commented on the court order, although sources close to the ruling party told VOA’s Latin America division that the decision was justified. They did not elaborate.Silencing last independent voicesCanal 12 News director Medina said the decision, which creates uncertainty for more than 20 staff at the station, mirrors harassment of other outlets.”The same type of pressure was faced by 100% Noticias and La Prensa,” he said, referring to outlets that faced Ortega government-led actions after reporting on the 2018 demonstrations.La Prensa, Nicaragua’s longest-running and best-known daily broadsheet, nearly folded after an 18-month government-enforced blockade of newsprint supplies, resulting in massively diminished circulation and newsroom-wide layoffs. The government lifted the blockade in February amid international pressure and calls from the Vatican.In December 2018, 100% Noticias, also known as Canal 15, had its operating license revoked and its offices confiscated by Nicaragua’s National Police. The channel’s director, Miguel Mora, and journalist Lucía Pineda Ubau both served six-month jail sentences for inciting terrorism.”Now the same is happening to Canal 12,” Medina said. “They don’t like the type of journalism we do, especially since April of 2018.”Tabloid newsroom taken overAlso commandeered by police was the newsroom of weekly tabloid Confidencial, whose publisher, Carlos Fernando Chamorro, fled to Costa Rica, where he spent 10 months operating the publication in a digital-only format. Chamorro returned to Nicaragua in November 2019 to run Confidencial from a new building.In January, Nicaraguan Supreme Court Magistrate Francisco Rosales told VOA a verdict on the police-confiscated outlets would soon be issued, but the court has yet to rule.If Canal 12 doesn’t survive, Canal 10, which boasts Nicaragua’s largest television audience, would remain the country’s sole independent broadcaster. On September 13, Managua-based news site Articulo66 reported that Canal 10 received a tax assessment declaring it more than $3 million in debt to the tax agency.Some already speculate that the Canal 10 assessment is also politically motivated.”[Canal 10] has fulfilled [all of its tax obligations], but you know how this is,” said a source who spoke with VOA on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.Washington imposed sanctions on the Ortega government and national police for human rights violations following the anti-government protests in 2018 and urged Managua to ease restrictions on other organizations. In May, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned Nicaraguan army commander Julio Cesar Aviles Castillo and Finance and Public Credit Minister Ivan Adolfo Acosta Montalvan for human rights abuses and “seeking to silence pro-democracy voices in Nicaragua.””Daniel Ortega strangles dissent and denies Nicaraguans access to information,” Michael G. Kozak, acting U.S. assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, tweeted Sept.13. “On the eve of Nicaraguan independence day, his regime is using spurious tax measures to close two vital independent TV broadcasters. Until Ortega releases his grip, Nicaraguans will not be free.”Daniel Ortega strangles dissent and denies Nicaraguans access to information. On the eve of Nicaraguan independence day, his regime is using spurious tax measures to close two vital independent TV broadcasters. Until Ortega releases his grip, Nicaraguans will not be free.— Michael G. Kozak (@WHAAsstSecty) September 13, 2020This story originated in VOA’s Latin America division.
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U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived Friday in Brazil and visited a Venezuelan refugee processing center, while calling for democracy and for Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to step down.About 250,000 Venezuelan refugees are now in Brazil, with about 600 arriving daily before the border was closed because of the coronavirus. Pompeo visited the center alongside Brazil’s Foreign Minister Ernesto Araújo.During a joint press conference in Guyana earlier in the day, Pompeo and Guyana’s President Irfaan Ali discussed the need for democracy in Venezuela.”We know that the Maduro regime has decimated the people of Venezuela and that Maduro himself is an indicted narcotics trafficker. That means he has to leave,” the secretary of state said, referring to U.S. drug trafficking charges against Maduro. “The United States and dozens of countries have made clear that Juan Guaidó is the duly elected leader of Venezuela. This is the objective — we want democracy and freedom and the rule of law.”Suriname’s President Chan Santokhi and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo walk together, in Paramaribo, Suriname, Sept. 17, 2020.The visit to Brazil comes after a historic first-ever trip to Suriname and Guyana by a U.S. secretary of state. There, he met with those nations’ leaders to discuss economic development in the wake of recent oil discoveries in both countries.Pompeo met Thursday with the president of Suriname, Chan Santokhi, before heading to Guyana. Both presidents are newly elected.In 2015, Exxon announced it had discovered a large oil reserve off the coast of Guyana, South America’s second-poorest nation. The BBC has reported that the 5.5 billion barrels’ worth of crude could make it the continent’s wealthiest nation.Exxon is already working in Suriname.During a brief appearance Friday, Ali and Pompeo both said they had not discussed Exxon’s deal with Guyana.“We did not discuss this. But I want to say that we are open to investment,” Ali said. “We are open to investors. … As we have said, prior to the elections, there are issues that we’ll have to review.”Pompeo said the negotiations were between Exxon and the Guyanese government, something he called “the American model.”China has been courting both Guyana and Suriname as they seek foreign investment.
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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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In a historic first-ever trip to Suriname and Guyana by a U.S. secretary of state, Mike Pompeo met with those nations’ leaders to discuss economic development in the wake of recent oil discoveries in both countries. Pompeo met Thursday with the president of Suriname, Chan Santokhi, and on Friday with the president of Guyana, Irfaan Ali, both of whom are newly elected. In 2015, Exxon announced it had discovered a Suriname’s President Chan Santokhi and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo walk together, in Paramaribo, Suriname, Sept. 17, 2020.Pompeo said the negotiations were between Exxon and the Guyanese government, something he called “the American model.” A State Department official told reporters that Pompeo “will highlight through these meetings how U.S. companies throughout the hemisphere invest responsibly and transparently.” “This draws a stark contrast with China, whose predatory loans and vanity projects saddle countries in the Western Hemisphere with unsustainable debts,” the official said. China has been courting both Guyana and Suriname as they seek foreign investment. Eric Farnsworth, vice president of the Council of the Americas and a former State Department official, told AFP that getting a U.S. secretary of state to visit Latin America or the Caribbean was “a heavy lift.” “For him to go to both of these countries is extraordinary and shows that something big is happening.” During a joint press conference Friday, Pompeo and Ali also discussed the need for democracy in Venezuela, reiterating the call for that country’s President Nicolas Maduro to step down. “We know that the Maduro regime has decimated the people of Venezuela and that Maduro himself is an indicted narcotics trafficker. That means he has to leave,” the secretary of state said, referencing U.S. drug trafficking charges against Maduro. “The United States and dozens of countries have made clear that Juan Guaidó is the duly elected leader of Venezuela. This is the objective — we want democracy and freedom and the rule of law.” From Guyana, Pompeo travels to Brazil later Friday for talks with the Brazilian foreign minister. 
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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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Canal 12 is one of the few independent TV stations in Nicaragua. But it could be forced to shut down if the Nicaraguan Justice Department seizes what it says is some $350,000 the station owes in taxes. If that happens, observers say it will continue a trend by the government of President Daniel Ortega of censoring the media and harassing journalists who are critical of the government. VOA’s Donaldo Hernandez in Managua filed this report, narrated by Cristina Caicedo Smit. 
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Bolivian Interim President Jeanine Áñez says she has dropped out of the nation’s presidential race in an effort to block ex-leader Evo Morales from returning to power.Áñez said she did not want to split the votes in the October 18 election, enabling the Movement for Socialism party of Morales return to power.Prior to her announcement, Áñez was trailing in fourth place in recent opinion polls.Áñez has yet endorse another candidate but she said she wants to link up with a party that has support in opposing Morales’ party.She said if voters do not unite, Morales will return, and democracy will lose.Áñez was named interim president when Morales fled Bolivia last year during protests over allegations of election fraud. 
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Peruvian lawmakers will hold an impeachment hearing Friday, a day after the country’s top court rejected a request by President Martin Vizcarra to stop the proceedings.Congress voted last week to begin impeachment hearings against Vizcarra on grounds of moral incompetence, following allegations he tried to interfere in a probe into government contracts given to a singer.The move by Congress was fueled by opposition legislators airing secretly recorded audio that appears to show Vizcarra orchestrating a strategy with his aides to answer questions about his meetings with singer Richard Cisneros.Media reports say Cisneros claims the $50,000 worth of contracts were legal.On Thursday, the president did not comment on the allegations while touring a banana plantation in the region of Piura, but a day earlier Vizcarra seemed to lash out at his detractors for attempting to create a political crisis in the midst of the coronavirus crisis. 
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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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Greek authorities have begun moving thousands of refugees to a new army-built camp on the island of Lesbos after a fire destroyed the country’s largest migrant facility last week.  More than 12,500 people from 70 countries, mostly refugees from Afghanistan, African nations, and Syria, were left without shelter and access to food, water, and proper sanitation when fire decimated the overcrowded Moria camp.  Authorities dressed in masks and white protective suits have so far guided some 1,800 migrants and refugees, who had been sleeping in makeshift shelters on the side of the road, to the new temporary facility at Kara Tepe near the port of Mytilene.  Seventy female officers were flown in to organize the transfer of women and children to the new camp. No violence was reported.  A dog sits next to migrants as they sleep on a road leading from Moria to the capital of Mytilene, on the northeastern island of Lesbos, Greece, Sept. 17, 2020.”As long as it is peaceful, we believe it is a good move,” said Astrid Castelein, head of the U.N. refugee agency’s office on Lesbos. “Here on the street it is a risk for security, for public health, and it’s not dignity, which we need for everyone.” Authorities have charged five Afghan asylum-seekers with starting the fires. Law enforcement officials say that the blazes broke out after 35 people tested positive for the coronavirus, triggering a lockdown of camp residents. A small group of inhabitants objected to being put into isolation. There have been no reported deaths as a result of the fires. Greek officials say the new camp is equipped to host at least 5,000 people, but many migrants are hesitant to move there. Moria had a capacity of roughly 2,700 people but was home to more than 12,500 at the time of the blaze.  The Greek government said it aims to replace open-air tent facilities with formal migrant centers that have temporary housing options, but a number of migrants and refugees hope to leave Lesbos. They say they fear that the living conditions at camp Kara Tepe will be no better than they were at Moira, which international aid groups had called “appalling.” Medical careDuring the operation to move residents to the temporary camp, they were tested for the coronavirus and so far, 35 have been found positive.  A child sits between plastic bags as migrants pull their belongings in Kara Tepe, near Mytilene, the capital of the northeastern island of Lesbos, Greece, Sept. 17, 2020.The nongovernmental medical aid organization Medecins Sans Frontieres, known as Doctors Without Borders, says that Greek police denied the health care workers access to its new clinic in Lesbos. According to the group, it took several hours before its workers were finally allowed to reopen their facilities, but says it was “highly concerning” that their critical medical care services were compromised during the move. Critics of the Moria camp say that the inhuman conditions there were a symbol of Europe’s failed migration policies.  The number of migrants seeking refuge on Greek islands near Turkey has fallen significantly since 2015, although camps remained overcrowded. In the past, the Greek government has accused wealthier European Union nations of failing to share the burden of assisting refugees, migrants, and asylum-seekers as they seek a new life in Europe.  Transfer to GermanyThe German government said this week it would take in 1,553 migrants, many of whom are families with refugee status, who had been living at camp Moria at the time of the fire.  Migrants wait to enter a new temporary refugee camp in Kara Tepe, near the capital of the northeastern island of Lesbos, Greece, Sept. 17, 2020.German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Monday that any transfer of migrants to Germany would need to go hand-in-hand with a broader European initiative to support the refugee crisis in Greece.  Merkel has voiced support for the Greek government to build a new reception center for migrants and refugees on Lesbos. The structure would be managed by EU agencies. Following the fire, Greece’s top public order official said plans to decongest migrant camps will be accelerated. On Tuesday, the Greek government vowed that the island of Lesbos will be emptied of refugees by early April 2021.  In a statement to The Guardian newspaper, Greece’s civil protection minister Michalis Chrysochoidis said, “Of the roughly 12,000 refugees here currently, I foresee 6,000 being transferred to the mainland by Christmas and the rest by Easter. The people of this island have gone through a lot. They’ve been very patient.”
 
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A U.S. consular official says her Belarusian-American husband’s life is in “immediate danger” after security forces in Belarus arrested him in July.  Vitali Shkliarov, 44, a political analyst who holds a U.S. diplomatic passport, was detained while visiting his elderly parents in his hometown of Gomel ahead of Belarus’s highly charged August 9 presidential elections, recounts his wife, Heather Shkliarov, in a letter released to news media.  “Vitali traveled to Belarus on July 9, along with our 8-year-old son, simply to visit his mother, who is suffering from advanced cancer, and to celebrate his birthday on July 11 with his family and friends,” writes Shkliarov, who says she stayed behind in the United States to prepare the family’s move to Ukraine as part of a new assignment to the U.S. embassy in Kyiv.Vitali Shkliarov in Moscow, 2018. (Charles Maynes/VOA)Vitali Shkliarov was arrested July 29 after having finished a two-week quarantine at his parents’ house due to the coronavirus.  “He was grabbed off the street, thrown into a van, and driven 300 kilometers to a detention center in Minsk, while our son was left in the custody of his grandmother, without either of his parents,” recounts Heather Shkliarov in her statement.As he was being detained, Shkliarov managed one quick message on his popular Russian-language Telegram channel: “arrested.” Authorities accuse him of working with jailed opposition blogger Siarhei Tsikhanouski to sponsor “group actions that grossly violate public order.”  He is the husband of Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, President Alexander Lukashenko’s main election rival, who is now in Lithuania. She argues the longtime Belarusian leader rigged the vote to remain in power.  In her statement, Heather Shkliarov disputed that her husband was involved in campaigning at all.Heather Shkliarov says her husband was charged with the crime of organizing an illegal campaign rally on May 29 in Grodno, Belarus, for jailed opposition leader Siarhei Tsikhanouski, despite never having been to Grodno or having met Tsikhanouski.  She also notes her husband was at home with her in Virginia at the time of the May rally.   “Vitali is suffering this fate not because he was a protestor or involved in any way in the presidential election in Belarus,” she added.  “His only offense,” she notes, was that “he had written articles that publicly criticized the administration of President Lukashenko.”Western plotsA prolific political commentator on events in America and the former Soviet Union, Shkliarov’s writings have appeared in Foreign Policy magazine and Russia’s independent Novaya Gazeta, among other publications.  He has also worked on presidential campaigns in Russia, Georgia, and the United States, where he was a field organizer for both President Barack Obama’s reelection bid in 2012 and Senator Bernie Sanders’s failed presidential run in 2016.  Shkliarov’s lawyer, Anton Gashinsky, says Lukashenko has exploited that political experience in an effort to portray a wave of protests against his government as a Western-backed plot.  The argument has been key to shoring up critical Russian support for Lukashenko’s government as the democratic uprising has grown in numbers and authorities have resorted to mass arrests.  “Vitali has become a convenient scapegoat for Lukashenko’s security forces,” said  Gashinsky in an interview with VOA.  “He ideally fits the picture that they’re trying to draw: foreigners came from abroad to organize a revolution.”  EU Parliament Votes to Stop Recognizing Belarus President When His Term ExpiresEuropean lawmakers also support sanctioning Alexander Lukashenko over disputed reelection, violent crackdown on protestersEarlier this month, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called on Belarus to release Shkliarov and “all those who have been unjustly detained” amid a police crackdown.  Heather Shkliarov’s press release said, “The views expressed in this statement are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Department of State or the U.S. government.”The view from inside  Vitali Shkliarov has detailed a grim existence since his detention last month.“Like any person daring to criticize an authoritarian regime, I understood you can’t swear off prison. But when they arrested me, I didn’t expect that I would fall into a totalitarian torture chamber,” Shkliarov wrote in a statement released last month.   “No, they don’t beat me. But they’re trying to break me. With everything they have,” he added.   Heather Shkliarov’s statement backed those assertions, arguing her husband was being exposed to “extreme psychological pressure” to force a confession.   “He is moved constantly from cell to cell to avoid having a sense of stability. The lights are never turned off in his cell, and loud music is blared all night so he is not ever able to sleep properly,” she writes.  “He has been subjected to extreme strip searches, forced to stand naked in a cell for hours at a time, and never allowed even to sit down on his bed during the day.”His wife also expressed growing concerns over his health in the COVID-19 era.  “On September 8, Vitali started feeling extremely ill, and for several days in a row, has reported a fever of over 102 degrees, along with respiratory issues, chills, and muscle pains.”Gashinsky, the lawyer, tells VOA prison authorities relented to requests for medical care and a doctor administered an initial test for COVID-19 on Wednesday.   It was not clear when results would come available, he added. 
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