The United States is warning Turkey against taking any additional steps to operationalize its Russian-made S-400 air defense system, warning there will be consequences even if that risks pushing Ankara closer to an alliance with Moscow.Relations between Washington and Ankara, which have soured in recent years, hit a new low last week when Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan confirmed his military had FILE – Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks in a televised address in Ankara, Sept. 21, 2020.Erdogan, however, has brushed aside the warnings, telling reporters last week that the U.S. stance “absolutely does not concern us.”Despite the apparent impasse, the U.S. has not given up on finding a way to bring Ankara back into the fold.Cooper, recently back from a visit to Greece and Bulgaria, said the U.S. has encouraged both countries, as well as other NATO allies, to do what they can to “make sure that Turkey remains in the West.”’Significant roles’ for Turkey”It’s to the alliance’s detriment to not have Turkey inside the alliance,” Cooper said. “There are significant roles that they still maintain with us … in the greater security of Europe and in the region.”Whether such efforts can overcome what U.S. officials like Cooper describe as “disruptive actions coming from Moscow to cleave us apart” remains to be seen.If they fail, U.S. officials caution that Ankara, like the U.S. and NATO, could suffer.”The only beneficiary of Turkey leaving the West or being cleaved away from Europe would be Moscow,” Cooper said. “There would be a diminishing return, even for Turkey.”
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Europe is once again an epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic and Spain – under a state of emergency – has gone into another lockdown as protests continue.  Alfonso Beato has more from Barcelona in this report narrated by Roderick James.Camera: Alfonso Beato   Producer: Roderick James
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Turkish officials have lashed out at the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, which published a cartoon mocking Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The cartoon shows Erdogan, apparently in his underwear, holding a drink and lifting the skirt of a woman wearing Islamic garb. “We strongly condemn the publication concerning our president of the French magazine, which has no respect to faith, the sacred and values,” Erdogan’s spokesman, Ibrahim Kalin, tweeted. Tensions between the two NATO allies have risen in recent months as Macron vowed to defend secularism in the wake of the public beheading of a French teacher earlier this month by a Muslim militant. Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan addresses his ruling party lawmakers at the parliament, in Ankara, Turkey, Oct. 28, 2020.The militant was angered because the teacher had shown students the magazine’s cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad. Macron called Islam a religion “in crisis” and announced measures to stem what he called separatism. France has the largest Muslim community in Western Europe. Earlier this week, Erdogan called for Turks and other Muslims to boycott French products. According to AP, Erdogan said he had not looked at the cartoon, but in parliament he said his “sadness and anger does not stem from the disgusting attack on my person but from the fact that the same [publication] is the source of the impertinent attack [on] my dear prophet.”  His vice president was more direct. “I condemn this incorrigible French rag’s immoral publication concerning our president,” Fuat Oktay wrote on Twitter. “I call on the moral and conscientious international community to speak out against this disgrace.” Reaction from FranceAccording to Turkish state media, Ankara’s Chief Prosecutor’s office has launched an investigation into managers at Charlie Hebdo. In Turkey, insulting the president is punishable by up to four years in prison. A spokesman for the French government said it would not back down against what he characterized as “efforts of destabilization, of intimidation.” “Despite this intimidation, France will never renounce its principles and values, and notably the freedom of expression and freedom of publication” Gabriel Attal said. “It was hateful comments toward journalists, toward a newsroom, that led to the bloodshed we have seen in recent years in our country,” he said, referring to the killing of 12 people in the 2015 attack in Charlie Hebdo’s offices in Paris. 
 
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An unexpected consequence of the COVID crisis in Germany has been the rapid increase in followers of the QAnon conspiracy theory. As Jacob Russell reports from Berlin, Germany now has the second largest following outside the United States as more people become skeptical of their government’s good intentions.Camera:  Jacob Russell 
Producer:  Jason Godman 
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The U.S. National Hurricane Center says Zeta – now a tropical storm – has moved off the northern coast of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula and is likely to restrengthen into a hurricane as it moves out over the Gulf of Mexico later Tuesday.  In its latest report, the hurricane center says Zeta’s maximum sustained winds are at about 100 kilometers per hour (kph), just below hurricane strength. Forecasters expect the storm to move out over the warm waters of the gulf, strengthen later Tuesday, then pick speed as it moves towards the southeastern U.S. coast.The forecasters say on its current trajectory, Zeta will likely come ashore in eastern Louisiana or western Mississippi late Wednesday or early Thursday. The storm is likely to be a category one hurricane by the time it strikes the coast.  If Zeta does come ashore in Louisiana, it will be the third major storm to hit the state this year, following Hurricane Laura in August and Delta earlier this month. The state has spent a cumulative total of at least three weeks in the National Hurricane Center’s forecast zone for a possible hurricane this season.  Hurricane Zeta Makes Landfall on Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula  Hurricane Zeta pounds Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula with strong winds and heavy rains    Zeta is the 11th hurricane and record-tying 27th named storm to form this season.  With more than four weeks left in the season, the record may fall. It is only the second time the hurricane center has gone this deep into the Greek alphabet to select names for a storm. The previous Zeta was in 2005 and marked the last storm of that season.
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The Greek navy says one of its ships has collided with a container vessel near the Greek coast, injuring two crewmen and seriously damaging the navy ship.The cargo ship Maersk Launceston, a much larger vessel registered to Portugal, was not damaged in the collision, which took place near the Greek port of Piraeus.Officials say all 27 crewmen on board the Greek mine sweeper were rescued Tuesday by a coast guard ship. The injured were taken to a local hospital for treatment.The mine sweeper could be seen listing in the harbor and being guided by tugboats following the collision. Officials say it is unclear how it occurred, and an investigation is under way.
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A new study of the British population shows that antibodies in the human body fighting COVID-19 declined rapidly in the British population during the summer, suggesting any immunity against the virus may not last long.The study, conducted by Imperial College London and published Tuesday, involved tests on more than 365,000 British people between June 20 and Sept. 28.In their findings, the researchers’ analysis of the home finger-prick tests found that the number of people testing positive for antibodies dropped by 26.5% during the study period, from almost 6% to 4.4%.The findings suggest the possibility of decreasing population immunity ahead of a second wave of infections in recent weeks that has forced local lockdowns and restrictions.The researchers say it is unclear what level of protection antibodies give a person against COVID-19 specifically.Imperial College London Department of Infectious Disease head, Wendy Barclay, told reporters in London they are confident in what a decline in antibodies tells them.“On the balance of evidence, I would say with what we know for other coronaviruses, it would look as if immunity declines away at the same rate as antibodies decline away, and that this is an indication of waning immunity at the population level.”The researchers say that more than anything, the study reinforces the need for a vaccine to effectively bring the virus under control.  
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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson won last December’s general election partly on the back of promises to unite post-Brexit Britain and to level the country up by reviving parts neglected by previous governments. Partly as a result of his pledge, the Conservative party captured seats in the de-industrialized north of England, breaching a so-called red wall of constituencies that for decades had reflexively voted for Labor, the country’s main, center-left opposition party. Johnson took aim, too, at the Scottish nationalists, vowing to block a second Scottish independence referendum. But thanks to the havoc wrought by the coronavirus pandemic, Britain’s persistent north-south divide has widened — and support for Scottish independence has never been stronger. Welsh nationalism has been stirred by the pandemic into “greater wakefulness,” according to Polly Mackenzie of Britain’s cross-party think tank Demos, with nearly half of all under-25s in Wales now saying they want secession.Northern regional leaders have wrangled with London, complaining it is not doing enough to help them weather lockdowns or to cope with the grievous economic fallout of the coronavirus. Some have opposed a new three-tiered system of restrictions and lambasted Johnson’s handling of the crisis, accusing the government of playing politics with the pandemic.Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham speaks to the media outside Bridgewater Hall in Manchester, England, Oct. 20, 2020.The north’s mayors complain the new tighter measures are being imposed on them with too little consultation by government officials in London. “They can only see numbers and blobs on the map, whereas we see names, communities, the full picture of what happens on the ground,” Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, fumed to reporters last week.  On Monday, 54 Conservative lawmakers representing northern seats warned Johnson that his election pledge to “level up” the nation was being undermined by the disproportionate impact of restrictions in northern England. They said in a collective letter that the coronavirus is threatening to “send the North into reverse.”“The virus has exposed in sharp relief the deep structural and systemic disadvantage faced by our communities and it threatens to continue to increase the disparity between the North and South still further,” the lawmakers said. Their constituencies risk being left behind unless there is a clear strategy for exiting lockdown restrictions.A group of people push a dustbin after a demonstration against curfew and deprivation of rights, in Barcelona, on Oct. 26, 2020. Spain’s Catalonia region said it was studying imposing a lockdown on weekends to fight the spread of the coronavirus.Fueling separatismJohnson isn’t alone among Europe’s national leaders struggling with restive regions to forge a political consensus around a pandemic strategy. Central and regional governments in many European countries are increasingly at loggerheads. Some of the disputes revolve around what approaches to adopt to contain the coronavirus pandemic; others over how to share shrinking economic pies. Many of Europe’s poor regions are being hit harder by the pandemic; wealthy regions, such as Catalonia, Lombardy and Flanders, bristle at the idea that they will have to help bail out their less prosperous neighbors. Lack of consultation or the sidestepping of parliaments and imposing restrictions with no prior agreement are also prompting disquiet, exacerbating pre-pandemic divisions.Some analysts hazard that one of the legacies of the coronavirus crisis could well be to strengthen separatist sentiment in some countries already struggling with secessionists and to boost demands by regions for greater devolved powers. “The coronavirus pandemic is serving to catalyze pre-existing territorial disputes and empower regional nationalist movements,” says Jonathan Parker of Britain’s University of Sussex. “The pandemic is intensifying debates about the constitutional futures of several European regions. Many on the pro-independence side have been empowered by the crisis, which is highlighting the failings of central governments and underscoring the power of the regions,” Parker wrote in a commentary for Britain’s’ Financial Times.Belgium, Spain, Italy and Germany have all seen disputes flaring between national and regional leaders. In Belgium, Flemish nationalists have attacked the central government for its handling of the pandemic. Disputes have raged between Flanders and officials in Brussels. The latest came this week when Flanders declined to impose additional coronavirus restrictions, despite moves by Brussels and French-speaking Wallonia to tighten up. In the past week around 12,000 Belgians a day on average have tested positive for the coronavirus — hospitalization admissions and the death county keep on rising.Speaking to VTM news, Flemish Minister-President Jan Jambon accused the central government and Wallonia of adopting “exaggerated measures.” He warned the additional measures won’t necessarily succeed in tamping down transmissions of the potentially deadly virus, adding that cooler heads need to prevail. Flemish nationalists are bristling at the idea that wealthier Flanders should help subsidize poorer Wallonia.FILE – Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez speaks during a parliamentary session in Madrid, Spain, Oct. 21, 2020.In Spain, seven of the country’s regions have criticized the decision taken this week by the government of Pedro Sánchez to declare a state of national emergency and to impose a curfew. Other regions take an opposite view and have been clamorous for weeks for the central government to order lockdowns. Catalan separatists have argued an independent Catalonia would have tackled the pandemic better than it has as part of Spain, and that there would have been fewer deaths had the wealthy northeastern region been on its own, they say. Earlier this year, when the pandemic started to unfold in Spain, they called on the central government to impose a tough lockdown much earlier than it did.FILE – In this Feb. 10, 2020, file photo, Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon speaks during an event at the European Policy Center in Brussels.ScotlandIn Britain, already fractured by Brexit, the pandemic has witnessed a steady divergence in the handling of the pandemic between Johnson’s government in London and the devolved authorities of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The latter were more cautious than the central government in July and August when Johnson eased restrictions. They decided not to do so. Though Scottish nationalists do not like to admit it, the coronavirus has boosted their fortunes, say analysts. Their leader and Scotland’s First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, has benefited from increased visibility and has grabbed at chances to differentiate Scotland from England. Support in opinion polls for the Scottish Nationalist Party is now running at about 50%. And backing for Scottish independence also has climbed. Support for separation rose to nearly 60% this month, panicking Conservative ministers in London. “In the 2014 referendum, the Nationalists struggled to get Scots to imagine what an independent government might look like. The pandemic was just what the doctor ordered. Health is devolved under Britain’s constitution, so Ms. Sturgeon’s administration has the trappings of a state-in-waiting,” noted The Economist magazine recently.Sturgeon has received plaudits for her handling of the pandemic — her message has been consistent and so have her policies.  “The coronavirus crisis has given Nicola Sturgeon’s government renewed purpose, increased visibility, new chances to differentiate from England and the opportunity to boast about its supposed superiority,” according to Polly Mackenzie of the Demos think tank.
 
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Russian authorities issued a national mask requirement Tuesday as the country set a single day record for coronavirus deaths amid a resurgence of new cases.Health officials reported 16,550 new cases and 320 new deaths Tuesday, the highest daily death toll since the pandemic started.In response, Russia’s consumer safety and public health agency, Rospotrebnadzor, ordered all Russians to wear masks in crowded public spaces, on public transit, in taxis, parking lots and elevators starting on Wednesday.The agency also recommends regional authorities put a curfew on entertainment events, cafes, restaurants and bars from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m.Russia has the world’s fourth largest tally of more than 1.5 million confirmed cases, according to the Johns Hopkins University, which is tracking the pandemic.The government’s coronavirus task force has been reporting more than 15,000 new infections every day since Sunday, which is much higher than in spring.Russia has reported more than 26,000 virus-related deaths.Despite the sharp spike in daily infections, Russian authorities have repeatedly dismissed the idea of imposing a second national lockdown or shutting down businesses.Most virus-related restrictions were lifted in July as cases dropped, but masks were still encouraged.
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Violent protests erupted in more than 15 cities across Italy after the government announced new measures to rein in a second wave of COVID-19 infections. Italian leaders are rushing to stave off criticism with a financial rescue package for struggling businesses.
 
Angry protesters took to the streets of some of Italy’s largest cities but also smaller ones from the north to the south of the country to show their discontent with the new nationwide COVID-19 restrictions.
 
Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte told Italians he was well aware “this is a complex moment as this is a pandemic that is harshly challenging us, causing anger, frustration and new inequalities. Aware of how many businesses are suffering, Conte said the government had worked out a plan.
 
He said that compensation has already been earmarked for all those who will suffer under the new restrictions.
 
Government officials hope the measures will be enough to quell the anger.  
 
Italians were the first to face a widespread outbreak of the virus earlier this year and were hit with one of the world’s toughest lockdowns, which did serious damage to the country’s economy.  
 
At the time, they complied with the government’s rules and the tough action managed to rein in the virus by the summer.Police officers are seen in front of a garbage bin set on fire during a protest against new government restrictions to curb the spread of the coronavirus, in Turin, Italy, Oct. 26, 2020.This time, reactions were far from measured and it appeared not everyone in the country was ready to adhere to the government’s guidelines and rules. Far-right groups and organized crime also appear to be behind the recent clashes.
 
In cities like Turin, Milan, Naples and Rome, hundreds of protesters ransacked stores, vandalized trams and set garbage cans on fire. Groups of young people threw glass bottles and chanted “freedom, freedom.”
 
Many opposition politicians and even some members of parliament of the ruling coalition government voiced their disapproval of the tough new measures saying the already battered economy would not be able to cope. Far-right leader Matteo Salvini announced he was launching a legal challenge to the government’s decisions.
 
Business owners are in despair saying some will have to close forever. But some scientists say the measures adopted until November 24 still do not go far enough and that beds in intensive care units of hospitals are quickly running out.
 
Up for approval Tuesday was a package of up to $6 billion  to support businesses in the restaurant, sports and entertainment sectors, hard hit by the new restrictions.
 
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Authorities in Buenos Aires have loosened coronavirus restrictions, allowing people inside businesses, including restaurants, bars and gyms for the first time in seven months. Under the new guidelines, businesses are allowed up to 25 percent of their capacity, with assurances they provide proper ventilation. The Associated Press reports the easing of restrictions comes as new COVID-19 cases have trended downward in recent months in Argentina’s capital. Authorities say coronavirus cases have not dropped in other areas of the country and people in Buenos Aires are urged to remain vigilant in following safety protocols. Argentina has confirmed more than 1,100,000 coronavirus cases and at least 29,301 deaths. 
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Hurricane Zeta pounded Mexico’s northern Yucatan Peninsula with strong winds and heavy rains late Monday into Tuesday. The U.S.-based National Hurricane Center said Zeta made landfall north of Tulum with maximum sustained winds of 130 kilometers per hour. A hurricane warning is posted for the resort island of Cozumel, and from Punta Allen to Progreso, Mexico. People in the Mexican resort city of Cancun are also bracing for Hurricane Zeta. Forecasters say Zeta is expected to regain strength Tuesday as it moves into the Southern Gulf of Mexico on a northerly pattern toward the United States, where a hurricane watch is in effect for the metropolitan New Orleans area and Morgan City, Louisiana, east  to the Mississippi-Alabama border.   People in the U.S. central Gulf Coast will begin seeing the effects of Zeta by Tuesday night before the storm moves inland toward Georgia Wednesday then into the southern Appalachians Wednesday night and the Mid-Atlantic region on Thursday. Zeta is the second storm to strike Mexico this month. Hurricane Delta hit the Yucatan Peninsula in early October, downing trees and knocking out power to thousands but no reported deaths. Hurricane Delta also made landfall in the U.S. Gulf coast state of Louisiana, where Hurricane Laura hit in late August, killing at least six people. 
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British officials say a Liberian-registered oil tanker is docked safely in Southampton and its crew “safe and well” after British naval special forces stormed the ship following a report that stowaways threatened violence. In a statement, ship operator Navios Tanker Management, says the Nave Andromeda left Lagos, Nigeria, on October 6 and had been due to dock in Southampton on Sunday when the ship’s master became “concerned for the safety of the crew due to the increasingly hostile behavior of the stowaways.” A report by the British Broadcasting Corporation indicates the crew had been aware of the stowaways – believed to have been from Nigeria – but said they became unruly and even violent as the ship neared Britain. The ship was circling an area a few kilometers southeast of the Isle of Wight, south of Southampton, and when it failed to dock, local authorities were contacted. A statement on the British ministry of Defense’s Twitter account indicates police requested assistant from the military.  The coast guard was also called in and scrambled helicopters to reach the scene.  A nearly five-kilometer exclusion zone was established around the vessel.  After several hours, commandos from the Royal Navy Special Boat Service were lowered from helicopters onto the ship, whose crew had locked themselves in a secure area. Within minutes, the commandos had detained seven people and secured the vessel. Speaking to reporters Monday, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson thanked both the police and armed forces for what they did “to keep our shores safe.” 
 
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Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan told Turkish citizens to boycott French goods in response to what he says is France’s “anti-Islam” agenda.During a televised speech Monday, he also called for European Union countries to pressure France to end French President Emmanuel Macron’s efforts to fight what he called “Islamist separatism.” Macron has said separatism threatens to take over some Muslim communities in France.”Never give credit to French-labeled goods. Don’t buy them,” Erdogan said, according to the BBC. He added that “European leaders should tell the French president to stop his hate campaign.”Tensions between the two NATO allies have risen in recent months as Macron vowed to defend secularism in the wake of the public beheading of a French teacher earlier this month by a Muslim militant over cartoons depicting Prophet Muhammad.French President Emmanuel Macron speaks after meeting with the medical staff of the Rene Dubos hospital center, in Pontoise, outside Paris, Oct. 23, 2020.Macron called Islam a religion “in crisis,” the BBC reported, and announced measures to stem what he called separatism. France has the largest Muslim community in Western Europe.Just how much of an impact a boycott would have remains to be seen. France is the 10th largest source of imports to Turkey. France is also Turkey’s seventh biggest market for exports, Reuters reported.France and Turkey have also clashed recently over policy in Syria and Libya, as well as Turkish oil and gas exploration in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. More recently, the two have been at odds over the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh.
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Belarus’s opposition called a countrywide general strike on Monday — the latest in a series of efforts to dislodge longtime leader Alexander Lukashenko from power following what opponents say was a rigged presidential election in the former Soviet republic last August.  Svetlana Tikhanovskaya — Lukashenko’s primary opponent in the race and who fled the country under state pressure following the vote — threatened the strike two weeks ago in an effort to reinvigorate the protest movement.  FILE – Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, candidate for the presidential elections, foreground, greets people during a meeting to show her support, in Brest, 326 km southwest of Minsk, Belarus, Aug. 2, 2020.Her demands: Lukashenko resign, end police violence against demonstrators, and free hundreds of political prisoners or face a national work stoppage.   On Monday, the independent media site Tut.by posted photos of workers striking at several key factories. The news service also reported dozens of workers detained at the Grodno Azot factory for joining the strike. Nexta, People with old Belarusian national flags march during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus, Oct. 25, 2020.Yet once again, Lukashenko’s security troops and riot police were out in force.  Central metro stations were closed in advance — forcing people to walk towards the city center.  Crowds chanting “Strike, Strike, Strike” were met with stun grenades, rubber bullets, and tear gas as they closed in on Lukashenko’s residence — sending protesters running for cover.  The Interior Ministry also reported demonstrators had thrown rocks and broken windows outside a police headquarters in central Minsk.  The damage did not appear to be widespread.  Meanwhile, the human rights group Vesna reported more than 300 protesters arrested — adding to the estimated 8,000 detained in the wake of the vote.  On social media, a widely shared video showed masked security guards terrorizing protesters who had fled into a nearby apartment.  Its unbearable to watch. Ferocious from impunity, Lukashenka’s police are hunting protesters in private apartments, threatening to use gas if the people don’t go with them FILE – Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko takes his oath of office during his inauguration ceremony at the Palace of the Independence in Minsk, Belarus, Sept. 23, 2020.Lukashenko has refused to step down — arguing he won the election in a landslide with 80% of the vote.  He also has backing from his neighbor Russia, which seeks to maintain a predictable ally in charge along its western border.   Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov implied Russia was growing concerned about the strike’s ability to impact Russia’s economy — noting the two economies were integrated “at the highest levels.” “For us, it’s extremely important how rhythmically and reliably the Belarus factories function,” added Peskov.  President Vladimir Putin has provided both economic aid and assurances of military support if necessary. In another sign of Moscow’s careful watch over events in Belarus, Sergei Narishkin, the head of Russia’s external intelligence services, was in Minsk to meet  with Lukashenko last week. Meanwhile, the U.S. and other Western governments have denounced the violence against demonstrators and backed sanctions on the Lukashenko regime — with the European Union declaring it no longer saw Lukashenko as the head of Belarus.  French President Emanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel are among European leaders who have met with Tikhanovskaya directly.  FILE – Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya meets with French President Emmanuel Macron in Vilnius, Lithuania, Sept. 29, 2020.Washington calling In a separate development, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke with Lukashenko by phone on Saturday —   the first publicly known high-level contact between the U.S. and the embattled Belarusian leader since the political crisis began.  Secretary Pompeo had been behind recent U.S. efforts to improve relations with Minsk — even meeting with Lukashenko during a high profile visit to Minsk last February.  According to the State Department, Pompeo “reaffirmed U.S. support for the democratic aspirations of the people of Belarus” and demanded the release and evacuation of Vitali Shkliarov, 44, a Belarusian-American political analyst who was arrested ahead of the August vote while visiting his parents in Grodno.  FILE – Belarusian opposition activist Maria Kolesnikova greets protesters during a rally at Independence Square in Minsk, Belarus, Aug. 22, 2020.In recent days, Kolesnikova issued a letter from prison saying Lukashenko’s security forces were threatening to jail her for the next 25 years.  
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Chileans poured into the country’s main squares on Sunday night after voters gave a ringing endorsement to a plan to tear up the country’s Pinochet-era constitution in favor of a new charter drafted by citizens. In Santiago’s Plaza Italia, the focus of the massive and often violent social protests last year which sparked the demand for a new magna carta, fireworks rose above a crowd of tens of thousands of jubilant people singing in unison as the word “rebirth” was beamed onto a tower above.   With more than three quarters of the votes counted, 78.12% of voters had opted for a new charter. Many have expressed hopes that a new text will temper an unabashedly capitalist ethos with guarantees of more equal rights to healthcare, pensions and education.   “This triumph belongs to the people, it’s thanks to everyone’s efforts that we are at this moment of celebration,” Daniel, 37, told Reuters in Santiago’s Plaza Nunoa. “What makes me happiest is the participation of the youth, young people wanting to make changes.”   Chile’s President Sebastian Pinera said if the country had been divided by the protests and debate over whether to approve or reject plans for a new charter, from now on they should unite behind a new text that provided “a home for everyone.” The center-right leader, whose popularity ratings plummeted to record lows during the unrest and have remained in the doldrums, spoke to those who wanted to keep the present constitution credited with making Chile one of Latin America’s economic success stories.Referendum on a new Chilean constitution, in Santiago, Oct. 26, 2020.Any new draft must incorporate “the legacy of past generations, the will of present generations and the hopes of generations to come,” he said. He gave a nod to fears that the high expectations placed in a new charter cannot be met, saying: “This referendum is not the end, it is the start of a road we must walk towards a new constitution.” As votes were counted on live television around the country, spontaneous parties broke out on street corners and in squares around the country. Drivers honked car horns, some as revelers danced on their roofs, and others banged pots and pans. The flag of the country’s indigenous Mapuche people, who will seek greater recognition in the new charter, was ubiquitous.   Four fifths of voters said they wanted the new charter to be drafted by a specially-elected body of citizens – made up of half women and half men – over a mixed convention of lawmakers and citizens, highlighting general mistrust in Chile’s political class.   Members of a 155-seat constitutional convention will be voted in by April 2021 and have up to a year to agree a draft text, with proposals approved by a two-thirds majority. Among issues likely to be at the fore are recognition of Chile’s Mapuche indigenous population, powers of collective bargaining, water and land rights and privatized systems providing healthcare, education and pensions. Chileans will then vote again on whether they accept the text or want to revert to the previous constitution. The National Mining Society (Sonami), which groups the companies in the sector into the world’s largest copper producer, said it hoped for “broad agreement on the principles and norms” that determine the sector’s coexistence with Chilean citizens and that the regulatory certainty that have allowed the sector to flourish would continue. 
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Newly formed Tropical Storm Zeta strengthened Sunday in the western Caribbean and will probably become a hurricane before hitting Mexico’s resort-dotted Yucatan Peninsula and the U.S. Gulf Coast in coming days.Zeta was the earliest named 27th Atlantic storm recorded in an already historic hurricane season.The system was centered about 275 miles (445 kilometers) southeast of Cozumel island early Sunday evening, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.The storm was nearly stationary, though forecasters said it was likely to shear the northeastern tip of the Yucatan Peninsula or westernmost Cuba by late Monday or early Tuesday and then close in on the U.S. Gulf Coast by Wednesday, but could weaken by then.The storm had maximum sustained winds of 50 mph (85 kph), and forecasters said Zeta was expected to intensify into a hurricane Monday.Officials in Quintana Roo state, the location of Cancun and other resorts, said they were watching the storm. They reported nearly 60,000 tourists in the state as of midweek. The state government said 71 shelters were being readied for tourists or residents who might need them.The government is still handing out aid, including sheet roofing, to Yucatan residents hit by Hurricane Delta and Tropical Storm Gamma earlier this month.Zeta may dawdle in the western Caribbean for another day or so, trapped between two strong high pressure systems to the east and west. It can’t move north or south because nothing is moving there either, said University of Miami hurricane researcher Brian McNoldy.“It just has to sit and wait for a day or so,” McNoldy said. “It just needs anything to move.”When a storm gets stuck, it can unload dangerous downpours over one place, which causes flooding when a storm is over or near land. That happened in 2017 over Houston with Harvey, when more than 60 inches (150 centimeters) of rain fell and 2019 over the Bahamas with a Category 5 Dorian, which was the worst-case scenario of a stationary storm, said Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach.While Zeta was over open ocean Sunday, Jamaica and Honduras were getting heavy rains because the system is so large and South Florida was under a flood watch, McNoldy said.But once Zeta eventually gets moving, it won’t be stalling over landfall, Klotzbach said.The Hurricane Center said Zeta could bring 4 to 8 inches (10 to 20 centimeters) of rain to parts of the Caribbean and Mexico as well as Florida and the Keys before drenching parts of the central Gulf Coast by Wednesday.A 2018 study said storms, especially in the Atlantic basin, are slowing down and stalling more. Atlantic storms that made landfall moved 2.9 mph (4.7 kph) slower than 60 years ago, the study found. Study author James Kossin, a government climate scientist, said the trend has signs of human-caused climate change.Zeta is also in a dangerous place to stall. The western Caribbean is “where storms can cook” and rapidly intensify because of the deep, warm waters, like 2005’s Wilma, Klotzbach said. However, the National Hurricane Center was not forecasting rapid intensification for Zeta.The lack of steering currents also meant wide spread of possible landfalls when Zeta eventually heads north to the Gulf Coast. The hurricane center said it could make landfall anywhere from Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle.Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards urged his state’s citizens to monitor the storm, and the state activated its Crisis Action Team.On Sunday, a hurricane warning was called for the Yucatan Peninsula from Tulum to Rio Lagartos, including Cancun and Cozumel, while a tropical storm warning was in effect for Pinar del Rio, Cuba.Zeta broke the record of the previous earliest 27th Atlantic named storm that formed Nov. 29, 2005, according to Klotzbach.This year’s season has so many storms that the hurricane center has turned to the Greek alphabet after running out of official names.Zeta is the furthest into the Greek alphabet the Atlantic season has gone. There was also a Tropical Storm Zeta in 2005, but that year had 28 storms because meteorologists later went back and found they missed one, which then became a “unnamed named storm,” Klotzbach said.Additionally, Hurricane Epsilon was moving quickly through the northern portion of the Atlantic Ocean. Forecasters said it would become a post-tropical cyclone later Sunday. Large ocean swells generated by the hurricane could cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions along U.S. East Coast and Atlantic Canada during the next couple of days.
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Amid a year of contagion and turmoil, Chileans turned out Sunday to vote on whether to draft a new constitution for their nation to replace guiding principles imposed four decades ago under a military dictatorship, and early returns gave the “yes” forces a big lead.The country’s conservative government agreed with the center-left opposition to allow the plebiscite after the outbreak of vast street protests that erupted a year ago in frustration over inequality in pensions, education and health care in what has long been one of South America’s most developed nations.The Electoral Service said Sunday evening that of the first 1.3 million ballots counted, 77.5% favored a new charter and less than 22.5% were opposed. Among the 60,000 Chileans living abroad who voted in 65 nations, the vote was 86% for a new constitution and 13% against, officials said. About 15 million Chileans were eligible to vote.Recent polls indicated heavy backing for a new constitution despite opposition from conservative groups., and center-right President Sebastián Piñera said after voting that he assumed the measure would be approved.“I believe the immense majority of Chileans want to change, modify our constitution,” he said.If the measure is approved, a special convention would begin drafting a new constitution that would be submitted to voters in mid-2022.Chile’s current constitution was drafted by the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet, and was sent to voters at a time where political parties had been banned and the country was subject to heavy censorship.It was approved by a 66%-30% margin in a 1980 plebiscite, but critics say many voters were cowed into acceptance by a regime that had arrested, tortured and killed thousands of suspected leftist opponents following the overthrow of an elected socialist government.“I think that many people went to vote out of fear,” said political scientist Claudio Fuentes, who wrote a book about that plebiscite titled, “The Fraud.”“The current constitution has a flaw of origin, which is that it was created during the military dictatorship in an undemocratic process,” said Monica Salinero, a 40-year-old sociologist who supports drafting a new charter.The free-market principles embodied in that document led to a booming economy that continued after the return to democracy in 1990, but not all Chileans shared.A minority was able to take advantage of good, privatized education, health and social security services, while others were forced to rely on sometimes meager public alternatives. Public pensions for the poorest are just over $200 a month, roughly half the minimum wage.Luisa Fuentes Rivera, a 59-year-old food vendor, said hopes that “with a new constitution we will have better work, health, pensions and a better quality of life for older people, and a better education.”But historian Felipe Navarrete warned, “It’s important to say that the constitution won’t resolve the concrete problems. It will determine which state we want to solve the problems.”Claudia Heiss, head of the political science department at the University of Chile, said it would send a signal about people’s desires for change, and for a sort of politics that would “allow greater inclusion of sectors that have been marginalized from politics.”Conservative groups fear the revamp could go too far, and endanger parts of the constitution that have helped the country prosper.“The people have demonstrated saying they want better pensions, better health, better education. and the response of the political class” is a process that won’t solve the problems and will open a period of uncertainty,” said Felipe Lyon, 28-year-old lawyer and spokesman for the group “No, Thanks” that opposes the change.The decision to allow the vote came after hundreds of thousands of Chileans repeatedly took to the streets in protests that often turned violent.The vote was initially scheduled for April, but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic which has killed some 13,800 Chileans, with more than 500,000 people infected by the new coronavirus.Officials trying to ensure voters felt safe barred infected persons or those close to them from the polls, and long lines formed at voting places. Voters had to wear masks — dipping them only briefly for identification purposes — and brought their own pencils.The manner of drafting a new constitution was also on the ballot. Voters were choosing between a body of 155 citizens who would be elected just for that purpose in April, or a somewhat larger convention split equally between elected delegates and members of Congress.
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Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko defied an ultimatum to surrender power by midnight on Sunday, challenging his opponents to make good on their threat to paralyze the country with a national strike.Eleven weeks after a disputed presidential election, the crisis in the former Soviet republic entered a new phase with the expiration of the “People’s Ultimatum” set by opposition candidate Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya.Lukashenko’s refusal to quit after 26 years in power will test whether the opposition has the mass support it needs to bring enterprises across the country of 9.5 million people to a halt.Tsikhanouskaya, who fled to Lithuania after the Aug. 9 election for the safety of her family, has urged Belarusians starting Monday to block roads, shut down workplaces, stop using government shops and services and withdraw all money from their bank accounts.Lukashenko has scoffed at the calls for a strike. “Who will feed the kids,” he has asked, if workers at state-owned enterprises go on strike.Tsikhanouskaya on Sunday called for the strike to go ahead after police forces loyal to Lukashenko fired stun grenades and detained scores of people in a clampdown on protests by tens of thousands in Minsk and elsewhere.”The regime once again showed Belarusians that force is the only thing it is capable of,” she wrote in a statement. “That’s why tomorrow, Oct. 26, a national strike will begin.”The standoff is being closely watched by neighboring Russia and by Western governments.Russian President Vladimir Putin has no desire to see another leader toppled by protests in a former Soviet state, as happened in Ukraine in 2014 and in Kyrgyzstan earlier this month. He too has faced street demonstrations at various times, including for the past three months in the far eastern city of Khabarovsk.Since the crisis began, Moscow has backed Lukashenko with a $1.5 billion loan and increased security cooperation, including a series of joint military exercises and a visit last week by the head of Russia’s foreign intelligence agency.Agencies: Belarus and Russia Will Respond to External Threats, Lukashenko Tells Pompeo Lukashenko had sought to mend fences with the West in recent yearsSecurity crackdownLukashenko, 66, claimed victory in the Aug. 9 election with officially more than 80% of the vote, but the opposition accused him of vote-rigging on a massive scale.He has responded to mass street protests by arresting around 15,000 people, though most have since been released, and jailing opposition leaders or forcing them to leave the country.
A U.N. human rights investigator said last month that thousands of people had been “savagely beaten” and there were more than 500 reports of torture, which the authorities deny.The United States, European Union, Britain and Canada have imposed travel bans and asset freezes against a string of officials accused of election fraud and human rights abuses.Tsikhanouskaya presented her ultimatum on Oct. 13 after the government said police would be authorized to use combat weapons against protesters if needed.Three days later, a senior police official repeated the threat.”We will of course humanely use weapons against them, including firearms, and we will remove the most dangerous ones from the streets,” said Nikolai Karpenkov, head of the police unit in charge of fighting organized crime.
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Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has accused French President Emmanuel Macron of “attacking Islam” by defending the publication of “blasphemous” caricatures.
 
The comment Sunday comes four days after Macron said France would not “give up cartoons” depicting the Prophet Muhammad, pledging that Islamists “will never have” his country’s future.
 
“Sadly, President Macron has chosen to deliberately provoke Muslims, including his own citizens, through encouraging the display of blasphemous cartoons targeting Islam & our Prophet PBUH (peace be upon him),” Khan said in a series of tweets.
 
“It is unfortunate that he has chosen to encourage Islamophobia by attacking Islam rather than the terrorists who carry out violence, be it Muslims, White Supremacists or Nazi ideologists,” Khan wrote.
 FILE – French President Emmanuel Macron.Macron’s controversial remarks came in response to the beheading of a French teacher, Samuel Paty, outside Paty’s school near Paris after he had shown cartoons depicting the Prophet during a class on free speech. The French president described the slain teacher as a hero, saying Islamists were a threat to the country.
 
“This is a time when Pres Macron could have put healing touch & denied space to extremists rather than creating further polarisation & marginalisation that inevitably leads to radicalisation,” Khan said.
 
Caricatures of the Prophet are forbidden by Islam. Insulting the religion or the Prophet carries the death penalty under Pakistan’s blasphemy laws.
 
“By attacking Islam, clearly without having any understanding of it, President Macron has attacked & hurt the sentiments of millions of Muslims in Europe & across the world,” Khan said.
 
Earlier this month, Macron sparked controversy when he said, “Islam is a religion that is in crisis all over the world,” prompting several Muslim countries to call for a boycott of French goods.
 
In recent years, France has experienced a series of violent attacks blamed on suspected Islamists, including a bloody 2015 assault on the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo for publishing anti-Islam images.
 Khan writes to Facebook
 
Separately, the Pakistani leader wrote to Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive officer of Facebook, urging him to ban anti-Islam content on the social media platform.
 
“Given the rampant abuse and vilification of Muslims on social media platforms, I would ask you to place a similar ban on Islamophobia and hate against Islam for Facebook that you have put in place for the Holocaust,” said Khan in a letter his office released to media late Sunday.There was no immediate comment from Facebook.The social media giant recently announced it was updating its hate speech policy to ban any content that denied or distorted the Holocaust.
 
Khan noted in the letter that Islam has been associated with terrorism in France and publication of blasphemous cartoons targeting Islam have been allowed there.
 
“This will lead to further polarization and marginalization of Muslims in France. How will the French distinguish between radical extremist Muslim citizens and the mainstream Muslim citizenry of Islam?,” Khan asked.
 
Last month, the Pakistani prime minister, in his address to the United Nations General Assembly, denounced Charlie Hebdo for re-publishing the cartoons and demanded that “willful provocations” be “universally outlawed.”
 
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Police in Belarus used stun grenades Sunday to disperse protesters, who after months of demonstrations, have threatened a national strike if longtime President Alexander Lukashenko does not resign by midnight.News reports say than 100,000 protesters were in the streets of Minsk Sunday – the 11th in a row of demonstrations against Lukashenko’s contested victory in August presidential elections.Video posted on RFE/RL showed police using stun grenades and rubber bullets to disperse crowds as they marched to the Independence Palace in the capital, carrying the white and red flags that have come to symbolize the opposition movement.Agencies: Belarus and Russia Will Respond to External Threats, Lukashenko Tells Pompeo Lukashenko had sought to mend fences with the West in recent yearsOpposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who fled the country for her safety since the August election, has called for a national strike if Lukashenko does not resign by midnight.Lukashenko has indicated he will ignore the ultimatum.At least two people were injured by police in Sunday’s protests, according to RFE/RL. Sixty people were arrested, according to Belarusian rights group Vesna.Lukashenko maintains he won the poll in a landslide — garnering 80% of all ballots — despite widespread claims at home and abroad that the vote was heavily rigged to keep him in power. He has been in office for 26 years.Public anger has grown over the crackdown in the wake of the protests that have seen more than 7,500 arrests and police violence against demonstrators.Hundreds have emerged from police custody with bruises and tales of torture at the hands of Lukashenko’s security agents.Lukashenko has said the protests are encouraged and supported by the West and accused NATO of moving forces near Belarusian borders. The alliance has denied the accusations.
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