Turkey and Ukraine signed military cooperation agreements in Istanbul on Friday, deepening a defense partnership seen as an effort to counterbalance Russia’s dominance in the Black Sea region. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan oversaw the signing of a “goodwill” agreement concerning the defense industry and a “military framework agreement,” officials said, although details of the agreements were not immediately known.  “Turkey sees Ukraine as a key country for the establishment [of] stability, security, peace and prosperity in the region,” Erdogan said following the signing ceremony between the two Black Sea nations that have been enhancing military ties in recent years.  Zelenskiy said the agreements pave the way for “new opportunities.”  “Cooperation in the defense industry is important for the development of our strategic partnership and I am happy that we are strengthening it today,” he said, speaking through an interpreter.  Last year, Ukraine reached an agreement for the purchase of Turkish-made drones. The two countries are also reportedly engaged in discussions to develop an aircraft engine. The signing of the agreements comes as the conflict in the Caucasus over Nagorno-Karabakh is putting a strain on Turkey’s relations with Russia. Turkey has backed Azerbaijan in the dispute, while Russia has a military base in Armenia and a security pact requiring Moscow to intervene if its ally is attacked.FILE – People look at the destroyed houses a day after shelling by Armenian artillery during fighting over the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh, in Ganja, Azerbaijan, Oct. 12, 2020.In a delicate balancing act, Russia also has sought to maintain warm ties with Azerbaijan and avoid upsetting relations with Turkey. Although Ankara and Moscow have developed strong economic ties and are accommodating mutual interests in Syria and Libya, the two have an often uneasy relationship and remain geopolitical rivals.  Erdogan on Friday reiterated Turkey’s refusal to recognize Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula. “Turkey has not recognized Crimea’s illegal annexation and it never will,” Erdogan said. Zelenskiy, meanwhile, presented Erdogan with a state medal for his support for Ukraine’s “territorial integrity.” 
…

A history teacher who opened a discussion with students on caricatures of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad was decapitated Friday in a French street and police have shot the suspected killer dead, a police official said.  The French antiterrorism prosecutor has opened an investigation into the slaying as murder with a suspected terrorist motive, the prosecutor’s office said. The gruesome incident occurred in the town of Eragny, in the Val d’Oise region northwest of Paris. A police official said the suspect, armed with a knife and an airsoft gun, was shot to death by police about 600 meters from where the male teacher was killed. The teacher had been threatened after opening a discussion “for a debate” about the caricatures, the police official told The Associated Press.  The official could not be named, not being authorized to discuss ongoing investigations. It was the second terrorism-related incident since the opening of an ongoing trial on the newsroom massacre in January 2015 at the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo.  The paper recently republished caricatures of the prophet. A young man from Pakistan was arrested after stabbing, outside the newspaper’s former offices, two people who suffered non-life-threatening injuries. 
 
…

Finland’s prime minister, Sanna Marin, was the latest official to prematurely leave the EU summit in Brussels due to coronavirus fears, as the bloc’s meeting wrapped Friday.
 
She said it was a “precautionary measure,” the AP reported.
 
Her departure come a day after European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen left because a staffer tested positive.  
 
Previously, the EU’s top diplomat and Josep Borrell and the commissioner for humanitarian aid, Janez Lenarcic, self-quarantined after they reportedly came into contact with people who tested positive.
 
The high-profile departures come against a backdrop of what many are calling a second wave of the virus roiling the continent.
 
On Thursday, EU leaders signed a statement calling for more cooperation among EU member states and the European Commission, including better contact tracing and testing strategies, according to Euronews.
 
The resurging virus also has led to the cancelation of a Nov. 16 EU meeting to discuss China policy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Friday.
 
The so-called “summit of gloom,” had hoped to tackle a series of thorny issues, from the bloc’s future trading relationship with post-Brexit Britain to an ambitious climate action plan to reduce carbon emissions and achieve “climate neutrality” by 2050.
 
Talks with Britain stalled Thursday with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson saying Friday he would pursue a no-deal Brexit if the EU did not change its stance.
 
“Unless there’s a fundamental change of approach, we’re going to go to the Australia solution, and we should do it with great confidence,” Johnson said, according to Reuters, after talks failed ahead of his self-imposed Oct. 15 deadline.
 
The “Australia solution” basically means the two parties would trade without a formal deal.
 
According to the AP, the EU says Britain wants to keep the benefits of EU membership without following the bloc’s rules. Britain says it’s puzzled it can’t get a quick free trade deal like the one made a few years ago between the EU and Canada.
 
On climate change, EU leaders failed to reach an agreement on cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and instead said they’d “return to the issue” in December, Reuters reported.
 
The EU proposed to cut emissions by 55% by 2030 as long as the target applied collectively to the whole EU and did not require all countries to meet the objective.
 
…

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Thursday Turkey’s involvement in the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia has increased the risk in the region, reiterating his call for the issue to be resolved through diplomacy.
 
Several hundred people have been killed in the deadliest flare-up of the decades-old conflict since a 1990s war over Nagorno-Karabakh killed about 30,000 people.
 
Nagorno-Karabakh belongs to Azerbaijan under international law, but is populated and governed by ethnic Armenians. The clashes have raised concerns that Turkey and Russia, which also back opposing sides in the conflicts in Syria and Libya, may get dragged in.
 
Rebuffing criticism from NATO allies, Turkey has accused Armenia of occupying Azeri territory and vowed full support for Azerbaijan. Ankara has repeatedly called on the Minsk Group, formed to mediate the conflict and led by France, Russia and the United States, to urge Armenia to withdraw from the region.
 
“We now have the Turks, who have stepped in and provided resources to Azerbaijan, increasing the risk, increasing the firepower that’s taking place in this historic fight,” Pompeo said in an interview with broadcaster WSB Atlanta.
 
“The resolution of that conflict ought to be done through negotiation and peaceful discussions, not through armed conflict, and certainly not with third party countries coming in to lend their firepower to what is already a powder keg of a situation,” Pompeo said.
 
On Thursday, hopes of a humanitarian ceasefire sank as the death toll mounted and Armenia and Azerbaijan accused each other of launching new attacks.
 
“We’re hopeful that the Armenians will be able to defend against what the Azerbaijanis are doing, and that they will all, before that takes place, get the ceasefire right, and then sit down at the table and try and sort through this,” Pompeo said. 
…

Finland’s prime minister Friday became the second European Union leader to leave a two-day summit as a precautionary measure, after contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19.  On Twitter, Sanna Marin wrote she was leaving the European Council meeting in Brussels and asked Sweden’s prime minister, Stefan Lofven, to represent Finland at the talks, where leaders were wearing face masks and keeping their distance amid a spike in COVID-19 infections across Europe. Marin had participated in a meeting Wednesday at the Finnish parliament in Helsinki with lawmaker Tom Packalen, who later tested positive for COVID-19 and had mild symptoms. Marin’s early departure follows a similar decision by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who left the meeting Thursday to self-isolate after learning one of her support staff members had tested positive.  FILE – European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen arrives for an EU summit at the European Council building in Brussels, Oct. 15, 2020.It was the second time this month Von der Leyen had to take such a precaution. She went into isolation Oct. 5 after a meeting in Portugal that included someone who later tested positive. It is unclear why the European Union chose to hold its October summit in person rather than virtually while the continent is facing a surge in new COVID-19 cases.  Marin gave a speech at the summit supporting videoconferences for meeting between EU leaders, saying there should be a higher threshold for holding in-person meetings during the pandemic. 
 
…

The Czech Republic’s health minister said Friday the country’s health system needs be ready for a “huge influx,” of COVID-19 patients over the next 10 days to two weeks, as the nation faces Europe’s fastest growing rate in new coronavirus cases.Health Minister Roman Prymula told reporters at a news briefing in Prague the nation is looking at perhaps as much as a three-week surge of COVID-19 patients.At a time when all of Europe is facing an increase in the COVID-19 pandemic, the Czech Republic has been hit perhaps the hardest.  The European Center for Disease Control and Prevention says the Czech Republic leads the continent in the rate of new infections over the past two weeks, with nearly 702 cases per 100,000 people in the past two weeks, and nearly 50,000 of its total of 149,010 cases registered last week alone. The country also leads Europe in rate of deaths from the virus over the same period, 5.2 per 100,000 people.The Czech health ministry’s figures show the day-to-day increase reached 9,721 on Thursday, 177 more than the previous record set a day earlier.Hospitals across the country have been postponing unnecessary operations to focus on the growing number of COVID-19 patients. While Prymula said the country has doubled patient capacity, he says facilities could be full by the end of October.The Czech military will start to build a field hospital for 500 patients at Prague’s exhibition center over the weekend. Neighboring Germany has offered to take in some overflow intensive care patients.Officials say of the Czech Republic’s 84,430 people currently ill with the virus, 2,920 need hospitalization, 242 more than the previous day, with 543 in serious condition. 
…

Former Mexican Defense Secretary Gen. Salvador Cienfuegos was arrested Thursday night on drug and money laundering charges at Los Angeles International Airport.
 
Cienfuegos, who led Mexico’s armed forces under then-President Enrique Peña Nieto, was detained at the U.S airport with members of his family, who were released.
 
The former Mexican military leader was reportedly detained on a warrant from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
 
Mexico’s foreign minister confirmed the arrest in a tweet late Thursday.He sido informado por el Embajador Christopher Landau de los Estados Unidos que el ex Secretario de la Defensa Nacional, Gral. Salvador Cienfuegos Zepeda, ha sido detenido en el Aeropuerto de Los Angeles, California.— Marcelo Ebrard C. (@m_ebrard) October 16, 2020The DEA has not spoken publicly about the circumstances surrounding Cienfuegos’ arrest.
 
…

China has warned Canada not to grant political asylum to Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters, labeling them violent criminals and saying the action would constitute interference in China’s internal affairs.Chinese Ambassador to Canada Cong Peiwu said Thursday that “if the Canadian side really cares about the stability and the prosperity in Hong Kong, and really cares about the good health and safety of those 300,000 Canadian passport-holders in Hong Kong, and the large number of Canadian companies operating in Hong Kong SAR [Special Administrative Region], you should support those efforts to fight violent crimes.”Canadian Foreign Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne called Cong’s statement “totally unacceptable and disturbing.””I have instructed Global Affairs to call the ambassador in to make clear in no uncertain terms that Canada will always stand up for human rights and the rights of Canadians around the world,” Champagne said in a statement published by Canadian news organizations.Earlier this week, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau strongly criticized Beijing for “coercive diplomacy” and for the crackdowns in Hong Kong and on Uighur Muslims in China’s Xinjiang region.At his press briefing Thursday, Cong countered Trudeau’s comments, saying there was no coercive diplomacy on the Chinese side, adding that “the Hong Kong issue and the Xinjiang-related issue are not about the issue of human rights. They are purely about internal affairs of China, which brooks no interference from the outside.”Protests of Hong Kong’s pro-Beijing government and the Chinese government continued in the city for months last year and resulted in a new national security law for Hong Kong that took effect June 30.The law punishes secessionist movements, subversive or terrorist acts, and what it interprets as collusion with foreign forces intervening in the city’s affairs.Western powers, including the United States, Britain and Canada have strongly condemned the law and have accused China of infringing on Hong Kong’s freedoms.
…

Peru is now allowing visitors at 17 archaeological and tourist sites after closing them for several months to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.Speaking at the Pachacamac archaeological site in Lima on Thursday, Peru Culture Minister Alejandro Neyra said visitors to the sites will have to follow protocols, including wearing face masks and keeping a safe distance apart.Authorities say nine other sites will open by the end of month, and a gradual reopening of several more will begin in November.It is unclear when Peru’s popular Inca citadel of Machu Picchu will reopen.The reopening of the tourist attractions is expected to give Peru a needed economic boost because the South American country has been hard hit by the pandemic.Peru is among the leaders in COVID-19 cases in Latin American, recording more than 859,000 cases and just over 33,500 deaths.
…

It has been dubbed the summit of gloom.For the next two days, the European Union’s 27 national leaders will meet in Brussels and try to reach agreement on a series of thorny issues, from the bloc’s future trading relationship with post-Brexit Britain to an ambitious climate action plan to reduce carbon emissions and achieve “climate neutrality” by 2050.They will also discuss how to coordinate the bloc’s coronavirus pandemic response. Breakthroughs on all of these issues are not likely.The EU’s increasingly fraught relations with Russia and Turkey will also be discussed.Navalny poisoningOn the eve of the summit, Russia threatened to break ties with the bloc amid an intensifying diplomatic dispute over the poisoning of Alexei Navalny, President Vladimir Putin’s biggest domestic foe. Sergey Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, issued the warning after the EU’s top diplomats agreed Monday to impose new sanctions on Moscow in response to the alleged Kremlin-sponsored plot to kill Navalny.The Kremlin has denied any involvement in the poisoning.First up on the agenda will be a discussion about the bloc’s future relations with Britain — and the failure so far to reach consensus on a post-Brexit trade deal. Midweek, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson expressed “disappointment” at the lack of progress in the monthslong fractious talks among his aides and EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier. Disagreements over fishing rights in British territorial waters, security cooperation and limits on state subsidies to British business have all held up a deal.FILE – Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson gestures during the weekly question time debate in Parliament in London, Sept. 30, 2020, in this screen grab taken from video.Last month, Johnson set this EU summit as the deadline for an agreement, warning that otherwise, he would “move on” and accept that there would be no deal. EU officials had also previously said a deal would need to be clinched by mid-October for there to be time for it to be approved by all member states and the European Parliament in time for the end of Britain’s transition period out of the EU at the end of this year.Now, both London and Brussels appear inclined to allow the difficult talks to be prolonged. In a conference call Wednesday night, Johnson told Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, and Charles Michel, president of the European Council, that a deal was desirable. Von der Leyen concurred, saying the EU wanted a deal “but not at any price.”Past the deadlineThe upshot, say diplomats in London and Brussels, will be that European leaders will slide over the previously advertised Brexit deadline.“They will kick the can down the road,” said an EU official.A draft summit text on Brexit has already been circulated among EU leaders. It notes “progress is still not sufficient” but calls on Barnier to “intensify negotiations with the aim of ensuring that an agreement can be applied from Jan. 1.”FILE – European Council President Charles Michel attends a news conference in Brussels, Aug. 19, 2020.Most of the other issues confronting EU leaders will also be delayed. In his official summit invitation letter, Michel said on climate action he would “like us to have a constructive debate on the issue, so as to pave the way for an agreement by the end of the year.”On that front, climate action advocates got some good news before the EU leaders started to meet. The Czech Republic, one of the holdouts, said it was now ready to back the EU’s proposed 2030 target to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 55%, as long as the target applied collectively to the whole EU and did not require all countries to meet the objective.Poland continues to oppose much of the EU’s proposed climate action plan.Russia’s refusal to conduct a real investigation into the poisoning of Navalny, and Turkey’s resumption of drilling exploration in the eastern Mediterranean, an action seen as a provocation by Greece and Cyprus, present EU leaders with a challenge.FILE – The Turkish drilling vessel Yavuz is seen being escorted by a Turkish navy frigate in the eastern Mediterranean off Cyprus, Aug. 6, 2019.Greece and Cyprus have been pressing their EU partners to agree to sanctions against Turkey, but they are unlikely to persuade them to do anything more than repeat their condemnation of Turkish actions. German officials say the EU will not change its stance on sanctions against Turkey just two weeks after the last summit’s decision not to impose any punitive measures at this stage.The European Union is unlikely to launch sanctions against Turkey at its summit amid the gas dispute, a German government source said.Harder lineKremlin threats over planned EU sanctions for the Navalny poisoning may have the opposite effect from what Moscow wants. EU opinion is hardening toward the Kremlin.This week, the EU sanctioned six members of the Russian government, including Sergey Kiriyenko, first deputy chief of staff to Putin, imposing travel bans and asset freezes on them. Sanctions also targeted the State Scientific Research Institute for Organic Chemistry and Technology in Russia.Last month, von der Leyen warned against closer ties with Moscow, saying that the poisoning of Navalny was just the latest in a string of malign Russian actions that included military campaigns in Syria and Ukraine, meddling in Western elections and the poisoning in 2018 of a Russian defector in England.“This pattern is not changing,” she said.
…

Dozens of European cities have been forced into lockdown amid a surge in coronavirus infections. Hospital intensive care units in the affected regions are filling up fast and doctors are warning that health systems could become overwhelmed as winter approaches.Europe is now reporting more daily infections than the three countries worst hit by the pandemic — the United States, Brazil, and India.Paris, along with eight other French cities, including Rouen, Lille, St. Etienne, Lyon, Grenoble, Montpellier, Marseille and Toulouse, have been put under night-time curfew. All restaurants, bars and shops will be forced to close, and people have been told to stay at home between the hours of 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. for four weeks beginning Oct. 17.Announcing the measures in a televised address Wednesday, French President Emmanuel Macron warned of tough times ahead. “Testing, alerting, protecting, this is the key to the strategy that we have to ramp up throughout November and December, because we are going to have to deal with this virus until at least the summer of 2021, all the scientists are clear,” Macron said.Some residents of the French capital expressed alarm at the return of a partial lockdown. “My first reaction was that it’s going to be hell,” said 25-year-old Mathilde Weiss, a product manager. “I’m absolutely not going to have a social life anymore. So, I’m a little apprehensive, I admit.”A woman wearing a face mask to protect against the spread of coronavirus walks beneath the metal Puerta de la Ilustracion urban sculpture designed by Andreu Alfaro in Madrid, Spain, Oct. 15, 2020.Coronavirus infections are rising exponentially in several European countries. Spain has put Madrid and eight nearby municipalities under a state of emergency, with strict limits on traveling outside the region. In Barcelona, the local government has ordered bars and restaurants to close for 15 days, with similar restrictions in force across the Netherlands.Business owners are anxious about the impact of the new restrictions. “Who is going to take care of the wages for these 15 days? Who is going to take charge of the rent?” asked Julio Rodriguez, owner of the Pizza Sur restaurant on Barcelona’s seafront.The Spanish government has extended emergency financial support for businesses. But the economic cost across Europe is growing.The Czech Republic is among the worst-hit countries with the number of hospitalized Covid-19 patients this week reaching six times the peak seen during the first wave of the virus in the spring. The country has Europe’s highest number of new coronavirus infections relative to population size.Doctor Sterghios Moschos, a molecular biologist at Britain’s University of Northumbria, says the surge in infections in Europe likely was driven by young people returning to schools and universities in September.“As soon as this virus is outside of those settings — meaning the family settings and therefore, by extension, the work settings as well — we’ll end up having the burden brought back onto those who are elderly, infirm or vulnerable,” Moschos told VOA. “As a result of that we will see increasing hospitalizations in a matter of days.”Britain has imposed a three-tiered system of lockdowns, with the city of Liverpool in the highest tier. Doctors say more than 95 percent of intensive care beds in the city are full.A man wearing a face mask walks past a statue of the Beatles, as new measures across the region are set to come into force in Liverpool, England, Oct. 14, 2020.Jerry MacNally, a 61-year-old Liverpool resident, said he supports the new measures. “If we just carry on and carry on, it’ll spread and spread and spread. It’ll be like the TB [tuberculosis] from years ago, when everyone was dying — years ago when I was a young lad,” MacNally said.London and several other English regions have been put on Tier 2 lockdown, restricting household mixing. The government has stopped short of calling for a so-called “circuit-breaker” two-week national lockdown, however, which some of its own scientific advisers have called for.British Health Secretary Matt Hancock walks through Downing Street on his way into number 10, in London, Sept. 23, 2020.British Health Secretary Matt Hancock told lawmakers Thursday that the new system has to be given time to work. “We must act to suppress it, and suppressing it through local action, in the first instance, is the best tool that we have whilst we work, of course, with the scientists and technology that can help us to do that better,” Hancock told MPs.“It is also best for economic outcomes,” Hancock added. “Because even though the restrictions, of course, have their impact, and I understand that, and I feel that, it is better than the consequences of action that would have to be taken to ensure that we keep the virus under control were it to get out of hand once again.”Doctor Sterghios Moschos told VOA the localized lockdowns won’t be enough to contain the pandemic.“The borders between the Liverpool region and the Manchester region and London, [because of] modern transportation, are porous,” Moschos said. “Unless people are literally stuck at home and not allowed to get out, so that any transmission is restricted to the homeplace, these measures are going to be half measures.”“Time will show that we will end up in a situation that lockdown at Tier 2 is going to be inadequate and Tier 3 is not going to be adequate, and we will need to get into a lockdown like the one in March,” he said. “The longer we leave it, the longer we’re going to need stronger measures to last for to contain the transmission.”With hospitals filling up and the number of deaths increasing across Europe, scientists say the continent faces a difficult winter ahead.
…

The British Health Ministry has declared London on COVID-19 High Alert, the second highest level on the government’s three-tiered alert scale, as coronavirus infections in the capital approach 100 per 100,000 people and have passed that mark in many districts.The high alert means the city of London and its nine million residents face tighter restrictions starting Friday, including a ban on indoor socializing among households and strong enforcement of the “rule of six,“ no gatherings of more than six people outdoors.British Health Minister Matt Hancock announced the action Thursday before parliament, saying the new restrictions were the only way to protect lives and livelihoods. He said the government had to act because to delay would mean more deaths from COVID-19, and more economic pain later.Hancock said the Health Ministry had been working in close cooperation with city officials, including London Mayor Sadiq Khan. Khan told the city assembly about the high alert status Thursday, saying the fight against the pandemic in London is at a “critical moment.”He said hospital admissions are up, with more patients going to intensive care units and deaths from COVID-19 increasing once again. Khan believes the city will soon move to a Very High alert, the nation’s highest alert status.Khan also expressed his support for the nationwide three-week “circuit breaker” lockdown proposed by the Britain’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) and supported Tuesday by opposition Labor Leader Keir Starmer.Khan said such a lockdown could “save thousands of lives, drive the virus down to manageable levels and give the government more time to finally get a grip on its failing test and trace system.”  Prime Minister Boris Johnson has rejected the strategy, for now, saying the economic cost would be too high and his alert system should be given a chance to work.As of Thursday, the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control reports Britain’s death toll from the COVID-19 pandemic stands at 43,155, the highest in Europe. 
 
…

French officials said police have conducted early-morning searches of the homes of the current and former top government officials after a special French court ordered an investigation of the government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic.France’s Health Ministry confirmed the dawn searches, which include the offices of the current health minister, Olivier Veran. Officials whose homes were searched include former prime minister Edouard Philippe, Veran, his predecessor, Agnes Buzyn, current Public Health Director Jerome Salomon, and former government spokeswoman Sibeth Ndiaye.The investigation was opened earlier this year after France’s Court of Justice received complaints from COVID-19 patients, doctors, police and others about the government’s slow response to the pandemic, shortages of protective equipment, and a poor plan for testing.  When he announced the investigation earlier this year, Paris chief prosecutor Remy Heitz said the investigation would have limited scope and would focus on public officials. Heitz said possible offenses could include the alleged failure to implement workplace anti-virus protection, failure to provide face masks to reduce infection, and failure to roll out a workable testing plan.The home searches came a day after French President Emmanuel Macron announced curfews in the Paris region and eight other French metropolitan areas to deal with the rising toll of new infections.French opposition member of parliament Jean-Luc Reitzer, who was hospitalized with COVID-19 earlier this year, told French television he was shocked by the searches. “Do our citizens seriously believe that the shortages, which were real, were voluntary,” he said.
 
…

The frontrunners in Bolivia’s presidential race held their final campaign rallies this week ahead of Sunday’s election, which is taking place during one of the country’s worst economic periods in decades.Former President Luis Arce, the Movement for Socialism party candidate, addressed supporters in El Alto on Wednesday.Citizen’s Community party candidate Carlos Mesa’s held his final rally in Santa Cruz on Tuesday.Both candidates claim to have the antidote the country needs to address the economic and health challenges fueled by the coronavirus pandemic.Arce is a former economic minister in the administration of ousted president Evo Morales, Bolivia’s first indigenous president.Morales was forced to resign at the urging of the military after dozens of people died during protests following the contested vote results last year.Mesa is expected to benefit from Morales replacement, interim president Jeanine Anez’s decision to drop out of the race.Neither candidate appears to have a clear-cut path to the presidency, meaning a runoff vote remains a possibility.
…

The former owner of a Mexico City private school who was convicted of manslaughter last month in the deaths of 26 people during a 7.1-magnitude earthquake was sentenced to 31 years in prison.During Wednesday’s sentencing, the court ruled Mónica García Villegas, former owner and director of the Enrique Rébsamen School, acted carelessly by building an apartment for herself on the roof of the school building.The court deemed the extra weight was a factor in the building’s collapse during the September 19, 2017, earthquake that killed 19 children and seven adults.In addition to the prison sentence, Villegas was ordered to pay nearly $19,000 to each victim’s family and fined $5,800 for criminal negligence.The Mexico News Daily reports Villegas was arrested in May of last year in Mexico City on a tip from her brother who received a reward of just over $234,000 for leading authorities to her.
…

A Paris court on Wednesday handed down a 28-year jail term to the Algerian man who attacked a police officer with a hammer in 2017 as officers guarded Notre Dame Cathedral.   Farid Ikken, now 43, was convicted of attempted terrorist murder.   Beginning with the 2015 terror attack in Paris on Charlie Hebdo magazine staff, in which 17 people were killed, France has been the site of several such incidents. Many of the attacks have targeted French security forces. In 2017, Ikken a former doctoral student, yelled, “This is for Syria,” before he charged officers outside the well-known tourist site. One officer was struck in the head with the hammer. Ikken was shot and wounded by other officers.   Prosecutors said that during a search of Ikken’s home, police found a declaration of allegiance to Islamic State in a self-filmed video on his computer. They say he appeared to have acted alone.  The trial began Monday. On Tuesday, Ikken testified that he had no regrets for his role in the incident, adding he still felt a “satisfaction of duty accomplished” after the attack. 
 
…

The head of Britain’s domestic spy agency outlined Wednesday a cauldron of threats the country is facing, including from Islamist militancy to rising right-wing extremism, but he emphasized the biggest long-term challenge is presented by China.
 
Russia currently poses the biggest state-based threat to Britain, but China will become more dangerous in the future, Ken McCallum told reporters in London in his first public remarks as the new head of MI5. He said Russia was delivering “bursts of bad weather,” while Beijing is “changing the climate.”
 
The 45-year-old Glasgow-born spy chief said he’s planning to expand his agency’s operations to counter clandestine Chinese activities. He warned that Beijing has been seeking to steal the intellectual property of British businesses, including pharmaceutical companies, and universities.
 
“The UK wants to cooperate with China on the big global issues like climate change, while at the same time being robust in confronting covert hostile activity when we come across it,” he said.  Ken McCallum, head of MI5, Britain’s domestic intelligence agency, is photographed in London, Oct. 14, 2020. (UK Government/Handout via Reuters)McCallum accused hostile states like China and Russia, of no longer just being focused on the traditional espionage activity of stealing government secrets, but also of targeting Britain’s economy and infrastructure, and seeking to undermine its democracy.
 
He highlighted in his briefing to reporters worrying foreign intelligence activity around Britain’s research and development of vaccines for the coronavirus, saying his agency was trying to block efforts to steal or sabotage vaccine research data. “Clearly, the global prize of having a first useable vaccine against this deadly virus is a large one,’ he said.
 
“I guess there are two bits we are on the lookout for: attempts either to steal unique intellectual property that’s been generated in that research or potentially to fiddle with the data,” he said. “And then the second risk we’ve got to be alive to is the possibility that the research is still high integrity and sound, but that somebody tries to sow doubt about its integrity,” he added.
 
Three months ago, Britain’s National Cyber Security Center said Russian-sponsored hackers had been trying to steal vaccine research from universities and pharmaceutical firms.  
 
“In the 2020s, one of the toughest challenges facing MI5 and indeed government is that the differing national security challenges presented by Russian, Chinese, Iranian and other actors are growing in severity and in complexity — while terrorist threats persist at scale,” he said.
 
“We also do see interference in politics: the influencing of conversations around the European Union for example. We not long ago disrupted a piece of Chinese espionage activity that looked as if it was aimed against the European Union,” he added.FILE – A scientist works on a vaccine against the coronavirus at a facility in Oxford, Britain, June 24, 2020. British intelligence officials are putting such facilities high on the list of potential Chinese targets.McCallum, who was an undercover agent for 24 years for the agency before taking the top job at MI5, is calling for a register to be set up of foreign agents that would require lobbyists, trade advisers, lawyers and others paid by foreign powers to list their activities. Such registers currently exist in the U.S. and Australia. That would help to fight underhand “interference and influence, which is distinct from the espionage risk,” he said.
 
In a report published last July, the cross-party intelligence and security committee of the British parliament report warned “Russian influence in the UK is the new normal.” The committee criticized British “enablers and fixers,” including members of Britain’s House of Lords, who have facilitated the flow of Russian money into Britain over the past decade and enriched themselves while turning London into a “laundromat” for Russian cash.
 
“The arrival of Russian money resulted in a growth industry of enablers – individuals and organizations who manage and lobby for the Russian elite in the UK. Lawyers, accountants, estate agents and PR professionals have played a role, wittingly or unwittingly, in the extension of Russian influence which is often linked to promoting the nefarious interests of the Russian State,” the committee members said in their report.   
 
The British government is currently drafting a new National Security and Investment Bill that would allow business deals and takeovers involving defense and critical infrastructure businesses to be blocked by authorities, if they fear there’s a risk to key British assets.
 
Turning to terrorism, McCallum said there was a growing threat from right-wing extremism. Since 2017, MI5 had disrupted 27 planned terrorist attacks, eight of them being organized by far-right extremists. “This threat is not, today, on the same scale as Islamist extremist terrorism. But it is growing,” he warned.FILE – Cars and buses are seen stationary on London Bridge in London, Britain, Dec. 1, 2019, as police forensic work is completed following a terror attack involving a man, wearing a fake suicide vest, going on a knife rampage.He said the coronavirus pandemic had made it more difficult to maintain physical surveillance on suspected terrorists, noting that with fewer pedestrians on the streets, “watchers” were easier to spot by the people they are tailing. But one benefit of the pandemic, he added, is there are fewer events and fewer crowded places for assailants to target.
 
McCallum, the youngest ever MI5 director general, took over in April. He said he gets deeply concerned when he gets a late-night phone call, fearing it could be to tell him of a terrorist attack.
 
“When attacks do take place, the human realities are awful. I often say to new joiners at MI5 that the hardest thing about working here is that no matter how much hard work and ingenuity we bring, it isn’t possible for us to stop every attack. Terrorist attacks are always, without exception, sickening. Whenever my phone rings late in the evening, my stomach lurches in case it is one of those awful moments.”
 
…

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Wednesday resisted a call from his political opposition for a nationwide, temporary “circuit breaker” lockdown to halt the spread of COVID-19, but said he rules out nothing.  On Tuesday, Keir Starmer, leader of the opposition Labor Party, called for a three-week lockdown, based on advice from Britain’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE). The organization said failing to do so would lead to “catastrophic consequences.”  Starmer said it was clear that Johnson’s regional approach to restrictions was not working.  Johnson told the members of Parliament that he would stick to his local and regional approach that was announced Monday, which uses a three-tier system that rates the level of COVID-19 cases in specific areas. Cities and towns with medium, high or very high alert ratings must implement restrictive measures accordingly.Liverpool became the first area in the highest category, which requires bars, gyms and other businesses to close, perhaps for months.In a heated exchange with Starmer, Johnson pointed out that the opposition leader supported the government’s approach as recently as Monday. Starmer replied that he had supported the government in all its measures to this point but thinks the circuit breaker lockdown is in the national interest.British Finance Minister Rishi Sunak told Parliament he believes a second national lockdown would carry heavy economic and social costs that could permanently damage the British economy.Meanwhile, Northern Ireland, which is outside the tier system, announced the toughest COVID-19 measures since the pre-summer peak, closing restaurants and suspending schools. Northern Ireland has the highest infection rates in Britain.
…

The protests against the disputed electoral victory of longtime Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko have roused a sense of Belarusian nationalism, and with it, the desire to learn and use the Belarusian language, which had largely disappeared.  In this story narrated by Jonathan Spier, Ricardo Marquina in Minsk reports on how the language – whose use is highly restricted by authorities in favor of Russian – is seeing a rebirth.Producer:  Rod James
…