Scientists warn record Siberian temperatures and the rapid melting of the Arctic sea ice along the Russian coast indicate that climate change is occurring and may be irreversible. Siberia, famous for its bitterly cold weather, has been experiencing a tropical heat wave, with temperatures reaching a record 38 degrees Celsius June 20 in the Russian town of Verkhoyansk.  This week alone, the World Meteorological Organization reports some parts of Siberia have been warmer than the U.S. states of Florida and California, with temperatures going above 30 degrees Celsius.    It says the exceptional and prolonged heat is fueling devastating Arctic fires and causing a rapid decrease in the Arctic sea ice coverage.WMO spokeswoman Clare Nullis says the Arctic is heating more than twice the global average, and that is having a major impact on local populations and ecosystems.“We always say what happens in the Arctic does not stay in the Arctic,” said Nullis. “It does affect our weather in different parts of the world where hundreds of millions of people live.  There was a study last week, which says that the extreme heat that we are seeing would have been almost impossible without climate change.  So, it does have a clear fingerprint of climate change on it.”   Since January, Scientists estimate total carbon emissions from the fires raging inside the Arctic Circle are the highest in 18 years of monitoring the phenomenon.  In addition, they warn the melting of ice and thawing of permafrost will potentially release methane, a very powerful greenhouse gas into the atmosphere.Nullis tells VOA greenhouse gases are having a major impact on infrastructure and ecosystems throughout the region.“It will be very, very hard to reverse because of the law of physics,” said Nullis. “You know, the levels of carbon dioxide, which we have got in the atmosphere now, will carry on heating surface temperatures for generations to come.  The lifetime of CO2 in the atmosphere runs into many, many, many decades.”   A new study published in the journal Nature Climate Change warns that the iconic polar bear—a symbol of climate change—may be nearly extinct by the end of the century because of shrinking sea ice.   The article suggests high greenhouse gas emissions also will likely cause a steep decline in the reproduction of other Arctic subpopulations by 2100.
…

Huge crowds took to the streets of the Russian city of Khabarovsk on Saturday, angered by the arrest of the region’s popular governor, replaced this week by a Kremlin appointee who had never lived in the region.Protesters were holding posters reading “Give us back Sergei Furgal, people’s governor” during an unsanctioned protest in the Far East city near the border with China, 6,100 kilometers east of Russian capital, Moscow.Journalists reporting from Khabarovsk, seven time zones east of Moscow, said Saturday’s rally was the largest since the demonstrations began this month.The governor was arrested by federal law enforcement earlier this month on charges related to multiple murders in 2004 and 2005. He was flown to Moscow, where he was ordered jailed for two months.Furgal, a member of the nationalist Liberal Democratic Party, has denied the charges.Russia’s Investigative Committee has said Furgal was suspected of involvement in several murders of businessmen before his political career began.The protesters, however, believe the charges leveled against him are politically motivated.Furgal was elected governor in 2018. His unexpected victory was seen as a challenge to President Vladimir Putin’s policies and the main Kremlin party, United Russia. 
…

Wildfires continue to burn in parts of Siberia this summer as a heatwave has continued to spread in areas north of the Arctic Circle.The World Metrological Organization (WMO) has raised the alarm, saying official figures show record warming in the Arctic.”In general, the Arctic is heating more than twice the global average,” said Clare Nullis, WMO spokesperson. “It’s having a big impact on local populations and ecosystems, but we always say that what happens in the Arctic doesn’t stay in the Arctic, it does affect our weather in different parts of the world where hundreds of millions of people live.”More than 180 fires are burning in the Siberian region, with many in the northern Sakha Republic, on the Arctic Ocean.”Some parts of Siberia this week have again topped 30 degrees Celsius — so it’s been warmer in Siberia than many parts of Florida,” said Nullis.The wildfires are having effects far beyond the Arctic region, the WMO said.Firefighters are working to stop the fires. 
…

Forecasters issued a hurricane warning for parts of the Texas coast as Tropical Storm Hanna threatened to bring heavy rain, rough waters and strong winds Saturday, all while another tropical storm approached the Caribbean.Hanna was centered about 300 kilometers east of Corpus Christi, Texas, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said Friday night. The storm had maximum sustained winds around 85 kph and was moving west at 17 kph.Hanna was forecast to make landfall as a hurricane Saturday afternoon or early evening. A hurricane warning is in effect for Baffin Bay to Mesquite Bay, a span that includes Corpus Christi. A storm surge waring is in effect for Baffin Bay to Sargent. A tropical storm warning is in effect from the mouth of the Rio Grande River to Baffin Bay and from Mesquite Bay to San Luis Pass.Forecasters said Hanna could bring 13 to 25 centimeters of rain and coastal swells that could cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions.Hanna broke the record as the earliest eighth Atlantic named storm, according to Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach. The previous record was Harvey on August 3, 2005, Klotzbach tweeted.Tropical Storm Gonzalo was also the earliest Atlantic named storm for its place in the alphabet. The previous record was held by Tropical Storm Gert, which formed on July 24, 2005. So far this year, Cristobal, Danielle, Edouard and Fay also set records for being the earliest named Atlantic storm for their alphabetic order.Gonzalo was moving at 30 kph while its maximum sustained winds weakened to 65 kph, according to the National Hurricane Center’s Friday night update. It was centered about 550 kilometers east of the southern Windward Islands.Officials said that those in the Windward Islands should monitor the storm as it is expected to approach the islands Saturday. Some strengthening was possible, but the storm is expected to weaken as it moves into the Caribbean Sea.A tropical storm warning has been issued for St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Tobago and Grenada and its dependencies. A tropical storm warning is in effect for several places, including St. Lucia, Tobago and Grenada. Forecasters said Gonzalo could bring 5 to 13 centimeters of rain. 
…

The U.S. National Hurricane Center is watching two tropical storms, one in the Gulf of Mexico, the other in the Caribbean, that are expected to make landfall late Friday and early Saturday. Forecasters say Tropical Storm Gonzalo was, just after midday Friday, in the far western Atlantic Ocean just outside the Caribbean Sea, about 715 kilometers east of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. A hurricane-hunter aircraft indicated Gonzalo’s maximum sustained winds at the time were about 75 kilometers per hour.  There had been some concern Gonzalo could strengthen into a hurricane, but the hurricane watches for Barbados and St. Vincent and the Grenadines have been dropped. Those islands remain under a tropical storm warning and are expected to experience heavy rain and the potential for flash flooding. The storm is expected to weaken as it moves west in the Caribbean Sea. Gonzalo became the earliest named seventh tropical storm of the Atlantic hurricane season on Wednesday, shattering the 15-year record of Tropical Storm Gert. Meanwhile, the southern coast of Texas is bracing for Tropical Storm Hanna, which is expected to make landfall near Corpus Christi early Saturday. The storm is strengthening, and just after midday Friday it had maximum sustained winds of 85 kilometers per hour and was about 375 kilometers east of Corpus Christi. Forecasters predicted the storm, along with its damaging winds, would produce heavy rainfall and the possibility of life-threatening flash floods. A storm surge is also expected to flood areas in and around Corpus Christi with 30 centimeters to 1 meter of water, depending on the tides.
…

Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, prayed with hundreds of worshippers Friday inside the Hagia Sophia, the first prayers since the sixth-century Byzantine landmark was redesignated a mosque two weeks ago.The president was joined by other officials, including his son-in-law and finance minister. Only 500 people were allowed inside the mosque because of coronavirus restrictions, while thousands more prayed outside in Sultanahmet Square.Initially an Orthodox Christian cathedral, the mosque’s mosaics depicting Christian figures were covered during the Friday prayers.Erdogan read verses from the Quran, while wearing a white prayer cap. Ali Erbas, head of Turkey’s religious authority, addressed worshippers afterward.“The longing of our nation, which has turned into a heartbreak, is coming to an end today,” Erbas said from the pulpit.“Hagia Sophia will continue to serve all believers as a mosque and will remain a place of cultural heritage for all humanity,” the Turkish president said.Erdogan’s enthusiasm was matched by President Shavkat Mirziyoyev of Uzbekistan, who spoke with Erdogan over the phone.President @RTErdogan spoke by phone with President Shavkat Mirziyoyev of Uzbekistan. pic.twitter.com/uzusJahlyh
— Turkish Presidency (@trpresidency) July 24, 2020 Mirziyoyev expressed his “pleasure” over the mosque’s reopening and “wished for the historic development to have auspicious results for the Turkish nation and the Islamic world.”Not all have voiced similar sentiments over the Hagia Sophia’s renewed status as a mosque.The 1,500-year-old UNESCO-listed site was initially an Orthodox Christian cathedral that became a mosque following the Ottoman conquest of Istanbul in 1453. In 1934, modern Turkey’s founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, converted it to a museum — a status Erdogan overturned July 10.Christian church leaders and officials from the United States, Russia and Greece have voiced their consternation, and UNESCO has questioned Erdogan’s decision.“Hagia Sophia is an architectural masterpiece and a unique testimony to interactions between Europe and Asia over the centuries,” said Audrey Azoulay, director-general of UNESCO.“This decision … raises the issue of the impact of this change of status on the property’s universal value,” the organization said in a statement July 10.
…

France’s prime minister Friday strongly recommended French citizens not travel to the Spanish region of Catalonia after a surge in COVID-19 cases there in recent weeks.Prime Minister Jean Castex made the comments to reporters at Charles de Gaulle Airport just north of Paris. He said the French government is in discussion with Spanish and Catalan authorities, to limit the number of travelers coming into France from Spain as well. He said the border between the two countries would remain open for now.Nearly 8,000 cases were diagnosed in Catalonia in the 14 days leading up to Thursday — almost half of the 16,410 detected throughout Spain during that time — despite guidelines for residents of regional capital Barcelona to stay at home. Compulsory testingCastex also told reporters France would begin compulsory testing of people arriving at French airports and seaports from 16 countries outside the European Union where the infection rate is high. Those who test positive will be required to enter quarantine. Health care workers wearing protective equipment gear collect a swab sample from a passenger at a COVID-19 screening booth set up in the arrival hall of Charles de Gaulle Airport, north of Paris, July 24, 2020.The 16 countries include the United States, Brazil, Algeria, Bahrain, Israel, India, South Africa, Kuwait, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Panama, Peru, Serbia, Turkey and Madagascar.Castex said around 3,000 arrivals from these countries are expected to be tested at the Charles de Gaulle Airport. He said the testing would be conducted as quickly as possible with the help of the Paris Hospital Service. The prime minister did not specify if people would have to wait at the airport for the results of their tests. 
…

New rules on wearing masks in England came into effect Friday, with people going to shops, banks and supermarkets now required to wear face coverings. The move came a day after Belgium imposed its own mask requirement to slow increasing coronavirus infections.
Those in England can be fined as much as 100 pounds ($127) by police if they refuse. The British government had given mixed signals for weeks before deciding on the policy. Venues like restaurants, pubs, gyms and hairdressers are exempt.
John Apter, the national chairman of the Police Federation of England and Wales, says officers will be available as a last resort but that he hopes the public “will continue to do the right thing” to protect other citizens.  
In Belgium, health authorities said a three-year old girl has died after testing positive for COVID-19 as new infections surged 89% from the previous week.
On Thursday, Belgian authorities beefed up restrictions to slow the spread of coronavirus, including making masks mandatory in crowded outdoor public spaces. A country of 11.5 million, Belgium has been hard hit by the pandemic with 64,847 cases and 9,812 deaths recorded so far.
In Italy, the number of daily new infections reported Thursday jumped to over 300, the first time they had surpassed more than 300 since mid-June. Most of the new cases have occurred in northern Italy, where the outbreak in Europe began in February. But southern regions, relatively spared from the worst of the pandemic, have lately been seeing clusters of infections.
Many recent cases have been traced to people returning from abroad, most of them foreign workers from Asia, Eastern Europe or the Balkans. Other clusters were among migrants rescued at sea and southern Italy.
But there have also been clusters sparked among vacationers, including in Riccione, a beach resort town on the Adriatic Sea, linked to a young woman’s contacts in a disco.  
Last week, the mayor of Capri, one of the two main towns on the tourist-mecca island in the Mediterranean off Naples, ordered people to wear masks while walking in the streets. Capri’s main square, with its trendy cafes, and its narrow streets lined with luxury fashion shops, had been jammed with holiday-goers, many of them not wearing masks.  
Three young Romans who returned home this week after a holiday were positive for COVID-19, Italian media said Friday.
In Italy, masks must be worn in shops, banks, churches, on public transport and in all places where it’s impossible to keep a safe distance apart, including outdoors.
Amid fears in Spain that poor living conditions for seasonal agricultural workers are creating coronavirus hotspots, that nation’s farm minister on Friday said authorities are pressing employers to provide decent accommodations and transport. Spain’s Health Ministry reported 971 new infections on Thursday in the last 24 hours, the biggest daily increase in the country since lockdown ended.  
Some clusters in Europe have been linked to workplaces, including at a slaughterhouse in Germany. The company that runs the slaughterhouse that was at the center of a major outbreak last month said 30 more employees have tested positive for the coronavirus — but most of them were old cases.
Authorities have linked more than 2,000 cases to the outbreak at the Toennies slaughterhouse in the western German town of Rheda-Wiedenbrueck, which led last month to a partial lockdown of the surrounding area. Those restrictions have since been lifted and the facility has reopened after a four-week closure.
And as scientists around the world search for a vaccine to halt the pandemic, U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has dismissed activists seeking to oppose vaccinations as “nuts.”
Johnson was promoting a campaign for flu vaccinations ahead of winter. Britain has Europe’s worst recorded pandemic toll at over 45,600 deaths.
Overall, Europe has seen over 201,000 deaths in the pandemic, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. Experts say the true toll of the pandemic worldwide is much higher than all reported numbers, due to limited testing and other issues.
…

Tropical Storm Gonzalo is churning across the Atlantic toward the Caribbean.The U.S. National Hurricane Center expects Gonzalo will reach the Windward Islands by late Friday or early Saturday.   A tropical storm watch is in effect for Tobago and Grenada. A hurricane watch has been issued for Barbados and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.The Hurricane Center says Gonzalo could strengthen into a hurricane but is expected to lose intensity as it moves into the Caribbean Sea.Gonzalo became the earliest named seventh tropical storm of the Atlantic hurricane season on Wednesday, shattering the 15-year record of Tropical Storm Gert.  Meantime, the Hurricane Center issued an advisory that Tropical Storm Hanna, which organized in the Gulf of Mexico late Thursday could make landfall along the coast of the southwestern U.S. state of Texas Saturday.
…

Hungary’s prime minister on Friday touted what he called his victory at the European Union summit, where the bloc’s leaders decided on a massive seven-year budget and coronavirus recovery plan, but acknowledged he did not achieve his goal of de-linking EU funds from rule of law considerations.
Hungary and Poland, two nations led by right-wing populist governments, are both in the midst of EU proceedings over concerns that they are violating EU standards with laws and practices that threaten the independence of judges and press freedoms, and could face sanctions. At the marathon EU summit that ended Tuesday, leaders had debated tying receiving EU funds to demands that member nations follow EU democratic standards but did not explicitly do so.
“Polish and Hungarians … thwarted the attempt of others deciding about the money due to us,” Prime Minister Viktor Orban said Friday on state radio about the EU deal worth just over 1.8 trillion euros ($2 trillion) in which Hungary and Poland were considered to be among the greatest beneficiaries.
At the end of the summit, Orban said “any attempt to make a connection between the rule of law and the budget was … successfully rejected,” but on Friday he acknowledged the issue is far from settled.
“We didn’t win the war but simply only a very important battle,” Orban said.
According to news site portfolio.hu, Hungary may get as much as 52.8 billion euros ($61.3 billion) from the EU in the seven-year budget period starting in 2021, about 35% more than in the last budget.
Orban arrived at the EU summit with a resolution from the Hungarian parliament demanding, among other things, an end to an EU sanctioning process launched against Hungary in 2018 due to rule of law concerns.
But German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, said the initiative to close the proceeding “must come from Hungary.”  
“Hungary would like — this is what Prime Minister Orban has told me — for this not to be such an impasse,” Merkel at the end of the summit. “We will support Hungary in this. But the decisive paths must, of course, be specified by Hungary.”
While Orban had mentioned even vetoing a deal at the summit if funds were tied to rule of law standards, it would have been highly risky to go directly against the wishes of Germany, which is Hungary’s largest trading partner and was strongly behind the coronavirus recovery package.
“Viktor Orban understood that he could not fundamentally oppose German aspirations and interests, which were for there to be an agreement by all means,” said Attila Tibor Nagy of the Center for Fair Political Analysis.
He said with Germany worried about a collapse of key export markets like Italy and Spain, “the Hungarian government realized that the rule of law clause was not worth vetoing over.”
After the EU summit, however, EU officials reiterated that nations still must adhere to democratic standards. There are also concerns that Hungary and Poland have refused to join the EU public prosecutor’s office, which will be investigating fraud connected to EU funds.  
Hungary has built a rash of large soccer stadiums in small towns under Orban’s rule. Some officials in Hungary and other EU nations have also been accused of obtuse land deals that gave them access to EU farm subsidies while impoverishing farmers.  
“Protecting our budget and the respect for the rule of law go hand in hand,” EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Thursday in the EU Parliament. “We must also do everything we can to protect European money by stepping up the fight against fraud.”
“This means having the right controls in place, including a database that puts us in the position to know who the final beneficiaries of EU funding are,” she added.
Von der Leyen said the Commission would seek to again advance its proposal for funding cuts to member states that had a lack of judicial independence or other democratic failings. And EU Parliament President David Sassoli said this week that tying rule of law demands to disbursements was “a topic the Parliament cares a lot about.”  
The EU legislature on Thursday adopted a resolution by a wide majority which, while criticizing cuts to the 2021-2027 EU budget in research and health, also expressed lawmakers’ desire to make sure that governments violating the bloc’s “fundamental values” will have their access to EU funds blocked or limited.
The European Parliament has the final say in approving the budget.
Given that atmosphere, the Orban government is preparing supporters for new confrontations with the EU over its perceived democratic deficits.
Hungarian Justice Minister Judit Varga, who has faced strong criticism in the European Parliament while defending Hungarian policies, told the pro-government Magyar Nemzet newspaper that “the gist of the fight is yet to come.”
“I expect a new series of tougher, more unscrupulous attacks than ever before to begin in the fall,” Varga said.
Analysts said the trend in the EU was to reinforce rule of law principles.
“It’s evident that Viktor Orban sees, as do others, that the EU is increasingly going moving toward the implementation of these kinds of conditions and the retention of funds,” said Andrea Virag, strategic director at Republikon Institute, a Budapest-based liberal think-tank. “So while they may be talking about a victory, they are readying themselves and voters that a debate about this is still to come.”
…

An international team has completed a preliminary investigative analysis of the black boxes from a Ukrainian passenger jetliner accidentally shot down by Iran in January, Canada’s Transportation Safety Board said Thursday.”The work in Paris is finished, but the investigation is far from over. There are still many key questions that need to be answered,” board chair Katy Fox said in a statement, without giving further details.Fox urged Iran, the country that is leading the investigation, to release information as soon as possible, adding that the country has not authorized the board to release details.Investigators from the countries of the victims of the plane crash met in Paris this week at France’s BEA accident investigation agency to begin extracting the data.The Ukraine International Airlines plane was hit by two missiles after taking off from Teheran for Kyiv on January 8 and crashed, killing all 176 people on board.Iran admitted days later its forces accidentally shot the airliner down.Most of the victims were Iranian and Canadian, and many were dual nationals.  
…

Voters in Bolivia will have to wait until October before choosing the country’s next president because of the coronavirus pandemic.Bolivia’s Supreme Electoral Tribunal moved the election date from September 6 to October 18. The vote had initially been set for May 3.The president of the tribunal, Salvador Romero, said the new date of the election generates better conditions for health protection, convenience for voting from abroad, the arrival of international observation missions, as well as favoring the logistics throughout the territory by all departmental electoral tribunals.Romero rejected the claim by the controlling party in the legislature that lawmakers had to approve the change in date.Movement Toward Socialism is the party of former President Evo Morales, who was ousted last year and replaced by interim president Jeanine Áñez.Bolivia has confirmed more than 64,000 cases of the coronavirus and more than 2,300 deaths.   
…

Following Britain’s decision to ban Chinese tech firm Huawei from its 5G telecom network, Germany is emerging as the next potential battleground to check China’s expansion of influence in world affairs, which is increasingly seen as a serious challenge to democratic institutions worldwide.Germany’s decision on whether to include Huawei equipment in its own network “is still up for grabs,” said Reinhard Buetikofer, a member of Germany’s opposition Green Party who chairs the European Parliament’s Delegation for Relations with the People’s Republic of China.Britain’s decision “may very well have an impact on the decision Germany is about to make,” Buetikofer said in a phone interview from Berlin.Buetikofer said Britain’s plan to include Huawei in its next-generation network – which was abruptly reversed in a dramatic announcement last week – had been held out as a model by German supporters of the Chinese telecom giant.“In the past, supporters of having Huawei construct Germany’s 5G network often pointed out: ‘Look, the Brits knew that much more about Huawei than we do, if the Brits are not doing anything about it, why should we?’” But Britain’s July 14 decision has pulled out the rug from under that argument.Buetikofer, a strong advocate for decoupling his country from Huawei, greeted the British announcement with a challenge to German Chancellor Angela Merkel.FILE – Huawei headquarters building is pictured in Reading, Britain, July 14, 2020.“Now it’s Berlin’s turn to move!” he tweeted. “Does the chancellor really want to be the stumbling block preventing a united EU + transatlantic + 5Eyes stance?”The Five Eyes is a nickname for an intelligence-sharing alliance comprising the United States, Britain, Australia, Canada and New Zealand.A German decision to exclude Huawei from its network would be a diplomatic win for the United States, which lobbied hard for the British reversal and is bringing pressure on other countries to follow suit. The Americans warn that Huawei equipment may contain “back doors” that will allow China to spy on sensitive communications.“We hope we can build out a coalition that understands the threat and will work collectively,” U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said during a trip to Britain and Denmark this week.But Buetikofer said his objections to the Chinese company are not influenced by the pressure from Washington. “I oppose Huawei’s playing a part in the German 5G network not because I want to do the U.S. a favor, but because I think it is a threat to German national security,” he said.As in other countries, the German argument over Huawei is rooted in a larger debate about the best way to deal with China’s rising power.Merkel emphasizes the importance of “dialogue” with Beijing, unswayed by the fierce international reaction to its new security law restricting long-established rights in Hong Kong. But others, including a significant number of German lawmakers, believe Beijing is not only an economic rival, but one that is doing all it can to replace democratic norms around the world with its own style of authoritarian rule.German Free Democratic Party legislator Johannes Vogel has argued that Beijing has been explicit in stating that goal. “It would be naive if we didn’t take their assessment at face value,” wrote Vogel, the deputy chair of the German-Chinese Parliamentary Friendship Group.Merkel has also argued in favor of Huawei on the basis of a “no-spying pact” her government secured from the company.But Buetikofer points out that Huawei founder and CEO Ren Zhengfei is a member of China’s ruling Communist Party.“Don’t take us for idiots,” he remarked during a recent podcast.Analysts have warned that China could retaliate against an unfavorable decision on Huawei by targeting Germany’s auto industry, and Buetikofer acknowledged to VOA that the industry plays a significant part in his country’s economy.Nevertheless, he said, “Germany’s national interest is not synonymous with the interests of Volkswagen, just as the U.S.’s national interest is not synonymous with the interests of GM.” 
…

The European Union agreed Thursday on Germany’s proposal for coronavirus-preventative common hygiene standards at airports and on aircraft. “I am pleased that the German proposal was accepted by my colleagues at the European level and that we could agree on these uniform standards,” Andreas Scheuer, minister of transport and digital infrastructure, said at a European aviation conference. The agreement reached by officials will have to be formally approved by ministers. The proposal includes social distancing and the wearing of face masks at security checks and check-ins for those older than 6. It does not require the middle seats on airplanes to be empty. It is not clear how much the proposal will differ from the Safety Directive (SD) issued by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), which went into effect July 1. The most recent SD and EASA’s COVID-19 Aviation Healthy Safety Protocol states that the use of medical face masks should be “recommended” to everyone at the airport and on aircraft. Current guidelines also state that passengers should not be kept onboard an aircraft without proper ventilation for longer than 30 minutes. The SD, however, requires airplanes to be cleaned and disinfected only before and after long-haul flights, and has operators take a “risk assessment” for shorter flights. But airplanes are still cleaned at least once every 24 hours. Meanwhile, the United States, Russia and Brazil remain excluded from the EU’s 14-country “safe travel list” from which the bloc allows nonessential travel. 
…

A Hamburg court convicted a 93-year old German man of helping to murder 5,232 prisoners, many of them Jewish, at a Nazi concentration camp during World War II and gave him a suspended two-year sentence in one of the last cases against Nazi-era crimes.Rolled into the courtroom in a wheelchair and hiding his face behind a blue folder, Bruno D. acknowledged he had been an SS guard in the Stutthof concentration camp near Gdansk in what was then occupied Poland, but he said his presence did not amount to guilt.This did not convince the court in Hamburg, which found him guilty Thursday of being involved in the killings from August 1944 to April 1945.”How could you get used to the horror?” asked Judge Anne Meier-Goering as she read the verdict.About 65,000 people, including many Jews, were murdered or died at Stutthof, the museum’s website says. Prosecutors argued that many were shot in the back of the head or gassed.As Bruno D. was only 17 or 18 years old at the time of the crimes, he was tried in a youth court and sessions were limited to two to three hours per day because of his frail health.Prosecutors had called for a prison sentence of three years. In his final testimony to the court, he apologized for the suffering of victims but stopped short of taking responsibility.”I would like to apologize to all the people who have gone through this hell of insanity and to their relatives and survivors,” he told the court on Monday, broadcaster NDR and other media outlets reported.Some 75 years after the Holocaust, the number of suspects is dwindling but prosecutors are still trying to bring individuals to justice. A landmark conviction in 2011 cleared the way to more prosecutions, as working in a camp was for the first time found to be ground for culpability with no proof of a specific crime.
…

Spain was the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic in April but after imposing one of Europe’s strictest lockdowns, the infection and death rates dropped. However, that trend is taking a turn for the worse.  As Alfonso Beato reports from Barcelona, the cases have risen threefold in July and now restrictions are being re-imposed. Ihar Tsikhanenka narrates the story.PRODUCER: Rob Raffaele
…

An overhaul of Haiti’s penal code that punishes marriage officiants who refuse to perform same-sex weddings is provoking outcry among religious leaders in the socially conservative Caribbean nation.  The tension is emerging in a nation that has never spelled out LGBT rights and same-sex unions have never been recognized and homosexuality has never been expressly codified as illegal.At the heart of the current discussion is the rewrite of the 185-year-old penal code, decreed by Haitian President Jovenel Moise last month. It voids the work of lawmakers who were drafting legal reforms before parliament recessed and the COVID-19 pandemic arrived in the country.  Published in an official government newsletter on June 24, the reforms would go into effect in 2022 unless a new parliament rejects the document.
 
Critics object to the sweeping changes issued by decree as well as the new penal code’s treatment of sexual minorities that, on paper, would make Haitian tribunals among the most LGBT-friendly in the Caribbean, a region where sexual minorities have faced centuries of repression. Outcry from the pulpitDr. Francoise St. Vil Villier, president of the National Spiritual Council of Haitian Churches. (Photo: Renan Toussaint / VOA)”The people don’t need immorality, the people don’t need homosexuality,” Dr. Francoise St. Vil Villier, president of the National Spiritual Council of Haitian Churches, said during a press conference. “Anyway, [LGBT people] have always been here, we don’t bother them, we look them in the eye. But legalizing it in Haiti? We say no.” 
“A penal code cannot be immoral, because its purpose is to sanction those who commit crimes against society,” countered Marie Ghislaine Monpremier, Haiti’s minister for women’s affairs. 
The new penal code tacitly allows homosexuality, as it contains no provisions punishing same-sex relations. And, it sets forth fines and possible prison sentences for officiants who refuse to perform same-sex weddings.  Port-au-Prince Pastor Gary St. Hubert, a Protestant, decried the provision.
 
“People will do what they want, but you can’t legalize it,” St. Hubert told VOA Creole. “You can’t force me — if a man comes to my church and asks me to marry him to another man — to do it or face arrest. Then there’s no democracy!”
 
Several pastors have given the government until July 25 to rescind the new penal code, promising street protests if no action is taken.
 Yaisah Val, 46, a transgender woman, watches a movie with her husband, Richecarde Val, 28, in their home in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.Human rights observers note that, as a civil matter, same-sex unions are not currently recognized in Haiti. In fact, there have seen unsuccessful legislative initiatives to fine and imprison married gay and lesbian couples over the past few years.
 
LGBT advocates say denunciations of the new penal code are misguided.
 
“There’s a difference between penal code and civil code. It’s the civil code which deals with marriage, not the penal code,” said Djennifer Mercer in a statement posted in French on the Facebook page of Kouraj, Haiti’s most prominent LGBT rights group.  Government weighs inHaiti’s Presidential Press Secretary Eddy Jackson Alexis (Photo: Yves Manuel / VOA)Presidential Press Secretary Eddy Jackson Alexis addressed the controversy in a recent press conference and promised broader consultations with the public.”There are lies being told about this document. They say it is what it is not,” he said, adding that articles have been cited that are not even part of the penal code. “To re-establish the truth, the government will address the people. The prime minister is meeting with sectors of civic society so that they may once again express their opinions.”
 Voices in Port-au-Prince  Most people VOA Creole asked about the new penal code on the streets of Port-au-Prince oppose it, reflecting views that LGBT advocates say predominate in Haiti and have long contributed to a climate of hostility towards sexual minorities.
 This Haitian mother of three boys says she is against the president’s new penal code articles regarding homosexuality. (Photo: Matiado Vilme /VOA)”Was the president drunk or on drugs when he came up with this idea?” a street vendor said.  
 
“If he signed this decree God will strike him down, because [according to the Bible] that is how Sodom’s life was destroyed,” a female merchant said. “We should all revolt against this document, we don’t want it.”
…

Peru President Martín Vizcarra says 3,688 people were mistakenly not included in the previously reported death toll of those killed by the novel coronavirus.The revised death toll is at least 17,455.The new tally adds victims who died from March to the end of June. But it is unclear if more people who died of the virus this month may have gone uncounted.Vizcarra blames the miscount partly on the chaos created by the sudden impact of the pandemic. Vizcarra said Wednesday, a commission will be formed so the government can review the figures it receives from thousands of bureaus around the country that report to the National Death System, which keeps the official nationwide count.Peru’s more than 360,00 coronavirus cases is secondly only to Brazil in Latin America. 
…

A Chilean man has been extradited to France to face charges in connection with the disappearance and alleged killing of a Japanese university student.Nicolas Zepeda is charged in France with premeditated murder in the alleged 2016 slaying of his girlfriend, Narumi Kurosaki, whose body was never found.He had returned to Chile by the time Kurosaki was reported missing from her university in Besancon, France, days later.Zepeda was under house arrest in Viña del Mar, but the Chilean Supreme Court lifted the order earlier on Wednesday clearing the way for Interpol officers to escort him to France.Chile’s high court first intervened in May, approving Zepeda’s extradition weeks after a lower court blocked his return to France when Zepeda’s lawyer argued that he could not be extradited because Kurosaki’s body has never been found.Zepeda, who met with Kurosak in December before her disappearance, has reportedly not cooperated with authorities investigating the case. 
…

Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro remains in self-isolation at his official residence in Brasilia after testing positive for the coronavirus for a third time in two weeks.Bolsanaro’s medical team revealed the results of Tuesday’s test in a statement Wednesday, which also said the president is in good condition. Due to his latest coronavirus test, Bolsonaro’s advisers told the French News Agency (AFP) his planned trips to the Brazilian states of Bahia and Piauí in the coming days are currently on hold.Bolsanaoro said he and four ministers in his administration are treating their infections with the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, despite scientists saying there was no medical evidence to support its effectiveness.Bolsanaro has been criticized for his management of the health crisis.He fired two health ministers amid the pandemic and has openly opposed measures to curb the virus, including wearing face masks and practicing social distancing.Brazil has the most COVID-19 cases in Latin America, with more than 2.1 million infections and more than 80,100 deaths.  
…

A Canadian court Wednesday invalidated the country’s Safe Third Country Agreement with the United States, ruling elements of the law violate Canadian constitutional guarantees of life, liberty and security.But Federal Court Justice Ann Marie McDonald delayed the implementation of her decision for six months to give the Canadian Parliament time to respond.”I conclude that the provisions enacting the (safe third country agreement) infringe the guarantees in section 7 of the Charter,” McDonald wrote in her decision, referring to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom, part of Canada’s Constitution. “I have also concluded that the infringement is not justified under section 1 of the Charter.”Under the agreement, immigrants who want to seek asylum in Canada and present themselves at ground ports of entry from the United States are returned to the U.S. and told to seek asylum there.But if they request asylum on Canadian soil at a location other than an official crossing, the process is allowed to go forward. In most cases, the refugees are released and allowed to live in Canada, taking advantage of generous social welfare benefits while their asylum applications are reviewed, a process that can take years.Last fall Amnesty International, the Canadian Council for Refugees and the Canadian Council of Churches sued, arguing that the Canadian government has no guarantee that those returned to the United States will be safe because of the treatment of immigrants by the administration of President Donald Trump.The original legal challenge cited the widespread detention of asylum seekers who are turned back from Canada and the separation of parents and children as other examples of why the U.S. is not a “safe” country for newly arrived immigrants.Mary-Liz Power, a spokesperson for Canada’s Public Safety Minister Bill Blair, said they were aware of the decision.”Although the Federal Court has made its ruling, that decision does not come in effect until January 22nd 2021,” Power said in a written statement. “The Safe Third Country Agreement remains in effect.”On Wednesday, the three groups that filed the lawsuit said they welcomed the decision and urged the government of Canada not to appeal. The groups also urged Canada to stop returning refugee claimants to the United States immediately.‘That cannot be allowed to continue’”The Safe Third Country Agreement has been the source of grave human rights violations for many years, unequivocally confirmed in this ruling,” said Alex Neve, secretary general of Amnesty International Canada, one of the groups that brought the lawsuit. “That cannot be allowed to continue one more day.”In a statement, Canadian opposition lawmaker Jenny Kwan of the New Democratic Party called the decision an important victory for the rights of asylum seekers.”This decision will undoubtedly save lives,” she said. “We hope the Liberals will accept this important decision and not appeal it since too many people have already lost their rights.”An email sent to the U.S. State Department in Washington seeking comment was not immediately returned.A former U.S. Department of Homeland Security attache in Ottawa who helped work on the details of the implementation of the agreement said the ruling mostly criticizes the Canadian government for sending asylum seekers to the United States in a way that violates the Canadian charter.”It certainly is a broad criticism of the U.S. policy of detention of asylum-seekers,” Theresa Brown, now director of immigration and cross border policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington, said in a Wednesday email.Since Trump took office in 2017, tens of thousands of people have crossed into Canada at locations between ports of entry where they were arrested, but then able to file a refugee claim.Many of those migrants who came to the U.S. from across the globe — Syria, Congo, Haiti and elsewhere — would travel to upstate New York and then go to Roxham Road in the town of Champlain, a backroad that dead-ends at the border. There they walked across, were arrested and usually released, hoping Canadian policies would give them the security they believe the political climate in the United States does not.Under special rules set up by the United States and Canada to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic most who cross illegally in either direction are now immediately returned to the other country.The organizations that filed suit argued that if the agreement is abandoned, it would allow Canada to meet its legal obligations for the treatment of asylum seekers and allow people to present themselves at ports of entry, ending irregular crossings. 
…

A new British policy allowing Hong Kong residents to claim British citizenship is a “violation of international law” and interferes with China’s internal affairs, the Chinese Embassy in London said Thursday.Britain’s interior minister, Priti Patel, said in a written statement Wednesday that Hong Kong people with British National Overseas visas would be able to apply for citizenship starting in  January 2021.The Chinese Embassy said in a statement posted on its website that Beijing would respond strongly, adding that Britain should immediately correct its mistakes.This is a breaking story. Check back with voanews.com for further developments.
…