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Europe has called on China to take down trade barriers and rebalance the economic relationship, following a virtual summit held Monday between EU leaders and Chinese President Xi Jinping. EU officials also raised human rights issues including the crackdown on protests in Hong Kong – but Beijing is rejecting any interference in its affairs. Henry Ridgwell has more from London.
Camera: Henry Ridgwell   Produced by: Rod James 
 
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Scientists at a Russian university have announced the discovery of a remarkably well-preserved ice age cave bear, with much of its soft tissue including its nose, flesh and teeth intact.In a statement, scientists from North-Eastern Federal University (NEFU) in Yakutsk say reindeer herders on Great Lyakhovsky island in the New Siberian Islands archipelago discovered the carcass in the melting permafrost. NEFU is considered the premier center for research into woolly mammoths and other prehistoric, ice age species.Scientists at the research center have hailed the find as ground-breaking. Previously, scientists had only the bone of cave bears to study. The species, or subspecies, lived in Eurasia in the Middle and Late Pleistocene period and became extinct about 15,000 years ago.Preliminary analysis suggests this specimen to be between 22,000 and 39,500 years old, but it will be carbon dated to confirm that.Recent years have seen major discoveries of mammoths, woolly rhinos, ice age foal, several puppies and cave lion cubs as the permafrost inside the Arctic Circle melts. 
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Europe has called on China to take down trade barriers and rebalance their economic relationship, following a virtual summit held Monday among EU leaders and Chinese President Xi Jinping.  European leaders also raised human rights concerns, but Beijing has rejected what it calls interference in its affairs.  Monday’s videoconference was a substantially downsized version of the original plan to hold a face-to-face summit among all 27 European Union heads of state and the Chinese president in the German city of Leipzig.  A resurgent coronavirus pandemic in Europe forced the change of plan. The virtual meeting was attended by Xi, along with European Council President Charles Michel; European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the council of the EU. European Council President Charles Michel arrives for an online press conference at the European Council building in Brussels, Sept. 14, 2020.Speaking at a press conference after the meeting, Michel reiterated demands for China to open its markets. “Europe needs to be a player, not a playing field,” he told reporters. “Today’s meeting represents another step forward in forging a more balanced relationship with China.”  European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen attends an online press conference at the European Council building in Brussels, Sept. 14, 2020.Von der Leyen was more direct. “We expect that the market access barriers in China will be removed,” she said. Europe has voiced frustration at its lack of access to Chinese markets and at having to compete with state-backed industries. Brussels sees the current trade relationship with China as deeply unfair, but is not seeking a trade war, said analyst Steve Tsang, director of the SOAS China Institute at the University of London. “The reality is that the EU would want to be strengthening its economic relationship with China with some adjustments,” he told VOA.  “I think COVID-19 has changed a lot of things in terms of the relationship with China. Many of these countries have found China less than an entirely reliable trading partner or supplier of essential goods like medical supplies. So, some of that will change. But they really don’t want to have an economic decoupling with China,” Tsang said. Human rightsThe trade talks were overshadowed by growing criticism in Europe of China’s human rights record. The EU has requested that Beijing end its clampdown on pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong following the imposition earlier this year of a so-called “national security law,” which critics say effectively ends the right to protest and freedom of speech. The law will allow the Communist Party to markedly expand its power in and tighten control of the Asian financial hub. Europe has voiced growing alarm over China’s treatment of the Muslim Uighur population in Xinjiang province, where human rights groups say millions of people are being detained amid reports of forced labor and sterilizations. China denies the accusations.  Speaking at a press conference after the summit, Merkel said Europe would continue to raise these issues with Beijing. “The human rights dialogue will continue. (Chinese President Xi Jinping) offered this,” Merkel said. “So, there are already points of contact for further joint action. But that does not mean that there is agreement on these issues.”  European Council President Charles Michel, top right, speaks with China’s President Xi Jinping, top left, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, bottom right, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel during a virtual summit, Sept. 14, 2020.The United States has also repeatedly raised concerns over China’s human rights record. Speaking on France Inter radio Tuesday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo asked Europe to take a tougher stance.  “We’ve always said that when human rights are under risk — whether it’s the inability to practice one’s religion and one’s faith, or the simple ability to speak and exercise the basic rights of conscience — that the United States has a role in making clear that that’s unacceptable,” Pompeo said.  “It’s what we’ve done with respect to what’s taking place in western China. It’s what we’ve done in other parts of the world. It’s what we hope and we expect of other nations around the world. And we think the Europeans understand this risk in the same way that we do. We hope that they’ll take actions that reflect the seriousness with which these human rights violations need to be viewed.” Reaction from XiChina’s state-run Xinhua news agency reported that Xi rejected any interference in Chinese affairs during Monday’s virtual summit, particularly on human rights.  The Brussels-Beijing relationship is strained, analyst Tsang said.  “Governments generally, and the EU as a whole, also take a more robust stance, reflecting the shift in public opinion towards China.” The EU is China’s top trading partner, and analysts say Beijing wants to avoid further disputes amid its trade war with the United States. Brussels said it will continue to bring up security and human rights concerns, even as it seeks more trade. 
 
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Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny published a photo of himself in a Berlin hospital bed Tuesday as he recovers from a nerve agent poisoning last month in Siberia.Navalny, surrounded by his family as he sat up in bed, said he was pleased to be able to breathe independently.“I miss you all,” Navalny wrote in the post on Instagram. “I can still hardly do anything, but yesterday I could breath all day on my own.”It is the first publicly shared image of Navalny since he was airlifted to Berlin’s Charite Hospital two days after becoming sick during a flight in Russia on August 20.Navalny’s spokeswoman confirmed shortly after the photo’s posting that the 44-year-old planned to return to Russia.Germany, France and Sweden have concluded that Navalny was poisoned with a Novichok nerve agent, a Soviet-era agent that Britain said was used on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury, England two years ago.Western countries have requested an explanation from Moscow, which says the accusations that it was involved in the poisoning are unfounded. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday that Moscow needs Germany to provide information about the case to clear up what happened.Peskov said Russian authorities cannot understand why French and Swedish laboratories were allowed to test Navalny’s medical samples and Russia was not.Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has accused the West of using Navalny’s poisoning as an excuse to impose new sanctions on Moscow.Navalny’s illness has further strained ties between Russia and the West. Relations deteriorated to a post-Cold War low after Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and Skripal and his daughter were poisoned.German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been pressured to punish Moscow by postponing work on a nearly completed natural gas pipeline from Russia to Germany. 
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Five years after a wave of asylum seekers flooded into Europe, the region is facing another reckoning on migration, with familiar bickering and lack of consensus on the way forward.The numbers of arrivals are far smaller today than they were in 2015. The iconic images now driving migration back into the headlines are no longer of drowned toddlers, but rather of the thousands of migrants left homeless by fires at a squalid Greek island camp.Whether the European Union can finally come together on migration will be tested when its executive arm next Wednesday unveils a long-awaited migration and asylum pact that will need member state approval to become reality.”It’s going to be a very tough negotiation,” predicted former EU official Stefan Lehne, now an analyst at the Brussels-based Carnegie Europe policy institute.“Everybody agrees the current situation is a mess,” Lehne said of the patchwork of migration initiatives, but, he added, there remains little agreement on how to fix it.Migrants flee from the Moria refugee camp during a second fire, on the northeastern Aegean island of Lesbos, Greece, Sept. 9, 2020.Cannot afford to fail?The European Commission pact is expected to emphasize initiatives toward countries of origin and transit to keep asylum seekers from leaving, beef up border patrols and push for more burden sharing of migrants already within EU borders.The fire that devastated Europe’s largest migrant camp on the Greek island of Lesbos last week has lent urgency in coming up with solutions.Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotaki, who has called for more EU support in building a new structure — and in handling the migrant influx in general — called the blaze and its aftermath a “warning bell” for the 27-member bloc.“Europe cannot afford a second failure on the migration issue,” he said.European Council President Charles Michel, left, makes statements after his meeting with Greece’s Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis at Maximos Mansion in Athens, Sept. 15, 2020.So far, however, less than half of EU member states, along with Switzerland, have offered to take in a few hundred accompanied minors from the now-devastated Moria camp. Several hundred more have been voluntarily moved to tent camps on the island, leaving most of Moria’s more than 12,000 initial inhabitants still sleeping outside.These and other recent migrant numbers dwarf those of 2015, when roughly one million asylum seekers reached European shores. While Germany opened its doors, welcoming the majority of them, others, particularly eastern European countries, slammed them shut.By contrast, about 48,000 migrants have reached Europe so far this year, according to the International Organization for Migration, most via the Mediterranean — with another 268 dead or missing en route.Dozens of African migrants wait to be assisted by a team of aid workers of the Spanish NGO Open Arms, after spending more than 20 hours at sea, in the Central Mediterranean sea, Sept. 8, 2020.“We no longer have the arrival numbers we had in 2015-2016—which means in principle we should be able to talk about migration management and the challenges in a more rational, pragmatic way,” said Marie De Somer, head of migration and diversity at the European Policy Center, a Brussels research institution.But she added, “The divisions remain strong.”Toughening stancesFive years after the migrant crisis, states like Greece, on the frontlines of the influx, are still demanding greater burden-sharing from other bloc members, with some reluctant to do more.“If we give in to the pressure, we risk making the same mistakes we made in 2015. We risk giving people false hopes,” said Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, who has declined to take in minors from the Moria camp.Still, Carnegie’s Lehne believes member states are more in harmony today on one aspect.“In 2015, you really had big divisions between one group of countries that was very much for opening the borders and allowing refugees to come—and another group very much opposed,” he said.Lehne believes that has changed.“Everybody in Europe now agrees it has to be a managed process. It cannot simply be opening borders and letting everybody in,” he said.Turkish special forces team patrol on a speed boat along the Maritsa river at the Turkish-Greek border near Karpuzlu village, in Edirne region, Turkey, March 11, 2020.In recent years, the EU has beefed up its border patrols and paid transit countries like Turkey, Libya and Morocco to keep migrants on their shores. In Niger, France opened a migrant processing center to screen asylum-seeking claims thousands of kilometers from European shores.Far-right parties have also surged in recent years, partly riding on their anti-immigration platforms, helping to shape Europe’s tougher migration stance.For their part, rights groups have accused front line countries of foot-dragging or failing to allow vessels carrying migrants to land—and Greece of escorting migrant boats back to Turkish waters.The coronavirus pandemic, activists say, has also offered new pretexts to turn back ships carrying migrants over health concerns.Michael Newman, a migration policy advisor for humanitarian group Medecins Sans Frontieres, said he was “appalled” at the EU’s bureaucratic discussions on migration “when disasters are unfolding in front of our eyes.”“I think we come short of words to describe both the situation lived by migrants, and authorities’ response,” he added.By contrast, EU lawmaker Nicolas Bay, of France’s far-right National Rally party, said that Brussels bureaucrats risked rolling out an overly soft migration policy, offering incentives for more migration.“By piling laxity on top of laxity, they’re adding to the (migration) drama,” he told French radio.Some of these arguments are playing out among EU member states. Analyst De Somer, of the European Policy Center, noted a broader skepticism of reaching member state agreement on a migrant deal.De Somer, however, suggested the Lesbos fire might help act as a catalyst.“One thing it did do,” De Somer said, “is to showcase to the wider public the urgency and importance of coming up with a European solution.” 
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Venezuela is charging a recently arrested U.S. citizen with terrorism and weapons trafficking. Chief prosecutor Tarek Saab said Matthew John Heath, who was arrested in Venezuela last week, was plotting attacks against Venezuela’s oil industry and electricity system.  Saab said Heath was traveling in a vehicle and carrying a “coin” allegedly linking him to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, but he did not provide any details.  Saab also said three Venezuelans citizens detained with Heath, including one member of the military, are charged with treason in connection to the alleged plot. The U.S. State Department had no immediate comment after the charges were announced Monday. Heath’s plight was first revealed last week by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who said at the time, an unnamed U.S. citizen was arrested while allegedly spying on the country’s Amuay and Cardon refineries in western Falcon state and carrying “specialized weapons” and large amounts of cash. 
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Authorities in Panama are investigating the discovery of a mass grave in the vicinity of another grave site found in January where investigators believe a religious sect buried victims of violent exorcisms.  Forensic experts say they are still trying to determine how many remains are located at the newly found site in the indigenous Ngabe Bugle region, several hundred kilometers north of the capital, Panama City.Police and employees of the Public Ministry investigate near a mass grave with seven bodies at the indigenous region of Ngabe Bugle, Panama, Jan. 15, 2020, in this screen grab taken from Panamanian channel TVN Noticias.In January, authorities found a mass grave with at least seven victims, including a pregnant woman. The grave was linked to the “God’s New Light” church.  Police raided the church, arresting 10 people and rescuing 15 others, who told investigators the sect leader claimed he was fulfilling God’s orders to “remove the demon” from the victims in a violent exorcism.Authorities have, so far, not linked the latest grave site to the “God’s New Light” church. 
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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday defended his plan to unilaterally rewrite Britain’s divorce deal with the European Union as an insurance policy against the bloc’s unreasonable behavior — even as his former attorney general joined the ranks of once-loyal lawmakers condemning the contentious move. Johnson said a planned law designed to override portions of the Brexit withdrawal agreement was needed because the EU might “go to extreme and unreasonable lengths” in its treatment of former member Britain.  “I have absolutely no desire to use these measures,” Johnson told lawmakers as he introduced the Internal Market Bill in the House of Commons. “They are an insurance policy.” Johnson’s Conservative government has acknowledged that the bill breaches the legally binding withdrawal treaty that Britain and the EU have both ratified. The legislation threatens to sink the already-foundering negotiations between Britain and the EU on a post-Brexit trade deal. The U.K. formally left the bloc on Jan. 31, but existing trade rules remain in effect until the end of this year under a transition designed to provide time to negotiate a long-term trade agreement. Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks in the House of Commons in London, Sept. 14, 2020, in a video grab from footage broadcast by the UK Parliament’s Parliamentary Recording Unit.Ed Milliband, business spokesman for the opposition Labour Party, accused Johnson of “trashing the reputation of this country and trashing the reputation of his office.” With an 80-seat majority in the House of Commons, Johnson is expected to have enough votes to push his legislation through Parliament despite opposition anger.  The bill easily cleared its first House of Commons vote by 340 to 263 on Monday. It will now face attempts to amend or overturn it during several days of detailed scrutiny by lawmakers before another vote. Critics of moveThere is wide unease within Johnson’s party about the law-breaking move. Geoffrey Cox, who was the government’s top legal officer when Johnson negotiated the Brexit withdrawal agreement less than a year ago, said reneging on the deal would be an “unconscionable” breach of international law.  “I simply cannot approve or endorse a situation in which we go back on our word, given solemnly,” Cox, previously a strong supporter of Johnson on Brexit, told Times Radio. “The breaking of the law ultimately leads to very long-term and permanent damage to this country’s reputation.” As part of the Brexit divorce deal, Britain and the EU agreed to keep Northern Ireland — the only part of the U.K. to share a border with the bloc — bound to some EU rules on trade, to avoid the need for border checks on goods moving between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Both sides accepted the compromise to protect the open border, which helps underpin the peace process in Northern Ireland. The Internal Market Bill would give the British government the power to override the EU’s agreed role in oversight of trade between Northern Ireland and the rest of the U.K. Johnson claims the EU has threatened to use “an extreme interpretation” of the withdrawal agreement to “blockade” food shipments from the rest of the U.K. to Northern Ireland unless Britain agrees to accept EU regulations. The EU denies threatening a blockade and says it merely wants Britain to live up to the terms of the agreement. EU leaders are outraged at the prime minister’s proposal and have threatened the U.K. with legal action if it does not drop the proposal by the end of the month. Two former Conservative U.K. prime ministers, John Major and Theresa May, have condemned the legislation. On Monday a third, David Cameron, said he had “misgivings.” What mystifies some observers is that Johnson is repudiating a treaty that he himself negotiated and hailed as an “oven-ready” deal that would “get Brexit done.” That declaration of victory was key to Johnson’s successful December 2019 election campaign. “There was a political imperative on the government to get an agreement and then to go to the electorate with the claim that they had, to coin a phrase, got Brexit done,” said Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London.  “I think it possibly was the case in some senses that it was ‘make the agreement in haste and then repent at leisure.’ And what we’re seeing now is the repentance.”What’s next Johnson’s move has dynamited the dwindling trust between Britain and the EU as they try to negotiate a new trading relationship. Talks are due to continue this week in Brussels despite the chill in relations. Both sides say any deal must be agreed by next month so there is time for it to be ratified by Dec. 31. If there is no deal, tariffs and other impediments to trade will be imposed by both sides at the start of 2021. That would mean huge economic disruption for the U.K., which does half its trade with the bloc. A no-deal exit on Jan. 1 would also hit some EU nations, including Ireland, France, Belgium and the Netherlands, especially hard.  
 
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A U.S. appeals court on Monday sided with President Donald Trump over his administration’s decision to end humanitarian protections for hundreds of thousands of immigrants, many of whom have lived in the United States for decades.In a 2 to 1 ruling, a panel of three judges in the California-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court decision that had blocked Trump’s move to phase out so-called Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for people from El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua and Sudan.The ruling is also expected to affect the status of people from Honduras and Nepal, who filed a separate lawsuit that was suspended last year pending the outcome of the broader case.The appeals court ruling means that those immigrants will be required to find another way to remain in the United States legally or depart after a wind-down period that will last at least until early March, and longer in the case of those from El Salvador.Judge Consuelo Callahan, an appointee of Republican former President George W. Bush, wrote in a 54-page opinion that Trump administration decisions to phase out the protections were not reviewable and therefore should not have been blocked.Callahan also rejected a claim by plaintiffs that Trump’s past criticism of non-white, non-European immigrants influenced the TPS decisions.”While we do not condone the offensive and disparaging nature of the president’s remarks, we find it instructive that these statements occurred primarily in contexts removed from and unrelated to TPS policy or decisions,” she wrote.An attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, which represents plaintiffs in the lawsuit, said on Monday that they planned to seek another “en banc” review of the matter by 11 of the appeals court’s judges.The attorney, Ahilan Arulanantham, called the decision “deeply flawed” during a call with reporters, and said the case eventually could be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, depending on the outcome of the request for a broader appeals court review.The termination of TPS for Haitians is also subject to separate litigation in the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York. The appeals court heard arguments in that case in June but has not yet ruled.Trump has made restrictive immigration policies a hallmark of his presidency and 2020 reelection campaign against Democratic challenger Joe Biden.TPS allows foreigners whose home countries experience a natural disaster, armed conflict or other extraordinary event to remain in the United States and apply for work permits. The status must be renewed periodically by the secretary of Homeland Security, who can extend it for six- to 18-month intervals.The Trump administration has argued that most countries in the program have recovered from the related disasters or conflicts, while the status has been renewed for years beyond its need.The Biden campaign has called the TPS decisions “politically motivated” and said that Biden would protect enrollees from being returned to unsafe countries.Immigrants from El Salvador make up the largest group of TPS recipients, with an estimated 263,000 Salvadorans covered by the program, but a bilateral agreement will allow Salvadorans an additional year to stay in the United States if the courts ultimately uphold Trump’s termination.
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Automaker Daimler AG and subsidiary Mercedes-Benz USA have agreed to pay $1.5 billion to the U.S. government and California state regulators to resolve emissions cheating allegations, officials said Monday. The U.S. Department of Justice, Environmental Protection Agency and the California Attorney General’s Office say Daimler violated environmental laws by using “defeat device software” to circumvent emissions testing and sold about 250,000 cars and vans in the U.S. with diesel engines that didn’t comply with state and federal laws. The settlement, which includes civil penalties, will also require Daimler to fix the vehicles, officials said. The Stuttgart, Germany-based automaker said on Aug. 13 that it had agreements with the Justice Department, Environmental Protection Agency, Customs and Border Protection, the California Air Resources Board and others over civil and environmental claims involving about 250,000 diesel cars and vans. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Andrew Wheeler speaks, during a news conference at the Justice Department in Washington, Sept. 14, 2020.Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler said Daimler did not disclose all of its software, which included “devices designed to defeat emissions controls.”  Daimler denies it cheatedIn a statement, Daimler said it denies the allegations that it cheated and does not admit to any liability in the U.S. The settlements resolve civil proceedings without any determination that Mercedes and Daimler vehicles used defeat devices, the company said. Plus, Daimler said it did not receive a notice of violation of the Clean Air Act from the EPA or California regulators, which is common when defeat devices are used. The company said it is not obligated to buy back the vehicles, as Volkswagen was, nor will it have an independent monitor to track its progress on the settlement.  “By resolving these proceedings, Daimler avoids lengthy court actions with respective legal and financial risks,” the company said. Different systemsDaimler also said the emissions control system in U.S. vehicles is different than models sold in Europe because of different regulatory and legal requirements. Daimler AG said the settlement would bring costs of about $1.5 billion, while the civil settlement will bring a one-off charge of $875 million. It estimated that “further expenses of a mid-three-digit-million” euros would be required to fulfill conditions of the settlements. But the company didn’t make it clear just how the vehicles would be cleaned up or whether it was accused of any wrongdoing in the U.S. like Volkswagen, which paid $2.8 billion to settle a criminal case as a result of cheating. Fiat Chrysler also is being investigated for allegedly cheating on emissions. VW admitted that it turned on pollution controls when vehicles were being tested in EPA labs and turned them off when the diesel vehicles were on real roads. The company duped the EPA for years before being discovered by a nonprofit climate group and researchers at West Virginia University.  Cost sends a messageFILE – Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen speaks at the Justice Department in Washington, Nov. 5, 2019.U.S. Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen said the cost of the settlement is likely to send a message to deter other companies from engaging in similar conduct.  “We expect that this relief will also serve to deter any others who may be tempted to violate our nation’s pollution laws in the future,” Rosen said. Daimler’s $875 million civil penalty amounts to about $3,500 for each vehicle that was sold in the U.S. The company will also be required to recall the vehicles and pay to fix them and will need to replace some old locomotive engines with newer, low nitrogen oxide-emitting engines that should offset the illegal emissions from its vehicles, Rosen said. A Justice Department official said the company did not have to admit guilt as part of the settlement.  In addition, officials in California will receive $17.5 million for future environmental enforcement, as well as to support environmentally beneficial projects in the state, officials said. FILE – California Attorney General Xavier Becerra speaks during a news conference in Sacramento, Calif., Dec. 4, 2019.”Long term, cheating isn’t the smartest way to market your product. Daimler is finding that out today. But they’re not the first — nor likely the last — to try,” said California Attorney General Xavier Becerra. “Installing defeat device software on your vehicles to deceive emissions regulators doesn’t qualify as doing more. It just means you’ll pay more in penalties once we catch you. And we will, because cheaters really aren’t as smart as they think.”  Germany investigatingDaimler’s pollution practices also are under investigation in Germany, and civil lawsuits claim the vehicles emitted more pollutants than advertised.  In April 2016, the Justice Department asked Daimler to conduct an internal probe into its exhaust emissions certification process. The request came as the EPA began checking all diesel engines after the Volkswagen cheating was revealed.  Steve Berman, a Seattle attorney who sued Daimler over Mercedes diesel pollution, said in 2016 his firm hired a company to test Mercedes diesels on real roads, finding that they spewed out too much nitrogen oxide almost all the time. Berman accused Mercedes of having a defeat device that was similar to VW’s. In September 2019, federal prosecutors charged a Fiat Chrysler engineer with rigging pollution tests on more than 100,000 diesel pickup trucks and SUVs sold in the U.S., the first indictment since a wave of similar cases against Volkswagen and its managers. The alleged scheme isn’t as large as the Volkswagen emissions scandal, which involved nearly 600,000 vehicles. But the charges showed that investigators are still on the case, months after Fiat Chrysler agreed to a $650 million civil settlement and said it would fix Jeep Grand Cherokees and Ram 1500 trucks with “EcoDiesel” engines made between 2014 and 2016. Prosecutors alleged the engineer manipulated software to make the pollution control system perform differently under government testing than during regular driving.  
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Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday granted a $1.5 billion loan to Belarus as a show of support for its embattled leader, Alexander Lukashenko, after weeks of street demonstrations that have accused him of rigging last month’s election to retain power in Minsk. The two leaders met at the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi for nearly four hours. Putin gave few details about the loan, although the Kremlin later said some of the new money would be used to refinance earlier loans. Russia also said the two presidents had agreed to boost trade cooperation and discussed energy supplies. Law enforcement officers detain demonstrators during a rally to protest the presidential election results in Minsk, Sept. 13, 2020.As for the protests, Putin said, “We want Belarusians themselves, without prompting and pressure from outside, to sort out this situation in a calm manner and through dialogue and to find a common solution.”Putin said defense cooperation between Russia and Belarus would continue. Russian news agencies reported Moscow was sending paratroopers to Belarus for joint “Slavic Brotherhood” exercises. Belarus authorities have cracked down on the demonstrations, detaining 774 on Sunday out of the estimated 100,000 who marched and chanted epithets against Lukashenko. He has denied rigging the August 9 election against opposition candidate Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who has fled to Lithuania. FILE – Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya interacts with supporters in Warsaw, Poland, Sept. 9, 2020.Tsikhanouskaya, on social media, criticized the awarding of the loan to Belarus. “Dear Russians! Your taxes will pay for our beatings,” she said. “We are sure that you would not want that. This may prolong the death throes of Lukashenko, but it cannot prevent the victory of the people.” The United Nations human rights council says it will hold an urgent debate on the violence in Belarus.  In the Sunday protests, throngs marched through Minsk toward a government district, chanting, “Long live Belarus” and “You’re a rat,” a common taunt targeting Lukashenko. Coming to a halt, they chanted “fascists” as hundreds of riot police with shields blocked a road. The Interfax Russian news agency reported that shots were fired into the air to keep protesters away from an area of Minsk where the Belarusian leadership lives. 
 
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Mass protests continue in Belarus as thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators contest what they insist were rigged August elections to keep longtime leader Alexander Lukashenko in power. The latest weekend demonstrations come as the Belarusian strongman travels to Russia seeking critical support for his regime. For VOA News in Minsk, Charles Maynes reports.
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Protests against police violence in Colombia have left at least 13 dead and hundreds wounded after police and protesters clashed in major cities across the country.The demonstrations were triggered after a video surfaced showing two officers in the capital, Bogotá, pinning down and repeatedly tasing 46-year-old lawyer Javier Ordóñez. Police say Ordóñez was drinking on the street with friends and not following social distancing rules.In the video, Ordóñez is heard begging, “Please, no more” to the officers. He died later in a hospital after suffering nine skull fractures.  As protesters took to the streets in Bogotá, smashing and setting fire to police vehicles and stations across the city, security forces responded.  Videos show groups of officers attacking civilians, and showering them with rubber bullets and tear gas, while others show security forces tear gassing and responding violently to peaceful protestsMost of the dead were young protesters who suffered gunshots wounds. Bogota’s mayor denounced what he described as the “indiscriminate” use of firearms by police.  That violence set off more demonstrations, which expanded across the country.Protesters march down the main street of downtown Medellín, Colombia on Sept. 11, 2020. Soon after, they clashed with police. (Megan Janetsky/VOA)While international observers have described the protests as Colombia’s “George Floyd moment,” referring to Black Lives Matter demonstrations that emerged in the United States after George Floyd died in police custody in May, many Colombians were quick to dub them as something else entirely.For Valentina Perez, 20, marching in Medellín, Colombia’s second-largest city, it was a response to a trend of violence and frustration that has been building up for months.“This is nothing new,” Perez said. “In reality, this case had a big impact because there’s an accumulation of anger.”Perez noted the wave of massacres sweeping rural Colombia during the coronavirus pandemic as armed groups grapple for control, scandals that have struck the government in recent months, and longtime failures by the administration of President Ivan Duque to implement key facets of the country’s 2016 peace accords. The accords ended Latin America’s longest-running conflict, between the government and rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.Such frustrations have festered during the country’s five-month-long coronavirus quarantine, which had severe economic and mental health consequences, especially among the country’s poor.While police violence is certainly a problem in Colombia, said Sergio Guzmán, director of Colombia Risk Analysis, such violence rarely runs just along racial lines.Rather, he said this ties more heavily to longstanding trends of impunity among security officials established by decades of armed conflict.  “There’s a host of reasons people are protesting, this just caused enough indignation to bring people out to the street,” Guzmán said. “Then when they were met with violence by members of the police, the indignation mounted on top of what was already a lot of angst.”Similar anger fueled protests which stretched on for more than a month late last year.While the Paro Nacional, or national strike, drew hundreds of thousands of largely peaceful protesters, the demonstrations that have erupted in Colombia this past week have been smaller, but more violent.In the first night of demonstrations in Bogotá alone, the government reported that 60 police stations, 91 cars, 77 public buses, five banks and three businesses were damaged. Authorities say a 40-year-old woman was also killed Thursday night after a bus hijacked by vandals hit her.Such violence has been seen in other parts of the country as well.Members of Duque’s Centro Democrático party criticized the protests. Party leader Álvaro Uribe, a former president widely credited for returning stability to Colombia after decades of drug violence and civil war – but also known for promoting controversial heavy-handed military tactics – denounced the vandalism and posted videos of torched public buses.  “A firm hand guarantees order, avoids vandalism and the brutality of some police,” he wrote. Esteban Liscano, 25, was among hundreds of people who clashed with police in Medellín over the last few days. Liscano said he feels the violence is the only way to get their voices heard.“For all the things that silence represents, violence represents an outcry, making noise,” he said. “It’s something we need for a society that always stays silent, that simply normalizes death,” Liscano said. “Nos Están Matando,” or “They are killing us,” is the message written on posters and graffiti lining the walls and vandalized buildings across the country. At the police station near where Ordóñez was reportedly killed, mourners set up a memorial to the victims of police violence.While officials have called for forgiveness and reconciliation, reactions have been varied among local and national governments. Bogotá Mayor Claudia López has called for police reform and visited victims and their families. At the same time, Duque’s government accused guerrillas and armed actors of infiltrating protests, but offered little evidence to support that claim.The officers accused of Ordóñez’s killing have been fired. They face charges of homicide and abusing authority.Guzmán said that while the clashes may not be the “tipping point” that organizers of last year’s protests were looking for to reignite mass demonstrations, they are adding to deep discontent against the country’s leadership. “This is going to be a buildup,” Guzmán said. “This is not a tidal wave that’s going to take over. This is not a tsunami, but this kind of gravitas offers the perfect moment for the next election to start.” 
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At its opening session, the U.N. Human Rights Council approved a proposal by the European Union to hold an urgent debate on the human rights situation in Belarus by a vote of 25 in favor, two against and 20 abstentions. The European Union cited the steep deterioration of human rights in Belarus following the allegedly rigged August 9th election of President Alexander Lukashenko in its request for an urgent debate.In her opening speech to the council, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michele Bachelet validated these concerns.  She said her office has been receiving alarming reports of ongoing violent repression of peaceful demonstrations, involving excessive use of force by law enforcement officials.“Thousands of arrests, many of them apparently arbitrary, and hundreds of allegations of torture or ill-treatment, including against children, with some reports indicating sexual violence,” said Bachelet. “Recently, abductions by unidentified individuals of people associated with the opposition have also been reported…There has been limited evidence of any steps by the authorities to address these reports.”  Country Violations Top UN Human Rights Council Agenda Council to discuss reports detailing summary executions, torture, arbitrary arrests, forced disappearances, sexual assault and other violationsBelarus’ ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva, Yuri Ambrazevich, said the EU proposal was part of a broad political campaign aimed at supporting political forces in Belarus who had lost the election.  He spoke through an interpreter.“The proposal of the European Union has nothing to do with human rights,” said Ambrazevich. “It is, however, aimed at rendering political pressure against the State of Belarus, which is a form of direct intervention in the domestic affairs of a sovereign State and is a gross violation of international law.” In her speech, Human Rights Chief Bachelet presented a bleak assessment of the human rights situation around the world.  In rapid-fire order, she highlighted gross violations in dozens of countries in all regions of the world — violations which suppressed the rights and freedoms of people, impoverished societies, triggering violence and conflict.  The human rights records of a number of these States will come under review during the Council’s three-week session.  They include Cambodia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, Myanmar, Ukraine, Venezuela, Syria, and Yemen among others.The High Commissioner warns of ongoing political instability, social and economic upheaval and violence if the grievances, despair and inequality afflicting countless millions of people are not addressed.
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Two allies of stricken Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny are expected to have won local parliamentary seats in the Siberian city of Tomsk when results are released on Monday for a variety of regional and local elections across the country that the ruling United Russia party likely dominated.Ksenia Fadeyeva and Andrei Fateyev came out on top in two constituencies in Tomsk, the city where Navalny fell ill last month with what his doctors in Germany have said was poisoning by a rare nerve agent from the Novichok group of chemicals.Meanwhile, the ruling United Russia party topped the polls overall in Tomsk with more than 24 percent of the vote, according to early results published by regional election officials on Monday.In another Siberian city, Novosibirsk, the chief of Navalny’s local team, Sergei Boiko, reportedly also won a seat on the city council in the September 11-13 voting.The elections were closely watched for signs of protest against the ruling party that backs President Vladimir Putin amid mounting frustrations over declining living standards for many Russians and the government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic.Navalny had promoted a “smart” voting strategy designed to hurt United Russia and fielded dozens of candidates for city councils in Siberia.Citing data from exit polls and preliminary counting, Aleksei Turchak, the secretary of United Russia’s general council, said late on September 13 that the ruling party was set to win majorities in all regional legislatures and that its candidates for governor were well ahead.However, the independent monitoring group Golos cited numerous reports of irregularities in the September 13 elections, including ballot-box stuffing and ballots cast by real voters being switched.There were also concerns that early voting allowed over the previous two days because of the coronavirus pandemic had led to irregularities.The local elections were also seen as a crucial test for the increasingly unpopular ruling party ahead of next year’s national legislative elections.A total of 18 regional governor posts were contested, along with voters choosing 11 regional legislatures and 22 cities voting for municipal legislatures. Four by-elections were also held for vacant seats in the lower house of the national parliament, the State Duma.The polls came less than a month after the August 20 poisoning of Navalny, who is currently hospitalized in Berlin from the suspected ingestion of the Soviet-developed nerve toxin. His supporters blame Kremlin allies.Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation supported candidates it saw as best placed to unseat incumbents of United Russia. 
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Specialist labs in France and Sweden have confirmed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was poisoned with the Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok, the German government said Monday. A German military laboratory previously confirmed the substance in his samples.         German government spokesman Steffen Seibert said that the Hague-based Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons has also received samples and is taking steps to have those tested at its reference laboratories.  “Independently of the ongoing examinations by the OPCW, three laboratories have now confirmed independently of one another the proof of a nerve agent of the Novichok group as the cause of Mr. Navalny’s poisoning,” Seibert said in a statement.          He said Germany had asked France and Sweden for an “independent review” of the German findings using new samples from Navalny.         Navalny, the most visible opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was flown to Germany two days after falling ill on Aug. 20 on a domestic flight in Russia. Berlin has demanded that Russia investigate the case.         Seibert on Monday renewed Germany’s demand that “Russia explain itself” on the matter. He added that “we are in close consultation with our European partners on further steps.”         The Kremlin has bristled at calls from Chancellor Angela Merkel and other world leaders for Russia to answer questions in the case, denying any official involvement and accusing the West of trying to smear Moscow.          Russian authorities have prodded Germany to share the evidence that led it to conclude “without doubt” that Navalny was poisoned with a military nerve agent from the Novichok group, the same class of Soviet-era agent that British authorities said was used on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury, England, in 2018. Berlin has rejected suggestions from Moscow that it is dragging its heels. Navalny was kept in an induced coma for more than a week as he was treated with an antidote, before hospital officials said a week ago that his condition had improved enough for him to be brought out of it.  It isn’t clear when Berlin’s Charite hospital will next issue an update on his condition. 
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At least 100,000 Belarusians took to the streets in the capital of Minsk on Sunday in one of the biggest protests yet against President Alexander Lukashenko after he claimed victory in a disputed election last month that his opponents say was rigged.Police said they detained more than 400 protesters in Minsk, with arrests continuing into the evening.With public outrage building against Lukashenko, who has ruled the former Soviet bloc nation for 26 years, Russia said it would support him by sending paratroopers to Belarus for “Slavic Brotherhood” joint drills.Law enforcement officers detain protesters during a rally against police brutality and the presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus, Sept. 13, 2020. (Credit: Tut.By)Protesters claim the August 9 presidential election was won by Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya. Key opposition leaders have since either been jailed or fled the country, with Tsikhanouskaya now in Lithuania.Lukashenko has rejected claims the election was rigged and contends that foreign powers are behind the protests. Throngs of protesters marched through Minsk toward a government district Sunday, chanting “Long live Belarus” and “You’re a rat,” a common taunt against Lukashenko.Coming to a halt, they chanted “fascists” as hundreds of riot police with shields blocked a road.The Interfax Russian news agency reported that shots were fired into the air to keep protesters away from an area of Minsk where the Belarusian leadership lives.The unrest came as Lukashenko prepared to travel to Russia on Monday for talks with President Vladimir Putin.Moscow has expressed support for Belarus, potentially restructuring its debt and offering to send in Russian riot police if needed. 
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The European Union and China hold talks Monday with hopes to strike a trade and investment deal by the year’s end. Several issues pose potential hurdles, though, from human rights and climate concerns to the outcome of November’s U.S. election.
Expectations for the summit have already been notched down. It was supposed to be a face-to-face meeting in Leipzig, Germany, between Chinese President Xi Jinping and the 27 European Union leaders. Because of coronavirus concerns, it has now turned into virtual, downsized talks between just Xi, top EU officials and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, which holds the bloc’s rotating presidency. The two sides still hope to reach an agreement this year on a deal granting greater investment in and access to each other’s markets.  But as European Council President Charles Michel pointed out during previous EU-China talks in June, there are key areas the two global powers do not agree on. He noted European concerns on issues such as human rights, climate change and cyberattacks.  Indeed, Reuters news agency suggested Monday’s talks may result in only a modest agreement for now on protecting regional food designations on products such as Irish whisky and Chinese bean paste.  “What’s at stake here is the EU-China relationship is not in really fantastic shape at the moment,” he said.Janka Oertel, director of the Asia program at the European Council on Foreign Relations policy institute, says “the situation in Hong Kong, the situation in Xinjiang, plus the economic situation that hasn’t improved over the last few years, plus COVID — has really created a lot of concern in Europe at the future relationship with China.” She’s referring to European concerns about China’s treatment of minority Uighurs, and its policies toward Hong Kong, including the controversial new national security law. On the economic side, Europe wants greater market access, intellectual property rights protection and climate change commitments from Beijing.   FILE – A cargo truck drives amid stacked shipping containers at the Yangshan port in Shanghai, China, March 29, 2018.U.S.-China tensions also form part of the backdrop for the talks. Observers say China, in response, seeks a closer relationship with the EU while Europe is wary of becoming a battleground for the American and Chinese governments.  
 
Oertel says the U.S. presidential election, pitting former Vice President Joe Biden against President Donald Trump, will influence the next steps for Beijing and Brussels.   “Under a Trump presidency, the outlook for transatlantic cooperation and coordination on China is not great, because of the way the Trump administration has so far dealt with its allies,” she said.By contrast, she says, Brussels and Washington may cooperate more closely in responding to China under a Biden presidency.  For now, experts say, EU member states are divided over how to deal with China —whether to adopt a tougher or softer approach moving forward.  
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Thousands of protesters gathered in the Belarus capital Minsk Sunday for another demonstration after longtime leader Alexander Lukashenko extended his rule following a disputed election last month.Protests have been ongoing since the August 9 vote that opposition parties, the United States and the European Union allege was rigged.On Saturday, thousands demonstrated to demand the release of opposition leader Maria Kolesnikova, who was jailed this week after she resisted expulsion from the country.Video broadcast by Polish-funded satellite TV channel Belsat and independent outlet Tut.by showed masked Belarusian riot police violently detaining at least 40 women who were thrown into vans as scuffles erupted in the city’s central Freedom Square.Law enforcement officers detain protesters during a rally against police brutality and the presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus, Sept. 13, 2020. (Credit: Tut.By)Some of the women protesters chanted “Bring back our Masha,” referring to Kolesnikova, while others beat saucepans.Lukashenko, who denies the August 9 vote was fraudulent, accuses council members and activists of colluding with Western nations to try to create a parallel government.Thousands of people have been detained over five weeks of protests triggered by the contested election. At least three people have been killed and hundreds hurt as police have aggressively dispersed peaceful protesters with rubber bullets, clubs and stun grenades.U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday said the U.S. and other countries are considering bringing sanctions against “those involved in human rights abuses and repression in Belarus.”  
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With tensions between NATO allies Greece and Turkey rising, Greece has announced plans to purchase a grab bag of new warplanes, frigates, helicopters and weapons systems. Greece’s defense shopping spree comes amid a new diplomatic scramble with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visiting Cyprus to ease an energy standoff in the eastern Mediterranean.Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced the defense upgrade, saying it stemmed from the need to offset what he called Turkey’s destabilizing moves in the region.Along with its longstanding air and sea claims in the Aegean, Ankara is now torpedoing peace in the eastern Mediterranean, Mitsotakis said. Turkey is threatening southeast Europe and is undermining security at a crucial crossroads between East and West, he said.Greece and Turkey are locked in an increasingly tense and dangerous standoff in the Aegean Sea and eastern Mediterranean over hydrocarbon drilling rights and delineation of their maritime boundaries.In a speech at a trade fair, Mitsotakis said Greece would obtain 18 new warplanes from France to replace its aging fleet of Mirage 2000 fighters. The shopping list will also include four new navy helicopters and an equal number of frigates. Existing battleships will also be refurbished.Details of the deals were not announced but it is not the first instance this year in which Greece has shown an interest in substantially upgrading its defenses.Greece and the U.S. are already in talks for the procurement of at least 24 fifth-generation F-35 warplanes for $3 billion.Having finalized its intent, the new acquisitions, experts say, would give Athens a significant qualitative edge in its air defense against Turkey, which is facing problems in procuring new aircraft and upgrading its existing fleet.The United States suspended Turkey from the F-35 Fighter program after it moved to acquire advanced Russian S-400 air defense missile systems last year.Mitsotakis’ announcement comes amid a new diplomatic effort in the region by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to convince Greece and Turkey to back off from their monthlong standoff in the eastern Mediterranean.After talks with Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades and other officials, Pompeo said the United States remains deeply concerned by Turkey’s continuing operations surveying for natural resources in areas over which Greece and Cyprus both assert jurisdiction in the eastern Mediterranean.U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, left, and Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades make statements during a press conference at the Presidential Palace in Nicosia, Cyprus, Sept. 12, 2020.Pompeo added that, “Countries in the region need to resolve disagreements – including on security and energy, resource and maritime issues – diplomatically and peacefully. Increased military tensions help no one but adversaries who would like to see division in transatlantic unity.”Pompeo’s visit to Cyprus comes hot on the heels of a similar visit by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.Greece has refused to engage in negotiations with Turkey until it stops searching for eastern Mediterranean gas reserves.However, Sunday, just hours after Pompeo shuttled to Cyprus for high-level talks, hopes of a breakthrough seemed to emerge.Turkey called its top research vessel back to base, leaving an opening for a potential start to crucial negotiations. 
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Angry migrants left homeless by a blaze at Europe’s largest refugee center demanded to leave the Greek island of Lesbos on Saturday as authorities opened up new tent shelters and European leaders faced growing calls to take in more of the displaced.More than 12,000 people, most from Africa and Afghanistan, have been sleeping rough since flames swept through the notoriously squalid and overcrowded Moria camp earlier this week. Some residents had COVID-19, raising fears the outbreak could spread.Under a hot sun on Saturday, hundreds of migrants, many chanting “Freedom” and “No Camp,” gathered as bulldozers cleared ground in preparation for tents to be put up.Some carried handwritten signs carrying messages including “We don’t want to go to a hell like Moria again” and “Can you hear us Mrs Merkel?” in an appeal to the German chancellor.“The fire made things much more difficult,” said Sajida Nazari, a 23-year-old student from Afghanistan who has been on Lesbos for over a year. “We don’t have food, we don’t have water, we don’t have freedom.”Police briefly fired rounds of teargas when some of the protesters attempted to march down a road leading to the island’s main port of Mytilene, which police had blocked while work on the new tent settlement continued nearby.The fire at the camp, which was holding four times the number of people it was supposed to, has returned the spotlight to the migration crisis facing the European Union, which has struggled to find a response that goes beyond temporary fixes.German Vice Chancellor Olaf Scholz called on Europe to accept more refugees but the difficulty of reaching an accord was underlined by Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, who ruled out taking more in.Greek authorities have refused any mass transfer off the island, located a few miles off the Turkish coast, despite growing hostility from residents angry after years at the front line of the crisis.But officials said they were determined to provide shelter and proper sanitation and prevent a humanitarian catastrophe.“As of today, asylum seekers will start coming into the tents, into safe conditions,” Migration Minister Notis Mitarachi told reporters at the site.The need to bring the situation under control has been made more urgent by the fact that authorities have lost track of 35 camp residents who had tested positive for coronavirus.Health authorities have promised to conduct rapid tests at the entrance of the new camp, with a quarantine unit ready for anyone testing positive.Still, the unsanitary conditions being endured by Moria’s former inhabitants in the fields and streets of Lesbos has caused deep alarm.“This is a health bomb. These people haven’t even had access to water all these days, they cannot even wash their hands,” Matina Pagoni, president of Athens and Piraeus hospital doctors’ union, told Skai television. 
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Russians vote Sunday in dozens of local elections that will be scrutinized for signs of discontent with the ruling United Russia party following the suspected poisoning of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.Navalny, 44, had hoped to undermine United Russia’s grip on regional power and had urged his supporters to vote against it tactically before he fell gravely ill in what Germany and his allies say was an attempt to kill him last month.United Russia, which backs President Vladimir Putin, dominates regional politics, but the elections come at a time of public frustration over years of falling wages and the government’s handling of the pandemic.Seen as a dry run for next September’s parliament elections, the regional polls will elect 18 governors and an array of local parliaments and city councils.Early voting began Friday after authorities stretched the elections over three days, a move criticized by independent election watchdog Golos, which warned the longer period would make it harder for monitors to catch fraud at polling stations.Navalny’s allies have pressed ahead with the Kremlin critic’s “smart voting” strategy, naming more than 1,000 politicians on the ballots they think can beat ruling party candidates and telling their supporters to vote for them.The strategy aims to disrupt a political system that often bars the Kremlin’s staunchest foes from running, while allowing softer candidates from the parliamentary parties to compete. Navalny has been unable to set up his own party.The anti-corruption campaigner also has dozens of allies running in elections for seats in the city councils of Novosibirsk and Tomsk in Siberia.There have been some signs of anti-Kremlin discontent in the regions.Mass rallies in the far eastern city of Khabarovsk show no sign of abating two months after they flared over the arrest of a popular local governor who defeated United Russia’s candidate in an election upset in 2018.  
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Chloe Zhao’s “Nomadland,” a recession-era road trip drama starring Frances McDormand, won the Golden Lion for best film Saturday at a slimmed-down Venice Film Festival, which was held against the backdrop of the coronavirus pandemic.Zhao and McDormand appeared by video from the United States to accept the award, given virus-related travel restrictions made reaching the Lido in the Italian lagoon city difficult if not impossible for many Hollywood filmmakers and actors.”Thank you so much for letting us come to your festival in this weird, weird world and way!” McDormand told the masked audience as the Italian marketing team for the film actually accepted the award. “But we’re really glad you let us come! And we’ll see you down the road!”A favorite going into the awards season, “Nomadland” is screening at all the major fall film festivals in a pandemic-forged alliance involving the Venice, Toronto, New York and Telluride festivals.Britain’s Vanessa Kirby won best lead actress for “Pieces of a Woman,” a harrowing drama about the emotional fallout on a couple after their baby dies during a home birth. Italy’s Pierfrancesco Fabino won best lead actor for “Padrenostro,” (“Our Father”), an Italian coming-of-age story that takes place after a terrorist attack in the 1970s.Japanese director Kiyoshi Kurosawa won the Silver Lion for best director for “Wife of a Spy,” while the Silver Lion grand jury prize went to Mexico’s Michel Franco for his dystopian drama “Nuevo Orden.”The Russian film “Dear Comrades!” about a 1960s-era massacre in the former Soviet Union, won a special jury prize while Chaitanya Tamhane won best screenplay for “The Disciple,” about an Indian man’s pursuit to be a classical vocalist.That the 10-day Venice festival took place at all was something of a miracle, given that northern Italy in late February became ground zero for Europe’s coronavirus outbreak. The Cannes Film Festival was canceled and other big international festivals in Toronto and New York opted to go mostly online.British actress Vanessa Kirby poses with the Coppa Volpi for Best Actress at the closing ceremony of the 77th edition of the Venice Film Festival, in Venice, Italy, Sept. 12, 2020.But after Italy managed to tame its infections with a strict 10-week lockdown, Venice decided to go ahead, albeit under safety protocols that would have previously been unthinkable for a festival that has prided itself on spectacular visuals and glamorous clientele.Face masks were required indoors and out. Reservations for all were required in advance, with theater capacity set at less than half. The public was barred from the red carpet, and paparazzi, who would normally chase after stars in rented boats, were given socially distanced positions on land.While it’s too soon to say if the measures worked, there were no immediate reports of infections among festivalgoers, and compliance with mask mandates and social distancing appeared to be high.”We were a little bit worried at the beginning, of course,” said festival director Alberto Barbera. “We knew that we had a very strict plan of safety measures and we were pretty sure about that, but you never know.”Hong Kong director Ann Hui almost didn’t make it after she couldn’t get on her flight because of virus border restrictions. In the end, she arrived to collect her Golden Lion Lifetime Achievement Award and to see her out-of-competition film “Love After Love” make its world premiere.Movie lovers applauded Venice’s effort and the symbolic significance of the world’s oldest film festival charting the path forward.”It’s a moment of rebirth for everyone, for the whole world,” said Emma Dante, the Italian director of the in-competition film “The Macaluso Sisters.” “This festival is really an important moment of encounter, of beginning to dream again and be together again, even with the norms and following all the safety protocols.”Film writer Emma Jones said aside from “a few teething problems” with the online reservation system, the festival went off better than she expected.”It feels safe in there, it feels socially distanced,” she said of the venues.Jones noted that the lineup of films lacked the usual Hollywood blockbusters – think “La La Land,” and “The Shape of Water” – that have used Venice as a springboard to Oscar fame. While the festival featured films from Iran, India, Australia and beyond, it was heavily European.”This is a COVID festival. There’s no use pretending anything else,” Jones said.But she added: “It would feel really off-note, I think, to have had a red carpet with screaming fans and celebrities walking down it and people talking about who wore what. 2020 is not the year for those kind of discussions.”Instead, she said, Venice focused on the integrity of the films and the diversity of the countries represented.”We were lucky to receive a lot of submissions from all over the world, and apart from a few missing titles from the Hollywood major film studios, most of the countries are represented in Venice and the quality of the lineup is really very high,” said festival director Barbera. 
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Thousands of Belarusians demonstrated Saturday in Minsk to demand the release of opposition leader Maria Kolesnikova, who was jailed this week after she resisted expulsion from the country.Video broadcast by Polish-funded satellite TV channel Belsat and independent outlet Tut.by showed masked Belarusian riot police violently detaining at least 40 women who were thrown into vans as scuffles erupted in the city’s central Freedom Square.A woman wears a T-shirt with a sign of an old Belarusian flag during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus, Sept. 12, 2020.Saturday’s protests were a precursor to a massive women’s rally expected on Sunday to protest police violence and allegations of electoral fraud. Some of the women protesters chanted “Bring back our Masha,” referring to Kolesnikova, while others beat saucepans.Kolesnikova, who has been in a Minsk jail since Monday, has been accused of undermining national security as part of a criminal investigation against leaders of the Coordination Council, which was formed last month to negotiate a transition of power after President Alexander Lukashenko won a sixth term in office.Opposition parties, the United States and the European Union allege the August 9 election was rigged.Lukashenko, who denies the voting was fraudulent, accuses council members and activists of colluding with Western nations to try to create a parallel government.Thousands of people have been detained over five weeks of protests triggered by the contested August 9 election. At least three people have been killed and hundreds hurt as police have aggressively dispersed peaceful protesters with rubber bullets, clubs and stun grenades.U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday said the U.S. and other countries are considering bringing sanctions against “those involved in human rights abuses and repression in Belarus.”
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