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Mexican police and armed forces arrested the leader of the violent Santa Rosa de Lima gang who have terrorized the north-central region of the country. Authorities in the state of Guanajuato announced the arrest of José Antonio Yépez Ortiz, widely known by his Spanish nickname “El Marro,” which means “The Sledgehammer.” The Santa Rosa de Lima gang and the Jalisco cartel have been engaged in a bloody turf battle for years in the industrial hub of Guanajuato, home to many foreign auto plants and parts suppliers, turning it into the most violent state in Mexico. 2,293 people have been murdered in the first half of this year alone in the Guanajuato state.   Some observers say the Santa Rosa gang, which is not a drag cartel but a powerful violent group, is responsible for killing 27 men during an attack in July on a drug rehabilitation center in the city of Irapuato. However, Mexico’s top civilian security official, Alfonso Durazo, said El Marro would be charged with organized crime and fuel theft, but not murder. The Santa Rosa de Lima gang is accused of stealing fuel from government pipelines and refineries and robbing freight from trains in north-central Guanajuato state. 
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In southern Chile a confrontation between Mapuche indigenous protesters and residents turned violent Sunday. Several government buildings in the Araucanía region were damaged as the violence erupted. Local media reported that residents tried to force the Mapuche protesters out of the municipality buildings, before burning and overturning vehicles belonging to them. Chilean police intervened to evict the protesters and prevent other violent acts.  Interior Undersecretary Juan Galli said that authorities arrested 48 people during such “absolutely condemnable” unrest. The Mapuche protesters had occupied local government buildings for several days in a show of support for one of their leaders, Celestino Córdova, who is on a hunger strike in prison, and other Mapuche individuals whom they consider political prisoners.   The native Mapuche population, most of whom live in poverty, have been in conflict with authorities since the Spanish conquistadors forced them into Araucanía in the late 19th century after some 300 years of conflict. 
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Just two years after part of Genoa’s Morandi bridge collapsed killing 43 people, a new structure opens in its place Monday, an achievement in stark contrast to stalled infrastructure projects elsewhere in Italy.
 
The new kilometer-long bridge, designed by star architect Renzo Piano, replaces the old motorway viaduct that broke apart in the port city Aug. 14, 2018, in one of Italy’s worst civil disasters in decades.
 
Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, who will attend the inauguration of the new Genova-San Giorgio viaduct said it would be a “symbol of a new Italy rising up again.”
 
The accident laid bare years of mismanagement and poor maintenance and set off an acrimonious battle between the government and Atlantia’s Autostrade per l’Italia, the private concession holder controlled by the powerful Benetton family that ran the bridge.
 
Several former and current executives of Autostrade and transport ministry officials have been placed under investigation by prosecutors and, after months of wrangling, Atlantia is set to lose control of its lucrative subsidiary.
 
For the mayor of Genoa and state-appointed commissioner for bridge reconstruction, Marco Bucci, the case is both an example of decades-long failures in Italy’s transport infrastructure and a demonstration of what the country is capable of accomplishing.
 
“There’s a feeling of both regret for what happened and pride in the work that’s been done,” he told Reuters. “We’ve worked and shown Italian excellence.”
 
For years, Italy’s economy has suffocated under a mix of poor governance made worse by corruption and a thicket of vested interests and bureaucracy that have stifled innovation and fostered the kind of neglect that led to the bridge disaster.
 
Genoa itself, surrounded by rugged hills that constrain road transport, has seen a motorway bypass project held up for decades.
 
With the coronavirus crisis still unfolding and billions of euros set to come to Italy from Europe’s newly agreed recovery fund, addressing such failures has gained a new urgency.
 
As well as the shocking human toll, the collapse of the Morandi bridge dealt a severe economic blow to Genoa, costing the city an estimated 6 million euros ($7.06 million) a day in lost revenues and additional costs, Bucci said, with freight traffic interrupted for months.
 
Under heavy pressure to address the neglect that caused the disaster, the government pushed through an emergency decree to sweep aside red tape.
 
Between demolishing the remainder of the old structure in February 2019 to opening the new bridge 18 months later, the speed of the project has been breakneck in a country with crumbling roads and tunnels and development plans gathering dust.
 
While the circumstances behind the bridge collapse were unique, much rides on repeating that momentum elsewhere.
 
Trust and clear project goals, two things that have often been lacking in big infrastructure projects, were vital, said Roberto Carpaneto, head of RINA Consulting, who worked with the construction consortium led by Italian infrastructure groups Webuild and Fincantieri.
 
“Being able to say what was going to happen, when and why allowed us to build this relation of trust,” he said.   
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The Mexican Army and state security forces have captured Jose Antonio Yepez, a prominent drug gang leader blamed for helping to fuel a major surge in violence in the country in recent years, authorities said on Sunday.Widely known as “El Marro” (The Mallet), Yepez was captured in an operation carried out early on Sunday morning, according to the federal government and authorities in the central state of Guanajuato, a principal flashpoint of gang violence.Yepez, boss of the Santa Rosa de Lima cartel, a Guanajuato-based gang, has been engaged in a bloody struggle for criminal control of the state with the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), one of the country’s most powerful and violent outfits.The Guanajuato attorney general’s office said security forces captured Yepez with five other people and rescued a kidnapped local businesswoman during the operation. An “arsenal” of weapons was also secured during the raid. 
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Opposition groups in Argentina organized a protest at the central Buenos Aires Obelisk Saturday to voice their objections to justice reform plans announced by President Alberto Fernández.Fernández announced his justice reform project Wednesday, saying his goal was a more agile judiciary, “independent of political power” and greater transparency.Opponents believe his actual intention is to protect from prosecution former president, and now vice president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, who is being investigated for crimes that allegedly occurred while she was in office between 2007 and 2015.”They’re trying to protect the former president (Fernández de Kirchner), the most corrupt former president on the planet Earth,” said Marina Rios Flores, a protester. “This is the pact that they’ve made with the President Alberto Fernández that before he leaves office he would declare the pardon on her.”A female protester was holding a banner with a photo of Fernández de Kirchner reading in Spanish “Watch out Supreme Court. Imprison Cristina now!””The Peronist (ruling) party has never been republican, it will never be,” said a protester who gave him name only as Sergio. “It’s an organization formed to steal.”Fernández de Kirchner is being investigated for alleged money laundering and criminal association.She is also accused of covering up the role of Iranians alleged to be connected to a terrorist van bomb attack at a Buenos Aires Jewish center on July 18, 1994, that killed 85 people. 
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Protesters took to the street in cities across Russia on Saturday in support of jailed Khabarovsk former governor Sergei Furgal.Russian federal police detained protesters in the cities of Saint Petersburg, Yekaterinburg and Moscow.The demonstrations come as thousands of people marched in the Russian Far East city of Khabarovsk for the fourth weekend Saturday, angered by the arrest of the region’s popular governor and his replacement with a Kremlin favorite.The situation in the Khabarovsk region has become a problem for the Kremlin as demonstrations in support of protesters there are spreading elsewhere in the country.Furgal, 50, a medical doctor by training, was arrested by Russian federal law enforcement in early July on charges related to multiple murders in 2004 and 2005. He was flown to Moscow, where he was ordered jailed for two months and is being held in Moscow’s notorious Lefortovo prison.Russian President Vladimir Putin replaced Furgal with a young State Duma deputy, Mikhail Degtiarev, with no ties to the region, to serve as acting governor of the Khabarovsk region.Many people in Khabarovsk believe the charges leveled against Furgal, and his replacement last week, are politically motivated. Furgal was elected in 2018, defeating a candidate from Putin’s party, United Russia.Braving the heavy rain beneath umbrellas Saturday, protesters were chanting “Freedom!” and “Putin resign!” outside a government building, while a banner read “Russia without Putin!” At times protesters also chanted “We came here of our own will.”Many in Khabarovsk, a city on the border with China, see the charges against Furgal as unsubstantiated and politically motivated. They are demanding that his trial take place in his home city, not Moscow.Protests in the city, about 8,000 kilometers east of Moscow, erupted July 11. Since then, protesters have been demanding the release of Furgal and an open and fair trial for him. 
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A former Spanish prime minister once described the rock of Gibraltar, which Spain ceded to Britain in 1713, as a stone in the shoe of Anglo-Spanish relations. But Gibraltar currently isn’t the only source of Spanish irritation with the British.Last week’s abrupt decision by London to require Britons returning from vacation in Spain to quarantine for 14 days has angered a Spanish government desperate to salvage something from the wrecked summer tourism season. And it augurs badly for Britain’s ongoing, fraught negotiations with the European Union for a post-Brexit free-trade deal.The two governments have been at loggerheads since Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his advisers abruptly reintroduced the quarantine measures six days ago — to howls of protests not only from the Spanish government but also from Britain’s struggling airlines and Spanish hoteliers trying to stave off bankruptcy.Johnson’s official spokesman warned “no travel is risk-free during this pandemic.” Since then, Luxembourg has been added to Britain’s list of risky countries to visit.The Spanish government has been lobbying Downing Street to change its mind, pointing out that large parts of Spain, including the tourist hotspots of the Canary and Balearic Islands, are safer than Britain and have much lower coronavirus infection rates.In an interview last week with the Telecinco TV network, Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said his government was “talking with British authorities to try to get them to reconsider.” He said Britain had made an error by lumping all of Spain together and not taking a more clinical and sophisticated regional approach.He noted nearly 65 percent of Spain’s new cases are occurring in two regions — Catalonia in the northeast and neighboring Aragón. Britain’s quarantine requirement is “not well adjusted” to the epidemiological situation, he said. The Spanish point out that other European countries, notably France and Germany, have only advised their citizens against visiting Catalonia.Under relentless pressure from Madrid, the British government says it will review in 10 days’ time the quarantine requirement, which has prompted tens of thousands of would-be vacationers to cancel their travel plans. Low-cost airlines have halted flights to Spain. The review gives some hope to Spain that Britain may reverse its decision.But Britain’s quarantine decision is prompting a fierce backlash on the Iberian Peninsula that risks significant impact on Brexit talks.Spanish ministers are fuming. They were given no warning by London. The Spanish see the move as a stab in the back. Britons account for more than a fifth of the 80 million tourists who visit Spain in average every year. Nearly half a million Britons own vacation homes in Spain. The Spanish tourism association has offered to pay for British travelers to take virus tests in Spain.The dispute is threatening to reignite tensions between the two countries over the fate of Gibraltar, analysts say. Spanish politicians, goaded by the country’s tabloid press, are warning that they won’t do Britain any favors in the deadlocked negotiations over Britain’s relationship with the EU. A key stumbling block in the negotiations is over fishing rights in Britain’s waters.Gibraltar could well be sued to further complicate Brexit negotiations. The current government in Madrid has dropped pushing Spain’s sovereignty claim to Gibraltar, but it might revive it under pressure from Spain’s parliament.Gibraltar is desperate to ensure it will be able to benefit from a free-trade pact, if one is ever concluded, between Britain and the EU. Spain could wield a veto over that happening, shutting Gibraltar out of any easy relationship with the rest of the EU. Spain’s EU Affairs Minister Juan Gonzalez-Barba warned last month, before the current spat, that talks over Gibraltar’s future relationship with Spain and the EU “will not be easy.”And he hinted Spain could revive sovereignty ambitions. Ninety-six percent of Gibraltar’s voters opposed Brexit in the 2016 EU referendum.Spain’s Iberian neighbor, Portugal, also is in dispute with Britain. Portugal was not included on Britain’s safe-last of countries, which was first published last month. The country’s foreign ministry blasted the exclusion, noting that 28 times more people had died from COVID-19 in Britain than in Portugal. An infuriated António Costa, the prime minister, tweeted a graph illustrating it was safer in the tourist hotspot the Algarve, favored by British sun-seekers, than it was in Britain.While Portugal has enjoyed centuries of good relations with Britain, Anglo-Spanish relations have been more uneasy, stretching back to Tudor times when Henry VIII offended Spain by ditching and humiliating his first wife, Catherine of Aragon. British piracy during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I in the “Spain Main” off the coastline of the Americas and in the Caribbean Sea set the scene for Spain’s bid to invade England. But the Spanish Armada was defeated by legendary English seadogs like Sir Francis Drake.   
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Thousands of people marched in the Russian far eastern city of Khabarovsk on Saturday for a fourth consecutive weekend in protest at President Vladimir Putin’s handling of a local political crisis.Residents of Khabarovsk, around 3,800 miles (6,110 km) and seven time zones east of Moscow, are unhappy about the July 9 detention of Sergei Furgal, the wider region’s popular governor, who was arrested on murder charges he denies.His detention, which his supporters say was politically motivated, has triggered weeks of street protests, creating a headache for the Kremlin, which is trying to tackle a sharp drop in real incomes as a result of the coronavirus outbreak and keep a lid on unrest as the economy stutters.Sheltering from sporadic rain beneath umbrellas, protesters chanted “Freedom!”One banner read “Russia without Putin” while protesters chanted “Putin resign!” outside a government building.City authorities estimated around 3,500 people had taken part in the march. Some local media put the number above 10,000, but said the crowds were smaller than those of previous weeks.The protests have highlighted anger among some in the far east over what they see as policies emanating from detached Moscow-based authorities who have neglected them for years.”The government doesn’t think of us as people. We’re scum to them,” one female pensioner protester told Reuters.”We live at the edge of the world. This is the richest country … but we live in poverty and we pensioners have to work.”Supporters of Furgal, who is a member of the nationalist LDPR party, say he is being punished for defeating a candidate from the ruling pro-Putin United Russia party in 2018. The Kremlin says Furgal has serious charges to answer.Sustained demonstrations are unusual for Russia’s regions, as is a lack of response from the authorities to break them up.
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Two thirds of British businesses say they are now “fully operational” after the coronavirus lockdown, up from half in June, according to a survey on Sunday.A further 21 percent of the firms, polled in the first half of July by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), said they were partly operational with some premises still closed.”With businesses gradually reopening, this month’s data seems to indicate a turning point for the economy,” said Alpesh Paleja, an economist for CBI, one of Britain’s main business lobby groups.But many firms, especially those in consumer-facing sectors, remained in “acute financial distress,” he added.Britain’s lockdown has been slowly lifting since May, with the last major change on July 4, when hotels, pubs and restaurants were allowed to reopen.However, on Friday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he was postponing further relaxation, which would have helped some arts and entertainment venues, due to rising cases.Businesses on average said they were operating at 85 percent of usual capacity due to social distancing, compared with 72 percent when a stricter rule generally requiring two meters of distance was in force.Lack of demand from customers continued to be businesses’ most common challenge to resuming normal operations, the CBI said. More than two thirds of firms named it as a barrier to normal operations, down slightly from three quarters in June.The Bank of England is due to set out new quarterly forecasts on Thursday, as different sectors of the economy recover at different rates from the unprecedented economic damage.Whether the main barrier to growth is lack of consumer demand, or businesses’ difficulties meeting it, will be key to the central bank’s decisions on stimulus later this year.  
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Germany’s defense ministry officially disbanded a company of its Special Forces Command (KSK) on Saturday, following reports that it had been exposed to far-right and neo-Nazi ideology.The move showed how deeply rooted right-wing extremism could be within the German army, some experts said.“The announcement basically acknowledges for the first time that it is not just individual cases in which soldiers show up as right-wing extremists, but that there are right-wing extremist networks in the German Federal Armed Forces,” said Fabian Virchow, a professor at the University of Applied Sciences Düsseldorf and director of the Research Unit on Right Wing Extremism.“It shows that this danger has been systematically underestimated in the past by political and military leaders,” Virchow told VOA.German Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer made the initial announcement of disbanding the KSK’s 2nd Company July 1 after an investigation into allegations of right-wing activity.Kramp-Karrenbauer said then that the investigation had revealed the KSK was building a “wall of secrecy” around itself with a “toxic leadership culture.”FILE – German Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer arrives at a news conference on German armed forces Bundeswehr Special Forces Command (KSK) in Berlin, July 1, 2020.The defense ministry told VOA in a statement that it was doing its best to prevent far-right extremists from penetrating the German armed forces, or Bundeswehr, and to remove them once they have been identified.“Extremism of any kind, whether right wing, left wing or Islamist, has no place in the Bundeswehr, with its more than 250,000 soldiers, civil servants and civilian workers,” a defense ministry spokesman told VOA.He said the country’s Military Counterintelligence Service (MAD) was working on about 600 suspected cases of right-wing extremism, including 20 suspected cases pertaining to the KSK.Reform callsDuring the July 1 announcement, Kramp-Karrenbauer said that the analysis of the KSK far-right incidents concluded that the unit must be changed from “the inside out” and that it must be better reintegrated into the Bundeswehr.”We will give the KSK time to press the reset button,” she added, giving the unit an October deadline to make reforms or be dismantled.Her call for reform came a few weeks after a whistleblower within the KSK addressed a 12-page letter to her. The whistleblower alleged that right-wing extremism within the unit was known internally and “collectively ignored or even tolerated.”In January, the MAD counterintelligence unit reportedly said about 500 soldiers in the military were under investigation on suspicion of right-wing extremism.In March, MAD said the number of suspected cases of extremism within the army had risen significantly in 2019, in its first report on the issue.KSK operationsThe KSK was established in 1996 to focus on special operations, including counterterrorism, hostage rescue and intelligence gathering. It currently numbers around 1,100.Its well-equipped members have reportedly served in numerous operations in Europe and elsewhere, including Afghanistan, Mali, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo.The KSK is known to be the most secret, elite unit of the German army, with its operations very rarely revealed to the public.According to Virchow of the University of Applied Sciences Düsseldorf, the secrecy makes it hard to know if it is worth having such a unit, adding that “it is unlikely that the KSK will be disbanded as a whole.”Before the KSK, there were several special units within German law enforcement, including a special police unit called GSG 9, and the military, including the navy’s Kampfschwimmer. However, the forces’ operations remained limited, with no major international operations. KSK, on the other hand, has been involved in overseas operations as well.Some experts charge that the KSK’s previous involvement in key international operations means the unit will likely continue to operate in the future, regardless of threats regarding its disbandment.“If Germany … will continue to take part in the U.N. or NATO missions that involve actual fighting, you need a special forces unit,” Hans-Jakob Schindler, senior director of the Counter Extremism Project in Berlin, told VOA.“Disbanding the whole KSK would mean that Germany’s ability to partake in international missions is severely hampered, because you just cannot be in Mali without the KSK,” Schindler added.ConscriptionIn addition to measures to reform the KSK, German officials in recent months have also debated whether to bring back compulsory military service as a way to combat right-wing extremism in the German army ranks.One of the idea’s supporters, Eva Högl, the German parliament’s Bundeswehr overseer, argues that conscription could make it much harder for far-right extremists to establish a base of influence in the army.“It would do the army good if a large part of society does its service for a while,” Högl told newspapers of the Funke Media Group last month.FILE – German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrives for the weekly cabinet meeting in Berlin, July 15, 2020.However, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Kramp-Karrenbauer are not in favor of reintroducing conscription to the army.Germany suspended conscription in 2011, but it still has volunteer service alongside its professional army members.Kramp-Karrenbauer last Thursday announced that the German army would launch a new volunteer scheme for the army with the motto of “Your year for Germany” in April 2021. The program reportedly will focus on homeland protection.
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Mexico now has the third most COVID-19 deaths in the world, behind Brazil and the United States, where a hurricane bearing down on the East Coast on Saturday is threatening to complicate efforts to contain the virus.Hurricane Isaias’ imminent arrival forced the closure of some outdoor testing sites even though Florida has become a major hot spot, and other states in the path of the storm prepared emergency shelters that comply with social-distancing measures.”We had to put safety first,” Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez said Friday.But Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said no immediate evacuation orders have been given and that hospitals in general are not being evacuated of coronavirus or other patients.Meanwhile, Mexican health officials on Friday reported 688 new deaths, pushing the country’s confirmed total to over 46,600. That put Mexico just ahead of the United Kingdom, which has more than 46,100, according to the tally by Johns Hopkins University.Where Has the New Coronavirus Spread?New virus, denoted 2019-nCoV by the WHO, has caused alarm because of its similarity to SARS in 2002-2003Some countries are seeing hopeful signs: China reported a more than 50% drop in newly confirmed cases in a possible indication that its latest major outbreak in the northwestern region of Xinjiang may have run its course.However, in Hong Kong and elsewhere, infections continue to surge. Hong Kong reported more than 100 new cases as of Saturday among the population of 7.5 million. Officials have reimposed dining restrictions and mask requirements.Tokyo on Saturday saw its third day straight of record case numbers, the metropolitan government said. Nationwide, Japan’s daily count of cases totaled a record 1,579 people Friday, the health ministry said.And Vietnam, a former success story, is struggling to control an outbreak spreading in its most famous beach resort. A third person died there of coronavirus complications, officials said Saturday, a day after it recorded its first-ever death as it wrestles with a renewed outbreak after 99 days with no local cases.All three died in a hospital in Da Nang, a hot spot with more than 100 cases in the past week. Thousands of visitors had been in the city for summer vacation and are now being tested in Hanoi and elsewhere.Twelve additional cases were confirmed on Saturday, all linked to Da Nang Hospital. Officials tightened security and set up more checkpoints to prevent people from leaving or entering the city, which has been in lockdown since Tuesday.A makeshift hospital was set up, and doctors have been mobilized from other cities to help.”I want to be tested, so I can stop worrying if I have the virus or not,” said Pham Thuy Hoa, a banking official who returned to the capital from Da Nang.In South Korea, prosecutors arrested the elderly leader of a secretive religious sect linked to more than 5,200 of the country’s approximately 14,300 confirmed cases. He has denied charges of hiding members and underreporting gatherings to avoid broader quarantines.The global pandemic has affected nearly every aspect of this year’s Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, with as few as 1,000 pilgrims already residing in Saudi Arabia taking part, down from 2.5 million last year.Poverty brought on by the pandemic is also making it harder for many to join in the four-day Eid al-Adha, or “Feast of Sacrifice,” in which Muslims slaughter livestock and distribute the meat to the poor.”I could hardly buy food for my family,” Somali civil servant Abdishakur Dahir said. “We are just surviving for now. Life is getting tougher by the day.”The Saudi Health Ministry said there have been no cases of COVID-19 among this year’s pilgrims. All were tested, their movements monitored with electronic wristbands and required to be quarantined before and after.Meanwhile, India recorded its steepest spike of 57,118 new cases in the past 24 hours, taking its coronavirus caseload close to 1.7 million, with July alone accounting for nearly 1.1 million infections.The country’s Civil Aviation Ministry delayed resumption of international flights by another month until Aug. 31. But it will continue to allow several international carriers from the United States, Europe and the Middle East to operate special flights to evacuate stranded nationals.In France, travelers entering from 16 countries where the virus is circulating widely now must undergo virus tests upon arrival at airports and ports. The country is not permitting general travel to and from the countries, which include the United States and Brazil. The testing requirement therefore only applies to people entering under limited circumstances, including French citizens who live in these countries. Those who test positive as of Saturday must quarantine for 14 days.As autumn approaches, nations around the world are grappling with how to safely reopen schools.A scientist advising the British government on the coronavirus pandemic says pubs in England may have to be closed to allow schools to reopen in September. Graham Medley, a member of the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, told the BBC that there may have to be a “trade off.”In Utah, the Salt Lake City School District Board of Education announced that its schools will start the year with all online-only classes in response to an increasing number of confirmed cases in the city. Just days after public schools around Indiana reopened their doors, at least one student and one school staff member in districts around Indianapolis have tested positive for the virus.The debate over school openings came as Dr. Anthony Fauci dismissed a tweet by President Donald Trump claiming the U.S. global lead in coronavirus cases is because of increased testing.Fauci ‘Cautiously Optimistic’ About Coronavirus VaccineTop US infectious-disease expert tells lawmakers vaccine could be available in coming monthsFauci said the scale of the U.S. outbreak is the result of multiple factors, including some states opening up too quickly and disregarding federal guidelines.On Friday, the head of the World Health Organization predicted the effects of the pandemic will be felt for “decades to come.””Most of the world’s people remain susceptible to this virus, even in areas that have experienced severe outbreaks,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in London. “Although vaccine development is happening at record speed, we must learn to live with this virus.”
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Working as a reporter and deputy editor for the Hungarian publication Index was a pinnacle in Szabolcs Panyi’s career as a journalist.From 2013 to 2018, Panyi covered Hungarian politics, uncovered corruption scandals and won numerous awards for his work. People would recognize him on the streets or at protests, shaking his hand. He even saw a government official on TV reading a printout of one of his stories.   “That was the influence Index had,” he told VOA. “Both personally and professionally, it was one of the best parts of my life.”During his time at the news website, Panyi said he never received external pressure that influenced his reporting. But rumors lingered about a “set date” for when the publication would be bought out by a pro-government businessman.”We knew that it was just too popular and powerful to be simply shut down in a very obvious manner,” said Panyi, who now reports for Direkt36, a nonprofit investigative journalism center in Hungary. “So, the government tried to find more covert ways to try to influence Index.”Szabolcs Dull, editor-in-chief of Hungary’s main independent website Index, leaves the newsroom after being sacked in Budapest, July 22, 2020.Fears of outside interference grew last month when editor-in-chief declared that its independence was “in danger” and under threat from “outside interference.”  On July 22, Dull was fired and two days later more than 70 Index staffers and the editorial board resigned in protest — more than half of the publication’s staff. Now, journalists and media freedom advocates worry about the state of press freedom in the country.People take part in a protest for media freedom in Budapest, Hungary, July 24, 2020.Why resign?In an editorial published last month, Dull warned that the editorial staff was in danger and raised concerns over an “organizational overhaul.”  Plans by directors to restructure the staff were framed as a way to cut costs, according to a Facebook group formed by some of the former staff. The journalists, however, said the plans risked compromising editorial standards.  Top editors repeatedly lobbied for assurance of the site’s independence but were given no answers from management.”This is such a strong infringement on the editorial independence of Index.hu that we simply could not accept,” the staffers wrote on the Facebook page.Following changes to parts of its ownership in 2018,  Index started publishing a barometer to alert readers to any potential interference.  Further changes came in March, when businessman Marco Vaszily acquired a 50% stake in the company that sells Index’s advertising.Vaszily is chair of pro-government television outlet, TV2 and was involved in the 2014 takeover of Origo, at the time Hungary’s largest online news site. More than 30 Origo journalists later resigned over what they said was a pro-government shift in editorial content.Laszlo Bodolai, head of the foundation that owns Index, denied the site’s independence was at risk, Reuters reported. He said Dull’s inability to control internal newsroom tensions led to a drop in revenue as advertisers stayed away.   Index did not respond to VOA’s request for comment.Bodoky, from the Hungarian watchdog group, said he wished the employees had stayed with the news outlet. Right now, he said, “the stakes are too high” for journalists to leave independent publications.”I think they left the ship too early,” he said.The full circumstances of the resignations are unclear: the employees have non-disclosure agreements, which can only be waived by the publication’s owner, they wrote on Facebook.One journalist told VOA the agreements were signed recently and were not common in Hungary.  Loss for independent newsIndex is the largest independent news outlet in Hungary, accounting for the reach of about half of all of the country’s independent publications. The publication receives more than 1 million viewers every day.Panyi compared the loss of the outlet to Americans losing both the Washington Post and the New York Times.”This is a country of 10 million, which just lost its largest source of independent news,” Panyi said. “It’s a huge blow to media freedom in Hungary.”Independent outlets remain, but they have significantly smaller audiences than Index, Bodoky said. Pro-government news sources are overwhelming the media landscape, he added.”If you are an average person in Hungary and you don’t actively look for critical or independent reporting, then you get the government propaganda,” he said. “You get it on the state-owned television channel, you get it on the commercial radio channels, in the daily papers and so on.”In addition to the lack of independent news outlets, Panyi said another element to the Hungarian media landscape is advertising. When state-owned companies take control over advertising for publications, it can give the state the power to determine which publications get advertising. This forces publications to make a difficult decision.”Editor in chiefs and CEOs have to make the decision whether to accept money from the government, which will eventually save them because there’s a huge hole in their budget,” Panyi said. “But in return, they are cutting deals like they’re not going to report on certain issues regarding the prime minister’s family.”The changes at Index are part of a “moment of alarming symbolism,” according to the Media Freedom Rapid Response consortium of rights groups.  In a letter to the presidents of the European Council and Commission, the group said that independent media in Hungary are under enormous pressure and cited a 2020 Media Pluralism Monitor report that found funds from the European Union, distributed through the prime minister’s office, are used to finance pro-government media. The Center for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom is a research center funded in part by the EU.  The fight to restore press freedom will likely be “a long fight,” Panyi said. But, he added, hope remains. He said Hungarians are still in search of unbiased news and independent journalism.As for the staffers who resigned, they have no immediate plans other than a commitment to independent journalism.  “We sincerely hope that we will manage to stay together, work together, and keep doing what we have been doing for the past 20 years,” the staffers wrote.
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Thousands marched in Berlin on Saturday to protest against measures imposed in Germany to stem the coronavirus pandemic, saying they violated people’s rights and freedoms.The gathering, estimated by police at 17,000, included libertarians, constitutional loyalists and anti-vaccination activists. There was also a small far-right presence with some marchers carrying Germany’s black, white and red imperial flag.Protesters danced and sang ‘We are free people!’ to the tune of rock band Queen’s ‘We Will Rock You’. Others marched with placards saying ‘We are making a noise because you are stealing our freedom!’ and ‘Do think! Don’t wear a mask!’.”Our demand is to return to democracy,” said one protester who declined to give his name. “The mask that enslaves us must go.”People – mostly without face masks – attend a demonstration against coronavirus restrictions in Berlin, Aug. 1, 2020.The protests followed a rallying call from Michael Ballweg, an entrepreneur and political outsider who has organized similar rallies in Stuttgart and is running to become mayor of the southwestern city.Police filed a complaint against the organizer for failing to ensure marchers wore masks and kept their distance. Mainstream politicians criticized the protesters, with Social Democrat co-leader Saskia Esken calling them “covidiots”.”They not only endanger our health, they endanger our successes against the pandemic,” tweeted Esken, whose party is Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition partner.After Germany’s initial success in curbing the pandemic, infections are rising again. More than 200,000 people have caught COVID-19 and nearly 1,000 have died from it.Most people in Germany have respected measures that include wearing face masks in shops, while the government has just imposed mandatory tests for holidaymakers returning from high-risk areas.But a vocal minority is chafing against the restrictions.”Only a few scientists around the world who follow the government’s lead are heard,” said protester Peter Konz. Those who hold different views “are silenced, censored or discredited as defenders of conspiracy theories”.
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There are more than 17.6 million worldwide COVID-19 cases, according to Johns Hopkins statistics.  The U.S. continues to lead in the number of infections with more than 4.5 million, followed by Brazil with 2.6 million cases, and India with almost 1.7 million.Mexico has replaced Britain as the country with the third largest number of deaths from COVID-19. Johns Hopkins says Mexico now has reported 46,688 deaths.The U.S. leads the world in the number of deaths from the virus with more than 153,000, followed by Brazil with more than 92,000.Where Has the New Coronavirus Spread?New virus, denoted 2019-nCoV by the WHO, has caused alarm because of its similarity to SARS in 2002-2003Russia is gearing up to launch a mass vaccination campaign against the coronavirus in September or October.  News media reports quote sources as saying the vaccine was developed at a state research facility.   Scientific data about the vaccine or test results have not been released.In South Korea, the leader of a secretive religious sect linked to more than 5,200 of the country’s more than 14,000 COVID cases has been arrested. Lee Man-hee has denied allegations that he hid members and underreported the sect’s activities in an effort to avoided quarantines.The coronavirus has burned through a summer sleep-away camp in the U.S. state of Georgia, perhaps providing a cautionary tale for school districts currently weighing the pros and con of reopening in the COVID era.  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported in a study that the camp observed the suggestions the agency provided but did not require the children to wear masks.  Only the staff members were required to wear masks.   A teenage staffer fell ill shortly after the camp opened.
A COVID diagnosis was confirmed the next day and the camp began sending the children home that day.  The CDC had tests results for only 344 of the 597 campers and 76% of them were positive.  The infection rate could have been higher since the CDC did not have results for everyone.The nation’s top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, told lawmakers Friday on Capitol Hill he is “cautiously optimistic” a coronavirus vaccine would be available in the coming months, as infectious continue to rise at an alarming rate in the U.S.”We hope at the time we get into the late fall and early winter, we will have in fact a vaccine that we can say will be safe and effective,” Fauci said before the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis. “One can never guarantee the safety and effectiveness unless you do the trial, but we are cautiously optimistic.”Fauci ‘Cautiously Optimistic’ About Coronavirus VaccineTop US infectious-disease expert tells lawmakers vaccine could be available in coming monthsFauci said a Phase 3 trial, the last phase of the vaccine approval process, recently got underway.Fauci also cautioned against importing vaccines made in Russia or China due to concerns over safety.At the hearing’s open, panel chairman Democrat James Clyburn and the subcommittee’s ranking Republican, Steve Scalise, clashed over whether the Trump administration has a national strategy to contain the coronavirus crisis.”The administration’s approach to deferring to states, sidelining experts and rushing to reopen has prolonged this virus and led to thousands of preventable deaths,” Clyburn said. “In fact, the United States response stands out as among the worst of any country in the world.”Scalise dismissed Clyburn’s assessment, arguing with a stack of documents in hand that the administration has, indeed, issued guidance to the country about how to contain the pandemic.”These are just a few of the documents that your agencies have published to show states how to safely reopen, to show schools how to safely reopen, to show nursing homes how to care for their patients,” Scalise said to Fauci and the other government experts at the hearing.”If all governors would have followed those guidelines, thousands more seniors in nursing homes would be alive today, if just five governors would have followed your plan that was developed President Trump,” Scalise added.Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also testified Friday, saying it was in the “public health best interest” for K-12 schools to reopen.He also discussed a decision by the Trump administration to direct all hospitals to send all coronavirus data to a database in Washington and thus passing the CDC. Redfield said he did not know of the decision until after it was made.US Health Experts: COVID-19 Vaccine Could be Ready by 2021US has topped 150,000 deaths from COVID-19In Britain, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Friday he was delaying plans to ease lockdown measures by at least two weeks after the country reported its highest number of new COVID cases since late June.British Minister for Health and Social Care Matt Hancock said a second wave of the virus is rolling across Europe and that Britain must defend against it.British authorities added Luxembourg to the country’s quarantine list, meaning travelers from there must isolate for 14 days after entering Britain. Spain, which had been dropped from the list, has been reinstated and other countries may be added.Botswana’s capital, Gaborone, reimposed a two-week lockdown on Thursday after a surge in new confirmed COVID-19 cases. The increase came as the WHO warned against easing coronavirus restrictions throughout Africa. The WHO says the number of infections on the continent has doubled in the past month.”We are concerned that … we will see an increase in cases as we have seen in [other] countries” where restrictions have been eased too soon,” WHO Regional Director for Africa Matshidiso Moeti said.She said more than 20 African countries have recorded more new cases than in the previous weeks, with South Africa accounting for the most but increases also reported in Kenya, Madagascar, Nigeria, Zambia and Zimbabwe.Moeti said Uganda, Seychelles and Mauritius are doing well in controlling the virus.
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The clock is ticking for Canada’s withdrawal from an agreement with the United States on cross-border asylum-seekers. A recent Canadian court ruling that the Safe Third Country Agreement is unlawful has been suspended for six months, prompting debate on what the next steps should be.In a 60-page ruling, Justice Ann Marie McDonald of the Federal Court of Canada said the Safe Third Country Agreement violated the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms in failing to guarantee “the right to life, liberty and the security of the person.”The 16-year-old agreement stipulates that any asylum-seeker entering Canada or the United States must file a petition in the first country of arrival. As such, people who flee a third country and attempt to cross a border checkpoint from the United States into Canada, or vice versa, are returned.Ethiopia nativeMcDonald found that refugee claimants returned to the United States are “detained as a penalty.”  She referred to one claimant, Nadir Mustefa, originally from Ethiopia, who after being returned to the United States from Canada alleged she was held in solitary confinement for a week and fed pork despite telling U.S. prison guards she is Muslim and could not eat that type of food.Defending the bilateral accord, the Canadian government argued that those being returned from Canada to the U.S. have access to a fair detention review — an argument McDonald rejected.The decision was suspended for six months to give the Canadian government a chance to respond, possibly with new legislation or a type of bilateral agreement with the United States. The decision can also be appealed.FILE – Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers greet migrants as they enter into Canada at an unofficial border crossing at the end of Roxham Road in Champlain, N.Y., Aug. 7, 2017.Peter Kent, opposition immigration critic for the Conservative Party, said the sour relationship between Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and U.S. President Donald Trump on immigration issues would make amending or replacing the law difficult. He said he hoped Trudeau would appeal the decision, but only to ask for more time to change the law.“I think it’s simply unrealistic to think that anything meaningful could be done within six months to correct what the judge found to be unconstitutional elements of the agreement,” Kent said.One view: Scrap the agreementOne plaintiff in the case who successfully fought for the decision is Justin Muhammed, the human rights law and policy campaigner at Amnesty International Canada.He said the Canadian government should not appeal the decision, but immediately discontinue the agreement itself.“And so that’s what we are presently encouraging the government to do, which is to suspend the application of the Safe Third Country Agreement, allow these claimants to make their claims in Canada and don’t appeal the ruling,” he said.Peter Noteboom, general secretary for the Canadian Council of Churches, which along with Amnesty International was a plaintiff in the case, said Trudeau has to give full protection of Canadian laws to all refugees that travel through the United States into Canada. It’s not dependent upon citizenship, he said: “If you’re in the territory of Canada, that’s the law that that applies.”In a written statement, Canadian Minister of Public Safety Bill Blair said the government had yet to decide the next course of action.The Safe Third Country Agreement applies to asylum-seekers only at recognized border points. Anyone who illegally crosses the 8,891-kilometer Canadian-U.S. border is eligible for asylum consideration.
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Protesters took to the streets of the Russian city of Khabarovsk for the fourth straight weekend on Saturday, angered by the arrest of the region’s popular governor.Sergey Furgal was arrested by federal law enforcement in early July on charges related to multiple murders in 2004 and 2005, before he became governor. He was flown to Moscow where he was ordered jailed for two months. Many people in Russia’s Far Eastern city on the border with China believe the charges leveled against Furgal, and his replacement last week, are politically motivated. Furgal was elected in 2018, defeating a candidate from Russian President Vladimir Putin’s party, United Russia.”What is happening to our governor Sergey Furgal is injustice and the violation of all conceivable human rights, and I can’t remain indifferent to this,” said protester Natalia Smoktunova.Other protesters expressed their indignation with the falling standards of living.”We’ve become fed up with this kind of life,” said Tatiana, another protester, who didn’t give her last name. “We want our children to have everything they need—good schools and a better life, instead of poverty-level salaries and unemployment.”The Kremlin replaced Furgal with a young State Duma deputy, Mikhail Degtiarev, to serve as acting governor of the Khabarovsk region.”Wonderful people live here (in Khabarovsk),” said pensioner protester Nadezhda Svobodnaya. “They’re hard workers who want to work honestly and live with dignity, without being afraid for the future of our children and grandchildren. But everything is being trampled here: dignity and honor and freedom. We live in a civilized world after all. How much longer can we bear this?”Protests in Khabarovsk, a city about 8,000 kilometers east of Moscow, erupted on July 11. Since then, protesters have been demanding the release of Furgal and an open and fair trial for him. 
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The U.S. National Hurricane Center said early Saturday that Hurricane Isaias is getting “a little stronger” as it drenches the Bahamas and makes its way toward the U.S. mainland.Isaias is moving northwest with maximum sustained winds at 135 kph, according to meteorologists.Isaias, located about 185 kilometers south southeast of Nassau, is expected to make landfall on Florida’s southeastern coast late Saturday or Sunday.The southern U.S. states of Florida and North Carolina have declared hurricane warnings.Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has declared a state of emergency for a dozen counties on the Atlantic Coast. Heavy rains from the storm are expected to begin in Florida on Saturday and arrive over the Carolinas by early next week.In North Carolina, Gov. Roy Cooper also declared emergencies in coastal counties and ordered the evacuation of Oracoke Island, which was hit by last year’s Hurricane Dorian.The hurricane has prompted authorities in parts of Florida to close coronavirus testing sites at a time when cases have been growing in the state.Officials in Miami-Dade County said they do not believe it will be necessary to open evacuation centers for this storm but said 20 centers remain on standby in case conditions change.In the Bahamas, officials evacuated people in Abaco and in the eastern end of Grand Bahama who have been living in temporary structures since Hurricane Dorian.Earlier, while still a tropical storm, Isaias lashed Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, causing power outages and small landslides.A man died in the Dominican Republic when he was electrocuted by a fallen electrical cable, according to the Associated Press.U.S. President Donald Trump has signed an emergency declaration for Puerto Rico, which has yet to fully recover from 2017’s Hurricane Maria and a recent series of earthquakes.Isaias is the ninth named storm of a busy Atlantic hurricane season. This is the earliest date a storm beginning with the letter “I” has formed.   
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The United States is preparing to pull more troops from Germany, days after President Donald Trump criticized the country for being “delinquent” on defense spending.U.S. Africa Command confirmed Friday it is in the early stages of moving its headquarters from the city of Stuttgart, where it has been located since the command was first stood up in 2008.“U.S. Africa Command has been told to plan to move,” its commander, Gen. Stephen Townsend, said in a statement. “While it will likely take several months to develop options, consider locations, and come to a decision, the command has started the process.”U.S. military officials have been looking for months at reducing the approximately 6,000 troops stationed in Africa.  FILE – U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend watches during a tour north of Baghdad, Iraq, Feb. 8, 2017.“It is important our African partners understand our commitment to them remains strong,” Townsend said in Friday’s statement, adding his command “will continue to work with our African and other partners to address mutual interests.”While a new site for the command headquarters has not yet been chosen, an AFRICOM official told VOA that planners will be looking first to other European countries, and then at moving the command to the U.S.“The team will look at available infrastructure, housing, access to transportation, adequate medical care, and a range of other consideration factors,” said AFRICOM spokesman Col. Chris Karns.“It will be a deliberate and orderly approach and process,” he added, noting, “It was important to let partners as well as personnel and families know that planning is under way.”Africa itself, where the U.S. has long tried to maintain a small military footprint, is not under consideration, officials said.Just how much moving AFRICOM’s headquarters from Stuttgart will cost, and how much money could be saved by using another location, has yet to be determined.Reaction to changesWhile U.S. military officials argue the changes are strategically necessary and will give them more flexibility, German officials have expressed disappointment at the U.S. decision to pull some 12,000 troops from the country.FILE – Norbert Roettgen, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Bundestag, speaks during a press conference in Berlin, Germany, Feb. 18, 2020.”Instead of strengthening NATO, the troop withdrawal will weaken the alliance,” Norbert Roettgen, a senior ally of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the chairman of the German parliament’s foreign affairs committee, told the Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper.U.S. lawmakers, including some Republicans who often side with Trump, have also raised concerns about the changes, though Sen. Jim Inhofe, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has called the moves “sound.”Trump defended the decision to pull troops out of Germany earlier this week, suggesting the U.S. could move troops based with other NATO allies if those countries do not increase defense spending.”We don’t want to be the suckers anymore,” he told reporters Wednesday.But some analysts have raised concerns that moving troops and critical commands from Germany will hurt overall operations.“We get huge benefits from our U.S. military posture in Germany,” said Bradley Bowman, a former adviser to members of the Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees.“We are able to project U.S. military power into North Africa and the Middle East much more effectively because of our military posture in Germany,” said Bowman, now with the Washington-based Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. 
 
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Canada’s attorney general says the requirements for extraditing Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou to the United States on charges of bank fraud have been met, documents submitted in a British Columbia court show.Meng, 48, was arrested in December 2018 on a warrant from the United States, which alleges that she misled the bank HSBC about Huawei’s business dealings in Iran.Meng has been under house arrest in Vancouver since then, fighting extradition, and has said she is innocent. Her case has caused a diplomatic row between Canada and China, which has demanded that Meng be released. China detained two Canadians after Meng’s arrest.The documents, which were filed last week and released to media Friday, are a precursor to the formal hearing on committal, or whether Meng should be extradited to the United States. Those hearings will take place in April 2021.The documents outline the evidence in support of Meng’s custody and conclude that the test for committal has been met.Assessment of charges’ potentialThe extradition hearings are not a full trial on the charges laid by the United States, the documents state, only whether there is the potential for those charges to be found valid.”The evidence demonstrates that Ms. Meng deliberately made dishonest representations to HSBC in an attempt to preserve Huawei’s relationship with the bank,” lawyers for the Canadian Minister of Justice and Attorney General David Lametti wrote.”Since Ms. Meng concedes that she is the person sought for prosecution for the conduct set out in the extradition request, all of the formal requirements for committal are established.”Huawei declined to comment and pointed instead to its past legal submissions on its arguments.In May, a judge in British Columbia’s Superior Court found that the legal standard of double criminality — meaning that Meng’s actions could be considered a crime in both Canada and the United States — had been met, dealing a blow to hopes for a quick end to the trial.The next hearings, scheduled for August 17-21 in Vancouver, will discuss whether the attorney general’s assertion of privilege in declining to release some documents requested by Huawei relating to Meng’s initial arrest is valid.Hearings for the trial are scheduled to wrap up in April 2021, although the potential for appeals of the decision from either side means the case could drag out over several years.
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A COVID-19-induced hunger pandemic in Latin America and the Caribbean could threaten the stability of countries in the region, the World Food Program said. Latin America is the region with the most confirmed COVID-19 cases globally, accounting for more than a quarter of the more than 17 million cases reported by Johns Hopkins University. The disease is driving hunger and food insecurity in a region already facing economic, social and political instability, as well as drought and the start of the hurricane season, WFP said.   The agency projects the number of people in Latin America and the Caribbean facing severe food shortages in coming months will rise to 16 million.WFP Executive Director David Beasley recently visited a farming project run by the WFP in Ibarra, in Ecuador’s Imbabura Province.   In a video from the site, Beasley addressed the economic devastation created in Latin American countries by COVID-19. He said many farmers are barely eking out a living because of the pandemic, which is preventing them from selling their crops.   “Just in the areas where WFP [is] in this region alone, we have seen a substantial increase in over 11 million people that are marching toward the brink of starvation,” he said. “So, it is devastating, and it is why we must act, and we must act now so that we can bring some hope to people. Otherwise you will have political destabilization, mass migration, economic deterioration, supply chain disruption and many people will starve, in addition to COVID itself.”   The World Food Program said people in Haiti, countries along Central America’s Pacific coast — especially Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador — as well as Venezuelan migrants in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru are most at risk of starvation and death.    The COVID and hunger pandemics must be tackled together, Beasley said, because they feed upon each other. The WFP is calling for $328 million to provide crucial aid in the region.   
 
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U.S. officials frowned upon the opening of an Iranian supermarket in Venezuela’s capital, saying Thursday that any presence of Iran in the Western Hemisphere is “not something we look very favorably on.”  
 
Acting Assistant Secretary for U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs Michael Kozak told journalists in a call that the opening of the market shows this is like an alliance of “pariah” states.
 
“I would be surely surprised if Venezuela is able to obtain much benefit from Iran,” said Kozak in his response to a reporter’s question about the supermarket. “Iran is willing to play around, is willing to sell stuff to Venezuela when Venezuela really does not have the money to be buying very much.”
 
An Iranian cargo ship docked in Venezuela in June carrying food for the new market in Caracas, weeks after the Islamic Republic had already sent five tankers loaded with gasoline to the fuel-starved nation. The recent deliveries signal a newly blossoming relationship between the two nations in defiance of stiff financial sanctions by the Trump administration against each of them.  
 
The new Megasis supermarket, in the east of Caracas, was launched Wednesday amid a tightening of the coronavirus quarantine. The inauguration was a private event attended only by Venezuelan government officials, Iranian diplomatic personnel and businessmen, according to images a journalist for the Telesur television channel posted on her Twitter account.  
 
The supermarket is expected to open to the public this week.
 
Kozak described Iran on Thursday as “the world’s biggest sponsor on terrorism.”
 
“Iran is not going to save Venezuela from the situation it has put itself in, but it does put itself in a more dangerous situation by playing these games,” he said.
 
Megasis is headed by Iranian businessman Issa Rezaei, who runs a chain of 700 supermarkets in Iran.  
 
On Tuesday, Rezaei said on Twitter that “our goal is commercial.” He also said he is buying Venezuelan products like mangos, pineapples and wood to take to Iran.
 
Venezuela has the world’s largest oil reserves, and critics of President Nicolás Maduro point to the nation’s reliance on Iran for gasoline as an example of the socialist government’s failure.  
 
The U.S. seeks to oust Maduro, backing his political rival Juan Guaidó.  
 
Maduro blames many of the problems on U.S. sanctions and other measures to undermine his rule. He says the U.S. wants to install a puppet government so it can exploit Venezuela’s vast resources.
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Champagne is losing its fizz. For months, lockdown put the cork on weddings, dining out, parties and international travel — all key sales components for the French luxury wine marketed for decades as a sparkling must at any celebration. Producers in France’s eastern Champagne region, headquarters of the global industry, say they’ve lost an estimated 1.7 billion euros ($2 billion) in sales for this year, as turnover fell by a third — a hammering unmatched in living memory, and worse than the Great Depression. They expect about 100 million bottles to be languishing unsold in their cellars by the end of the year. “We are experiencing a crisis that we evaluate to be even worse than the Great Depression” of 1929, said Thibaut Le Mailloux of the Champagne Committee, known by its French acronym CIVC, that represents some 16,000 winemakers. Recognizing the urgency of the problem, the CIVC is launching unprecedented damage-limitation measures. Like oil-producing countries, the committee regulates the size of the harvest each year to avoid the kind of excess production that would cause bottle prices to plummet. At a meeting scheduled for Aug. 18, it’s expected to impose a cap so tight that record quantities of grapes will be destroyed or sold to distilleries at discounted prices. The prospect alarms smaller producers, who are more vulnerable than the big houses. Anselme Selosse, of Jacques Selosse Champagnes, called it “an insult to nature” that champagne’s famous grapes might even be destined to produce alcohol for hand sanitizer, as is happening in other wine-producing regions such as Alsace after demand spiked during the pandemic. “We are to destroy (the grapes) and we pay for them to be destroyed,” Selosse said, referring to the industry as a whole. “It’s nothing but a catastrophe.” “Champagne has never lived through anything like this before, even in the World Wars,” Selosse added. “We have never experienced … a sudden one-third fall in sales. Over one hundred million bottles unsold.”Paul Francois Vranken, Director of Vranken-Pommery Monopole speaks during an interview in the Champagne region, east of Paris, July 28, 2020.Major producers such as Vranken-Pommery predict that the crisis could last for years. “It should not be forgotten that (champagne) has lived through every single war,” said Paul-Francois Vranken, founder of Vranken-Pommery Monopole. “But with the other crises, there was a way out. For now, there is no way out — unless we find a vaccine.” Vranken said the very essence of champagne marketing — as a drink quaffed at parties and weddings — needs to be re-evaluated to reflect the new normal: Fewer festivities and a lack of celebratory group events. The new branding strategy for his, and other champagne companies, will seek to highlight the wine’s status as a naturally, and often organically, produced quality drink from a historic French region. “Even if the bars and the nightclubs are closed for five years, we don’t plan on missing out on customers … There will be a very big change to our marketing that highlights the grandeur of our wines,” Vranken said. Selosse, who produces many “natural” champagnes with no added sugar, also hopes the pandemic will encourage thought about future champagne marketing and how the multi-billion dollar industry is restructured. He would like to see a more cooperative side to production, such as “communal wine presses” to help pool the costs for smaller producers. Selosse said adaptability has served champagne well in the past, helping it evolve from a dessert wine in the 19th century to the modern-day dry version named “brut.”  He even thinks — but this is a minority view among producers — the industry could move away from effervescence and be able to produce all sorts of wine, as it did in the past: red, white or still. In fact, literally no fizz.
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The economy of the 19-country eurozone shrank by a devastating 12.1% percent in the April-June period from the quarter before – the largest drop on record – as coronavirus lockdowns shut businesses and hampered consumer spending.Economists say the worst of the downturn is past as many restrictions have eased, but that the recovery will be drawn out and vulnerable to renewed virus outbreaks.
Spain, which along with Italy was among the first to get hit hard by the spread of the virus, suffered the region’s heaviest drop at 18.5%. France, Italy and Portugal also endured steep declines, but no country escaped the impact of the pandemic.  
For the currency union as a whole it was the biggest decline since the records started in 1995. The broader 27-country European Union, not all of whose members use the euro, saw output sag 11.9%.
The decline in Europe compares with a 9.5% quarter-on-quarter drop in the United States, which unlike Europe has not yet been able to get its contagion numbers firmly down yet and whose economic recovery is in doubt.
European governments are countering the recession with massive stimulus measures. EU leaders have agreed on a 750 billion-euro recovery fund backed by common borrowing to support the economy from 2021. National governments have stepped in with loans to keep businesses afloat and wage support programs that pay workers’ salaries while they are furloughed. The European Central Bank is pumping 1.35 trillion euros in newly printed money into the economy, a step which helps keep borrowing costs low.
Those support measures have helped keep unemployment from spiking. The rate rose to 7.8% in June from 7.7% in May. But many job losses will wind up being permanent despite the stimulus.
Major companies such as Lufthansa, Daimler and Airbus have said they will cut thousands of jobs.
Economists say the downturn was concentrated in the months of April and May when lockdowns were most severe. Many restrictive measures have been eased, and business confidence in Germany, the biggest eurozone economy, has ticked up for three straight months.
But the outlook is for a long and uncertain climb back to pre-virus levels that could take until 2022 or longer. Company forecasts for the rest of the year assumed that there is not a renewed outbreak of COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus. Cases have been rising again in several countries as people go on vacations and Britain slapped a 14-day quarantine on travelers returning from Spain.  
Rosie Colthorpe, European economist at Oxford Economics, said the current third quarter was likely to see high growth rates, “but not nearly large enough to make up for the damage.”
“Beyond this initial bounce, the recovery is set to be gradual and uneven,” with pre-virus output regained only by mid-2022, she said, adding that “recent flare-ups of the virus in several European countries risk derailing this recovery.”
The Spanish economic drop was by far the sharpest since the country’s national statistics agency began collecting data. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez was meeting later Friday with the leaders of Spain’s regions to discuss how to rebuild the economy and where to deploy billions of euros in European Union aid for recovery.
Germany, the largest of the countries that use the euro, went through a 10.1% decline, the biggest since records started in 1970.  
In France, the startling plunge of 13.8% in April-June was the third consecutive quarter of contraction in France’s worsening recession. The pain has been so damaging to jobs and industries that the government is talking down the possibility of another nationwide lockdown as infections tick upward again. Finance minister Bruno Le Maire called on French people to spend more to help the economy recover.
“All the growth in GDP seen in the 2010-2019 decade has been wiped out in five months,” said Marc Ostwald, chief economist at ADM Investor Services International. In Italy’s case, economists said it wiped out about 30 years of growth.
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Argentinian authorities are battling the country’s largest locust invasion this year, in the northern province of Formosa.The plague of locusts is said to be double the size of two other swarms.Officials fear the locusts, known for destroying crops, will jeopardize the food supplies for livestock.Hector Emilio Medina, the director of Argentina’s National Locusts Control Program, told the Associated Press the locusts are very difficult to control.Medina also warned a new locust cloud was just spotted in the Bolivian region of Macharetí.The alert comes as Argentina, Bolivia and Paraguay are appealing to their neighbors, Brazil and Uruguay, to seek financial help to upgrade the regional detection systems. 
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