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Since anti-government protests began in Belarus, the number of people who have been the victims of retaliation for publicly coming out against the government of longtime leader Alexander Lukashenko is uncountable. Activists say the repression is taking many forms:  Some protesters have suffered physical attacks while others have lost their jobs – they say – in retribution.  Ricardo Marquina has more from Minsk in this report narrated by Jonathan Spier.
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About 25 residents from remote Easter Island who have been stranded far from their loved ones for more than six months because of the coronavirus will finally be able to return home this week on a French military plane.
The group has been stranded on Tahiti in French Polynesia. Many arrived in March planning to stay for just a few weeks, but they got stuck when the virus swept across the globe and their flights back home on LATAM airlines were canceled.
A second group of about 15 Tahitians have also been stranded on Easter Island because of the flight cancelations.
French authorities announced Tuesday they would use an Airbus A400M Atlas turboprop to repatriate both groups in a flight that would take about six hours in each direction.
Also named Rapa Nui, Easter Island is a Chilean territory located midway between Polynesia, in the South Pacific, and South America.
The French state department said it launched the mission following a request from Chilean authorities, and it was being conducted in close coordination with the French embassy in Santiago, Chile. The plane is currently deployed with the French military in Tahiti.
The group of Easter Islanders had been begging authorities for help for months — in Spanish, in French, and in English. They had even written to Chilean President Sebastián Piñera. The Associated Press first wrote about their plight last month.
“I’m so happy!!!” said the group’s unofficial leader, Kissy Baude, in a WhatsApp message to the AP. “We are very happy and relieved to finally be able to return home and to know that the Tahitians stranded in Rapa Nui will also return home in the same mission.”
Baude thanked authorities in France, French Polynesia, Chile and Easter Island for putting the logistics in place, including airport management and a 14-day virus quarantine they will undergo at a health center when they arrive back on Easter Island.
Among those stranded is a 21-year-old mom who gave birth to her second son just a few days ago without her husband by her side, because he was back home. It was unclear whether she and her newborn would be ready to return home on Thursday’s flight.
Home to about 8,000 people, Easter Island is a tiny speck in the vast Pacific Ocean renowned for its imposing moai — giant heads carved from volcanic rock by inhabitants hundreds of years ago. For Easter Islanders, Tahiti has long been a stopping-off point, a connection to the rest of the world.
Until the virus struck, LATAM airlines ran a regular return route from Santiago, Chile, to Easter Island and on to Tahiti. LATAM said it suspended the route in March because of the virus and doesn’t have a timeline for restarting it. No other airlines offer a similar service.
“The resumption of this flight is subject to the development of the pandemic and travel restrictions in place,” the airline said in a statement last month.
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The U.S. National Hurricane Center says Hurricane Delta, which first formed as a named tropical storm early Monday, has become a powerful category 4 hurricane with winds in excess of 215 kilometers per hour in just over 27 hours.The hurricane center reports the storm began Tuesday as a category 2 hurricane, based on the scale used to measure storm strength, with winds at about 175 kph. The storm increased in strength to a category 3 storm over several hours, but meteorologists say it took just 20 minutes to reach category 4 strength.Delta is forecast to strike Cancun and the Yucatan Peninsula on Wednesday with maximum sustained winds approaching 225 kph.  After crossing the Yucatan,  forecasters say the storm is likely to lose strength, but as it takes a sharp right turn to the north northeast across the warm waters of the southern Gulf of Mexico, it is expected to regain its strength in the next 48 to 72 hours.The hurricane center says cooler water and wind shears could weaken the storm a bit as it moves north, but Delta is expected to remain a dangerous hurricane when it approaches the U.S. Gulf Coast later in the week.Forecasters say if Delta maintains hurricane strength through landfall, it will become the fourth to hit the region this year, following Hanna, Laura and Sally. Weaker tropical storms Marco and Beta hit the area this year, as well.  Delta is the 25th named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season. When it officially formed Monday, it marked the earliest a hurricane season has reached 25 named storms since records have been kept.
 
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Germany’s Interior Ministry Tuesday released a new report showing that right-wing extremism is not a systemic problem among the nation’s security forces.  At a Berlin news conference, Interior Minister Horst Seehofer told reporters the study, conducted by Germany’s domestic security agency, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, BfV, indicated less than one percent of Germany’s police forces, security agencies and military personnel espouse far-right worldviews and sympathies.Seehofer said the report shows “the overwhelming majority” of security employees abide by the Constitution. He said, “This means also that we have no structural problem with right-wing extremism among security forces at the federal or state level.”Nonetheless, the report, which surveyed police forces in the country’s 16 federal states, showed a total of 377 cases in which officers have been suspected of having far-right links over the last three years.The report cited 319 cases among state security agencies and 58 among federal agencies.  Seehofer said “Each of these cases is a disgrace, also because it affects everyone within the security forces.”The report, part of a wider inquiry into far-right extremism in the civil service, seeks to dispel concerns that authorities have turned a blind eye to potentially violent nationalists gaining footholds in the uniformed services.It is a highly sensitive issue in a country still haunted by the extermination of six million Jews by Hitler’s Nazi regime during World War II.Seehofer commissioned the wider report into the scope of extremism within the civil service last year after the shooting death of a pro-immigration politician by a suspected far-right sympathizer in Hesse, and a deadly attack outside a synagogue and a kebab restaurant in the city of Halle.
 
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Britain is home to many Russian nationals, both friends and foes of the government back home. They are attracted by the lifestyle, the banks and boutiques, and the established Russian community in the British capital. But for some Russian political exiles who have fled to London and to other Western European cities, it has proved impossible to escape the long arm of the Kremlin. Henry Ridgwell reports from London.PRODUCER: Jon Spier 
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Peaceful, pro-democracy protests are continuing in Belarus following a contested election on Aug. 9, when incumbent President Alexander Lukashenko claimed victory for a sixth consecutive time. In recent days, as protesters marched through Belarusian cities demanding new elections, U.S. lawmakers passed — for the fourth time in the last 16 years — an expanded version of the Belarus Democracy Act, a bill imposing sanctions on Belarus’s authoritarian leader and his allies. VOA’s Igor Tsikhanenka has more.
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Tensions are running high in Haiti’s capital Tuesday, a day after hundreds of university students clashed with police during a protest over the death last week of a university student. Students burned cars and blocked roads Monday in Port-au-Prince, where one person was shot and killed.  University student Gregory Saint-Hilaire was killed last Friday during a small protest by students demanding employment opportunities. Students are blaming police for the deaths of Saint-Hilaire and another person killed during Monday’s protests. The government condemned the death of Saint-Hilaire, adding that police are investigating the circumstances of his death.  
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Peru’s main airport is receiving international flights for the first time in six months after restrictions were put in place to help control the spread of the coronavirus. Speaking at Monday’s reopening in the capital city Lima, Peruvian President Martín Vizcarra expressed confidence that everything had been done to guarantee the opening of international flights does not increase the risk of the coronavirus spreading. Jorge Chavez International Airport is now accepting flights to and from 11 destinations, including Ecuador, Bolivia, Colombia, Panama, Paraguay, Uruguay and Chile. Jorge Alvarado, a Chilean citizen who lives and works in Peru said it was emotional returning to Peru for the first time in several months to see his wife.  Peru has resumed limited operations for domestic flights in July, but flights to and from the United States and Europe are still not allowed.  So far, Peru has confirmed more than 829,000 coronavirus infections and more than 32,800 deaths since the outset of the pandemic in March. 
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Hurricane Delta, the ninth storm of the Atlantic season, prompted forecasters to issue warnings for Mexico and Cuba, with the U.S. Gulf coast in striking distance later this week.  The U.S.-based National Hurricane Center said Mexico issued a hurricane warning for the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula from Tulum north and west to Rio Largartos, including Cozumel. A hurricane watch remains in place for western Cuba, including the Province of Artemisia. The Cayman New service reports the center of Hurricane Delta is expected to pass near the southwest Cayman Islands early Tuesday, bringing heavy rains to the region. The Cayman Islands remain under a tropical storm watch. Forecasters expect Hurricane Delta will continue to gain strength over the coming days as it moves toward the southern Gulf of Mexico. 
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British rock band Led Zeppelin on Monday effectively won a long-running legal battle over claims it stole the opening guitar riff from its signature 1971 song Stairway to Heaven. The band, one of the best-selling rock acts of all time, was handed victory after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up the case, meaning that a March 2020 decision by a U.S. appeals court in Led Zeppelin’s favor will stand. Lead singer Robert Plant and guitarist Jimmy Page had been accused in the six-year-long case of lifting the riff — one of the best-known openings in rock music — from a song called “Taurus,” written by the late Randy Wolfe of the U.S. band, Spirit. Wolfe, who performed as Randy California, drowned in 1997, and the case was brought by a trustee for his estate. It has been one of the music industry’s most closely watched copyright cases, potentially exposing Plant and Page to millions of dollars in damages. Led Zeppelin was the opening act for Spirit on a U.S. tour in 1968, but Page testified in a 2016 jury trial in Los Angeles that he had not heard Taurus until recently. The Los Angeles jury found the riff they were accused of stealing was not intrinsically similar to the opening chords of Stairway to Heaven. Francis Malofiy, who represented Wolfe’s estate, said on Monday that Led Zeppelin “won on a technicality” and said that the lawsuit had accomplished its goal. “Today, the world knows that 1. Randy California wrote the introduction to Stairway to Heaven; 2. Led Zeppelin are the greatest art thieves of all time; and 3. Courts are as imperfect as rock stars,” Malofiy said in a statement. Led Zeppelin has yet to comment on the conclusion of the case. 
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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Monday there would be “tough times ahead” for businesses, as another international company announced it was suspending operations due to the COVID-19 pandemic.Johnson spoke with reporters as it was announced that Cineworld will temporarily close 127 theaters in Britain and 536 theaters in its U.S. Regal movie theater chain following news that the latest James Bond film will be postponed again.The closings will affect 40,000 employees in the United States and 5,000 in Britain.Johnson, while encouraging people to support their local movies theaters, said that despite government efforts to support jobs impacted by the pandemic, “clearly there are going to be tough times ahead.” He encouraged people to support their local movie houses that observe COVID-safe practices. Johnson also acknowledged that more than 15,000 coronavirus cases had been missed and not been transferred into the computer database due to a technical glitch. He said the cases, which were all positive between Sept. 25 and Oct. 2, and their contacts had been identified once the error was discovered.Johnson said the current infection rate in Britain was “pretty much where we thought we were,” and the next few days would tell whether the extra restrictions put in place in several parts of the country were working.He said if people followed the measures put in place in their areas, the so-called “rule of six” — limiting gatherings to six or less — self-isolation following contact, masks and hand-washing, he had “no doubt that we will be able to get on top of it, as indeed we did earlier this year.””This is all very much in our hands collectively,” he said.
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The World Health Organization says roughly one in 10 people around the world may have been infected with the coronavirus.  The head of the health emergencies program at the World Health Organization, Michael Ryan, said Monday that the agency’s “best estimates” indicate 10 percent of the world’s population could have contracted the virus.  That estimate, which would amount to more than 760 million people, is more than 20 times the number of confirmed cases in the world and would still leave more than 90 percent of the population susceptible to the virus. Speaking to a special session of the WHO’s 34-member executive board in Geneva, Ryan said the figures vary between countries but the estimate means “the vast majority of the world remains at risk,” adding that “we are now heading into a difficult period.” The number of confirmed worldwide cases tallied by the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center surpassed 35 million Monday, a week after surpassing 1 million coronavirus deaths. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is seen outside the BBC headquarters, as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues, in London, October 4, 2020.Several European nations hit their own pandemic milestones with Germany reporting Monday its total confirmed cases exceed 300,000, Britain recording 500,000 cases, and Spain becoming the first European country to surpass 800,000 total coronavirus cases. In Britain, Prime Minister Boris Johnson sought on Monday to play down a failure in his country’s testing data system that did not initially show 16,000 coronavirus test results. “To be frank, I think that the slightly lower numbers that we’d seen didn’t really reflect where we thought that the disease was likely to go,” Johnson said. Also Monday, Britain’s Cineworld, the second-largest movie theater chain in the world, announced it would temporarily close its British and U.S. theaters. Coronavirus lockdown orders and restrictions on group gatherings have badly hurt the movie industry. Cineworld said the move would affect 45,000 jobs.  To address broader job losses in the country’s economy, the British government on Monday launched a new $300 million program aimed at helping people get back to work.  In the United States, about two-thirds of U.S. states reported an increase in new coronavirus cases in the past week, mostly in the West and Midwest, according to data tracked by the Washington Post. The United States has recorded more than 7.4 million cases of coronavirus and nearly 210,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins.  A man walks with his family, Sunday, Oct. 4, 2020, in the Borough Park neighborhood of New York. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo says he’s ordering schools in certain New York City neighborhoods closed within a day to slow a flare-up of the coronavirus.New York Governor Andrew Cuomo ordered schools in several coronavirus “hot spots” around the state to close beginning on Tuesday, including parts of the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens. U.S. President Donald Trump remained hospitalized Monday after testing positive for COVID-19 last week.  In New Zealand, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Monday that restrictions in the city of Auckland would be lifted Wednesday.  The measures were put in place to stamp out an outbreak in the country’s largest city in August, which threatened to reverse New Zealand’s progress toward eliminating the coronavirus.  In France, starting Tuesday, Paris bars will close for two weeks and restaurants will begin using new sanitary protocols, according to the prime minister’s office.   France on Sunday reported 12,565 new cases of coronavirus, while 893 COVID-19 patients had been admitted into intensive care over the past week.   Iceland’s government announced new coronavirus restrictions Monday following a spike in cases. The government ordered bars, gyms and entertainment venues to close and sharply reduced the number of people allowed to gather in public. In Russia, Moscow’s Ministry of Education announced that city schools would switch to a distance learning format as cases have climbed to more than 10,000 per day in Russia. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced Monday she is self-isolating after attending a meeting last week with someone who tested positive for COVID-19. Von der Leyen said she tested negative on Thursday and would be tested again Monday.  
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Social activists in Brazil say the coronavirus pandemic is causing an increase in the number of homeless people in country’s largest city, Sao Paulo. Many lost their jobs and found themselves risking their health by crowding into long lines for food distribution. At the Sao Miguel Arcanjo Church, volunteers try to help, but it’s a tiny effort against a mountain of challenges facing the population.  Edgar Maciel reports from Sao Paulo.Camera: Edgar Maciel 
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European Commission Chair Ursula von der Leyen said Monday that she will self-isolate after learning she was exposed last week to someone who has tested positive for COVID-19.  Von der Leyen was in Portugal’s capital, Lisbon on September 29, where she attended several meetings and met with various Portuguese officials.In a message posted on Twitter Monday, the head of the European Union’s executive branch said she was told one of those meetings was attended by “a person who yesterday (Sunday) tested positive.”   In subsequent tweet Monday, von der Leyen said her latest test came back negative, but added she would continue isolating until Tuesday evening.    Her isolation will keep her close to work: She has a small living quarters next to her office in the EU headquarters in Brussels.Two weeks ago, EU Council President Charles Michel was forced to postpone a summit of EU leaders because he was quarantining.
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In Madrid, the mayor has bowed before the law of the land, but has vowed to take Spain’s central government to the courts to try to reverse new more restrictive coronavirus lockdown rules.  In Marseilles, the mayor has expressed her fury with Emmanuel Macron’s government for ordering the closure of all restaurants and bars in France’s second largest city, saying nothing justifies the order.  In a string of northern English towns the anger is echoed. There, mayors are also questioning the orthodoxy of lockdowns, arguing that infection rates are trending up even in locked-down towns. FILE – A sign promoting social distancing is hung on a post near the Crown and Anchor pub following a spike in cases of COVID-19 to visitors of the pub in Stone, Britain, July 30, 2020.They are not going as far as to ignore government instructions, although last week, Andy Preston, mayor of Middlesbrough, a struggling post-industrial town in Yorkshire, came close, suggesting at one point he might defy the order.Preston has bemoaned the central government’s decision to ban households mixing in pubs, restaurants and public spaces in the town of 138,000, saying new strict rules will have a detrimental effect on jobs as well as on mental health.   FILE – A view shows a Teeside University lecture taking place at the Middlesbrough’s Town Hall, in Middlesbrough, Britain, Sept. 28, 2020.Preston is not alone. City and regional leaders in several European countries are becoming increasingly frustrated with the pandemic restrictions central governments are imposing from on high. Local leaders say they are better placed to know when and how to tighten restrictions, or whether they are needed at all. They fear central governments are not getting the balance right between protecting lives and saving livelihoods and businesses. Resurgence The emerging pattern of pushback coincides with an alarming rise in infection rates in Europe. National governments are warning that the surge in cases, if not contained could end up overwhelming hospitals. A general view taken from a wheel shows people gathering during a protest against the government’s restrictions, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Konstanz, Germany, Oct. 4, 2020.The surge in cases is now being seen, too, in Italy and Germany, countries that had appeared to be bucking the trend. They were thought to have been squelching a second wave of infections being seen in neighboring countries. But on Saturday, Italy reached its highest daily tally since 24 April with authorities reporting 2,844 new infections, up from 2,499 cases the day before.  Italy is one of the few countries where regional and local authorities tend to be even keener on lockdowns than central government, often imposing restrictions ahead of direct orders from Rome. People wear face masks as local authorities in Rome order face coverings to be worn at all times out of doors in an effort to counter rising coronavirus disease (COVID-19) infections, Oct. 2, 2020.In Campania, the regional president Vincenzo De Luca Saturday ordered all residents to wear face masks when they are outside their homes. “There is no third way. Masks must be worn on the face, not on the elbow. If the alternative is between having people dying on the street or taking a pleasant stroll, there will be no doubt … everything will close.” Campania is one of Italy’s most densely populated and poorest regions and it is now registering  the highest daily tally of new infections in the country. “We must return to the strict behavior of February, March and April, otherwise we get sick,” he warned.  Anger building But in other countries municipal frustration is boiling amid mounting fears of permanent economic damage. In both Britain and France, local leaders complain they are not being consulted before the announcement of new restrictions and are given no opportunity to help shape the rules.“The Marseille town hall was not consulted,” complained Michèle Rubirola, the mayor, last week after the government imposed tighter restrictions on the city. The decision to shutter restaurants and bars and left her “astonished and angry,” she said. Bars and restaurants owners demonstrate agianst the closure orders due to COVID-19, in Marseille, southeastern France, on Oct. 2, 2020.The city’s first deputy mayor, Benoît Payan, criticized the restrictions and said the government had ignored a plea for a 10-day reprieve to show that the city’s own measures were working.“Once again our territory is being sanctioned, punished, singled out,” he says. “Our city has been put in virtual confinement without anyone having been consulted. Marseille deserves better than being beaten down, or of serving as an example,” he added. Many small business owners in Marseille agree with their local leaders. One restaurant owner, Laurent Catz, told Le Figaro newspaper the decision was “catastrophic” for his business.” “We cannot ignore the health situation but it is almost a death sentence for the profession,” he said. “We are still recovering and we are being shut down again.” Another restaurateur, Frédéric Leclair, told the newspaper: “I have trouble understanding this decision, especially since I have a beautiful terrace where I can enforce social distancing. FILE – A man wearing a face mask walks past the closed terrace of a restaurant near Le Vieux Port in Marseille, southern France, on Sept. 28, 2020.Lack of uniformity in determining the reasons for lockdowns is not helping Britain’s ruling Conservatives to calm mounting frustration. Some city mayors and opposition parties in Britain are questioning whether bias dictates which towns and areas get locked-down.Jonathan Ashworth, a senior Labor party politician, told the BBC: “Because there is no clear guidelines as to why an area goes into restrictions and how an area comes out of restrictions then there is a suspicion that there is political interference – I hope there isn’t. But until the government publishes clear guidelines, that suspicion will always linger.” The government is being accused by some of sparing wealthy Conservative voting areas from local coronavirus lockdowns. Critics point out that Labor-voting areas with comparatively lower infection rates have been facing tougher restrictions than their more affluent neighbors.  Dominic Harrison, director of public health in the town of Blackburn, wrote to ministers last week warning that more economically challenged boroughs were “ being placed into more restrictive control measures at an earlier point in their … case rate trajectory.” Other critics complain that districts represented by Cabinet ministers tend to escape local lockdown orders, despite sometimes having higher case numbers than districts ordered to shutter.   Government officials say the incidence rate is “only one of a set of considerations regarding when it is appropriate to impose and release restrictions.” A Health Ministry spokesperson said in a statement: “While we recognize how much of an imposition these measures are, they are based on the latest scientific evidence in order to suppress the virus and protect us all while doing everything possible to support the economy.”  But critics of the regional and local lockdowns warn the economic consequences are now becoming too hard to bear and risk leaving a permanent scar. The issue of public health versus public welfare and wealth is likely only to become more heated, say analysts, as unemployment rises and a rising number of businesses close permanently.   Pragmatism, individualism  Municipal and regional critics of central government-dictated lockdowns appear to be catching the public mood in some countries. “National solidarity and unthinking compliance is evolving into a more pragmatic, individualist mood,” according to commentator Janice Turner. “Every time the rules change, they lose a little more faith,” she says. The rules are becoming white noise and as they do so “more people will resort to what they think is right,” she adds.   A “Zero Covid” strategy won’t work long-term, critics warn. Government officials across Europe counter they are only following the science. But this is now being questioned by some scientists themselves, who say the trade-offs are not something they should decide.FILE – A man sits in an empty cafe in London, Sept. 24, 2020.“Both the virus and the ways of tackling it cause harm and need to be balanced: for example, how much should young people’s education be compromised to protect older people from infection? This is a ‘wicked problem’ with no winners in which we are trying to trade jobs, freedoms and health against each other,” says Graham Medley,  professor of infectious disease modeling at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Writing in The Times newspaper he said: “While scientists can ensure that any strategies are underpinned by the best evidence and research, they should have no greater say in them than economists, ethicists, historians and the wider public. The question of whether New Zealand’s approach is ‘better’ than Sweden’s is as much a social as a scientific one,” he added.  FILE – Medical staff prepare to take a COVID-19 tests at a drive through community based assessment center in Christchurch, New Zealand, Aug. 13, 2020.New Zealand and Sweden have pursued dramatically different pandemic strategies. Sweden has taken a much softer more hands-off approach, while New Zealand put in place lockdown measures earlier this year even before their first case was recorded. In Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, the president of greater Madrid’s regional government, has warned that more restrictions will be “the ruin of Madrid and the ruin of Spain.” The Spanish economy contracted by 18.5% in the second quarter of this year. What she has dubbed “arbitrary rules” will result in “queues of hungry people again and unemployment figures that will multiply tenfold.” On the streets of Middlesbrough last week, the town mayor’s frustration with the new more restrictive rules appeared to resonate with many locals saying they fear that combating the virus is elbowing out the equally important goal of saving livelihoods.  Paula Hoare, 27, told reporters, “The mayor is sticking up for the town where there is already massive poverty.”   
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Seven bodies were found in a region straddling the French-Italian border near Nice on Sunday after torrential rains swept houses and roads away, officials in both countries said.Five of the bodies were discovered in northwestern Italy, including four washed up on the shore between the towns of Ventimiglia and Santo Stefano al Mare, near the French frontier. Some of the corpses might have been swept down the coast from France.Two more were found in France, including a shepherd found by an Italian search and rescue team. The other body was found in a vehicle that had been swept away by flash-flooding in the village of Saint-Martin-Vésubie.It brings to nine the number of people found dead after fierce rains and howling gales lashed the border area on Friday. French firefighters said another 21 people were missing, eight of them known to be as a direct result of the storm.The bad weather caused millions of euros in damage, with several road bridges swept away in Italy, and streets in some towns littered with debris, mud and overturned cars.Officials in the Piedmont region reported a record 630 mm (24.8 inches) of rain in 24 hours in Sambughetto, near Switzerland, more than half its annual average rainfall.In Limone Piemonte, a three-story house was swept off its foundations and into a river. In the nearby village of Tanaro, floodwaters destroyed the local cemetery, sweeping away dozens of coffins.In France, almost 1,000 firefighters were drafted into the Alpes-Maritimes region to look for the missing and re-establish communications. More than two dozen primary and secondary schools in the area are closed until further notice, local authorities said.Up to 500 mm (19.5 inches) of rain fell in less than 10 hours, a volume not seen since records began, Prime Minister Jean Castex said on Saturday.
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Police in Minsk, Belarus used water cannon to disperse crowds as protests against President Alexander Lukashenko continued for the ninth straight Sunday. An estimated 100,000 people took to the streets of the capital Sunday.Since the longtime president claimed victory in a contested election August 9, protesters have regularly taken to the streets demanding his resignation and the release of political prisoners.Lukashenko maintains he won the poll in a landslide — garnering 80% of all ballots — despite widespread claims at home and abroad the vote was heavily rigged to keep him in power.For Belarus Protesters, Battle is for Long HaulDemonstrations intensified after an embattled Lukashenko was secretly sworn in for yet another term, but protesters realize the end may not come soonOver the weekend, Belarus canceled the accreditation of all foreign journalists.Late last week, the European Union imposed sanctions on about 40 Belarusian officials accused of falsifying the election results and cracking down on the subsequent protests. Lukashenko was not on the list.Public anger has stewed over the crackdown in the wake of the protests that have seen more than 7,500 arrests and police violence against demonstrators.Hundreds have emerged from police custody with bruises and tales of torture at the hands of Lukashenko’s security agents.Lukashenko has said the protests are encouraged and supported by the West and accused NATO of moving forces near Belarusian borders. The alliance has denied the accusations.
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Heavy fighting continued Sunday between Armenian and Azerbaijan forces in Nagorno-Karabakh, a primarily ethnic Armenian region in Azerbaijan.Azerbaijani officials said Armenian forces had begun attacking Azerbaijan’s second largest city, Ganja. Unverified videos on Twitter from government officials show damaged buildings.Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry rejected accusations that Azerbaijan’s military had targeted civilians. Officials in Nagorno-Karabakh have said nearly 200 of their service personnel had been killed. Azerbaijan confirmed the deaths of at least 24 civilians.Armenian, Azerbaijani Forces Continue to ClashOngoing conflict over breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh is threatening to erupt into all-out warIn a statement released Sunday, the International Committee of the Red Cross condemned the violence.“All feasible measures must be taken to protect and spare civilians and civilian infrastructures like hospitals, schools and markets. Water supply for civilians must also be protected. These are obligations under international humanitarian law,” Martin Schüepp, ICRC Eurasia regional director in Geneva, said in the statement.Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said late Saturday that his forces “raised the flag” over the strategic town of Madagiz and had taken several villages.The Armenian Defense Ministry said separatist forces in Nagorno-Karabakh had fended off a large Azerbaijani attack, and spokeswoman Shushan Stepanian pointed to intense fighting “along the entire front line,” saying Armenian forces had shot down three Azerbaijani planes.Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry denied any aircraft were shot down and said Armenian personnel had shelled civilian territory.     Azerbaijan has not offered details on military casualties.Vahram Poghosyan, a spokesman for Nagorno-Karabakh’s president, said Saturday on Facebook that intelligence showed that about 3,000 Azerbaijanis were killed in the fighting, without providing details.Armenian Defense Ministry spokesman Artsrun Ovannisian said later Saturday that 2,300 Azerbaijani troops were killed, including about 400 in the previous day; however, this claim cannot be verified.President Aliyev has demanded the withdrawal of Armenia from Nagorno-Karabakh as the only way to end the fighting.Meanwhile, Nagorno-Karabakh authorities have called on the international community to “recognize the independence” of the enclave as “the only effective mechanism to restore peace.” Armenian and Azerbaijani forces ignored calls this past week by the United States, France and Russia for an immediate cease-fire in Nagorno-Karabakh, as fighting escalated to levels not seen since the 1990s. The three countries co-chair the OSCE Minsk Group, which is tasked with finding a peaceful solution. The OSCE is the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.Armenian separatists seized Nagorno-Karabakh, formerly an autonomous territory within Azerbaijan, in a bloody war in the 1990s that killed an estimated 30,000 people.     Talks to resolve the conflict have been halted since a 1994 cease-fire agreement among Armenia, Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh.  Peace efforts collapsed in 2010.
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Authorities in Chile have arrested a police officer who allegedly threw a teen-ager from a bridge into a river bed during a protest.The 16-year-old boy was in stable condition with head trauma and a wrist fracture following the incident in Santiago, Chile’s capital, on Friday. Dozens of people protested on Saturday outside the clinic where he is being treated, condemning police and carrying signs that said: “He did not fall, they threw him.”The incident raised more concerns about police conduct since protests about a wide range of social and economic problems erupted in Chile a year ago. Some 31 people have died in the unrest and numerous allegations of human rights violations were filed against police.The North Central Prosecutor’s Office of Santiago accused the police officer of “causing” the youth to fall and said attempted murder charges would be filed on Sunday.However, Enrique Monrás, chief of police in Santiago’s western area, said the youth had lost his balance and fallen over the bridge railing after the police attempted to arrest him. Ambulances were summoned so that they could provide prompt assistance, Monrás said.The government said in a statement that it condemns any violation of human rights. It said a police officer who “does not comply with the protocols or the law” must be investigated and tried in the courts. 
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The South Pacific archipelago of New Caledonia has voted to remain part of France, election authorities announced. Officials said 53.26% of more than 180,000 registered voters rejected independence in a referendum Sunday. At least 80% of eligible voters went to the polls. In a tweet, French President Emmanuel Macron called the vote a “mark of confidence in the Republic.”  “Together we will build the New Caledonia of tomorrow,” he wrote. Les Calédoniens ont confirmé leur souhait de maintenir la Nouvelle-Calédonie dans la France. C’est une marque de confiance dans la République. J’entends aussi la voix de ceux qu’anime la volonté de l’indépendance. Nous construirons tous ensemble la Nouvelle-Calédonie de demain.— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) October 4, 2020New Caledonia’s economy is supported by about $1.5 billion in French subsidies each year and many have said they fear the economy will collapse without those payments.   While the territory already enjoys a large degree of autonomy, it does heavily rely on France for some matters, including defense and education.   The referendum is part of a process that started in 1988 to end years of violence between the supporters and opponents of independence from France. A decade later, a deal was reached to have the independence vote in 2018. Although voters said “no” to independence two years ago, the deal allowed for two more referendums to be held by 2022.   Under colonial rule, the territory’s indigenous Kanaks had been confined to reserves and excluded from much of the island’s economy.   Political analysts say the Kanaks tend to back independence, while the descendants of European settlers lean toward maintaining the connection to France.  
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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson does not particularly wish for the Brexit transition period to end without a new trade deal in place but believes that Britain could live with such an outcome, he said on Sunday.   With the Dec. 31 expiry of the transition period fast approaching, Johnson and the head of the EU’s executive, Ursula von der Leyen, agreed in a phone call on Saturday to step up negotiations on a post-Brexit deal.   “I think it’s there to be done,” Johnson said during an interview on BBC television.   “Alas, there are some difficult issues that need to be fixed, and there’s no question that the EU needs to understand that we’re utterly serious about needing to control our own laws and our own regulations, and similarly they need to understand that the repatriation of the UK’s fisheries … is very important.”   Asked whether he was worried about the potential impact of a no-deal situation in the middle of the COVID pandemic, Johnson said: “I don’t want the Australian WTO-type outcome, particularly, but we can more than live with it.   “I think the people of this country have had enough … of being told that this will be impossible or intolerable. I think we can prosper mightily under those circumstances.”   The government last week told importers and exporters they would have to complete extra paperwork whether there was a deal or not and that a lack of preparation on their part could lead to 100 km queues of trucks.   That prompted accusations from the opposition that ministers were setting up industry to take the blame for any chaos that might follow a botched Brexit.   The EU says that any deal must be sealed by the end of October, or in the first days of November at the latest, to leave enough time for ratification by the bloc before the end of the year.   More trade talks are due in London next week and in Brussels the following week before the 27 national EU leaders meet over Oct. 15-16 to assess progress. London has also said it wants clarity by Oct. 15 on whether a deal is possible or not.   An estimated trillion euros ($1.17 trillion) of annual trade would be at stake if they fail to reach an agreement. ($1 = 0.8537 euros)      
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Belgium has arrested and charged three men suspected of involvement in the 1994 Rwanda genocide.A spokesperson for the Belgian federal prosecutor’s office said in a statement Saturday that the three had been “charged with serious human rights abuses.”Eric Van Duyse said two had been arrested Tuesday in Brussels and the third had been arrested Wednesday in Hainault province.Van Duyse did not give any details about the suspects but said that their identities had been verified with the help of testimony from witnesses in Rwanda.He said one of the men is under electronic surveillance and the other two are in detention.Van Duyse said whether the men will be tried will depend on information compiled by the investigating magistrate and the prosecutor’s office.The arrests were first reported Friday by the Belgian weekly magazine Le Vif.About 800,000 people, mostly Tutsis and some moderate Hutus, were killed in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.The U.N.’s International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda indicted more than 90 people and tried 80 of them before it ceased operation in 2015.Since 2001, Belgium has held five trials for Rwandans implicated in the killings, giving prison terms up to 20 years.A Belgian court found former senior Rwandan official Fabien Neretse guilty of genocide in December and sentenced him to 25 years in prison.
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Guatemalan authorities said Saturday they have disbanded a caravan of migrants heading north from Honduras, bound for the U.S. border, sending more than 3,000 back home over the past few days.Since Thursday, when thousands of migrants began crossing into Guatemala without permission, authorities said most had “opted to return” and were sent back to Honduras on buses.The caravan had split into two groups Friday, with one headed for the Peten region of northern Guatemala, and the other for the Mexican border city of Tapachula.The group headed for northern Guatemala ran into a roadblock manned by police and soldiers, where so many of their fellow migrants were turned around.A few small groups of migrants could still be seen walking along the highway Saturday morning.Olvin Suazo, 21, and three friends, all farm workers in their early 20s from Santa Barbara, Honduras, said they would continue north.Guatemalan Vice Minister of Foreign Relations Eduardo Sanchez called on Honduras to stop such large groups of migrants, calling them a health risk amid the pandemic.The migrants are headed to the U.S. because of poverty exacerbated by widespread job losses sparked by the pandemic in Latin America.Their journey came two years after a caravan that formed shortly before the U.S. midterm elections and became a campaign issue. Those migrants initially received support from communities along the way, particularly in southern Mexico.But Mexico deployed National Guard troops and immigration agents to intercept large groups of migrants after U.S. President Donald Trump, who is seeking reelection, threatened tariffs on Mexican imports if it did not stem the flow of migrants to the U.S. border.Mexico’s migration authority chief Francisco Garduno said this week the government would deploy hundreds of military and immigration personnel to its border to prevent the caravan from entering the country.Mexican President Lopez Obrador suggested the caravan was associated with the November 3 U.S. presidential election.“It has to do with the election in the United States,” Obrador told reporters. “I don’t have all the elements, but I think there are indications that it was put together for this purpose. I don’t know to whose benefit, but we’re not naive.”The Trump administration said Thursday it would admit a record low 15,000 refugees during the coming year.Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has vowed to raise the refugee cap to 125,000, saying accepting persecuted people is consistent with American values. 
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Iran has temporarily released French-Iranian academic Fariba Adelkhah, who has been in jail after being convicted of security breaches, her lawyer said Saturday on Twitter.”Fariba Adelkhah has come out [of prison] on leave with an electronic ankle bracelet,” Saeid Dehghan said in a tweet, without giving any other details of the release.There was no immediate official statement on the case from Iran’s judiciary.France had in June demanded that Adelkhah, 61, an anthropologist held since 2019, be released immediately, saying her detention was harming trust between the two countries.Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards have arrested dozens of dual nationals in recent years, mostly on espionage charges.In March, Iran granted temporary release to British-Iranian aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, along with thousands of other prisoners, following concerns about the spread of the coronavirus in prisons.In March, Iran and France exchanged prisoners: academic Roland Marchal for engineer Jalal Ruhollahnejad.Since then, however, there had been little sign that Adelkhah would be released. She was sentenced in May to six years in prison on security-related charges.Relations between France and Iran have improved over the last year but remain tense because of Iran’s nuclear activities, its ballistic missile program and regional activities.
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