The U.S. Agency for Global Media is paying tribute to Zofia Korbońska, a member of the anti-Nazi resistance movement who later worked for the VOA Polish service, on the 10th anniversary of her death.  Korbońska, born in Warsaw in 1912, was a member of the Police Underground Army, which fought against the Nazis.   “On a daily basis, she risked her life writing and coding secret shortwave radio transmissions sent from Poland to the Polish government-in-exile in London. A number of her dispatches that reached the free world were broadcast back into occupied Europe by the BBC,” said a statement from USAGM, which oversees VOA and other U.S.-funded broadcast entities. “In addition to her clandestine radio work, Korbońska was also a partner in the work of her husband, Stefan Korboński, the leader of Poland’s anti-Nazi civil resistance and the last head of the Polish Underground State.” After the end of World War Two, both Korbońska and her husband were arrested in Poland by the NKVD Soviet secret police.  They were released after several interrogations.  They escaped to Sweden in 1947 before eventually finding refuge in the United States. In 1980, Korbońska began a more than three-decade career with VOA’s Polish service, using the pen name “Zofia Orlowska” to protect her family and friends back home.  She wrote and recorded occasional programs in the 1980’s after her retirement. She died in Washington on August 16, 2010. Poland slipped to number 62 on Reporters Without Borders annual ranking of countries press freedom in 2020.  The group said Warsaw’s moves to criminalize defamation and other policies are impacting freedom of expression of independent media outlets. It says some courts are using a criminal code article that allows journalists to be sentenced to up to a year in prison for defamation, which is encouraging self-censorship by the media.
…

Here in crowded camps in South Sudan, former enemies are meant to be joining forces after a five-year civil war so they can help the shattered country recover. But they can barely find enough food.The Associated Press spoke to women, both former rebel fighters and government troops, who are among tens of thousands of people being trained as a unified security force. It’s meant to be a major step in the 2018 peace deal ending the war that killed nearly 400,000 people.Visits to a handful of camps found squalid conditions, with food supplies expired or stolen by corruption. With few sanitary products available, the women use random pieces of cloth, even strips of bedsheets, for their periods. While some seek informal work in nearby communities to get by, the threat of sexual assault — even by male trainees — makes others wary of venturing too far.“I’m describing the situation as disgusting,” said Nyaluel Makuei. The 36-year-old mother of seven said she has dedicated her life to serving her country, but she finds little support now.“Even if you get a piece of soap you still stink and smell bad,” she said. “Some of our sisters left the center because of that situation.” At times, she said, meals are just porridge mixed with salt to satisfy hunger because the camp’s supply of beans turned rancid.The women who once fought on opposing sides now identify themselves as members of South Sudan’s unified force, an effort to leave their past behind. But they are reminded of their country’s persistent troubles — insecurity, graft, poverty — at every turn.Some in the international community warn that South Sudan’s implementation of the peace deal is in peril. A United Nations panel of experts this year said the training camps host far fewer people than the goal of 83,000, and government soldiers make up a “significantly smaller percentage” than former rebel fighters.Most government forces remain in barracks elsewhere. “Many key commanders instructed their forces to remain outside of the security reunification process, retain their weapons and stand ready to re-engage in active fighting,” the U.N report said.Instruction in the training camps is limited to “basic moral orientation, rather than any substantive military training,” it added.Meanwhile, vicious intercommunal fighting in parts of South Sudan has killed hundreds of people this year. A well-trained, properly provisioned security force is needed.“I am acutely aware that the peace implementation remains painfully slow and far below your expectations,” President Salva Kiir said last month.At the Toufigia police training center in Malakal, which hosts more than 3,000 people, women reported selling tea or making charcoal to find money to survive.Veronica Akiij, 41, said she decided to work as a tea lady to support her family. Awin Deng, 39, said she stayed up at night baking bread to sell. She hopes to be part of the first batch of police officers to graduate from training but has seven children to support.“We are tired of this situation,” said Nyakuma Oyen, 25.During a recent tour of the training sites, Defense Minister Angelina Teny acknowledged the challenges. “It is not your fault, because 1,000 South Sudanese pounds ($7) cannot buy you a sack of flour. The situation is forcing you to do that,” she said of the informal work.South Sudan’s civil war largely destroyed the health system and other basic services, leaving women especially exposed. Human rights groups and medical charities reported many women were raped after going out to find water or wood.That threat remains, even for the trainees.At the Panyier training center in Bor, which hosts more than 1,800 people, nurse Monica Achol Agwang said she has examined many cases of sexual assault.“Some get pregnant and experience a miscarriage during training in the field,” the 38-year-old said. Transferring women to town for proper treatment is difficult, with poorly constructed roads and frequent flooding.Dozens of people have HIV, an alarming rate, she said. And yet there isn’t enough medicine even for other sexually transmitted diseases.Now the COVID-19 pandemic has arrived. Abul Malual, a 29-year-old mother of five who arrived at the training center in January, said people are sleeping 10 to a tent meant to house six people.That’s on top of the indignity of asking for sanitary pads and receiving none. And food supplies have been erratic for months, Malual said.The head of the Panyier training center, Brig. Gen. John Aciek Ajith, accused the government’s Joint Transitional Security Committee of not delivering needed aid since June. He has requested help from other military divisions.But Maj. Gen. Chol Martin with the military’s Division 8 said his soldiers are no longer receiving their salaries and most have started to support themselves by fishing or selling charcoal.He said he tries to help by allowing them to sell food from the storeroom. Most of the food is expired, Martin said, and yet some soldiers eat it, making them ill.The co-chair of the Joint Transitional Security Committee, Gen. Wesley Welebe Samson, said the blame for the lack of support lay elsewhere, including with the Joint Defense Board, the country’s highest security command.“Our mission regularly has been seized by others who are looking for food and medical supplies,” he said. Contracts for supplies are signed by the government’s National Transitional Committee and “we are not involved.”There are now more than 47,000 trainees across South Sudan, Samson said.“These are human beings. They need to eat. The stores are supposed to be full of food,” he said. He confirmed that most trainees leave the centers to find food elsewhere.At the Kaljak police training center in Bentiu, which hosts some 3,000 people, women reported much of the same — little food, no medicines, no soap or sanitary pads. Some forage for green leaves to eat.“Our situation is horrible,” said Mary Stephanose, 37.Others are pregnant. A 30-year-old who gave only her first name, Mary, said she is in her sixth month but rarely has the chance for a checkup. “I cannot even attend the training or stand well because I feel dizzy,” she said.Some trainees stood for portraits, wearing flip-flops, their pregnancies swelling their cloth wraps. Few uniforms were in sight. 
…

U.S. scientists say they have isolated infectious particles of the coronavirus as much as 4.8 meters away from hospitalized patients.The scientists said the widely accepted 2-meter distance advised to observe social distancing provides a “false sense of security” and could result in large groups of people being exposed to the disease. The study, conducted at the university of Florida Health Shands Hospital, has not been peer reviewed.A saliva test to detect COVID-19 that was developed by Yale and paid for by the NBA won U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval Saturday for emergency use.SalivaDirect, the fifth saliva test approved by the FDA for the disease, uses spit from people who think they have the coronavirus, People make their way along The Strip, the University of Alabama’s bar scene, Aug. 15, 2020, in Tuscaloosa, Ala. More than 20,000 students returned to campus for the first time since spring break.The decline, which occurred after months of increases in testing, may be linked to fewer people seeking tests as confirmed cases have leveled off following spikes this summer and people opting out of testing because of long wait times and delays in getting results.As of Sunday morning, there were more than 21 million COVID-19 cases worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins University. More than 5.3 million cases were in the U.S., followed by Brazil, with 3.3 million.India said early Sunday it had 63,490 new reports of COVID-19 cases in a 24-hour period, with 944 deaths.India’s has recorded more than 2.5 million infections and almost 50,000 deaths from the coronavirus, according to Johns Hopkins University.Texas, one of the Sunbelt states hit hard by the coronavirus, has seen its average daily test number fall nearly 9% since the end of July, according to The COVID Tracking Project.While Texas has made some progress against the outbreak, deaths remain high, an average or more than 210 a day in the past 14 days, and the rolling average of people who test positive for the coronavirus is 16%. That positivity rate could be a sign that not enough tests are being done. A rate of less than 10% is one indicator of robust testing, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says.A visitor wearing a face mask walks near a banner showing precautions against the coronavirus at the Gyeongbok Palace, one of South Korea’s well-known landmarks, in Seoul, South Korea, Aug. 16, 2020.In South Korea, more stringent social distancing restrictions were announced Saturday in Seoul and surrounding areas, where coronavirus cases have surged following successful efforts contain its spread. Beginning Sunday, nightclubs, movie theaters and other high-risk places will be closed if they do not enforce preventive measures.In Spain, dozens of people in Barcelona’s Torre Baro community were tested for COVID-19 Saturday after a spike in cases in the working-class neighborhood. Health officials hope to identify asymptomatic cases in hard-hit areas to break any chains of transmission.Also, in Italy, the cruise ship MSC Grandiosa will begin a voyage to the Mediterranean on Sunday, after it and four other cruise ships were idled by the coronavirus pandemic in Civitavecchia, one of the world’s busiest ports.The five ships can hold a total of 26,000 people. The four other ships will also resume operations soon, positioning Italy as the epicenter of an effort to resume cruises worldwide.
…

No roaring crowd will welcome former Vice President Joe Biden’s nomination at the Democratic National Convention on Thursday, and he may have to keep proper social distance from his vice presidential running mate, Kamala Harris.President Donald Trump, likewise, will not get the arena full of supporters he wanted at the Republican Party convention the following week — complete with colorful balloons cascading from the rafters. He may deliver his acceptance speech from the White House.Packing thousands of cheering, shouting party faithful indoors during a global respiratory pandemic would not be a good idea, both parties concluded. The speeches, parties and fundraisers are going virtual.Beginning Monday, the Democrats will hold four nights of televised speeches and party events from remote spots after abandoning Milwaukee, Wisconsin, as its convention city. The following Monday, August 24, several hundred Republican officials and delegates will gather briefly in Charlotte, North Carolina, to formally nominate Trump for a second term before departing.The disruptions of the biggest spectacles in American politics are just the latest symptoms of a political season upended by the coronavirus pandemic. Big rallies are canceled, as are the smaller fairs, festivals and farmers markets where politicians and party workers normally would be out canvassing.Traditional door-knocking, fundraising cocktail parties, handshaking and kissing of babies have largely gone by the wayside for now, and some of those practices may ultimately vanish. The 2020 pandemic-era election (hopefully) will be a unique experience. But some lessons are likely to carry over.For one, the conventions as grand events “may be a thing of the past,” American Enterprise Institute senior fellow Karlyn Bowman said.”People have argued that conventions are overrated, that they’re not that meaningful. People have argued that in-person rallies are not that meaningful,” senior fellow John Hudak at the Brookings Institution said. “We’re going to see whether that’s true or not this year.”After every election, experts try to parse out what worked and what didn’t. This year’s massive “natural experiment” is unique, Hudak said. “2020 is going to let us ask and answer a lot of really important questions about what is meaningful in a campaign.”Here are seven ways COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, has changed the 2020 election so far.1. The top issueFor many voters, COVID-19 has changed what the election is about.Trump’s reelection campaign began the year with a tailwind. Unemployment was low and the economy was strong.”He could point to positive economic numbers and peace and prosperity,” said Kyle Kondik, a political analyst at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.”COVID-19 changed all that.”Unemployment has risen to Great Depression levels, and the economy has contracted sharply. With more than 5.2 million cases and 166,000 deaths from the ailment, most voters disapprove of Trump’s handling of the pandemic. Without the economy to run on, critics have said the president has struggled to articulate an argument for reelection.2. Shrunken conventionsThe usual theatrics of the party conventions will be scaled down dramatically, but experts say it may not make much of a difference.The conventions typically boost each candidate’s poll numbers a bit, but the “convention bump” usually is temporary, Bowman said.”I don’t think it has much of an impact on the final outcome,” she added.The impact could be even smaller this year because many voters have already made up their minds, Kondik noted. “All the partisans on both sides are pretty well lined up behind their respective party nominees.”The impacts may be greater for the parties themselves. The conventions are big fundraising events. Also, party activists will miss out on the bonding and “organic conversations” about goals and strategies that would happen at an in-person event, Hudak added.3. Canceled campaigningLike the conventions, big, in-person rallies may do more to fire up partisans than sway undecided voters.”Campaigns are going to need to figure out some other means of generating that enthusiasm,” Hudak said.Losing campaign rallies may hurt Trump more than Biden, he added. Trump enjoys and draws energy from them.”Not having those rallies, I think, not only hurts his ability to generate enthusiasm within his base,” he said, “I think it actually affects him personally.”The Biden campaign may suffer less from canceled rallies but more from the loss of in-person, hands-on campaigning. Biden is “sometimes accused of being a little too touchy-feely in his interactions with people,” Kondik said. “But he’s known as being kind of a warm person and someone who gets close to people, and he just can’t do that.”4. Virtual fundraisingNot only has the coronavirus canceled in-person campaigning, it has moved fund-raising online, too. No more pricey dinners with a chance to get close to the candidate. Donors have to settle for online video chats instead.It doesn’t seem to have hurt.”I see very little impact whatsoever on fundraising,” Bowman said.Neither party is hurting for cash. The candidates and their backers have raised more than $1.6 billion so far, according to a tally by National Public Radio.5. Get-out-the-vote drivesNormally, armies of campaign workers would be fanning out across the country to knock on doors and encourage voters to go to the polls. Those activities have been scaled way back. For example, many labor unions, which usually would provide legions of workers to back Democratic campaigns, have canceled in-person get-out-the-vote activities.While both parties are leaning heavily on television, mail and digital advertising, the Trump campaign is still out knocking on doors. Republicans generally have shown less concern about the pandemic.Door-knocking has a small but significant effect on voter turnout, Kondik said, and “sometimes the margins are what decide presidential elections.”6. Voter registrationVoter registration drives have been largely grounded, too. After starting the year stronger than 2016, registrations dropped sharply in March and April, according to a study of 12 states and the District of Columbia.The study notes that most people register to vote at their local Department of Motor Vehicles, and the pandemic closed many DMV offices.Person-to-person registration drives at festivals, supermarkets, busy street corners and other public locations have also been sharply curtailed.Those efforts “have significant effects not only on how many people vote, but who votes,” Hudak said, adding, “And doing away with that can have some pretty significant effects.”Both parties feel the effects, he added, so it’s hard to know what the net impact will be.7. Vote by mailMany states are embracing mail-in ballots as a safer alternative to in-person voting.  Trump has claimed, repeatedly and without evidence, that it will lead to widespread fraud.As a result, Republican voters are much less supportive of casting ballots by mail.With unprecedented numbers of absentee ballots expected to be cast this election, “that can have some really challenging effects for not just the president, but down-ballot Republicans, as well,” Hudak said, referring to others on the ballot.It also could make for a confusing Election Day.”If a lot of Republicans are voting on Election Day and those votes are tallied first, it may look like Donald Trump is leading in the state, when in fact, he might ultimately end up losing the state,” Kondik said.Sorting it out could take days or weeks, during which time, Kondik worries, conspiracy theories could proliferate.”I think it’s important that we all communicate to voters that we may not know (the outcome) on election night the way that we’re used to in the past. And there’s nothing inherently nefarious about that,” he said.  
…

In one of Edmond Kok’s creations, a 3D visualization of a spiky coronavirus bursts out of a face mask. Another mask uses a plastic takeout container to remind people of the environmental cost of food deliveries.A design inspired by a Thai temple symbolizes people missing their favorite holiday destinations because of travel restrictions.Edmond Kok, a Hong Kong theater costume designer and actor, wears a rubber duck face mask in Hong Kong, Aug. 6, 2020.A Hong Kong actor and costume designer, Kok has had little theater work during the pandemic but found creative opportunity in the now-ubiquitous face mask.He has crafted more than 170 masks inspired both by the pandemic and Hong Kong’s political problems.They’re not worn as illness prevention but as pieces of art.Kok’s creations also address fears in Hong Kong that China is taking away the greater freedoms that residents of the territory have compared to the mainland. Under a new national security law, people have been arrested for displaying or chanting slogans deemed as advocating independence from China.Edmond Kok, a Hong Kong theater costume designer and actor, wears a face mask modeled on a clown face and bow tie in Hong Kong, Aug. 6, 2020.A mock gloved hand covers one mask, illustrating the struggle to express one’s voice freely. A security camera represents a fear of surveillance, and eyeballs, a fear of being watched or censored.“I really want to document different things that happened in our lives,” he said.After the pandemic ends, Kok hopes he and others will revisit their experiences through his masks. He has posted photos of them on Instagram and other social media platforms. Edmond Kok, a Hong Kong theater costume designer and actor, wears a face mask designed to look like fruits in Hong Kong Aug. 6, 2020. 
…

President Donald Trump’s younger brother, Robert Trump, a businessman known for an even keel that seemed almost incompatible with the family name, died Saturday night after being hospitalized in New York, the president said in a statement. He was 71.The president visited his brother at a New York City hospital on Friday after White House officials said he had become seriously ill.It is with heavy heart I share that my wonderful brother, Robert, peacefully passed away tonight,” Donald Trump said in a statement. “He was not just my brother, he was my best friend. He will be greatly missed, but we will meet again. His memory will live on in my heart forever. Robert, I love you. Rest in peace.”The youngest of the Trump siblings remained close to the 74-year-old president and, as recently as June, filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Trump family that unsuccessfully sought to stop publication of a tell-all book by the president’s niece, Mary.Robert Trump had reportedly been hospitalized in the intensive care unit for several days that same month.’The only guy in my life whom I ever call ‘honey’Both longtime businessmen, Robert and Donald had strikingly different personalities. Donald Trump once described his younger brother as “much quieter and easygoing than I am,” and “the only guy in my life whom I ever call ‘honey.’”Robert Trump began his career on Wall Street working in corporate finance but later joined the family business, managing real estate holdings as a top executive in the Trump Organization.“When he worked in the Trump Organization, he was known as the nice Trump,” Gwenda Blair, a Trump family biographer, told The Associated Press. “Robert was the one people would try to get to intervene if there was a problem.”Robert Stewart Trump was born in 1948, the youngest of New York City real estate developer Fred Trump’s five children.The president, two years older than Robert, admittedly bullied his brother in their younger years, even as he praised his loyalty and laid-back demeanor.“I think it must be hard to have me for a brother but he’s never said anything about it and we’re very close,” Donald Trump wrote in his 1987 bestseller “The Art of the Deal.” “Robert gets along with almost everyone,” he added, “which is great for me since I sometimes have to be the bad guy.”In the 1980s, Donald Trump tapped Robert Trump to oversee an Atlantic City casino project, calling him the perfect fit for the job. When it cannibalized his other casinos, though, “he pointed the finger of blame at Robert,” said Blair, author of “The Trumps: Three Generations that Built an Empire.”“When the slot machines jammed the opening weekend at the Taj Mahal, he very specifically and furiously denounced Robert, and Robert walked out and never worked for his brother again,” Blair said.’He was not a newsmaker’A Boston University graduate, Robert Trump later managed the Brooklyn portion of father Fred Trump’s real estate empire, which was eventually sold.Once a regular boldface name in Manhattan’s social pages, Robert Trump had kept a lower profile in recent years. “He was not a newsmaker,” Blair said.Before divorcing his first wife, Blaine Trump, more than a decade ago, Robert Trump had been active on Manhattan’s Upper East Side charity circuit.He avoided the limelight during his elder brother’s presidency, having retired to the Hudson Valley. But he described himself as a big supporter of the White House run in a 2016 interview with the New York Post.“I support Donald one thousand percent,” Robert Trump said.In early March of 2020, he married his longtime girlfriend, Ann Marie Pallan.The eldest Trump sibling and Mary’s father, Fred Trump Jr., struggled with alcoholism and died in 1981 at the age of 43. The president’s surviving siblings include Elizabeth Trump Grau and Maryanne Trump Barry, a retired federal appeals judge.Authors Michael Kranish and Marc Fisher described Robert Trump as soft spoken but cerebral in “Trump Revealed: The Definitive Biography of the 45th President”: “He lacked Donald’s charismatic showmanship, and he was happy to leave the bravado to his brother, but he could show flashes of Trump temper.”  
…

Thousands of demonstrators in Belarus took to the streets again Saturday to demand that the country’s authoritarian leader resign after a presidential vote they called fraudulent. In response, the president declared that Russian leader Vladimir Putin had agreed to provide security assistance to restore order if Belarus requested it.President Alexander Lukashenko spoke Saturday evening several hours after a phone call with Putin as he struggled to counter the biggest challenge yet to his 26 years in power.Saturday was the seventh consecutive day of large protests against the results of the country’s Aug. 9 presidential election in which election officials claimed the 65-year-old Lukashenko won a sixth term in a landslide. Opposition supporters believe the election figures were manipulated and say protesters have been beaten mercilessly by police since the vote.Harsh police crackdowns against the protesters, including the detention of about 7,000 people, have not quashed the most sustained anti-government movement since Lukashenko took power in 1994.  The demonstrators rallied Saturday at the spot in the capital of Minsk where a protester died this week in clashes with police. Some male protesters pulled off their shirts to show bruises they said came from police beatings. Others carried pictures of loved ones beaten so badly they could not attend the rally.People hold old Belarusian national flags while gathered at the place where Alexander Taraikovsky died during clashes protesting election results, in Minsk, Belarus, Aug. 15, 2020.Lukashenko did not specify what sort of assistance Russia would be willing to provide. But he said, “when it comes to the military component, we have an agreement with the Russian Federation,” referring to a mutual support deal the two former Soviet republics signed back in the 1990s.”These are the moments that fit this agreement,” he added.Both the European Union and the U.S. government say the presidential election in Belarus was flawed.  Lukashenko’s main opponent in the vote, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, fled to Lithuania the day after the election, knowing that several previous presidential challengers have been jailed for years on charges that supporters say were trumped up. Other potential challengers, blocked by election officials from running, fled the country before the vote.A funeral was held Saturday for Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester who died Monday in the capital of Minsk under disputed circumstances. Belarusian police said he died when an explosive device he intended to throw at police blew up in his hand.But his partner, Elena German, told The Associated Press that when she saw his body in a morgue Friday, his hands showed no damage and he had a perforation in his chest that she believes is a bullet wound.Hundreds of people came to pay their last respects to Taraikovsky, who lay in an open casket. As the coffin was carried out, many dropped to one knee, weeping and exclaiming “Long live Belarus!”Video shot by an Associated Press journalist on Monday shows Taraikovsky with a bloodied shirt before collapsing on the ground. Several police are seen nearby and some walk over to where Taraikovsky is lying on the street and stand around him.  The video does not show why he fell to the ground or how his shirt became bloodied, but it also does not show that he had an explosive device that blew up in his hand as the government has said.About 5,000 demonstrators gathered Saturday in the area where Taraikovsky died. They laid a mass of flowers in tribute, piling into a mound about 1.5 meters (5 feet) tall, as passing cars blared their horns.”It’s awful to live in a country where you can be killed at a peaceful protest. I will leave, if power isn’t changed,” said 30-year-old demonstrator Artem Kushner.Men carry a coffin with the body of Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old demonstrator who died Aug. 10, 2020, amid clashes while protesting election results, during his funeral ceremony in central Minsk, Belarus, Aug. 15, 2020.Earlier Saturday, Lukashenko rejected suggestions that foreign mediators become involved in trying to resolve the country’s political crisis.  “Listen — we have a normal country, founded on a constitution. We don’t need any foreign government, any sort of mediators, ” Lukashenko said at a meeting with Defense Ministry officials. He appeared to be referring to an offer from the leaders of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia to help resolve the political crisis in Belarus, a nation of 9.5 million people.But he did discuss the situation in a call Saturday with Putin, the first publicly known direct contact between the two leaders since the election. A Kremlin statement said Putin and Lukashenko both expressed hope for a quick resolution to the tensions.”It is important that these problems are not used by destructive forces aimed at causing injury to the cooperation of the two countries in the framework of the union state,” the Kremlin said.Russia and Belarus reached an agreement in 1997 about closer ties between the neighboring ex-Soviet countries in a union that stopped short of a full merger, although that has collided with recent disputes between the countries and Lukashenko’s suspicions that Putin’s government wants to absorb Belarus.  Protests about the political crisis in Belarus were also held Saturday in the Czech Republic and in front of the Belarusian Embassy in Moscow.The brutal suppression of protests in Belarus has drawn harsh criticism in the West. European Union foreign ministers said Friday that they rejected the election results in Belarus and began drawing up a list of officials in Belarus who could face sanctions over their role in the crackdown on protesters.U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Saturday that he was glad to see that some protesters in Belarus had been freed but that it was not enough. He also said the presidential election in Belarus fell short of democratic standards.  “We’ve said the elections themselves (in Belarus) weren’t free. I’ve spent the last days consulting with our European partners,” he said Saturday at a news conference in Warsaw with his Polish counterpart.”Our common objective is to support the Belarusian people. These people are demanding the same things that every human being wants,” Pompeo said. “We urged the leadership to broaden the circle to engage with civil society.”
 
…

The U.S. Postal Service on Friday warned all 50 states that it cannot guarantee every ballot cast by mail for the November election will arrive in time to be counted. Meanwhile, voters and lawmakers in several states are complaining about the removal of several curbside mailboxes.  
 
While the post office’s letters raise the possibility that the mailed-in votes of many Americans will not be counted, that is not the intent, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said in his own letter to Democratic congressional leaders.
 
The post office is merely “asking elected officials and voters to realistically consider how the mail works, and be mindful of our delivery standards, in order to provide voters ample time to cast ballots through the mail,” wrote DeJoy.FILE – U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, left, is escorted to a meeting in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office on Capitol Hill in Washington, Aug. 5, 2020.The inspector general of the postal service has begun looking into some of the cost cutting measures DeJoy has implemented, including eliminating overtime pay and holding mail over, a congressional aide said Friday.  
The watchdog also will investigate possible conflicts of interest. DeJoy has donated $2.7 million to President Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans, according to Saloni Sharma, a spokeswoman for Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, who requested the investigation.  According to a financial disclosure form filed by his wife, DeJoy owns millions of dollars in stock in Postal Service rivals.
 
Early Saturday, a small crowd noisily protested outside DeJoy’s Washington condo saying they are concerned that he is gutting the postal service to help Trump win reelection in November.
 
The protesters blew vuvuzelas, banged pots and pans, and waved signs saying “Postmaster Saboteur,” “LET AMERICA VOTE” and “Deliver DeMail, Depose DeJoy.” One of DeJoy’s neighbors joined in, waving from her window at the protesters below.#Election2020@USPShttps://t.co/IpDu6kHQIR— Steve Herman (@W7VOA) August 15, 2020Though President Trump votes by mail, he has often criticized efforts to allow others to do so. He has argued without evidence that voting by mail will lead to increased voter fraud that could cost him the election.   
 
In Nevada, the state’s vote-by-mail law allows anyone to collect and return ballots on a voter’s behalf. Trump’s reelection campaign, the Republican National Committee and Nevada GOP filed a lawsuit last week to strike down the law over that provision.
 
More than half of the states allow a third party to collect ballots, called “ballot harvesting,” something Republicans argue makes fraud and illegal voting easier. Political groups and campaigns from both parties use such programs to boost turnout and help voters who are older, homebound or disabled return their ballot.
 
Voter fraud is rare in all forms of voting, including by mail, election security experts say.Trump Opposes New Postal Funding Because It Would Boost Mail-in VotingUS leader claims Democrats’ push for expanded voting would be thwarted if more Postal Service money is deniedA 2018 congressional election in North Carolina is one of the few examples. A state investigation found that a Republican political operative illegally gathered ballots and workers testified that they were directed to collect blank or incomplete ballots, forge signatures and fill in votes. Officials overturned the election.
 
Meanwhile, the Postal Service removed several curbside mailboxes in Oregon and Montana, triggering concern and anger.
 
In Montana, officials said the boxes were removed to eliminate underused drop boxes. But after the outcry, which included upset members of Congress, the officials said they were suspending the program in Montana.
 
In Oregon, Postal Service spokesperson Ernie Swanson said the boxes were removed there because of declining mail volume. 
…