Thousands of demonstrators continued to protest Thailand’s prime minister in Bangkok Sunday, defying a ban on gatherings of more than four people.Protests, largely led by students, have persisted in the capital for months, calling for the resignation of Prayuth Chan-O-Cha, who seized power in a 2014 military coup.Demonstrations also were held in 18 cities around Thailand, the Bangkok Post reported.The movement suffered multiple setbacks over the past week, with dozens arrested after they flashed a pro-Democracy salute at the Thai queen’s motorcade. Authorities used water cannon to disperse crowds outside Bangkok’s central shopping district Friday, sparking outrage across the country.Emergency measures were put in place over the weekend to ban gatherings of more than four people, but protests have persisted.Demonstrators gathered near Bangkok’s Victory Monument Sunday, carrying signs and photos of those who were arrested. Protests were largely peaceful, but some reported that, upon trying to return home, they were barred from entering the central Asok sky train station. BTS Sky Train later confirmed that all its stations had been reopened.Prayuth won an election last year, but protesters say the vote was rigged in his favor due to constitutional laws drafted by the military.   In addition to demanding reform of the country’s constitution, the demonstrators are seeking to reduce the influence of the Thai monarchy. The institution maintains divine-like status among Thailand’s elite, and it is protected by strict “lese majeste” laws that impose prison sentences on anyone convicted of insulting the institution.
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A key campaign advisor to Republican U.S. President Donald Trump is signaling that the president may be less disruptive at Thursday’s final debate with his Democratic challenger, former Vice President Joe Biden, than he was at their first confrontation last month.“When you talk about style and you talk about approach, I do think that President Trump is going to give Joe Biden a little bit more room to explain himself on some of these issues,” Trump aide Jason Miller told “Fox News Sunday.”  Trump and Biden repeatedly interrupted each other at their Sept. 29 debate, Trump more so than Biden, in what U.S. political analysts declared was the worst presidential debate ever. Chris Wallace, the Fox talk show host who moderated the debate last month, said Trump interrupted him or Biden 145 times during the 90-plus-minute session.Miller said Sunday that Trump wants Biden to explain unverified reports in the New York Post that Biden’s son, Hunter, profited from lucrative deals in Ukraine through his father’s connections handling U.S. foreign policy decisions in Ukraine when the older Biden was vice president under President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2017.Supreme Court Justice Confirmation Flashpoint for Trump, Biden The President and Senate Republicans move quickly to cement a Supreme Court conservative majority before the election Trump, on the campaign trail in recent days, has described the Bidens as “an organized crime family,” assailing Hunter Biden for his business dealings in Ukraine, including a lucrative position on the board of a Ukrainian natural gas company, and in China while his father was second-in-command to Obama.Asked about his son’s financial dealings, Joe Biden has said, “It’s another smear campaign,” but has not directly addressed Hunter Biden’s financial deals.Miller also said Trump would look to pin down Biden on whether he plans to support progressive Democrats’ bid to add more liberal jurists to the nine-member U.S. Supreme Court if, as is presumed, Republican senators confirm Trump’s nomination of staunch conservative Amy Coney Barrett to the court before the end of October, days ahead of the Nov. 3 election.Biden has in the past voiced opposition to “court packing,” adding more members to the court, the size of which has not been changed since 1869. But during the campaign, Biden has refused to spell out his current stance, although last week he said he would make his position known before Election Day.Miller said, “I do think the president’s going to want to hear Joe Biden’s answer on some of these (issues), and we’ll definitely give him all the time that Joe Biden wants to talk about packing the court. And I think he’s going to get it on Thursday.”During Trump’s frequent interruptions in the first debate, Biden at one point turned to him and said, “Shut up, man!”A day later, the independent Commission on Presidential Debates said it would impose changes at future Trump-Biden encounters to “maintain order” and ensure “additional structure,” but has not announced any changes.  The commission unilaterally decreed that a planned second debate last week would be held virtually after Trump contracted the coronavirus. The president refused to participate remotely, and the encounter was then called off.Instead, the two candidates participated last Thursday in dueling town hall question-and-answer sessions with voters at the same time on different television networks.Thursday’s debate is likely the last before Election Day, but early voting is occurring across much of the United States, with more than 25 million people already having cast their ballots.
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Ever since Russian agents and other opportunists abused its platform in an attempt to manipulate the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Facebook has insisted — repeatedly — that it’s learned its lesson and is no longer a conduit for misinformation, voter suppression and election disruption.But it has been a long and halting journey for the social network. Critical outsiders, as well as some of Facebook’s own employees, say the company’s efforts to revise its rules and tighten its safeguards remain wholly insufficient to the task, despite it having spent billions on the project. As for why, they point to the company’s persistent unwillingness to act decisively over much of that time.“Am I concerned about the election? I’m terrified,” said Roger McNamee, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist and an early Facebook investor turned vocal critic. “At the company’s current scale, it’s a clear and present danger to democracy and national security.”The company’s rhetoric has certainly gotten an update. CEO Mark Zuckerberg now casually references possible outcomes that were unimaginable in 2016 — among them, possible civil unrest and potentially a disputed election that Facebook could easily make even worse — as challenges the platform now faces.“This election is not going to be business as usual,” Zuckerberg wrote in a September Facebook post in which he outlined Facebook’s efforts to encourage voting and remove misinformation from its service. “We all have a responsibility to protect our democracy.”Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies remotely during a House Judiciary subcommittee hearing on antitrust on Capitol Hill, July 29, 2020, in Washington.Yet for years Facebook executives have seemed to be caught off guard whenever their platform — created to connect the world — was used for malicious purposes. Zuckerberg has offered multipleapologies over the years, as if no one could have predicted that people would use Facebook to live-stream murders and suicides, incite ethnic cleansings, promote fake cancer cures or attempt to steal elections.While other platforms like Twitter and YouTube have also struggled to address misinformation and hateful content, Facebook stands apart for its reach and scale and, compared to many other platforms, its slower response to the challenges identified in 2016.In the immediate aftermath of President Donald Trump’s election, Zuckerberg offered a remarkably tone-deaf quip regarding the notion that “fake news” spread on Facebook could have influenced the 2016 election, calling it “a pretty crazy idea.” A week later, he walked back the comment.Since then, Facebook has issued a stream of mea culpas for its slowness to act against threats to the 2016 election and promised to do better. “I don’t think they have become better at listening,” said David Kirkpatrick, author of a book on Facebook’s rise. “What’s changed is more people have been telling them they need to do something.”The company has hired outside fact-checkers, added restrictions — then more restrictions — on political advertisements and taken down thousands of accounts, pages and groups it found to be engaging in “coordinated inauthentic behavior.” That’s Facebook’s term for fake accounts and groups that maliciously target political discourse in countries ranging from Albania to Zimbabwe.It’s also started added warning labels to posts that contain misinformation about voting and has, at times, taken steps to limit the circulation of misleading posts. In recent weeks the platform also banned posts that deny the Holocaust and joined Twitter in limiting the spread of an unverified political story about Hunter Biden, son of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, published by the conservative New York Post.All this unquestionably puts Facebook in a better position than it was in four years ago. But that doesn’t mean it’s fully prepared. Despite tightened rules banning them, violent militias are still using the platform to organize. Recently, this included a foiled plot to kidnap the governor of Michigan.In the four years since the last election, Facebook’s earnings and user growth have soared. This year, analysts expect the company to rake in profits of $23.2 billion on revenue of $80 billion, according to FactSet. It currently boasts 2.7 billion users worldwide, up from 1.8 billion at this time in 2016.Facebook faces a number of government investigations into its size and market power, including an antitrust probe by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. An earlier FTC investigation socked Facebook with a large $5 billion fine, but didn’t require any additional changes.“Their No. 1 priority is growth, not reducing harm,” Kirkpatrick said. “And that is unlikely to change.”Part of the problem: Zuckerberg maintains an iron grip on the company, yet doesn’t take criticism of him or his creation seriously, charges social media expert Jennifer Grygiel, a Syracuse University communications professor. But the public knows what’s going on, she said. “They see COVID misinformation. They see how Donald Trump exploits it. They can’t unsee it.”Facebook insists it takes the challenge of misinformation seriously — especially when it comes to the election.“Elections have changed since 2016, and so has Facebook,” the company said in a statement laying out its policies on the election and voting. “We have more people and better technology to protect our platforms, and we’ve improved our content policies and enforcement.”Grygiel says such comments are par for the course. “This company uses PR in place of an ethical business model,” she said.Kirkpatrick notes that board members and executives who have pushed back against the CEO — a group that includes the founders of Instagram and WhatsApp — have left the company.“He is so certain that Facebook’s overall impact on the world is positive” and that critics don’t give him enough credit for that, Kirkpatrick said of Zuckerberg. As a result, the Facebook CEO isn’t inclined to take constructive feedback. “He doesn’t have to do anything he doesn’t want to. He has no oversight,” Kirkpatrick said.The federal government has so far left Facebook to its own devices, a lack of accountability that has only empowered the company, according to U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal, a Washington Democrat who grilled Zuckerberg during a July Capitol Hill hearing.Warning labels are of limited value if the algorithms underlying the platform are designed to push polarizing material at users, she said. “I think Facebook has done some things that indicate it understands its role. But it has been, in my opinion, far too little, too late.”
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An Israeli delegation accompanied by the U.S. treasury secretary flew to Bahrain on Sunday to formalize nascent relations and broaden Gulf cooperation that Washington has promoted as an anti-Iran bulwark and potential economic bonanza.   Bahrain followed the United Arab Emirates in agreeing last month to normalize ties with Israel, stunning Palestinians who had demanded statehood before any such regional rapprochement.   Bahrain’s Foreign Minister Abdullatif al-Zayani delivers a statement upon the arrival of an Israeli delegation accompanied by the U.S. treasury secretary, in Muharraq, Bahrain, Oct. 18, 2020.The breakthrough, overseen by U.S. President Donald Trump, is a foreign policy flourish ahead of his reelection bid next month. For the U.S. allies, it is a chance to close ranks on Iran more overtly.   The Israeli delegation, which boarded an El Al Israel Airlines charter flight to Manama, was accompanied by U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin. His office said the mission seeks “expanded economic cooperation” among Israel, Bahrain and the UAE.   At a ceremony with Mnuchin at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport, U.S. Middle East envoy Avi Berkowitz said that Israel and Bahrain would sign a joint communique “bringing forward tourism and banking and diplomatic relations.”  Also speaking at the airport ceremony, the head of the Israeli delegation, National Security Adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat, said talks would also focus on sectors such as finance and aviation.   Relationship upgrade  Israel and Bahrain signed a “Declaration of Peace, Cooperation, and Constructive Diplomatic and Friendly Relations” at a White House ceremony on Sept. 15, a document that fell short of a formal treaty.   An official involved in the visit said the communique would upgrade the relationship between the two countries.   FILE – Bahrain’s FM Abdullatif al-Zayani, Israel’s PM Benjamin Netanyahu, US President Donald Trump and United Arab Emirates (UAE) FM Abdullah bin Zayed participate in the signing of the Abraham Accords, at the White House, Sept. 15, 2020.The signing of the declaration with Israel last month drew anger among Bahrainis at home and abroad. Bahrain, where a Sunni Muslim minority rules a Shi’ite majority population, has said the deal protects its interests from Iran.   The route of El Al Flight 973, a nod to Bahrain’s telephone code, was to take it over Saudi Arabia, an accommodation by the Gulf powerhouse that has so far resisted U.S. appeals to normalize ties with Israel.   Mnuchin and the other U.S. officials travel on Monday to the UAE, where accord with Israel has uncorked bilateral commerce. On Tuesday the U.S. dignitaries will join the UAE’s first delegation to Israel.   Though less oil-rich than the UAE, Bahrain — host to the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet — has geo-strategic significance.   A Sept. 13 report by Israel’s Intelligence Ministry saw potential for defense cooperation with Bahrain, describing it as threatened by “Shi’ite political sedition, directed by Iran and its proxies.”  Israel could also help Bahrain with renewable energy, food security and banking and finance technologies, it said.  
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Armenia and Azerbaijan accused each other Sunday of violating a new humanitarian cease-fire in the Nagorno-Karabakh region, just hours after it took effect.In a Twitter message early Sunday, Armenia’s Defense Ministry accused Azerbaijan of violating the new cease-fire in the Nagorno-Karabakh region by firing artillery shells and rockets.“Once again violating the humanitarian ceasefire, the enemy fired artillery shells in the northern direction from 00:04 to 02:45, and fired rockets in the southern direction from 02:20 to 02:45.”Once again violating the humanitarian ceasefire, the enemy fired artillery shells in the northern direction from 00:04 to 02:45, and fired rockets in the southern direction from 02:20 to 02:45.— Shushan Stepanyan (@ShStepanyan) October 17, 2020Azerbaijan’s defense ministry said in a statement later that “the enemy fired at the vicinity of the Jabrail city, as well as the villages of this region … using mortars and artillery,” adding that the Azeri army “took adequate retaliatory measures.”Azerbaijan and Armenia announced they had agreed to a new cease-fire beginning Sunday, the second attempt in a week to temper almost three weeks of fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh.”The Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan have agreed to a humanitarian truce as of October 18, 00h00 local time,” Armenia’s Foreign Affairs Ministry said late Saturday.Azerbaijan’s Foreign Affairs Ministry issued an identical statement.The announcements came after Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov spoke by phone with his Armenian and Azeri counterparts. Lavrov and French President Emmanuel Macron both stressed that the cease-fire must be strictly observed by both sides.Earlier Saturday, Azerbaijan and Armenia accused each other of new attacks, a further indication that violence has escalated in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region in violation of a Russian-brokered truce that took effect a week ago.Meanwhile, UNICEF called Saturday for an immediate humanitarian cease-fire, declaring in a statement that children have been killed, injured and displaced by the fighting, forcing them to endure weeks of “extreme psychological trauma and distress.”“Children, families and the civilian facilities that they depend upon must be protected, in line with international human rights and humanitarian law. A complete cessation of hostilities is in the best interest of all children,” the statement said.The ongoing fighting between Azerbaijan and Armenia erupted Sept. 27 and has killed hundreds of people, marking the biggest escalation of the decades-old conflict over breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh since a 1994 cease-fire.The predominantly ethnic Armenian territory declared its independence from Azerbaijan in 1991 during the collapse of the Soviet Union, sparking a war that claimed the lives of as many as 30,000 people before a 1994 cease-fire. However, that independence is not internationally recognized.
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Supporters of the Iran-backed Hashd al-Shaabi, an Iraqi Shi’ite militia group, set fire Saturday to the offices of the Kurdish Democratic Party in Baghdad.The protesters in the Iraqi capital were upset by comments made by a senior KDP official. Ex-foreign minister Hoshyar Zebari said earlier this month that the government should “clean up” Baghdad’s Green Zone “from the presence of Hashd militias.” He said their ouster was an “essential task” as they are operating “outside the law.”The U.S. State Department issued a statement about the attack on the KDP offices by Hashd al-Shaabi, also known as the Popular Mobilization Forces.“The ability to speak freely and critically is a vital component of any democracy, and political parties should be able to engage in robust debate without threat from militias and thugs,” State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus said.“We strongly urge all parties to behave responsibly during this critical period in which Iraq is already dealing with a pandemic, an economic crisis, and the continued threat of ISIS,” she said.
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Human traffickers are capitalizing on the coronavirus pandemic to target people ranging from jobless migrants to out-of-school children, two U.N. specialists said, warning that the fallout from COVID-19 had driven the crime further underground.The global economic slowdown has left countless people jobless, desperate and at risk of exploitation, while victims of trafficking are less likely to be found or receive help with attention and resources diverted elsewhere, the experts said.An estimated 25 million people worldwide are victims of labor and sex trafficking, according to the United Nations, with concerns growing that more will fall prey as support services are halted and efforts to secure justice are hindered.”The difficulty is that trafficking is now even more underground and less visible,” said Siobhan Mullally, the recently appointed U.N. special rapporteur on human trafficking.”More people are at risk … especially in the informal economy … there are opportunities for traffickers to recruit, to exploit, to prey on people’s desperation,” Mullally told the Thomson Reuters Foundation ahead of Anti-Slavery Day on Sunday.About 2.5 billion people, more than 60% of the world’s workforce, are informal workers, leaving them particularly at risk of being underpaid and abused, labor advocates have said.From India to Cambodia, workers in sectors such as textiles and tourism have lost their livelihoods because of COVID-19 and resorted to taking out loans that can lead to debt bondage or accepting work on worse terms and in exploitative conditions.FILE – Migrant workers and their families line up in a New Delhi bus terminal to leave for their villages during a government-imposed nationwide lockdown as a preventive measure against the coronavirus, March 28, 2020.Many of the world’s estimated 164 million migrant workers are stranded abroad and unable to go home or unwilling to seek help because of closed borders and restrictive immigration policies, leaving them vulnerable to traffickers, according to Mullally.‘Worsening horrors’Two decades after the adoption of a landmark U.N. anti-trafficking protocol, Mullally said the issue was still seen mainly as a criminal justice matter, and she called for a much broader focus encompassing labor rights and social protection.”An economic crisis … and recession or even depression … may be used as an excuse to curtail workers’ rights, with the knock-on effect of a greater threat of trafficking,” she added.Extreme poverty will rise for the first time this century, the World Bank said last week, predicting that the COVID-19 fallout could spawn 115 million “new poor” this year alone.Ilias Chatzis, head of the trafficking unit at the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), said his department was still gathering information about the impact of coronavirus on the crime but warned that early evidence showed “worsening horrors.”He cited the example of children spending more time online and being vulnerable to sexual exploitation — remotely — by global predators. Europol said in May that online child sex abuse in the European Union spiked at the start of the pandemic.While acknowledging the complexity of tackling trafficking during COVID-19, Chatzis sounded a note of hope for the future.”It’s not all darkness ahead. There is light at the end of the tunnel,” he said. “We abolished [chattel] slavery, we can abolish trafficking.”
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Iran said it was self-reliant in its defense and had no need to go on a weapons-buying spree as a United Nations conventional arms embargo was set to expire Sunday despite strong U.S. opposition.”Iran’s defense doctrine is premised on strong reliance on its people and indigenous capabilities. … Unconventional arms, weapons of mass destruction and a buying spree of conventional arms have no place in Iran’s defense doctrine,” said a Foreign Ministry statement carried by state media.The 2007 Security Council arms embargo on Iran was set to expire Sunday, as agreed to under the 2015 nuclear deal among Iran, Russia, China, Germany, Britain, France and the United States that sought to prevent Tehran from developing nuclear weapons in return for economic sanctions relief.Tensions between Washington and Tehran have soared since U.S. President Donald Trump in 2018 unilaterally withdrew from the deal, however.In August, the Trump administration triggered a process aimed at restoring all U.N. sanctions, after the U.N. Security Council rejected a U.S. bid to extend the conventional arms embargo on the country.”Today’s normalization of Iran’s defense cooperation with the world is a win for the cause of multilateralism and peace and security in our region,” Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Twitter.Days after triggering the process, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned Russia and China not to disregard the reimposition of all U.N. sanctions on Iran that Washington has demanded.When asked whether the United States would target Russia and China with sanctions if they refuse to reimpose the U.N. measures on Iran, Pompeo said: “Absolutely.””We have already done that, where we have seen any country violate … the current American sanctions, we’ve held every nation accountable for that. We’ll do the same thing with respect to the broader U.N. Security Council sanctions as well,” he said.Iran has developed a large domestic arms industry in the face of international sanctions and embargoes that have barred it from importing many weapons.Western military analysts say Iran often exaggerates its weapons capabilities, although concerns about its long-range ballistic missile program contributed to Washington leaving the Iran nuclear deal.
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Thousands of Israelis demonstrated outside the official residence of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday night, resuming the weekly protest against the Israeli leader after emergency restrictions imposed as part of a coronavirus lockdown were lifted.The protests were curtailed last month after Israel imposed new lockdown measures in response to a new outbreak. The emergency regulations blocked Israelis from traveling to Jerusalem to protest and allowed people to attend only smaller demonstrations within one kilometer (half a mile) of their home.The protesters gathered in central Jerusalem and marched to Netanyahu’s official residence, holding banners calling on him to go and shouting “Revolution!” Many blew horns and pounded on drums, while others hoisted Israeli flags. Scores of smaller demonstrations were held across the country, and organizers claimed about 260,000 people participated nationwide.Israeli police drag a protester as they forcibly clear the square outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s residence in Jerusalem, Oct. 17, 2020.The protesters say Netanyahu must resign, calling him unfit to lead the country while he is on trial for corruption charges. They also say he has mishandled the virus crisis, which has sent unemployment soaring.Netanyahu has been charged with fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes for his role in a series of scandals. He has denied the charges and has said he is the victim of a conspiracy by overzealous police and prosecutors and liberal media.Israeli media reported several incidents of violence by far-right counterdemonstrators. In the northern city of Haifa, police said they arrested three people suspected of using pepper spray on demonstrators.Earlier this year, Israel contained the virus outbreak by sealing its borders and imposing a strict lockdown. But a quick reopening of the economy led to a rise in cases, forcing a second lockdown.Health officials say the new restrictions have brought the infection rate down, and Israel is set to begin easing the lockdown on Sunday by reopening child-care centers and some businesses. A full reopening is expected to take several months.Unemployment, including people on open-ended furloughs, has soared to nearly 25%, according to government figures. Many of the protesters include business owners, entrepreneurs and workers who lost their jobs.
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Rural Jerauld County in South Dakota didn’t see a single case of the coronavirus for more than two months stretching from June to August. But over the last two weeks, its rate of new cases per person soared to one of the highest in the nation.”All of a sudden it hit, and as it does, it just exploded,” said Dr. Tom Dean, one of three doctors who work in the county.As the brunt of the virus has blown into the Upper Midwest and northern Plains, the severity of outbreaks in rural communities has come into focus. Doctors and health officials in small towns worry that infections may overwhelm communities with limited medical resources. And many say they are still running up against attitudes on wearing masks that have hardened along political lines and a false notion that rural areas are immune to widespread infections.Dean started writing a column in the local weekly newspaper, the True Dakotan, to offer his guidance. In recent weeks, he’s watched as one in roughly every 37 people in his county has tested positive for the virus.It ripped through the nursing home in Wessington Springs where both his parents lived, killing his father. The community’s six deaths may appear minimal compared with thousands who have died in cities, but they have propelled the county of about 2,000 people to a death rate roughly four times higher than the nationwide rate.High per capita toll Rural counties across Wisconsin, North Dakota, South Dakota and Montana sit among the top in the nation for new cases per capita over the last two weeks, according to Johns Hopkins University researchers. In counties with just a few thousand people, the number of cases per capita can soar with even a small outbreak — and the toll hits close to home in tight-knit towns.”One or two people with infections can really cause a large impact when you have one grocery store or gas station,” said Misty Rudebusch, the medical director at a network of rural health clinics in South Dakota called Horizon Health Care. “There is such a ripple effect.”Wessington Springs is a hub for the generations of farmers and ranchers that work the surrounding land. Residents send their children to the same school they attended and have preserved cultural offerings like a Shakespeare garden and opera house.Dr. Tom Dean is pictured at his clinic in Wessington Springs, S.D., Oct. 16, 2020. Dean is one of three doctors in the county, which has seen one of the nation’s highest rates of coronavirus cases per person.They trust Dean, who for 42 years has tended to everything from broken bones to high blood pressure. When a patient needs a higher level of care, the family physician usually depends on a transfer to a hospital 130 miles (209 kilometers) away.As cases surge, hospitals in rural communities are having trouble finding beds. A recent request to transfer a “not desperately ill, but pretty” sick COVID-19 patient was denied for several days, until the patient’s condition had worsened, Dean said.’A struggle'”We’re proud of what we got, but it’s been a struggle,” he said of the 16-bed hospital.The outbreak that killed Dean’s dad forced Wessington Springs’ only nursing home to put out a statewide request for nurses.Thin resources and high death rates have plagued other small communities. Blair Tomsheck, interim director of the health department in Toole County, Montana, worried that the region’s small hospitals would need to start caring for serious COVID-19 patients after cases spiked to the nation’s highest per capita. One out of every 28 people in the county has tested positive in the last two weeks, according to Johns Hopkins researchers.”It’s very, very challenging when your resources are poor — living in a small, rural county,” she said.Children scramble for candy during a homecoming parade, Oct. 16, 2020, in Wessington Springs, S.D. The parade had to be postponed because of a coronavirus outbreak that killed five residents of the local nursing home.Infections can also spread quickly in places like Toole County, where most everyone shops at the same grocery store, attends the same school or worships at a handful of churches.”The Sunday family dinners are killing us,” Tomsheck said.Even as outbreaks threaten to spiral out of control, doctors and health officials said they are struggling to convince people of the seriousness of a virus that took months to arrive in force.”It’s kind of like getting a blizzard warning and then the blizzard doesn’t hit that week, so then the next time, people say they are not going to worry about it,” said Kathleen Taylor, a 67-year-old author who lives in Redfield, South Dakota.Mask dilemmaIn swaths of the country decorated by flags supporting President Donald Trump, people took their cues on wearing masks from his often-cavalier attitude toward the virus. Dean draws a direct connection between Trump’s approach and the lack of precautions in his town of 956 people.”There’s the foolish idea that mask-wearing or refusal is some kind of a political statement,” Dean said. “It has seriously interfered with our ability to get it under control.”Even amid the surge, Republican governors in the region have been reluctant to act. North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum said recently, “We are caught in the middle of a COVID storm,” as he raised advisory risk levels in counties across the state. But he has refused to issue a mask mandate.FILE – South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem speaks in Pierre, S.D., in January 2019.South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, who has carved out a reputation among conservatives by forgoing lockdowns, blamed the surge in cases on testing increases, even though the state has had the highest positivity rate in the nation over the last two weeks, according to the COVID Tracking Project. Positivity rates are an indication of how widespread infections are.In Wisconsin, conservative groups have sued over Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ mask mandate.A mask doubterWhether the requirement survives doesn’t matter to Jody Bierhals, a resident of Gillett who doubts the efficacy of wearing a mask. Her home county of Oconto, which stretches from the northern border of Green Bay into forests and farmland, has the state’s second-highest growth in coronavirus cases per person.Bierhals, a single mother with three kids, is more worried about the drop in business at her small salon. The region depends on tourists, but many have stayed away during the pandemic.”Do I want to keep the water on, or do I want to be able to put food on the table?” she asked. “It’s a difficult situation.”Bierhals said she thought the virus couldn’t be stopped and it would be best to let it run its course. But local attitudes like that have left the county’s health officer, Debra Koniter, desperate.Koniter warned that the uncontrolled spread of infections has overwhelmed the county’s health systems.”I’m just waiting to see if our community can change our behavior,” she said. “Otherwise, I don’t see the end in sight.” 
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Chileans took to the streets of Santiago Friday, October 16, to vent anger over inequality and Chilean President Sebastian Pinera’s government, trading Molotov cocktails and rocks with tear gas and water cannons used by police. Dramatic images showed a police vehicle bursting into flames after a protester lobbed a molotov cocktail, and police vehicles attempting to disperse the crowds with tear gas and water cannons. Chile is nearly one year on from the start of mass protests that saw tens of thousands of Chileans take to the streets. The protests were sparked by a hike in metro fees, but they spread to encompass pent-up grievances over income inequality and soaring living costs. The protests so far have left at least 31 dead, about 30,000 have been detained, and some 3,000 demonstrators and police officers have been injured, according to authorities and rights groups. Analysts fear that the anniversary of the 2019 protests will unleash a new wave of unrest that came to a halt in March due to the arrival of the coronavirus pandemic in the country. A new constitution was a central demand that emerged from the months of protests and Chileans are expected to vote on a new constitution in a referendum later in October. (Reuters) 
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When Michigan voter Dr. Mahmoud Al-Hadidi casts his ballot in the November election, there is one issue that rises above all others as he makes his choice — respect.
 
“In this election, honestly, respect and recognition,” the emergency room physician told VOA during a recent interview at his lakefront home in the southeastern part of the state. “The Muslim community would like to be acknowledged as part of this great American nation, and not as an alien culture to this nation. The Muslim community would like to be treated with respect.”
 
Al-Hadidi supported Democratic former secretary of state Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election. He also backed Michigan’s Democratic governor, Gretchen Whitmer, in her successful run in 2018.
 
But this time around, he isn’t sure if he’ll support Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden over President Donald Trump, a Republican.
 
“I would like some of my concerns addressed before I make up my mind,” he said.
 
One concern is the U.S. government’s “Terrorist Screening Database” — commonly known as “the watchlist” — which many Muslim Americans feel targets innocent members of their community. A subset of the database is the “no fly” list of individuals barred from boarding commercial flights.
 
“Definitely that list should be updated,” Al-Hadidi said. “Those who are wrongfully on that list should have their dignity back and should be removed. And that would be fair and just.”
 
Al-Hadidi added that he would like to see a Muslim American appointed to a high-ranking position in the next administration.
 
“You’ve got to tell people something to excite them to go out and vote,” said Osama Siblani, publisher of the Arab American News, a website and newspaper popular with Michigan’s large Arab and Muslim American community. “Just because Biden is not Trump is not a good reason for me to go out and vote.”
 
While Muslim Americans make up about one percent of the overall U.S. population, they have an outsized influence in Michigan, a battleground state that President Trump narrowly won in 2016 by just over ten thousand votes out of more than 4.5 million cast.
 
While the state’s 270,000 registered voters of the Muslim faith could impact the outcome of this year’s presidential race, their preferences are just as diverse as their community.
 
“Some members of our community can believe that Trump is good on the economy, on business,” Siblani said in an interview at his office in Dearborn. “They may vote on this principle. But a majority of the Arab American community, they want from Biden to hear some commitment to them to excite them to go out and vote because, frankly, under Obama-Biden, Muslims were discriminated against [as well].
 
“The terrorist watch list started under the Bush administration, but it has been beefed up and became more hurtful to the community than ever,” he added.  
 
Siblani also says many in the community are outraged over the Trump administration’s ban on travelers from some countries with majority-Muslim populations — a ban Biden has pledged to end. At the same time, he said there is recognition and support for Trump’s efforts to promote peace and reduce U.S. troop levels in the Middle East.
 
“We would like to have a conversation with the Trump administration,” he said. “I believe that there are some issues that we are very interested in. Him not being very hawkish on war in the region, that’s very important to us.”
 
Siblani believes the choice for president in this election is not an easy one for many Muslim Americans.
 
“There is like 50% to 60% of our community that is not excited by the Biden campaign,” he said. “They’re disgusted with the Trump campaign.”
 
Others see the contest differently.
 
“It’s not that people are deciding between Joe Biden and Donald Trump. Often times it’s between Joe Biden and not voting,” said epidemiologist Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, a former executive director of Detroit’s Health Department who ran against Whitmer for the Democratic nomination for Michigan governor in 2018.
 
Today he is chair of the political action committee Southpaw Michigan, which advocates for progressive causes.
 
“The point that I’ll always make to the community is you are voting for your own political power,” El-Sayed told VOA during a recent Skype interview. “As the proportion of Arab Americans voting and Muslim Americans voting in elections grows, it forces politicians to pay attention because if they want those votes … that can mean the difference between victory and defeat.”
 
A recent poll of American Muslims by the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding conducted from March through April shows about 78 percent of those eligible to vote are registered, an 18 percent increase since 2016. While no poll of Muslim Americans has been issued in the final weeks of the presidential campaign, previous surveys have shown the community backing Democrats more often than Republicans.
 
Al-Hadidi senses great anticipation among Muslim Americans for the Nov. 3 election.
 
“The Muslim community is really motivated and a lot more educated that this election is going to make a big difference in their life in general,” he said. “There is a significant amount in the Muslim community, especially in this election, who are independent and open minded in how to vote in the presidential and federal elections.
 
“There is no Muslim monolith,” El-Sayed said. “No one community thinks with one mind. We are a diverse community just like any community in this country.” 
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