Millions of people in northern England are anxiously waiting to hear how much further virus restrictions will be tightened as one of the British government’s leading medical advisers warned Sunday that the country is at a crucial juncture in the second wave of the coronavirus. England’s deputy chief medical officer, Professor Jonathan Van-Tam, said the U.K. is at a “tipping point similar to where we were in March” following a sharp increase in new coronavirus cases. “But we can prevent history repeating itself if we all act now,” he said. “Now we know where it is and how to tackle it — let’s grasp this opportunity and prevent history from repeating itself.” FILE – People with and without protective masks walk through the shopping street as the spread of COVID-19 continues in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Oct. 7, 2020.All across Europe including the U.K., the pandemic has found fresh legs over the past few weeks following the reopening of large sectors of the economy, as well as schools and universities. Infection levels — and deaths — in the U.K. are rising at their fastest rates in months. Without quick action, there are fears that U.K. hospitals will be overwhelmed in the coming weeks at a time of year when they are already at their busiest with winter-related afflictions like the flu. So far the U.K. has experienced Europe’s deadliest virus outbreak, with over 42,750 confirmed deaths. A man sells face masks, following the outbreak of the coronavirus disease, on a street in Manchester, Britain, Oct. 7, 2020.Although new coronavirus infections are rising throughout England, cities in the north — Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle — have seen a disproportionate increase in new cases. While some rural areas in eastern England have less than 20 cases per 100,000 people, major metropolitan areas such as Manchester are recording levels above 500 per 100,000, nearly as bad as Madrid or Brussels. As a result, national restrictions such as a 10 p.m. curfew on pubs and restaurants have been supplemented by local actions, including in some cases banning contacts between households. In Scotland’s two biggest cities, Glasgow and Edinburgh, pubs have already closed for 16 days to suppress the outbreak. FILE – Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson visits the headquarters of Octopus Energy in London, Oct. 5, 2020.In response to the virus’ resurgence, Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to announce a new three-tier local lockdown system Monday, which could temporarily close pubs and restaurants in the virus hotspots. The speculation is that those areas put under the tightest restrictions would forbid all household mixing, indoors or out. Local leaders in northern England have vented their fury at the Conservative government over what they see as an “inadequate” wage support scheme that it announced Friday and for not properly telling them about the upcoming restrictions. The wage plan aims to help employees in companies that are forced to close due to virus restrictions but mayors say it’s not generous enough in paying only two-thirds of employees’ wages and doesn’t compensate those indirectly hit by any business closures, such as drink suppliers to pubs. Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick on Sunday sought to assuage concerns that the government was being overly top-down in its approach. “We are trying to work very closely with mayors, with council leaders, with chief executives to design these measures with them,” he told Sky News. “That does take time.” Separately, Health Secretary Matt Hancock denied claims that he broke the government’s drinking curfew after the Mail on Sunday newspaper claimed he was seen having a drink in a House of Commons bar after 10 p.m. “The proposed timeline of events is false and no rules have been broken,” a spokesman for the health secretary said. 
…

First, Hurricane Laura roared ashore with its staggering, 150 mph (241 kph) winds. Then Hurricane Delta followed, with less wind but with ferocious downpours. The two back-to-back hurricanes in the space of six weeks have left this pocket of southwest Louisiana blanketed with tarpaulins, debris and flooded streets — but not despair.Earnestine and Milton Wesley had decided to ride out Delta in their Lake Charles home, damaged just weeks earlier by Laura. As the wind rustled the tarp above them, they grabbed it through the hole in the ceiling and held on tight. Water poured in, flooding their den.“We fought all night long trying to keep things intact,” Milton said. “And with God’s help we made it.”Hannah Franklin lives in Iowa, a small town of about 3,000 people outside of Lake Charles. She evacuated for both Laura and Delta, but she said not everyone could. Some people have been living in tents because they don’t have anywhere to go, she said.She’s worried that the region isn’t getting the help that it needs. At the same time, she’s been heartened by the way the community has pulled together. Neighbors check on neighbors, bringing food or water.“It’s been really, really sad to see. But at the same time,” she said, “it warms your heart to see … how strong Louisiana is.”Delta made landfall Friday evening near the coastal town of Creole with top winds of 100 mph (155 kph). It moved over Lake Charles, a city where Hurricane Laura damaged nearly every home and building in late August.No deaths had been reported by Sunday morning, but a hurricane’s wake can be treacherous. Seven of the 32 deaths attributed to Laura came the day that hurricane struck. Many others were caused by carbon monoxide poisoning from generators, and 10,000 utility workers were dispatched Saturday to get power restored to thousands of customers.Lake Charles Mayor Nic Hunter estimated that hundreds of already battered homes took on water. And people were already exhausted and stressed — for two weeks the Wesleys had been sleeping on their back porch to escape the heat because they had no power.“Add Laura and Delta together and it’s just absolutely unprecedented and catastrophic,” Hunter said. “We are very concerned that with everything going in the country right now that this incident may not be on the radar nationally like it should be.”Before Friday’s storm, the streets were already lines with mountains of debris from the prior storm — piles of soggy insulation, moldy mattresses, tree limbs, twisted metal siding, ruined family treasures.While Delta was a weaker storm than Category 4 Laura, it inflicted most of its damage with rain instead of wind. Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said it dumped more than 15 inches (38 centimeters) of rain on Lake Charles over two days and more than 10 inches (25 centimeters) on Baton Rouge.The floodwaters surged up the Wesley family’s front yard, and they were terrified it would pour inside but it stopped short of the door. It carried with it bags of trash and muck, swept up from their neighbors’ piles of debris from the prior storm.“The water was something else last night,” Milton said. “We’ve never seen it flood so bad out here, to the point I could have swam out here last night, that’s just how deep it was.”On Saturday, they joined other southern Louisiana residents starting the routine yet again: dodging overturned cars on the roads, chain-sawing fallen trees, trudging through knee-deep water to flooded homes with ruined floors and no power, pledging to rebuild.Edwards said 3,000 Louisiana National Guard soldiers were mobilized to clear roads and distribute meals and tarps.Delta rapidly weakened once it moved onto land and slowed to a tropical depression Saturday. Forecasters warned that heavy rain, storm surge and flash floods continued to pose dangers from parts of Texas to Mississippi. Forecasters said remnants could spawn tornadoes in Tennessee Valley into Sunday, and flash floods could hit the southern Appalachians.Delta, the 25th named storm of an unprecedented Atlantic hurricane season, was the 10th to hit the mainland U.S. this year, breaking a record set in 1916, Colorado State University researcher Phil Klotzbach said.The governor said Delta disrupted state efforts to set up temporary housing in southwest Louisiana to bring back Laura evacuees scattered across hotels. More than 9,400 people were being sheltered by the state Saturday, but only 935 were Delta evacuees, Edwards said. The others were still displaced by Laura.Many people who had started repairing their homes from Laura saw the work undone overnight and the materials they bought “just scattered about because of the wind,” he said. “Again, it’s going to set us back, but it’s not going to dictate our future.”The the double punch of the storms — on top of the pandemic — has left many reeling, said Lake Charles resident Katie Prejean McGrady.She was nine months pregnant when she and her family evacuated ahead of Laura. They fled a couple hours north and she had to find a new doctor to deliver her baby. They lost part of their roof, their fence and their swing set.They arrived back in Lake Charles last weekend and had to evacuate again days later, debris from Laura still in their yard.“I’m taxed out. And I think that’s most people in town,” she said. “There’s a mental exhaustion that sets in and then there’s a fear of ‘Does anybody outside this region care?’” 
…

Texas voters are back to facing limits on places to drop off their absentee ballots while a federal appeals court considers whether Republican Gov. Greg Abbot violated voting rights by his decision to provide Texas voters with only one ballot drop-off location per county for the Nov. 3 presidential election.Late Saturday the appeals court lifted an injunction granted Friday by U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman.Abbott said the limit on ballot boxes was meant to discourage voter fraud. His order was issued after multiple ballot box locations had been set up and the dropping off of ballots had begun.Pitman wrote in his 46-page decision, “By limiting ballot return centers to one per county, older and disabled voters living in Texas’s largest and most populous counties must travel further distances to more crowded ballot return centers where they would be at an increased risk of being infected by the coronavirus in order to exercise their right to vote and have it counted.”Voting rights activists have argued that Abbott’s decision was a move to suppress the vote.The U.S. has a long history of absentee ballot voting, but this year Republican President Donald Trump and Republican lawmakers have vehemently opposed it.
…

The world marks the International Day of the Girl Child on Sunday, during a year in which a global pandemic and subsequent economic downturn has created further challenges for girls.The United Nations, which created the day in 2011 to promote girls’ rights, says difficulties already faced by girls have been exacerbated by the coronavirus health crisis, including in the areas of education, child marriage, domestic violence and economic opportunity.A U.N. website for the observance says by next year, an estimated 435 million women and girls will be living on less than $1.90 a day – including 47 million “pushed into poverty as a result of COVID-19.”It notes that the loss of economic prosperity and education for girls fueled by the crisis is also linked to increased levels of violence.The U.N. says even before the pandemic, one in three women worldwide had experienced physical or sexual violence. “Emerging data shows that since the outbreak of COVID-19, violence against women and girls and particularly domestic violence, has intensified.”Child marriageDuring humanitarian crises, “time and again, we see other things getting prioritized” – including food and shelter, said Lyric Thompson, a policy expert for the Washington-based International Center for Research on Women.Thompson, who also co-chairs with Aria Grabowski, Girls Not Brides USA, part of the global coalition trying to halt child marriage, said during such times of crisis, the planning to counter “gendered forms of violence, including child marriage, falls by the wayside.”Child marriages have been on the rise during the pandemic as COVID-related lockdowns have kept youngsters out of school and, in some cases, confined them in close quarters with sexual predators. The pandemic has also led to families trying to place daughters in more economically stable households to ease their own financial burdens.An estimated 500,000 more girls around the world are at risk of being forced into child marriage in 2020 as a result of the effects of COVID-19, according to an October report by Save the Children.The surge in child marriages frustrates but does not surprise Grabowski, who recommended dedicating funding and programing early on in the pandemic to combat child marriage and gender-based violence.“So much of the health response is focused on infection prevention and control,” she said.Few optionsRohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh are one place where child marriages have risen since the onset of the pandemic.A refugee camp resident told VOA Bangladesh on condition of anonymity, “In some cases, families must live together in overcrowded tents in the camp. To make room, their daughters were married off before they reached adulthood.””No parent wants to give their daughter into the hands of others, but they have to marry because of circumstances,” he added.Wai Wai Nu, co-founder and director of the Women’s Peace Network, told VOA that the increase of child marriages in the camps is alarming.She said parents allow their child daughters to get married not because they are poor or uneducated, but because they believe that marriage can bring security for their daughters’ lives.“Parents believe that if their daughters are married off, their husbands can protect them better than the parents could,” she said.Domestic and sexual violenceOther forms of violence against girls are also on the rise during the pandemic, including in online spaces where more people are communicating as a result of increased social distancing.A recent survey by Plan International found 32% of Indonesian girls have experienced violence on social media, while 56% have witnessed violence on social media. The organization surveyed 500 Indonesian girls between the ages of 15 and 20.“Here (in Indonesia), girls do not only experience one type of gender-based online violence. Out of 500 girls, 395 said they experienced multiple instances (of violence), said Nazla Marisa, influencing director of Plan International Indonesia.No country is immune to the abuse. In the United States, minors accounted for half the calls made in March to the National Sexual Assault Hotline operated by the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN). Of those claiming coronavirus concerns, “67% identified their perpetrator as a family member,” according to Harvard Medical School’s Center for Primary Care.U.N. Women has described the gender-based violence during the global coronavirus outbreak as a “shadow pandemic.” It says since the outbreak of COVID-19, all types of violence against women and girls, particularly domestic violence, have intensified.EducationEducation is another area in which girls are suffering because of the coronavirus health crisis. Research by the Malala Fund estimates that 20 million secondary school-aged girls may never return to the classroom after the crisis is over.The Malala fund was started by activist Malala Yousafzai, who survived a shot in the head after being targeted for campaigning for girls’ education in Pakistan.Malala, who won the Noble Peace Prize for her efforts in 2014, spoke about the pandemic’s effect on girls education with Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, in a video set to be released Sunday to mark the International Day of the Girl Child.The schooling of girls is critical to advancing gender equality, according to a new, related UNESCO report. The report said that despite an increase across all levels of education, girls are still more likely to suffer exclusion than boys, an outcome it said is exacerbated by the current pandemic.Around the world, 132 million girls are out of school, according to U.N. figures, with 1 in 3 adolescent girls from the poorest households having never been to school.Sasmito Madrim of the Indonesian Service, Ingyin Naing of the Burmese Service, Carol Guensburg of the Africa Division, and the Bangla Service contributed to this report.  
…

Minutes after suddenly becoming a Grand Slam champion at age 19, while ranked just 54th in the world, Iga Swiatek held a microphone during the French Open trophy presentation and was hesitant for pretty much the only time over the past two weeks.”First of all, I’m not very good at speeches,” Swiatek began, haltingly, “so, sorry, because I won my last tournament like two years ago, and I really don’t know who to thank.”When she has a racket in her hand, it’s a whole different story. With the poise of a veteran and the shots of a champion, Swiatek wrapped up a dominating run at Roland Garros, grabbing the last six games to beat Sofia Kenin 6-4, 6-1 in Saturday’s final.”Two years ago, I won a junior Grand Slam, and right now I’m here. It feels like such a short time,” Swiatek said, her voice cracking. “I’m just overwhelmed.”Swiatek is the first Polish tennis player to win a major singles trophy and said, “I know it’s pretty crazy back home” — where one newspaper’s front page was splashed with the headline “Poland Garros” ahead of the final.The way she played these two weeks — with those great groundstrokes, the occasional drop shot, terrific returning and impressive court coverage — made this outcome less of a surprise.Kenin said Swiatek’s “spinny forehand up the line” bounces high enough to make things difficult for opponents.Swiatek lost 28 games across seven matches and is the first woman to triumph in Paris without ceding a set since Justine Henin in 2007. She’s the first teen to win the women’s title there since Iva Majoli in 1997.”She’s, like, really hot right now,” said Kenin, who was hampered by an injury to her upper left leg, an issue that first cropped up during a practice session last weekend.Swiatek beat both 2018 champion Simona Halep and 2019 runner-up Marketa Vondrousova 6-1, 6-2.So it made sense that Swiatek would handle the fourth-seeded Kenin, even if the 21-year-old from Florida won the Australian Open in February and entered Saturday 16-1 in Grand Slam play this year.This weekend is the culmination of an unusual two weeks, to say the least. The tournament was postponed from May-June to September-October because of the coronavirus pandemic; the recently rising number of COVID-19 cases in France led the government to limit the number of spectators allowed on the grounds to 1,000 each day.Some top women, including 2019 major champions Ash Barty, Naomi Osaka and Bianca Andreescu, didn’t enter the event at all; 23-time Slam winner Serena Williams withdrew before the second round with an injury.
…

Lithuanians will be encouraged to bring their own pens to minimize infection risk at Sunday’s parliamentary election, which is seen as a vote of confidence on Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis’ handling of the coronavirus crisis.The centrist Farmers and Greens party, an agrarian grouping that leads Skvernelis’ ruling coalition, is neck-and-neck in opinion polls with the center-right Homeland Union, which has roots in the 1980s anti-Soviet independence movement.With support roughly 15% for both, and 15 other parties on the ballot, another coalition is inevitable but its makeup uncertain.Many in the Baltic Sea state of less than 3 million are aggrieved at income inequality despite brisk economic growth since Lithuania joined the European Union in 2004.A fifth of people were at risk of poverty in 2019, mostly the elderly, which was the same figure as a decade ago, according to the state statistics authority.However, Lithuania’s relative resistance to the economic impact of coronavirus curbs has helped compensate for a previous slump in support for the government over corruption allegations.The economy decreased 4% year-on-year in the second quarter of 2020, the second-best result in the EU. The central bank attributed that to a prompt and short lockdown, generous state support and relatively unaffected trading partners.Lithuania has reported 8,714 infections, including a record 205 new cases on Saturday, and 103 deaths.Mindful of contagion, election officials have asked voters to mark ballots with their own pens.For early voting this week, they also set up a drive-through center and booths in public squares. Teams in protective costumes have been visiting the 32,000 voters self-isolating at home to collect their ballots.Many Lithuanians are keenly watching the government and President Gitanas Nauseda’s response to a crackdown on anti-government protests by neighboring Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko following a disputed election.Lithuania, and neighbors Latvia and Estonia, were the first EU members to impose sanctions on Lukashenko.Vilnius has also given shelter to opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya who fled her homeland after the Aug. 9 ballot her supporters say was rigged.Under Lithuania’s hybrid election system, half of the 141-member parliament will be elected on Sunday in a proportional vote. The remaining lawmakers are elected in constituencies, with a run-off vote for the top two candidates in each of them scheduled on Oct. 25.Results are expected around 2100 GMT on Sunday.
…

A federal judge in Pennsylvania on Saturday threw out a lawsuit filed by President Donald Trump’s campaign, dismissing its challenges to the battleground state’s poll-watching law and its efforts to limit how mail-in ballots can be collected and which of them can be counted.The ruling by U.S. District Judge J. Nicholas Ranjan — who was appointed by Trump — in Pittsburgh also poured cold water on Trump’s election fraud claims.Trump’s campaign said it would appeal at least one element of the decision, with barely three weeks to go until Election Day in a state hotly contested by Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.The lawsuit was opposed by the administration of Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, the state Democratic Party, the League of Women Voters, the NAACP’s Pennsylvania office and other allied groups.”The ruling is a complete rejection of the continued misinformation about voter fraud and corruption, and those who seek to sow chaos and discord ahead of the upcoming election,” Wolf’s office said in a statement.The state’s attorney general, Josh Shapiro, a Democrat whose office fought the Trump campaign’s claims, called the lawsuit a political stunt designed to sow doubt in the state’s election.No proof”We told the Trump campaign and the president, ‘Put up or shut up,’ to his claims of voter fraud in Pennsylvania,” Shapiro told The Associated Press. “It’s important to note they didn’t even need to prove actual voter fraud, just that it was likely or impending, and they couldn’t even do that.”Trump’s campaign said in a statement that it looked forward to a quick decision from the appeals court “that will further protect Pennsylvania voters from the Democrats’ radical voting system.”The lawsuit is one of many partisan battles being fought in the state Legislature and the courts, primarily over mail-in voting in Pennsylvania, amid concerns that a presidential election result will hang in limbo for days on a drawn-out vote count.FILE – An employee of the Philadelphia Commissioners Office examines ballots at a satellite election office at Overbrook High School in Philadelphia, Oct. 1, 2020.In this case, Trump’s campaign wanted the court to bar counties from using drop boxes or mobile sites to collect mail-in ballots that are not “staffed, secured and employed consistently within and across all 67 of Pennsylvania’s counties.” Trump’s campaign said it would appeal the matter of drop boxes.More than 20 counties — including Philadelphia and most other heavily populated Democratic-leaning counties — have told the state elections office that they plan to use drop boxes and satellite election offices to help collect the massive number of mail-in ballots they expect to receive.Trump’s campaign also wanted the court to free county election officials to disqualify mail-in ballots where the voter’s signature may not match their signature on file and to remove a county residency requirement in state law for certified poll watchers.In guidance last month, Wolf’s top elections official told counties that state law does not require or permit them to reject a mail-in ballot solely over a perceived signature inconsistency. Trump’s campaign had asked Ranjan to declare that guidance unconstitutional and to block counties from following it.Just ‘uncertain assumptions’In throwing out the case, Ranjan wrote that the Trump campaign could not prove its central claim: that Trump’s fortunes in the Nov. 3 election in Pennsylvania are threatened by election fraud and that adopting changes sought by the campaign will fix that.Ranjan wrote Trump’s campaign could not prove that the president has been hurt by election fraud or even that he is likely to be hurt by fraud.”While plaintiffs may not need to prove actual voter fraud, they must at least prove that such fraud is ‘certainly impending,’ ” Ranjan wrote. “They haven’t met that burden. At most, they have pieced together a sequence of uncertain assumptions.”Ranjan also cited decisions in recent days by the U.S. Supreme Court and the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in hot-button election cases, saying he should not second-guess reasonable decisions by state lawmakers and election officials.The decision came as Trump claims he can lose the state only if Democrats cheat and, as he did in 2016’s campaign, suggests that the Democratic bastion of Philadelphia needs to be watched closely for election fraud.On Friday, Trump’s campaign lost a bid in a Philadelphia court to force the city to allow campaign representatives to monitor its satellite election offices.Democrats accuse Trump of trying to scuttle some of the 3 million or more mail-in votes that are expected in the election in Pennsylvania, with Democrats applying for mail-in ballots by an almost 3-to-1 rate over Republicans.
…

“It will end with our victory,” said a soldier, grinning in red-rimmed sunglasses near a telecom company in Stepanakert, the regional capital of Nagorno-Karabakh.One journalist laughed and said, “I like your glasses.”Two days earlier, a cluster bomb smashed out nearby ATMs, burned out parked cars and left curious pink ribbons near blast holes in the pavement.A burned-out car near a telecom in Nagorno-Karabakh, Oct. 9, 2020. (Yan Boechat/VOA)The war was not even two weeks old Friday, but it was the third of its kind in 28 years, and locals said it could become the most destructive. Azerbaijan’s internationally recognized borders include Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous region that claims to be an independent country. Armenia says the region and several surrounding areas are under its protection. Azerbaijan says the disputed areas are “illegally occupied.”Hundreds of people have been killed in the recent violence, including dozens of civilians on both sides.The sanguine conversation outside the telecom continued for another moment, as two photographers clicked away at the wreckage.Then everything changed. The first bomb blast sent a cat fleeing under a car and the journalists and soldiers running. A pile of sandbags surrounded a nearby door, and the group scurried downstairs as the last blast sounded.A basement shelter in Nagorno-Karabakh, Oct. 9, 2020. (Yan Boechat/VOA)There were several men in the basement hanging lights on the walls. They looked unsurprised to see the newcomers. It had become a way of life over the past two weeks in Stepanakert. Some days, sometimes many times a day, the city had been hit by bombs or airstrikes, and the people who had ventured out hurried back inside.Air raid sirens howl sometimes before a blast, but not always, as was the case Friday, when they began howling minutes after.Under the telecom building, the men fixing up the shelter were volunteers. Like many people in the town, they were mostly former soldiers, and their sons were fighting on the front lines of the war.Hmayak Vanyan, 60, is a former soldier who fought in the ’90s, and his sons are now fighting in an extension of that conflict. Oct. 9, 2020, in Nagorno-Karabakh. (Yan Boechat/VOA)“Nowadays all life is in the shelters,” said Hmayak Vanyan, 60, leaning on a shovel. “I won’t leave this place.”Night fallsA few cigarette butts were scattered in the dimly lit basement and the empty light-bulb boxes were piled into a plastic bag.Three kittens, each about the size of an avocado, huddled in a box on the floor.“The mother cat was killed in the bombing the other day,” one man said.As the sirens wailed on for more than half an hour, the men tired of talking about patriotism and the future of what they saw as a seemingly never-ending war. They fought in the 1990s, now their sons are fighting, and it’s not clear that their grandsons will not be fighting.Children in this region learn weaponry in high school, and several retired soldiers quoted the number of seconds they need to disassemble a Kalashnikov.“But you should not disassemble a Kalashnikov,” said David Safanyan, a 63-year-old retired soldier. “You should shoot it very well.”David Safanyan, 63, says teenagers learn military tactics in Nagorno-Karabakh, Oct. 10, 2020. (Yan Boechat/VOA)For ethnic Armenians in this city, this war is an existential threat, and there is very little sympathy for the other side. For Azerbaijanis, the war is equally emotional, according to Zaur Shiriyev, a South Caucasus analyst with Crisis Group.The areas surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh that are now controlled by Armenia were once mostly populated by Azerbaijanis. Hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijanis were forced to flee their homes in the 1990s. Today, according to Shiriyev, as many as a million are displaced in Azerbaijan, unable to return to lands controlled by what they see as a hostile military.“Internally displaced people are living in bad social conditions,” Shiriyev said. “It has led to uncertainty.”After about 45 minutes, the sirens stopped in Stepanakert, and the men tromped back up the stairs, followed by the journalists. As night fell, scattered cars returned to the streets, some with dimmed headlights. A few hours later, more sirens blasted in another night of tension.Cease-fireThe next morning, the city was buzzing with the announcement of a cease-fire planned to begin at noon. The two sides could exchange prisoners and the bodies of their dead. By afternoon, both Azerbaijan and Armenia had accused the other of breaking the cease-fire.But the morning in Stepanakert was quiet, without a single siren, and more people ventured onto the streets. Many were skeptical that this cease-fire would be long, or meaningful.“After a cease-fire, there is always more shooting,” said Martik Sahakyan, 47, another former soldier with sons currently on the front lines.Nina, 72, said she didn’t trust the Friday cease-fire, which ended in bombings by evening on Oct. 10, 2020. (Yan Boechat/VOA)Nina, 72, who did not want to share her last name, was one of the few women seen walking around the city. Most women and children had evacuated.“In 1994 we had a cease-fire, and there was ongoing violence,” she said. “In 2016 we had a cease-fire, and here we are now.”Pargev Martirosyan, archbishop of Artsakh (the local name for Nagorno-Karabakh), was blunt, asking, “What cease-fire?” Oct. 10, 2020. (Yan Boechat/VOA)At the Holy Mother of God Cathedral, Pargev Martirosyan, the archbishop of Artsakh, the local name for Nagorno-Karabakh, was blunt, asking in the midafternoon, “What cease-fire?” The journalists were not allowed to interview people in the shelter because they feared the church would be targeted. They followed the archbishop into an office for an interview.Twenty minutes later, a single blast was heard in the distance. The archbishop stood up, flipping his palm in exasperation. He knew this was coming.“Let’s go,” he said, sighing, leading his staff and the journalists into a basement shelter.
…

Kyrgyz President Sooronbai Jeenbekov strengthened his grip on power on Saturday, reshuffling senior security officials and having his principal opponent, ex-president Almazbek Atambayev, detained again just days after he left prison.The president’s allies in parliament elected a new prime minister, taking a step towards emerging from what close ally Russia has described as a state of political chaos.Kyrgyzstan, which hosts a Russian military airbase and serves as a hub for trade with neighboring China, has been gripped by unrest since Oct. 4, the date of a contested election that was subsequently annulled.Lawmakers voted in the only candidate for premier, 51-year-old Sadyr Zhaparov, who some opposition factions accused of being in league with Jeenbekov.Jeenbekov on Friday ordered troops to deploy and re-establish order amid flare-ups of violence, and military checkpoints were put up overnight around the capital Bishkek while personnel carriers were spotted in the city.He fired top security council officials who had either supported his opponents or failed to intervene when the opposition said on Tuesday it was seizing power in the Central Asian nation.More than 1,200 people have been injured and one person has been killed in clashes that erupted on Monday following the election, in which establishment parties had claimed a landslide victory.With the parliament building ransacked by protesters, lawmakers gathered on Saturday in the presidential residence on the outskirts of Bishkek to vote in Zhaparov.He previously served as adviser to another former president, Kurmanbek Bakiyev, who was succeeded by Atambayev in 2011.Atambayev’s supporters had on Tuesday secured his release from prison, where he was serving a lengthy sentence for corruption, and said he survived an assassination attempt on Friday.The state security service said it had rearrested Atambayev on charges of inciting unrest. The ex-president is Jeenbekov’s former patron and now his arch-enemy.Prior to his appointment as premier, Zhaparov called for constitutional reforms before fresh presidential and parliamentary elections.He told parliament that Jeenbekov had reaffirmed to him his intention to resign once a new cabinet was approved. Zhaparov said he would make no changes to the cabinet line-up.Before parliament voted on Zhaparov’s candidacy, speaker Myktybek Abdyldayev resigned, meaning Zhaparov would also assume presidential powers if Jeenbekov resigned.Zhaparov’s supporters had clashed on Friday with followers of a few other parties which nominated their own candidate for PM, Omurbek Babanov.Kyrgyzstan’s opposition is divided between 11 parties that represent clan interests. The country has seen two presidents toppled by popular revolts since 2005.The former Soviet republic, which has a population of just 6.5 million, is also home to a large Canadian-owned mining operation. 
…

European countries are imposing a variety of new coronavirus containment measures as they confront a second wave of infections.The World Health Organization reported Friday that nearly one-third of a record-high one-day total of 350,000 new cases worldwide were in Europe.Record daily highs were reported Saturday in Portugal, the Netherlands, Poland and Russia.FILE – View of a swimming pool closed to the public in Prague, Czech Republic, Oct. 9, 2020. The Czech government has responded to record-high numbers of coronavirus infections by imposing further restrictive measures to try to contain the spread.The Czech Republic reported Friday that daily cases had reached a high for the fourth consecutive day. Italy, France, Germany and Ukraine also reported sharp increases Friday in new infections.But it was Spain that again became the epicenter of Europe’s outbreak, reporting 7,000 new cases Friday, a significant increase from a one-day low of 134 cases in June.The Spanish government declared a state of emergency Friday to reimpose a partial lockdown for several million people in and around Madrid after a regional court struck down the restrictions.Protective gloves hang by a testing booth as health workers prepare for the day at a COVID-19 testing center in Kohima, capital of the northeastern Indian state of Nagaland, Oct. 10, 2020.On Saturday, India said it had recorded more than 73,000 new COVID cases in the previous 24 hours.In a press briefing Friday from Geneva, WHO emergencies chief Dr. Michael Ryan acknowledged that even as COVID-19 cases increase worldwide, “there are no new answers,” and he stressed that governments must ensure the most vulnerable people are protected.More than 37 million people in all have been confirmed infected with the coronavirus worldwide and more than 1 million have died, according to statistics from Johns Hopkins.COVAX cooperationChina said Friday that it was joining a World Health Organization international initiative to distribute COVID-19 vaccines to the developing world.Russia, the U.S. and previously China had said they were not joining the alliance to help two-thirds of world’s population receive the vaccines by 2022.China’s reversal made it the largest country to participate in what is known as the COVAX deal.“We are taking this concrete step to ensure equitable distribution of vaccines, especially to developing countries, and hope more capable countries will also join and support COVAX,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said in a statement.
…

Chileans took to the streets of the capital, Santiago, for a third consecutive Friday, demonstrating against the government, inequality and police brutality as a postponed referendum on constitutional changes nears.Protesters threw rocks at police, who responded with water cannons and tear gas.A few hundred people gathered in the city’s iconic Plaza Italia, a considerably smaller crowd than those at last year’s gatherings and those earlier this year before the coronavirus pandemic.The protests started last October because of increased transport costs.The protesters’ main demand is the change of the constitution. Chileans will be voting Oct. 25 on whether they want a new constitution and whether it should be drafted by the current Congress or a new constituent assembly.
…

A ruling by a U.S. federal judge has cleared the way for voters in the U.S. state of Texas to have multiple locations per county where they will be able to drop off their absentee ballots for the November presidential election.  
 
U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman granted an injunction Friday against Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s order that there would be only per one ballot drop-off location for each county.  Abbott, a Republican, said the limit on ballot boxes was meant to discourage voter fraud. The order was made after the dropping off of ballots had already begun.
 
Pitman wrote in his 46-page decision, “By limiting ballot return centers to one per county, older and disabled voters living in Texas’s largest and most populous counties must travel further distances to more crowded ballot return centers where they would be at an increased risk of being infected by the coronavirus in order to exercise their right to vote and have it counted.”
 
Voting rights activists have argued that Abbott’s decision was a move to suppress the vote.    
 
The U.S. has a long history of absentee ballot voting, but this year Republican President Donald Trump and Republican lawmakers have vehemently opposed it.
 
It was not immediately clear if Abbott will appeal the ruling.  
 
…

The coronavirus pandemic has prompted Australia to cut its annual acceptance of refugees from 18,750 to 13,750, effective immediately. Official documents suggest the cuts to the humanitarian program will save almost $700 million.Australia has a long history of accepting the displaced for resettlement. Since 1945, it has given sanctuary to more than 800,000 refugees. However, the government has said the financial consequences of the pandemic have forced it to cut the annual quota by 5,000 people, to 13,750.The Refugee Council of Australia called the announcement “shattering.”“We were probably expecting that there might be some short-term reduction,” said Chief Executive Paul Power. “What we were not expecting was that the government would cut the program over the next three years and use that as a budget-saving measure.”Australia closed its borders to foreign nationals, including refugees and migrants, to curb the spread of COVID-19 in March. Officials have indicated the restrictions could remain until late next year.The government said it will spend about $9 million to help young refugees find work and adapt to life in Australia through community programs.Australia is also cutting its skilled migration program, but priority will be given to innovators, investors, and job creators as the nation faces its first recession since the early 1990s.Canberra will also insist that foreign partners of existing Australian residents pass an English language test before they are given a permanent visa.The controversial immigration requirement would apply from mid-2021.“We will require an applicant and a sponsor to have met functional-level English, or to have at least made reasonable efforts to learn English, and by reasonable efforts we mean for most people that would be doing about 500 hours of free English language classes,” said Acting Immigration Minister Alan Tudge.Thirty percent of the Australian population was born overseas. In 2019, every single country from around the world was represented in Australia. The largest groups of migrants come from England, China and India.Australia has been built on successive waves of immigration, but it retains an uncompromising stance on asylum-seekers arriving by boat, who are denied entry and transported to processing camps in the South Pacific.
…