Voters in Kyrgyzstan are casting their ballots Sunday in the country’s parliamentary election in which 16 parties are competing for the 120 seats in the legislature. The turnout seems to be higher than in the previous elections.  “I think there will be a renewal because the people have understood. I’ve never seen such a long line at previous elections. That means people have understood what they’re voting for, who they want to follow and what will happen. That’s why there’s such a long line,” said Bishkek resident Raya Abysheva. The current parliament is dominated by a coalition with the Social Democratic Party (SPDK) having the most seats, 38, and some voters would like to see a change. “I voted for the Meken Kyrgyzstan party and I really genuinely hope in the development of our country,” said Munara Zhenishbek Kyzy, a Bishkek resident. “I really want for our city and country to develop and that’s why I voted for them, they appealed to me the most. I hope that fresh faces will change our country.” Former Kyrgyz president and SPDK chairman Almazbek Atambayev was arrested on corruption charges in the summer of last year and sentenced to 11 years in jail.   The Kyrgyz parliament has significant powers, including the appointment of the prime minister and has occasionally countering the power of the president and Cabinet.  
…

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson does not particularly wish for the Brexit transition period to end without a new trade deal in place but believes that Britain could live with such an outcome, he said on Sunday.   With the Dec. 31 expiry of the transition period fast approaching, Johnson and the head of the EU’s executive, Ursula von der Leyen, agreed in a phone call on Saturday to step up negotiations on a post-Brexit deal.   “I think it’s there to be done,” Johnson said during an interview on BBC television.   “Alas, there are some difficult issues that need to be fixed, and there’s no question that the EU needs to understand that we’re utterly serious about needing to control our own laws and our own regulations, and similarly they need to understand that the repatriation of the UK’s fisheries … is very important.”   Asked whether he was worried about the potential impact of a no-deal situation in the middle of the COVID pandemic, Johnson said: “I don’t want the Australian WTO-type outcome, particularly, but we can more than live with it.   “I think the people of this country have had enough … of being told that this will be impossible or intolerable. I think we can prosper mightily under those circumstances.”   The government last week told importers and exporters they would have to complete extra paperwork whether there was a deal or not and that a lack of preparation on their part could lead to 100 km queues of trucks.   That prompted accusations from the opposition that ministers were setting up industry to take the blame for any chaos that might follow a botched Brexit.   The EU says that any deal must be sealed by the end of October, or in the first days of November at the latest, to leave enough time for ratification by the bloc before the end of the year.   More trade talks are due in London next week and in Brussels the following week before the 27 national EU leaders meet over Oct. 15-16 to assess progress. London has also said it wants clarity by Oct. 15 on whether a deal is possible or not.   An estimated trillion euros ($1.17 trillion) of annual trade would be at stake if they fail to reach an agreement. ($1 = 0.8537 euros)      
…

Belgium has arrested and charged three men suspected of involvement in the 1994 Rwanda genocide.A spokesperson for the Belgian federal prosecutor’s office said in a statement Saturday that the three had been “charged with serious human rights abuses.”Eric Van Duyse said two had been arrested Tuesday in Brussels and the third had been arrested Wednesday in Hainault province.Van Duyse did not give any details about the suspects but said that their identities had been verified with the help of testimony from witnesses in Rwanda.He said one of the men is under electronic surveillance and the other two are in detention.Van Duyse said whether the men will be tried will depend on information compiled by the investigating magistrate and the prosecutor’s office.The arrests were first reported Friday by the Belgian weekly magazine Le Vif.About 800,000 people, mostly Tutsis and some moderate Hutus, were killed in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.The U.N.’s International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda indicted more than 90 people and tried 80 of them before it ceased operation in 2015.Since 2001, Belgium has held five trials for Rwandans implicated in the killings, giving prison terms up to 20 years.A Belgian court found former senior Rwandan official Fabien Neretse guilty of genocide in December and sentenced him to 25 years in prison.
…

Alcohol-related deaths are increasing in the United States, according to a report this month from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.The study found that while more men than women died each year from alcohol-related causes, the rate of increase in deaths was higher for women.And now, it appears, more women are turning to drinking during the coronavirus pandemic shutdown. Many of them bear the burden of most household duties, including childcare, in addition to their responsibilities to their jobs outside their homes, which many are now doing from their homes.“Having children in the home was associated with more drinking,” Lindsey Rodriguez recently told NBC News.Rodriguez, one of the authors of a study about the pandemic and excessive alcohol consumption published in the journal Addictive Behaviors, said that for women “the most problematic alcohol use happened around March and April” of this year when the lockdown went into effect.Another study published recently in JAMA Network Open said that while Americans increased their alcohol consumption by 14% from 2019 to 2020, women increased their heavy drinking — more than four drinks in one sitting — by 41%.Alcohol is the “easiest coping strategy,” Natalie Crawford, an assistant professor of behavioral, social and health education at the Emory University Rollins School of Public Health, told NBC News recently. “Over a short time period, the system does a really good job of adapting to stress, but this is chronic,” she noted.Some companies are specifically targeting women with their ads for “chick beer” packaged in pink containers and promoting drinking as a component of empowerment.Drinking excessively can result in a long list of medical issues, including cirrhosis of the liver and alcohol poisoning.
…

U.S. President Donald Trump “continues to do well” and has made progress since his COVID-19 diagnosis, according to a statement from his physician, Dr. Sean Conley, Saturday night.Earlier in the day, a group of physicians treating the president gave an upbeat report.“This morning the president is doing very well,” Conley told reporters late Saturday morning at the front entrance of the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.In his Saturday night update, he said Trump has had a second dose of remdesivir, “remains fever-free and off supplemental oxygen with a saturation level between 96% and 98% all day.”While the president is not out of the woods, his doctors remain cautiously optimistic, Conley’s statement said. Trump will receive additional doses of remdesiver on Sunday, and his doctors will continue to closely monitor him, statement concluded.Earlier Saturday, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said, “The president’s vitals over the last 24 hours were very concerning, and the next 48 hours will be critical in terms of his care. We’re still not on a clear path to a full recovery.”Conley, an osteopathic physician and a commander in the U.S. Navy, told reporters that in coordination with a team of medical professionals at the hospital in Bethesda, Maryland, he had recommended that Trump be brought there the previous day.“At this time, the team and I are extremely happy with the progress the president has made,” said Conley, who explained that on Thursday, the day Trump tested positive for the disease caused by the coronavirus, Trump had “a mild cough, some nasal congestion and fatigue – all of which are now resolving and improving.”The physician said it is unclear how long the president will need to remain hospitalized. He did not answer questions regarding whether Trump had ever required oxygen.“We are monitoring him very closely for any evidence of complications from either the coronavirus illness or the therapies that we are prescribing to make him better,” said Dr. Sean Dooley, an internist.“He is in exceptionally good spirits,” Dooley said, explaining that when the team of doctors completed its rounds Saturday morning, the president exclaimed, “I feel like I could walk out of here today.”The team of doctors declined to go into detail on the president’s diagnosis in response to some of the questions from reporters.Conley said Trump is receiving daily ultrasounds and lab work, but when asked if lung scans have shown damage, he declined to “go into specifics of what the findings are.”On Thursday, the 74-year-old president was given a high dose an experimental special antibody therapy cocktail developed by Regeneron to fight the coronavirus, Dr. Brian Garibaldi, a specialist in pulmonary medicine, said.“We’re working very closely with the company to monitor him in terms of that outcome,” said the doctor, who added that Friday evening Trump received the first of a five-day course of intravenous remdesivir, another anti-viral drug being studied to see how effective it is in fighting COVID-19.“If he needs all five days, that would likely be the course,” Conley said, adding that Trump “has been fever free for over 24 hours.”The team of doctors noted that days seven to 10 for a coronavirus patient are the most concerning, due to the possibility of serious inflammation.“Every day, we’re evaluating, ‘Does he need to be here?’” Dr. Conley said in answering questions from reporters during a 12-minute briefing.Shortly after the news conference, Trump tweeted, “Doctors, Nurses and ALL at the GREAT Walter Reed Medical Center, and others from likewise incredible institutions who have joined them, are AMAZING!!!Tremendous progress has been made over the last 6 months in fighting this PLAGUE. With their help, I am feeling well!”Doctors, Nurses and ALL at the GREAT Walter Reed Medical Center, and others from likewise incredible institutions who have joined them, are AMAZING!!!Tremendous progress has been made over the last 6 months in fighting this PLAGUE. With their help, I am feeling well!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 3, 2020Both Trump and first lady Melania Trump tested positive for the coronavirus on Thursday evening after one of the president’s close aides, Hope Hicks, was confirmed to be ill with COVID-19.Late Friday, Trump tweeted from his hospital suite, “Going well, I think! Thank you to all. LOVE!!”Going welI, I think! Thank you to all. LOVE!!!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 3, 2020There has been no transfer of power from the hospitalized president to Vice President Mike Pence, who was at his official residence, the U.S. Naval Observatory, according to White House officials.Trump’s illness comes a month before the November election. His opponent, Democratic Party nominee Joe Biden, said Friday he was sending “prayers for the health and safety of the first lady and the president of the United States.”Biden added that the president’s positive test for COVID-19 is a “bracing reminder to all of us that we have to take this virus seriously.”Trump and Biden were about 4 meters apart on a debate stage Tuesday evening in Cleveland, Ohio. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests at least 2 meters for social distancing purposes.Biden’s campaign said the former vice president tested negative Friday for the coronavirus.Speaking Friday in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Biden, wearing a surgical mask, called again for a national mask mandate, asserting it could save 100,000 lives in 100 days.The coronavirus has killed more than 208,000 people in the United States and infected 7.3 million across the country, according to Johns Hopkins University data.Trump’s campaign Friday put on hold all previously announced campaign events involving the president’s participation.“Vice President Mike Pence, who has tested negative for COVID-19, plans on resuming his scheduled campaign events,” campaign manager Bill Stepien said in a statement.A spokesperson confirmed early Saturday that Stepien has also tested positive for the virus and is suffering “mild, flu-like symptoms.”U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Friday that he and his wife, Susan, also tested negative.Pompeo said he and his wife were examined on an airplane 20 minutes before landing in Dubrovnik, Croatia. The country’s top diplomat told reporters upon arrival that he last saw Trump on September 15 at the White House and said, “We are praying for the president and first lady that they’ll have a speedy recovery.” Three U.S. senators, all from Trump’s Republican Party, have announced in recent days they have all tested positive for the coronavirus. Two of them attended last Saturday’s event in the White House Rose Garden where the president announced Judge Amy Coney Barrett as his nominee for the Supreme Court.Former Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway, who left the White House staff in August but attended that event, tweeted late Friday that she has also tested positive for COVID-19.Tonight I tested positive for COVID-19. My symptoms are mild (light cough) and I’m feeling fine. I have begun a quarantine process in consultation with physicians. As always, my heart is with everyone affected by this global pandemic. ❤️— Kellyanne Conway (@KellyannePolls) October 3, 2020During the Rose Garden, guests were seated closely together and most did not wear masks – a defiance of the U.S. government’s own guidelines on such gatherings amid the coronavirus pandemic.    
…

As the world approached 35 million cases of coronavirus Saturday, India reached a grim milestone of more than 100,000 dead from COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus. It is the third country in the world to pass that mark, following the United States and Brazil, according to Johns Hopkins University data.India’s health ministry reported 100,842 deaths, while the number of infections reached 6.47 million, adding nearly 80,000 new cases in one day.With winter approaching, and the Hindu festival of Diwali next month, the world’s second most populous country could see a jump in cases, health experts said.”We have seen some recent slowdown of the virus curve, but this may be a local peak, there may be another coming,” Bhramar Mukherjee, a professor of biostatistics and epidemiology at the University of Michigan told Reuters.She said that just over 7% of India’s 1.3 billion people have been exposed to the virus, meaning herd immunity is still far away. Herd immunity is reached when most of a population is immune to a disease.By the end of the year, Mukherjee said, 12.2 million Indians could be infected. The spread could be slowed, she said, through measures such as social distancing, face covering and hand washing.”So it will continue like a slow burning coil, that is my hope, and we have to play the long game to stop it from being a wildfire,” she told Reuters.EuropeMeanwhile, several European countries continue to struggle against a surge in cases, reporting record one-day increases.Britain reported 12,872 new cases Saturday. The government said the jump was partly the result of technical issues that had delayed the reporting of cases from September 24 to October 1.Even so, 12,872 is nearly twice the 6,968 cases reported Friday, and it smashed the previous biggest daily toll of 7,143, recorded Tuesday.France also set a new daily record of confirmed coronavirus infections Saturday — nearly 17,000 — about 5,000 more than it reported Friday. It now has nearly 630,000 cases, according to Johns Hopkins University data. The number of deaths rose to 32,171, the third highest in Europe after Britain and Italy, also according to Johns Hopkins.Ireland reported 613 new cases, the most in a day since April when it was in lockdown, the acting chief medical officer said Saturday. Ireland, a nation of not quite 5 million people, now has more than 37,000 cases, Johns Hopkins said.Like most of Europe, Ireland has seen a steady increase in infections since the end of July and has tightened restrictions as a result, including banning all indoor restaurant dining and most trips in and out of the capital, Dublin.Solomon IslandsOn the other side of the world, the Solomon Islands has reported its first case of coronavirus. The Solomons had fought to remain free of the deadly virus, including closing its border in March.Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare, speaking in a televised address, said a student who recently returned from the Philippines on a repatriation flight has tested positive after testing negative three times before boarding the plane.Sogavare reassured the archipelago that no lockdown would be needed and that the government would work to bring home 18 other students in quarantine in Manila. 
…

North Carolina’s intensively competitive and expensive U.S. Senate race has been upended by personal and health disruptions that sent uncertainty through the campaigns and an electorate already casting ballots.Democratic nominee Cal Cunningham acknowledged and apologized for exchanging sexually suggestive text messages with a woman who’s not his wife, but he said he wouldn’t drop out of the race. And just a few hours earlier Friday evening, his opponent, Republican Senator Thom Tillis, announced he had tested positive for COVID-19. While the first-term senator said he had no symptoms, the news forced Tillis to cancel in-person events, and several members of his campaign staff headed into quarantine.”It’s chaos,” David McLennan, a political science professor at Meredith College in Raleigh, said in a Saturday interview.In the text message exchanges, Cunningham tells the woman he wants to kiss her and she says she wants to spend the night with him. The messages were first reported by the website NationalFile.com.”I have hurt my family, disappointed my friends, and am deeply sorry. The first step in repairing those relationships is taking complete responsibility, which I do,” Cunningham said in his statement late Friday.Staying to fightCunningham, who is married with two teenage children, added he’s staying in the Senate race: “I will continue to work to earn the opportunity to fight for the people of our state.”The race is the nation’s most expensive Senate campaign and considered key to determining the power balance in the chamber. Democrats need to gain four seats in November to take control.Voting has been under way for four weeks in North Carolina, and 341,000 completed mail-in absentee ballots have been accepted and will be counted. Early in-person voting begins October 15.McLennan and Gary Pearce, a longtime state Democratic consultant, said it’s unclear how much of an effect Cunningham’s text messages will have on the election.”Most Democrats are really scared by it, but then you wonder: Has everything changed in the age of [President Donald] Trump?” Pearce said, adding the electorate’s increased polarization since 2016 could lead many Democrats to stick with Cunningham simply because the party’s victory is paramount.TimingA spokeswoman for Cunningham’s campaign, Rachel Petri, confirmed the authenticity of the text messages on Saturday. It’s unclear when the messages were sent, but at one point Cunningham says he’s “nervous about the next 100 days,” which could be a reference to the Senate election. One hundred days before the election would be July 26.An email trying to reach Guzman Todd at the California-based communications firm that lists her as an employee and voice messages left with what public records indicate are her phone numbers weren’t returned Saturday. Public records show she had a Raleigh residence briefly until 2015. Guzman Todd is married to someone who has served in the U.S. Army, according to the NationalFile.com report.Cunningham, 47, is an attorney and Iraq War veteran who still serves as an officer in the U.S. Army Reserve. He served one term in the state Senate in the early 2000s and lost a Democratic primary runoff for U.S. Senate in 2010.FILE – U.S. Senator Thom Tillis, R-N.C., talks to reporters at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Jan. 30, 2020.As for Tillis, he said he has no symptoms but will be staying at home for 10 days. Cunningham tweeted that he wished Tillis a “quick recovery” and said he would get tested himself after the two men shared a debate stage Thursday night. No other debates are scheduled.The Tillis campaign, citing its own health concerns, deferred on Saturday questions about the text messages to Cunningham. National Republican Senatorial Committee spokesperson Jesse Hunt said Cunningham must disclose more so voters can decide his fitness for office: “These are very troubling allegations and Cal needs to be fully transparent with the voters of North Carolina.”Tillis, 60, was diagnosed with the virus after attending the Supreme Court nomination ceremony in the White House Rose Garden for Amy Coney Barrett on September 26. The first-term senator didn’t say in his statement where he believes he caught the virus but did say he had tested negative for the virus on the same day as the White House event.Advocates mask useTillis was wearing a mask at the ceremony and has been among the most consistent Republicans to preach the use of face coverings. In late August, Tillis apologized for listening maskless in person to Trump’s Republican nomination acceptance speech outdoors at the White House.The North Carolina Senate race is second only to the presidential campaign in terms of overall outside spending, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. More than $97 million has been spent by independent expenditure groups in the general election, center data says.Cunningham, who outraised Tillis during the first half of the year, announced this week that his campaign would report collecting $28.3 million in the third quarter — a record haul for any North Carolina candidate. Tillis’ campaign hasn’t announced his third-quarter fundraising totals.
…

Iran has temporarily released French-Iranian academic Fariba Adelkhah, who has been in jail after being convicted of security breaches, her lawyer said Saturday on Twitter.”Fariba Adelkhah has come out [of prison] on leave with an electronic ankle bracelet,” Saeid Dehghan said in a tweet, without giving any other details of the release.There was no immediate official statement on the case from Iran’s judiciary.France had in June demanded that Adelkhah, 61, an anthropologist held since 2019, be released immediately, saying her detention was harming trust between the two countries.Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards have arrested dozens of dual nationals in recent years, mostly on espionage charges.In March, Iran granted temporary release to British-Iranian aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, along with thousands of other prisoners, following concerns about the spread of the coronavirus in prisons.In March, Iran and France exchanged prisoners: academic Roland Marchal for engineer Jalal Ruhollahnejad.Since then, however, there had been little sign that Adelkhah would be released. She was sentenced in May to six years in prison on security-related charges.Relations between France and Iran have improved over the last year but remain tense because of Iran’s nuclear activities, its ballistic missile program and regional activities.
…

A U.N. human rights investigator is expressing concern about possible regression by Somali authorities from their adherence to international human rights law. The concerns are amplified in a report submitted to the U.N. Human Rights Council by the U.N.’s independent expert on the situation of human rights in Somalia.
   
Isha Dyfan was appointed independent expert on Somalia in March, during the COVID-19 pandemic, keeping her from going there. She says that information gathered remotely from numerous sources, though, strongly indicates Somali authorities are regressing on commitments to protect peoples’ economic, social and cultural rights.   
 
She acknowledges the country’s armed conflict and humanitarian crises have been worsened by the pandemic and a locust infestation.
 
“There have been reports of attacks against health care and aid workers, excessive use of force by law enforcement agencies resulting in the death of civilians, violations of the right to freedom of expression and opinion, and an increase in sexual and gender-based violence and forced evictions during the pandemic,” she said.   
    
Dyfan said she is particularly troubled by long-standing and deeply rooted patterns of prejudice, discrimination and violence aimed daily at women and girls.
    
“I have continued to hear of incidents of rape and other forms of sexual violence against women, girls and boys, occurring for the most part with impunity, forcing victims and their families to turn to other avenues, which seem to provide a semblance of justice, but in reality, continue to fuel violence,” Dyfan said.  
    
Somali Ambassador to Switzerland and Austria Ebyan Mahamed Salah said her government does not believe it is possible to achieve peace and security without the preservation of human rights. She said Somalia has adopted a human rights-based approach and established institutions to end impunity and violent conflict, and to ensure peoples’ rights and freedoms.
 
…

Cameroon says more than 9 million girls aged 9 and above risk developing cervical cancer because their parents have been convinced the human papillomavirus, or HPV, vaccine makes their daughters sterile. Some communities that had accepted the vaccination are now refusing it, claiming that what is being administered now are dangerous experimental COVID-19 vaccines. The government, doctors and female medical staff members are now working to convince parents the HPV vaccination reduces the risk of cervical cancer.
 
To counter misconceptions, groups of 20 young women move from market to market and through popular spots in Cameroon capital, Yaounde, sharing posters and tell Cameroonians that the HPV vaccine does not make girls sterile.Among them is Linda Fonyuy, a 21-year-old mother.
 
“I for instance, I am giving my testimony that I received my vaccine as far back as 2014 and today, I am a mother of two.”
 
Forty-year old fruit seller Gloria Amana says she is not convinced by Fonyuy.
   
She says she will not accept HPV vaccine because a lot of negative information about the vaccine has been circulating on social media platforms. She says she wants to be a grandmother, so she rejects any vaccine that would sterilize her daughters.A poster of a member of Cameroon’s Medical Women Association endorsing HPV vaccines.This month, Cameroon is implementing systematic use of the HPV vaccine. The effort was first launched in 2014 and has been in a demonstration phase since.
 
The government and organizations such as the Cameroon Medical Women Association organized the nationwide campaign to convince parents the HPV vaccine protects their children from cervical cancer.
 
Celine Mairousgou, coordinator of Cameroon’s Expanded Vaccination Program on the country’s northern border with Nigeria, says much controversy has been generated about the vaccine since Cameroon reported its first coronavirus case in March.  
 
She says the first reason the vaccine has become controversial is that it is free. She says the vaccine is free because the government wants to reduce the incidence of cervical cancer among its citizens and that people should stop claiming that it is not an HPV vaccine, but anti-COVID-19 vaccines Western countries have paid to test in Cameroon. She says the vaccine is given before a girl’s first sexual encounter, when the virus that causes cervical cancer can be contracted.
 
Rose Leke, professor emeritus of immunology at the University of Yaounde, says the controversy reached its apex when, in a television discussion last April, two French doctors—one of them the head of an intensive-care unit in Paris—suggested trials for vaccines against COVID-19 should be conducted in Africa.A poster of a member of Cameroon’s Medical Women Association endorsing HPV vaccines.Leke says the HPV vaccine has nothing in common with what the French doctors proposed.
 
“Everybody should know that the government is working with UNICEF, and what comes here, I can assure you, is of good quality. People should ask themselves which government will go on to destroy its people? So, people should get that trust and I think the head of the communities and so on should also be responsible to take correct messages down to the communities,” Leke said.
 
The government and its health partners say they are combating the coronavirus but not neglecting other life-threatening diseases. The government is asking organizations, lawmakers and medical staff members to convince people that vaccinations protect them, and that no vaccine is intended to kill or make girls sterile.
 
Cameroon’s Expanded Vaccination Program says 1,500 women in the central African country die each year of cervical cancer. About 11 million are targeted for vaccination, starting this month.  
 
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says HPV vaccination is recommended for 11- and 12-year-old girls. It is also recommended for girls and women age 13 through 26 years old who have not yet been vaccinated or completed the vaccine series. The center says the vaccine can also be given to girls beginning at age 9 to protect against cancers caused by HPV.  
…

WASHINGTON/KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI — For Ashley Johnson, a national housing group’s warning that millions of people faced risk of eviction from their homes by the end of the year – a direct result of the economic slowdown and massive job losses caused by the coronavirus outbreak – became reality.
 
Johnson, a young mother of three who lives in the Midwestern city of Kansas City, Missouri, was evicted in September.
 
“Mentally I’m an emotional wreck,” Johnson said quietly as her children watched television in a nearby room. “I recently had to reach out to getting some counseling … ’cause I can kind of feel myself slipping a little.”
 
In August, the National Low Income Housing Coalition announced that 30-40 million Americans would face eviction in the coming months. The NLIHC is a group that focuses on low-income housing policy and trends and analyzes data to create a forecast for the needs of low-income housing across the U.S.
 
Around the same time as the NLIHC report, a federal supplement to state unemployment benefits that was providing financial relief to millions under an economic stimulus package ended in July. And a temporary ban on evictions ordered Sept. 1 by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) came too late for people like Johnson.  
 Lost side jobs
 
Johnson, who holds a desk job, lost crucial income from her side business the virus hit her hometown of Kansas City, she said during an interview with VOA in September.  
 
She said she was a holistic health and wellness coach and drove a cab to help her family stay afloat, “but because of COVID, I don’t have these clients no more and so I only have my desk job to rely on.”  
 
Johnson was evicted in early September from a private transitional house where she lived with her three children.
 
“This pandemic and the shutdown have been no picnic for me and my children,” she said.
 
Johnson participates in rallies for KC Tenants, a group advocating for affordable housing in Kansas City.  
 
Like most of the country, the state of Missouri was already experiencing an affordable housing crisis when the pandemic hit.
 
In early September, organization director Tara Raghuveer told VOA that almost 50% of renters in the state were at risk of eviction because they couldn’t pay their rent.
 
“In the absence of a vaccine, housing was the prescription. We were all told to stay home to keep ourselves healthy and to keep our neighbors healthy, but for millions of people across this country that was never an option, either because they didn’t have a home to begin with, because they were housing insecure, or because their home itself was unhealthy to them,” Raghuveer said.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 12 MB480p | 17 MB540p | 22 MB720p | 45 MB1080p | 91 MBOriginal | 107 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioUnemployed Americans Prepare for Inevitable as Eviction LoomsFederal assistance
 
In March, Congress passed a $2.2 trillion coronavirus aid package that included, among other things, a federal supplement of $600 a week to state unemployment benefits.
 
Many Americans had been receiving the assistance, which lapsed in July. That put millions in jeopardy of not being able to pay their rent and facing eviction.  
 
On Aug. 8, President Trump announced an Executive Order to provide “assistance to renters and homeowners” and protect Americans against eviction.  
 
Prompted by the announcement, the CDC in early September issued an order to temporarily halt residential evictions to prevent the further spread of COVID-19.
 
But the order comes with caveats, Raghuveer said.
 
“The first and most important is that it’s not automatic; it actually puts the burden on tenants to declare to their landlord that they need this protection before they can benefit from it,” she explained. “That’s a huge barrier for tenants who may not even know about the existence of such protections from the CDC.”  
 
The CDC moratorium, unless extended, expires Dec. 31.
 
So people may be protected for a short period of time from eviction, Raghuveer said, “but they still owe rent every month, and the landlord can still charge late fees, fines and collect interest on that rent, so the mountain of debt, just continues to grow.”  
 
Tenants and housing advocates say additional measures like rent and mortgage cancellation are also what’s needed.
 
“Because it’s been clear to poor and working-class people, since the beginning of this pandemic, that the burden of paying rent every month is the burden that they simply cannot sustain during a period of sustained mass unemployment at the scale that we see today,” Raghuveer said.
 
Lawmakers must be part of the solution, insists attorney Gina Chiala, who heads the Heartland Center for Jobs and Freedom, which provides legal advice about housing to low wage workers in Kansas City, Missouri.  
 
“The mass layoffs that are happening in this country are not the fault of those workers who are losing their jobs, and we cannot let our fellow Americans go down in flames,” she told VOA. “We need to act; we need to push Congress to do the right thing and pass a robust act and keep in place those measures that we know were stopping the eviction avalanche before.”Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 11 MB480p | 15 MB540p | 20 MB720p | 40 MB1080p | 80 MBOriginal | 95 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioCommunity Organizations Rush to the Rescue as Americans Face EvictionLandlords
 
Chiala also encourages landlords to negotiate with their tenants whenever possible.  
 
But with about half of the nation’s rental units owned by mom and pop landlords, many cannot absorb the losses from unpaid rent.  
 
“These are unprecedented times for our association right now,” said Tracey Benson, president and founder of the National Association of Independent Landlords. Founded in 1998, the association provides help and support to its 200,000 members nationwide.
 
“We are hearing from our landlords — they’re calling and emailing, worried all over the United States … they’re worried about losing not only their own homes, but their rental homes as well,” she told VOA. “And they are also worried of not ever being paid back after this is over.”
 
North Carolina property owner Kathy Phillips relies on her 10 rental properties for income.
 
“So, if my tenants don’t pay their rent, I can’t pay my bills,” she told VOA. But when one of her tenants started falling behind on her rent, Phillips was sympathetic.
 
She’s a single parent, who’s unemployed and unable to pay her rent, Phillips explained. “I don’t feel comfortable evicting her. I have offered her 50% off her rent for three months with no expectation to pay it back.”  
 
In Missouri, Johnson and her children are also experiencing some neighborly compassion.
 
The family is currently staying in an Airbnb with help from the Mutual Aid Program and donations from local friends, families and members of the community.
 
But she’s not sure how long she can depend on the generosity of others.
 
Johnson is among the millions of Americans who are holding out hope that lawmakers will reach an agreement on financial relief.  
 
Late Thursday, the U.S. House passed a $2.2 trillion Democratic coronavirus stimulus plan, yet its passage in the Republican-held Senate is unlikely. On Friday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin continued to discuss measures in a relief package that would include expanded unemployment benefits and other aid for Americans.
 
If lawmakers fail to reach a deal, experts predict the housing crisis created by the pandemic will only get worse
 
“The biggest challenge for me is just pretending to be happy right now… because I have to be strong for my kids, you know?” Johnson said. 
…

While the world wants flashy quick fixes for everything, especially massive threats like the coronavirus and global warming, next week’s Nobel Prizes remind us that in science, slow and steady pays off.  
 
It may soon do so again.
 
Science builds upon previous work, with thinkers “standing on the shoulders of giants,” as Isaac Newton put it, and it starts with basic research aimed at understanding a problem before fixing it. It’s that type of basic science that the Nobels usually reward, often years or decades after a discovery, because it can take that long to realize the implications.
 
Slow and steady success in science has made researchers hopeful in the fight against the pandemic. It even offers a glimmer of climate optimism.
 
Many years of advances in basic molecular science, some of them already Nobel Prize-winning, have given the world tools for fast virus identification and speeded up the development of testing. And now they tantalize us with the prospect of COVID-19 treatments and ultimately a vaccine, perhaps within a few months.
 
“This could be science’s finest hour. This could be the time when we deliver, not just for the nation but the world, the miracle that will save us,” said geophysicist Marcia McNutt, president of the National Academy of Sciences.
 
The coronavirus was sequenced in a matter of weeks, testing became available quickly, and vaccines that would normally take years may be developed in a year or less, and “it’s all been built on the back of basic science advances that have been developed in the past three decades,” McNutt said.
 
She pointed to gene sequencing and polymerase chain reaction, which allows for multiple copying of precise DNA segments. That latter discovery won the 1993 Nobel in chemistry.
 
And even further back, in 1984, the Nobel in medicine went to a team for theories on how to manipulate the immune system using something called monoclonal antibodies. Now those antibodies are one of the best hopes for a treatment for the coronavirus.
 
“Despite the politics, despite whatever other things are slowing us down, Nobel Prize-winning discoveries from 20 years ago are going to be key to treating and preventing COVID next year,” said Sudip Parikh, CEO of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. “That was made possible by basic research.”
 
Basic research comes first. The benefits are typically reaped only later, in what is called applied science.
 
“Without basic science, you won’t have cutting-edge applied science,” said Frances Arnold, a Caltech chemical engineer who won the 2018 Nobel in chemistry.
 
Nobel-winning basic research has allowed us to see the world in a whole new light.
Do you like white, efficient LED light to replace the nasty fluorescent hum of industrial lighting or energy-gobbling incandescent bulbs? A key part of those lights are blue light-emitting diodes, and their discovery won the 2014 Nobel in physics, said astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, head of the Hayden Planetarium.
 
How about seeing better, without glasses, thanks to LASIK surgery? That stemmed from research into precise lasers that led to the 2018 Nobel for physics, but was also the product of an accident in which a researcher got lasered in the eye, said microbiologist Rita Colwell, former head of the U.S. National Science Foundation.
 
And those lasers used concepts that date back to Albert Einstein, said British Royal Astronomer Martin Rees.
 
John Mather, who won the 2006 physics Nobel for cosmology, which is the study of the origin of the universe and is thus the ultimate basic science, said nearly everything we use around us is there because of basic science.
 
“Engineers and entrepreneurs use this knowledge to build commercial empires,” he said. “Doctors use what we find to develop new cures. Architects build houses with modern materials. Airplanes are designed at the very edge of what is possible. Even cars are completely dependent on basic science.”
 
But some people don’t make that connection. Adam Riess, who won the 2011 Nobel in physics, and Tyson said this is especially noticeable when people who deny climate science or vaccine effectiveness do so while reaching fellow nonbelievers on smartphones and Google searches made possible because of basic science research.
 
“Maybe, maybe science needs a PR agent, OK?” Tyson said in an interview. “Maybe with a new discovery in science in a way that affects your life outcomes, the TV commercials say, ‘Did you know this? This thing that you’re using was invented here in this lab by this person. And it was brought to market by this company. And now you’re using it and enjoying it.’ Stop in silence. ‘You’re welcome.’”
 
As for fixing climate change, Mexican chemist Mario Molina has hope that the world will be able to solve the problem because of the work that led to his 1995 Nobel Prize.  
 
He and others discovered that industrial chemicals known as chlorofluorocarbons were reaching high into the atmosphere and eating away at Earth’s protective ozone layer. He discovered this many years before an ozone hole developed over Antarctica.
 
His work and the opening of the hole led to a 1987 international agreement to ban those ozone-depleting chemicals, and the hole has started shrinking. Now Molina hopes that kind of action can be applied to what he calls “the climate emergency.”
 
“That’s why I’m optimistic. Because we do have one example of a global problem where practically all the countries of the planet agreed to work together. The ozone layer is healing. It takes quite a while,” Molina said. “But it’s working, slowly. So, it can be done.”
 
…

It’s another devastating year of wildfires in the American West. More than 1.5 million hectares have burned in California so far, shattering the previous record. As wildfires continue to worsen under the influence of climate change, one project offers hope on how to begin to confront a problem of enormous proportions. VOA’s Steve Baragona has more.
Produced by: Steve Baragona
…