A British judge will deliver a decision January 4 on whether to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the United States to face charges, including espionage.District Judge Vanessa Baraitser made the announcement at London’s Old Bailey Court after nearly four weeks of hearings.The U.S. has requested extradition of Australian-born Assange on 17 espionage charges and one charge of misusing computers in connection with Wikileaks’ 2010 and 2011 publication of thousands of confidential U.S. cables, mainly relating to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.A group of protesters gathered in front of the court in support of Assange.After the court adjourned, Stella Moris, Assange’s fiancée and the mother of his two young children, called for his release.”Julian is a publisher,” she said. “Julian is also a son, he’s a friend. He’s my fiancé and a father. Our children need their father, Julian needs his freedom, and our democracy needs a free press. Thank you.”Kristinn Hrafnsson, a Wikileaks editor, said extradition would mean ”darkness for us all.””After all these four weeks, we should be in no doubt that there is only one thing that has to happen as an outcome of these proceedings,” Hrafnsson said. “If Julian Assange is extradited it will mean darkness for us all. It cannot happen. We must take a stand. There can only be one outcome: no extradition.”Assange’s lawyers, fighting the U.S. extradition request, say the charges were politically motivated and that his mental health is at risk, arguing that U.S. prison conditions breach Britain’s human rights laws, adding that Assange and his lawyers were surveilled while he was in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.Lawyers representing the United States said that many of those arguments related to issues to be addressed in a trial and have no bearing on extradition.
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New cases of COVID-19 rose in 27 out of 50 U.S. states in September compared with August, led by an increase of 111% in Wisconsin, according to a Reuters analysis.The Midwest states of North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin all saw cases surge more than 50% month-over-month, as did Montana, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming.Illinois had the smallest increase among the 27 states with rising cases, up 5% month-over-month. The only Midwest states where cases fell were Ohio and Indiana.The United States reported 1.18 million new cases in September compared with 1.41 million in August. Overall, cases in the country reached 7.26 million compared with 6.05 million at the end of August, an increase of 19%.Of states where cases fell month-over-month, California had the biggest decline at 50%, followed by Nevada at 49% and Florida at 47%.Florida announced on September 25 it was lifting all restrictions on businesses, allowing bars and restaurants to operate at full capacity.However, many businesses across the United States continue to implement cost-saving measures as profits take a hit from COVID-19 restrictions, such as operating capacity.Walt Disney Co on Tuesday announced it will lay off roughly 28,000 employees, mostly at its U.S. theme parks, where attendance has been crushed by the pandemic — especially in California, where Disneyland remains closed.Twenty-one states reported more deaths in September than in August, with the biggest percentage increases North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin and Wyoming.The United States reported 22,300 new deaths in September compared with 28,700 deaths in August, bringing the nation’s death toll to over 207,000.The number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients fell 15% in September from August to around 30,000 at the end of the month.California and Texas had the highest number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients at over 3,000 each. Vermont had one coronavirus patient hospitalized at the end of the month.
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U.S. lawmakers have been meeting this week with President Donald Trump’s nominee for the Supreme Court, Judge Amy Coney Barrett, who would fill the seat left empty by the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. If confirmed as expected, Barrett will have a critical impact on court decisions on a range of issues impacting life in the United States, from abortion to health care to this November’s presidential election. VOA’s Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson reports.
Camera: Henry Hernandez
Produced by: Katherine Gypson
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U.S. President Donald Trump signaled Thursday that he was opposed to changing the rules for his second and third debates against Democratic challenger Joe Biden, claiming he “easily” won their contentious, chaotic first debate earlier this week.Both candidates frequently interrupted each other’s remarks at Tuesday’s 90-plus minute debate, but Trump more so than Biden.FILE – President Donald Trump gestures while speaking during the first presidential debate, Sept. 29, 2020, at Case Western Reserve University and Cleveland Clinic, in Cleveland, Ohio.More than an hour into the debate, moderator Chris Wallace, a Fox News journalist, admonished the president for ignoring the agreed-upon rules allowing both candidates to answer his questions unimpeded by the other.But the interruptions continued to the end, leaving numerous journalists and U.S. political analysts to conclude that it was the worst presidential debate ever. Despite Trump’s claim, post-debate polls showed voters thought Biden won the faceoff.But the chaos of the night led the independent Commission on Presidential Debates, which oversees the quadrennial debates, to say Wednesday that it would soon announce tightened rules for the scheduled Trump-Biden debates on October 15 and 22 to give the events “additional structure … to ensure a more orderly discussion of the issues.”But Trump said on Twitter, “Why would I allow the Debate Commission to change the rules for the second and third Debates when I easily won last time?”Why would I allow the Debate Commission to change the rules for the second and third Debates when I easily won last time?— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) FILE – Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden gestures while speaking during the first presidential debate, Sept. 29, 2020, at Case Western Reserve University and Cleveland Clinic, in Cleveland, Ohio.Some critics said the moderators at the next two debates should be able to silence the microphone of each candidate while the other is speaking. But Wallace told The New York Times he was opposed to the idea, saying it would not succeed at reducing the disruptions. Other analysts said any interruptions could still likely be picked up on the live microphone or heard by those in the debate hall.Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel told Fox News that the commission should not make any changes to the rules without the support of both campaigns “in the middle of the campaign,” after both sides had agreed to specific provisions.Two-minute limitEach candidate was supposed to have two minutes to answer Wallace’s queries before the other had the same amount of time to respond. But the interruptions quickly threw that restriction off-kilter, turning the debate into a mix of crosstalk and claims and counterclaims on a range of issues, such as Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, his appointment of a new Supreme Court justice and his tax returns and Biden’s stances on health care, climate change and increasing taxes on businesses and wealthy taxpayers.McDaniel claimed that any rule changes would be aimed at protecting Biden “from answering to the American people,” although both candidates answered numerous questions from Wallace.”I don’t think you should be changing the rules that they have agreed to, and I do not think this commission has the right to just arbitrarily change rules without talking to both candidates and getting agreement and input from both sides,” McDaniel said.FILE – Moderator Chris Wallace of Fox News speaks on stage before the start of the first presidential debate, Sept. 29, 2020, at Case Western Reserve University and Cleveland Clinic, in Cleveland, Ohio.In his post-mortem on the debate, Wallace said the debate was “a terrible missed opportunity” for American voters to learn about the two candidates’ views.“I never dreamt that it would go off the tracks the way it did,” he said.“I’ve read some of the reviews,” he told the Times. “I know people think, well, gee, I didn’t jump in soon enough.”“I guess I didn’t realize – and there was no way you could, hindsight being 20/20 – that this was going to be the president’s strategy, not just for the beginning of the debate but the entire debate,” to interrupt Biden’s remarks.
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The two largest school districts in the U.S. are rolling out ambitious and costly plans to test students and staff for the coronavirus, bidding to help keep school buildings open amid a rise in infections among the nation’s school-age children.New York City is set to begin testing 10% to 20% of students and staff in every building monthly beginning Thursday, the same day the final wave of the district’s more than 1 million students began returning to brick-and-mortar classrooms for the first time in six months.”Every single school will have testing. It will be done every single month. It will be rigorous,” New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said in announcing the plan as part of an agreement with the teachers union to avert a strike. At least 79 Department of Education employees have died from the virus.With an estimated 100,000-120,000 tests expected each month, each costing between $78 and $90, New York City’s school-based testing plan goes well beyond safety protocols seen in most other districts.Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Unified School District, has launched a similarly comprehensive, $150 million, testing program to help determine when it will be safe to resume in-person instruction. The district began the school year remotely in August for all 600,000 students. The New York and Los Angeles systems are respectively the nation’s largest and 2nd-largest school districts.Leaders in both cities say regular testing is needed in districts of their size and in areas of the country that previously witnessed unnerving surges of the virus.The coronavirus struck hard at the elderly early in the pandemic and is now increasingly infecting American children and teens in a trend authorities say appears to be fueled by school reopenings and other activities. Children of all ages now make up 10% of all U.S cases, up from 2% in April, the American Academy of Pediatrics reported Tuesday.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said this week that the incidence of COVID-19 in school-age children began rising in early September as many returned to classrooms. Its recommendations emphasize distancing, cleaning and face coverings for most reopening plans — though no requirement for universal testing of students and staff.New York City elementary school students began returning to school buildings Tuesday after starting the year remote. Middle and high school students started going back Thursday.As part of the LAUSD plan announced this month, all students and staff will get an initial baseline test in coming weeks to ensure the incidence of COVID-19 is low, and then another test immediately before returning to school, Superintendent Austin Beutner said Monday.Periodic testing will continue throughout the school year under a collaboration chaired by Beutner and former U.S. Education Arne Duncan that also includes the University of California, Los Angeles, Johns Hopkins and Stanford universities, Microsoft and several health providers.”Pulling off something like this is almost a miraculous undertaking in and of itself because there are so many things that could go wrong,” said Arlene Inouye, secretary of United Teachers Los Angeles, which negotiated conditions for school nurses tasked with testing, “but what’s really encouraging is that there are a lot of partners in this venture.”The number of districts relying on some level of testing to keep the virus in check is likely to increase after President Donald Trump this week encouraged governors to prioritize schools when distributing millions of rapid coronavirus tests provided by the federal government.In western New York, the Niagara Falls City School District did not initially include school-based testing in its reopening plans, reasoning that was the job of hospitals and doctors. But on Wednesday, Superintendent Mark Laurrie was in the process of buying five rapid testing machines for his district, each about $2,500, after shutting down a middle school where three staff members tested positive.”When you see the impact that has on academics — that’s what we’re here for — then I think there’s a higher calling to do more testing,” Laurrie said. “That way we don’t have to rely on anybody else. We can rely on ourselves.”There is little if any available data to show how many districts nationwide have adopted in-school virus testing, said Gigi Gronvall, an immunologist and senior scholar at Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Health Security.Boston Public Schools will offer random virus testing to 5% of teachers weekly, under an agreement with the teachers union. In Rhode Island, a K-12 testing hotline has been set up to field calls and arrange rapid testing for staff and students showing symptoms. In Florida, the Pasco County school district and health department announced three school sites to test people referred by school nurses.”There’s so many patchwork plans,” said Gronvall, noting there has been no national model for districts to follow.Gronvall praised the plans to test even those people in school who don’t appear to be sick.As many as 40% of people infected with COVID-19 exhibit no symptoms.Los Angeles County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer cautioned that testing alone does not control infection unless conducted almost daily.”Testing has a role but testing is not a substitute for the infection control and the distancing and the mask wearing requirements that have to happen at every school building,” Ferrer said.Positive cases found in New York City schools will trigger set responses, beginning with tracing teams dispatched to the school to figure out who else may have been exposed. A single case will push that student or teacher’s entire class to remote learning until contact tracing is complete. More than one case will mean an entire school will temporarily halt in-person instruction.”The response might seem really severe to people and it might seem like an extreme response,” said epidemiologist Nadia Abuelezam, an assistant professor at Boston College. “But based on what we’ve seen at other types of schools and specifically colleges and universities now, we know that there is the potential for very rapid transmission in student clusters.” 
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French land artist Saype created giant, spray-painted “human chain” on a lawn in Turin, Italy. With this installation, Saype continued his “Beyond Walls” project, creating images of interlocked hands across the world. The first installment was presented in Paris, followed by paintings in Andorra, Geneva, Berlin, Burkina Faso and the Ivory Coast. The artist hopes his paintings will encourage unity as society seems to grow more divided. (REUTERS) 
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На українському міжбанківському валютному ринку після двох днів, коли котирування коливалися навколо позначки 28,3 гривні за долар, поновилося посилення американської валюти. Станом на 13:10 1 жовтня, за даними Finance.ua, котирування сягнули 28 гривень 33–35 копійок, девальвація гривні тривала всю першу частину сесії.

«Вихід на торги «Сітібанку» (діє в інтересах західних інвесторів в українські ОВДП – ред.) із купівлею валюти дозволив продавцям і спекулянтам активно завищувати котирування за рахунок зростання попиту», – відзначають експерти сайту «Мінфін».

Учасники торгів інформують, що після 12-ї години на ринку з’явився Національний банк України з пропозицією долара по 28 гривень 35 копійок.

Регулятор опівдні встановив довідкове значення курсу 28 гривень 33 копійки за долар, це на 2 копійки більше за офіційний курс на 1 жовтня.

Повільне, але постійне послаблення гривні щодо долара триває із середини серпня. Ще 17 серпня торги завершилися на рівні 27 гривень 23,5–25,5 копійки за одиницю американської валюти.
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A U.S.-backed Zimbabwean charity is helping small farmers to improve product quality and yields to increase incomes and become more food secure.  Feed the Future Zimbabwe says small farms make up 70 percent of Zimbabwe’s farmers and making them more efficient could help restore the country’s lost status as the breadbasket of Africa.  Columbus Mavhunga reports from Chirumanzu, Zimbabwe. Camera: Blessing Chigwenhembe
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The U.S. Labor Department reported Thursday that 837,000 workers filed for unemployment compensation last week, an improvement from the week before but still a sign the coronavirus pandemic continues to wreak havoc on the American labor market.Millions of workers remain unemployed in the United States, with the jobless rate at 8.1% in mid-September, and economists saying the figure could remain elevated for months. Only about half of the 22 million U.S. jobs lost in the coronavirus pandemic have been recovered.Weekly initial claims for jobless benefits seemed to have stabilized below 900,000 in recent weeks, but they are fluctuating from week to week. Last week’s 837,000 figure was down 36,000 from the revised level of the week before.The recent weekly claims figures are well below the 6.9 million record number of claims filed in late March as the coronavirus swept into the United States but remain above the highest pre-pandemic level before this year in records going back to the 1960s.U.S. employers have called back millions of workers who were laid off during mandatory business shutdowns earlier this year, yet some hard-hit businesses have been slow to ramp up their operations again or have closed permanently, leaving workers idled or searching for new employment.Two air carriers, American Airlines and United Airlines, have announced that 32,000 will be furloughed unless the U.S. government agrees to more financial support.During the worst of the pandemic, the U.S. unemployment rate topped out at 14.7% in April.With less than five weeks to go before the November 3 presidential and congressional elections, President Donald Trump and Republican and Democratic lawmakers in politically fractious Washington have been unable to reach an agreement on extending federal unemployment benefits and how much should be paid.COVID relief package
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have been negotiating this week over a coronavirus relief package, but it is uncertain whether they will reach an accord before Congress adjourns so lawmakers can return to their home states to campaign for re-election.Until the end of July, the national government sent an extra $600 a week to unemployed workers on top of less generous state jobless benefits. The Republican-controlled Senate in September tried to win approval of $300-a-week payments through the end of the year, but Democrats blocked the proposal as too small and continued to call for resumption of the $600 weekly payments.The rejected Republican coronavirus relief package would have cost between $500 billion and $700 billion, on top of the $3 trillion approved months ago at the height of the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S. Now, Pelosi wants another $2.2 trillion, while the White House has upped its proposal to $1.5 trillion.White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said any package that “starts with a two” would cause a “real problem” for Republicans.Expired benefits
As the first round of unemployment payments expired in July, Trump signed an executive order calling for $400 a week in extra payments for a few weeks. But not all states delivered the reduced payments to jobless workers, and now that money is running out.While the U.S. has been adding more jobs in recent months, the pace of the recovery has seemed to slow. The 1.4 million jobs added in August included the Census Bureau’s temporary hiring of about 240,000 workers to help conduct the once-a-decade count of the U.S. population. 
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Офіційний курс української гривні щодо долара США продовжує оновлювати мінімуми. На 2 жовтня НБУ встановив орієнтир 28 гривень 33 копійки за долар.

Востаннє на такому рівні офіційний курс перебував у листопаді 2018 року, а до того – в лютому 2015 року.

Торги на міжбанківському валютному ринку 1 жовтня завершуються на рівні 28 гривень 33,5–35 копійок за долар, свідчать дані Finance.ua.

Учасники торгів інформують, що після 12-ї години на ринку з’явився Національний банк України з пропозицією долара по 28 гривень 35 копійок.

Повільне, але постійне послаблення гривні щодо долара триває із середини серпня. Ще 17 серпня торги завершилися на рівні 27 гривень 23,5–25,5 копійки за одиницю американської валюти.
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Malaysian palm oil producer FGV Holdings Berhad vowed Thursday to “clear its name” after the U.S. banned imports of its palm oil over allegations of forced labor and other abuses.The U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Office of Trade issued the ban order against FGV on Wednesday, saying it found indicators of forced labor, including concerns about children, along with other abuses such as physical and sexual violence.The action, announced a week after The Associated Press exposed major labor abuses in Malaysia’s palm oil industry, was triggered by a petition filed last year by nonprofit organizations.FGV said all the issues raised “have been the subject of public discourse since 2015 and FGV has taken several steps to correct the situation.”“FGV is disappointed that such decision has been made when FGV has been taking concrete steps over the past several years in demonstrating its commitment to respect human rights and to uphold labor standards,” it said in a statement.Malaysia is the world’s second-largest producer of palm oil. Together with Indonesia, the two countries dominate the global market, producing 85% of the $65 billion supply.Palm oil and its derivatives from FGV, and closely connected Malaysian-owned Felda, make their way into the supply chains of major multinationals. They include Nestle, L’Oreal, and Unilever, according to the companies’ most recently published supplier and palm oil mill lists. Several huge Western banks and financial institutions not only pour money directly or indirectly into the palm oil industry, but also hold shares in FGV.AP reporters interviewed more than 130 former and current workers from eight countries at two dozen palm oil companies — including Felda, which owns about a third of the shares in FGV. They found everything from unpaid wages to outright slavery and allegations of rape, sometimes involving minors. They also found stateless Rohingya Muslims, one of the world’s most persecuted minorities, had been trafficked onto plantations and forced to work.Many of the problems detailed by the U.S. CBP office mirrored those found by The AP. This included restriction of movement, isolation, physical and sexual violence, intimidation and threats, retention of identity documents, withholding of wages, debt bondage, abusive working and living conditions, excessive overtime, and concerns about potential forced child labor.FGV said Thursday it wasn’t involved in any recruitment or employment of refugees. It said it doesn’t hire contract workers. Migrant workers are recruited mainly from India and Indonesia through legal channels, it said. It said it ensures workers are not forced to pay any fees.As of August, FGV had 11,286 Indonesian workers and 4,683 Indian workers, who combined form the majority of its plantation workforce.The company said it is introducing the use of an electronic wallet cashless payroll system for its workers. It doesn’t retain workers’ passports and has safety boxes throughout all its 68 housing complexes for them to keep their passports safely.FGV said it has invested 350 million ringgit ($84 million) over the past three years in upgrading worker housing and provides medical benefits. Suppliers and vendors are required to comply with the company’s code of conduct, it said.“FGV does not tolerate any form of human rights infringements or criminal offense in its operations,” it said, adding it will act on any allegation of physical or sexual violence or intimidation.FGV said it has submitted evidence of compliance with labor standards to the U.S. CBP office since last year. It said it will continue its engagement “to clear FGV’s name, and is determined to see through its commitment to respect human rights and uphold labor standards.” 
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Asian markets were higher Thursday despite a chaotic day on Japan’s benchmark Nikkei index.Trading was halted early Thursday on the world’s third-largest stock market due to a glitch in its electronic trading system. The Japan Exchange Group, which operates the Nikkei, said the malfunction was due to a hardware failure in the system’s backup device. The company said it hopes to have the problem fixed and the Nikkei back up and running again Friday.Meanwhile, the S&P/ASX index in Sydney was up 0.9%, and Taipei’s TSEC index was up 0.3%. Mumbai’s Sensex was up 1.5% in late afternoon trading.The indices in Seoul, Hong Kong and Shanghai were closed due to national holidays in South Korea and mainland China.In commodities trading, gold was selling at $1,900.70 per ounce, up 0.2%. U.S. crude oil was selling at $39.94 an barrel, down 0.7%, and Brent crude oil was selling at $40.91 per barrel, down 0.1%.All three major U.S. indices were trending positively in futures trading.
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A few years ago, Dong Qiongyao, a woman from China’s Hunan province, streamed a protest from in front of a state-owned company where she denounced the Communist Party and splashed ink on a portrait of the country’s leader, Xi Jinping.Such protests are extremely rare in China, where the government punishes dissidents harshly to deter others. Authorities said the splashing of ink was a sign that Dong suffered from a “mental illness” and forcibly put her in a psychiatric hospital.The human rights website Minsheng Guancha has recorded 510 cases of dissidents being forced to go to psychiatric hospital across the country since December 2007.According to the website, the process of sending people to mental hospitals for medically unnecessary “treatment” is aimed at discrediting dissidents, activists and petitioners for their political beliefs, stigmatizing them as mentally unfit.Dong was released after four months in the facility. Her father said that when he saw her in January 2020 for the first time since her arrest, she was a completely different person. He said that her face was puffed up and her torso was bloated, she barely talked and said nothing when asked about what had happened to her.Then, earlier this year, Dong Qiongyao was sent back to the psychiatric hospital for two months. When she came out, her family said her condition had worsened. She now suffers from incontinence and screams at night, especially when it rains.“I only saw her once after she was released the second time,” her father, Dong Jianbiao, told VOA. “I wanted to take a photo of her with my phone, but she was scared and wouldn’t let me. Her mom said she talks nonsense at home and cries and screams a lot.”Her condition is suspected to stem in part from the side effects of the drugs she was given during her hospitalization.Dong Jianbiao maintained that his daughter doesn’t have the so-called “mental illness” that the authorities say she has.Punishing with forced hospitalizationsDeng Fuquan, a 51-year-old veteran who had been petitioning the government for many years over pension subsidies, was also sent to a psychiatric hospital last year for mandatory “treatment” for more than two months.Deng said that being held in a mental hospital made him very uncomfortable, even more so than in a detention center. Deng said he was surrounded by real psychiatric patients who were often tied up and electrocuted in pain and grief, making him stressed.He said that people show different symptoms after taking the pills the hospital gave them. Some of them would bloat and others would fall asleep.“I felt sleepy and a lack of energy after taking the pills,” Deng told VOA.Human rights website Minsheng Guancha, which tracks these tactics across China, says psychiatric hospitals also tie patients up and subject them to electric shocks, calling that “medical treatments” when they are actually torture.In 2013, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress of the Communist Party of China issued a new Mental Health Law of the People’s Republic of China in order to correct forced hospitalization for mental illness. The law states hospitalization for mental disorders should be voluntary.Minsheng Guancha said the situation improved when the law was passed, but some local authorities still send petitioners, dissidents and activists to psychiatric facilities, saying it is for convalescent purposes and permitted by the family members.China’s Ministry of Public Security held a national health hospital working meeting many years ago, stressing that in the treatment of mentally ill people, the hospital may not accept persons who are not mentally ill without the approval from the public security department.The rule sparked widespread backlash with criticism that the mental hospitals were being handed over to the public security authorities in order to continue to allow local authorities to use “mental illness” as a weapon against petitioners, activists and dissidents. 
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