The U.S. government announced approval Wednesday to sell $1 billion worth of advanced air-to-ground missiles to Taiwan as the island shores up its defenses against the threat from China.   The State Department said it had agreed to sell 135 of the AGM-84H SLAM-ER missiles – precision-guided, air-launched cruise missiles – and related equipment.   Also approved was the sale of six MS-110 reconnaissance pods for air reconnaissance, and 11 M142 mobile light rocket launchers, taking the value of three arms packages to $1.8 billion. The SLAM-ER missiles will help Taiwan “meet current and future threats as it provides all-weather, day and night, precision attack capabilities against both moving and stationary targets” on the ground or ocean surface, a statement said.China, which regards Taiwan as a renegade province, has stepped up pressure toward the island over the past year, sending attack and surveillance aircraft into its airspace and ships near its waters.Last week, Beijing released video of a military exercise simulating an invasion of a Taiwan-like territory featuring missile strikes and amphibious landings. While Taiwan has for decades fallen back on an implicit U.S. security guarantee, Washington has urged it to strengthen its own capabilities to resist an attack. But Washington also wants Taiwan to upgrade its armaments.  “Whether there’s an amphibious landing, a missile attack, a grey zone-type operation, they really need to fortify themselves,” national security adviser Robert O’Brien said last week.   “Taiwan needs to start looking at some asymmetric and anti-access area denial strategies … and really fortify itself in a manner that would deter the Chinese from any sort of amphibious invasion or even a grey zone operation against them,” O’Brien said. The sales announced Wednesday did not include the MQ9 Reaper combat drones, which Taiwan has reportedly requested. 
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With the U.S. presidential election less than two weeks away and the focus on a handful of states expected to determine the outcome, incumbent Republican Donald Trump was back in North Carolina on Wednesday, where Democratic challenger Joe Biden’s running mate, U.S. Senator Kamala Harris, also made appearances earlier in the day.“We’re going to win this state,” Trump predicted at an evening rally in Gastonia. Later at the event, he told the crowd of thousands, “I’ve been all over your state. You better let me win.”North Carolina is a key prize in the election as the victor gets 15 of the 270 electoral votes needed to capture the presidency.Trump beat Hillary Clinton in the state four years ago by fewer than 200,000 votes, capturing just under 50% of ballots cast.“We need North Carolina and that’s why I’m here, that’s why he’s (Trump) been here,” Harris told reporters at the airport in Asheville after a campaign event on a nearby college campus. “The people of North Carolina are very much going to be a very big part of deciding this election, so we’re here to encourage the vote.”Three polls in the past week have shown Biden ahead of Trump by 3 points, within the margin of error of those surveys of voters.North Carolina is often characterized as a swing state, but some there suggest it is better to list it as battleground state because prior to Barack Obama in 2008, the last time the state voted for a Democrat for president was Jimmy Carter in 1976.“The historic 1929 textile mill strikes had its epicenter in Gastonia. As the textile industry has faded in North Carolina, Gastonia has retained some of its blue-collar heritage while also moving into the metropolitan orbit of Charlotte. The Trump campaign would have to run strongly in Gaston County to match its 2016 victory in North Carolina,” said professor Ferrel Guillory, who directs the Program on Public Life at the journalism and media school at the University of North Carolina.Professor Mac McCorkle at Duke University’s public policy school, where he directs its POLIS politics center, told VOA, “Gastonia is exactly the kind of place Trump needs to be or has to be at this juncture, if being in a particular place matters. It’s one those at least partly Charlotte exurban or ‘countrypolitan’ counties where Republicans have been getting and need to get more than 60% support.”Over the years, North Carolina has seen its furniture and textile industries wither while growth in the Research Triangle and Charlotte attracts a more diverse population.“North Carolina is not as simple as partisan breakdown,” with more than 40% of its residents born outside the state, said Susan Roberts, a political science professor at Davidson College.In a statement released Wednesday, Biden said, “Trump isn’t focused on caring for working families in North Carolina who cannot make their rent or mortgage payments, parents and educators struggling to educate their kids, or small-business owners losing everything they worked so hard to build. He has given up on his responsibility to get this virus under control.”Trump at his Gastonia rally, where he spent more than 75 minutes on stage, accused the media and the Democrats of focusing too much on the pandemic.“All you hear is COVID, COVID,” said the president, who has recovered from the virus after testing positive earlier this month. “That’s all they put on because they want to scare the hell out of everyone.”This year, COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, has killed about 222,000 people in the United States out of a total of 8.3 million confirmed to have been infected. It has killed more than 4,000 people in North Carolina where new coronavirus cases, hospitalizations and the percentage of COVID-19 tests that are positive are increasing statewide.Perhaps the chief issue for North Carolina voters is health care. Roberts, of Davidson College, notes that North Carolina is one of only 12 states that have opted not to adopt the expanded Medicaid program under the Affordable Care Act.Trump has repeatedly railed against the act, known as Obamacare. Biden’s campaign pledges to bolster the plan with a variety of adds-on that will “insure more than an estimated 97% of Americans.”
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About midnight Sunday, reporter Shkumbin Kajtazi heard gunshots ring out in Mitrovica, the Kosovan city where he lives.When he went outside, Kajtazi, who works for the news website Reporteri and runs his own outlet Jepi Zë (Give it Voice), found the window of his car shattered by bullets.Reporter Shkumbin Kajtazi said the attack on his car occurred about midnight Sunday, when it was parked in downtown Mitrovica, Kosovo. (Facebook/shkumbinkajtazi)Kajtazi told VOA on Wednesday that he couldn’t pinpoint any specific article that might have led to the attack, but as an investigative journalist and editor at Reporteri and owner of a local news site, “I think responsibility about any article we publish falls on me.”Kosovan Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), leaders of institutions and political parties, and the Association of Journalists of Kosovo all called for a swift investigation.Hoti called on law enforcement to make the investigation a priority and reiterated that press freedom is guaranteed by law and protected.“Attacks on journalists and media are direct attacks on democratic values. Therefore, they will be treated with priority by law enforcement agencies,” Hoti wrote on his Facebook account.His calls were welcomed by U.S. Ambassador to Kosovo Philip Kosnett. In a tweet Tuesday, Kosnett said journalists “deserve our respect and protection.”Attacks on journalists are assaults on our shared democratic values. By reporting the truth and holding officials accountable, journalists serve the public. They deserve our respect and protection. I welcome the Prime Minister’s call to swiftly investigate incidents.— Ambassador Philip S. Kosnett (@USAmbKosovo) “When I approached the place where I parked it, I saw that the car was seriously damaged,” reporter Shkumbin Kajtazi wrote on Facebook. He said there were “bullet holes and shells everywhere: in the driver’s seat, ceiling and back.” (Facebook/shkumbinkajtazi)The shooting came months after an attempted arson against Kajtazi. In June, someone tried to set fire to the journalist’s car, but neighbors called the police, according to the media group International Press Association.A suspect was arrested but has not been charged. Kajtazi said a prosecutor told him the suspect confessed and said it was because of the journalist’s work.“It is disturbing that within a period of four months, there have been two attacks against [Kajtazi],” a statement from the Association of Journalists of Kosovo said.  “Every attack on journalists is an attack on the public interest and democracy in the country.”The association described the latest attack as “extremely disturbing and aggravating not only the climate of journalism, but also endangering the lives of our colleagues.”The OSCE also condemned what it called an “act of intimidation.”Ramush Haradinaj, a former prime minister and chair of the ruling coalition partner, Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, said “freedom is not complete without the right to speak.””Those who are trying to present Kosovo as an insecure country, where free speech is violated, through cowardly attacks, must be detected and their very harmful activity for the country must be stopped,” Haradinaj wrote on Facebook. At least one other journalist has been threatened in a separate case this year, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, a New York-based nonprofit.In September, Ermal Panduri, who hosts a political talk show and is managing director of TV station RTV Dukagjini, received dozens of messages via Facebook users, including death threats.  The journalist said the threats started after he criticized the president over a land dispute with Serbia.“If journalists cannot criticize the country’s politics without receiving a torrent of threats to their lives, then the press cannot operate freely in Kosovo,” CPJ program director Carlos Martinez de la Serna said at the time.Physical and verbal threats were listed by media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) as concerns in Kosovo, alongside cyberattacks on news websites.“Many media in Kosovo are not financially stable, which makes them susceptible to political influence and often results in self-censorship,” RSF said in its 2020 press freedom index. This story originated in VOA’s Albanian Service.
 
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With Democratic candidate Joe Biden holding a substantial lead in presidential election polls, President Donald Trump’s campaign is trying to appeal to independent and disaffected Republican voters. Trump is warning that if Democrats win, they will enact radical changes to the American system of democracy. VOA’s Brian Padden reports on concerns the Democrats might change the filibuster rule in the Senate to pack the Supreme Court, abolish the Electoral College or admit new Democratic majority states into the union.
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Кабінет міністрів створив міжвідомчу робочу групу з питань координаці переговорного процесу з Міжнародним валютним фондом, повідомляє пресслужба Міністерства фінансів 21 жовтня. Відповідну постанову уряд затвердив сьогодні.

Йдеться про тимчасовий дорадчий орган, метою створення якого є виконання зобов’язань України за програмою stand-by. Головою робочої групи стане урядовий уповноважений з питань управління державним боргом Юрій Буца.

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«До складу Групи зі сторони Мінфіну також увійдуть заступник Міністра фінансів з питань європейської інтеграції Юрій Драганчук, на якого покладені обов’язки заступника голови Групи, радник Міністра фінансів Юлія Пашко, а також начальник відділу співробітництва з МВФ Управління міжнародного співробітництва Міністерства фінансів Дмитро Манцуров – секретар Робочої групи», – йдеться в повідомленні.

Як нагадують у Міністерстві фінансів, до кінця 2020 року Україна розраховує отримати 700 мільйонів доларів в рамках поточної програми співпраці з МВФ.

8 жовтня представництво МВФ в Україні прокоментувало висловлення недовіри Радою НБУ членам правління Нацбанку Катерині Рожковій і Дмитрові Сологубу. Місія Фонду закликала забезпечувати відповідальність правління НБУ згідно з засадами управління Національним банком, що були розроблені у консультаціях з фахівцями Міжнародного валютного фонду.

Читайте також: У посольстві США поділяють занепокоєння МВФ щодо рішення ради НБУ про догану й недовіру Рожковій і Сологубу

На початку жовтня депутати Європарламенту Віола фон Крамон, Міхаель Ґалер та Раса Юкнявічене звернулися до керівника української владної фракції «Слуга народу» Давида Арахамії з відкритим листом. У цьому документі євродепутати попередили про небезпеку втрати Україною безвізового режиму та макрофінансової допомоги від ЄС.

Це сталося після того, як Верховна Рада включила до конкурсної комісії на відбір на адміністративні посади у Спеціалізованій антикорупційній прокуратурі сімох представників парламенту. У представництві ЄС і посольстві США заявили, що продовження підтримки України залежатиме від прозорості конкурсу на посаду очільника САП.
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Thailand’s prime minister said Wednesday he may lift a state of emergency aimed at quelling pro-Democracy demonstrations, but protesters have given the leader a three-day deadline to resign.
 
“I am currently preparing to lift the state of severe emergency in Bangkok and will do so promptly if there are no violent incidents,” Prayuth Chan-o-cha, who seized power in a 2014 coup, said in an address to the nation Wednesday, without specifying any time-frame.
 
“We must now step back from the edge of the slippery slope that can easily slide to chaos,” he added.
 
But protest leaders said Wednesday they would organize fresh rounds of demonstrations if Prayuth does not resign within three days.
 
Thousands of protesters on Wednesday marched to the Democracy House, the prime minister’s residence, in defiance of a ban on gatherings of more than four people for the sixth day in a row.
 
Earlier Wednesday, Thai courts reversed a decision to shut down Voice TV — a media outlet partly owned by the family of exiled former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Voice TV is one of four media outlets under investigation by the government for their coverage of the protest movement.
 
Protesters have also called for changes to the monarchy —a seemingly untouchable institution in Thailand, where insulting royalty can result in criminal charges.
 
But scuffles broke out between protesters and pro-monarchy supporters last week, and crowds Friday were dispersed with water cannons. Demonstrations over the weekend and into Monday were largely peaceful.
 
The latest wave of protests began in February when the Future Forward Party, a progressive party largely supported by young Thais, was dissolved by court order.
 
Protests were then halted due to COVID-19 concerns, but regained energy in July, despite a ban on large gatherings. 
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A Senegalese anti-cancer group is encouraging women to get mammograms after a drop in the number of women getting screened because of coronavirus concerns, as Estelle Ndjandjo reports from Dakar.
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People in Ukraine are closely following the U.S. presidential election given America’s strategic importance to the country and campaign allegations of corruption linked to Ukraine.  Henry Ridgwell reports.Videographer: Eugene Risunkov
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Національний банк України встановив на 22 жовтня курс 28 гривень 27 копійок за долар. Це на 10 копійок менше за офіційний курс на 21 жовтня і на 13 копійок менше від річного мінімуму щодо долара США, зафіксованого 6 жовтня.

«У середу основними мотиваторами на валютному ринку будуть розрахунки тих клієнтів, хто запізнився з погашенням боргів перед бюджетом по податках і зборах та необхідність оплат по вчорашньому аукціону Мінфіну України по ОВДП», – відзначали експерти сайту «Мінфін», які прогнозували посилення національної валюти.

Водночас, вказують вони, надалі на валютний ринок впливатимуть і негативні для гривні чинники.

«Вже скоро настане період виплат основних сум відшкодувань ПДВ експортерам, і, за нашою інформацією, частина найбільших із них намагатиметься дотягнути до цього періоду, витрачаючи валюту по мінімуму. Тим більше, що вже цієї неділі місцеві вибори, а політичний фактор у нашій країні завжди відрізняється своїми «страшилками» щодо можливого подальшого зростання курсу. Фактор невизначеності завжди працює проти нацвалюти», – додають фахівці.

На українському міжбанківському валютному ринку в останню годину торгів національна валюта посилилася до 28 гривень 24–26 копійок за долар (з ранкового рівня 28 гривень 34–36 копійок за долар), свідчать дані Finance.ua.
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A U.S. federal appeals court has ruled that as long as a voter in the state of North Carolina has mailed their absentee ballot no later than Election Day, election officials can count it even if it arrives after Election Day. The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday denied a challenge to a North Carolina State Board of Elections rule that said it will accept mail-in ballots as late as November 12. The original regulations would have made the cutoff November 6. The 12-3 ruling involved all of the court’s active judges, instead of a more typical three-judge panel, signaling the importance of the case. The issue is playing out in courts all over the country as election officials, political parties and rights groups battle on the question of to what extent rules in each state should be changed as more people seek to avoid having to go to a polling place on November 3 due to the coronavirus pandemic. “Everyone must submit their ballot by the same date,” said the 4th Circuit ruling.  “The extension merely allows more lawfully cast ballots to be counted, in the event there are any delays precipitated by an avalanche of mail-in ballots.”FILE – An election worker enters a polling station in Charlotte, North Carolina, April 24, 2019, as the station prepares for early voting.The courts have generally sided with the rules put in place by state legislatures and election officials while denying challenges from political parties and outside groups. The legal challenges have included many of the states considered key to deciding which candidate will win the presidential election, such as Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan. On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a ruling by Pennsylvania’s top court allowing mail-in ballots to be counted if they arrive by November 6. Various courts gave voters in Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin similar extensions, but in each of those cases a higher court overturned the ruling.  Voters in all three states must now make sure their ballots are received by Election Day in order to be counted. Overall, about 20 U.S. states currently allow ballots to come in after Election Day as long as they are postmarked by November 3. Many states are also allowing people to cast ballots in person ahead of Election Day.  Combined with the mail-in votes, about 38 million people had already cast a ballot by Tuesday night, according to the U.S. Election Project. 
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Authorities in Nigeria are investigating reports that soldiers opened fire on demonstrators protesting against police brutality Tuesday night. The incident took place at Lekki Toll Plaza, an upscale district in Lagos, the country’s largest city and financial hub. One eyewitness, Akinbosola Ogunsanya, told news outlets that soldiers pulled into the plaza and after the lights were turned off at the plaza began shooting.   Ogunsanya and other eyewitnesses say there were multiple casualties at the scene.  Reports of the shooting came on the first night of a 24-hour curfew imposed by Lagos Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, which prohibits all but essential workers and first responders from the streets after 4 p.m. local time.  A spokesman for the governor, Gboyega Akosile, said on Twitter that the Lagos state government has ordered an investigation into the incident.The State Government has ordered an investigation into the incident.Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has advised the security agents not to arrest anyone on account of the curfew, which he urges residents to observe for the peaceful atmosphere we all cherish. #LASG#ForAGreaterLagos— The Lagos State Govt (@followlasg) October 20, 2020The international human rights group Amnesty International issued a statement saying there was “credible but disturbing evidence” of fatalities from the shooting at Lekki Toll Plaza.   “While we continue to investigate the killings, Amnesty International wishes to remind the authorities that under international law, security forces may only resort to the use of lethal force when strictly unavoidable to protect against imminent threat of death or serious injury,” the human rights watchdog tweeted.   The West African nation has been engulfed by two weeks of massive protests against the government’s Special Anti-Robbery Squad, commonly known as SARS, which were sparked by video allegedly depicting a man being beaten by SARS officers. The unit has long been accused of carrying out harassment, kidnappings, extortion, torture and murder. The demonstrations, conducted under the banner #EndSARS, led the Nigerian government to disband the controversial police unit.  But the demonstrations have persisted and turned violent as protesters demand broader changes to policing and an end to corruption.Video taken by a stringer for VOA’s Hausa service in the city of Jos Tuesday showed angry demonstrators hurling rocks and setting fires in the middle of one street, sidewalks covered with glass from shattered windows, burned out vehicles, and uniformed and plainclothes police patrolling the streets. “We need a new Nigeria. That is why we’re here,” protester David Danladi told VOA Hausa. “We need everything about the police to be changed.”   “We need someone that is going to address, that is going to tell us, ‘Look, we have heard your cry. We have heard your demands,’” Danladi said. “That is the change that we want.” At least 10 people have died since protests began earlier this month. Protesters and rights groups including Amnesty International have accused Nigerian police of using excessive force during demonstrations.  
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U.S. President Donald Trump is demanding Pennsylvania get back to normal business operations at a time the state is seeing a spike in coronavirus cases. “What the hell is happening in Pennsylvania?” Trump asked the crowd at his Tuesday evening campaign rally at Erie International Airport, in the western part of the crucial swing state for the November 3 general election. Expressing frustration with pandemic restrictions imposed by Governor Tom Wolf, a member of the Democratic Party, the president said “Pennsylvania has been shut down long enough. Get your governor to open up Pennsylvania.”   Wolfe issued a renewed plea on Monday to Pennsylvanians to work together to stop the spread of the virus. Every part of the state is seeing community spread of COVID-19, partly due to “relatively small gatherings of families and friends,” said Dr. Rachel Levine, Pennsylvania’s top health official.   The number of people hospitalized from COVID-19 in the state has doubled in the past four weeks, but it is still more than three times lower than at its peak in late April.   Trump, along with Vice President Mike Pence, has been making frequent campaign appearances in the state, seen as critical for their re-election chances in two weeks.   Wolf has criticized the Trump campaign for holding “unsafe rallies that will put Pennsylvania communities at risk” of COVID-19 outbreaks. A letter signed by more than 75 physicians in Pennsylvania urged people not to attend Tuesday’s rally, saying such campaign events endanger public health and give a false impression that the coronavirus is “no longer with us.” Democratic Party nominee Joe Biden, a native of Pennsylvania, has also frequently been in the state but has followed social-distancing guidelines, minimizing the number of attendees and requiring all in attendance to wear masks.President Donald Trump points at the crowd after a campaign rally at Erie International Airport, Tom Ridge Field, Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2020, in Erie, Pa.Former President Barack Obama is to campaign for his former vice president in Philadelphia on Wednesday at what is being called a “drive-in rally.” Polls taken in Pennsylvania this month show Biden leading Trump by just a few points and the race further narrowing. Trump acknowledged to the tightly packed crowd of thousands in Erie that he had not expected to have to campaign in their city this year. “I have to be honest. There was no way I was coming,” said the president. “And then we got hit with the plague and I had to go back to work.”   During his 56-minute speech in Erie, the president said the U.S. government is “crushing the virus,” the country is doing much better than Europe, and the pandemic “is ending.” Biden did not make any campaign appearances on Tuesday, remaining in Wilmington, Delaware, where he was said to be preparing for Thursday evening’s second debate with Trump, which is to take place in Nashville, Tennessee.   Pennsylvania’s 20 electoral votes, out of the 270 needed to capture the presidency, is a crucial prize. In 2016, Trump edged Hillary Clinton by only 45,000 popular votes in the state with the help of white, working-class voters in Erie, who had long been loyal to the Democrats. First lady Melania Trump had been scheduled to join her husband on stage in Erie on Tuesday. Earlier in the day, her office announced she was canceling her appearance due to a lingering cough following her coronavirus infection. President Trump spent three days in the hospital being treated for COVID-19. He has declared himself cured and now immune to the virus that has killed more than 220,000 people in the United States. Surveys show his administration’s handling of the pandemic has hurt him among voters. According to a New York Times/Sienna poll released Tuesday, Biden is favored over Trump to lead on the coronavirus pandemic by 12 points.   Biden has repeatedly accused the president of deliberately downplaying the deadliness of the disease, calling Trump’s behavior “close to criminal.”   
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An effort to reduce growing strains on overcrowded prisons in Syria, some holding thousands of captured Islamic State fighters, is being met with cautious optimism in Washington, even though it involves letting hundreds of the terror group’s adherents walk free.The plan put into motion last week by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Council (SDC), the political arm of the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), calls for the release of so-called “low-level” Islamic State members under a general amnesty.Already, 631 such Syrian nationals have been freed, allowed to return to their homes, while another 253 have seen their sentences cut in half, and Kurdish officials say more releases are expected in the coming months.So far, the United States is on board.“We see these return and reintegration initiatives as positive,” a State Department spokesperson told VOA, noting the release “focused on nonviolent offenders who are not assessed to pose a radicalization risk to their communities.”The official, speaking on the condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of the matter, also suggested aid could be available to help the process go smoothly.“We, along with our coalition partners, are prepared to support receiving communities as part of ongoing stabilization initiatives,” the spokesperson said.Concerns about what to do with captured IS fighters and IS supporters have only grown since the collapse of the terror group’s caliphate in March 2019.Within months, key Pentagon officials were warning that the more than a dozen makeshift prisons set up by the SDF to hold, at the time, more than 10,000 captured IS fighters, including 2,000 foreign fighters, were simply not sustainable.US officials have long warned the A man, suspected of having collaborated with the Islamic State (IS) group, is greeted by a family member upon his release from the Kurdish-run Alaya prison in the northeastern Syrian city of Qamishli, on Oct. 15, 2020.Not everyone is as optimistic, though.“ISIS likely recruited aggressively within detention centers due to the SDF’s failure to isolate radical elements of the population,” Eva Kahan, a researcher at the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War, told VOA, using an acronym for the terror group.“This initial release will supply tens to low hundreds of potential ISIS fighters or supporters to active insurgent cells in the Middle Euphrates River Valley and could add fuel to that insurgency’s flames,” Kahan said.Other experts who have studied the region, while not ready to rule out possible blowback, argue the success or failure of the prisoner releases may hinge more on what happens next.“Much is going to depend on the conditions that they encounter back in their communities and whether or not conditions are conducive to their reintegration,” said Mona Yacoubian, a senior adviser at the Washington-based U.S. Institute of Peace.“The extent to which people are released into conditions that are the kinds of conditions that feed the grievances that often can lead to recruitment into groups like ISIS, it’s certainly a concern,” she said. “There’s no 100% certainty on this.”
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