Hundreds of Iranian Kurdish members of a Muslim sect seeking to attend the funeral of their leader in neighboring Iraq have forced their way through a crossing into Iraqi territory, exposing a weakness in Iranian and Iraqi border controls aimed at curbing the spread of the coronavirus.Video clips widely shared on social media showed the Iranian followers of the Sufi Muslim Qadiriyya sect dashing across the Bashmakh crossing from Iran’s Kurdistan province into northern Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region Thursday. The clips were sent to VOA’s Kurdish service and published online by prominent Iraqi Kurdish news outlets Rudaw and Kurdistan24. VOA could not verify them independently.ساتی تەقەکردنی ھێزەکانی ئێران لە دەروێشانی تەریقەتی قادری لە خاڵی سنووری #باشماخ لەو دیوی رۆژھەڵاتەوە pic.twitter.com/YECybLjrjP
— Kurdistan24 Kurdish (@kurdistan24tv) July 9, 2020In some of the clips, gunshots could be heard as the mostly male Sufis, some dressed in traditional robes and carrying swords and daggers used in Sufi rituals, ran through the crossing.#BREAKING: More than 200 sufi dervish followers of the Qadiriyya Religious order’s late Sheikh Mohammadi Kasnazani from Iran have attacked and passed through a Kurdistan Region border crossing Thursday afternoon, brandishing swords, knives and daggers to cross. (1/2) pic.twitter.com/uM0VxIdNju
— Rudaw English (@RudawEnglish) Iranian Kurdish Sufi Muslims participate in a ritual at the Bashmakh border crossing between Iran and Iraq on July 9, 2020, as hundreds of them dash into Iraqi territory to attend the funeral of their spiritual leader. (VOA Kurdish)Disputing that contention, the deputy governor of Iran’s Kurdistan province, Hussein Khoshghaqal, told Iranian state news agency IRNA that Iraqi border guards fired the shots. However, he made no mention of Iranian security forces doing anything to try to stop the Iranian Sufis from breaching the border. Khoshghaqal only appealed to other members of the sect not to attempt similar crossings.Rudaw quoted another Iraqi Kurdish official at the Bashmakh crossing, Mukhtar Haji Ali, as saying the Kurdistan Regional Government deputy prime minister, Qubad Talabani, had ordered the crossing’s complete closure for 24 hours in response to the incident.The Iranian Sufis who crossed into Iraqi Kurdistan were heading to the city of Sulaymaniyah to participate in funeral rituals for their spiritual leader Sheikh Mohammad al-Kasnazani who had a home there. He died at the age of 82 July 4 while receiving medical treatment in the United States.A relative of Kasnazani told VOA Kurdish that the spiritual leader’s body would arrive by private jet at Sulaymaniyah’s airport Friday before being taken to the family’s residence in the city for the funeral. Buses were bringing the Iranian Sufis to the residence from the border, about a two-hour drive.A spokesperson for the KRG’s health ministry, Mohammed Qadir, told Rudaw that the arrival of the Iranian Sufis in Sulaymaniyah without having first undergone medical and administrative checks at the border could cause a “catastrophe” in the coming months.In a Thursday report, Kurdistan24 said the KRG has confirmed 8,726 coronavirus cases and 294 virus-related deaths in the autonomous region since February. It said the vast majority of the confirmed cases, numbering more than 6,100, were in Sulaymaniyah province.A website affiliated with the late Sufi spiritual leader had encouraged his followers to join the funeral in Sulaymaniyah in the days after his death.However, Kasnazani’s aides changed course Thursday, issuing a statement through Iraqi Kurdish news sites calling on his followers to respect health guidelines by conducting mourning rituals at home rather than traveling to Iraqi Kurdistan.Kasnazani’s Qadiriyya order of Sufism draws most of its members from Kurdish regions of Iraq and Iran. It also has followers in Turkey, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Central Asia and Morocco.This article originated in VOA’s Persian Service and was produced in collaboration with VOA Kurdish and VOA’s Extremism Watch Desk. Lipin and Jedinia reported from Washington and Majeed from Sulaymaniyah. Dishad Anwar contributed from Iraq’s Kurdistan region. Click here for the original Kurdish version of the story. 
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The U.S. reported more than 64,000 cases of the coronavirus Thursday, a record high number, overwhelming intensive care units in hospitals in the country’s hard-hit West and South, including Arizona, California, Florida and Texas.Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious-disease official, has urged governors to delay their re-opening plans in order to bring a halt to the surges in the virus.The World Health Organization is launching an independent investigation into the global response to the coronavirus pandemic after some countries appear to have done a better job at tackling the outbreak than others.“This is a time for self-reflection, to look at the world we live in and to find ways to strengthen our collaboration as we work together to save lives and bring this pandemic under control,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Thursday. “The magnitude of this pandemic, which has touched virtually everyone in the world, clearly deserves a commensurate evaluation.”Former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark and former Liberian President Ellen Sirleaf Johnson will lead the panel. Other members will be added later.“I cannot imagine two more strong-minded, independent leaders to help guide us through this critical learning process,” Tedros said.The WHO chief has said numerous times that global coordination is key to battling the pandemic, including work on developing a vaccine that he says must be made available to all and not just those who can afford to pay for it.Airborne spread, asymptomatic transmissionAlso Thursday, the World Health Organization formally recognized what more than 200 scientists have been telling it to acknowledge – that COVID-19 could be spread through the air.Australian and U.S. scientists – backed by more than 200 others – wrote this week that studies show “beyond any reasonable doubt that viruses are released during exhalation, talking and coughing in microdroplets small enough to remain aloft in the air.”The WHO had dismissed that possibility, but now says “airborne spread, particularly in specific indoor locations such as crowded and inadequately ventilated spaces over a prolonged period of time with infected persons, cannot be ruled out.”It also added that it agrees with some researchers who say that even people who show no symptoms are capable of spreading the coronavirus through the air.More lockdownsMeanwhile, officials around the world are reimposing lockdowns and other restrictions as the global number of COVID-19 cases appears to grow – more than 12 million cases and 553,000 deaths as of late Thursday. In the United States, records for the number of new cases are being set every day.Health experts say people got complacent as restaurants, bars and tourist attractions began to reopen in the past several weeks, believing that the worst was over, and did not wear masks or practice social distancing.California lawsuitThe state of California is suing the Trump administration over its policy requiring international students to attend college classes in person or face possible deportation.California Attorney General Xavier Becerra says not allowing international students to take classes remotely threatens to further spread the coronavirus and would deprive financially struggling schools of talent and tuition dollars.”Shame on the Trump Administration for risking not only the education opportunities for students who earned the chance to go to college, but now their health and well-being as well,” Becerra said. “President Trump appears set to do just that amidst a global pandemic of historic proportions. Not on our watch.”There has been no response so far from the White House. About 21,000 international students attend California colleges and universities.At the White HouseA White House reporter who attends briefings has tested positive for COVID-19, the correspondents’ association said Thursday.It did not name the reporter, who showed no symptoms before testing positive.Other White House correspondents who were in the briefings with the affected reporter will be tested.ElsewhereBolivia’s interim president Jeanine Áñez says she has tested positive for COVID-19.“I feel good, I feel strong, I will continue to work virtually from my isolation,” she tweeted Thursday.In Brazil, President Jair Bolsonaro has also come down with COVID-19 after months of dismissing the disease as nothing to worry about.Rio de Janeiro Mayor Marcelo Crivella says the city’s world-famous beaches will not officially open until there is a coronavirus vaccine.  
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The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday recognized about half of Oklahoma as Native American reservation land and overturned a tribe member’s rape conviction because the location where the crime was committed should have been considered outside the reach of state criminal law. VOA’s Julie Taboh has more.
Produced by: Julie Taboh
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Ford Motor Co. may have to shut some U.S. car plants as early as next week if they fail to receive engines produced in Mexico’s Chihuahua state, Christopher Landau, the U.S. ambassador to Mexico, said Thursday. Mexico is a key part of a wider international supply chain crucial to U.S. carmakers, many of which operate factories across the border in Mexico because of lower labor costs. Landau said a senior Ford executive told him Wednesday night the Dearborn, Michigan-based automaker was concerned about the engines produced in Chihuahua state, where the governor has “limited industrial capacity to 50%” because of the coronavirus. The federal government has given automakers, mining firms and builders, with activities deemed essential, the green light to restart work in Mexico, though some states have implemented their own restrictions as the coronavirus pandemic rages on. “They’re saying that they’re going to start shutting down factories in the United States as of next week if they don’t get that rolling,” Landau said in a talk organized by the Atlantic Council. Ford had no immediate comment on the matter. In May, when Mexico signaled it would delay the reopening of its factories, Mexico officials said their U.S. counterparts pushed for a speedy return, arguing that U.S. plants on American soil could not operate without them.  
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Brazil will ban fires in the Amazon forest for 120 days, heeding the demands of global investors upset over environmental destruction, the government said Thursday. A formal decree banning fires will come next week. Brazilian Vice President Hamilton Mourao made the announcement during a virtual investment conference Thursday with several European firms. He cited a letter signed by 29 firms — some of whom are threatening to cut all investment in Brazil unless the environmental degradation stops. “It’s a positive first step, and we need to continue the dialogue, and hopefully we’ll all see some results on the ground,” said Jeanett Bergan, head of responsible investments for KLP, Norway’s largest pension fund. The investors told Brazilian authorities they monitor deforestation rates, prevention of forest fires, and enforcement of Brazil’s forest code when assessing their investment strategy in Brazil. FILE – Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro leaves his official residence of Alvorada palace in Brasilia, May 25, 2020.Brazil’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, has come under global condemnation for his promise to open the vast Amazon rainforest to development and his opposition to assuring that some parts are reserved for Indigenous peoples. Environmentalists say deforestation in the Amazon reached its highest levels in 11 years last year. Some European Union nations threatened not to ratify a long-negotiated free trade deal with a group of Latin countries that includes Brazil unless Brazil’s attitude changes. Mourao said Brazil has been unfairly criticized and said the Bolsonaro government was handed understaffed environmental agencies by the previous administration. Brazilian officials have said they are working to overcome Brazil’s current image as being indifferent to the Amazon and hostile to those who want to save it from destruction. 
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President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, was returned to federal prison, weeks after his early release to serve the remainder of his sentence at home because of the coronavirus pandemic, the federal Bureau of Prisons said Thursday.In a statement to The Associated Press, the Bureau of Prisons said Cohen had “refused the conditions of his home confinement and as a result, has been returned to a BOP facility.” His return to prison comes days after the New York Post published photos of him and his wife enjoying an outdoor meal with friends at a restaurant near his Manhattan home.Cohen, who pleaded guilty to tax evasion, campaign finance fraud and lying to Congress, had been released May 21 on furlough as part of an attempt to slow the spread of the virus in federal prisons. Cohen, 53, began serving his sentence in May 2019 and had been scheduled to remain in prison until November 2021.FILE – Michael Cohen arrives at his New York City apartment in this May 21, 2020 file photo.Cohen’s convictions were related to crimes including dodging taxes on $4 million in income from his taxi business, lying during congressional testimony about the timing of discussions around an abandoned plan to build a Trump Tower in Russia, and orchestrating payments to two women to keep them from talking publicly about alleged affairs with Trump. Prosecutors said the payments amounted to illegal campaign contributions. Trump, who denied the affairs, said any payments were a personal matter.Cohen was once one of Trump’s closest advisors but became a loud critic after pleading guilty.A federal judge had denied Cohen’s attempt for an early release to home confinement after serving 10 months in prison and said in a May ruling that it “appears to be just another effort to inject himself into the news cycle.” But the Bureau of Prisons can move prisoners to home confinement without a judicial order.Prison advocates and congressional leaders had pressed the Justice Department to release at-risk inmates, arguing that the public health guidance to stay 6 feet (2 meters) away from other people is nearly impossible behind bars.Attorney General William Barr ordered the Bureau of Prisons to increase the use of home confinement and expedite the release of eligible high-risk inmates, beginning at three prisons identified as coronavirus hot spots. Otisville, where Cohen was housed, was not one of those facilities.
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New guidelines introduced this week by U.S. immigration will require international students to leave the U.S. if they do not attend class on campus in person. But students already in the U.S. on F-1 visas will face challenges trying to go home amid a global pandemic. Esha Sarai has more.Producer: Esha Sarai. Videographers: Esha Sarai, VOA Russian, Tina Trinh.
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Tokyo reported a daily record 224 new cases of the coronavirus Thursday, topping the previous record of 206 new infections in mid-April, when Japan was under a state of emergency.At a task force meeting, Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike said 82 percent of the new cases were among people under age 30, including teenagers. She said a significant number of cases are linked to the city’s nightlife district. The governor said she is seeking to provide additional financial support to local nightlife businesses forced to close because of cluster infections. She said that was preferable to once again shutting down the entire city.Koike also attributed much of the spike to expanded testing, with 3,400 recently tested compared to just over 900 in mid-April. But she said Tokyo residents need to be vigilant to keep the virus from spreading to the most vulnerable.  Tokyo plans to further increase its testing capacity from the current 6,500 to 10,000 to quickly find and isolate patients so that the Japanese capital won’t have to return to a stay-home mode.Experts advised Tokyo to step up preparation at hospitals to increase the number of beds allocated for coronavirus patients to 3,000 from the current 1,000.Japan currently has about 20,000 cases with around 1,000 deaths. Tokyo now has more than 7,200 cases.
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