Mexico’s president on Friday called on authorities to investigate videos showing his brother receiving cash but said the money was part of fundraising and used for 2015 regional elections, not corruption.Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador made the comments to reporters after two videos were published online by a news outlet.”They’re contributions to strengthen the movement at a time when the people were the ones basically supporting it,” he said. “We have been fighting for many years and the people have financed us, just like what happened when revolutions have taken place.”The videos were published by Mexican news outlet Latinus while Mexico is conducting a high-profile corruption trial involving the former chief of Mexico’s state oil company, Pemex, who has also implicated former presidents and senior politicians.”The aim (of this video) is to damage the image of the government but they will not achieve it,” Lopez Obrador said. “There are birds that go through the swamp and never get dirty. That’s what my feathers are like. I’ve always come out of slander unscathed.”The videos show David Leon, a Lopez Obrador adviser before becoming the head of Mexico’s Civil Protection agency, giving cash to the president’s brother.Asked if the money was registered as a campaign contribution with authorities, Lopez Obrador said he did not know.
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Malaysia has deported a Bangladeshi worker who criticized the government’s treatment of migrants in a documentary made by broadcaster Al Jazeera, the country’s director general of immigration confirmed on Saturday.Mohammad Rayhan Kabir was deported to Bangladesh late on Friday, Khairul Dzaimee Daud told Reuters. He did not respond to further queries on why Rayhan was deported.Accompanied by immigration officers, he was seen waving and giving a thumbs-up to reporters at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Friday night, state media outlet Bernama reported.Malaysia arrested 25-year-old Rayhan and blacklisted him from entering the country last month, after Al Jazeera’s July 3 documentary on Malaysia’s treatment of undocumented foreign workers during the COVID-19 pandemic sparked a backlash in the Southeast Asia nation.At that time, Qatar-based Al Jazeera said it was disturbing Rayhan had been arrested “for choosing to speak up about some of the experiences of the voiceless and the vulnerable.”Rights groups have accused the government of suppressing media freedom after authorities questioned Al Jazeera’s journalists, raided their office, and opened into alleged sedition, defamation and violation of a communications law.Malaysia arrested hundreds of undocumented foreigners, including children and Rohingya refugees, after the country imposed a lockdown to contain the spread of the new coronavirus.Malaysian officials said the arrests were necessary to prevent the spread of the virus, which human rights activists have condemned as inhumane.Activists have also voiced concerns that the nearly 6-month-old administration of Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin is stifling dissent amid a series of clampdowns, an accusation the government has denied. 
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Delivering a “much-needed moment of pure joy,” the National Zoo’s giant panda Mei Xiang gave birth to a wiggling cub Friday at a time of global pandemic and social unrest.An experienced mom, “Mei Xiang picked the cub up immediately and began cradling and caring for it,” the zoo said in a statement. “The panda team heard the cub vocalize.”Panda lovers around the world were able to see the birth on the zoo’s Panda Cam. Zookeepers also were using the camera to keep an eye on mom and baby.“Giant pandas are an international symbol of endangered wildlife and hope, and with the birth of this precious cub we are thrilled to offer the world a much-needed moment of pure joy,” said Steve Monfort, John and Adrienne Mars Director of the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute.Monfort said Mei Xiang’s age — 22 — made her chances of giving birth to a cub slim. “However, we wanted to give her one more opportunity to contribute to her species’ survival,” he said.She is the oldest giant panda to successfully give birth in the United States. The oldest in the world gave birth in China at age 23.Mei Xiang has three surviving offspring, Tai Shan, Bao Bao and Bei Bei, that were transported to China at age 4 under an agreement with the Chinese government.The zoo has reopened to visitors on a limited basis, but the Panda House is closed.Mei Xiang gave birth in a small den, where she created a nest out of branches.Although the place looks tiny for a big panda, the zoo said giant pandas in wild give birth in small dens. “They stay in these dens for about the cub’s first 100 days,” the zoo said on Instagram.The zoo had given notice earlier in the day that Mei Xiang appeared to be in labor, noting her restlessness and body-licking.Earlier this week, the zoo, part of the Smithsonian Institution, posted an image from Mei Xiang’s ultrasound that confirmed the pregnancy. “Keep your paws crossed!” the zoo posted, reporting that the fetus was “kicking and swimming in the amniotic fluid.”“We need this! We totally need this joy,” zoo spokeswoman Pamela Baker-Masson said when the pregnancy was confirmed. “We are all in desperate need of these feel-goods.”Giant pandas at birth are about the size of a stick of butter. They’re pink and hairless; the distinctive black and white fur markings of giant pandas come later.The zoo said Mei was impregnated via artificial insemination, a process which was heavily affected by precautions over the COVID-19 pandemic. The procedure was conducted shortly after the entire zoo shut down on March 14.The father is giant panda Tian Tian.Rather than using a combination of stored frozen sperm and fresh semen, the zoo inseminated Mei Xiang only with thawed-out semen to minimize the number of close-quarters medical procedures. It was the first successful procedure of its kind in the U.S. using only frozen sperm. 
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For almost 70 years, the United States has never explicitly committed itself to the defense of Taiwan against Chinese invasion. Now, with U.S.-China relations at a historic low, worries over a Chinese assault on Taiwan are growing, and the fundamental U.S. policy may be changing.An increasing number of military analysts and members of Congress now argue that it is time for the United States to revisit its policy of “strategic ambiguity” for Taiwan’s defense, which for decades has supported billions of dollars in arms sales despite no formal diplomatic relations.Critics of the policy point out that as the region’s military balance moves in China’s favor, strategic ambiguity is increasingly unsustainable.”It might actually make war even more likely, emboldening Xi Jinping and the CCP to undertake military action against the island by deluding themselves into thinking the U.S. might remain on the sidelines,” Michael Hunzeke, a professor at George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government, told VOA in an email.”We need to change things on Taiwan to improve the deterrent and make clearer where we stand, especially by ending any remaining ambiguity about how we’d react to the use of force and altering our military force structure and posture,” Elbridge Colby, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense, wrote in The New York Times early this week. Colby was an author of the Trump administration national defense strategy, which emphasizes competition with China and Russia.A Taiwan Navy S70 helicopter takes off from the stern of a Perry-class frigate during a navy exercise in the bound of Suao naval station in Yilan County, northeast of Taiwan, April 13, 2018.Few scenarios worry American strategists like a possible Chinese invasion of Taiwan. Two former high-ranking U.S. officials argue it could happen as early as next year. In an article published this month by the U.S. Naval Institute (USNI), former CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell and retired U.S. Admiral James Winnefeld described a nightmare scenario for the U.S. military where strategic ambiguity fails to halt a Chinese invasion.Congress leading the callTaiwan supporters in Congress have largely embraced the Trump administration’s approach to the island, including the recent historic visit by Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and new sales of F-16 jets last week. But some legislators believe the president should do more to have a clear and firm commitment to defend Taiwan.FILE – In this March 28, 2017, file photo, Rep. Ted Yoho, R-Fla., leaves a closed-door strategy session at the Capitol in Washington.Last month, Florida Representative Ted Yoho said he would introduce a Taiwan Invasion Prevention Act, which would authorize military force if China were to invade Taiwan. “The U.S. policy of strategic ambiguity towards Taiwan, initially implemented to avoid provoking Beijing to attack Taiwan and encourage peaceful relations, has clearly failed,” said Yoho, who is  ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Asia subcommittee.Prior to Yoho’s announcement, Senator Josh Hawley introduced the Taiwan Defense Act on June 11, with Representative Mike Gallagher introducing a similar bill in the House on July 1. While the bills do not directly address the question of strategic ambiguity, they do require the Department of Defense to maintain the ability to defeat a Chinese invasion.”It’s long past time to end strategic ambiguity and draw a clear red line through the Taiwan Strait,” Gallagher said in a July 1 press release. “Taiwan’s liberty is a vital national security interest of the United States, and the Taiwan Defense Act helps ensure our military has the capabilities it needs to block CCP aggression.”A core element in U.S.-China relations is the Taiwan Relations Act of 1979. While it obligates Washington to provide weapons of a “defensive character” to Taiwan, it intentionally set forth a vague commitment about Washington’s obligation to help Taiwan defend itself.Clarity or ambiguity?A war between the U.S. and China over Taiwan undoubtedly would be a global disaster. War games modeled by U.S. military planners do not always result in American victories against Chinese forces in the region.If passed, the proposed laws could impose serious legal obligations that would demand U.S. action in the case of a Chinese invasion. Some analysts wonder if the U.S. has the resources to meet the obligations.FILE- In this May 25, 2017, file photo, a line of U.S. M60A3 Patton tank fire at targets during the annual Han Kuang exercises on the outlying Penghu Island, Taiwan.Daniel L. Davis, a foreign policy fellow at Defense Priorities, argued that the U.S. perhaps could eventually repel China’s assault on Taiwan. But in addition to the cost to America in lives lost, the U.S. would then have to build a huge military presence on Taiwan to prevent the next Chinese attempt to retake it, Davis, a former lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army, wrote in The National Interest this month.”As much as the U.S. values and commends freedom for people everywhere, involving ourselves in a war between Taiwan and China could cause catastrophic harm to our country – and might not even ensure Taiwan wins,” Davis wrote VOA in an email.Analysts say Americans might fairly ask why Washington should defend an island thousands of miles away with seemingly high human and economic costs. So far, opinion polls indicate that the American public remains tepid on this key element in the U.S.-Taiwan relationship.The Chicago Council on Global Affairs, an independent and nonpartisan organization that provides insight on critical global issues, has been asking citizens since 1982 about whether they favor the use of U.S. troops to defend Taiwan. A poll taken last October by the organization revealed only 35% of Americans would support U.S. military action if the island was attacked.Although the Trump administration has been taking a very strong stand on China in recent months, there have been no moves from the administration to suggest it is preparing to do away with strategic ambiguity.In April 2001, former President George W. Bush said that the United States would do “whatever it takes” to defend Taiwan. Given the sensitivity of the issue, Bush quickly walked back this statement hours later.FILE – Democratic presidential candidate, former Vice President Joe Biden.Then-Senator Joseph Biden, now the Democratic presidential nominee, criticized Bush weeks later by saying the U.S. has not been obligated to defend Taiwan since Washington abrogated the 1954 Mutual Defense Treaty signed by President Dwight Eisenhower and ratified by the Senate. “There is a huge difference between reserving the right to use force and obligating ourselves, a priori, to come to the defense of Taiwan,” wrote Biden in a Washington Post opinion piece titled “Not So Deft On Taiwan.”Over the years, China had an opportunity to put the question of whether the American soldiers would fight for Taiwan directly to the U.S. In 1995, right before China fired ballistic missiles near Taiwan’s coast, a Chinese military officer raised the question with Joseph Nye, then assistant secretary of defense.“We don’t know and you don’t know; it would depend on the circumstances,” Nye said.
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Russian doctors said Friday that gravely ill Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny could be flown to Germany to receive medical care after the opposition politician’s allies accused the Russian authorities of trying to stop his evacuation.Navalny’s life was not in immediate danger; he was in an induced coma and his brain was in a stable condition, the medical staff at a hospital in the Siberian city of Omsk said.Kira Yarmysh, Navalny’s spokeswoman, said she expected him to be flown out on Saturday morning.Navalny, a longtime opponent of President Vladimir Putin and a campaigner against corruption, collapsed on a plane Thursday after drinking tea that his allies believe was laced with poison.German doctors flew in to evacuate Navalny, 44, at the request of his wife and allies who said they feared authorities might try to cover up clues as to how he fell ill and that the hospital treating him was badly equipped.Medical staff at the Omsk hospital initially said  Friday that while Navalny’s condition had improved slightly overnight, he was in too unstable a state to be safely transported out of the country.But late on Friday they said they would not object to his being moved after the German doctors were granted access to Navalny and said they thought he was fit to travel.A senior doctor at the hospital, Anatoly Kalinichenko, said the hospital could help transport Navalny to the airport and that he would be moved within several hours.”We have taken the decision that we do not object to him being transferred to a different hospital,” Kalinichenko said.Yulia Navalnaya, wife of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, walks near a hospital where Alexei receives medical treatment in Omsk, Russia, Aug. 21, 2020.Wife’s appealNavalny’s wife, Yulia, earlier sent a letter to the Kremlin directly appealing for it to intervene and grant permission for him to be allowed to be flown out.”It’s a shame it took so long for the doctors to make this decision. The plane has been waiting since morning. The documents were also ready then,” Yarmysh, Navalny’s spokeswoman, said Friday evening.Alexander Murakhovsky, the head doctor at the hospital, said earlier that Navalny had been diagnosed with a metabolic disease that may have been caused by low blood sugar.He said traces of industrial chemical substances had been found on Navalny’s clothes and fingers and that doctors did not believe he had been poisoned.Navalny has been a thorn in the Kremlin’s side for more than a decade, exposing what he says is high-level graft and mobilizing crowds of young protesters.He has been repeatedly detained for organizing public meetings and rallies and sued over his investigations into corruption. He was barred from running in a presidential election in 2018.Navalny fell ill while flying back to Moscow from the Siberian city of Tomsk where he had met allies ahead of regional elections next month. He was taken on a stretcher, motionless, from the plane and rushed to a hospital after the aircraft made an emergency landing in Omsk.
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The U.S. National Weather Service is predicting that two storm systems in and around the Caribbean Sea will strengthen and could both be hurricanes next week in the Gulf of Mexico.The National Hurricane Center reports Tropical Storm Laura formed early Friday just northeast of the Lesser Antilles, and by last report, was 280 kilometers east of the northern Leeward Islands in the Caribbean.This satellite image released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows Tropical Storm Laura in the North Atlantic Ocean, Aug. 21, 2020.The Washington Post reports Laura is the earliest forming “L” named storm on record, beating out Tropical Storm Luis, which formed Aug. 29, 1995. The season has already featured the earliest-forming C, E, F, G, H, I, J and K storms on record.Meanwhile, further to the west, in the southern Caribbean, forecasters are watching Tropical Depression 14, which they say will strengthen into Tropical Storm Marco later Friday.Forecasters say both storms are likely to move into the Gulf of Mexico and become hurricanes by early next week. If they do, it will be the first time two hurricanes are in the gulf at the same time in the satellite era.Some computer models say both hurricanes could hit the southern United States at roughly the same time, or could interact with each other in some way, depending on their size.Tropical storm warnings have been issued in Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the northern Leeward Islands and the southeast Bahamas, where tropical storm conditions from Laura could arrive as early as Friday night.Tropical Depression 14 is expected reach the eastern Yucatan coast by midday Saturday, where tropical storm warnings are in effect. It is forecast to move into the south-central Gulf of Mexico by Sunday afternoon. 
 
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Muslims in India’s Jammu and Kashmir territory felt a “feeling of togetherness” after attending Friday prayers for the first time in more than four months, because of the coronavirus pandemic. Large gatherings were banned in India to curb the spread of coronavirus, and hence prayers were not allowed at places of worship, including mosques. The Kashmir valley has so far reported more than 20,000 cases, of which nearly 5,500 people remain infected. Racked by a decadeslong insurgency, Kashmir is claimed in whole by India and neighboring foe Pakistan, but ruled in part by each. (Reuters)  
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Every day, like clockwork, to-do lists for those protesting against Belarus’ authoritarian leader appear in the popular Telegram messaging app. They lay out goals, give times and locations of rallies with business-like precision, and offer spirited encouragement. “Today will be one more important day in the fight for our freedom. Tectonic shifts are happening on all fronts, so it’s important not to slow down,” a message in one of Telegram’s so-called channels read Tuesday. “Morning. Expanding the strike … 11:00. Supporting the Kupala (theater) … 19:00. Gathering at the Independence Square.”  The app has become an indispensable tool in coordinating the unprecedented mass protests that have rocked Belarus since Aug. 9, when election officials announced President Alexander Lukashenko had won a landslide victory to extend his 26-year rule in a vote widely seen as rigged.  Peaceful protesters who poured into the streets of the capital, Minsk, and other cities were met with stun grenades, rubber bullets and beatings from police. The opposition candidate left for Lithuania — under duress, her campaign said — and authorities shut off the internet, leaving Belarusians with almost no access to independent online news outlets or social media and protesters seemingly without a leader.  Opposition supporters rally to protest against disputed presidential election results on Independence Square in Minsk, Aug. 20, 2020.That’s where Telegram — which often remains available despite internet outages, touts the security of messages shared in the app and has been used in other protest movements — came in. Some of its channels helped scattered rallies to mature into well-coordinated action. The people who run the channels, which used to offer political news, now post updates, videos and photos of the unfolding turmoil sent in from users, locations of heavy police presence, contacts of human rights activists, and outright calls for new demonstrations — something Belarusian opposition leaders have refrained from doing publicly themselves. Tens of thousands of people across the country have responded to those calls.  In a matter of days, the channels — NEXTA, NEXTA Live and Belarus of the Brain are the most popular — have become the main method for facilitating the protests, said Franak Viacorka, a Belarusian analyst and non-resident fellow at the Atlantic Council.  “The fate of the country has never depended so much on one (piece) of technology,” Viacorka said.  Charges of fomenting mass riots In the days following the vote and the subsequent internet outage, NEXTA Live’s audience shot from several hundred thousand followers to over 2 million. Its sister channel NEXTA has more than 700,000 followers. Belarus of the Brain’s following grew from almost 170,000 users in late June to over 470,000 this week.  Their influence in a nation of 9.5 million is hard to underestimate, and authorities have taken notice and are pursuing those behind the channels.  Last week, officials opened a criminal probe into NEXTA and its founder, 22-year-old blogger Stepan Putilo, on charges of fomenting mass riots — an offense punishable by up to 15 years in prison. Blogger Igor Losik, who founded Belarus of the Brain, was arrested before the election, but the channel continues to operate.  “We have indeed become the bullhorn of the situation that is unfolding in Belarus right now,” Putilo, who is Belarusian but lives in Warsaw, Poland, said in a recent interview with Lithuanian news outlet Delfi. “We have become the voice of this revolution, but by no will of our own. It just happened.” Putilo first created NEXTA — which is pronounced NEKH-ta and means “somebody” in Belarusian — as a YouTube channel in 2015, when he was just 17. His profile rose last year when his 30-minute video about the country’s iron-fisted leader, “Lukashenko. Criminal Records,” was viewed almost 3 million times. A court in Belarus declared the film extremist, but it is still available on YouTube. Putilo turned to Telegram in 2018. His two channels focused mostly on Belarusian politics. His team received thousands of messages from users sending in photos, videos and news items each day and posted the most newsworthy, taking pride in often sharing information from sources inside the government or law enforcement.  After the demonstrations began, thousands of messages turned into hundreds of thousands, and the underground operation now appears inundated. In response to a request from The Associated Press for an interview, NEXTA editor-in-chief Roman Protsevich wrote: “Sure, it’s possible, but the question is when. …” — and then stopped responding.  Putilo hasn’t responded to requests for comment.  Piercing ‘information blackout’When the protests began, the NEXTA channels were often the first places anywhere on the internet to carry grisly pictures of police violently clashing with demonstrators. This week, they were filled with videos of workers protesting at industrial plants.  Journalists in Belarus have praised the channels for breaking news — but note that traditional media also played an important role.  “Telegram channels did help to pierce the information blackout, but I have to say that it wasn’t just them,” said Andrei Bastunets, head of the Belarusian Association of Journalists. “Telegram channels (run by bloggers) played a mobilizing, an organizing role, while more balanced information could be found on Telegram channels of media outlets.”  Social media platforms have played major roles in previous uprisings, including in the Arab Spring, anti-government protests in Hong Kong and demonstrations against racial injustice in the United States.  But, since 2016, when Russia was accused of using Facebook and other platforms in an effort to influence or interfere in the U.S. election, many have seen social media in a more dystopian light, said Hans Kundnani, senior research fellow at London-based think tank Chatham House.  “What’s happening in Belarus right now is kind of a reminder that actually social media can be used in a positive way from a democratic perspective,” Kundnani said. Protesters in the streets echoed his sentiment.  “Telegram channels and websites that don’t belong to our government are the main source of information today as we cannot at all rely on state media,” said Roman Semenov, who follows the NEXTA channels and joined a rally in central Minsk on Wednesday evening. “It’s a Telegram revolution.”  
 
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Indigenous rappers have been brought in to help protect some of Australia’s most vulnerable people from COVID-19.Throughout the pandemic, there’s been a concerted effort to protect remote Aboriginal communities, which already have high rates of heart, liver and respiratory diseases, as well as diabetes and cancer, from the coronavirus.  However, 80% of Indigenous Australians live in towns and cities, and measures to prevent the spread of infection have been boosted by a new awareness campaign.              
                                
“It is our job, young mob.  You got this, little sis.  Keep it up,” are just some of the lyrics of the song “One Point Five.”  It is about safe social distancing at 1½ meters, and it’s a message for Australia’s urban Aboriginal communities.  
 
It was co-written by Mi-Kaisha Masella, a young Indigenous singer from Sydney.
 
“For us it was about creating a song that would encourage community to continue to stay COVID-safe and also bring a little bit of fun and pride back into isolation,” Masella said.FILE – A woman walks past a sign urging people to stay home, in Melbourne, Australia, Aug. 14, 2020, as the city battles an outbreak of the coronavirus.Melbourne remains under a strict lockdown after a sharp rise in COVID-19 cases.  The situation in Australia’s second-biggest city is gradually improving and, so far, Indigenous groups have avoided large numbers of infections.  
 
Caroline Kell, an Aboriginal health official, says communities have worked hard to keep safe.
 
“We are not seeing a great amount of transmission in and between families unlike the broader population, so that means that people are self-isolating and quarantining effectively and stopping the spread in between families, which is a really positive thing considering a lot of our community do live in pretty overcrowded and, sort of, transient accommodation,” Kell said.
 
Public health campaigns are also helping Indigenous Australians in remote settlements, who already suffer high rates of chronic disease in areas with limited medical facilities, cope with the mental stress of the pandemic.  A recent study by the University of Western Australia found the coronavirus had put many First Nation people at risk of severe psychological distress.
 
Australia’s Indigenous peoples make up about 3% of the national population.
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Family and associates of Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny accuse Moscow of blocking his medical evacuation to Germany to cover up what they say is an attempt to poison him.Speaking to reporters outside the hospital in Omsk on Friday, Navalny’s wife, Yulia Navalnaya, and Ivan Zhdanov, a Navalny associate, said the decision put his life in mortal danger.”They refuse to hand over Alexei for his further transporting,” Navalnaya said. “We certainly believe that it was made to make sure that a chemical substance which is in Alexei’s body will dissolve. That’s is why he is not handed over to make sure that particles of this substance will dissolve. He is not in a good shape. And we certainly cannot trust this hospital and we demand to hand him over to us so that we will be able to treat him in an independent hospital whose doctors we trust.”Navalnaya spoke out against the Kremlin after the head doctor said moving him would put his life at risk because he was still in an induced coma and his condition was unstable.Navalny’s team quoted a police officer as saying a highly dangerous substance had been identified in his body.”We approached that transit police representative who had come up with a phone (in her hands),” said Zhdanov, director of Navalny’s anti-corruption foundation. “(We asked:) ‘What substance?’ She said: ‘It is confidentiality of an investigation, we cannot tell you, but this substance poses a deadly threat. This substance poses a threat to Alexei’s life as well as to wider public. Everyone around has to wear protective coveralls.’”The frictions arose as a German air ambulance landed in Omsk with the intention of flying Navalny to Germany for possible treatment.The Kremlin said on Thursday that medical authorities would consider any request to move him to a European hospital and the government would launch a criminal investigation if a toxicology report indeed found the poisoning allegations true.When asked about Navalny at the daily briefing Thursday, United Nations spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said, “We are following with the concern the reports that Mr. Navalny has a sudden illness. We obviously wish him a speedy recovery. Any allegations of suspected poisoning, if confirmed, should be fully investigated.”U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin, the ranking Senate member on the U.S. Helsinki Commission, told VOA’s Russian service Thursday the news about Navalny “is extremely concerning.” “The pattern of assaults, poisonings, and other attacks on Russian opposition figures, journalists, and pro-democracy advocates highlights the intensifying threats to civil society, human rights, and media freedom in Russia. I encourage the Russian authorities to investigate this incident and hold accountable those found responsible,” Cardin said. 
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Mexico could begin testing a Russian-licensed coronavirus vaccine as early as next month.The country said Thursday it will receive at least 2,000 doses of the vaccine.Russia became the first country to license a vaccine last week when President Vladimir Putin announced its approval, although only a few dozen people have tested the vaccine.The World Health Organization is withholding approval because the Russian vaccine has not passed the extensive trials usually required before a vaccine is licensed.Mexico is also working with vaccine producers in Britain, the United States and China to acquire a vaccine soon as possible for its people.Mexico has confirmed more than 540,000 coronavirus cases, and more than 59,000 people have died.
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