More than a quarter of South Korea’s medical clinics closed on Friday for a one-day strike in protest at government plans to train new doctors, as the country reported the highest number of domestic coronavirus cases since the end of March.
The government plans to increase the number of medical students by 4,000 over the next 10 years, which it says is necessary to be better prepared for public health crises like the coronavirus pandemic.
But the Korean Medical Association (KMA), which helped organise the protest, says the country already has more than enough physicians.
Some 28,000 doctors and trainees protested nationwide on Friday, 20,000 of them in the capital Seoul, the KMA said.
At least 10,584 of the country’s 33,836 medical facilities, including private clinics, staged a walkout on Friday, a health ministry official told Reuters.
KMA deemed the government’s unilateral decision “backstabbing” to physicians dealing with COVID-19.
“Faced with the COVID-19 in February, we – the doctors – have devoted ourselves with the single sense of duty to protect lives and the safety of the citizens,” KMA President Choi Dae-zip said at a rally outside the parliament.
“The number of physicians per 1,000 people has increased by 3.1% annually for the past 10 years, which is 6 times greater than the OECD average,” KMA said in a statement.
The strike comes as South Korea on Friday reported 103 new coronavirus cases, of which 85 were domestic, the most locally transmitted cases since March 31, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said.
The new cases bring the country’s tally to 14,873 infections, with 305 deaths, as of midnight Thursday.
The latest infections were clustered around churches, where many engaged in high-risk activities such as choir, sharing meals and not properly wearing masks, KCDC chief Jeong Eun-kyeong told a briefing.
Authorities said they were reviewing whether to resume tighter social distancing measures, which could include restricting gatherings to 50 people indoors and 100 outside.
South Korea used invasive tracing and widespread testing to contain its first outbreak of the novel coronavirus, but Asia’s fourth-largest economy has experienced persistent outbreaks in recent weeks, mostly in the densely populated capital area.
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In India, the annual monsoon season has led to widespread flooding and other disasters killing at least 150 people and displacing or affecting nearly eight million others, from vast rural areas in the north and east to states in the south and west. Experts blame the deadly flooding on climate change and warn that unless more attention is paid to sustainable development, such disasters could worsen in years to come. Anjana Pasricha has a report.
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One of the Iranian lawyers representing a minority Kurdish political prisoner facing execution in Iran has reportedly asked for a retrial to overturn the man’s death sentence, which supporters say was unjustly based on forced confessions.In a Tuesday interview with VOA Persian, a source with knowledge of the situation said the lawyer submitted the request for a retrial of Heydar Ghorbani to Iran’s judiciary in response to an August 6 ruling in which the Iranian Supreme Court upheld Ghorbani’s death sentence. VOA has not named the lawyer cited by the source at the source’s request. Iran has a record of harassing citizens who speak to Western-based media outlets that it deems hostile.Ghorbani was arrested in October 2016 in Iranian Kurdistan’s Kamyaran County and charged in connection with a violent incident there in the previous month involving the killings of three members of Iran’s top military force, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.In the following years, rights activists reported that Iranian authorities sentenced Ghorbani to death on charges of collaborating in an armed attack that killed the IRCG personnel and being a member of the outlawed Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan rebel group. During the period, Iranian state-run network Press TV aired a 2017 program titled The Death Driver, in which Ghorbani seemingly confessed to having driven the DPIK rebels involved in the killings.Amnesty International has said Ghorbani is one of several minority Kurds persecuted by Iranian authorities for “real or perceived affiliation with armed Kurdish political opposition groups.” Those Kurds were sentenced to death following what the group has called “grossly unfair trials that relied primarily or exclusively on confessions obtained without the presence of a lawyer and under torture and other ill-treatment.”The source who spoke to VOA said the Iranian Supreme Court’s August 6 action entitles authorities in Iranian Kurdistan’s provincial capital of Sanandaj to carry out Ghorbani’s execution. However, the source said the ruling also gave Ghorbani’s lawyer access to the case files for the first time, showing the lawyer that the entire verdict was based on what Ghorbani’s supporters have said were forced confessions.“Ghorbani has never admitted to being armed or being a member of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan,” the source said. Ghorbani’s lawyer requested the retrial citing the lack of evidence besides the apparent forced confessions, the source added.Article 477 of Iran’s Code of Criminal Procedure gives Iran’s judiciary chief the power to order the Supreme Court to overturn a verdict that he deems to be “evidently in contravention of Sharia [Islamic law]” and issue a new one.There have been no references to Ghorbani’s case or his lawyer’s reported retrial request in Iranian state media in recent days.In a video shared with VOA Persian and published Tuesday, Ghorbani’s wife Sharareh Sadeghi reiterated her belief in his innocence, saying he had been tortured into confessing.“I call on the Iranian people, relevant authorities, the people of the world and international organizations to respond to the upheld death sentence of my husband by stopping Iranian security forces from depriving my children of having a father,” Sadeghi said.She also identified one member of her husband’s legal team as Morteza Javanmardi. No recent comments from him about the case could be found online.In an August 3 message on the case of another Iranian Kurd at risk of execution, Amnesty International said statements elicited as a result of torture, ill-treatment or other forms of coercion “must be excluded as evidence in criminal proceedings, except those brought against suspected perpetrators of such abuse.”“In view of the irreversible nature of the death penalty, the proceedings in capital cases must scrupulously observe all relevant international standards protecting the right to a fair trial,” the group added.This article originated in VOA’s Persian Service. Click here for the original Persian version of the story. 
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Pakistan is celebrating its Independence Day on Friday with rallies across the country.In his Independence Day message, President Arif Alvi used the occasion to assure whom he called the “resilient people of Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir” that Pakistan will “continue to support them in their just struggle for their right to self-determination as enshrined in the United Nations Security Council resolutions.”  Both India and Pakistan lay claim to the disputed region.Prime Minister Imran Khan said in his holiday statement, “The day is an occasion to pay tribute to all those sons of the soil who laid their lives while defending and protecting territorial as well as ideological frontiers of the motherland.”Various groups and organizations began their holiday celebrations Thursday. 
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Michael Pack, head of the U.S. government’s global news networks, took steps Wednesday to remove several top officials in a move at least two said appeared to be retaliatory.In a statement sent to Politico and the New York Post, a U.S. Agency for Global Media spokesperson said the action was meant to restore “respect for the rule of law in our work” at the USAGM after a recent review found lax vetting of foreign and other journalists hired by agency’s five networks, which include the Voice of America.The officials were placed on administrative leave, and their security clearances revoked.However, the highest-ranking official sidelined, Chief Financial Officer Grant Turner, said it was punishment for speaking up about “patterns of gross mismanagement” since Pack took over in June and about violations of the legal “firewall” that shields USAGM journalists from political interference.“I think this is really retaliation for a lot of issues that I’ve been bringing to the front office,” Turner told VOA in an interview. He called the stated reasons for his removal “meritless.”David Kligerman, who had served as general counsel for USAGM and previously the Voice of America, also was shoved out.”As a career civil servant, I was disappointed to learn of these actions,” he said in a statement to VOA. “There is no other conclusion to draw except that it is in retaliation for attempting to do my job in an apolitical manner and to speak truth to power.”FILE – Michael Pack, President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the U.S. Agency for Global Media, is seen at his confirmation hearing, on Capitol Hill, in Washington, Sept. 19, 2019. Pack’s nomination was confirmed June 4, 2020.The USAGM did not immediately respond to questions about the retaliation claims or confirm media reports saying four other senior USAGM executives also had been forced out in the purge.After nearly two years of delay, Pack was confirmed by the Senate in June to take over USAGM’s top post, replacing Turner, who had been acting CEO. Since then, the top leaders at VOA and other networks have resigned or been removed, hiring and spending were frozen, and Pack has stopped approving visa renewals for the agency’s foreign journalists.Critics say the moves appear to be politically motivated and in defiance of laws that are designed to protect the independence of USAGM journalists and ensure that news reports are accurate, balanced and comprehensive.After being sworn in, Pack told VOA staff via email that he is “fully committed to honoring VOA’s charter … and the independence of our heroic journalists around the world.”Rep. Eliot Engel, chair of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, which has oversight responsibility for USAGM, said in a statement that the removals of Turner and others “smack of illegal retaliation” and that he would ask for an inspector general’s investigation.“I understand that a number of the individuals who have been relieved had tried to make agency leadership aware of potentially inappropriate or unlawful actions during Mr. Pack’s first months in his position,” Engel said in the statement.“It is a clear attempt to cover up his wrongdoing to date and to silence those who might voice concern about his future actions,” the statement said.Pack is scheduled to testify before the committee on September 24.In interviews with conservative media and in news releases, Pack has cast himself as a change agent who intends to root out bias and mismanagement at USAGM. Last week, his office released a previously confidential Office of Personnel Management report saying the agency had failed for years to conduct appropriate security checks for new hires, including foreign journalists brought in for their specialized language skills.The USAGM programming in more 60 languages is aimed at some 100 countries where government controls and censorship stifle press freedom, including China, Iran, the Balkans and dozens of nations in Africa, Latin America and South and Central Asia.Many of USAGM’s journalists are hired on temporary J-1 visas that in the past have been regularly extended by the agency’s CEO. But last month, Pack abruptly halted the extensions, with USAGM saying the visa process is being reviewed, in a move that created uncertainty across VOA language services and tensions with Pack’s office.In a July 23 email to staff, he said past reviews of USAGM by other agencies had uncovered “systematic, severe and fundamental security failures” and that the agency was “working with our federal partners to ensure findings are swiftly and appropriately addressed.”Pack said he had ordered the investigation into agency operations out of concern that “the failures identified compromise the agency’s ability to fulfill its mission, undermine the efficiency and effectiveness of the federal workforce, and pose a threat to U.S. national security.” His office also cited national security in defending the shift to a case-by-case review of J-1 visas.The Voice of America’s entrance hall, leading to VOA offices and studios. (Photo: Diaa Bekheet)John Lansing, the Obama appointee who preceded Pack as the USAGM’s leader from September 2015 to September 2019, said in a statement Thursday that the executives being shoved aside are “some of the finest public servants I have ever had the privilege to work with.”“Pack’s attempt to discredit them is merely a smokescreen for his attempt to dismantle the legitimate editorial independence of VOA in favor of propagandizing the agency to favor the administration, which is illegal according to the congressional charter that established VOA and USAGM,” Lansing wrote.In an interview, Turner also brought up the firewall and pressures on journalistic resources.He said potential violations include the temporary reassignment of VOA’s journalistic standards editor, Steven Springer, and the J-1 visa policy, saying it was “consistent with what I’ve seen as a pattern of trying to starve our various broadcasting networks of resources.”As interim CEO, Turner handled visa extensions and said he wasn’t aware of any flaws in the process.“We have people from many countries, and the agency, I believe, has taken security very seriously over the years and tried to do very clear investigations of staff,” he said.“Since Mr. Pack’s tenure began there’s been a pattern of gross mismanagement at the agency that I’ve raised concerns about,” Turner said. “Obviously people in VOA and our journalist entities have seen what I believe are clear violations of the firewall.”Pack’s spokesperson defended the removal of Turner and others in Politico, saying: “We took action today to restore integrity to and respect for the rule of law in our work at USAGM. We will take additional steps to help return this agency to its glory days.”FILE – Voice of America offices in Washington, D.C.Pack, a conservative filmmaker, has repeatedly pledged to support the independence of USAGM journalists. At the same time, he has signaled in interviews with conservative news outlets a concern with bias and a belief that the agency has strayed from its mission.The USAGM should “advance America’s broad foreign policy goals, [which] includes fighting for American ideas and institutions against … views from China and Iran,” Pack said in an interview last month with The Epoch Times.Regarding editorial bias, the agency announced in late July that it was investigating VOA’s Urdu language service for a two-minute video posted on the service’s Facebook page showing Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden speaking about President Donald Trump’s policies restricting immigration from some Muslim countries.In a July 30 statement, Pack’s office said the video “can only be described as an apparent election advertisement for [the] presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.”“This investigation – and, indeed, every action that I have taken since starting my tenure last month – has been to repair USAGM so that, once again, U.S. government international broadcasting advances the American national interest,” Pack said in the statement.On Wednesday, the New York Post reported that the Urdu service’s digital managing editor had been placed on administrative leave and that four contractors working on the video would be terminated. USAGM did not respond to VOA’s request to confirm the report.The USAGM oversees five media networks, including VOA, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, the Office of Cuba Broadcasting, the Middle East Broadcasting Networks and Radio Free Asia. Also under its umbrella is the Open Technology Fund, a nonprofit that funds technology to get around internet censors and support democracy movements.Pack’s initial move to clean out the heads of the networks and their advisory boards drew objections from a bipartisan group of senators, who said they would review the agency’s funding. USAGM has a budget of about $800 million, with VOA getting the biggest share.Turner took Lansing’s place as interim CEO and director from October 2019 to June 2020. He joined USAGM in February 2016 after five years as the budget director for the Millennium Challenge Corporation, which provides U.S. foreign aid to end poverty. Before then, he worked at the Office of Management and Budget under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.Before becoming USAGM general counsel, Kligerman was the lead counsel for Voice of America and the Office of Cuba Broadcasting. He previously worked at the State Department as a legal adviser and in the European and Eurasian Bureau.Other USAGM officials reportedly caught in the purge:Oanh Tran, the executive director of USAGM, who managed internal workflow and communication with other agencies along with advisory board operations. She has worked in the U.S. government for 25 years.Matthew Walsh, deputy director for operations. Walsh previously spent nine years at the State Department as a senior adviser for United Nations Political Affairs, member of the secretary of state’s planning policy staff and adviser to the assistant secretary of state for Africa. He also worked at the U.S. Agency for International Development.Shawn Powers, chief strategy officer, also oversaw the Office of Policy and Research as well as Internet Freedom and circumvention programs. He previously served as the senior adviser for global strategy and innovation from July 2018 to November 2019. Before joining USAGM, he worked as executive director for the United States Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy. Powers launched and directed the Center for Global Information Studies at Georgia State University.Marie Lennon, who oversaw human resources, contracts, security and civil rights as USAGM director of management services. She is a 35-year government employee who held jobs at VOA, the Navy and Defense departments, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the former WORLDNET Television, where Pack was once a political appointee. 
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After the country reported its deadliest day of the coronavirus outbreak since May, the nation’s top infectious disease expert says he is not pleased with the way things are going in the United States.“We certainly are not where I hope we would be, we are in the middle of very serious historic pandemic,” Dr. Anthony Fauci said at a National Geographic panel discussion Thursday.Even though President Donald Trump said this week he expects the outbreak to be in “good shape … in a very short period of time,” Fauci said the number of cases will continue to rise unless federal and state governments can work together.That’s the thing that I’m concerned about because I believe we can, we have within our power to be able to get that down,” he said.There has been no single coordinated strategy from Washington and states on how to fight the outbreak. Some states have mask mandates and are continuing restrictions, while others do not require masks in public places and have eased the rules on social gatherings.Some states are seeing the number of cases rise while such hot spots as Arizona, California and Florida are improving and are “having now, less deaths, less hospitalizations, less cases,” Fauci said.Fauci has said that the coronavirus will likely never go away but that health officials can work to bring it down to “low levels.”World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says governments must “do it all” – test, isolate and treat patients, and trace and quarantine all the people with whom they had contact.A backhoe places the coffin containing the body of Marina Salazar, 75, who died from COVID-19 complications, into her tomb at a cemetery in Carabayllo, Lima, Peru, Aug. 13, 2020.Wednesday’s 1,500 deaths was the highest single day total in the U.S. since May. The U.S., with 5.2 million cases and 167,000 deaths, leads the world by far in both categories.Other experts are warning that unless world leaders take more action to contain it, the coronavirus could be just as or even deadlier than the 1918 flu pandemic, which is believed to have killed 50 million people worldwide.A new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association Network Open looked at New York City.It says even when doctors take into account the technology, lifesaving drugs and information that did not exist 100 years ago, the increase in the number of COVID-19 cases during the first two months of the outbreak was “substantially greater” than the peak of the 1918 epidemic.“If insufficiently treated, SARS-CoV-2 infection (COVID-19) may have comparable or greater mortality than 1918 H1N1 influenza virus infection,” Harvard Medical School’s Dr. Jeremy Faust writes.New appsThree more states – Alabama, North Dakota and Wyoming – are launching apps to warn people about potential exposure to COVID-19, Reuters reports.Virginia is the first state to implement the technology, and other states are testing apps and plan to introduce them in the coming weeks.Users who download the apps on their smartphones get a map of the state and dots where the most cases are clustered, so travelers and others can avoid those areas.In GermanyThe premier of Germany’s Bavaria state is apologizing for problems with a data entry system that meant about 900 people who tested positive for COVID-19 were never told about it.Nearly 44,000 people who traveled to Bavaria about two weeks ago have been waiting for their test results. Officials believe about 900 tests were positive.“It is really extremely galling. We can only apologize,” Bavarian leader Markus Soeder told reporters. He promised to fix the problems by adding more staff to the testing centers. The Bavarian state health minister has offered to resign.Soeder has been touted as a possible successor to Chancellor Angela Merkel.Dental careMeanwhile, dentists are angry with the WHO’s recommendation that people put off routine checkups in areas where the coronavirus appears to be spreading.”Dentists have been experts in infection control for over 20 years due to the HIV-AIDS scare,” California Dental Association president Dr. Richard Nagy said. “So we’re used to preparing our offices for infection disease control. We really increased our knowledge of airborne base pathogens and prepare their offices in terms of enhanced PPE enhanced training for our staff,” he explained.The American Dental Association says it “strongly disagrees” with the WHO and says doctors and hygienists can work safely with the appropriate equipment.Many U.S. medical practices immediately perform temperature checks on all patients who walk through their doors and limit the number of people allowed inside the offices at the same time.  
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Presumptive Democratic Party presidential nominee Joe Biden is calling for a national mask mandate to cut the number of future deaths from the coronavirus in the United States.  “It doesn’t have anything to do with Democrats, Republican or independents,” Biden said, but “every single American should be wearing a mask when they are outside for the next three months at a minimum.”  Hour later, President Donald Trump accused Biden of politicizing the pandemic with the request, asserting that a mask mandate would cripple the economy, leading to a depression by wanting to “lock all Americans in their basements for months on end.”The former vice president, in Wilmington, said the governors of every U.S. state “should mandate mandatory mask wearing,” adding that experts estimate such compliance “will save 40,000 lives in the next three months.”    Democratic presidential nominee, former Vice President Joe Biden, speaks to the press after receiving a briefing on COVID-19 in Wilmington, Delaware, on Aug. 13, 2020.The Trump administration has repeatedly rejected calls for a national mask mandate, leaving such decisions to state governors.  “It’s not about your rights,” Biden said to a group of reporters in his home state of Delaware. “It’s about your responsibility as an American. This is America. Be a patriot. Protect your fellow citizens. Step up. Do the right thing.”  The president, at an evening news conference, responded that he had emphasized that wearing a mask is a patriotic thing to do.“Maybe they’re great and maybe they’re just good, maybe they’re not so good,” Trump said of masks. “But frankly what do you have to lose?”Trump said, however, there is an issue of freedom when it comes to wearing masks — which has become a politically divisive issue in the United States.“We want to have a certain freedom. That’s what we’re about,” the president said.Biden’s running mate, Senator Kamala Harris of California, said it is important that Americans looking at the upcoming election “ask the current occupant of the White House, ‘When am I going to get vaccinated? When am I actually going to get vaccinated?’”  Most public health officials expect no vaccine ready for mass inoculations in the United States prior to 2021. Trump, however, has spoken of a vaccine possibly being ready by the time of the presidential election in early November.  Biden and Harris made their remarks inside a luxury Wilmington hotel after receiving two virtual briefings — one on the COVID-19 public health crisis, and the other on the economic downturn.  The presumptive Democratic Party nominees sat at desks in a hotel ballroom, facing each other without wearing masks but socially distanced. Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden and his running mate Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., receive a virtual briefing on COVID-19 from public health experts in Wilmington, Del., Aug. 13, 2020.The other participants joined via video links, and their faces were displayed on a large screen behind Biden and Harris.  Among those briefing the candidates about the coronavirus pandemic were Dr. Vivek Murthy, a former U.S. surgeon general, and Dr. Nicki Lurie, a former assistant secretary for preparedness and response at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.  The participants in the economic briefing included Janet Yellen, former chair of the Federal Reserve Board. Patsy Widakuswara contributed to this report. 
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Israel and the United Arab Emirates have agreed to establish full diplomatic ties as part of a U.S.-brokered deal, President Donald Trump announced Thursday.Trump is calling the agreement the “Abraham Accord” after the father of three monotheistic religions founded in the Middle East — Christianity, Islam and Judaism. It is only the third peace deal Israel has made with an Arab nation since Israel became an independent state in 1948. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announces full diplomatic ties will be established with the United Arab Emirates, during a news conference in Jerusalem, Aug. 13, 2020.Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and United Arab Emirates Crown Prince Mohammed Al Nahyan said they hope the “historic breakthrough will advance peace in the Middle East.””Now that the ice has been broken, I expect more Arab and Muslim countries will follow the United Arab Emirates’ lead,” Trump said, during an Oval Office announcement where he was surrounded by members of his administration who helped broker the deal.Emirati Muslims can now pray in the historic Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, the third holiest site in Islam, Trump added.WATCH: President Trump announces agreement Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
FILE – Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden speaks a campaign event in Wilmington, Delaware, July 28, 2020.Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, who opposes Israeli annexation plans, said, “The United Arab Emirates and Israel have pointed a path toward a more peaceful, stable Middle East,” he said adding that a Biden administration will seek to build on this progress.A spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says Guterres “welcomes this agreement, hoping it will create an opportunity for Israeli and Palestinian leaders to re-engage in meaningful negotiations that will realize a two state-solution in line with relevant U.N. resolutions, international law and bilateral agreements.”Palestinian angerPalestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met with his senior aides late Thursday. His spokesman called the deal “treason” and urged the UAE to cancel the agreement. The spokesman urged other Arab countries not to follow suit “at the expense of Palestinian rights.”FILE – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas speaks during a Security Council meeting at United Nations headquarters, Feb. 11, 2020.Abbas is recalling his ambassador to the UAE, the official Palestinian news agency said.The UAE is the third Gulf Arab country to normalize relations with Israel, after Egypt and Jordan, and the first in the Gulf.While Israel and the UAE have never fought a war and there was almost no chance of one breaking out, the UAE has always rejected closer ties with Israel because of lack of progress toward a Palestinian peace agreement.But Middle East analysts say the UAE shares Israel’s contempt for and distrust of Iran and its proxies and militant groups such Hamas.Patsy Widakuswara, Margaret Besheer, Wayne Lee and Madeline Hart contributed to this report.
 
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