Malawi has made wearing masks mandatory in public places in an effort to curb a surge in COVID-19 cases.The Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 said the rule went into effect Friday night, and those who do not adhere to it will pay a fine of about $15. Some rights activists, however, say the government should have first distributed free masks to make the rule justifiable.The mandate on face coverings is among various measures Malawi has taken to try to contain the COVID-19 surge. Other steps include barring traffic police from touching a driver’s license or any other documents.All markets, shops and businesses that are in close proximity to hospitals have been ordered to close.The government also has banned public gatherings, such as weddings, parties and bridal showers.The restrictions come as Malawi continues to confirm increasing cases of COVID-19, with an average of 100 cases per day. As of Saturday, Malawi had registered 4,575 coronavirus cases with 137 deaths.What about violators?Health rights campaigners commend the measures but say they raise more questions than answers.George Jobe, executive director of the Malawi Health Equity Network, said that “as we are hearing that the masks will be compulsory, the question will be: What will follow if someone fails to pay prescribed fees?”Jobe also said the rules have failed to address whether the government will provide free masks to people who cannot afford to buy them.According to U.N. data, about 70% of Malawi’s population lives below the international poverty line of $1.90 per day.Hilda Kalonga, a subsistence farmer in the Thyolo district in southern Malawi, told VOA she has not worn a mask since Malawi registered its first three COVID-19 cases April 2.”I cannot manage to buy a mask because I cannot get money to buy one,” she said. “It would make sense should the government start distributing masks for free before it made the wearing of masks compulsory.”John Phuka, chairperson of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, told VOA on Saturday that the government already had signed a memorandum of understanding with local mask manufacturers to start distributing free masks to those who cannot afford them.Phuka said those flouting the rule would pay a fine of about $15.  
In the meantime, Phuka said, law enforcement officers have been given permission to use “reasonable force” to enforce compliance.
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Thousands of Israelis rallied outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s residence in Jerusalem on Saturday as anger mounted over corruption allegations and his handling of the coronavirus crisis.”Your time is up,” read the giant letters projected onto a building at the protest site, as demonstrators waved Israeli flags and called on Netanyahu to resign over what they say is his failure to protect jobs and businesses affected by the pandemic.The protest movement has intensified in recent weeks, with critics accusing Netanyahu of being distracted by a corruption case against him. He denies wrongdoing.Netanyahu, who was sworn in for a fifth term in May after a closely fought election, has accused the protesters of trampling democracy and the Israeli media of encouraging dissent.Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party on Saturday called the protests “left-wing riots” and accused Israel’s popular Channel 12 news of “doing everything it can to encourage the far-left demonstrations” of the premier’s opponents.”Netanyahu is fighting to get Israel’s economy back to normal and to transfer funds and grants to Israeli citizens,” Likud said in a statement posted to Netanyahu’s Twitter page.Israeli protesters hold flags and signs as they stand on a bridge to demonstrate against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Hadera, Israel, Aug. 8, 2020. One sign in Hebrew reads: “Disconnected.”Beyond JerusalemProtests have stretched beyond Netanyahu’s official residence in Jerusalem, with many Israelis gathering on bridges and highway junctions across the country.On a busy highway overpass north of Israel’s commercial hub of Tel Aviv, demonstrators waved black flags and chanted slogans while cars honked their horns from the road below.One protester, Yael, said she had lost her job at a Tel Aviv restaurant and that government aid has been slow to come.”You’d think that a once-in-a-lifetime crisis like this would push Netanyahu to act, and it hasn’t. Enough is enough,” she said, declining to give her last name.Israel in May lifted a partial lockdown that had flattened an infection curve. But a second surge of COVID-19 cases and ensuing restrictions have seen Netanyahu’s approval ratings plunge to under 30%.Many restrictions have since been lifted to revive business, but unemployment hovers at 21.5% and the economy is expected to contract 6% in 2020.
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Lebanese security forces fired tear gas Saturday at thousands of demonstrators who gathered in Beirut’s main square to protest the government’s management of the recent explosion that devastated large parts of the city.At the beginning of a planned protest, a small group of men started throwing stones at security forces as they tried to jump over barriers that were blocking entry to the parliament building. Police responded by firing tear gas at the protesters.A police spokesman said an officer was killed during scuffles. A police officer at the scene said that the officer died after falling down an elevator shaft when he was chased by protesters into a building in the area.The demonstrators also stormed the foreign ministry building while others in Martyrs Square set up symbolic nooses for politicians and chanted, “The people want the fall of the regime!”The protesters later set fire to a truck that was reinforcing barriers on a street leading to the parliament building.The Lebanese Red Cross said more than a dozen protesters were hospitalized and scores of others received medical treatment on the scene.Anti-government protesters climb concrete wall that installed by security forces and throw stones against the army, as they try to reach the Parliament building, during a protest against the political elites and the government, Beirut, Aug. 8, 2020.The protest, the first significant demonstration since the explosion, occurred amid mounting anger at Lebanon’s political leadership.Hisham Harb, a student at Lebanese University, told VOA that “just about everyone is mad, scared and angry” — angry at the government, at the politicians, and at what he called the gangsters who run the country. “Everyone,” he said, “has friends and family members who were killed or injured in the explosion, and everyone is mad as hell.”The country’s leaders have been accused of widespread corruption and incompetence that contributed to Tuesday’s devastating explosion, which killed at least 158 people and injured about 6,000 others.Prime Minister Hassan Diab said Friday that he would draft legislation calling for early elections and was willing to remain in the position for two months to allow political leaders time to implement structural reforms.The head of the Kataeb Party, Sami Gemayal, told mourners at the funeral of party Secretary-General Nazar Najarian on Saturday that he was withdrawing three party members from parliament amid the fallout from the explosion.Progressive Socialist Party and Druze leader Walid Jumblatt told Arab media he was calling for early parliamentary elections and that protesters have the right to demand that political leaders resign.Jumblatt said, however, it is up to Christian protesters and Christian political parties to call for an end to the mandate of President Michel Aoun.Christian political leader Samir Geagea has also called for early parliamentary elections but stopped short of withdrawing his party’s members from parliament.Visiting Arab League head Ahmed Aboul Gheit told journalists the 22-member body would “support Lebanon through all available means” after meeting with President Michel Aoun. Aboul Gheit and other world leaders, including U.S. President Donald Trump, say they will take part Sunday in a donor’s conference for Lebanon in Paris.The U.S. Embassy in Beirut said Saturday that the U.S. government backed the demonstrators’ right to protest peacefully and was urging them to “refrain from violence.” In a tweet, the embassy also said the Lebanese people “deserved leaders who listen to them and change course to respond to popular demands for transparency and accountability.”The United States is delivering emergency aid to Lebanon, starting with food, water, and medical supplies, under the direction of President Donald Trump, national security adviser Robert O’Brien said Friday.US Delivering Critical Emergency Aid to Lebanon UN, French, Russian rescue workers searched the port area of Beirut for survivors from the blast, French and Russian rescue teams with dogs also searched the area on Friday. In addition, the U.S. will continue to work with authorities in Lebanon to identify further health and humanitarian needs and will provide further assistance. The U.S. Agency for International Development is deploying a disaster assistance response team to help with coordination and delivery of assistance, the statement said.The Trump administration has initially pledged more than $17 million in disaster aid for the country, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said, and “will continue to help the Lebanese people as they recover from this tragedy.”Russia flew in a mobile military hospital along with 50 medical workers. Qatar also was sending a field hospital, while Iraq was supplying a crew of medical workers and truckloads of supplies.Tunisia offered to take in patients for treatment, and Germany dispatched a team of rescue experts and search dogs.Cash pledges have came in from Australia, Britain, Hungary and other countries.In addition to providing aid, Pompeo said, the U.S. is joining other nations in the call for “a thorough and transparent investigation” into the cause of the explosion.In Lebanon, Shock Turns to FuryMassive blast at Beirut’s port Tuesday likely to have as enduring impact on impoverished Mediterranean country as 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, diplomats sayHuman Rights Watch was the first to call for an independent investigation of the explosion. The group said international experts should be allowed into Lebanon to “determine the causes and responsibility for the explosion and recommend measures to ensure it cannot happen again.”Lebanese authorities believe that 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrite stored in warehouses for the last six years fed the explosion this week.Officials said they expected the death toll to go up as they picked through the wreckage. Initial damage estimates were as high as $15 billion.U.N. rescue workers searched the wreckage for survivors Friday. French and Russian rescue teams with dogs also searched the area.Health officials also feared the disaster would aggravate the coronavirus outbreak as victims packed hospitals and the homeless sought shelter.Edward Yeranian contributed to this report from Cairo.
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Thousands of demonstrators gathered again Saturday in Russia’s Far East city of Khabarovsk to denounce the arrest of the region’s governor a month ago, protests that are posing a direct challenge to the Kremlin.Sergei Furgal was arrested on July 9 on suspicion of involvement in murders and taken to jail in Moscow. The estimated 3,000 demonstrators on Saturday protested the charges, believing them to be politically motivated, and want him returned to the city for trial. Furgal has denied the charges.Furgal, who has been removed from his post, is a popular figure in the region bordering China about 6,100 kilometers (3,800 miles) east of Moscow. Since his arrest, daily demonstrations have been held in the city, with attendance peaking on weekends.Demonstrations in support of the Khabarovsk protesters were held in at least seven other cities in Russia. The OVD-Info organization that monitors political arrests said at least 10 people were arrested in those demonstrations.No arrests were reported in Khabarovsk, where authorities have not interfered with the demonstrations, apparently hoping they will fizzle out. 
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Ahead of the U.S. presidential election in November, numerous public opinion polls show presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden leading President Donald Trump.While polls can reflect how popular a candidate is at a point in time, they don’t always accurately predict the election result.VOA spoke to experts Allan Lichtman and Helmut Norpoth, both of whom have called the outcome of the election based on their own prediction models. Here are their verdicts, which both scholars declared as “final.”Allan LichtmanAllan Lichtman, Professor of History at American University, Washington, DC has correctly predicted all presidential election results since 1984 except for Gore-Bush 2000. (Courtesy photo)Professor of History at American University, Washington, DC.Track record:Lichtman has correctly predicted all presidential election results since 1984. In 2000, he forecast that Al Gore would win the election, and stands by that prediction. Gore won the popular vote but lost the presidency to George W. Bush after the Supreme Court ruled to stop the recount after a long dispute over inconclusive ballots cast in Florida. Lichtman has since adjusted his metrics to call the candidate with the most electoral votes, not the candidate with the most popular votes. Lichtman also predicted Trump’s impeachment.Prediction: Biden wins.Methodology: Keys to the White House  Lichtman uses a series of 13 “keys” in the form of true or false questions. A “true” answer earns a point for the incumbent, while a “false” answer earns a point for the challenger. The keys predict that the candidate with the most points will win the election.Those keys and their answers for the 2020 race, according to Lichtman are:1.    The incumbent’s party gained house seats between midterm elections – FALSE2.    There is no primary contest for the incumbent’s party – TRUE3.    The incumbent is running for reelection – TRUE4.    There is no third-party challenger – TRUE5.    The short-term economy is strong – FALSE6.    The long-term economic growth during the incumbent’s term has been as good as the past two terms – FALSE7.    The incumbent has made major changes to national policy – TRUE8.    There is no social unrest during the incumbent’s term – FALSE9.    The incumbent is untainted by scandal – FALSE10.   The incumbent has no major foreign or military failures abroad – TRUE11.   The incumbent has a major foreign or military success abroad – FALSE12.   The incumbent is charismatic – FALSE13.   The challenger is uncharismatic – TRUETotal: Incumbent 6 points, Challenger 7 points.Caveat:Lichtman said his prediction has changed after the pandemic and the widespread social unrest following the death of George Floyd while in police custody in May.“In just a matter of a few months, Donald Trump and the Republicans went from what looked like a sure win with just four keys against them, to a predicted loss with 7 keys—one more than needed to predict their defeat,” he said.Lichtman said he will not change his prediction again but there are two factors that lie outside the realm of the keys: voter suppression and election meddling.“The Republican base is old white guys like me—that is the most shrinking part of the electorate,” said Lichtman, a registered Democrat. “The GOP cannot manufacture new old white guys but what they can try to do is suppress the vote of the rising Democratic base of minorities and young people. That has me worried.” Another concern for Lichtman is election intervention by foreign actors.“We know the Russians will be back, and maybe back in more force because they’ve learned a lot since 2016,” Lichtman said. “And we know for certain that Donald Trump will again welcome and exploit any Russian intervention that he thinks will help him win.”Helmut NorpothHelmut Norpoth, Professor of Political Science at Stony Brook University, New York has correctly predicted all presidential election results since 1992 except for Gore-Bush 2000. (Courtesy photo)Professor of Political Science at State University of New York at Stony Brook.Track record:Norpoth correctly predicted five of the past six presidential elections since developing his model in 1992. When applied to previous elections, Norpoth’s model correctly predicted the last 27 elections except for the 2000 election in which George W. Bush defeated Al Gore and the 1960 election in which John F. Kennedy defeated Richard Nixon.In March of 2016, Norpoth predicted Trump having an 87 percent chance of winning.Methodology: The Primary Model  Norpoth’s Primary Model uses statistical representation of U.S. presidential races with one key metric—the importance of early presidential primaries.   A state-level election, a primary is usually held in February of a presidential election year, where voters choose who would be the political party’s nominee to run in the November presidential election. New Hampshire and South Carolina hold the first primaries for both the Democratic and Republican parties.The model uses data going back to 1912 when presidential primaries were first introduced and concludes that the candidate with the better primary vote tends to win the general election.Joe Biden won 8.4 percent of votes in the New Hampshire primary and 48.4 percent in South Carolina. Trump won the Republican primary in New Hampshire with 85.6 percent votes. There was no primary election for Republicans in South Carolina this year.“South Carolina canceled the Republican primary so I have no number for that. But they canceled it for lack of competition, so it probably would be 100 percent or something close to that,” said Norpoth, a registered Independent. “Either way, in those two primaries Donald Trump gets a vastly higher score than Joe Biden, so that puts him in the driver’s seat as far as the primary part of the model is concerned.”Norpoth’s model also factors in what he calls the “swing of the electoral pendulum,” the theory that control of the White House swings from one party to the other in presidential elections, on average after two to three terms.Prediction:   Trump wins. Norpoth concluded the president has a 91 percent chance of reelection and Biden has a 9 percent chance of winning.Norpoth is not predicting whether Trump will win or lose the popular vote this year but projected that Trump will gain 363 electoral votes while Biden will gain 175 electoral votes.Caveat:  No caveat. Despite most polls showing Biden in the lead, Norpoth declared that his forecast is “unconditional and final.”“We’re living in an age of cancel culture, woke politics, etc.,” he said. “Maybe some people are reluctant to admit even to a pollster that they’re supporting Donald Trump because it doesn’t sound right, it doesn’t sit right with a lot of people.”Norpoth said neither the pandemic nor Black Lives Matter protests had any bearing on his projection and insisted that a sitting president with a superior performance in the primaries compared to the opponent has never lost.“It’s written in stone,” Norpoth said. “It cannot bend, but it may break. In the end, there’s a chance—9 percent—that it’s going to come out wrong so that’s a chance I’m taking.”
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The U.N. human rights office calls the decision to close Jordan’s Teachers Syndicate another blow to the union’s freedom of association and to its ability to operate without governmental interference.U.N. rights officials say they are deeply disturbed by the increasingly restrictive and heavy-handed measures being imposed on the independent trade union right to freedom of opinion and expression. They cite worrying reports of excessive use of force by security forces late last month against hundreds of demonstrators who were protesting the arrest and suspension of the Teachers Syndicate’s leaders.U.N. human rights spokesman Rupert Colville says his agency has serious concerns about a growing clampdown on press freedoms. He says a recent order by the attorney general to ban all news stories about the syndicate’s closure and the arrest of its board members tramples on peoples’ civic rights.“The actions against the Teachers Syndicate, which has over 100,000 members, and its supporters, are emblematic of a growing pattern of suppression of public freedoms and the restriction of civic and democratic space by the Jordanian government, including against labor rights activists, human rights defenders, journalists and those who have peacefully criticized the government,” said Colville.The government and the Teachers Syndicate have been engaged in disputes over low teacher salaries in public schools since the union was formed in 2011. After a four-week strike last October, the government agreed to raise teacher salaries from 35 to 74 percent, depending on their professional level.Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Colville says salary increases have been frozen until the end of the year, raising tensions with the syndicate.“While Jordan is clearly facing an economic crisis, like many other countries, partly because of the COVID-19 restrictions, we encourage the government to engage in good faith negotiations with the Teachers Syndicate about their concerns rather than imposing measures that unlawfully restrict the rights to freedom of association, peaceful assembly, opinion and expression,” said Colville.Schools are closed for summer holidays but are due to reopen at the end of the month. However, the U.N. human rights office warns further pressure on the Teachers Syndicate may trigger more strikes, resulting in additional school closures. Among the losers, it says, would be the children, who would be deprived of their right to education.
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For decades, thousands of vendors have fanned out along roadsides from Alabama to Michigan each summer to haggle over the prices of old Coca-Cola bottles, clothes, toys, knives and more at The World’s Longest Yard Sale.And though the coronavirus pandemic has canceled events around the globe, the six-state yard sale is happening this weekend for the 34th straight year.Beginning Thursday and ending Sunday, thousands of people will mingle, chat and bargain across a 1,110 kilometer stretch of Middle America. Organizers say they might not get the usual crowd, estimated at 200,000 people, but they could.“We feel like there’s a lot of pent-up demand,” said Hugh Stump III, executive director of tourism in Gadsden, at the southernmost end of the sale.The crowd was predominantly older on the first day in Gadsden, and many people wore face masks and visibly tried to keep away from others. COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus, can be particularly dangerous for the elderly and people with other health problems.But many others didn’t wear facial coverings, and it wasn’t uncommon to see people standing shoulder to shoulder as they looked through racks of clothes or tables full of shoes set up outside.Promoters considered canceling the event because of the pandemic, which has killed more than 160,000 Americans and infected nearly 5 million more, but they decided to go ahead with precautions including reminders about masks, social distancing and handwashing.“The fact that it’s a mostly outdoor event was a large determining factor in going forward. There’s plenty of space for social distancing and the other guidelines can be followed as well. In addition, because this event is critical to many people’s livelihood it’s very important,” sale spokesperson Josh Randall said in an email.Vendors set up days early at Cumberland Mountain General Store in Clarkrange, Tennessee, where as many as 100 booths will be open though the weekend.A crowd looks through items at the World’s Longest Yard Sale, which stretches from Alabama to Michigan, at its southernmost point in Gadsden, Ala., on Aug. 6, 2020.“It’s usually packed here,” store clerk June Walker said.Other places opted out this year because of the virus. The Darke County Steam Threshers Association in Ansonia, Ohio, decided against allowing vendors on its 12 hectares of land, President Jo Stuck said.“To keep up with all the health mandates … we just do not have the volunteers to do it this year,” she said. “The two of us who can be there all the time have compromised immune systems, and that puts our health at risk plus the health of our visitors and our vendors.”The loss of rental income will hurt the group, which stages events featuring old farm machines, but members didn’t want to be put in the position of dealing with people who willfully defy Ohio’s mandatory mask rule, Stuck said.“There are a lot of people around here that have an issue with it and don’t want to follow it,” she said. “It’s a big problem.”The yard sale began in 1987 as a way to lure visitors off interstate highways to a small town in Tennessee. No one owns the event, Randall said, but it’s promoted on a website that includes tips for vendors, maps and, for 2020, pandemic health guidelines.Also known as the 127 Yard Sale, the event follows U.S. 127 from near Addison, Michigan, to Chattanooga, Tennessee, through Ohio and Kentucky. From there, it meanders through northwest Georgia to Noccalula Falls, a 100-hectare public park in Gadsden.Patricia Gurley piled into a car with two friends and drove about 275 kilometers to the Gadsden end of the sale from her home in Corinth, Mississippi. With a yellow mask pulled down under her chin, she was excited about visiting the sale for the first time and wasn’t concerned about the pandemic.“I don’t worry about that. If you’re gonna get it, you’re gonna get it,” she said.A crowd looks through items at the World’s Longest Yard Sale, which stretches from Alabama to Michigan, at its southernmost point in Gadsden, Ala., on Aug. 6, 2020.Nicole Gerle came even farther: She drove 3,340 kilometers from her home in San Diego and planned to travel the route at least to Ohio, maybe even all the way to Michigan.Wearing a mask, Gerle said she wasn’t fretting over the coronavirus: “If other people aren’t going to be smart, I’m going to be smart on my side.” But Gerle was worried about getting good deals on items including a metal basket she planned to take home, repurpose into other goods and sell.“The purchasing is livelihood for me and the selling is livelihood for them,” she said, pointing toward sales tables. “People make their income; they count on this.”Vendor Ann Sullins has set up shop at the past five sales and was thankful this year’s wasn’t called off. But realistically, she said, the yard sale is just too big to cancel.“People are going to do just like they do,” said Sullins, who wasn’t wearing a mask but tried to keep her distance from others and had hand sanitizer. “When something like this comes up, they’re going to go out and do it just because it gives them a break from home.” 
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Two years after a pan-European military initiative was first proposed to help tackle the Sahel’s Islamist insurgency, the Takuba task force is finally becoming reality, as its first troops arrive amid the coronavirus pandemic, political turmoil and spreading unrest.A group of roughly 100 Estonian and French special forces are the first on the ground to comprise Takuba, the Tuareg name for a sabre. Some 60 Czech troops are to join them in October, and another 150 Swedish ones by early next year. Estonia, Belgium and more recently Italy count among others to announce troops for the mission intended to help Mali and Niger forces fight extremist groups in the region.But for now, and likely in the future, the main foreign troop contributor in the region is France, analysts say, whose own 5,100-troop Barkhane counterinsurgency operation enters its seventh year.And despite recent military victories, they say, chances of eradicating the conflict are remote, unless the Europeans and Africans offer more holistic, long-term solutions.“If you have a gushing wound on your neck, you don’t put a plaster on it,” said Andrew Yaw Tchie, a senior Africa security expert at the London-based Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies, or RUSI.Victory possible?France thinks differently. At a June Sahel summit in Nouakchott, Mauritania, French President Emmanuel Macron urged regional and international governments to intensify their military campaign against the Islamists.”We are all convinced that victory is possible in the Sahel,” Macron said, citing progress in recent months.Emboldening his stance was the early June killing of a key Islamist leader by French forces with the reported aid of a U.S. drone. Abdelmalek Droukdel, headed al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, one of the main groups operating in the region.But other prominent jihadist leaders, including two linked to al-Qaida, remain at large, in a tangled conflict in which Islamist and local extremist groups have fueled and profited from inter-communal violence as well.Overall, the United Nations estimates terrorist attacks against civilian and military targets in three of the most vulnerable Sahel countries — Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger — has increased fivefold since 2016.In a recent interview with VOA, J. Peter Pham, the top U.S. envoy to the Sahel region, noted extremist attacks in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger had increased 40 percent in the first quarter of this year alone.Asked whether counter-insurgency efforts were winning, Pham added, “It depends on what time horizon you use and what definition you use for winning.”While Droukdel’s death might be considered a “specific” success, he noted insecurity was expanding in Burkina Faso and central Mali, which “certainly cannot be counted a success.”Spreading threatExtremist groups are also spreading southward, deeper into sub-Saharan Africa — profiting from north-south ethnic and religious divides within countries, and more recently, analysts say, the coronavirus pandemic.Against this backdrop, there is no unified international military response, says Bakary Sambe, director of the Timbuktu Institute in Dakar.“Today, there are 19 different international strategies in the Sahel and no coordination,” Sambe said. “At a time when terrorist groups are beginning to coordinate, international partners are diverging.”The Takuba task force is intended to facilitate regional coordination, as well as to provide equipment and training to Malian and other G-5 Sahel forces, which also hail from Niger, Mauritania, Burkina Faso and Chad.Some observers see it as a test case for Macron’s broader goal of a more unified European Union defense, which a number of other EU member states are lukewarm about.It’s also unclear how many European countries will ultimately commit to the Sahel initiative. Some, including Norway and Germany, have already bowed out for a mix of reasons. Britain, which formally exited the EU last year, plans instead to dispatch 250 forces to beef up the U.N.’s MINUSMA peacekeeping mission in Mali.RUSI’s Tchie, who describes Britain as joining an “unwinnable fight in the Sahel” with its U.N. commitment, has similar reservations about the Takuba troops.“In essence, all you’re doing is saying, ‘Let’s deal with counterterrorism, and at some point, we’ll deal with the other stuff,’” he said, summarizing what he considers the European thinking.Yet such thinking, he added, fails to address interlinking problems, including climate change, corruption, poverty and underdevelopment that are fueling the conflict.Parallels with SomaliaAdding to the challenges is the current political turmoil in Mali, where West African leaders are trying to find an exit plan to a crisis in which protesters are calling for President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita to quit.Some regional forces have been accused of civilian abuses. For their part, extremist groups have capitalized on the coronavirus pandemic to further their interests, including staging attacks and recruiting new members, analysts say.France faces its own set of challenges. Its Barkhane force has lost 43 men in its Sahel operations since 2013. It also faces a negative image in some countries, where memories of its colonial presence linger.Takuba is partly intended to send the message that “France is not alone in the Sahel,” the country’s newspaper Le Monde wrote.The Timbuktu Institute’s Sambe sees it another way.“I think that wanting to realize Takuba is in itself an admittance that Barkhane and other foreign interventions have been a failure,” he said. “It’s been years that a purely security and military approach hasn’t functioned to eradicate terrorism.”In London, RUSI’s Tchie draws parallels between the Islamist groups in the Sahel and Somalia, where the al-Shabab terrorist group has grown and spread despite years of U.S. and other military efforts. In both regions, he says, extremist groups have scored points in local communities, he says, in ways national and foreign intervention has not.“It delivers justice, it delivers humanitarian relief to communities, and people feel more secure,” he said of al-Shabab. “It’s not that people want to go to al-Shabab. But when they need security, justice and things to work for them, al-Shabab delivers.”  
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U.S. President Donald Trump said Friday he is ready to take executive action after congressional lawmakers failed again to reach agreement on a relief package for the tens of millions of Americans who have lost their jobs following the COVID-19 pandemic.Trump told a news conference that executive orders are being prepared to enhance unemployment benefits until the end of the year, defer student loan payments and forgive interest on the loans, and extend a moratorium on evictions. He said an executive order is also being prepared to defer payroll taxes until the end of the year.It was not immediately clear if he has the legal authority to take the executive actions he has proposed. It was also not immediately clear how the actions, if implemented, would work. For example, if payroll taxes are deferred, it is not clear whether workers would then have to pay them retroactively at some point and whether that payment would be one large payment or stretched out over time.Republican lawmakers are not interested in an economic relief package that costs more than $1 trillion. The bottom line for the Democrats is $2 trillion. There seems to be no room for negotiating away from those numbers for the politicians. Reports say the lawmakers have not scheduled any additional meetings.Millions of Americans recently saw the $600 enhancement to their weekly unemployment benefits come to an end. Social service agencies have warned that the lack of the additional funds for the unemployed could result in food insecurity and evictions for millions.
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Meet Cynthia Reyes whose family has been living a nightmare. Reyes recently lost her father to COVID-19. With no time to mourn, the 35-year old woman who has diabetes, asthma, and rheumatoid arthritis also got the virus, along with family members. Reyes lives in California’s Imperial County, a farming region along the Mexican border with one of the state’s highest coronavirus infection rates. VOA’s Mariama Diallo has this report.
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U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has warned Russia’s foreign minister about alleged bounty payments to Taliban militants for killing U.S. troops in Afghanistan, according to The New York Times.The Times reported Friday that Pompeo made the warning to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov during a July 13 phone call, citing unidentified U.S. officials.It said Pompeo’s warning was the first known rebuke from a senior U.S. official to Russia over the alleged bounties program.Pompeo has previous declined to say whether he specifically raised the bounty allegations with Russia. However, he told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last month that he has “raised all of the issues that put any Americans at risk” each time he has spoken to Lavrov.Trump has called the reports of Russian bounties on U.S. troops “another Russian hoax” despite concerns about them from the intelligence community.Trump told reporters in Florida last month, “It was never brought to my attention and it perhaps wasn’t brought because they didn’t consider it to be real. And if it is brought to my attention, I’ll do something about it,” he said.During an interview with “Axios on HBO,” Trump said he had not raised the bounty allegations in a recent phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin.“That was a phone call to discuss other things, and, frankly, that’s an issue that many people said was fake news,” Trump said.White House officials have said that Trump was not briefed on the suspected bounties because the assessment was not conclusive. However, several media outlets, including the Times, have reported that the issue was included in one of the president’s written daily briefings in February. Trump has said he was never personally told about the issue.Russia has denied that it paid bounties to Taliban militants for killing U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
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Canada will slap retaliatory tariffs on C$3.6 billion ($2.7 billion) worth of U.S. aluminum products after the United States said it would impose punitive measures on Canadian aluminum imports, a senior official said on Friday.Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland told a news conference the countermeasures would be put in place by Sept. 16 to allow consultations with industry.The move marks the latest ruction in a choppy relationship between the neighbors and close allies since President Donald Trump took office in 2017.Trump moved on Thursday to reimpose 10% tariffs on some Canadian aluminum products on Aug 16 to protect U.S. industry from a “surge” in imports. Canada denies any impropriety.”At a time when we are fighting a global pandemic … a trade dispute is the last thing anyone needs – it will only hurt the economic recovery on both sides of the border. However, this is what the U.S. administration has chosen to do,” said Freeland.”We do not escalate and we do not back down,” she said later, variously describing the U.S. decision as “entirely unacceptable,” absurd and ludicrous.The Canadian list of goods that might be subject to tariffs includes aluminum bars, plates, refrigerators, bicycles, washing machines and golf clubs. Trump is a keen golfer.”I think the very best outcome would be for the United States to reconsider,” said Freeland, adding that she was confident common sense would prevail.The list of goods subject to tariffs is narrower than the last time Ottawa struck back at Trump because the two sides agreed in 2019 to limit the scope of retaliation in disputes over steel and aluminum, said a Canadian government source who requested anonymity.In 2018, Ottawa slapped tariffs on C$16.6 billion ($12.5 billion) worth of goods ranging from bourbon to ketchup after Washington imposed sanctions on Canadian aluminum and steel.Ottawa may be calculating its measures will be short-lived. A source briefed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office said Canadian officials are increasingly sure Trump will lose the Nov. 3 presidential election.Trump acted just weeks after a new continental trade pact between the United States, Canada and Mexico took effect. The North American economy is highly integrated and Canada sends 75% of all its goods exports to the United States. 
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In early August, thousands of parents, educators, students, and community members took to the streets in over 25 U.S. states to call for safe and equitable schools.  The protests, organized as a National Day of Resistance, were called to raise concerns that with the coronavirus still spreading reopening schools for in-person learning is dangerous.  The issue has become political, with pressure growing from the White House and many state governors to reopen the classrooms.  Nina Vishneva has this report narrated by Anna Rice on the demonstrations in New York City. Camera:  Max Avloshenko, Alex Barash, Olga Terekhin
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The director of US intelligence on Friday raised concerns about interference in the 2020 election by China, Russia and Iran.U.S. intelligence has assessed that China is hoping President Donald Trump does not win reelection, Russia is working to denigrate Democrat Joe Biden and Iran is seeking to undermine democratic institutions, said Bill Evanina, director of the National Counterintelligence Security Center.In a statement, Evanina provided the U.S. intelligence agencies’ most recent assessment of election threats to the November presidential election.“Many foreign actors have a preference for who wins the election, which they express through a range of overt and private statements; covert influence efforts are rarer,” Evanina said. “We are primarily concerned about the ongoing and potential activity by China, Russia, and Iran.”China views Trump as “unpredictable” and does not want to see him win reelection, Evanina said. China has been expanding its influence efforts ahead of the November election in an effort to shape U.S policy and pressure political figures it sees as against Beijing, he said.“Although China will continue to weigh the risks and benefits of aggressive action, its public rhetoric over the past few months has grown increasingly critical of the current administration’s COVID-19 response, closure of China’s Houston consulate and actions on other issues,” he wrote.On Russia, U.S. intelligence officials assess that Russia is working to “denigrate” Biden and what it sees as an anti-Russia “establishment” among his supporters, Evanina said. He said that would track Moscow’s criticism of Biden when he was vice president for his role in Ukraine policies and support of opposition to President Vladimir Putin inside Russia.On Iran, the assessment said Tehran seeks to undermine U.S. democratic institutions as well as Trump and divide America before the election.“Iran’s efforts along these lines probably will focus on on-line influence, such as spreading disinformation on social media and recirculating anti-U.S. content,” Evanina wrote. “Tehran’s motivation to conduct such activities is, in part, driven by a perception that President Trump’s re-election would result in a continuation of U.S. pressure on Iran in an effort to foment regime change.”
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