Norway says it will stop all cruise ships with more than 100 people on board from disembarking at Norwegian ports after a coronavirus outbreak on a vessel left 41 people infected.  Health Minister Bent Hoie announced the ban Monday, saying the new rules will apply for the next 14 days. He said ships that have already departed will be able to offload passengers and crew at Norwegian ports but that no new journeys can take place.   “The pandemic is not over,” Hoie told a news conference. Norway’s Hurtigruten cruise line apologized Monday following the outbreak on one of its ships, the MS Roald Amundsen. “We have failed,” CEO Daniel Skjeldam told a news conference. “I apologize strongly on behalf of the company.” He said the company would suspend its cruises until further notice and that it is “now in the process of a full review of all procedures.” The cruise line was one of the first companies to resume sailing during the pandemic. Four crew members on board the MS Roald Amundsen were hospitalized on Friday when the ship arrived at Tromsoe, north of the Arctic Circle. They were later diagnosed with the infection along with another 31 crew members. Passengers aboard the ship were allowed to disembark before anyone had been diagnosed, sending local officials scrambling to locate them. At least five passengers have now tested positive and hundreds more have been told to self-isolate for 10 days. The cruise ship industry has been devastated by the coronavirus pandemic, with ships worldwide shutting down in March after several high-profile outbreaks at sea.  
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U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday that he would ban the popular video app TikTok by Sept. 15 unless U.S company Microsoft acquires it before then. The Republican president said last week that he would ban the app, which is owned by Chinese company Bytedance, because of security concerns.Trump Sets Clock Ticking for TikTokUS president has threatened to ban popular Chinese-owned social media app amid security concerns Trump said Monday he would not mind if Microsoft Corp. acquired the app, but that the purchase would have to be completed by Sept. 15. Saying he doesn’t mind if @Microsoft buys @tiktok_us, @POTUS adds that any purchase by an American company would have to be done by a Sept. 15 deadline “at which point it’s going to be out of business in the United States.”
— Steve Herman (@W7VOA) August 3, 2020In a statement, Microsoft confirmed that its CEO had met with Trump and was committed to acquiring the company by the stated deadline. “Microsoft will move quickly to pursue discussions with TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, in a matter of weeks, and in any event completing these discussions no later than September 15, 2020. During this process, Microsoft looks forward to continuing dialogue with the United States Government, including with the President,” the statement read.  
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Several prominent Republicans have formed political action committees whose objective is to defeat Republican President Donald Trump in November’s U.S. general election. VOA’s Steve Redisch examines this rare revolt against a party’s own leader. Producer: Miguel Amaya 
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The death of African American George Floyd in May while in Minneapolis police custody has renewed conversations about whether having more women in law enforcement may lower the use of excessive force.  “Women in Blue,” a recent documentary by Deidre Fishel showcases de-escalation skills by female police officers at the Minneapolis police department. It also spotlights challenges women face in a traditionally male-dominated field. VOA’s Penelope Poulou has more.
 
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Australia is ordering non-essential businesses in Melbourne, its second-largest city, to close for six weeks starting Wednesday as authorities try to control an outbreak that accounts for nearly all of the country’s new coronavirus cases. Health officials reported Monday 429 new COVID-19 infections and 13 deaths in Victoria state, which includes Melbourne. In addition to closing most stores, other industries such as construction and meat production will have to limit their operations starting Friday. The Victoria government declared a COVID-19 disaster in Melbourne on Sunday, and with the new restrictions going into effect, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Monday that workers in Victoria who do not have paid sick leave and have to isolate themselves will be eligible to receive a payment of about $1,000. Such payments are meant to encourage people to abide by advice that they stay home if they test positive, exhibit symptoms or may have been exposed to the virus, instead of feeling financial pressure to keep working and possibly expose others. “It’s heartbreaking. This pandemic, this virus is taking a heavy toll and now’s the time, as it has been throughout this pandemic, that we continue to provide support to one another,” Morrison said. In the United States, which has about one-fourth of the world’s 18 million confirmed coronavirus cases, negotiations are continuing Monday between the White House and congressional Democrats on a new aid package that would include federal money to help the millions of people who are unemployed.   Many lost their jobs during the pandemic as lockdown restrictions and new consumer habits badly hurt the economy, and a previous round of federal aid that provided $600 a week to the unemployed expired last week.First responders receive antibody testing for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Arizona, July 10, 2020.The talks come as the United States deals with an ongoing surge in cases that began in June and pushed leaders in some states to reinstate some of the restrictions they had lifted in hopes economic activity could return without a resurgence of the virus. White House coronavirus task force coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx told CNN Sunday the outbreak has hit a new phase in the United States with the spread of the virus becoming “extraordinarily widespread,” reaching rural areas as much as big cities. “To everybody who lives in a rural area: You are not immune or protected from this virus,” Birx said. In the Philippines, where the total number of cases has surpassed 100,000, new lockdown restrictions go into effect in the capital, Manila, and five densely populated provinces for a period of two weeks. During that time, people will be allowed to make only essential travel and mass transit will be barred. Medical groups in the country had asked for the reimposition of restrictions in order to allow health workers under the strain of caring for coronavirus patients a chance to regroup and for the government to recalibrate its efforts in response to the pandemic. “Our health care workers are burnt out with the seemingly endless number of patients trooping to our hospitals,” the medical groups said in a letter to Duterte. 
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Italian Firefighters, civil protection volunteers, and Alpine troops are working around the clock in trying to put out the fires that have engulfed the hundreds of hectares of woodland around the city of L’Aquila in the eastern region of Abruzzo. The fires were still burning for the third day Sunday, after the area was set ablaze by an act of arson. L’Aquila’s Mayor posted a statement on his Facebook page, saying that four Canadair aircraft, three helicopters and more than 150 people were participating in an operation to put the flames under control. Firefighters have also been using drones equipped with thermal imaging cameras to locate the origin of the fires. 
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Women and children slept in the open amid heavy rainfall after flooding inundated hundreds of homes in Sudan’s Blue Nile province and left five people dead across the country, authorities said Sunday. Bout, a town of 100,000 people, has been severely hit by heavy rains and floods over the past week with at least 1,200 houses destroyed, the Sudanese Red Crescent said. More than 120 houses in the nearby town of Wed Abuk were also destroyed.  Footage circulated online showed floodwaters cutting off roads and sweeping away houses and people’s belongings. Swaths of agricultural land in the area were also flooded. Most in the region are internally displaced people who live off agriculture and are vulnerable to the annual flooding, according to resident Musab Sharif.  Hundreds of families were left sleeping in the open amid rain that lasted until late Saturday, he said. The heavy rainfall also caused the collapse of the Bout Dam, local official Nusaiba Farouk Kalol, told The Associated Press over the phone. At least 600 families remained stranded amid flooding caused by both the rainfall and the collapse of the dam, she said. “The water surrounded them. There was no access to those families as the water flooded the area from three directions,” she said. Kalol warned about a massive wave of displacement in Bout, which is 180 kilometers (111 miles) from the provincial capital, al-Damazin. In the capital Khartoum, floods triggered by heavy rainfall inundated around 1,000 houses, said Interior Minister Lt. Gen. al-Tarifi Idris. Across the country, at least 2,380 houses were destroyed or damaged from the flooding, Idris said in a statement. More than two dozen schools and mosques along with 78 shops and storehouses were also damaged, he said. The floods left five people dead; four from the collapsing houses while the fifth drowned, the interior minister said. He didn’t say when or where those people died.  Last year, flooding killed a total of 78 people in 16 of Sudan’s 18 provinces, between July and August, according to the United Nations. 
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White House coronavirus experts said Sunday the outbreak has hit a new phase, becoming “extraordinarily widespread” in rural areas as well as big cities.
 
“To everybody who lives in a rural area: You are not immune or protected from this virus,” Dr. Deborah Birx, White House task force coordinator, said on CNN Sunday.
 
She said the virus in August is not what it looked like in March and April, when only large cities and heavily populated states were reporting cases.  
 
Birx stressed the importance of wearing masks indoors if the elderly or those with underlying health conditions are in the house.  
 
A senior official at the Department of Health and Human Services, Admiral Brett Giroir, appeared on NBC’s Meet the Press. He also talked about the importance of wearing masks and avoiding crowds.  
 
“That’s why we’re going to all the states, we’re on local radio, we give specific instructions to every governor by county, what they need to do when we start — when those counties start tipping yellow, because that’s the time when you have to stamp it down,” he said.  
 
About the same time that Birx was on CNN, Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi was on ABC television accusing Birx of helping President Donald Trump spread disinformation about COVID-19.
 
Pelosi was responding to a question about a Politico article where she reportedly said the Trump administration is in “horrible hands” in part because of Birx.
 
“I think the president is spreading disinformation about the virus, and she’s his appointee,” Pelosi said on ABC’s “This Week.” “I don’t have confidence, no.”
 
Trump continues to insist that the reason the United States has the highest number of COVID cases in the world — 4.6 million, according to Johns Hopkins University data — is because the U.S. does more testing than anyone else.
 
He tweeted Sunday that the top U.S. infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, was wrong when he said last week that Europe’s relative success in fighting the virus is because it shut down twice as many businesses as the U.S. did.  
 
“Wrong!” Trump tweeted. “We have more cases because we have tested far more than any other country, 60,000,000. If we tested less, there would be less cases. How did Italy, France & Spain do? Now Europe sadly has flare ups. Most of our governors worked hard & smart. We will come back STRONG!” Mr. Trump wrote.Passers-by wear masks to protect against the coronavirus as they walk past an empty business location, in Boston’s Downtown Crossing neighborhood, Aug. 2, 2020.COVID elsewhereOn Sunday, Manchester, England, declared what it calls a major incident because of a jump in coronavirus cases in the city.
 
The city council said people should not be alarmed, calling the declaration “standard practice.”
 
New lockdown measures have been imposed, including banning members of two different households from mixing in pubs and restaurants.
 
British health officials also announced plans Sunday to introduce millions of COVID-19 tests that they say can detect the virus in 90 minutes.  
 
The tests will be distributed to hospitals, nursing homes and laboratories.
 
“The fact these tests can detect flu as well as COVID-19 will be hugely beneficial as we head into winter, so patients can follow the right advice to protect themselves and others,” Health Minister Matt Hancock said.  
 
Another European leader, Kosovo’s Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti, said Sunday he has COVID-19 and will spend two weeks in isolation.
 
“I don’t have symptoms expect a very mild cough,” Hoti said on his Facebook page.
Thirteen more coronavirus deaths were reported Sunday in Kosovo, bringing the total to 249 deaths and 90,000 cases.
 
In Australia, Victoria declared a “State of Disaster” Sunday after 700 new COVID-19 cases were confirmed overnight.
 
Measures include an overnight curfew starting at 8 p.m. and only one member from a household will be allowed to go shopping and only at a store within five kilometers of home.  
 
“You have to err on the side of caution and go further and harder,” Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews said.  
 
The Philippines will impose stricter measures starting Tuesday after the number of cases there shot past the 100,000 mark.
 
Some businesses will be closed, and anyone not quarantined or having to report to a job will need a pass.  
 
President Rodrigo Duterte appeared on nationwide television Sunday after a group representing nearly 2 million doctors and nurses said they are afraid the country is losing the fight against COVID-19.  
 
“Our health care workers are burnt out with the seemingly endless number of patients trooping to our hospitals,” the medical groups said in a letter to Duterte.  
 
“I have heard you. Don’t lose hope. We are aware that you are tired,” he said.  
 
Finally, President Trump is no different from millions of American parents who want their children to have a normal school year, but he may not see his wish come true.
 
Trump’s 14-year-old son, Barron, will be among those taking at least some of his classes online this fall.
 
Barron is about to enter the ninth grade at the private St. Andrew’s Episcopal School in Potomac, Maryland. The school is in Montgomery County, where health officials have ordered all schools, private and public, to remain closed at least through October 1st when the decision will be reevaluated.
 
St. Andrew’s is considering a hybrid plan that would allow students to take some classes in person and others remotely. 
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Just two years after part of Genoa’s Morandi bridge collapsed killing 43 people, a new structure opens in its place Monday, an achievement in stark contrast to stalled infrastructure projects elsewhere in Italy.
 
The new kilometer-long bridge, designed by star architect Renzo Piano, replaces the old motorway viaduct that broke apart in the port city Aug. 14, 2018, in one of Italy’s worst civil disasters in decades.
 
Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, who will attend the inauguration of the new Genova-San Giorgio viaduct said it would be a “symbol of a new Italy rising up again.”
 
The accident laid bare years of mismanagement and poor maintenance and set off an acrimonious battle between the government and Atlantia’s Autostrade per l’Italia, the private concession holder controlled by the powerful Benetton family that ran the bridge.
 
Several former and current executives of Autostrade and transport ministry officials have been placed under investigation by prosecutors and, after months of wrangling, Atlantia is set to lose control of its lucrative subsidiary.
 
For the mayor of Genoa and state-appointed commissioner for bridge reconstruction, Marco Bucci, the case is both an example of decades-long failures in Italy’s transport infrastructure and a demonstration of what the country is capable of accomplishing.
 
“There’s a feeling of both regret for what happened and pride in the work that’s been done,” he told Reuters. “We’ve worked and shown Italian excellence.”
 
For years, Italy’s economy has suffocated under a mix of poor governance made worse by corruption and a thicket of vested interests and bureaucracy that have stifled innovation and fostered the kind of neglect that led to the bridge disaster.
 
Genoa itself, surrounded by rugged hills that constrain road transport, has seen a motorway bypass project held up for decades.
 
With the coronavirus crisis still unfolding and billions of euros set to come to Italy from Europe’s newly agreed recovery fund, addressing such failures has gained a new urgency.
 
As well as the shocking human toll, the collapse of the Morandi bridge dealt a severe economic blow to Genoa, costing the city an estimated 6 million euros ($7.06 million) a day in lost revenues and additional costs, Bucci said, with freight traffic interrupted for months.
 
Under heavy pressure to address the neglect that caused the disaster, the government pushed through an emergency decree to sweep aside red tape.
 
Between demolishing the remainder of the old structure in February 2019 to opening the new bridge 18 months later, the speed of the project has been breakneck in a country with crumbling roads and tunnels and development plans gathering dust.
 
While the circumstances behind the bridge collapse were unique, much rides on repeating that momentum elsewhere.
 
Trust and clear project goals, two things that have often been lacking in big infrastructure projects, were vital, said Roberto Carpaneto, head of RINA Consulting, who worked with the construction consortium led by Italian infrastructure groups Webuild and Fincantieri.
 
“Being able to say what was going to happen, when and why allowed us to build this relation of trust,” he said.   
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The vote to renominate President Donald Trump is set to be conducted in private later this month, without members of the press present, a spokeswoman for the Republican National Convention said Saturday, citing the coronavirus.However, a Republican National Committee official contradicted that assessment Sunday, emphasizing that no final decisions have been made and that logistics and press coverage options were still being evaluated, The official was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.While Trump called off the public components of the convention in Florida last month, citing spiking cases of the virus across the country, 336 delegates are scheduled to gather in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Aug. 24 to formally vote to make Trump the GOP standard-bearer once more.Nominating conventions are traditionally meant to be media bonanzas, as political parties seek to leverage the attention the events draw to spread their message to as many voters as possible. If the GOP decision stands, it will be the first party nominating convention in modern history to be closed to reporters.”Given the health restrictions and limitations in place within the state of North Carolina, we are planning for the Charlotte activities to be closed press Friday, August 21 – Monday, August 24,” a convention spokeswoman said. “We are happy to let you know if this changes, but we are working within the parameters set before us by state and local guidelines regarding the number of people who can attend events.”The decision was first reported by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.Privately some GOP delegations have raised logistical issues with traveling to either city, citing the increasing number of jurisdictions imposing mandatory quarantine orders on travelers returning from states experiencing surges in the virus.The subset of delegates in Charlotte will be casting proxy votes on behalf of the more than 2,500 official delegates to the convention. Alternate delegates and guests have been prohibited.
 
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More than four and a half million coronavirus infections have been confirmed in the United States, and June statistics show unemployment is at over 11%. Senate Republicans and House Democrats remain at odds over a relief bill for Americans. VOA’s Esha Sarai has more.
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Two U.S. astronauts returned to Earth on Sunday, splashing safely into the Gulf of Mexico after a two-month mission to the International Space Station aboard the commercially developed SpaceX spacecraft Crew Dragon.Astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley landed at midafternoon off the western coast of Florida, avoiding the dangers of Tropical Storm Isaias moving along the Atlantic Ocean coast of the southern state.The two men had lifted off to space from Florida in May, the first NASA astronaut launch from U.S. soil since 2011 and the first time a commercially developed spacecraft had carried humans into orbit.Hurley and Behnken, both married to astronauts, departed the International Space Station on Saturday night. They awoke to a recording of their young children urging them to “rise and shine” and “we can’t wait to see you.””Don’t worry, you can sleep in tomorrow,” said Behnken’s 6-year-old son, Theo, who was promised a puppy after the flight. “Hurry home so we can go get my dog.”The Dragon capsule slowed from an orbital speed of 28,000 kph to 560 during reentry into the atmosphere and finally to 24 kph at splashdown.More than 40 staff were on a SpaceX recovery ship, including doctors and nurses who planned to examine the two astronauts.  NASA astronauts last returned from space to water on July 24, 1975, in the Pacific, the scene of most splashdowns.Until the SpaceX launch, the U.S. had relied in recent years on Russian rockets to send its astronauts to the space station. The private company is planning its next launch near the end of September, sending four astronauts to the space station for six months. 
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