President Donald Trump on Wednesday contradicted a statement by the director of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on his administration’s timeline to provide Americans with vaccinations against the coronavirus, and on the effectiveness of masks. Meanwhile, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden laid out his vaccine plans if he wins the November election. White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has the story. 
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President Cyril Ramaphosa announced late Wednesday that South Africa will begin allowing travel in and out of the country beginning October 1 amid a substantial decline in coronavirus cases.Visitors coming from countries without high infection rates will be permitted to enter South Africa if they have a proof of a coronavirus test no older than 72 hours prior to their departure.During a televised address, Ramaphosa said travelers without a valid COVID-19 test will be quarantined until an acceptable coronavirus test is presented.South Africa placed restrictions on international travelers in late March in an effort to curb the spread of the coronavirus in the country, which eventually increased to the largest total on the continent.So far, South Africa has confirmed more than 653,000 infections and more than 15,000 deaths.Ramaphosa also said because of the drop in infections, the threat level of the virus will be moved to its lowest point starting Sunday.Ramaphosa said, the move to Level 1 means there is sufficient capacity in the health system to manage the current need.Ramaphosa also announced under new public gathering requirements that up to 250 people can attend events indoors and 500 outdoors.South Africa’s new curfew will last from midnight to 4 a.m. instead of starting at 10 p.m.  
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The smoke from dozens of wildfires in the western United States is stretching clear across the country – and even pushing into Mexico, Canada and Europe. While the dangerous plumes are forcing people indoors along the West Coast, residents thousands of kilometers away in the East are seeing unusually hazy skies and remarkable sunsets.The wildfires racing across tinder-dry landscape in California, Idaho, Oregon and Washington are extraordinary, but the long reach of their smoke isn’t unprecedented. While there are only small pockets in the southeastern U.S. that are haze free, experts say the smoke poses less of a health concern for those who are farther away.The sun was transformed into a perfect orange orb as it set over New York City on Tuesday. Photographs of it sinking behind the skyline and glinting through tree leaves flooded social media. On Wednesday, New Jersey residents described a yellow tinge to the overcast skies, and weather forecasters were kept busy explaining the phenomenon and making predictions as to how long the conditions would last.Fire crews still workingOn the opposite coast, air quality conditions were among the worst ever recorded. Smoke cloaked the Golden Gate Bridge and left Portland and Seattle in an ashy fog, as crews have exhausted themselves trying to keep the flames from consuming more homes and even wider swaths of forest.Satellite images showed that smoke from the wildfires has traveled almost 8,000 kilometers to Britain and other parts of northern Europe, scientists said Wednesday.A runner descends a trail on Pilot Butte, a lava dome overlooking the city of Bend, Ore., Sept. 15, 2020. Wildfires have created hazardous air quality in Bend and other cities across the U.S. West.Westerly winds, up highThe current weather system, which favors a westerly wind across the higher levels of the atmosphere, is to blame for the reach of the smoke, experts explained.”We always seem, at times, to get the right combination of enough smoke and the upper-level jet stream to line up to bring that across the country, so we’re just seeing this again,” said Matt Solum with the National Weather Service’s regional operations center in Salt Lake City, Utah. “It’s definitely not the first time this has happened.”There could be some easing of the haze this weekend as a storm system is expected to move into the Pacific Northwest and could affect the conditions that helped the smoke travel across the country. But Solum said there’s always a chance for more smoke and haze to shift around.”Just due to all the wildfires that are going on, this is likely going to continue for a while,” he said. “You might have ebbs and flows of that smoke, just depending on how the upper-level winds set up.”Making health problems worseKim Knowlton, a senior scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council in New York City, said she woke up Wednesday to a red sunrise and more haze.She said millions of people who live beyond the flames can end up dealing with diminished air quality, as it’s not uncommon for wildfire smoke to travel hundreds of miles.Although the health impacts are reduced the farther and higher into the atmosphere the smoke travels, Knowlton and her colleagues said the resulting haze can exacerbate existing problems such as asthma and add to ozone pollution.
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The United States vowed to assert a “snapback” of all prior international sanctions on Iran, effective 8 p.m. Eastern Time on September 19, with more announcements to be made this weekend and next week as to exactly how Washington is planning to enforce the “returned U.N. sanctions.”“We will return to the United Nations to reimpose sanctions so that the arms embargo will become permanent next week,” said U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo Wednesday during a joint press conference with British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab.“I think we absolutely agree that Iran must never be — never be allowed to obtain a nuclear weapon,” said Raab. “We also, I think, share the view that the diplomatic door is open to Iran to negotiate a peaceful way forward. That decision, that choice is there for the leadership in Tehran to take.” He stopped short of saying whether or not and how Britain will implement the snapback sanctions.Britain, France and Germany, the so-called E3, said in August that they cannot support the U.S. move to restore U.N. sanctions on Iran, saying the action is incompatible with efforts to support the Iran nuclear deal.U.S. special envoy for Iran and Venezuela Elliott Abrams speaks during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Aug. 4, 2020.“Whether those countries will in fact ignore the U.N. sanctions [under U.N. Security Council resolution 2231] remains to be seen,” U.S. special envoy for Iran and Venezuela Elliott Abrams told reporters in a Wednesday phone briefing. He added the E3 and other European countries had told Washington that they don’t want the Iran arms embargo to end, but they were unable to take any action that kept the UN arms embargo in place.Abrams said the returned sanctions include “a ban on Iran engaging in enrichment and reprocessing-related activities, the prohibition on ballistic missile testing and development, and sanctions on the transfer of nuclear and missile-related technologies to Iran.”U.S. officials warn that an Iran free from restrictions would lead to further regional destabilization, intensified conflicts and a regional arms race.Iranian armed forces members march in a military parade in Tehran, Sept. 22, 2018.The U.S. tried but failed on August 14 to extend an expiring arms embargo against Iran through a resolution at the United Nations Security Council.The embargo against the sale or transfer to or from Iran of conventional weapons is set to expire on October 18, under the 2015 nuclear deal, known formally as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).With the extension blocked, Washington saw triggering a snapback of U.N. sanctions under Security Council Resolution 2231, which implemented the Iran nuclear agreement, as the only path for restoring the arms embargo.As the U.S. prepares to snap back sanctions against Iran this weekend, E3 nations are largely seen as likely to ignore them. Some experts said there would be a limited impact on European economies, unless the U.S. punishes those nations with secondary sanctions.“The immediate U.S. goal in trying to re-impose sanctions is to prevent the end of the U.N. arms embargo in mid-October. But even if the Europeans recognize the U.N. embargo ends next month, British and EU companies are not going to start selling tanks to Tehran. The U.S. expects Chinese and firms to look for arms deals, and they will probably sanction those companies bilaterally. But that doesn’t bother the Europeans very much,” said Richard Gowan, U.N. director of International Crisis Group (ICG).“Overall, the U.S. has realized that this is not a useful fight to pursue,” Gowan told VOA on Wednesday. “Equally, E3 diplomats say that they would prefer to avoid a big public row over snapback too, to limit the harm to relations with Washington.”Under the JCPOA concluded on July 14, 2015, the five permanent U.N. Security Council members, plus Germany, agreed with Iran to gradually lift international sanctions in return for limits on Tehran’s nuclear activities, to prevent it from making a nuclear bomb. It also opened Iran’s markets back up to many foreign investors.The United States withdrew from the deal in May 2018, re-imposing unilateral sanctions on Iran. In response, Tehran resumed some of its nuclear activities, and in July 2019, it breached the deal by exceeding limits on both uranium enrichment and stockpile levels. Iran denies that its nuclear activities are for military purposes. 
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Disney’s live-action remake of “Mulan” is drawing criticism beyond what’s on the screen. Plugged In with Greta Van Susteren examines China’s influence on Hollywood movies and the convergence of economics and entertainment with movie industry executive Chris Fenton and Aynne Kokas, University of Virginia communications professor and expert on  the intersections of the U.S. and China media and technology. Airdate: September 16, 2020.
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The U.S. government Wednesday outlined extensive plans to provide Americans with free vaccinations against the coronavirus, but officials offered conflicting views on just how soon the preventative shots will be widely available.Paul Mango, an official at the Department of Health and Human Services, told Bloomberg News that health experts expect the Food and Drug Administration will approve a safe vaccine by the end of 2020 and that the national government has contracts with drug manufacturers to produce enough doses so that all Americans can be vaccinated by the end of March.Robert Redfield, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, did not commit to a timetable during testimony at a Senate coronavirus hearing.Asked for a vaccine timetable, Redfield said, “If you’re asking me when is it going to be available to the American public, I think we’re probably looking at late second quarter, third quarter 2021.”Another key coronavirus official, Army Lieutenant General Paul Ostrowski, said that as soon as the FDA approves the safety of the shots, “We will have vaccines moving to administration sites, within 24 hours.”UN Chief: COVID-19 Pandemic ‘Out of Control’ Antonio Guterres says the coronavirus is the chief global security threat in the world today, and he is calling for a future vaccine that’s affordable and available to allThe CDC has told public health officials in all 50 states and U.S. territories to have plans ready to distribute a vaccine to health care workers and other high-priority groups, such as older people and those with underlying health problems, as early as Nov. 1.That date is two days before the national election, when Republican President Donald Trump faces former Democratic Vice President Joe Biden for a four-year term in the White House. Trump has pushed federal officials to complete tests on possible vaccines as fast as possible.U.S. polls show the rapid tests of would-be vaccines on thousands of volunteers that are being conducted in several countries have left many Americans skeptical of whether any approved preventative will be safe.In one Associated Press poll, one in five Americans said they would not get a coronavirus vaccine, and 31% said they were unsure whether they would. Of those who said they would not get vaccinated, the overwhelming majority said they were worried about safety.Health officials say that to protect the United States from the coronavirus, upwards of 70% either need to be vaccinated or have antibodies against the disease.Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said in a statement Wednesday, “We are working closely with our state and local public health partners…to ensure that Americans can receive the vaccine as soon as possible and vaccinate with confidence. Americans should know that the vaccine development process is being driven completely by science and the data.”Mango said, “For the overwhelming majority of Americans, no federal official will touch a dose of vaccine before it’s injected into Americans.” He said officials are working to ensure that “no American has to pay a single dime out of pocket to get a vaccine, and we’re getting very close to that aspiration right now.”Until a vaccine becomes a reality, the U.S. health experts warned that Americans should continue to take precautions against the spread of the coronavirus.Redfield, displaying a face mask, said, “These face masks are the important, powerful public health tool we have…I might even go so far as to say that this face mask is more guaranteed to protect me against COVID than when I take a COVID vaccine.” COVID-19 is the disease caused by the coronavirus.Admiral Brett Giroir, a key government coronavirus expert, told the Senate hearing that recent improvements in U.S. COVID numbers, such as a diminished daily death toll, “could be fleeting, or even reversed” if Americans don’t take personal responsibility — “especially wearing masks and avoiding crowds.”An estimated 196,000 Americans have died from the coronavirus with another 6.6 million infected, according to the Johns Hopkins University, which is tracking cases around the world. Both figures are the highest for any nation.The government described its vaccination plan as “much larger in scope and complexity than seasonal influenza or other previous outbreak-related vaccination responses.”For most vaccines, people will need two doses, administered 21 to 28 days apart, and both will have to come from the same drug manufacturer. 
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Fighters from the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) in several pickup trucks opened fire on Wasaram, 90 kilometers (55 miles) from regional capital Maiduguri on Tuesday, killing eight villagers and injuring 20, they said. Three villagers were also killed in a separate attack in Auno earlier that day.  “We recovered 11 bodies from the two attacks which occurred yesterday in Kaga district,” militia leader Ibrahim Liman told AFP. The insurgents had accused the villagers of alerting troops about their movement on their way to rob traders in the nearby town of Ngamdu, he said. Soldiers intercepted the jihadists and engaged them in a gun battle, forcing them to retreat, said militiaman Umar Ari, who gave the same death toll. “They (ISWAP) attacked the village on their way back, accusing residents of informing soldiers about their movement to rob local traders at the weekly market”, Ari told AFP. Earlier on Tuesday, ISWAP fighters slaughtered three farmers that they seized as they worked on their fields outside Auno village, 65 kilometers away, the militia leaders added. ISWAP, which split from Boko Haram in 2016 and initially focused on attacking the military, has increasingly been targeting civilians, in particular abducting and killing motorists at bogus checkpoints on highways. Meanwhile, eight people were injured late Tuesday when gunmen from a rival Boko Haram faction ambushed a civilian convoy under military escort outside the town of Banki near the border with Cameroon, security sources told AFP. “Four of the victims were taken to a hospital in Mora on the Cameroonian side because of the severity of their injuries,” said a security source, who asked not to be identified. The decade-old jihadist insurgency in mainly-Muslim northern Nigeria has claimed 36,000 lives and forced two million others to flee their homes. The conflict has spilled over to Cameroon, Chad and Niger, prompting a regional military force to be formed to fight off the insurgents. 
 
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Kenya’s 47 county governments will shut down some of their services and close hospitals to new patients after their representatives in the Senate failed to resolve a dispute over a new scheme to share revenue between them.  
 
The scheme aims to distribute cash by population size. Critics say it takes away funds from less-populated, poor regions and gives them to those that are economically stronger. Supporters of the plan say it will ensure a more equitable distribution of cash.  
 
The deadlock in the Senate means no cash has been disbursed to local authorities, since a new formula needs to be in place for the cash to be released.  
 
County health facilities will not admit new patients, the council of county governors said in a notice to its members on Wednesday, saying the hospitals will only offer limited outpatient services.  
 
“All non-essential services are hereby suspended and county employees are advised to proceed on leave for two weeks,” the council said in the notice.  
 
There was no immediate comment from the Senate or the national government.  
 
Established by a new constitution in 2010 to try and spread national wealth to more people in the grassroots, the county governments have opened a new front in the East African nation’s fractious politics.  
 
On Tuesday, President Uhuru Kenyatta offered to add 50 billion shillings ($462 million), to the 15% of national revenue that counties are entitled to, in the financial year starting from next July, in an attempt to break the standoff.
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