A new report says the COVID-19 pandemic has slowed progress in alleviating global poverty and global health progress.  The annual Goalkeepers Report from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, a philanthropic venture created by the billionaire Microsoft founder and his wife, found that almost 37 million people have been pushed into extreme poverty since the start of the pandemic, with the rate rising as much as 7% in just a few months.  Meanwhile, the percentage of children receiving regular vaccinations for diseases such as measles and diphtheria have fallen from a record high of more than 80% last year to 70% in 2020, levels the report says have not been seen since the 1990s.FILE – A girl reacts as she receives an injection during a nationwide vaccination campaign against measles, rubella and polio targeting all children under 15 years old in Nkozi, about 84 km from Kampala, Uganda, Oct. 19, 2019.“We’ve been set back about 25 years in about 25 weeks,” said the report, which tracks progress on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Bill Gates acknowledged the setback caused by COVID-19 during an interview with The New York Times, but he expressed optimism that the world will recover the lost ground “in two or three years,” as the pipelines of money from tourism, remittances from relatives working abroad, and World Bank loans begin flowing again as soon as the whole world is vaccinated, which he predicted would occur by 2022. As the number of total COVID-19 cases steadily approaches the 30 million mark, including more than 928,000 deaths, several nations experiencing a surge in new COVID-19 outbreaks are reimposing strict lockdowns on their citizens.  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Sunday that a three-week nationwide lockdown will take effect on Friday, the eve of the Jewish New Year. Under the lockdown, all schools, restaurants, shopping malls and hotels will be shut down.  Israelis must stay within 500 meters of their houses and are limited to gatherings of just 10 people indoors and 20 outdoors.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepares to give a statement at Ben Gurion International Airport, in Lod, near Tel Aviv.“I know that these steps come at a difficult price for all of us. This is not the holiday we are used to,” Netanyahu said during his televised speech.   Israel imposed a strict lockdown in March and April during the early days of the pandemic, which brought the number of daily new cases to low double digits. But the numbers began rising as the nation gradually reopened, with health officials reporting more than 4,000 new cases last week — a situation Netanyahu called “a red flag.” Meanwhile, authorities in the French cities of Bordeaux and Marseille announced their own strict new measures to limit public gatherings as they deal with a surge of new coronavirus cases.  Residents in both cities are limited to gatherings of just 10 people in public, while imposing restrictions on the public consumption of alcohol.   
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Authorities in Panama are investigating the discovery of a mass grave in the vicinity of another grave site found in January where investigators believe a religious sect buried victims of violent exorcisms.  Forensic experts say they are still trying to determine how many remains are located at the newly found site in the indigenous Ngabe Bugle region, several hundred kilometers north of the capital, Panama City.Police and employees of the Public Ministry investigate near a mass grave with seven bodies at the indigenous region of Ngabe Bugle, Panama, Jan. 15, 2020, in this screen grab taken from Panamanian channel TVN Noticias.In January, authorities found a mass grave with at least seven victims, including a pregnant woman. The grave was linked to the “God’s New Light” church.  Police raided the church, arresting 10 people and rescuing 15 others, who told investigators the sect leader claimed he was fulfilling God’s orders to “remove the demon” from the victims in a violent exorcism.Authorities have, so far, not linked the latest grave site to the “God’s New Light” church. 
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The U.S. State Department on Monday eased a travel advisory for Americans considering travel to China or Hong Kong from “Do Not Travel” to “Reconsider Travel,” citing “improved conditions.”The new “Level 3” warning reflects the “arbitrary enforcement” of local laws, said the department, which had issued its highest “Do Not Travel” Level 4 warning in June.China and the United States said in August they would each allow air carriers to double flights between the world’s two largest economies to eight per week.On Aug. 6, the U.S. State Department and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) lifted its global advisory recommending U.S. citizens avoid all international travel because of the coronavirus pandemic, and instead issued a raft of high-level warnings for individual countries.The CDC also dropped its global advisory warning against all nonessential international travel due to the COVID-19 pandemic.Over the past month, the State Department has revised dozens of additional country-specific travel advisories, including easing ratings on Mongolia, El Salvador, Pakistan, Mexico, Kuwait, Ethiopia and Saudi Arabia to Level 3.The United States has barred most non-U.S. citizens who have recently been in most of Europe, Brazil and China from traveling to the United States.On Monday, the U.S. government ended a requirement that travelers from China, Europe and Brazil return to the United States at 15 designated U.S. airports. It also ended enhanced CDC screenings of those passengers upon their return. 
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Iraqi military and Kurdish Peshmerga forces will increase their cooperation in the fight against Islamic State, an Iraqi military official said.Yahya Rasool, spokesman for the Iraqi military, said Sunday that joint efforts are under way to ensure the security of Iraq’s border with Syria, as IS militants continue to exploit the instability in both countries to launch attacks on Iraqi territory.“The Peshmerga forces are part of the Iraqi national defense system, and now there is joint coordination between the federal forces and the Peshmerga to protect those areas that lie between their lines of presence,” Rasool said in a statement to the Iraqi News Agency.“It is very important during the next phase to coordinate with the Peshmerga forces in order to carry out joint operations within these areas, as well as sharing intelligence,” he added.The Iraqi official noted that there is a new understanding between the two sides to establish coordination centers for their anti-IS campaign.FILE – Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi speaks to residents of Tarmiyah, Iraq, where a commander of an Iraqi army brigade was killed in an attack blamed on the Islamic State, July 20, 2020.Rasool’s statement comes days after Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi visited Iraq’s autonomous region of Kurdistan, where he and Kurdish leaders discussed among other issues the continued fight against IS, also known as ISIS.Iraqi and Kurdish officials emphasized “continuing security cooperation and coordination between the Peshmerga and the Iraqi military in countering ISIS terrorists to bring stability and help the return of displaced people,” the Kurdistan Region’s presidency said in a statement Friday.IS remains active  Despite its territorial defeat in Iraq and Syria, IS continues to carry out attacks in both countries, particularly in border areas.In August, the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT) said more than 10,000 IS fighters are estimated to remain active in Iraq and Syria, noting that their attacks have significantly increased this year.IraqVladimir Voronkov, head of the UNOCT, told the U.N. Security Council that IS militants move freely “in small cells between the two countries,” adding that the terror group has regrouped, and its activity has increased.Major objectiveExperts say securing Iraq’s border with Syria has become a major objective for the current Iraqi government in its counterterrorism efforts.“There are internal procedures about how to merge the role of the Peshmerga forces with the international coalition to go after ISIS remnants, prevent the smuggling of people and resources and stop the infiltration of terrorists from the Syrian border into the Iraqi territory,” said Hussein Ali Allawi, professor of national security at Nahrain University in Baghdad.Allawi told VOA that Iraqi authorities are also seeking to coordinate with anti-IS forces that are in control of the Syrian side of the border, while the U.S.-led global coalition against IS could provide logistical support.U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces control a significant part of Syria’s border with Iraq. Syrian regime forces and Iranian-backed militias also control parts of the border between the two countries.FILE – Gen. Frank McKenzie, center front, the top U.S. commander for the Middle East, visits a military outpost in Syria, Jan. 25, 2020.US troop drawdownOn Wednesday, Marine Gen. Kenneth “Frank” McKenzie, head of U.S. Central Command, announced during a visit to Iraq that U.S. troops in the country would be cut from 5,200 to 3,000.McKenzie said in a statement that the remaining U.S. forces would continue advising and assisting Iraqi forces in “rooting out the final remnants” of IS and “ensuring its enduring defeat.”“This decision is due to our confidence in the Iraqi security forces’ increased ability to operate independently,” the U.S. official said.
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Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday won the first of several votes in Parliament on his plan to undercut the Brexit treaty, though he faces a growing rebellion among lawmakers who say breaking international law would tarnish Britain’s reputation. Johnson, who has a majority of 80 in the House of Commons, won the so-called second reading vote on the Internal Market Bill, 340 to 263. A wrecking amendment was defeated shortly beforehand, though more will follow. The EU says Johnson’s bill would collapse trade talks and propel the United Kingdom toward a messy Brexit, while former British leaders have warned that breaking the law is a step too far that undermines the country’s image. Johnson said it was essential to counter what he called absurd threats from Brussels, including that London put up trade barriers between Britain and Northern Ireland and impose a food blockade — steps he said threatened the United Kingdom’s unity. “The EU still have not taken this revolver off the table,” Johnson told Parliament before the vote. “What we cannot do now is tolerate a situation where our EU counterparts seriously believe that they have the power to break up our country.” The EU has demanded Britain scrap the main parts of the bill by the end of September and that if not, there will be no trade deal at the end of the year to cover everything from car parts to food. To back up its message, the European Commission has delayed a crucial decision on allowing London to continue clearing euro transactions for EU-based clients, a derivatives source told Reuters. 
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A U.S. appeals court on Monday sided with President Donald Trump over his administration’s decision to end humanitarian protections for hundreds of thousands of immigrants, many of whom have lived in the United States for decades.In a 2 to 1 ruling, a panel of three judges in the California-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court decision that had blocked Trump’s move to phase out so-called Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for people from El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua and Sudan.The ruling is also expected to affect the status of people from Honduras and Nepal, who filed a separate lawsuit that was suspended last year pending the outcome of the broader case.The appeals court ruling means that those immigrants will be required to find another way to remain in the United States legally or depart after a wind-down period that will last at least until early March, and longer in the case of those from El Salvador.Judge Consuelo Callahan, an appointee of Republican former President George W. Bush, wrote in a 54-page opinion that Trump administration decisions to phase out the protections were not reviewable and therefore should not have been blocked.Callahan also rejected a claim by plaintiffs that Trump’s past criticism of non-white, non-European immigrants influenced the TPS decisions.”While we do not condone the offensive and disparaging nature of the president’s remarks, we find it instructive that these statements occurred primarily in contexts removed from and unrelated to TPS policy or decisions,” she wrote.An attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, which represents plaintiffs in the lawsuit, said on Monday that they planned to seek another “en banc” review of the matter by 11 of the appeals court’s judges.The attorney, Ahilan Arulanantham, called the decision “deeply flawed” during a call with reporters, and said the case eventually could be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, depending on the outcome of the request for a broader appeals court review.The termination of TPS for Haitians is also subject to separate litigation in the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York. The appeals court heard arguments in that case in June but has not yet ruled.Trump has made restrictive immigration policies a hallmark of his presidency and 2020 reelection campaign against Democratic challenger Joe Biden.TPS allows foreigners whose home countries experience a natural disaster, armed conflict or other extraordinary event to remain in the United States and apply for work permits. The status must be renewed periodically by the secretary of Homeland Security, who can extend it for six- to 18-month intervals.The Trump administration has argued that most countries in the program have recovered from the related disasters or conflicts, while the status has been renewed for years beyond its need.The Biden campaign has called the TPS decisions “politically motivated” and said that Biden would protect enrollees from being returned to unsafe countries.Immigrants from El Salvador make up the largest group of TPS recipients, with an estimated 263,000 Salvadorans covered by the program, but a bilateral agreement will allow Salvadorans an additional year to stay in the United States if the courts ultimately uphold Trump’s termination.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday granted a $1.5 billion loan to Belarus as a show of support for its embattled leader, Alexander Lukashenko, after weeks of street demonstrations that have accused him of rigging last month’s election to retain power in Minsk. The two leaders met at the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi for nearly four hours. Putin gave few details about the loan, although the Kremlin later said some of the new money would be used to refinance earlier loans. Russia also said the two presidents had agreed to boost trade cooperation and discussed energy supplies. Law enforcement officers detain demonstrators during a rally to protest the presidential election results in Minsk, Sept. 13, 2020.As for the protests, Putin said, “We want Belarusians themselves, without prompting and pressure from outside, to sort out this situation in a calm manner and through dialogue and to find a common solution.”Putin said defense cooperation between Russia and Belarus would continue. Russian news agencies reported Moscow was sending paratroopers to Belarus for joint “Slavic Brotherhood” exercises. Belarus authorities have cracked down on the demonstrations, detaining 774 on Sunday out of the estimated 100,000 who marched and chanted epithets against Lukashenko. He has denied rigging the August 9 election against opposition candidate Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who has fled to Lithuania. FILE – Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya interacts with supporters in Warsaw, Poland, Sept. 9, 2020.Tsikhanouskaya, on social media, criticized the awarding of the loan to Belarus. “Dear Russians! Your taxes will pay for our beatings,” she said. “We are sure that you would not want that. This may prolong the death throes of Lukashenko, but it cannot prevent the victory of the people.” The United Nations human rights council says it will hold an urgent debate on the violence in Belarus.  In the Sunday protests, throngs marched through Minsk toward a government district, chanting, “Long live Belarus” and “You’re a rat,” a common taunt targeting Lukashenko. Coming to a halt, they chanted “fascists” as hundreds of riot police with shields blocked a road. The Interfax Russian news agency reported that shots were fired into the air to keep protesters away from an area of Minsk where the Belarusian leadership lives. 
 
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The prime minister of eastern Libya’s interim government has resigned following protests in several eastern Libyan towns and cities, including an attack on the headquarters of military commander Gen. Khalifa Haftar over the weekend.  A spokesman for interim Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thinni said the resignation was submitted to Parliament speaker Aguilah Saleh, whose spokesman indicated it would be debated by MPs at a future session. FILE – Libya’s interim Prime Minister Abdullah al-ThinniThe resignation came after popular protests in Benghazi and several other eastern Libyan cities over deteriorating living conditions, including long power cuts, water shortages and a dearth of basic necessities.  Libyan media with ties to Islamist militias showed video of what appeared to be a shooting in front of eastern Libyan military commander Khalifa Haftar’s main headquarters in the town of Al Marj. Some Libyan media claimed that “protesters” stormed the compound. VOA could not independently confirm the claim. Haftar’s spokesman, Col. Ahmed Almasmary, told Libyan TV that his forces support popular protests but urged protesters to demonstrate during the daytime so that they can be protected. Almasmary claimed that forces aligned with the Muslim Brotherhood and Takfiri groups were trying to sow chaos. The U.N. Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) issued a statement Sunday expressing “grave concern” over reports that one civilian was killed, three others wounded and a number arrested … after eastern Libyan forces used what it called “excessive force against peaceful protesters.”Popular protests against the U.N.-backed Government of National Accord in the capital of Tripoli reportedly left several people wounded earlier this month after forces there fired on crowds. Libya has been effectively split between rival eastern and western governments since 2015. In other developments, Almasmary told Arab media that reports that Hafter promised U.S. Ambassador to Libya Richard Norland that he would turn on the oil spigots again “are being discussed and are tied to concerns that the government in Tripoli may use its share of oil money to pay for deals signed with Turkey.” Libyan analyst Aya Burweila, a visiting lecturer at the Hellenic Defense College, told VOA that the crisis in eastern Libya can be blamed mostly on a budget shortfall, but that the interim government’s resignation “comes as a surprise to Libyans in that it shows it is responsive to its constituents, and willing to take responsibility for its failures.” 
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Kenyan based reporter Ruud Elmendorp spent almost 6 months in Tanzania because of travel restrictions imposed by the coronavirus. But he finally made it home after the skies between Tanzania and Kenya reopened. He is happy to be reunited with his girlfriend but he found another Kenya than the country he left in March. Ruud Elmendorp reports from Dar es Salaam and Nairobi
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U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Monday the Trump administration would review a bid this week by Oracle Corp. to buy the Chinese-owned short video app TikTok to make it a U.S.-headquartered company. FILE – Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin testifies before the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, during a hybrid hearing, Sept. 1, 2020, on Capitol Hill in Washington.Mnuchin told CNBC that the U.S. government has “a lot of confidence in both Microsoft and Oracle,” the two firms TikTok had been considering selling to.  But after ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, chose Oracle, Mnuchin said, “We’ll be reviewing it with their technical teams and our technical teams to see if they can make the representations” to keep data on American phones safe.  The Trump administration has given ByteDance until September 20 to make a deal or stop operating inside the U.S.  On Sunday, the New York Times reported that Microsoft’s bid was rejected by ByteDance and that the Chinese company said that Oracle would be its “technology partner.” It’s unclear the terms of the deal being discussed. In a statement, Microsoft said its proposal “would have been good for TikTok’s users, while protecting national security interests. To do this, we would have made significant changes to ensure the service met the highest standards for security, privacy, online safety, and combatting disinformation.” The fate of TikTok in the U.S. hangs in the balance as it approaches the Trump administration deadline. In recent months, the video app has become a focus of U.S.-China tensions with the administration accusing the company of being answerable to the Chinese government, a claim that TikTok has denied.  In August, President Donald Trump issued an executive order banning TikTok and WeChat, the Chinese messaging app.  But even with security concerns about TikTok, Americans have continued to download the app. By end of last March, TikTok saw more than 300 million downloads in the U.S., according to Go.Verizon’s data.   Microsoft, together with Walmart, pursued a deal with ByteDance. A second group of investors led by Oracle emerged as a possible bidder. Oracle is one of the few Silicon Valley firms with top executives who have held political fundraisers for Trump ahead of his November 3 re-election contest against former Vice President Joe Biden.  As the negotiations progressed, the Chinese government changed its export rules stopping TikTok from selling its valuable recommendation algorithm, dubbed “For You,” which queued up the next video for a user to watch. It’s unclear if any deal with Oracle would involve the algorithm.  
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