In April, during the height of the coronavirus lockdown, Trump administration health experts hailed a test that would confirm if someone had already had the virus and therefore couldn’t get sick again. The antibody test would show who might have “the wonderful, beautiful immunity,” President Donald Trump said was needed to get the nation working again. Months later, the tests exist but haven’t fulfilled their promise of allowing Americans to reclaim their lives, said Dr. Jennifer Rakeman of New York City’s Public Health Laboratory. In fighting off the virus, the body makes antibodies, which the tests measure. Unfortunately, scientists are still figuring out how well and for how long antibodies provide the immunity that protects against another infection by the coronavirus.  An Indian girl cries as a medical worker collects her swab sample for a COVID-19 test at a rural health center in Bagli, outskirts of Dharmsala, India, Sept. 7, 2020.In truth, “there’s no easy path to this knowledge” about immunity, Marc Jenkins of the University of Minnesota said. Long-term human or animal studies are usually needed to reach answers about immunity. Much of that work is done by the National Institutes of Health and universities, but they are occupied developing a vaccine against the coronavirus. Until more is known, antibody tests should not be used to determine when it is safe to return to work or school, says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Medical Association. But the tests are useful in large studies to see how widely the coronavirus has spread and to screen people who have recovered and could donate their blood plasma for use as a treatment for those in the throes of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. WHO: Learn from pandemicEarlier Monday the World Health Organization (WHO) said that countries that built up their health care systems in recent years fared better amid the COVID-19 pandemic. People pack the Ipanema beach amid the new coronavirus pandemic in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sept.6, 2020.As of Monday, the United States leads the world with about 6.3 million confirmed cases and more than 189,000 deaths, according to the A nurse prepares an injection for a COVID-19 patient in the ICU of the National Hospital in Itagua, Paraguay, Sept. 7, 2020.The other vaccine is a joint project between AstraZeneca and Oxford University currently in late-stage trials. Morrison said Monday that CSL will manufacture that vaccine as well for distribution in Australia, and that he expects 3.8 million doses to be available in January or February 2021. Israel is beginning partial nighttime lockdowns in 40 cities and towns with the country’s highest infection rates. Schools in those areas will also be closed, and gatherings will be limited to 10 people inside and 20 outdoors. “I know that these restrictions are not easy but in the current situation there is no avoiding them,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement. 
 
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The chancellor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison on Monday canceled all in-person social events and ordered undergraduate students to restrict their movements for the next two weeks in an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19.  The order from Chancellor Rebecca Blank comes as the number of coronavirus cases among students has continued to rise. Among the restrictions, from now through Sept. 21, all student gyms and recreational facilities will be closed, dining halls will offer carry-out only and visitors will not be allowed in dorms.  Blank also warned that the campus might shut down if the situation gets worse. “We’ve reached the point where we need to quickly flatten the curve of infection, or we will lose the opportunity to have campus open to students this semester, which we know many students truly want,” Blank said. Court Filing Shows 11-3 Big Ten Vote to Postpone Football SeasonThe decision not to play fall football has created a firestorm in Big Ten country, fanned by the fact the ACC, Big 12 and SEC are pushing ahead with plans to start their seasons in SeptemberIn-person classes have not been canceled and study spaces remain open. The restrictions also don’t apply to graduate students, faculty or staff members. “In particular, I am asking all undergraduates to avoid social gatherings,” Blank said. The number of cases among students at UW-Madison has grown daily for the last five days.  The university reported Monday that 148 UW-Madison students and one employee had tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. Among the students testing positive, 37 live in residence halls and 111 live off campus. Blank said many of the positive cases have been linked to people neglecting to wear masks or practice social distancing. She also pointed to social media posts, which seem to show students disregarding the seriousness of the virus.  “Unfortunately, too many students have chosen to host or participate in social gatherings that seem to demonstrate a high disregard for the seriousness of this virus and the risk to our entire community,” Blank wrote. UW-System President Tommy Thompson said in a statement that Blank was “taking prudent steps to mitigate outbreaks.” “We knew there would most likely be an increase in early cases and today’s decision, while inconvenient to students, is necessary,” Thompson said.  Statewide, Wisconsin health officials confirmed an additional 567 cases of the coronavirus on Monday, bringing the state’s total number of cases to 81,760.  There were no new deaths reported in Wisconsin. A total of 1,168 people have died from COVID-19 since the pandemic began. 
 
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At least there won’t be a government shutdown. But as lawmakers return to Washington for an abbreviated preelection session, hopes are dimming for another coronavirus relief bill — or much else. Talks between top Democrats and the Trump administration broke off last month and remain off track, with the bipartisan unity that drove almost $3 trillion in COVID-19 rescue legislation into law this spring replaced by partisanship and a return to Washington dysfunction. Expectations in July and August that a fifth bipartisan pandemic response bill would be agreed on despite increased obstacles has been replaced by genuine pessimism. Recent conversations about COVID-19 aid among key players have led to nothing. Democrats seem secure in their political position, with President Donald Trump and several Senate GOP incumbents lagging in the polls. Trump is seeking to sideline the pandemic as a campaign issue, and Republicans aren’t interested in a deal on Democratic terms — even as needs like school aid enjoy widespread support. Trump said Monday that Democrats “don’t want to make a deal because they think that if the country does as badly as possible … that’s good for the Democrats.” FILE – U.S. President Donald Trump listens to a question during a news conference at the White House in Washington, Sept. 4, 2020.”I am taking the high road,” he told reporters at the White House. “I’m taking the high road by not seeing them.” All of this imperils the chances for another round of $1,200 direct payments delivered under Trump’s name, the restoration of more generous unemployment benefits to those who’ve lost their jobs because of the pandemic, updates to a popular business subsidy program, and money to help schools reopen and states and local governments avoid layoffs. “I personally would like to see one more rescue package, but I must tell you the environment in Washington right now is exceedingly partisan because of the proximity to the election,” said GOP Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell at an appearance in Kentucky last week. “We’ve been in discussion now for the last month or so with no results so far. So I can’t promise one final package.” McConnell had been a force for a deal but does not appear eager to force a vote that exposes division in his ranks. Many Senate Republicans are also wary or opposed outright to another major chunk of debt-financed virus relief, even as GOP senators imperiled in the election, such as Susan Collins of Maine and Cory Gardner of Colorado, plead for more. Republicans are struggling to coalesce around a unified party position — and that’s before they engage with Democratic leaders, who are demanding far more. FILE – Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., speaks during a news conference at the Capitol in Washington, Aug. 27, 2020.The relationship between House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and her preferred negotiating partner, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, is civil but isn’t generating much in the way of results, other than a promise to avoid a government shutdown at the end of the month by keeping a government-wide temporary spending bill free of controversy. That measure is likely to keep the government running into December. It’s likely to contain a bunch of lower-profile steps, such as an extension of the federal flood insurance program and a temporary reauthorization of spending from the highway trust fund. The decision for a controversy-free stopgap bill, known as a continuing resolution, means that both sides will forgo gamesmanship that uses the threat of a government shutdown to try to gain leverage. Trump forced a shutdown in 2018-2019 in a failed attempt to extract money for his U.S.-Mexico border wall, while Democrats lost a shutdown encounter in 2017 over legislation to help immigrants brought illegally to the country as children win permanent legal status. “Now we can focus just on another relief bill, and we’re continuing to do that in good faith,” Vice President Mike Pence said Friday on CNBC. But if talks continue to falter, there’s little to keep lawmakers in Washington long, particularly with the election fast approaching. The Senate returns Tuesday to resume its diet of judicial and administration nominations. The House doesn’t come back until Sept. 14 for a schedule laden with lower-profile measures such as clean energy legislation and a bill to decriminalize marijuana. Some Democrats are expected to continue to take advantage of remote voting and may not return to Washington at all. 
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Four Somali soldiers were killed and a U.S. service member was injured Monday in an al-Shabab attack on an outpost 60 kilometers west of the Somali port town of Kismayo.  A senior leader in the Jubaland regional administration told VOA Somali that the soldiers died when a vehicle-borne explosive device hit their camp early Monday. Several other soldiers were wounded, including a U.S. service member. The official said the U.S. soldier suffered injuries to a leg.  A spokesman for the United States Africa Command confirmed that a U.S. soldier was injured in the attack. Colonel Chris Karns told VOA that the incident happened in Jana Abdalle at a time when the U.S. and Somali forces were conducting an advice, assist and accompany mission.  The U.S. service member is in stable condition and receiving treatment for injuries that are not considered to be life-threatening, according to Karns.  Karns said the militants used a vehicle employed as an improvised explosive device and mortar fire. At least one al-Shabab fighter was killed in the attack, he said.  The senior Jubaland official told VOA Somali that the suicide vehicle, driving at high speed, approached the outpost as soldiers fired on it in an attempt to detonate it before it reached them.  Somali and U.S. forces seized the area from al-Shabab on Saturday. Regional officials said the area is a strategic economic hub for al-Shabab, which uses it to collect tax and other extortion from commercial vehicles and goods traveling within Somalia and to Kenya. 
 
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Countries which bolstered their health care systems in recent years have fared better amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Health Organization said Monday. In his daily briefing, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urged countries to learn from the current pandemic to prepare for the next one. He praised Thailand, Mongolia, Senegal, and other countries for their response to the virus. “Many of these countries have done well because they learned lessons from previous outbreaks of SARS, MERS, measles, polio, Ebola, flu and other diseases,” he said. “That’s why it’s vital that we all learn the lessons this pandemic is teaching us.” Global numbersMeanwhile on Monday, India passed Brazil as the country with the second-highest number of confirmed coronavirus cases. An Indian girl cries as a medical worker collects her swab sample for a COVID-19 test at a rural health center in Bagli, outskirts of Dharmsala, India, Sept. 7, 2020.The health ministry reported a record 90,802 new cases Monday, giving India a total of more than 4.2 million since the outbreak began. India also added 1,016 deaths Monday, pushing its overall toll to 71,642. Brazil reported 14,521 new cases on Sunday, and while it now trails India in terms of overall cases, the country still trails only the United States in terms of deaths with 126,650. The United States leads the world with about 6.3 million confirmed cases and 189,000 deaths. In Australia, officials in the state of Victoria said Monday there were 41 new cases, the lowest single-day increase since late June. Victoria has been battling to contain what has been the biggest outbreak in Australia. Authorities instituted lockdown restrictions in early August, and with the progress seen since then, announced Sunday some relaxation of the rules. VaccinesPrime Minister Scott Morrison also said Monday that Australia has an agreement in place with CSL to manufacture two coronavirus vaccines, should they prove to be safe and effective in trials. One potential vaccine is being developed by CSL and is set to move into stage two clinical trials later this year. The other vaccine is a joint project between AstraZeneca and Oxford University currently in late-stage trials. Morrison said Monday that CSL will manufacture that vaccine as well for distribution in Australia, and that he expects 3.8 million doses to be available in January or February 2021. One thousand chairs symbolizing people who died from the coronavirus are placed at the Rabin Square in Tel Aviv, Israel, Sept. 7, 2020.Israel is beginning partial nighttime lockdowns in 40 cities and towns with the country’s highest infection rates. Schools in those areas will also be closed, and gatherings will be limited to 10 people inside and 20 outdoors. “I know that these restrictions are not easy but in the current situation there is no avoiding them,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement. 
 
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Saudi Arabia’s state television says final verdicts have been issued in the case of slain Washington Post columnist and Saudi critic Jamal Khashoggi after his family announced pardons that spared five from execution.
The Riyadh Criminal Court issued final verdicts Monday against eight people.
The court ordered a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for five, with one receiving a 10-year sentence and two others being ordered to serve seven years in prison.
The trial was widely criticized by rights groups and an independent U.N. investigator, who noted that no senior officials nor anyone suspected of ordering the killing was found guilty. The independence of the court was also brought into question.
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Thailand’s largely decentralized protest movement and evolving internet landscape will make it tough for the country’s conservative government to mute mounting calls to rein in the country’s powerful monarchy, observers say.Human rights lawyer Anon Nampa broke a decades-long taboo by challenging the king’s powers in public at a pro-democracy protest in the capital, Bangkok, on August 3. At another protest a week later, activists unveiled a bold 10-point plan to reform the monarchy that would, among other things, bar the royal palace from expressing political opinions and repeal a defamation law that can land any critic of the king in jail for up to 15 years.Their demands have ricocheted around the country at student-led protests calling for a new constitution and an end to the government of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-ocha, who led a successful military coup in 2014 and prevailed in an election last year widely seen as rigged. His government has staked much of its reputation on a promise to protect and preserve the monarchy, which many Thais still revere as semi-divine.Young and restlessYounger Thais are less enamored. They make up the bulk of the pro-democracy protesters and see a royal palace playing politics well beyond its constitutional constraints to maintain the status quo.Prayut had warned the protesters to steer clear of criticizing the monarchy back in June and said they “really went too far” after the August 10 rally where activists read out their 10-point reform plan.Since then authorities have arrested more than a dozen activists and charged them with a spate of offenses from sedition to incitement. Anon, the human rights lawyer, was among them.Anon Nampa, left, and Panupong Jadnok, right, two of the leaders of recent anti-government protests, are seen after being granted a bail outside the criminal court in Bangkok, Thailand, Aug. 8, 2020.But David Streckfuss, an independent scholar and author on Thai history and politics, said the arrests are unlikely to stop a movement that seems to lack a clear central leadership.”These people are representatives of a movement, not so much leaders where you can take out the top tier and everything goes quiet,” he told VOA.Now that “the genie is out of the bottle,” Streckfuss added, the government will have to decide whether to try and manage a public debate on the monarchy that has been brewing below the surface for years or to crush it.”I would say that it would require a great deal of suppression at this point to quiet what’s been on a lot of people’s mind for … more than a decade,” he said.The dilemmaThe military has tried to smother dissent before. In the wake of the 2014 coup, Prime Minister Prayut’s junta rounded up hundreds of activists, academics and journalists it saw as threats, with some success.The junta then spent the next five years preparing for the 2019 election to make Thailand at least look something like a democracy again. Streckfuss said Prayut’s rebranded regime may be reluctant to throw all that work away with more mass arrests and will at least think twice before it does. There was also the risk, he added, that a much heavier hand from authorities will backfire by drawing even more people to the protesters’ cause.If the calls for royal reform do continue to grow and spread, they could also spark violence, warned Pavin Chachavalpongpun, an associate professor at Japan’s Kyoto University who studies Thai politics.”I think the government will continue to rely on legal instruments for now. But should the students intensify their protests then there is a possibility of the use of force,” he said. “The students [will] not back down on their demand. So it is a great test of the government’s patience.”Titipol Phakdeewanich, head of the political science faculty at Thailand’s Ubon Ratchathani University, said the arrests won’t stop the reform calls at the protests but may still slow them down. He said security forces recently threatened to sue one of his own students over a Facebook post about the monarchy.Others have already been sued or arrested for posting critical comments or merely sharing news about the king, Maha Vajiralongkorn.”This actually makes students quite scared of the consequence,” Titipol said.A member of Thai right-wing group “Thai Pakdee” (Loyal Thai) holds a picture of King Maha Vajiralongkorn with Queen Suthida attend a rally in support of the government and the monarchy, in Bangkok, Thailand, Aug. 30, 2020. Compared with taking to the streets, though, he still sees the internet as a relative “safe zone” where talk of reforming the monarchy has mushroomed and will prove even tougher to quell.A digital revolutionOn August 24 Facebook acceded to government demands to block access in Thailand to the “Royal Marketplace,” a Facebook account critical of the monarchy with more than one million members set up by Pavin, or face legal action under the country’s Computer Crimes Act. By the end of the month, a new account under a similar name had attracted nearly all the old members back — with access in Thailand.Over the past several months, tens of thousands of Thai have also switched from Twitter to an alternative social media platform, Minds, over reports that Twitter users posting comments criticizing the king were getting visits from police. Twitter’s new privacy policy had as well raised fears that it would be more prone to sharing data with the government.”The government cannot entirely stop this generation to think or to look for alternative sources of information,” Titipol said. “It is not that easy in the 21st century with all kinds of technologies and different platforms of social media.”The spread of encrypted messaging also makes it harder for authorities to track and block accounts selectively, “so the landscape [has] changed,” said Arthit Suriyawongkul, co-founder of the Thai Netizen Network, a digital rights advocacy group.A government could in theory block access to entire platforms, as in China, or the way Thailand itself did with Facebook for a few days after the 2014 coup. But Arthit said the social media giants have become so vital to Thai businesses, and to the government’s own propaganda, that the authorities will hesitate to pull that trigger.Blunt force, he said, “no longer works in the new setting of the internet.” 
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Chinese authorities have stopped renewing press credentials for foreign journalists working for U.S. news organizations in China, the latest move in a continuing cycle of tit-for-tat retaliations between Beijing and Washington over economic and diplomatic disputes. Journalists who have recently applied to renew their press credentials, which last for a full year, have instead received temporary press credentials and a new visa which lasts for only two months.  CNN has confirmed that one of its own correspondents, American-born David Culver, is one of the journalists affected by China’s decision. The New York Times says in addition to CNN, other journalists immediately affected by the move work for The Wall Street Journal and Getty Images, a visual media company which provides digital images for news outlets around the world. The Times says it has learned from one journalist that Chinese authorities have said if the Trump administration decides to expel Chinese journalists who are now under new visa regulations imposed by the U.S Department of Homeland Security in May, Beijing will take reciprocal action.   State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus issued a statement saying that the U.S. “is of course troubled that these proposed actions by the P.R.C. will worsen the reporting environment in China,” a reference to the People’s Republic of China, the country’s formal name. The dispute began in March, when Beijing expelled several journalists from The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal, after the Trump administration limited the number of Chinese nationals allowed to work in five state-run news outlets operating in the United States to 100.   The Trump administration then announced in May that all Chinese journalists would only receive 90-day work visas, as opposed to the open-ended, single entry visas they had previously been granted.   
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First-time U.S. sanctions against a group of Chinese companies believed to have helped China fortify disputed islets in an Asian sea signal a tougher policy by Washington toward its rival superpower’s maritime expansion, analysts say. The Bureau of Industry and Security under the U.S. Department of Commerce added 24 Chinese companies to a list that the bureau uses to restrict exports, re-exports and in-country transfers of items that could flout national security or foreign policy interests.  Companies landed on the list because they helped the Chinese military “construct and militarize the internationally condemned artificial islands in the South China Sea,” the department said in an August 26 statement. Those islets, many built on reclaimed land, now support hangars, radar facilities and small civilian populations.   The sanctions won’t hurt the target companies but show the United States is toughening its stance, long term, toward Chinese expansion in the South China Sea, said Andrew Yang, secretary-general of the Chinese Council of Advanced Policy Studies think tank in Taiwan.  Washington does not claim any of the 3.5 million-square-kilometer sea but wants it kept open for international use. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam dispute all or part of China’s claims to about 90% of the waterway, which is valued for fisheries and energy reserves. Expansion of the islets contributed to China’s military lead over the other governments.Chinese vessels are pictured in disputed South China Sea, April 21, 2017.“It’s quite symbolic,” Yang said. “I think the [business] impact is insignificant as far as I can see. It’s really symbolizing that the United States is shifting its South China Sea policy significantly.”  The sanctions stem from U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo’s statement in July, said Oh Ei Sun, senior fellow with the Singapore Institute of International Affairs. Pompeo said then most Chinese claims to the sea are illegal and that Washington would support other states that clash with China. The Chinese foreign ministry condemned the sanctions August 27 and “urged the United States to rectify its mistakes and immediately stop interfering in China’s internal affairs,” the official Xinhua News Agency said, citing a foreign ministry spokesperson. But scholars foresee virtually no business impact. The sanctioned companies including state-run giants China Communication Construction Co. and China Electronics Technology Group Corp. do little business in the United States. They are considered popular instead in Southeast Asia, even among China’s maritime rivals.    “I think all these companies, they are still happily engaging as contractors for construction projects, say in Malaysia and the Philippines as well,” Oh said. “It’s just that they are cheap and fast. Therefore, they are widely used.” China invests briskly in Southeast Asia, in some cases to keep maritime disputes from flaring up.   China Communications Construction Co and a Philippine partner won a bid last year to develop a $10 billion airport outside Manila, for example. The Philippine government won international arbitration against China four years ago. Since then Beijing has offered Manila billions of dollars in aid and investment.   “State had to do something to show that they were serious,” said Gregory Poling, director of the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative under the Center for Strategic and International Studies research organization in Washington. Target companies can handily avoid actual sanctions, Poling added, while Washington missed listing other Chinese firms that are still active in the disputed sea. None of the targeted 24 companies are building islets anymore, he said, as China’s island dredging ended four years ago, and construction stopped two years ago. The sanctions spared China’s offshore oil firms, which irritate Vietnam by operating in contested parts of the sea. Sanctions, Poling said, are “not going to assuage the concerns in the region by itself because it doesn’t really hurt the companies involved and it targets the wrong companies to begin with.” 
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A guy walks into a bar, which still isn’t allowed in Texas.But Jeff Brightwell owns this bar.Two months into an indefinite shutdown, he’s just checking on the place — the tables six feet apart, the “Covid 19 House Rules” sign instructing drinkers not to mingle. All the safeguards that didn’t keep the doors open, because Dot’s Hop House & Cocktail Courtyard is a bar under Texas law. And bars, in a pandemic? “Really not good,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s infectious disease expert, told Congress in June.But some governors are warming up to the idea of opening bars again. Thousands of bars forced to close after massive virus outbreaks swept across the U.S. this summer could be starting to see a glimmer of hope as cases drop off and the political will for continuing lockdowns fades. For some states, it is a gamble worth trying, only a few months after a rush to reopen bars in May and June ended in disaster.”Our governor waved the magic wand, put us out of business and offered us nothing,” said Brightwell, whose Dallas bar typically employs around 50 people. He says his industry has been scapegoated.Bars remain under full closure orders in more than a half-dozen states, including hard-hit ones like Texas but also Connecticut, which has one of the nation’s lowest positivity rates. And even in states already letting bars operate, restrictions vary from one county to the next. The rules can tighten or loosen abruptly, reflecting the unease among governors.Arkansas has one of the highest infection levels in the U.S. and is letting bars operate at partial capacity. Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s defense: No spread has been linked to bars.Experts say outbreaks nationwide have proved otherwise. Even in recent weeks, new outbreaks tied to college students returning to campus have resulted in bars shutting down again from Alabama to Iowa, undermining confidence that the time is right.Still, governors are looking for a way. California began letting some bars in a few small counties reopen, though not in cities where the vast majority of the population lives. Next might be Florida, where bars have been closed since June and Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, a top ally of President Donald Trump, has mused whether bar closings even work since restaurants are serving alcohol anyway.”Everything’s open except the nightclubs and the pubs, and that’s something we’re going to address,” DeSantis said recently.In Texas, where 3 in 4 of the state’s 13,400 deaths blamed on COVID-19 have occurred since July, the infection rate has dipped below the 10% positivity rate that Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has set as one criteria for letting bars back in business. He has teased that an another announcement about next steps in reopening could come early as this week, which won’t come soon enough for the right wing of his party, which for months has blasted him over the lockdowns and a statewide mask mandate.The decision is dicey for governors who, pressure from bar owners aside, have faced less blowback from keeping bars shut than other sectors. Polls showed about half of Americans favored requiring bars and restaurants to close when cases surged, and experts say the risks of bars are by now proven — the combination of cozy spaces, loud music forcing people to lean in close and rounds of drinks relaxing even the best intentions to social distance.Videos of crowded clubs have made bars symbols of rowdy rule-breakers, the ones ruining a return to normal for the rest of us.”It’s way too soon. And it’s going to be too soon until we have a vaccine,” said Esmeralda Guajardo, the public health administrator in Cameron County on the Texas border, where hard-partying booze cruises on South Padre Island this summer drew fury from local officials.For months, bar owners have protested outside state capitols, sued their governors and even sold alcohol in open defiance of closing orders. None have led to bars reopening any sooner. Hundreds in Texas have ramped up kitchens in order to legally operate as restaurants.It hasn’t spared thousands of bars from ruin. More than 5,400 bars nationwide went dark in July, according to Yelp, which tracks the status of businesses on their website. More than 40% were permanent closures.Mark McClellan, former head of the Food and Drug Administration who has been advising Abbott on Texas’ reopening, said the first reopening of bars in Texas was too soon, but he can see a case to be made that waiting for a vaccine is too long.”This is part of our economy and there are jobs at stake,” he said. “It’s hard to reopen dance clubs and night clubs for similar kinds of reasons. If we’re going to try it, we need to learn what went wrong from the June reopening.”McClellan said more enforcement of rules at bars is one step. Last month, some Texas bars hired a lobbying group and pledged to screen the temperature of every patron at the door, a step that would go further than restaurants.”I’ve been to restaurants and seen my customers,” said Greg Barrineau, who runs two bars in San Antonio called Drink Texas. “They haven’t stopped drinking.”
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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson talked tough on Sunday ahead of a crucial round of post-Brexit trade talks with the European Union, saying Britain could walk away from the talks within weeks and insisting that a no-deal exit would be a “good outcome for the U.K.”With talks deadlocked, Johnson said an agreement would only be possible if EU negotiators are prepared to “rethink their current positions.”The EU, in turn, accuses Britain of failing to negotiate seriously.Britain left the now 27-nation EU on Jan. 31, 3½ years after the country narrowly voted to end more than four decades of membership. That political departure will be followed by an economic break when an 11-month transition period ends on Dec. 31 and the U.K. leaves the EU’s single market and customs union.Without a deal, the new year will bring tariffs and other economic barriers between the U.K. and the bloc, its biggest trading partner. Johnson said the country would “prosper mightily” even if Britain had “a trading arrangement with the EU like Australia’s” — the U.K. government’s preferred description of a no-deal Brexit.British chief negotiator David Frost and his counterpart Michel Barnier are to meet in London starting Tuesday for the eighth round of negotiations.The key sticking points are access for European boats to U.K. fishing waters and state aid to industries. The EU is determined to ensure a “level playing field” for competition so British firms can’t undercut the bloc’s environmental or workplace standards or pump public money into U.K. industries.Britain accuses the bloc of making demands that it has not imposed on other countries it has free trade deals with, such as Canada.Frost told the Mail on Sunday newspaper that Britain was “not going to compromise on the fundamentals of having control over our own laws.””We are not going to accept level playing field provisions that lock us in to the way the EU do things,” he said.The EU says a deal has to be struck before November to allow time for parliamentary approval and legal vetting before the transition period expires.Johnson gave an even shorter deadline, saying an agreement needed to be sealed by an EU summit scheduled for Oct. 15.”If we can’t agree by then, then I do not see that there will be a free trade agreement between us, and we should both accept that and move on,” he said.Barnier said last week he was “worried and disappointed” by the lack of progress and said the U.K. had not “engaged constructively.”Without a deal, British freight firms have warned there could be logjams at ports and supplies of key goods in Britain could be “severely disrupted” starting Jan. 1.French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Sunday that talks were “not going well” and dismissed British attempts to drive a wedge between EU nations on issues such as fishing. Le Drian said the 27 nations remained united.”We would prefer a deal, but a deal on the basis of our mandate,” he told France Inter radio. “There is room for action, but the whole package, including the fishing package, needs to be taken up in order to avoid a ‘no deal.'”
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Marriage.  In these socially distanced times, even the ceremony itself can’t always bring couples – and their families – together.  In Africa, some digitally savvy couples are finding virtual workarounds to get them to the altar, including weddings where the bride and groom are thousands of kilometers apart.  VOA’s Anita Powell spoke to one African couple who solidified their bond while in two different countries, and brings us this story of love, longing and celebration from Johannesburg.VIDEOGRAPHER: Zaheer Cassim
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