Several thousand people protested Sunday for the independence of Hungary’s University of Theatre and Film Arts following the imposition of a government-appointed board, which they say will undermine its autonomy.The management of the school, which nurtured many of Hungary’s most famous directors and filmmakers, resigned Monday in protest over the changes, which have also prompted several top theater directors to quit their teaching roles.Attendants of the rally formed a chain in the streets of central Budapest before the crowd gathered at a main square outside Parliament, demanding autonomy for the school and freedom for artistic endeavor and education.Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s supporters have long argued that it was time for a shift in culture towards conservative values to end what they call the domination of the arts in Hungary by liberals and left-wingers.”For a university to be able to operate autonomously is the foundation of democracy,” said Marta Barbarics, who attended the rally. “If a university cannot teach in a way as its citizens deem appropriate then there are serious problems, and the leadership of a university does not quit for no reason.” 
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U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday assailed U.S. news media accounts that in 2018 he belittled American World War I casualties while skipping a centenary commemoration of the end of the war on a rainy day at a cemetery outside Paris.“The Democrats, together with the corrupt Fake News Media, have launched a massive Disinformation Campaign the likes of which has never been seen before,” the U.S. leader claimed on Twitter. “They will say anything, like their recent lies about me and the Military, and hope that it sticks….” The Democrats, together with the corrupt Fake News Media, have launched a massive Disinformation Campaign the likes of which has never been seen before. They will say anything, like their recent lies about me and the Military, and hope that it sticks… But #MAGA gets it!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 6, 2020The Atlantic magazine reported late last week that the U.S. leader rejected going to the World War I cemetery at Aisne-Marne in part because he feared his hair would become disheveled in the rain. The account, based on four anonymous sources, said that Trump commented to senior staff aides on the morning of the November event, “Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers.”  On the same trip, the magazine said, Trump referred to the more than 1,800 U.S. Marines who lost their lives during the Belleau Wood battle as “suckers” for getting killed.  The Republican Trump, facing a difficult re-election contest November 3 against his Democratic opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden, immediately rejected the Atlantic’s account of his comments. But several other U.S. news outlets have subsequently confirmed from their own unnamed sources that Trump was uninterested in attending Aisne-Marne event. He did attend a separate commemoration of allied war dead the following day.The White House said at the time that Trump called off the visit to the Aisne-Marne cemetery because the foul weather would have made it dangerous for him to make a helicopter flight there. His chief of staff at the time, retired Marine Corps Gen. John Kelly, attended the ceremony after traveling there by motorcade. During a Friday news conference, Trump said he “called home, I spoke to my wife (first lady Melania Trump) and I said ‘I hate this. I came here to go to that ceremony.’ And to the one that was the following day which I did go to. I said I feel terribly. And that was the end of it.” Fact checkers, however, said Trump couldn’t have “called home” to Washington to talk to his wife because she was in Paris accompanying him on the trip and that night, they had dinner with French President Emmanuel Macron. After the Atlantic article appeared online, Biden attacked Trump. “If what is written in The Atlantic is true, it’s disgusting,” Biden said. “And it affirms what most of us believe to be true: that Donald Trump is not fit to do the job of president, to be the commander in chief.”  Robert Wilkie, Trump’s veterans affairs chief, told CNN on Sunday that he had never heard Trump belittle military service or the country’s war dead. “I’m looking at the Donald Trump I know,” Wilkie said. “I’ve watched this president sign letters of condolences” written to families of those killed in action. 
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A federal judge has ordered the U.S. Census Bureau for the time being to stop following a plan that would have had it winding down operations in order to finish the 2020 census at the end of September.The federal judge in San Jose late Saturday issued a temporary restraining order against the Census Bureau and the Commerce Department, which oversees the agency. The order stops the Census Bureau from winding down operations until a court hearing is held on Sept. 17.The once-a-decade head count of every U.S. resident helps determine how $1.5 trillion in federal funding is distributed and how many congressional seats each state gets in a process known as apportionment.The temporary restraining order was requested by a coalition of cities, counties and civil rights groups that had sued the Census Bureau, demanding it restore its previous plan for finishing the census at the end of October, instead of using a revised plan to end operations at the end of September. The coalition had argued the earlier deadline would cause the Census Bureau to overlook minority communities in the census, leading to an inaccurate count.In her order, U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh wrote that previous court cases had concluded that it’s in the public interest that Congress be fairly apportioned and that the federal funds be distributed using an accurate census.”Thus, the balance of the hardships and public interest tip sharply in Plaintiffs’ favor,” Koh said.In a message emailed to regional offices and headquarters, the Census Bureau said the statistical agency and the Commerce Department “are obligated to comply with the Court’s Order and are taking immediate steps to do so.” Further guidance would be provided later, the bureau said. 
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President Milos Zeman sought on Sunday to defuse a row with China over a visit by the head of the Czech Senate to Taiwan, calling the speaker’s trip a “boyish provocation”.  
 
Senate speaker Milos Vystrcil grabbed headlines last week when he told Taiwan’s parliament “I am a Taiwanese” in a speech that echoed the late U.S. President John F. Kennedy’s defiance of communism in Berlin in 1963.   In this photo released by the Taiwan Presidential Office, the Czech Senate President Milos Vystrcil is presented a medal by Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen during a meeting in Taipei, Taiwan, Sept. 3, 2020.Vystrcil’s trip did not have the backing of the Czech government, which sets foreign policy, and angered China, which said the Czech speaker would “pay a heavy price” for visiting the democratic island it sees as its own territory.  
 
This prompted Prague to summon China’s ambassador.  
 
Zeman has sought closer business and political ties with China since taking office in 2013, but his efforts have been hit by failed investment plans and have divided politicians.  
 
Zeman said in an interview on broadcaster Prima on Sunday he would stop inviting Vystrcil to meetings of the state’s top foreign policy officials and said his trip could be damaging for firms but that China’s comments were exaggerated.  
 
“I consider it boyish provocation,” Zeman said of the trip.  
 
Prime Minister Andrej Babis said later on the same debate show he would fight to prevent fallout for Czech companies.  
 
The Czech Republic, like most countries, has no formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan although Taiwan is a large investor in the country.  
 
Many Czech companies operate in or export to China, the world’s second-largest economy. The richest Czech Petr Kellner’s Home Credit is a major consumer lender in China while the country is also the largest single market for Skoda Auto, the Czech car unit of Volkswagen.    
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A strict coronavirus lockdown in the Australian city of Melbourne is being extended by two weeks. The Victoria state capital has been at the center of a second wave of infections. Authorities have said the restrictions will be eased in the months ahead if rates of new infections continue to fall.Melbourne is living through Australia’s toughest coronavirus lockdown. It was reimposed in July and is being extended because the number of new COVID-19 cases has not dropped enough. The lockdown will stay in place until the end of the month.Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews warned that without these strict measures the state risks a “third wave” of infections.He said a cautious approach is the only way forward.“We cannot run out of lockdown,” he said. “We have to take steady and safe steps to find that COVID-normal and make sure that in opening up, we can stay open.”There will be some minor easing of regulations in Melbourne, a city of 5 million.A nighttime curfew will start an hour later, playgrounds will reopen, and more outdoor exercise will be allowed. Bigger changes will only come in the months ahead if the number of new daily COVID-19 cases continues to fall. Officials say if they drop to below five by October 26, the curfew would be ended.Outside Melbourne, the rest of Victoria state will have restrictions eased slightly more quickly.Dozens of people were arrested Saturday at anti-lockdown protests in Australia’s major cities. The demonstrations were driven largely by fringe groups promoting virus-related conspiracy theories.Their actions have been described by the authorities as “selfish.” The Victoria government says obeying the restrictions is “the only option” to ultimately bringing the lockdown to an end.Victoria is at the center of Australia’s coronavirus crisis, accounting for three-quarters of total infections and 90% of all fatalities.The pandemic, and the closure of many businesses during lockdowns across the country, has sent the Australian economy into recession for the first time since 1991. Unemployment is rising, and the authorities are warning that the recovery could take years.Australia has recorded about 26,000 COVID-19 cases, and more than 750 deaths.  
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An experimental, reusable Chinese spacecraft returned to its designated landing site Sunday after two days in orbit, China’s official Xinhua news agency reported.The agency described the flight as successful, adding that it “marked the country’s important breakthrough in reusable spacecraft research” that could offer low-cost round trips to space for peaceful purposes.Chinese state media have not yet published images or video footage of the launch or landing of the spacecraft. They have not provided details on the technologies tested, either.Chinese social media and some commentators have compared the craft to the U.S. Air Force X-37B, an autonomous, Boeing spaceplane that can stay in orbit for long periods of time before returning to Earth on its own.The Chinese spacecraft was launched into orbit Friday from the northwestern Jiuquan Satellite Center with a Long March 2F, the type of rocket that has been used to put crewed and uncrewed Shenzhou spacecraft into orbit.   
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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has ordered 12,000 elite members of his ruling party based in Pyongyang to help with recovery efforts in two rural provinces lashed by a powerful typhoon, state media reported Sunday.Typhoon Maysak brought days of heavy downpours to the country’s east coast earlier this week even as the North was still reeling from earlier flooding and typhoon damage, and another storm is forecast to barrel through the peninsula by Tuesday.Natural disasters tend to have a greater impact in the North due to its creaking infrastructure, and the country is vulnerable to flooding as many mountains and hills have long been deforested.More than 1,000 homes were destroyed by Maysak and public buildings and farmland were inundated with floodwater across North and South Hamgyong provinces, the official KCNA news agency reported.Kim inspected the damage on Saturday and held a policy meeting on disaster relief efforts, KCNA said.He also dismissed the chairman of the South Hamgyong provincial party committee, the report added.Photos carried by Sunday’s official Rodong Sinmun newspaper showed Kim standing in front of destroyed homes and toppled trees as he discussed the situation with officials.In a two-page handwritten open letter to members of the ruling Workers’ Party in Pyongyang, Kim said around 12,000 members from the capital will be sent to the two provinces to help with the recovery ahead of a key holiday next month.North Korea will mark the 75th anniversary of the foundation of the party on October 10.”We cannot let a lot of people in South Hamgyong Province and North Hamgyong Province who newly suffered damage spend the holiday homeless,” Kim was quoted as saying in the letter, which was carried by the Rodong Sinmun.The damage was an “urgent situation which needs to be tackled without even a moment’s delay”, he added.The report did not say how many were injured, missing or dead.In 2016 at least 138 North Koreans died after torrential rain triggered major floods, the United Nations said at the time.In the summer of 2012 more than 160 people were killed by a massive rainstorm. 
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Amazon.com Inc said it has banned foreign sales of seeds in the United States after thousands of Americans received unsolicited packages of seeds in their mailboxes, mostly postmarked from China.The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in July identified more than a dozen plant species ranging from morning glories to mustard in the bags of unsolicited seeds. It warned Americans not to plant the seeds.According to plant experts, seeds from other parts of the world could be non-native varieties that harm commodity crops.”Moving forward, we are only permitting the sale of seeds by sellers who are based in the U.S.,” Amazon said in an emailed statement on Saturday.The company changed its policy on seed sales on Wednesday. The policy change was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.The company added that sellers who do not follow its guidelines will be subject to action, including potential removal of their accounts.According to Amazon’s policy webpage, the ban extends to plants and plant products.The USDA in July said the packages were most likely part of a “brushing” scam, in which people receive unsolicited items from a seller who then posts false positive customer reviews to boost sales.In an update on August 11, Osama El-Lissy, a deputy administrator for the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), said the experts analyzing some of the seeds from China found very few problems. El-Lissy added that the two countries were working jointly on the investigation.  
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An elephant who has become a cause celebre for animal rights activists around the world will be allowed to leave his Pakistani zoo and transferred to better conditions, the animal welfare group helping with the case said Saturday.Dubbed the world’s loneliest elephant by his supporters, Kaavan has languished at a zoo in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad for more than 35 years.Martin Bauer, a spokesman for Four Paws, said the elephant has been finally given medical approval to travel, most likely to Cambodia, where he will find companionship and better conditions.The overweight elephant Kaavan underwent a full medical examination at the zoo on Friday, Bauer said.Zoo ordered closedIn May, Pakistan’s High Court ordered the Marghazar Zoo closed because of its abysmal conditions blamed on systemic negligence.Rescuing Kaavan from the zoo’s dire conditions attracted the attention of animal activists around the world, and celebrities including U.S. singer Cher, who lobbied for his relocation.”Unfortunately, the rescue comes too late for two lions that died during an attempted transfer at the end of July after local animal handlers set a fire in their enclosure to force them into their transport crates,” Bauer said in a statement released Saturday.A Four Paws veterinarian is pictured with an elephant named Kaavan at the Maragzar Zoo in Islamabad, Pakistan, Sept. 4, 2020.He said Four Paws was invited by the Islamabad Wildlife Management Board to safely transfer the remaining animals in the zoo. Kaavan has until now been forced to live a solitary life in a small enclosure.Friday’s medical examination showed the elephant was overweight, even as he showed signs of malnutrition. His nails were cracked and overgrown, apparently from years of living in an improper enclosure with flooring that damaged his feet.”Following the checks, which confirmed Kaavan is strong enough, steps will now be taken to finalize his relocation to an animal sanctuary potentially in Cambodia,” Bauer said.His recovery will be a long one, said Bauer, adding that Kaavan’s wounds are more than just physical. He also suffers behavioral issues.Lonely and boredKaavan, who lost his partner in 2012, has battled loneliness as well as poor living conditions. Both have taken their toll, said Bauer in an interview.”He also developed stereotypical behavior, which means he shakes his head back and forth for hours. This is mainly because he is simply bored,” Bauer said.The Four Paws team that carried out Kaavan’s physical included wildlife veterinarians and experts.It wasn’t immediately known when Kaavan would be able to travel. Rights activists have lobbied for his relocation since 2016.
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Authentic held off a late challenge by favorite Tiz the Law to win the Kentucky Derby on Saturday at Churchill Downs and give Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert a sixth win in the annual Run for the Roses.Authentic, ridden by John Velazquez, set the early pace and managed to maintain his speed down the stretch in the 1¼-mile classic, which was held without spectators because of the COVID-19 crisis.Belmont Stakes winner Tiz the Law was second, long shot Mr. Big News was third and Honor A.P. was fourth in the 15-horse race.
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