An Indonesian human rights group is monitoring what it describes as “degrading” punishments handed out to people who fail to comply with mandated anti-coronavirus social restrictions and mask wearing.The punishments are unusual, such as forcing violators to spend time in an open coffin or dig graves, according to rights group Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (KontraS).The group has recorded 10 cases of degrading punishments since stay-at-home orders were issued in April for several regions of Indonesia. The nation has the highest coronavirus death toll in Southeast Asia, with more than 10,300 deaths as of Saturday, according to the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center. Indonesia had more than 271,000 confirmed cases as of Saturday. In 2019, Indonesia had a population of 270.6 million, according to the World Bank.Rivanlee Anandar, a KontraS staff member, told VOA Indonesia that the “degrading” punishments imposed by authorities in several regions included forcing violators to lie next to a coffin. National police officers, the staffer said, were used as well as members of the Indonesian National Military (TNI) to oversee the punishments.Rivanlee said the group objected to the use of TNI members to control COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. He added that the military “should focus on national defense. … There [are] no indicators or instruments to measure the effectiveness of involving the military in handling the pandemic.””Their role in picking up people who have tested positive  [for] COVID-19 is too much. In several malls, they even take people’s temperature,” Rivanlee added.Clean sewers or pay fineEvani Jesselyn, who owns a coffee shop in Jakarta, was told she could clean public sewers or pay a fine after she was pulled over for not wearing a mask in her car during her regular commute.At the time, “I was alone, in the car, wearing my mask. However, suddenly I felt it was a bit hard to breathe, so I pulled my mask a bit to breathe some fresh air,” she said.Patients prepare to move to quarantine facilities for people showing symptoms of COVID-19 at a health center in Jakarta, Indonesia, September 25, 2020.After being pulled over, Evani was sent immediately to a hearing. She spent an hour in a crowded hall waiting to see the judge.”I was scared to jump into the crowd, and quite upset as well because I was alone inside the car and healthy and they asked me to go to the crowd with no social distancing,” she said.Evani, who opted to pay the fine, told VOA Indonesian that she would like the government to clarify its regulation on health safety and provide better health education, including “explaining why the regulation exists.”Arifin, the head of the Jakarta Provincial Public Order office, said while more people are aware of the need to wear face masks in public, police find some aren’t wearing them correctly.“Some wear the mask under their chin or below their neck. This, of course, won’t prevent COVID-19 transmission,” Arifin, who like many Indonesians uses only one name, said in an online discussion on September 17.He said his office was stepping up educational outreach on how to wear masks correctly.That effort includes sanctioning those who violate the mandated mask rule, either by failing to wear a mask or wearing one incorrectly.Workers lower a coffin containing the body of a suspected COVID-19 victim into a grave during a burial at a special section of Pondok Ranggon cemetery, in Jakarta, Indonesia, Sept. 24, 2020.$162K in finesArifin said as many as 164,000 people have received sanctions ranging from fines to public service for wearing masks incorrectly.The public order office has collected $162,843.79 in fines from the operation in a country where the per capita income was $4,135 in 2019, according to the Indonesian children wearing face masks as a precaution against coronavirus outbreak play on swings in Jakarta, Indonesia, Sept. 23, 2020.Agus Pambagio, a public policy analyst, would like to see regional governments impose $68 fines for people who don’t wear masks.“There are no countries in the world whose people are disciplined without being fined first. So, if you want people to have discipline, don’t just ‘advise’ them,” Agus Pambagio told VOA Indonesia.Fines, not memosHe criticized the central government for issuing memos and ministerial regulations rather than working with the House of Representatives to institute a uniform schedule of fines.The national COVID-19 Task Force and the Jakarta Province Health Department have not responded to VOA’s request to respond to KontraS on the unusual punishments.However, in a press conference in the presidential office, COVID-19 Task Force spokesperson Wiku Adisasmito said that it is mandatory for the people of Jakarta to take personal health protections, such as wearing face masks.Fitri Wulandari contributed to this report.
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At a University of Maryland lab, people infected with the new coronavirus take turns sitting in a chair and putting their faces into the big end of a large cone. They recite the alphabet and sing or just sit quietly for a half hour. Sometimes they cough.The cone sucks up everything that comes out of their mouths and noses. It’s part of a device called “Gesundheit II” that is helping scientists study a big question: Just how does the virus that causes COVID-19 spread from one person to another?It clearly hitchhikes on small liquid particles sprayed out by an infected person. People expel particles while coughing, sneezing, singing, shouting, talking and even breathing. But the drops come in a wide range of sizes, and scientists are trying to pin down how risky the various kinds are.The answer affects what we should all be doing to avoid getting sick. That’s why headlines were made a few days ago when a U.S. health agency appeared to have shifted its position on the issue, but later said it had published new language in error.The recommendation to stay at least 6 feet (2 meters) apart — some authorities cite about half that distance — is based on the idea that larger particles fall to the ground before they can travel very far. They are like the droplets in a spritz of a window cleaner, and they can infect a person by landing on his nose, mouth or eyes, or maybe if they are inhaled.Smaller particlesBut some scientists are now focusing on tinier particles, the ones that spread more like cigarette smoke. Those are carried by wisps of air and even upward drafts caused by the warmth of our bodies. They can linger in the air for minutes to hours, spreading throughout a room and building up if ventilation is poor.The potential risk comes from inhaling them. Measles can spread this way, but the new coronavirus is far less contagious than that.For these particles, called aerosols, “6 feet is not a magic distance,” said Linsey Marr, a leading researcher who is studying them at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg. But she says it’s still important to keep one’s distance from others, “the farther the better,” because aerosols are most concentrated near a source and pose a bigger risk at close range.Public health agencies have generally focused on the larger particles for coronavirus.That prompted more than 200 other scientists to publish a plea in July to pay attention to the potential risk from aerosols. The World Health Organization, which had long dismissed a danger from aerosols except in the case of certain medical procedures, later said that aerosol transmission of the coronavirus can’t be ruled out in cases of infection within crowded and poorly ventilated indoor spaces.FILE – A view of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention headquarters in Atlanta.The issue drew attention recently when the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention posted and then deleted statements on its website that highlighted the idea of aerosol spread. The agency said the posting was an error, and that the statements were just a draft of proposed changes to its recommendations.Dr. Jay Butler, CDC’s deputy director for infectious disease, told The Associated Press that the agency continues to believe larger and heavier droplets that come from coughing or sneezing are the primary means of transmission.Last month, Butler told a scientific meeting that current research suggests aerosol spreading of the coronavirus is possible, but it doesn’t seem to be the main way that people get infected. Further research may change that conclusion, he added, and he urged scientists to study how often aerosol spread of the coronavirus occurs, what situations make it more likely and what reasonable steps might prevent it.Marr said she thinks infection by aerosols is “happening a lot more than people initially were willing to think.”‘Superspreader’ eventsAs a key piece of evidence, Marr and others point to so-called “superspreader” events where one infected person evidently passed the virus to many others in a single setting.Butler said such events raise concern about aerosol spread but don’t prove it happens.There could be another way for tiny particles to spread. They may not necessarily come directly from somebody’s mouth or nose, said William Ristenpart of the University of California-Davis. His research found that if paper tissues are seeded with influenza virus and then crumpled, they give off particles that bear the virus. So people emptying a wastebasket with tissues discarded by somebody with COVID-19 should be sure to wear a mask, he said.Scientists who warn about aerosols say current recommendations still make sense.FILE – Public information messages are posted in Manchester, England, after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson issued new restrictions to slow the renewed spread of the coronavirus, Sept 22, 2020.Wearing a mask is still important, and make sure it fits snugly. Keep washing those hands diligently. And again, staying farther apart is better than being closer together. Avoid crowds, especially indoors.Their main addition to recommendations is ventilation to avoid a buildup of aerosol concentration. So, the researchers say, stay out of poorly ventilated rooms. Open windows and doors. One can also use air-purifying devices or virus-inactivating ultraviolet light.Best of all: Just do as much as you can outdoors, where dilution and the sun’s ultraviolet light work in your favor.”We know outdoors is the most spectacularly effective measure, by far,” said Jose-Luis Jimenez of the University of Colorado-Boulder. “Outdoors it is not impossible to get infected, but it is difficult.”FILE – In this July 15, 2020, photo, job seekers exercise social distancing as they wait to be called into the Heartland Workforce Solutions office in Omaha, Neb.The various precautions should be used in combination rather than just one at a time, researchers say. In a well-ventilated environment, “6 feet [of separation] is pretty good if everybody’s got a mask on” and nobody stays directly downwind of an infected person for very long, said Dr. Donald Milton of the University of Maryland School of Public Health, whose lab houses the Gesundheit II machine.Duration of exposure is important, so there’s probably not much risk from a short elevator ride while masked or being passed by a jogger on the sidewalk, experts say.Scientists have published online tools for calculating risk of airborne spread in various settings.At a recent meeting on aerosols, however, Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, noted that preventive steps can be a challenge in the real world. Keeping apart from other people can be difficult in homes that house multiple generations. Some old buildings have windows that were “nailed shut years ago,” he said. And “we have far too many communities where they simply don’t have access to clean water to wash their hands.”It might seem strange that for all the scientific frenzy to study the new coronavirus, the details of how it spreads can still be in doubt nine months later. But history suggests patience.”We’ve been studying influenza for 102 years,” said Milton, referring to the 1918 flu epidemic. “We still don’t know how it’s transmitted and what the role of aerosols is.”
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State troopers were activated Saturday in Portland, Oregon, ahead of a rally by members of a far-right group in support of President Donald Trump and his campaign for reelection.The rally was organized by the Proud Boys, a self-described “Western chauvinist” group that the Southern Poverty Law Center has designated as hate group.The group described the rally as a free-speech event to support Trump and the police and to restore law and order. Trump’s campaign has featured criticism of sometimes violent protests over a series of incidents involving police treatment of Blacks, including this week’s decision not to charge white police officers in Kentucky who fatally shot a Black woman, Breonna Taylor.“We the PEOPLE are tired of incompetent city leadership who neuters police and allows violent gangs or rioting felons to run the streets, burn buildings … and assault people with impunity,” the group wrote in an application to the city for a permit to hold the rally. City officials denied the permit, citing coronavirus concerns.No White House commentThe White House has not commented on the rally in Portland, where nightly protests against racism and police brutality — which have entered a fifth month — have taken place in the wake of several police incidents. Trump has labeled the city, however, as an “anarchist jurisdiction” where leaders are incompetent and lawlessness is unchecked.Oregon Governor Kate Brown declared a state of emergency Friday. She said state troopers would assist Portland police and that 50 crowd-control officers would be deputized as federal marshals in response to the Proud Boys rally and another rally planned by left-wing demonstrators at the same time.A Trump supporter was shot and killed in Portland last month after some vehicles in a pro-Trump caravan encountered left-wing activists. Law enforcement officers killed the suspect, a self-described anti-fascist, the following week as they tried to arrest him in Washington state.
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Work has resumed at three of Libya’s five oil port facilities after an eight-month hiatus. However, two ports have yet to resume work, including Libya’s largest, the al-Sharara oil field.
    
Libyan media reported sporadic militia clashes in the capital, Tripoli, but the resumption of oil production at three of the country’s main oil ports overshadowed the security situation, amid public anguish over lengthy power cuts and problems with other services.  
 
Oil facilities protection forces chief General Naji Maghrebi told Arab media that oil pumping has resumed at Libya’s Zueitina, Brega and Hreiqa ports, while facilities at two other ports at Sidra and Ras Lanouf remain offline, along with the al-Sharara oil fields, which are controlled by eastern military commander General Khalifa Haftar’s military forces.  
 
Resumption of oil production was part of a deal between General Haftar and Ahmed Maitiq, deputy prime minister of the rival Tripoli government.  
 
Fayez Sarraj, who heads the U.N.-backed government in Tripoli, told the U.N. General Assembly Thursday it was imperative to reopen Libya’s port facilities.
 
He said that all militias should return to their countries, and Libya’s seaports and oil fields, which he claims were closed due to foreign pressure, must reopen. Their closure, he added, caused financial losses estimated at $9 billion and serious damage to infrastructure.   
 
Libyan media reported that engineers and other oil production workers are now being allowed to resume work, and that flights between Tripoli’s Maitiga Airport and the Haftar-controlled city of Sirte now have resumed.  
 
Libyan analyst Aya Burweila, visiting lecturer at the Hellenic National Defense College, told VOA the resumption of oil pumping “is a very positive development that will help tackle the electricity crisis and provide immediate relief for the suffering of [Libyan] citizens.”
 
Development and civilian infrastructure projects have long been stalled due to what she calls the abuse and unwillingness of the Tripoli government to subject itself to audits and agree to a fair distribution of oil revenues.
 
Khattar Abou Diab, who teaches political science at the University of Paris, told VOA the oil resumption deal between rival Libyan governments was a “parallel political effort between Libya’s power centers,” alongside the U.S. effort to jumpstart political talks in Morocco between the [Islamist] head of Tripoli’s ruling council, Khaled Mishri, and eastern Libya-based parliament speaker Aquilah Salah.
   
The oil production resumption deal between Haftar and Maitiq, he said, comes amid uncertainty over who controls the levers of power in Tripoli, and efforts by both men to maintain their current positions in a future political shuffle.  
 
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Togo’s prime minister and his government have resigned, the West African nation’s presidency said late Friday.
 
President Faure Gnassingbe congratulated prime minister Komi Selom Klassou and his team for their “economic, political and social efforts and the encouraging results despite the health crisis around the world”, a statement on the presidency’s official website said.  
 
Togo has been due for a political reshuffle since Gnassingbe was reelected in February for a fourth term in office, but changes were delayed by the coronavirus pandemic.   
 
The president’s election win, which came after a constitutional change allowing him to run, extended more than a half-century of dynastic rule over the former French colony by the Gnassingbe family.
 
The victory was disputed by the main opposition challenger, who has faced official harassment in the wake of the vote.  
 
The president has led the country of eight million people since taking over in 2005 following the death of his father Gnassingbe Eyadema, who ruled for 38 years.
 
Klassou has served as prime minister since 2015.  
 
Togo’s economy has been hit by the pandemic as the authorities have imposed restrictions to limit the spread of the virus.
 
The country has recorded 1,722 infections and 44 COVID-19 deaths. 
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Lebanon’s prime minister-designate has stepped down.Moustapha Adib has been unable to form a new government to replace the government that resigned after the deadly massive explosion in Beirut’s port last month.On Saturday, Adib said in a televised speech, “I apologize for not being able to continue the task of forming the government.”He has been in lengthy negotiations with the country’s various political factions, but they were unable to reach a consensus.
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South Korea said on Saturday it is demanding the North further investigate the killing of a South Korean fisheries official and suggested the two countries undertake a joint probe into the shooting incident.”We have decided to demand the North carry out a further probe and request a joint investigation if necessary,” South Korea’s presidential office said in a statement after a National Security Council meeting late Friday.South Korea will continue its own investigation because of “discrepancies” in the explanations the North has provided about the shooting, the statement said.The South’s main opposition People Power Party said Saturday that Kim’s apology was not genuine. It called on President Moon Jae-in’s government to present the case to the International Criminal Court and the U.N. Security Council.North Korean leader Kim Jong Un offered a rare public apology Friday after the killing of the South’s civilian official near the countries’ disputed sea border.South Korea’s military on Thursday accused North Korean forces of shooting and cremating the official, who Seoul believes may have been trying to defect to the North.According to a statement announced by South Korea’s presidential office, Kim is “greatly sorry” for disappointing South Koreans over the incident. The statement said the death was “unsavory” and “should not have happened.”The 47-year-old went missing Monday from his patrol boat about 10 kilometers south of the de facto inter-Korean border. Seoul officials suspect the man, who had reportedly struggled with debt and other personal issues, jumped overboard with a flotation device.After being intercepted at sea by North Korean troops, the man was questioned, shot to death, doused with oil, and set on fire, apparently all on orders from a superior, according to the South Korean military’s version of events.North Korea gave a different account. It says the border troops, following anti-coronavirus guidelines, fired 10 gunshots at the man from a distance. When they approached his flotation device, they found only blood. They then set the floating device on fire, the statement said.Rare apologyNorth Korea’s apology was delivered to Seoul by the North’s United Front Department, a ruling party body that handles inter-Korean ties. The letter expressed hope that “trust and relations” between the two Koreas will not be hurt.It is extremely rare for North Korea to apologize. Following some past killings of South Korean civilians, the North expressed “regret,” often later blaming Seoul for the incidents.With Kim’s apparent apology, the risk of escalation has been reduced, said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul. He says the killing could have led to “tit-for-tat violations” of a military agreement meant to reduce tensions along the frontier.“The shooting incident was also turning South Korean public opinion against offering peace and humanitarian assistance to Pyongyang. Kim’s diplomatic move avoids a potential fight in the short-term and preserves the option of reaping longer-term benefits from Seoul,” he added.The shooting incident is awkwardly timed for South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who this week used a video speech at the United Nations General Assembly to call for an end-of-war declaration between North and South Korea. He also called for coronavirus-related cooperation.The left-leaning Moon, who wants to improve ties with Pyongyang before he leaves office in 2022, has been trying to convince the North to return to the dialogue and cooperation that marked the beginning of his five-year term.Moon-Kim lettersSouth Korea on Friday revealed that Kim recently exchanged letters with Moon, the first known recent dialogue between the two leaders.In a letter dated September 12, Kim expressed sympathies for South Koreans battling the coronavirus, as well as recent typhoons.“I sincerely wish for everyone’s well-being,” Kim said in the letter, which was released in full by the South Korean Blue House. Moon had sent Kim a message on September 8, according to Seoul.Earlier this year, North Korea cut communications channels with the South and blew up the two countries’ de facto embassy after complaining about South Korean activists who launched balloons filled with anti-Pyongyang propaganda across the border.In June, Kim unexpectedly called off the pressure campaign. Since then, North Korea has been primarily focused on domestic issues, such as the coronavirus pandemic and devastating floods.Coronavirus lockdownNorth Korea has since issued “shoot-to-kill” orders to prevent the coronavirus from entering the country from China, the top U.S. commander in South Korea, General Robert Abrams, said earlier this month.The coronavirus-related security zones were first reported by the Daily NK, a Seoul-based news website with sources in North Korea. The outlet said the new rules stipulated that anyone “breaking rules or disrupting public order near the border will be shot without warning.” The rules apply to all areas of the country, it said.“North Korea is locked down almost as in a wartime situation to prevent COVID-19 outbreaks,” said Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul.North Korea for months said it had no coronavirus infections, but eventually backed away from that assertion.In July, a 24-year-old man who had fled North Korea swam back into the country, after being accused of rape in South Korea. That incident prompted the North to lock down a border area, ostensibly because of coronavirus concerns.
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Avoiding any major mistakes is a principal goal for President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden in their first debate Tuesday, September 29. VOA’s Steve Redisch looks at some of those historic debate moments that shaped U.S. politics.
Camera: Kane Farabaugh
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American rap star and third-party U.S. presidential candidate Kanye West visited Haiti on Friday, Haitian President Jovenel Moise announced on Twitter.“I’m with famous American rapper Kanye West who just arrived in the country to visit Labadee and l’Ile de la Tortue. I wish him a great visit,” Moise tweeted.The post, which included four photos, show both the president and West wearing face masks.The purpose of West’s visit to the Caribbean nation remains unclear. He has not posted anything about it on his official Twitter account, @kanyewest. President Moise’s tweet provided no further details.According to local media, the rap star, 43, landed Friday morning at the Cape Haitien international airport and was met there by the president. Official Haitian greeters, fans, airport workers and members of the press crowded into the small airport’s diplomatic lounge to catch a glimpse of West, who was wearing a lilac hoodie, dark pants and his signature sneakers. President Moise accompanied him on a visit to two picturesque islands.Labadee island, located off the coast of Cape Haitien in Haiti’s north, is a resort predominantly frequented by foreign tourists. The island is leased by Royal Caribbean cruise lines and features turquoise waters, sandy beaches and an assortment of water rides.Ile de la Tortue (Tortuga island) is also a popular tourist destination off Haiti’s northwestern coast.Cape Haitien, where West landed, is Haiti’s second-largest city. It is home to the renowned historical site, Citadelle Laferriere, a 19th century fortress that was instrumental in the slave revolution to gain independence from France in 1804.This is the rap star’s second jaunt to the Caribbean in a week. The Miami Herald reported that West made a visit last week to Jamaica, where he was accused of breaking COVID-19 protocols after photos surfaced of him without a face mask with reggae music star Buju Banton.West announced his candidacy for U.S. president on July 4, 2020, and is officially on the ballot for the November election in 11 states.
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A Zimbabwean opposition activist who faces trial for making allegedly false claims of torture by suspected state security agents was ordered Thursday into two weeks’ detention to undergo a mental health evaluation.Joana Mamombe was ordered by Judge Bianca Makwande to be evaluated by government doctors to ensure that she can stand trial in October. An official at Chikurubi maximum security prison, where Mamombe has been confined, told VOA the assessment could take place there or in a designated clinical setting.Mamombe is one of three young female activists arrested May 13 for engaging in anti-government protests during the coronavirus lockdown. The women, including Cecilia Chimbiri and Netsai Marova, say they were taken from Harare police custody by unidentified men who tortured and sexually abused them. The women were missing for almost two days, then were left on a road near Bindura, a town about 90 kilometers northeast of the capital.The women face charges of breaking lockdown restrictions, trying to incite violence, and making false accusations of abduction, torture and sexual abuse. They all had been imprisoned at Chikurubi but have been free on bail.FILE – Signage at the Chikurubi maximum security prison just outside Harare, June 3, 2019. (Columbus Mavhunga/VOA)All three are members of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change-Alliance (MDC-Alliance). Mamombe represented the capital area of Harare West in Zimbabwe’s Parliament for almost three years until July, when she and a handful of other MDC-Alliance lawmakers were recalled by new party leadership.Admitted to hospitalMamombe failed to report for a court hearing in Harare last week. An arrest warrant was issued but canceled after Mamombe’s doctor submitted evidence that Mamombe had been admitted to a local hospital for health issues.Prosecutor Michael Reza then sought a court order for her mental evaluation. The government has suggested Mamombe is feigning mental illness to avoid having to stand trial.On Thursday, Alec Muchadehama, an attorney with Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights who is representing Mamombe, told VOA Zimbabwe, “She is now a prisoner. She was on bail but now she can no longer get medical help on her own.”The attorney said he was seeking Mamombe’s release on bail.MDC-Alliance spokesman Clifford Hlatywayo protested Mamombe’s detention. In a tweet Thursday, he rhetorically asked, “How can you transfer a sick young lady from a hospital bed to the cold floors of Chikurubi prison? This persecution and abuse of civilians must end now.”’Signs of rehearsal’Zimbabwe’s home affairs minister, Kazembe Kazembe, in June released a statement contending that the three activists were being stage-managed by “regime change” proponents in organizations such as Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights and Zimbabwe Doctors for Human Rights.”Without at all preempting due process of the law, their three statements show glaring signs of rehearsal and even possible coaching, which may not stand up to rigorous cross examination,” Kazembe said.The U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and groups including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have called upon Zimbabwe’s government to respect human rights and to investigate the women’s claims.This report originated in VOA’s Zimbabwe service.
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A former college entrance exam administrator pleaded guilty Friday of taking bribes to help wealthy parents rig their kids’ test scores as part of a college admissions bribery scheme. Niki Williams, 46, a former employee of the Houston Independent School District, is among about 40 people who have admitted to charges in the case that exposed a scheme to get undeserving teens into college with fake athletic credentials or manipulated test scores.  Prosecutors say Williams, who administered the college entrance exams at the public high school where she worked, took money from Rick Singer, the admissions consultant at the center of the scheme, in exchange for allowing someone else to take exams in place of the children of Singer’s clients or correct their answers. Singer and Mark Riddell, who secretly took the exams for the students, have also pleaded guilty.  Williams pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and mail fraud and honest services wire fraud and mail fraud before a Boston federal court judge held via video because of the coronavirus pandemic.  Williams is scheduled to be sentenced December 21.  An email seeking comment was sent to her lawyer after the hearing.
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Legislators said their final farewells to Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Friday, September 25, as her coffin was taken from the Capitol to Arlington National Cemetery where she will be buried. ––––––––– READ MORE: Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, paid their respects to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg as she became the first woman and first Jewish person to lie in state in the U.S. Capitol. Biden and his wife were among the last of the attendees to approach Ginsburg’s casket to bid her farewell at a relatively brief and solemn ceremony in the Capitol’s National Statuary Hall. After House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told the gathering she had the “high honor to welcome Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to lie in state in the Capitol of the United States,” Rabbi Lauren Holtzblatt delivered the eulogy. “All of the days of her life she pursued justice. Even in illness, she changed the course of American law,” Holtzblatt said. “And even when her views did not prevail, she still fought.”  ––––––––– LINK: https://www.voanews.com/usa/ginsburg-first-woman-jewish-person-lie-state-us-capitol 
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VOA Connect Episode 141 – We look at the role of nature, especially during Covid, and how it can play a positive role for your mental health.   (some of the pieces in this program have previously aired)
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