ГОЛОВНЕ

Argentinian authorities are battling the country’s largest locust invasion this year, in the northern province of Formosa.The plague of locusts is said to be double the size of two other swarms.Officials fear the locusts, known for destroying crops, will jeopardize the food supplies for livestock.Hector Emilio Medina, the director of Argentina’s National Locusts Control Program, told the Associated Press the locusts are very difficult to control.Medina also warned a new locust cloud was just spotted in the Bolivian region of Macharetí.The alert comes as Argentina, Bolivia and Paraguay are appealing to their neighbors, Brazil and Uruguay, to seek financial help to upgrade the regional detection systems. 
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The resurgence of the coronavirus in many countries is “driven in part by younger people letting down their guard during the Northern Hemisphere summer,” World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Thursday.Young adults, many without masks, are ignoring social distancing recommendations to pack bars, nightclubs, and beaches that have been reopened since authorities lifted coronavirus restrictions.“The majority of young people infected tend to have more mild disease. But that’s not always consistent,” said Maria Van Kerkhove, a WHO epidemiologist who called nightclubs “amplifiers of transmission.”Young people who show mild or no symptoms can spread the virus to more-vulnerable older people.In Brazil, President Jair Bolsonaro, who tested positive for the coronavirus on July 7 and then negative last Saturday, said that after 20 days indoors he had mold on his lungs. He is being treated with antibiotics. He had repeatedly referred to COVID-19 as “a little flu.”Brazil, as of Thursday evening, had 2.6 million confirmed cases and 91,263 deaths, according to the Muslims queue up to enter a disinfection chamber set up as a precaution against the new coronavirus outbreak, upon arrival for an Eid al-Adha prayer at Al Mashun Grand Mosque in Medan, North Sumatra, Indonesia, July 31, 2020.“We are concerned that … we will see an increase in cases as we have seen in [other] countries” where restrictions have been eased too soon,” WHO Regional Director for Africa Matshidiso Moeti said.She said more than 20 African countries have recorded more new cases than in the previous weeks, with South Africa accounting for the most but increases also reported in Kenya, Madagascar, Nigeria, Zambia and Zimbabwe.Moeti said Uganda, Seychelles and Mauritius are doing well in controlling the virus.Cuba reported nine new cases Thursday, and 37 new cases earlier this week. Just 10 days ago, Cuba reported no new cases for the first time since the outbreak began in March. However, it has reported no deaths for more than two weeks.Cuba has so far been relatively successful in fighting COVID-19, but the island’s top epidemiologist, Francisco Duran, said Thursday that Cubans are getting careless.“People are holding different types of gatherings without taking into account distancing and often without even using a face mask,” he said. “Each small peak underscores a lack of discipline … prompting stricter measures.”Muslim women wearing face masks as precaution against the new coronavirus outbreak, take a selfie after an Eid al-Adha prayer at a mosque in Jakarta, Indonesia, July 31, 2020.In Florida, Key West police arrested a couple who tested positive for COVID-19 for being in public in defiance of a quarantine order.Neighbors who videotaped the couple strolling and shopping gave the tapes to police.The couple’s arrest is among the first in the state for violating a quarantine.Florida, with 461,000 coronavirus cases and 6,600 deaths, is second only to California, which has 492,000 confirmed cases and 8,965 deaths, among U.S. states.National Geographic magazine is reporting that the first dog in the United States sickened by COVID-19 has died.Buddy, a 7-year-old German shepherd in New York became ill in April while his owner was recovering from the coronavirus.Buddy had the same symptoms as human patients, including difficulty breathing. He was euthanized earlier this month after he started vomiting and urinating blood and could no longer walk.Buddy’s doctors said he was also suffering from cancer. Doctors say humans with pre-existing conditions are more susceptible to COVID-19.The WHO says pet-to-people transmission of the coronavirus is unlikely.National Geographic says 12 dogs and 10 cats have tested positive for coronavirus in the U.S. 
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An outspoken former Chinese law professor has hired a legal team to defend him against charges of soliciting prostitution, saying he hopes to disprove the allegations that have damaged his client’s reputation, his lawyer told VOA.Tsinghua University law professor Xu Zhangrun was recently fired for “moral corruption” and publishing articles that undermine the Communist Party of China, according to the dismissal notice from his employer. Before that, he was detained for a week in early July on charges of soliciting prostitutes in the southwestern city of Chengdu last year.The outspoken liberal scholar, who just finished a 14-day quarantine at home, met with lawyers Mo Shaoping and Shang Baojun, as well as disbarred rights lawyer Pu Zhuqiang on Tuesday, and officially hired Mo and Shang to represent him in a case against the Chengdu police.According to Mo, Xu dismissed all accusations by the Chengdu police, adding that they did not provide evidence that he had solicited prostitutes, such as video footage, audio recordings or bank records.Mo said they planned to file an “administrative reconsideration” application to overturn the administrative ruling by the Chengdu police for soliciting prostitution.He noted there was a big hurdle in fighting the charges.“The Beijing police did not give him the administrative penalty statement issued by the Chengdu police over this alleged crime, and it would be difficult to submit the review application without it,” Mo told VOA.Shang, the other lawyer, said that at the end of Xu’s detention, the Beijing police would not let him go unless they could keep the document. At present, the only official document that Xu has is the dismissal letter issued by Tsinghua University.Chengdu police did not respond to VOA’s request for comments.Government oppression Chinese authorities have repeatedly targeted Xu for his essays critical of President Xi Jinping and the ruling Communist Party. Chinese activists and intellectuals sounded alarm at Xu’s detention and dismissal.Sociologist Guo Yuhua appears to be the only current Tsinghua professor still willing to speak out publicly for Xu. She told VOA that the fact Xu did not fight his dismissal does not mean he agrees with the university’s decision.“A call to a woman equals soliciting prostitutes? Where’s the evidence? As for the new guidelines by China’s Ministry of Education, does that go with our constitution?” she asked. “Tsinghua made the decision to expel him while he was still in detention. Why in such a rush?”Guo was referring to a regulation quoted in Xu’s dismissal notification, which read, “We have verified that Xu Zhangrun has published many essays since July 2018, and it is a serious violation of the ‘10 standards of professional conduct for teachers in tertiary institutes in the new era.’ ”China’s Ministry of Education issued a set of new guidelines in 2018, prohibiting teachers from engaging in any activity that undermines the authority of the Communist Party or violates the directions and policies of the party.“Teachers have to be patriotic and uphold academic integrity,” the guidelines said.Guo said Tsinghua’s decision to dismiss Xu has deviated from Tsinghua’s motto of “independent thoughts and free spirit,” damaging its reputation.Growing support Very few current faculty members and students at Tsinghua have publicly discussed Xu’s case.“It’s not surprising that people are self-censoring themselves in today’s tightly controlled environment,” Guo said.Yet nearly 600 Tsinghua alumni came to support the former law professor, raising more than $15,000 in donations for him.In an open letter to his former colleagues and students, Xu expressed appreciation for their backing and said totalitarianism is doomed to failure, and freedom will eventually come to China.He also declined the donation, saying that the money should be sent instead to those in greater need.VOA has tried to contact Xu without success. His WeChat account showed that the option to add him as a friend was not available. People familiar with the matter said his WeChat has been blocked.
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The U.S. Congress is trying to agree on funding to prevent those who’ve lost jobs because of COVID-19 from also losing their homes. Government aid has helped many renters in Virginia, but some face eviction as both state and federal moratoriums expired. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias has the story of one family at the brink of homelessness in Alexandria.   Camera: Veronica Balderas Iglesias  Produced by: Veronica Balderas Iglesias 
 
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NASA aims its new rover to an ancient Martian river delta searching for evidence of past life.  A French astronaut is scheduled to become the first European astronaut aboard a SpaceX capsule destined for the International Space Station. And Virgin Galactic unveils a new spaceship. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi brings us the Week in Space.
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The United Nations World Food Program is appealing for an additional $250 million in emergency aid to help millions of Zimbabweans at risk of starvation.  The WFP says the COVID-19 pandemic is worsening an already severe hunger crisis in the southern African nation.Hopely farm about 20 kilometers north of Harare’s central business district is one of the poorest residential areas in Zimbabwe’s capital. People here largely depend on informal employment, which has dried up since the Zimbabwe government imposed a lockdown in late March to fight the coronavirus pandemic.The situation was made worse by the dusk-to-dawn curfew imposed earlier this month, according to the World Food Program.One of those affected is 52-year-old Aleck Mugopa, who looks after his six children. Since the beginning of the lockdown, he said, there are times when the family has gone without a decent meal.He said it’s now really difficult, especially here in Harare, as we are not working. We have no source of livelihood. So my children are starving, he said.Aleck Mugopa says, July 30, 2020, since the beginning of the lockdown, there are times when the family has gone without a decent meal. (Columbus Mavhunga/VOA)Asked what the government is providing, he said, “There is nothing.”Asked what he wants from the government, Mugopa said, ““We just want food aid so that we can survive and when the lockdown is over, I can get back to vegetable vending.” At the moment, he said, police are chasing people from the fields so there is no way he can grow plants.Claire Nevill, the WFP spokeswoman in Zimbabwe, said people like Mugopa are the reason why the U.N. agency is asking for an additional $250 million to reach more than 8 million food insecure people — in both urban and rural areas – in this southern African nation, which was plagued by recurring droughts and a struggling economy even before the coronavirus pandemic came.“The already dire situation is set to worsen and if the international community does not step up, the risk of a humanitarian catastrophe is very real. COVID 19 is threatened to deepen and widen Zimbabwe’s climate and recession induced hunger crisis,” she said. “We know that in urban areas where lockdowns have triggered massive joblessness the number of food insecure people forecasts is set to rise as the social-economic consequences of the pandemic become more pronounced, in rural areas the number is set to increase as the stocks from the recent drought hit harvest are run down and now the return of now migrant workers and the absence of their remittances they provided are keenly felt.”Some informal traders in Harare say, July 27, 2020, poverty forces them continue to defy authorities’ plea to stay home or observe social distance.(Columbus Mavhunga/VOA)Minister of Social Welfare Paul Mavima told VOA that the government has assisted 260,000 urban dwellers like Mugopa, who were left without income because of the COVID-19 pandemic.“The total amount that the government of Zimbabwe has committed to this relief – which is a combination of COVID-19 and the drought that we have faced for the past two seasons — we are going to use something line $300 to 350 million for feeding the vulnerable in Zimbabwe.”He said President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government “was happy and appreciates” efforts by the WFP to help millions of food insecure Zimbabweans.The WFP’s Nevill said the lockdown, coupled with the drought, has made Zimbabwe’s food situation more precarious than ever before.“So severe is the country’s food crisis that for the first time ever is that one WFP lean season assistance programme has been immediately succeeded by another. The previous one ended in June and a month later, our lean season assistance program began on the first of July, three months earlier than it usually would,” said Nevill.She said the WFP cannot maintain the program long-term unless funding from the U.S., European Union and other donors comes in a timely fashion. 
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A court in Moscow has sentenced former U.S. Marine Trevor Reed to nine years in prison after finding him guilty of assaulting two police officers, a charge that he refused to admit.Judge Dmitry Arnaut of Moscow’s Golovinsky District Court on July 30 also ordered Reed to pay 150,000 rubels ($2,000) to each police officer as compensation for moral damage.The 29-year old man, who is from Texas, traveled to Moscow in May 2019 to study Russian and spend time with his Russian girlfriend, Alina Tsybulnik.On August 15, several days before his trip back to Texas, Reed and his girlfriend attended a party organized by her colleagues. He claims to have no memory of what happened following the party, where he says he was encouraged to drink large quantities of vodka.In a car going home afterward, Reed said he felt unwell, asked the driver to stop, and got out. His girlfriend’s co-worker called police and left the site with another colleague, leaving Tsybulnik alone with Reed.Two police officers arrived at the scene and took Reed in to sober up, telling Tsybulnik to come back in a few hours and pick him up.Tsybulnik told RFE/RL that when she arrived at the police station later, Reed was being questioned, without a lawyer or interpreter present, by two men who introduced themselves as employees of the Federal Security Service (FSB).Tsybulnik was told that her boyfriend was accused of endangering the lives of the policemen who brought him in by yanking the driver’s arm and elbowing another officer who tried to intervene.However, the case against Reed has been marred by inconsistencies. Video evidence reviewed in court appeared to show no evidence that the police vehicle swerved as a result of Reed’s actions, as alleged by the police officers.Speaking before the judge, the officers themselves have claimed to have no memory of key moments in the journey, and have retracted parts of their statements on several occasions or failed to answer simple questions from Reed’s defense team.Reed is one of several American citizens to face trial in Russia in recent years on charges that their families, supporters, and in some cases the U.S. government have said appear trumped up.Last month, another former U.S. Marine, 50-year-old Paul Whelan, was sentenced by a court in Moscow to 16 years in prison for espionage which he, his supporters, and the U.S. government have questioned. 
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