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Milagros Sotelo was looking forward to traveling from South America to Tennessee to start a job at Ober Gatlinburg ski resort this winter. The 22-year-old student worked the last two ski seasons in the equipment rental shop at the small resort nestled in the Smoky Mountains and was excited to reconnect with friends, practice her English and take a break from law school in Lima, Peru, where she lives.
But on June 22, President Trump signed an executive order temporarily barring a wide variety of foreign worker visas, including J-1 visas often issued to South American students who come to North America during their summer break. Sotelo’s plans were put on hold, and now she’s scrambling to find a job closer to home.
As ski resorts try to figure out how to operate safely during the coronavirus pandemic, by requiring facemasks, enforcing social distancing in lift lines and eliminating dine-in service, Trump’s order has added another obstacle heading into the winter: hiring enough temporary workers to fill crucial jobs like operating chair lifts, serving food and cleaning hotel rooms.
Trump argued foreigners pose a risk to American workers as the country tries to jumpstart its economy.
“American workers compete against foreign nationals for jobs in every sector of our economy, including against millions of aliens who enter the United States to perform temporary work,” according to the order, which is set to expire at the end of the year.
But Sotelo said there are plenty of jobs to go around, especially at and near ski resorts.
Many industry leaders agree, saying that even with Trump’s order in place, it’s difficult to fill seasonal jobs with domestic workers.
“A big part of the reason is — and this is true even during COVID — most Americans want a year-round job. They don’t want a revolving-door-type job,” said Dave Byrd, director of risk and regulatory affairs at the National Ski Areas Association.
Byrd said between 7,000 and 8,000 J-1 workers fill jobs at many of the country’s 470 ski areas every winter. Another 1,000 to 2,000 workers come to U.S. resorts on H-2B visas, which are also barred by Trump’s order. In total, foreign guest workers make up between 5% and 10% of the workforce at U.S. ski resorts, according to Byrd, who calls it “a critical amount.”
According to an NSAA report released in July, just over half of 202 U.S. ski resorts polled said they had trouble hiring a full workforce during the 2019-2020 winter season, and an average of 44 jobs went unfilled. The report said 27% of ski areas were understaffed in the summer, and an average of 21 jobs went unfilled.
Many seasonal jobs don’t offer benefits such as health insurance or retirement plans, Byrd said, and it’s even harder to recruit domestic workers because ski resorts are often in rural areas with expensive housing.
“Certainly in Western destination resorts, it is an enormous challenge for us to find workers because of the cost of housing in fancy destination ski venues — Vail, Crested Butte, Telluride, Taos, Jackson Hole, Big Sky, Sun Valley, Lake Tahoe,” he said.
Vail Resorts, which owns 33 ski areas in the U.S. and has historically relied on foreign workers, is recruiting more aggressively in local communities for the upcoming season and is seeing some interest among college students who have more flexibility because they are learning remotely or are taking a gap year because of the pandemic.
“We have already ramped up winter season recruiting efforts and have been pleased with the results so far,” said Vail Resorts spokesman Ryan Huff, who declined to say how many foreign workers the Colorado-based company hires for a typical winter season. Huff noted that Vail Resorts could pursue a “limited number” of foreign workers if and when the restrictions are lifted to help staff the remainder of the season.
But smaller resorts that aren’t as well known are sweating opening day.
At Ober Gatlinburg, September and October are spent recruiting student workers like Sotelo from places like Brazil, Peru and the Dominican Republic. This year, it could be difficult to fill the 150 jobs that typically go to foreign workers.
According to the NSAA, an average of 85 jobs went unfilled last winter season at resorts in the region that includes Tennessee, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia and North Carolina — in large part because of their remote locations.
“We’ve experienced this for many, many years, but it’s become very critical now,” said Jerry Huskey, a risk manager at Ober Gatlinburg who has worked in the resort’s human resources department for more than two decades.
He said that if the order remains in place, the resort, which typically employs about 500 workers, might have to cut operating hours and close some of its restaurants this season. In the meantime, the resort is touting increased hourly wages to entice workers and has had some success recruiting out-of-work convention staff from Florida.
Huskey started recruiting foreign workers on J-1 visas in the mid-1990s after an improving economy made it harder to attract Americans. About a dozen foreigners worked at the resort initially, and the numbers grew season over season as the area grew and competition for help intensified.
“It’s a good exchange of information and cultures. … They want to see what goes on in the U.S. They’ve never been here before, so they’re really losing out on that aspect and we’re losing out on having them,” Huskey said of the current situation.
The NSAA and ski resorts across the country were keeping a close eye on two federal lawsuits challenging Trump’s order — one in Washington D.C. and the other in the Northern District of California. The D.C. judge kept in place Trump’s ban on J-1 and H-2B visas, so now the ski industry is pinning its hopes on the California judge throwing out the directive.
“That would be the first hurdle, of course. Beyond that, the countries would have to open up to travel and then they would also have to be willing to come here with this virus going on,” Huskey said. “It’s a little sketchy and so many hurdles to get across right now.”
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Reaction to Tuesday night’s presidential debate between Republican President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden, his Democratic challenger, split along partisan lines but also featured sharp criticism of how the event, often a verbal free-for-all, played out. Ronna McDaniel, the chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, tweeted after  the debate that “For ninety minutes, @realDonaldTrump made a confident, commanding and compelling case for his re-election and took Joe Biden to task for supporting radical policies that would raise taxes, destroy jobs and make our communities less safe.”For ninety minutes, @realDonaldTrump made a confident, commanding and compelling case for his re-election and took Joe Biden to task for supporting radical policies that would raise taxes, destroy jobs and make our communities less safe. (1/3)— Ronna McDaniel (@GOPChairwoman) September 30, 2020Tim Murtaugh, the communications director for President Trump’s re-election campaign, told VOA’s Carolyn Presutti  the president’s performance  was “fantastic.” “What viewers saw was President Trump who was in command of every moment of the  debate, and I think what they saw was a weak Joe Biden,” Murtaugh said, “looking around for someone to bail him out.”  Prominent Democrats, meanwhile, called the debate for the former vice president and said Trump’s performance provided ample reason to deny him a second term in office.  “Donald Trump has failed this country with his lies, bigotry, and reckless leadership,” tweeted U.S. Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey, who competed against Biden for the Democratic presidential nomination earlier in the year. Booker in particular denounced the president for declining to condemn white supremacists, instead urging them to “stand by.”Donald Trump has failed this country with his lies, bigotry, and reckless leadership.We can’t have four more years of a president who tells white supremacists to “stand by.” The choice in this election is very clear. https://t.co/AQNVH52gt4— Cory Booker (@CoryBooker) September 30, 2020Many debate watchers slammed the loud and chaotic exchanges between the two candidates, including Karen Attiah, the global opinions editor for The Washington Post newspaper, who called the event “a national embarrassment.”This whole debate is a national embarrassment— Karen Attiah (@KarenAttiah) September 30, 2020Some, including presidential historian Michael Beschloss, harshly faulted the president.  “Democracy was trashed tonight by a President who ran roughshod over the rules,” he wrote, “refused to condemn white supremacists and would not tolerate any form of dissent—a harbinger of what a second term might be like,” Beschloss tweeted.Democracy was trashed tonight by a President who ran roughshod over the rules, refused to condemn white supremacists and would not tolerate any form of dissent—a harbinger of what a second term might be like.— Michael Beschloss (@BeschlossDC) September 30, 2020Others, like former Republican senator Jeff Flake, expressed sorrow over the entire spectacle. “We are a better country than was on display tonight,” Flake wrote on Twitter.We are a better country than was on display tonight.— Jeff Flake (@JeffFlake) September 30, 2020University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato posted a blunt message on his Twitter account:  “CANCEL THE REMAINING PRESIDENTIAL DEBATES.”CANCEL THE REMAINING PRESIDENTIAL DEBATES. It is impossible to have an orderly, productive exchange with Donald Trump. Stop pretending otherwise. #Debate2020— Larry Sabato (@LarrySabato) September 30, 2020But Murtaugh defended the exchanges as illuminating. “I think a freewheeling conversation like the president was driving is actually good, it allows for a much better exchange of ideas and for viewers to see the real difference between the two,”  he said. 
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Fake news about the coronavirus can do real harm. Polygraph.info is spotlighting fact-checks from other reliable sources here​.Daily DebunkClaim: The influenza vaccine Fluzone is more deadly than Covid-19.Vedict: FalseRead the full story at: 
Nature wades through the literature on the new coronavirus — and summarizes key papers as they appear.
— Nature, September 28A layperson’s guide to how — and when — a Covid-19 vaccine could be authorized
This story is based on interviews as well as on documents the drug makers have released detailing their clinical trial plans.
— Stat, September 28
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Armenia and Azerbaijan traded accusations Tuesday of firing on each other across a shared border, the latest sign of a conflict over the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh that is threatening to erupt into war.Both countries reported firing to the west of the region, where intense fighting broke out Sunday between ethnic Armenian and Azeri forces, killing dozens of people and wounding hundreds of others.Speaking on Russian state television, Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan both rejected the possibility of talks, despite urgent appeals from Russia and the United States to end the violence.In this photo provided by the Azerbaijan’s Presidential Press Office provided on Sept. 27, 2020, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev gestures as he addresses the nation in Baku, Azerbaijan.The United Nations Security Council is expected to discuss the escalating fighting in the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh later Tuesday. The closed-door meeting was requested by five European nations — Britain, Belgium, Estonia, France and Germany — as the fighting intensified Monday between forces of Armenia and Azerbaijan in the enclave.   FILE – Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan attends the Eurasian Economic Council in Yerevan, Armenia, on Oct. 1, 2019.A spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres spoke to both Aliyev and Pashinian and called for “an immediate stop to the fighting, a de-escalation of tension and a return to meaningful negotiations without preconditions or delay,” according to the Associated Press. The United States had called on Sunday for the hostilities to end. State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus issued a statement saying the U.S. “condemns in the strongest terms this escalation of violence.” The statement urged both sides to work with the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs “to return to substantive negotiations as soon as possible.”      The OSCE is the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.  The OSCE Minsk Group is tasked with finding a peaceful solution to the conflict.  The U.S., France and Russia co-chair the OSCE Minsk Group, which issued a joint statement Sunday concerning the “large scale military actions along the Line of Contact in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone.”       “We strongly condemn the use of force and regret the senseless loss of life, including civilians,” the co-chairs said. They appealed “to the sides to cease hostilities immediately and to resume negotiations to find a sustainable resolution of the conflict.”     They called on the parties in conflict to take “necessary measures to stabilize the situation on the ground,” adding that there is no alternative to a peaceful negotiated solution of the conflict.    Armenia and Azerbaijan declared martial law and troop mobilizations on Sunday amid fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh.Nagorno-Karabakh is within Azerbaijan’s borders but is governed by ethnic Armenians and supported by the Armenian government. The enclave seceded from Azerbaijan during the Nagorno-Karabakh War that ended in 1994 but has not been recognized by any country as an independent republic.A war between the two former Soviet republics could also involve regional powers Turkey and Russia, which has a defense agreement with Armenia. The Turkish government supports its own ethnic Turkic kin in Azerbaijan. 
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At last year’s Latin Grammy Awards, popular reggaeton and Latin trap musicians such as J Balvin, Bad Bunny and Ozuna were dismissed in the show’s top categories. This year, they dominate.
Balvin scored a whopping 13 nominations for the 2020 Latin Grammys, including two nominations for album of the year and two for record of the year. The Latin Academy announced Tuesday that Bad Bunny and Ozuna are behind Balvin with nine and eight nominations, respectively.
Balvin has a chance to win his first album of the year prize — a category with 10 contenders — thanks to his fifth solo album “Colores” and “Oasis,” his collaborative project with Bad Bunny. Other nominees include Bad Bunny’s sophomore release “YHLQMDLG” as well as albums from Ricky Martin, Carlos Vives, Jesse & Joy, Kany García, Natalia Lafourcade, Camilo and Fito Paez.
For record of the year, which also has 10 nominees, contenders include popular hip-hop-flavored Latin songs that have dominated the Latin music charts and earned hundreds of millions plays on streaming services, with some even reaching the billion-mark on YouTube, including Karol G and Nicki Minaj’s global hit “Tusa” and “China” by Anuel AA, Daddy Yankee, Karol G, Ozuna and Balvin. Other nominees include Balvin’s “Rojo” and Bad Bunny’s “Vete.”
“Tusa” is the sole Latin trap nominee in the song of the year category, where 11 tracks are in contention. It’s a departure for Karol G, who didn’t receive a single nomination last year and was part of the group of uber-successful Latin trap and reggaeton artists who were dissed in top categories like album, song and record of the year.
This year, the Colombian performer who was named best new artist in 2018 has four nominations, including two shared with Minaj. Karol G’s fiance, Puerto Rican rapper-singer Anuel AA, marked a major breakthrough this year as a first-time nominee. He scored seven nominations, including a bid for best new artist.
“Over the last year, we continued engaging in discussions with our members to improve the awards process and actively encouraged diverse Latin music creators to join and participate,” Latin Academy President and CEO Gabriel Abaroa Jr. said in a statement, calling this year’s nominees “a group that reflects the constant evolution of Latin music.”
As a result of last year’s debacle social media exploded as Latin artists posted images of the Grammy logo with a large red “X” across it, with words on the image reading in Spanish: “Without reggaeton, there’s no Latin Grammys.” Balvin even skipped the live show and Bad Bunny, who won best urban music album during the telecast, told the audience: “With all due respect, reggaeton is part of the Latin culture.”
To honor Latin rap and reggaeton performers, the Latin Grammys added new categories this year, including best reggaeton performance and best rap/hip-hop song.
Balvin’s 13 nominations includes several categories where he will compete with himself: Outside of album and record of the year, he’s a double nominee in the best urban music album, best urban fusion/performance and best reggaeton performance categories. Ozuna and Bad Bunny will also compete with themselves in several categories.
Others who scored multiple nominations include Juanes, Martin, Alejandro Sanz, Camilo, Carlos Vives, Kany García and Residente, the most decorated winner in the history of Latin Grammys. Rosalía, who won album of the year last year and became the first solo female performer to win the top honor since Shakira’s triumph in 2006, earned four nominations this year.
Apart from Minaj’s two nominations, other popular American artists who will compete for awards include rapper Travis Scott (best short form music video for “TKN” with Rosalía); jazz master Chick Corea and his Spanish Heart Band (best Latin jazz/jazz album for “Antidote”); DJ-producer Diplo (best urban song for “Rave de Favela” ); and rapper Tyga (best reggaeton performance for “Loco Contigo” with DJ Snake and Balvin). Justin Bieber’s right-hand songwriter, Jason Boyd aka Poo Bear, earned an album of the year nomination for his work on Jesse & Joy’s “Aire (Versión Día).”
The 21st annual Latin Grammy Awards will air live on Nov. 19 on Univision. The nominees in the 53 categories were selected from more than 18,000 entries. Songs and albums released between June 1, 2019 through May 31, 2020 were eligible for nomination.
 
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The World Food Program reports unprecedented flooding in South Sudan has plunged some 700,000 people into a hunger and livelihoods crisis, made worse by ongoing violence and economic shocks due to COVID-19.Nearly half of South Sudan is under water.  The World Food Program reports entire villages, homes, and farmlands in 36 counties are submerged.  It says the situation is particularly dire in Jonglei State, where one-third of the country’s 700,000 flood victims live.WFP Country Director in South Sudan, Matthew Hollingworth says 85,000 people have been displaced by the flooding, which has disrupted trade routes, damaged crops, killed livestock and submerged houses.“This flooding crisis is coming on top of a very grim hunger situation in Jonglei where already this year 1.4 million people were suffering from acute and severe hunger in addition to over 300,000 children under five who are acutely malnourished,” Hollingworth said.Hollingworth says tackling the humanitarian needs of the flood victims is particularly difficult in the midst of increasing violence and COVID 19-related economic and health crises.  This year’s torrential rains began well before the water from last year’s flooding had fully receded.  Aid workers fear the flooding is likely to be even more severe when the so-called normal rainy season starts. Hollingworth says there are very worrying signs of deepening hunger in a country which has seen 31 pockets of famine in the past five years.  “We have yet to get data back to confirm how bad it will be.  But I think we all need to prepare ourselves that we must do everything in our power to avoid famine and to avoid the levels of hunger—the catastrophic hunger that we have seen sadly in the past in this country,” Hollingworth said.  
WFP currently is providing food aid to 300,000 people.  It is scaling up its life-saving operation to support 700,000 flood-affected people who have lost their harvests and livelihoods.  The agency is appealing for $58 million for the coming six months.
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The United Nations Security Council is expected to discuss the escalating fighting in the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh later Tuesday. The closed door meeting was requested by five European nations — Britain, Belgium, Estonia, France and Germany — as the fighting intensified Monday between forces of Armenia and Azerbaijan in the enclave.    A spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres spoke to both President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and called for “an immediate stop to the fighting, a de-escalation of tension and a return to meaningful negotiations without preconditions or delay,” according to the Associated Press. Officials in Nagorno-Karabakh say 58 soldiers have been killed since Sunday, when it says Azerbaijan launched an air and artillery attack. The region also reported two civilian deaths. There was no official information about any Azeri military casualties.     Both sides exchanged accusations of using heavy artillery. The Azeri defense ministry said Armenian forces were shelling the town of Tartar.   The fighting has prompted fears that regional powers Russia and Turkey could be drawn into the violence. Moscow has a defense alliance with Armenia, while Ankara backs Azerbaijan.     Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called Monday for hostilities to immediately end and said the situation “is a cause for concern for Moscow and other countries.”      Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Armenia’s immediate withdrawal from the region was the only way to ensure peace.   The United States called Sunday for the hostilities to end. State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus issued a statement saying the U.S. “condemns in the strongest terms this escalation of violence.” The statement urged both sides to work with the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs “to return to substantive negotiations as soon as possible.”An image from a video made available on the official website of the Azerbaijani Defence Ministry on Sept. 28, 2020, allegedly shows Azeri troops conducting a combat operation during clashes between Armenian separatists and Azerbaijan.The OSCE Minsk Group is tasked with finding a peaceful solution to the conflict. The OSCE is the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.     The U.S., along with France and Russia, co-chair the OSCE Minsk Group, which issued a joint statement Sunday concerning the “large scale military actions along the Line of Contact in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone.”           “We strongly condemn the use of force and regret the senseless loss of life, including civilians,” the co-chairs said. They appealed “to the sides to cease hostilities immediately and to resume negotiations to find a sustainable resolution of the conflict.”          They called on the parties in conflict to take “necessary measures to stabilize the situation on the ground,” adding that there is no alternative to a peaceful negotiated solution of the conflict.”     Armenia and Azerbaijan declared martial law and troop mobilizations on Sunday amid fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh, a disputed, primarily ethnic Armenian enclave in Azerbaijan.     Armenia accused Azerbaijan of attacks on civilian settlements in the disputed region.             “Our response will be proportionate, and the military-political leadership of Azerbaijan bears full responsibility for the situation,” the Armenian Defense Ministry said in a statement.              The ministry also said its troops shot down two Azerbaijani military helicopters and three drones after Baku’s forces began bombing the breakaway enclave, including its capital, Stepanakert.               Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry said it had launched a military operation along the “Line of Contact” between the two countries, “to suppress Armenia’s combat activity and ensure the safety of the population.”       The ministry confirmed the downing of only one Azerbaijani helicopter and said its crew had survived.     Armenian separatists seized Nagorno-Karabakh from Azerbaijan in a bloody war in the 1990s that killed an estimated 30,000 people.       Talks to resolve the conflict have been halted since a 1994 cease-fire agreement among Armenia, Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh.     Peace efforts in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, mediated by the Minsk Group, collapsed in 2010.  
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