Greta Thunberg joins others in socially distanced global climate protests

Inappropriate conduct with a woman during a virtual session of congress has resulted in a suspension for an Argentinian lawmaker. The lawmaker appeared on camera touching his wife while she sat on his lap during the session. The lawmaker, Juan Emilio Ameri, oblivious that he was still connected to the call, was seen pulling down the shirt of his wife. The session was interrupted as a result.

One of the rules Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced to stop a resurgence of coronavirus in Britain makes it mandatory for passengers to wear masks while traveling in licensed vehicles. But the PM’s office said risk of infection for a chauffeur driving a single employee can’t be compared to a taxi driver carrying multiple passengers throughout the day, implying masks aren’t compulsory for them.

Vietnamese police are investigating a factory that was found recycling used condoms for resale. Following a tip, Binh Duong provincial market inspectors raided the factory near Ho Chi Minh City. Over 300K used condoms were found, being repacked for sale. The owner of the factory confessed that they bought the used condoms from a man in the province. The condoms were washed, reshaped and packed.

Germany has dismissed the head of its military counterintelligence service amid a sweeping probe into hundreds of soldiers for suspected links to far-right extremism. Christof Gramm, who has led the agency since 2015, will remit office in October. During Gramm’s tenure as the agency’s boss, the number of cases of neo-Nazis inside the military, some hoarding weapons, had multiplied alarmingly.

Sir Harold Evans, a publisher and author, has died. He was 92. His wife, author-publisher Tina Brown, said Evans died Wednesday in New York of congestive heart failure. Evans started off in the 1960s as an editor of the Northern Echo and the Sunday Times of London and continued into the 1990s as president of Random House. He was knighted in 2004 for his contributions to journalism.

Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong was arrested Thursday in relation to a 2019 protest at the height of the city’s pro-democracy unrest. ’He is told to have violated the draconian anti-mask law, which was earlier ruled partially unconstitutional by the court of appeal’, a post on Wong’s official social media accounts said. Wong was released on bail a few hours later.

China has banned entry to two Australian scholars on back of rising tensions between them. The Global Times reported that decision to block Clive Hamilton & Alex Joske comes amid Australia’s cancellation of visas of two Chinese scholars over suspected infiltration in early Sept. China’s foreign ministry said that it has the right to ban any foreign national and blamed Australia for the problems.

Russia froze the assets of poisoned opposition leader Aleksei A Navalny, a spokeswoman for Navalny said. She said the assets were frozen at the behest of a Kremlin-allied businessman known as ’Putin’s chef.’ Navalny was poisoned last month with a Soviet-era nerve agent while traveling in a plane. He is currently undergoing treatment at a Berlin hospital where he is said to be recovering.

China’s network of detention centers in Xinjiang is much bigger than previously thought, research presented by an Australian think tank said. The Australian Strategic Policy Institute said it had identified more than 380 ’suspected detention facilities’. The institute said 14 more facilities were under construction in 2020. The number of facilities is 40% greater than previous estimates.

Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu, the head of the Vatican’s saint-making office, has resigned suddenly. Although he was caught up in a real estate scandal, his resignation was totally unexpected. The Roman Catholic Church released a statement saying Becciu, 72, had ’given up the rights associated with being a cardinal.’ One of the rights include electing a pope after the incumbent dies or resigns.

The EU’s commissioner for health, Stella Kyriakides said that we are at a decisive moment. With winter forthcoming she warned of the risk of a potentially lethal twindemic of COVID-19 and flu and urged govts to encourage people to get seasonal flu vaccines and adhere to social distancing measures to reduce Covid-19 transmission. She urged citizen and their governments not to let their guard down.

More than 13,000 people have tested positive for COVID-19 in France in a single day for the third time in just six days. The public has been warned that the virus still remains as dangerous as ever and that the situation continues to deteriorate as the country seems to be on the onset of a second spike of cases. More than a 1,000 patients are currently being treated in the ICU due to the disease.

South Korea’s defense ministry said a fisheries department official of the country, who went missing while on his patrol boat about 6 miles from the border, has been killed by North’s soldiers. The ministry said North Korean soldiers shot him dead, poured oil over his body and set it alight. It said the man was interrogated before a senior North Korean official before being ordered to be executed.

Switzerland has quarantined the entire undergraduate body of one of its premier hospitality management schools, following a COVID-19 outbreak linked to one or more parties. All 2,500 undergraduate students at the Ecole Hoteliere de Lausanne are required to remain in their housing until Sep 28. That followed a number of major outbreaks among the student body.

Sanctions are being prepared by Britain against those responsible for rigging the elections in Belarus that were held on the 9th of August. Along with this, sanctions are also being prepared for the crackdown on the protests that happened subsequently against the President Alexander Lukashenko. Sanctions are being initiated by UK in coordination with Canada and the United States.

Australian officials said at least 380 whales have died after becoming stranded in an inlet off the coast of Tasmania. They fear many more would die. The whales, thought to be pilot whales, are stranded in an inlet near the remote town of Strahan. Rescuers are fighting against time to save the survivors, which number in the hundreds. This is the largest-ever mass stranding of whales in Australia.

Westpac, one of Australia’s biggest banks, has agreed to pay a fine of 1.3 billion Australian dollars (US $920 million) for allowing money laundering on its watch. As a part of the deal with AUSTRAC, the country’s regulator that fights financial crime, Westpac also admitted that it broke anti-money laundering and terrorism financing laws more than 23 million times.

Israel has announced its second lockdown after Covid-19 cases in the country soared this week. The new rules will be imposed from Friday onwards, which includes shutting down of businesses and workplaces, ban on gatherings of more than 20 people outdoors, etc. An exception has been made for Sunday’s Yom Kippur, in which a limited number of worshipers will be allowed to pray inside synagogues.

Covid sniffing dogs have been deployed at the Helsinki Airport by Finland. This method is being used as an alternative testing method and could prove to be cost friendly and also help in quick identification of positive travelers. As part of the government financed program, four dogs of different breeds have been deployed. The dogs have been trained by the Smell Detection Association in Finland.

India and China said they would refrain from sending more troops to the disputed border in eastern Ladakh. Thousands of troops from both the countries are in a tense stand-off at the de facto border, also known as the line of actual control (LAC), in the Himalayan cold desert. In June, a fatal brawl between the two armies left 20 Indian soldiers and an unspecified number Chinese soldiers dead.

John Murton, Britain’s top diplomat for climate summit COP26, told Sky News that Chinese President Xi Jinping’s pledge at the United Nations General Assembly that his country will go carbon neutral by 2060 may save the world from heading towards a climate catastrophe, if the country keeps good its promise. Murton welcomed Xi’s vow and said it could encourage other nations to make similar targets.

Paris police have blockaded the area around the Eiffel Tower after a bomb threat. Police cars surrounded the area around the tower and the bridge stretching across the Seine River to Trocadero Plaza. Two cops said the operation was the result of a phone-in bomb threat.

Alexei Navalny has been discharged from the hospital in Berlin where he has been treated after falling ill following Novichok poisoning. The hospital said it was ending Navalny’s acute medical care because his condition had sufficiently improved. Navalny spent 24 days in intensive care. The hospital added that ’it remains too early to gauge the potential long-term effects of his severe poisoning’.

Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, whose re-election caused massive unrest last month for weeks, has been inducted for a sixth term in a secret ceremony. State media updated that several people attended the ceremony at the Palace of Independence in central Minsk. Streets were cordoned off as Lukashenko’s parade raced through the city.