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For the first time in its 75-year history, leaders of the United Nations’ 193 member states will deliver their annual speeches on the opening day of the world body’s General Assembly on videotape instead of in person due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  Tuesday’s session will commence with a pre-taped message from Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, in keeping with a decades-long tradition first established in the 1940s,   followed by U.S. President Donald Trump, as leader of the U.N. host country.  Other prominent world leaders whose pre-recorded messages will be shown Tuesday will be Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, China’s Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin of Russia and France’s Emmanuel Macron.   The only attendees in the cavernous General Assembly Hall to watch the videotaped speeches will be a single masked envoy representing each member nation, plus the European Union, the Holy See and the non-member Observer State of Palestine, in order to maintain social distancing.  Hand sanitizer stations have been placed in the side aisles of the Hall and delegates will be obliged to wear face coverings, but not to undergo temperature checks.   The U.N. marked its 75th anniversary Monday amid the grip of the global coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 960,000 people and sickened more than 31.2 million globally, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Coronavirus Resource Center.      “The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare the world’s fragilities. We can only address them together,” Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said, referencing the disease caused by the coronavirus. “Today, we have a surplus of multilateral challenges and a deficit of multilateral solutions.”WATCH: UN 75th AnniversarySorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
A member of the Irish delegation works on his computer in the main lobby of the United Nations headquarters, Sept. 21, 2020. In 2020, which marks the 75th anniversary of the United Nations.But the Trump administration has been critical of the world body, withdrawing funding and cooperation from several of its agencies, including the World Health Organization and the Human Rights Council.  Chalet said the organization has for too long been resistant to real reform and lacks transparency.    “The 75th anniversary of the U.N. is the right time to ask questions about the institution’s strengths and weaknesses, review and learn from its failures, and celebrate its accomplishments,” she said.   The United Nations is using its anniversary year as a moment for reflection. More than one million people in 80 countries have provided feedback to a global survey about the organization and its work.   Nearly 90% said global cooperation is crucial to deal with today’s challenges, and that the pandemic has made international cooperation more urgent. Nearly three-quarters said the U.N. is “essential” for tackling global challenges, but they also want the organization to change and innovate.   The General Assembly adopted a declaration for the anniversary, which in part, says, “There is no other global organization with the legitimacy, convening power and normative impact of the United Nations. No other global organization gives hope to so many people.” 
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The United Nations marked the 75th anniversary of its founding on Monday, amid a global pandemic and other serious challenges that the U.N. secretary-general said highlight the urgency for stronger international cooperation. VOA U.N. Correspondent Margaret Besheer has more.Produced by: Jesusemen Oni   
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Britain’s health minister went before parliament Monday to discuss the government’s response to a surge in positive COVID-19 cases in the nation.Matt Hancock acknowledged what the government’s top medical and science advisers had said earlier in the day – that COVID-19 has been surging across age groups throughout much of Britain.Among the steps the government plans to take, Hancock said, is encouraging self-isolation by those who have been infected or exposed to the virus. The government will also offer a single support payment of about $640 for low-income people for whom self-isolation would be an economic hardship.A woman wears a face mask as she stands in front of a statue of The Beatles following the outbreak of the coronavirus disease in Liverpool, Britain, Sept. 21, 2020.Hancock said those asked to self-isolate who refuse to do so could face fines of nearly $13,000 for serious breaches or repeat offenders.The health minister told British lawmakers that demand for testing has dropped slightly since last week, taking a little pressure off the system. Nonetheless, the demand for tests remains high enough that the government must prioritize who receives them.Hancock said acute care cases are the top priority for testing, followed by people in care homes, National Health Service targeted testing for outbreak management and surveillance studies, teaching staff with symptoms, and the general public.He said the government continues working on further measures to address the COVID-19 surge, and the prime minister will update parliament Tuesday on further measures.Earlier Monday, the government’s chief medical adviser reported the latest figures show new cases in Britain totaled more than 6,000 per day. Chris Witty said if nothing changes, at the current rate of infection, new cases could reach 50,000 a day by this time next month. 
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Turkey is embarking on a major naval construction program to restore the regional maritime influence it lost after the Ottoman empire’s collapse. But the policy is already generating regional tensions – in particular – with its neighbor, Greece. Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul.
Camera: Berke Bas    Producer: Jon Spier
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Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny demanded Monday that Russia return the clothes he was wearing when he fell ill last month, saying the items are important evidence in the investigation of his poisoning.Navalny became sick while flying to Moscow on Aug. 20 and was taken to a hospital in Omsk. He wrote in his blog Monday that before being sent to Germany for treatment two days later, his clothes were taken from him.”Considering Novichok was found on my body, and that infection through contact is very likely, my clothes are a very important piece of evidence,” he said.A German military lab determined Navalny was poisoned with the nerve agent Novichok, a substance Western governments have accused Russia of using in the past, including against a former spy in Britain in 2018.Russia has not opened an investigation into the incident involving Navalny, saying its labs have found no indications he was poisoned. The Kremlin has also denied any involvement.Russian dissident Alexei Navalny, not seen in photo, on a stretcher is transferred into an ambulance before being driven to an airport, at the Omsk Ambulance Hospital, in Omsk, Russia, Aug. 22, 2020.Germany has threatened economic sanctions against Russia in response to what Foreign Minister Heiko Maas called a “serious crime,” while British Prime Minister Boris Johnson called the use of a chemical agent “outrageous.”The Trump administration has said it is working with allies “to hold those in Russia accountable.”Doctors in Germany put Navalny under an induced coma for more than a week as part of his treatment. After waking up, Navalny has reported his condition improving, including regaining more of his mental and physical abilities.Navalny has been a frequent critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin and worked on anti-corruption efforts in Russia. He has been jailed numerous times on charges that he and his supporters said were politically motivated. 
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Western European states are scrambling to curb a second coronavirus wave of infections by re-imposing pandemic restrictions lifted just weeks or months ago. But their governments say they are determined to avoid further stressing their stricken economics by re-introducing national lockdowns.  The big question is whether this will be possible. From Britain, which has banned social gatherings of more than six and is threatening punitive fines for transgressors, to Spain, where Madrid is now under lockdown, authorities are struggling to contain alarming second-wave surges while keeping schools open and encouraging people still to head to work.  A woman holds a sign reading ‘Public school: sustainable, free, active, in defense of children” as teachers and students take part in a protest calling for a ‘safe education’ in Malaga, Spain, Sept. 18, 2020.Officials in European capitals say it will ultimately be in the hands of public, if lockdowns are necessary. They hope better adherence to social distancing rules and more conscientious mask-wearing will help reverse infection surges — or at least slow them.  “If we want to avoid national measures and more action we can, but we can only do that if everybody follows the rules,” Britain’s health minister Matt Hancock said.  A national lockdown could be prevented if the “significant minority” of rule-breakers changed behavior. He urged people to report anyone breaching isolation orders or the rule of six, warning police would “come down hard on people who do the wrong thing.”  The snitching appeal has prompted an outcry from some quarters with critics saying it would turn Britain into a nation of score-settling busybodies. In Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon, the first minister of the devolved government, said last week, “No-one wants to see another full-scale lockdown. And above all we want to keep schools and childcare open because we know how important that is to the education and to the broader wellbeing of children and young people.”  But she added: “The bottom line here is this virus is on the rise again. Cases are rising quite rapidly.” The government’s chief scientific adviser, Patrick Vallance, said at a Downing Street news conference Monday that Britain was fast approaching a tipping point, warning that without tough measures the country could be seeing 50,000 new cases a day.  Customers eat sunday lunches at tables outside restaurants in Soho, in London. Sept. 20, 2020.England’s chief medical officer, Christopher Whitty outlined the dilemma the British government is facing, much as European neighbors. “If we do too little this virus will get out of control. If we go too far it will impact and damage the economy.” He urged everyone to observe the regulations just a day after thousands ignored the rules and crowded the seaside resort town of Blackpool. “You cannot in an epidemic just take your own risk, unfortunately you are taking a risk on behalf of everybody else, it’s important we see this as something we do collectively,” Whitty said. New infection highs  Britain is seeing daily infections rise to four-month highs, and cases might be doubling every day, according to health officials. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is due to make a nationwide television address Tuesday to announce a further tightening of restrictions on ordinary life. The British government is set to introduce fines of up to $13,000 for people who breach self-isolation rules.  Commuters walk across the London Bridge during the morning rush hour, in London, Britain, Sept. 21, 2020.The government’s scientific advisers have been advising Johnson to act more quickly than he did in March and have been urging an immediate two-week “circuit breaker” of a national lockdown just to help interrupt the pandemic and reduce hospital admissions.  But Johnson has come under pressure from finance ministers and business to ignore the circuit-breaker idea. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, reportedly has warned Johnson that a further national shutdown of the hospitality and leisure industry would be devastating to the economy.FILE – A sign promoting social distancing is hung on a post near the Crown and Anchor pub following a spike in cases of COVID-19 to visitors of the pub in Stone, Britain, July 30, 2020.Pub and restaurant owners say the hospitality industry is now in existential crisis, with almost a million jobs at risk. A nighttime curfew aimed at discouraging partying is among the options Johnson is considering, a Downing Street official confirmed to VOA.  Opponents of stringent new measures include much of the British press. Most newspapers say the country cannot afford a second national lockdown.“The one thing that we cannot afford to do is to shut up shop again,” according to the influential newspaper The Times. It says targeted measures have an important role to play. “When the government introduced national restrictions in March, it did not have a system in place for dealing with smaller flare-ups. Now that it does, it should do as much as it can locally and regionally,” the paper concluded. But a simultaneous series of regional lockdowns could soon mean the country is itself locked down in all but name, say some commentators. More than ten million people are under lockdowns in parts of northern England already — and London might have to be put under a lockdown within days or weeks, according to the city’s mayor Sadiq Khan. France French officials, too, are struggling with how to balance public health needs without further crippling the country’s damaged economy.People eat lunch at a deserted Le Petit Chatelet restaurant in the Quartier Latin as the country battles to contain the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) while ensuring that economic and social activities can continue, in Paris, Sept. 18, 2020.A regional and local approach is also being adopted. In Nice, officials have banned gatherings of more than 10 people in public spaces and reduced opening hours for bars. New restrictions have also been imposed in the cities of Bordeaux and Marseilles.  A woman wearing a protective face mask walks past a sign showing the area where wearing a protective mask is mandatory, in Bordeaux, southwestern France, Sept. 16, 2020.France reported 13,498 new confirmed COVID-19 cases Saturday, setting another record in daily additional infections since the start of the epidemic in March. The new cases pushed the cumulative total to 442,194 as the seven-day moving average of daily new infections rose to more than 9,700, compared with a low of 272 at the end of May, two weeks after the lockdown was lifted. As with most of their western European counterparts, French officials say a sharp increase in the number of tests being conducted is partly behind the surge in numbers, but they add the virus is circulating much faster, too.  FILE – Municipal police officers wearing face masks talk to a woman, at the Promenade des Anglais, as they check that safety restrictions are being practiced, after France reopened its beaches to the public in Nice, May 22, 2020.Most of the recent surge was seen among younger people but the spikes are now being seen among the middle-aged and elderly — a pattern France’s neighbors are seeing. Hope  Some officials are hopeful the second wave of the coronavirus is likely to be less deadly as the first. Treatments have been refined and there is more understanding of COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus. People are more wary, despite rule-breakers, and the elderly are aware they need to shield at home. Governments in most western European states are also now more vigilant about nursing homes and have been increasing testing in them. Some infectious disease experts argue mutant strains are more contagious, but causing less serious illnesses. The chief of a French research hospital, microbiologist Didier Raoult, the director of IHU Méditerranée Infection in Marseilles, told French senators last week: “They are less severe, so something is happening with this virus, which makes it different. The mutations we have a rather degraded version of the initial form. At least that is our impression.” FILE – French medicine professor Didier Raoult wears a disposable face mask as he stands before a Senate commission on the management of the COVID19 pandemic by French State institutions on Sept. 5, 2020 in Paris.Other infectious disease experts disagree with Raoult, who was immersed in controversy earlier this year when he claimed hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malaria drug, could be used to cure COVID-19.  He was widely criticized for insisting that a small trial he conducted of the drug proved its effectiveness.  Raoult is not alone in arguing the coronavirus has changed and is less deadly. The Italian doctor who oversaw the treatment of former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi during his recent hospitalization in Milan for COVID-19 has also expressed a similar view about the changing nature and less aggressive of the virus. But Italy’s public health officials say there’s little supporting evidence to show that is the case. German officials are watching nervously the pandemic developments unfolding in neighboring countries. Germany has seen a rise in cases, recording 2,297 new infections of coronavirus on Saturday, according to the Robert Koch Institute, the country’s disease control and prevention agency. That’s the highest number of new daily infections since the end of April. FILE – A protestor with a social distancing barrier, takes part in a demonstration against COVID-19 measures, in Berlin, Sept. 1, 20202. Sign reads ‘Corona Hygiene Concept for everyday life.’But the surge is not on the same scale as other Western European countries. German Health Minister Jens Spahn said Monday that Germany will sooner or later see imported cases from Spain, Austria and the Netherlands. Countries like Spain have infection dynamics that are out of control, Spahn told public broadcaster Deutschlandfunk.  
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Foreign ministers of European Union member countries met with Belarus opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya in Brussels Monday, as they are discussing imposing sanctions on several Belarus officials, possibly including President Alexander Lukashenko. Tikhanovskaya urged the EU to “be more brave” in taking action to support the opposition’s battle against Lukashenko’s authoritarian regime.   Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya speaks during a news conference with European Parliament President David Sassoli (not pictured), in Brussels, Belgium, Sept. 21, 2020.Speaking to reporters after the breakfast meeting with Tsikhanouskaya., EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said “she gave us an account of the events in Belarus”  and “we are really impressed by the courage and perseverance of the Belarusian people, especially Belarusian women who show a real sense of leadership.” Borrell said Brussels does not recognize Lukashenko as the legitimate president of Belarus. “Let me stress that we will support inclusive national dialogue and the rights of Belarusian people for free and fair elections, and this cannot be regarded as an interference in internal affairs because democracy and human rights are at the core of the identity of the European Union,” he said. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, whose country holds the EU’s rotating presidency, said “the violence that Lukashenko is exerting against peaceful demonstrators is completely unacceptable.” ” So we will have to discuss today the question of whether it shouldn’t be just those who participated in election rigging and those who participated in abuse on the spot [who] face European Union sanctions,” he said. “We must also ask ourselves the question of whether Mr. Lukashenko, the one who bears the main responsibility, mustn’t also be sanctioned by the European Union.” FILE – Opposition supporters take part in a rally against police brutality following protests to reject the presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus, Sept. 13, 2020. (Tut.By via Reuters)Demonstrations against Lukashenko have continued almost uninterrupted since he was declared the winner of the disputed August 9 election. Lukashenko has used force and detentions in an effort to end them. 
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