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Scotland First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has called on a lawmaker from her own ruling Scottish National Party to resign after she traveled by train following a positive test for COVID-19. Westminster Member of Parliament Margaret Ferrier was suspended Thursday by her party after breaking self-isolation rules to attend Parliament in London while awaiting results of a coronavirus test, which later came back positive. After experiencing symptoms consistent with COVID-19, the 60-year-old lawmaker sought out testing on Saturday, and then traveled from Glasgow to London on Monday because she was “feeling much better.” She received the positive results later that evening, just hours after speaking for four minutes during a coronavirus debate in the Commons chamber. Ferrier returned to Scotland by train Tuesday morning despite the positive test results. It is mandatory for people in Britain to self-isolate if they test positive for the coronavirus, with fines of 1,000 pounds for those who violate the rule. Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon speaks during the Scottish government’s daily briefing on the coronavirus outbreak, at St. Andrew’s House, Edinburgh, in this handout picture released by the Scottish Government on Oct. 2, 2020.From her Twitter account Friday, the first minister said, “I’ve spoken to Margaret Ferrier and made clear my view that she should step down as an MP. I did so with a heavy heart—she is a friend & colleague—but her actions were dangerous & indefensible. I have no power to force an MP to resign but I hope she will do the right thing.”Ferrier apologized for her actions via Twitter on Thursday, saying there was no excuse. “Despite feeling well, I should have self-isolated and waited for my test, and I deeply regret my actions.” Ferrier said she took full responsibility and urges everyone not to make the same mistakes she has. She also said she notified the police and the House of Commons regarding her actions. There has been no reaction regarding Sturgeon’s call for her to resign. 
 
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French President Emmanuel Macron Friday called Islam “a religion that is in crisis all over the world,” in a speech addressing what he calls “separatism” in France’s Islamic community.
 
In remarks delivered in the western Paris suburb of Les Mureaux, Macron said Islam is a religion in deep crisis worldwide, even in countries where it is the majority religion, because of “tensions between fundamentalism and political projects … that lead to very strong radicalization.”
 
The French president said in France there is a “parallel society” of radical Muslims thriving outside the values of the nation, a “separatism” as he describes it, that thrives in some neighborhoods around the country, where Muslims with a radical vision of their religion take control of the local population to inculcate their beliefs.
 
But Macron said everyone can share in the blame for this so-called separatism.
 
“We ourselves have built our own separatism, that of our neighborhoods. This is the ghettoization that our republic, initially with the best intentions in the world, allowed to take place,” said the French leader Friday.He noted France’s concentration of populations into districts according to their origins, which has also concentrated educational and economic difficulties as well.
 
Macron said where French secular society failed Islamic youth, radicals stepped in.
 
The French president said the government will offer legislation in December to “reinforce secularism and consolidate republican principles.”Macron to Outline France’s Controversial Anti-Separatism BillFrance’s Muslim community – Europe’s largest – worries new law could deepen anti-Islamic sentimentsHe called secularism “the cement of a united France,” and added: “Let us not fall into the trap laid by … extremists, who aim to stigmatize all Muslims.”
 
During his speech, Macron repeatedly stressed the importance of schools in instilling secular values in young people and said that the government would require private schools to agree to teach them. Beginning next year, with few exceptions, the 50,000 French children who are currently educated at home would be required to attend school with fellow students, he said.
 
The bill would include additional education funding as well.
 
The remarks come as a trial is underway in Paris over the deadly January 2015 attacks on satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo and a kosher supermarket by French-born Islamic extremists. Last week, a man from Pakistan stabbed two people near Charlie Hebdo’s former offices in anger over its publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad. 
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President Donald Trump has tested positive  for the coronavirus, joining a small group of world leaders who have been infected. Trump is 74, putting him at higher risk of serious complications. Here’s a look at other leaders who have had the virus. Some are sending Trump their wishes for a speedy recovery.Boris Johnson
The British prime minister was the first major world leader confirmed to have COVID-19, after facing criticism for downplaying the pandemic. He was moved to intensive care in April after his symptoms dramatically worsened a day after he was hospitalized for what were called routine tests. He was given oxygen but did not need a ventilator, officials said. He later expressed his gratitude to National Health Service staff for saving his life when his treatment could have “gone either way.” Prince Charles, the heir to the British throne, also tested positive in March and showed mild symptoms.Jair Bolsonaro
The Brazilian president announced his illness in July and used it to publicly extol hydroxychloroquine, the unproven malaria drug that he’d been promoting as a treatment for COVID-19 and was taking himself. For months he had flirted with the virus, calling it a “little flu,” as he flouted social distancing at lively demonstrations and encouraged crowds during outings from the presidential residence, often without a mask.  Juan Orlando Hernandez
The Honduras president announced in June that he had tested positive, along with two other people who worked closely with him. Hernández said he had started what he called the “MAIZ treatment,” an experimental and unproven combination of microdacyn, azithromycin, ivermectin and zinc. He was briefly hospitalized and released. He has added his voice to growing pleas for equitable access to any COVID-19 vaccine, asking the recent U.N. gathering of world leaders, “Are people to be left to die?”  Alexander Lukashenko
The president of Belarus, who dismissed concerns about the virus as “psychosis” and recommended drinking vodka to stay healthy, said in July he had contracted it himself but was asymptomatic. Belarus is one of the few countries that took no comprehensive measures against the virus. Other top officials in former Soviet states who were infected include Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin.Prince Albert ii of Monaco
The palace of Monaco in March said the ruler of the tiny Mediterranean principality tested positive but his health was not worrying. He was the first head of state who publicly said he was infected.Alejandra Giammattei
The Guatemalan president said he tested positive for the virus in September. “My symptoms are very mild. Up to now, I have body aches, it hurt more yesterday than today, like a bad cold,” he said during a televised address. “I don’t have a fever, I have a bit of a cough.” He said he’d be working from home.Jeanine Anez
The virus drove the Bolivian interim president into isolation in July, but she said she was feeling well.  Juis Abinader
The newly elected president of the Dominican Republic contracted and recovered from COVID-19 during his campaign. He spent weeks in isolation before the country’s July election.Iran
Iran, the epicenter of the Mideast’s initial coronavirus outbreak, has seen several top officials test positive. Among them are senior Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri and Vice President Massoumeh Ebtekar. Cabinet members have tested positive, too.  India  
Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu, 71, recently tested positive but his office said he had no symptoms and was quarantined at home. Home Minister Amit Shah, the No. 2 man in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, was hospitalized for COVID-19 last month and has recovered. Junior Railways Minister Suresh Angadi last week was the first federal minister to die from COVID-19.Israel
Israel’s then-Health Minister Yaakov Litzman tested positive in April and recovered. Litzman is a leader in Israel’s ultra-Orthodox community, which has seen a high rate of infection as many have defied restrictions on religious gatherings. The minister for Jerusalem affairs, Rafi Peretz, tested positive over the summer as cases surged nationwide and recovered.South Africa
The country’s defense minister, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, mineral resources and energy minister, Gwede Mantashe, and labor minister, Thulas Nxesi, were infected as cases surged in June and July.South Sudan
Vice President Riek Machar was among several Cabinet ministers infected.Gambia
Vice President Isatou Touray tested positive in July along with the ministers of finance, energy and agriculture.  Guinea-Bissau
Prime Minister Nuno Gomes Nabiam in April said he tested positive.
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Since Sunday, Armenian and Azerbaijan forces have been fighting over the disputed Caucasus’ Nagorno Karabakh enclave. With the fighting escalating, the support for Azerbaijan by Turkey, a NATO member, is drawing growing international scrutiny and criticism. Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul.
Camera: Berke Bas    Producer: Jason Godman
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A British judge will deliver a decision January 4 on whether to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the United States to face charges, including espionage.District Judge Vanessa Baraitser made the announcement at London’s Old Bailey Court after nearly four weeks of hearings.The U.S. has requested extradition of Australian-born Assange on 17 espionage charges and one charge of misusing computers in connection with Wikileaks’ 2010 and 2011 publication of thousands of confidential U.S. cables, mainly relating to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.A group of protesters gathered in front of the court in support of Assange.After the court adjourned, Stella Moris, Assange’s fiancée and the mother of his two young children, called for his release.”Julian is a publisher,” she said. “Julian is also a son, he’s a friend. He’s my fiancé and a father. Our children need their father, Julian needs his freedom, and our democracy needs a free press. Thank you.”Kristinn Hrafnsson, a Wikileaks editor, said extradition would mean ”darkness for us all.””After all these four weeks, we should be in no doubt that there is only one thing that has to happen as an outcome of these proceedings,” Hrafnsson said. “If Julian Assange is extradited it will mean darkness for us all. It cannot happen. We must take a stand. There can only be one outcome: no extradition.”Assange’s lawyers, fighting the U.S. extradition request, say the charges were politically motivated and that his mental health is at risk, arguing that U.S. prison conditions breach Britain’s human rights laws, adding that Assange and his lawyers were surveilled while he was in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.Lawyers representing the United States said that many of those arguments related to issues to be addressed in a trial and have no bearing on extradition.
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EU leaders overcame a diplomatic stalemate Friday to agree on sanctions on Belarus after a long evening of summit talks, assuring Cyprus the bloc would stand firm on Turkey for its oil and gas drilling in the Mediterranean.The agreement to sanction some 40 Belarus officials accused of rigging an Aug. 9 presidential election allows the EU to make good on its promise to support pro-democracy protesters in Minsk and regain some credibility after weeks of delays.”We have unblocked sanctions on Belarus,” a senior EU official told Reuters.Another EU diplomat said: “It’s a decent compromise,” but gave no details.The EU’s chairman and chief executive were to give a news conference in the early hours of Friday.While Britain and Canada have imposed sanctions on Minsk to show support for pro-democracy demonstrations there, the impasse in the 27-nation EU, where decisions are taken by unanimity, has cost the bloc credibility, diplomats say.Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades, on the day of his island’s 60th anniversary of independence from Britain, had demanded a much tougher stance on Turkey as the price for supporting Belarus sanctions.He said the EU must send a message that Ankara’s oil and gas exploration along the coast of the Mediterranean island is unacceptable.Germany pushed back against the imposition of EU sanctions on Turkey, fearing it would disrupt efforts to cool tensions with Greece.Turkey, both a candidate to join the EU and a member of NATO, has slid toward authoritarianism under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan but remains a strategically located partner that the EU cannot ignore.In a sign that the diplomatic stand-off is easing at least between Athens and Ankara, NATO announced on Thursday that the two alliance members had set up a “military de-confliction mechanism” to avoid accidental clashes at sea. 
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Britain’s primary environmental agency announced that beginning Thursday a ban on all “single-use” beverage straws is in effect, making it illegal for businesses to sell or supply them to individual customers.
 
The ban was passed and set to take effect in April, but the COVID-19 pandemic prompted law makers to postpone its implementation so as to not impose a further burden on businesses.
 
A statement Thursday from Britain’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural affairs says the ban includes plastic straws, stirrers and cotton swabs.
 
In a statement on its official web site, the agency says it is estimated Britain uses 4.7 billion plastic straws, 316 million plastic stirrers, and 1.8 billion plastic-stemmed cotton swabs annually, many of which find their way into the ocean.
 
In the statement, Britain’s Environment Secretary George Eustice said single-use plastics cause “real devastation to the environment” and the government is firmly committed to tackling the issue.
 
He said the ban on straws, stirrers and cotton swabs is just the next step in “our battle against plastic pollution and our pledge to protect our ocean and the environment for future generations.”
 
Exemptions to the ban include disabled persons or those who need them for medical purposes. Some catering businesses also will be allowed to use plastic straws or stirrers in certain circumstances, and businesses may sell some of the banned items to other businesses. 
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Millions of Madrileños were preparing to go into lockdown once again Thursday as authorities in Western Europe’s worst hotspot shut down the Spanish capital to try to halt a new surge in COVID-19 cases. The Spanish government gave regional authorities 48 hours to comply with new restrictions which will affect this city of more than 3 million people and nine surrounding communities.  Isabel Díaz Ayuso, the head of Madrid’s city government, said regional authorities will abide by the order but will challenge the Spanish government in the courts, widening a rift between her conservative regional administration and the minority left-wing coalition central government. Other regions such as Catalonia, Andalusia and Galicia have also opposed the new restrictions. Madrid authorities say the lockdown will damage the economy of the Spanish capital which thrives on its bars, restaurants and — in normal times — tourists. A waiter wearing a protective face mask waits for customers in his terrace at Plaza Mayor square amid the outbreak of the coronavirus disease, in Madrid, Spain, Oct. 1, 2020.The dispute has been widely criticized by health workers and epidemiologists who say the bickering has hindered attempts to save lives in Europe’s worst-hit city. Spain, with the highest infection rate in the European Union, has reported 300 coronavirus cases per 100,000 inhabitants during the past two weeks. Madrid, where over a third of all Spain’s cases have been recorded, reported 735 cases per 100,000 people. By Thursday, Spain had recorded 769,188 cases — the highest in Western Europe — and 31,791 deaths. Efforts wane As the pressure on the city’s hospitals and health centers has mounted, doctors said authorities have given up its track and trace program. “They have left us to our own fate,” Angela Hernández, vice president of the Madrid Doctors Association, told VOA. She said track and trace teams in Madrid have stopped trying to reach people who have tested positive for COVID-19, including school children and any family or friends. “With no track and tracing, it means this can only get worse even if they close down the city,” said Hernández. “The politicians should have used this moment to help the public regardless of political differences. … Instead, they just want to perpetuate their own positions.” People queue for a rapid antigen test for COVID-19 in the southern neighborhood of Vallecas in Madrid, Spain, Oct. 1, 2020.The new curbs will apply to Madrid, with a population of over 3 million, and nine surrounding municipalities with populations of at least 100,000 each. Borders will be closed to outsiders for non-essential visits, with only those traveling for work, school or medical visits allowed to cross. Bars and restaurants will be subject to a curfew between 11 p.m. and 1 a.m. Residents will not have to stay at home, as happened during the state of emergency in March, but can move around their own areas. Protests  Ayuso agreed to abide by the lockdown order but said the battle was not over. “Madrid is not in rebellion. We will obey them but we will go to court to oppose them. This plan destroys Madrid,” she said. A partial lockdown has already been imposed in many of the poorer areas of Madrid with high infection rates, prompting demonstrations. Protesters said they felt marginalized by the conservative authorities who were putting jobs at risk. “It is OK for me to travel to Salamanca to serve at the tables of the rich, but they put restrictions on my area where I live,” said Gema Ordoñez, a waitress who works at a cafe in one of the most exclusive areas of Madrid and lives in Vallecas, an area placed under partial lockdown. “Many people where I live do not have jobs with contracts. If they have to stay at home because someone has tested positive for the virus, they will lose their jobs.” A man wearing a face mask to prevent the spread of the coronavirus walks in the southern neighborhood of Vallecas in Madrid, Spain, Oct. 1, 2020.Rafael Bengoa, a former World Health Organization director and one-time adviser to U.S. President Barack Obama, said shutting down Madrid was the only option. “Imposing partial lockdowns does not work. There is community transmission so it means a total lockdown must happen,” he told VOA. Echoes of a bitter past The bitter political fighting evokes dark memories and raises alarms in a nation that has yet to fully heal from a 1936-1939 civil war between forces on the left and right that resulted in the deaths of an estimated half-million people.  Jason Webster, the author of Violencia which tells the history of Spain’s violent past, said: “Sadly, what’s happening now in Madrid — the petty point-scoring, politicians caring more about damaging their opponents than actually serving the people who elected them — is nothing new.  “People are used to it, but the damage lingers and festers until seemingly out of nowhere there comes an explosion. Only time will tell whether that will happen again.” 
 
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Efforts to rein in a potential nuclear arms race and the weaponization of outer space will be high on the United States agenda at an upcoming United Nations disarmament meeting.  A hybrid meeting of the U.N. General Assembly First Committee, which deals with disarmament issues, will be held as part of the UNGA session in New York between October 6 and November 6.  
 
Over the last 10 years, the United States reportedly has been trying to lessen the need for nuclear weapons as part of its strategic doctrine.    
 
U.S. Ambassador to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, Robert Wood, says these efforts have not been matched by Russia and China.  If this continues, he said, the U.S. will have to confront and respond to these two giant hegemonic, authoritarian powers.
    
“One of the things we are trying to do is to bring not only Russia to the table, but also China—to have a tri-lateral arms negotiation, to deal with not only strategic nuclear weapons, but non-strategic nuclear weapons, new systems that Russia is developing, because we think this is the direction we are going in the future,” he said.
    
Wood said both Russia and China are boosting their nuclear capabilities, and the United States will have to respond to that.  He said China, which is the third largest nuclear power in the world, is expected to double its program over the next decade.  
 
The U.S. ambassador said another area of concern is the potential weaponization of outer space and cyberspace by Russia and China.  He said both governments have submitted a draft treaty to the Conference on Disarmament to ban weapons in outer space.  He said that Washington opposes the so-called Prevention of the Placement of Weapons in Outer Space, or PPWT, because it is not possible to verify such a treaty.
    
“I think China and Russia pushing the PPWT is nothing more than propaganda for them.  I do not think they have any interest in adhering to or implementing any kind of PPWT.… It is a really serious threat to, not just the United States’ way of life, but also other countries’ way of life,” he said.Wood said both Russia and China are continuing to develop anti-satellite systems that threaten the peaceful commercial use of outer space and also the many daily activities upon which nations around the world depend.
 
Wood is calling on Russia and China to sit down with the U.S. and other nations to develop some norms upon which all can agree.  
 
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A German tech company, along with French regional officials, have unveiled a prototype of a flying taxi that could begin demonstration flights in Paris as early as 2024.At a news conference Wednesday at the Pontoise airport near Cergy, west of Paris, the Volocopter company presented the VoloCity air taxi, an electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicle, which the company will begin testing at the airport in June.The VoloCity aircraft will run on nine electric batteries, and it will carry a pilot and one passenger. It will have a range of 35 kilometers and a top speed of 110 kilometers per hour.Volocopter CEO Florian Reuter told reporters if those tests go as hoped, Paris regional authorities hope to have one prototype ready for demonstration flights during the Paris Olympics in 2024.But Reuter expressed optimism the aircraft could begin flying sooner. “We are a little more than two years away from final certification, so we expect toward the end of 2022 we will see the first commercial routes, and hopefully it will be Paris.”Florian Reuter, CEO of German start-up Volocopter GmbH poses in front of a Volocopter unmanned air taxi transport presented at the Pontoise airport in Cormeilles-en-Vexin, Sept. 30, 2020.Paris regional officials, who also were at the unveiling, were enthusiastic but offered a more conservative timeline. Ile-de-France Regional President Valérie Pécresse said it all hinges on whether the 2024 demonstration goes well. “If yes, by 2030, we can industrialize the product. After that, it has to be acceptable, it has to be completely safe, and travelers have to feel confident.”Regional Transportation authority Chief Catherine Guillouard noted there also is a regulatory framework that must be considered with established corridors of flight and landing points.Volocopter already has tested its flying taxi in different parts of the world, and last October it chose Singapore for the first test in the heart of a city.Several other companies are working on similar projects, including Boeing, Airbus, Toyota and Hyundai.Last month, Japanese firm SkyDrive, funded by Toyota, showed its eight-propeller, manned compact vehicle flying around a test field.
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The European Union Thursday took legal action against Britain regarding its proposed Internal Market legislation that would breach sections of the exit agreement the nation signed with the bloc last year.  At a news conference in Brussels, EU Commission President Ursula Van Der Leyen said the EU had given Britain until the end of September to remove the problematic language, but that the deadline had not been met.  The Internal Market Bill currently moving through the British Parliament would ensure free, open trade among Britain’s four “home” nations — England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland — in the event no trade deal is established with the EU before Brexit takes effect at the end of the year.  The Republic of Ireland voted to stay in the EU.  Von der Leyen said the draft bill breaches sections of the Withdrawal Agreement and would contradict the Ireland/Northern Ireland protocol regarding free and open borders between the two countries.The British government does not deny this, saying the bill is necessary to avoid a so-called “hard” border between the two Irelands that would impact the flow of trade in the event no trade deal is established.An open border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland was a key component of the Good Friday peace agreement, signed in 1998, that ended three decades of violence in Northern Ireland.London now has one month to reply to a formal letter of complaint from the commission, which will then assess whether the answer is satisfactory. The Reuters news agency says the EU can then request that Britain fall back in line. If that fails, the EU can sue at the Luxembourg-based European Court of Justice.Meanwhile, British and EU negotiators are still trying to hammer out a trade deal in talks that have been overshadowed by the controversy over the Internal Market Bill.
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