Bolivia delays vote due to virus
Bolivia will postpone its general elections until Oct. 18 as the country’s coronavirus outbreak shows no signs of relenting, the electoral authority announced Thursday.
There will be “better conditions” then than on the original date, Sept. 6, national news agency ABI quoted the Supreme Electoral Tribunal as saying.
Bolivia on Wednesday confirmed 64,135 novel coronavirus infections, up 1,778 in 24 hours, and a total of 2,328 deaths.
Interim President Jeanine Anez and nearly a third of her Cabinet have tested positive for COVID-19.
The elections will be a rerun of the poll held about a year earlier, in which Evo Morales, the Andean country’s leftist president of 13 years, claimed another victory but was forced into exile amid widespread allegations of fraud.
Women protest as Poland mulls treaty
Tens of thousands of Polish women took to the streets to protest government plans to pull out from an international treaty on preventing and combating domestic violence.
Deputy Justice Minister Marcin Romanowski said this week that Poland should drop out of the Istanbul Convention as soon as possible, calling the pact signed by most European nations “gender gibberish.”
In past years, demonstrations led by women have halted the ruling Law & Justice party’s attempts to tighten the country’s nearly complete ban on abortions. The organizers said protests in 30 Polish cities Friday were expected to be attended by about 20,000 people.
Mr. Romanowski said the treaty is an attempt by “neo-Marxists and supporters of gender ideology” to force beliefs on Poles.
Fires, ice melts mark Siberia heat wave
The U.N. weather agency warned Friday that average temperatures in Siberia were 18 degrees Fahrenheit (10 Celsius) above average last month, a spate of exceptional heat that has fanned devastating fires in the Arctic Circle and contributed to a rapid depletion in sea ice off Russia’s Arctic coast.
“The Arctic is heating more than twice as fast as the global average, impacting local populations and ecosystems and with global repercussions,” World Meteorological Organization Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said.