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| - Duty Editor: Huw Griffith Tel: +852 2829 6211 -- TOP STORIES -- + Trump admitted downplaying coronavirus risks + Global death toll passes 900,000 + Mass death warning as fires sweep US West + Animal populations cut two-thirds since 1970 + I see what you did there: Japan's transparent loos Health-virus-US-politics-Trump-Woodward,WRAP WASHINGTON President Donald Trump admits he tried to minimize the seriousness of the threat from Covid-19 at the outset of the pandemic in audio recordings released from interviews with veteran US journalist Bob Woodward. 750 words moved by Sebastian Smith. Picture Health-virus,WRAP PARIS The global death toll from the coronavirus pandemic has topped 900,000 since the respiratory disease first appeared in China last year, according to an AFP tally. 650 words moved by AFP bureaus. Picture. Video US-fires,WRAP SHAVER LAKE, California Hundreds of homes including entire communities are razed by wildfires in the western United States as officials warn of potential mass deaths under apocalyptic orange skies. 750 words 0700 GMT by Javier Tovar. Picture. Video. Graphic Nature-environment-planet-biodiversity,WRAP PARIS Global animal, bird and fish populations have plummeted more than two-thirds in less than 50 years due to rampant over-consumption, experts say in a stark warning to save nature in order to save ourselves. 700 words moved by Patrick Galey. Graphic Japan-toilet-technology-offbeat TOKYO Spacious, clean, and almost completely see-through, an unusual new public toilet block has been built in a Tokyo park -- but thankfully, the walls turn opaque when you lock the door. 300 words 0600 GMT. Video. File Picture -- CORONAVIRUS -- Health-virus-brain WASHINGTON Headaches, confusion and delirium experienced by some Covid-19 patients could be the result of the coronavirus directly invading the brain, according to a new study. 500 words moved by Issam Ahmed Health-virus-rights-politics,FOCUS PARIS Posturing, repression and a distaste for facts: the world's strongman regimes have dealt with the Covid pandemic in much the same way they deal with everything else, analysts say. 650 words moved by Francoise Kadri Health-virus-Argentina-education-doctors,FOCUS EZEIZA, Argentina The doctor brings his smartphone closer to the coronavirus patient lying on the hospital bed. On the other end of the video call, medical students pose their questions and make their prognoses from afar -- it's as close as they can come during Argentina's lengthy confinement. 550 words moved by Ariel Timy Torres and Sonia Avalos. Picture -- AMERICAS -- US-politics-vote-campaigns,FOCUS WASHINGTON The cat-and-mouse campaigning by Donald Trump and Joe Biden has led the president and his Democratic challenger to the same locations, sometimes on the same day, while displaying radically different styles as they court American voters. 800 words 0530 GMT by Michael Mathes. Picture US-health-virus-9/11,FOCUS NEW YORK With crime on the rise, shops and apartments increasingly vacant and homeless people on the sidewalks, New York on Friday will mark the 19th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic and a bitter fight with the White House. 700 words 0530 GMT by Catherine Triomphe. Video. File picture US-Russia-politics-vote-intelligence,2ndlead WASHINGTON A senior US intelligence official says the White House ordered him to stop reporting on Russian election interference and highlight Chinese and Iran meddling instead, according to a whistleblower complaint. 700 words moved Also moved: US-politics-vote-campaigns,FOCUS Venezuela-oil-politics-energy,FOCUS MARACAIBO, Venezuela Cheap gasoline smuggled over the border from Venezuela once flooded eastern Colombia. These days, as desperate Venezuelans run out of fuel, the contraband is moving in the other direction. 550 words moved by Luis Bravo with Margioni Bermudez in Caracas. Picture -- ASIA -- HongKong China politics Wong HONG KONG Not a day goes by without Hong Kong democracy activist Joshua Wong wondering how long it will be before the police's new national security unit comes for him. 700 words 0600 GMT by Su Xinqi. Picture. Video -- EUROPE -- Greece-migrants-fire,WRAP LESBOS ISLAND, Greece Thousands of asylum seekers are left homeless after a fire guts Greece's largest migrant camp, prompting an outpouring of sympathy from around Europe and calls for reform of the refugee system. 800 words moved by Will Vassilopoulos with John Hadoulis in Athens. Picture. Video. Graphic Also moved: Greece-immigration-fire,FACTS Russia-election-regions-opposition,FOCUS TOMSK, Russia Yelena Basova at first was not convinced that Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny could have been poisoned in her hometown in Siberia. Then she watched his investigation into local corruption. 750 words moved by Romain Colas. Picture. Video Greece-Turkey-Mediterranean-EU-France-diplomacy PARIS French President Emmanuel Macron hosts leaders from Mediterranean states for a summit set to be dominated by growing tensions between Turkey and EU states in the east of the sea. 500 words moved by Jerome Rivet Turkey-politics-women-rights,FOCUS ISTANBUL Just as Turkey began debating leaving the world's first treaty prosecuting femicide and domestic abuse, a jealous killer set a woman's body on fire and covered it in cement. 850 words moved by Burcin Gercek with Raziye Akkoc in Ankara. Picture. Video -- MIDEAST & NORTH AFRICA -- Syria-conflict-craft,VIDEOESSAY DAMASCUS In Syria's capital, Mohammed Hallak blows through a long metal tube into billowing red-hot glass, trying to keep his waning craft alive despite a war that keeps clients away. 430 words moved by Maher al-Mounes. Picture. Video Kuwait-economy-migration,FOCUS KUWAIT CITY After more than 45 years washing cars in Kuwait to make ends meet, Egyptian Marzouq Mohammed will soon be kicked out of the country as economic woes and coronavirus stoke anti-foreigner sentiment. 780 words moved. Video -- BUSINESS & ECONOMY -- Virus-health-ECB-banking-inflation FRANKFURT AM MAIN, Germany The European Central Bank is expected to hint at new stimulus measures, armed with a fresh set of economic forecasts amid rising Brexit tensions and fears of a coronavirus resurgence. 650 words moved by Ed Frankl -- HEALTH -- Sudan-health-mycetoma,FOCUS KHARTOUM It seemed little to worry about: Sudanese farmer Khadija Ahmad was planting onions when she stepped on a thorn that pierced her sandal and cut her foot. But the thorn brought with it a flesh-eating infection that can cause severe deformities. 700 words moved by Sammy Ketz. Picture. Video -- SPORT -- Tennis-Open-USA,WRAP NEW YORK Serena Williams battles into the semi-finals of the US Open where she will renew her rivalry with Victoria Azarenka, as Daniil Medvedev books his place in the last four of the men's draw. 550 words moved by Peter Hutchison. Picture afp
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