VOA NEWS

September 21, 2020

This is VOA news. Via remote, I'm Marissa Melton.



U.S. President [ro...] Donald Trump appears focused on naming one of two conservative female jurists he appointed to federal appellate courts to replace Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the liberal icon who died last week.

Mr. Trump told a political rally Saturday night in Fayetteville, North Carolina, that he will make the nomination this week and that "it will be a woman."

Supporters chanted, "Fill that seat," and Trump said that is exactly what he intends to do.

Mr. Trump's intention to make an appointment six weeks before he faces a bitter re-election contest against Democrat Joe Biden on November 3 instantly touched off a rancorous political fight in Washington between Republicans who say they will support his nominee and Democrats who called for the selection to be delayed until either Mr. Trump or Mr. Biden takes office in January [for a] for a new four-year White House term.

Mr. Trump wants the Senate to quickly confirm his choice before the election. It's unclear whether Republicans, with a 53-47 majority in the chamber, will act before Election Day.



Italians are voting today and Monday on whether to reduce the number of members of the country's parliament. The changes would cut the number of members of the Chamber of Deputies from 630 to 400 and the numbers of Senators from 315 to 200.

The referendum was delayed from its March 29 date because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Wearing masks and maintaining social distancing is mandatory in polling stations.

The results are expected later on Monday.



A fire broke out Sunday evening in the reception and identification center for asylum-seekers on the Greek island of Samos but is now "under control," according to police and firefighter sources.

This echoes two large fires that broke out [in] on [moro] Moria on the island of Lesbos.



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Syrian opposition sources said Russian jets bombed rebel-held northwestern Syria on Sunday in the most extensive strikes since a Turkish-Russian deal halted major fighting with a cease-fire nearly six months ago.

Witnesses said the warplanes struck the western outskirts of Idlib city and that there was heavy artillery [shell...] shelling in the mountainous region nearby. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

There has been no [wide-scade] wide-scale aerial bombing since a March agreement ended a Russian-backed bombing campaign that displaced over a million people in the region which borders Turkey after months of fighting.

There was no immediate comment from Moscow or from the Syrian army, who have long accused militant groups who hold sway in the last opposition redoubt of wrecking the cease-fire deal and attacking army-held areas.



Tropical Storm Beta is making a slow crawl to the shores of Texas and Louisiana on the southern coastal areas of the United States, causing worries about heavy rain, flooding and storm surge across the Gulf Coast.

The system is moving north at just 6 kilometers per hour. It's expected to make landfall sometime on Monday.

If Beta makes landfall, it would be the ninth named storm to hit the continental U.S. in 2020. That ties a record set in 1916.

2020 is just the second time in history that forecasters have had to resort to using the Greek alphabet because they used up the 21 available storm names for the year. The only other time that happened was 2005. That was the year Hurricane Katrina devastated parts of New Orleans.



Belarus police detained more than ten protesters in Minsk on Sunday. That's according to Russia's TASS news agency, citing Belarus police.

[police were ga...] People were gathering for a rally in Minsk and in other cities, calling for veteran leader Alexander Lukashenko to step down.

Mass street protests have rocked Belarus since presidential elections in August, at which Lukashenko claimed a landslide victory in a vote his opponents say was rigged.

Thousands of protesters have flooded Belarusian cities for six weeks, demanding an end to the 26-year rule of the country's authoritarian president.



And relatives of the 12 Hong Kong people arrested by China at sea last month have demanded the city's government check on their condition and ensure that lawyers appointed by the families and not the Chinese government can meet with them.

The 12 were arrested on August 23 for illegal entry into mainland Chinese waters after setting off from Hong Kong in a boat bound for Taiwan.



Via remote, I'm Marissa Melton. From Washington, you're listening to VOA news.