BEIJING (Dispatches) - China condemned the U.S. for politicizing the COVID-19 pandemic and shifting responsibility to smear other countries, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on Friday while responding to a question related to U.S. politicization of the novel coronavirus origin tracing. The spokesman said the U.S. is disrespectful towards science and justice, CGTN reported. China urged the U.S. to release data and check samples collected in the United States during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic and invite WHO experts to investigate the Fort Detrick lab and over 200 labs overseas for coronavirus origin tracing as soon as possible.

***
Dhaka, Bangladesh (Dispatches) – A sharp spike in dengue cases is straining Bangladesh’s fragile healthcare system, which is already battered by a worsening coronavirus crisis in the country. Just this month, 1,920 people were diagnosed with the mosquito-borne disease till Friday, marking a more than 600 percent jump in cases from June when 272 cases were reported.

***
PARIS (Dispatches) - Ecuador has revoked the citizenship of Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks who is currently in a British prison. Ecuador’s justice system formally notified the Australian of the nullity of his naturalisation in a letter that came in response to a claim filed by the South American country’s Foreign Ministry. A naturalisation is considered damaging when it is granted based on the concealment of relevant facts, false documents or fraud. Ecuadorian authorities say Assange’s naturalization letter had multiple inconsistencies, different signatures, the possible alteration of documents and unpaid fees, among other issues.

***
LONDON - Hundreds of children in the care of Lambeth Council in south London were subjected to levels of cruelty and sexual abuse that were “hard to comprehend” for several decades since 1960s, a report released has found. The independent inquiry into child sexual abuse found 705 allegations of sexual abuse against staff members and individuals connected with three care homes in the borough. Victims’ accounts of sexual abuse include being photographed whilst being raped. One child was found dead in 1977 in a bathroom at Shirley Oaks, one of the three care homes which closed in 1983. Lambeth Council did not inform the coroner that he had allegedly been sexually abused by his “house father”.

***
GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - Thousands of Guatemalans took to the streets in protest on Thursday, lighting fires and blocking roads across the Central American country, to demand the resignation of President Alejandro Giammattei after the firing of a well-known anti-corruption prosecutor. The protests have gained momentum since Guatemala’s Attorney General Maria Porras last week removed anti-graft fighter Juan Francisco Sandoval as head of the Special Prosecutor’s Office Against Impunity (FECI).