"It seems that the Turkish leaders are ready to continue to consistently ignore the global value of the heritage of conquered Byzantium, which they do not understand, and to openly demonstrate a contemptuous indifference to Christian cultural values", Balashov said, adding that Ankara's approach does not contribute to peace and mutual respect between followers of different religions.

The archpriest also said that although Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's promised to maintain free access to Hagia Sophia's Christian relics, mosaics and frescoes are constantly covered. Balashov added that women have limited access to the site of the former church, and main cultural relics are not visible to them.

He suggested that the same fate awaits the Chora Church, where many valuable Byzantine-era mosaics and frescoes are being kept. The archpriest added that Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople has fully lost influence "at home".

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"All the data we have, including WFP forecast that the number of people experiencing malnutrition will grow by 80 percent by the end of the year, ... points to a real disaster," David Beasley, Executive Director of the UN World Food Program (WFP), said.

We are risking a famine of biblical proportions.

The rapid increase in the number of people who can't feed themselves will be just an immediate outcome of the pandemic, which caused a disruption of food growth and logistics worldwide. More long-term damage is bound to materialize in the years to come.

"Obviously social tensions will grow, migration will increase, conflicts will escalate and hunger will likely affect those who didn't experience it before," the official told the Russian news agency TASS.

Bannon made an appearance at the Manhattan Federal Court in New York City, August 20, 2020. He plead not guilty to fraud and money laundering and has been freed on a bond of $5M and ordered to remain in the US pending trial.

During a meeting with the Iraqi prime minister at the White House this morning, Trump remarked:

"I feel very badly. I haven't been dealing with him for a very long period of time. Haven't been dealing with him at all. Don't know anything about the project at all. It's a very sad thing by Mr. Bannon. I don't like that project. I thought it was being done for showboating reasons. It was something I very much thought was inappropriate to be doing," said POTUS, referring to the Build The Wall crowdfunding campaign.

White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany released a statement on the indictment as well,

"As everyone knows, President Trump has no involvement in this project and felt it was only being done in order to showboat, and perhaps raise funds ... The Trump Administration has already built over 300 miles of Border Wall, thanks to the great work of our Army Corps of Engineers, and will have almost 500 miles completed by the end of the year. Our southern border is more secure than it has ever been. President Trump has not been involved with Steve Bannon since the campaign and the early part of the Administration, and he does not know the people involved with this project."

© AP/Craig Ruttle
President Donald Trump's former chief strategist Steve Bannon leaves federal court, Thursday, Aug. 20, 2020, after pleading not guilty to charges that he ripped off donors to an online fundraising scheme to build a southern border wall.

"I am not going to back down. This is a political hit job. Everybody knows I love a fight," Bannon said on an episode of his show War Room. "I was called 'honey badger' for many years. You know, 'Honey badger doesn't give.' So, I'm in this for the long haul. I'm in this for the fight."

"What he said yesterday was absolutely correct," Bannon said of his former boss [Donald Trump]. "Building the wall is a function of government. But look how much trouble President Trump has had."

Upon exiting a Manhattan courthouse on Thursday, Bannon declared his arrest a baseless political ploy designed to halt the construction of the wall — a theme he returned to on his Friday broadcast.

"This is to stop and intimidate people that have President Trump's back on building the wall. We are never going to stop pushing the wall. This stuff is complete nonsense. I am not going to back down one inch."

The former top White House adviser also made light of the chaotic scene on Thursday that occurred as he left the courthouse and was swarmed by the media. "How did I miss turning to the TV cameras and going to the print cameras? Donald Trump would never make that mistake," Bannon said.

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The Kremlin may allow Russian anti-corruption campaigner Alexey Navalny to be treated abroad, despite borders being closed due to Covid-19. Speaking to reporters, spokesman Dmitry Peskov made it clear that the authorities would consider any appeal go abroad "very quickly," clarifying that, even with flight restrictions, many Russian citizens have been allowed to go to other countries for medical reasons.

Dr Yaroslav Ashikhmin, Navalny's personal physician, told Western-funded Russian-language news outlet Meduza that he hopes to take the anti-corruption campaigner to the European Union for treatment, with Hanover or Strasbourg being the two most likely destinations.

When asked if the Kremlin was aware of Navalny's current situation, Peskov replied that he is aware the activist "is in a serious condition" and that "doctors are doing everything necessary."

Shortly after Peskov's statement, Navalny's former eye doctor Anastasia Vasilyeva announced that the campaigner's team were attempting to collect medical documentation for his transfer to the EU, but the hospital's chief physician had refused to provide it. On Twitter, she officially asked the Kremlin for ITS assistance. Vasilyeva is the head of the 'Doctors Alliance,' an activist group closely linked to Navalny.

A team of doctors are "engaged in saving the life" of anti-corruption campaigner Alexey Navalny, a lead medic has said. He remains in a "stable but serious" condition, although no exact diagnosis has been made so far.

Dr Anatoly Kalinichenko, the deputy head of the emergency hospital in Omsk, said Navalny's "life is in danger." He earlier remarked that "there is no certainty that the cause of Navalny's condition is poisoning."

"The patient's condition is stable, and intensive therapy is continuing. We have made progress in the diagnosis of the ailment," Dr Kalinichenko told reporters. "The doctors are doing everything possible; the doctors are really engaged in saving his life."

Navalny's own medic, Dr Yaroslav Ashikhmin, agreed with Dr Kalinichenko that it was too early to draw conclusions about possible poisoning but he said that Navalny had no diseases that could cause this sort of condition and that, before Thursday's incident, he was completely healthy.

Meanwhile, news agency TASS, quoting a source, said the notion that Navalny may have been deliberately poisoned is not the main focus of the police investigation at present. "This theory is not being considered now. It is not ruled out that he drank or took something yesterday himself." When Navalny was admitted to hospital, he was diagnosed with "acute poisoning with psychedelics," he noted.

The Baza Telegram channel reported that police have interviewed an employee of the Viennese Coffee House cafe, who'd served tea to the activist before his flight.

"There were four people on the shift: the shift manager, a cook, the barista and the cleaning lady. In the past, there were no complaints about poisoning in the cafe. The shift manager also said that she did not remember who'd served tea to Navalny, but it could be either herself or the barista. According to her, she had never heard of Alexey Navalny before and found out more about him only after the latest turn of events."

Meanwhile, police are looking at the CCTV cameras.

"So far, we have held several telemedical consultations with our country's leading experts, who are able to provide consultations regarding this patient," Dr Kalinichenko told reporters on Thursday evening. "All of them think that all treatment and diagnostical efforts have been conducted correctly and to a full extent. The fact that we have managed to stabilize him, to get the current clinical picture, gives cause for cautious optimism regarding his state." The experts ruled out a heart attack, a stroke, coronavirus and cerebral edema.

"First, we need to wait for the final test results that will help doctors determine what happened, what caused this situation, what caused [Navalny] to lose consciousness," Peskov explained. "After that, if a poisoning took place, if there are corresponding statements or, if the law enforcement makes other decisions, there will be an investigation."

When asked whether Putin had been informed of the incident, Peskov noted that "the general situation described in the media... is accessible to absolutely everyone, it is accessible to the Russian leader as well, through media reviews that he receives on a regular basis." Peskov noted that the situation is transparent, as "doctors regularly inform people of what they are doing, of the condition the patient is in."

When asked whether the Kremlin considers the situation with Navalny's possible poisoning a special case due to the critical attitude of the opposition politician to the current government, Peskov said that "the current government has many critics." He added that "of course, if the life of a Russian citizen is under threat, the situation is serious. Both doctors and law enforcement treat all citizens equally seriously."

The press service of the regional health ministry department said that Navalny is currently in a natural coma, according to news agency TASS. "Currently, the patient is in a natural coma, he is still on an artificial lung ventilation machine."

The transfer was requested by Navalny's fellow opposition figure, Pyotr Verzilov, best known as the co-founder of the punk band Pussy Riot.

"For humanitarian reasons, at Pussy Riots Pyotr Verzilov's request, we will send at midnight an air ambulance with medical equipment and specialists with which Navalny can be brought to Germany," the foundation said, adding that Berlin's Charite hospital was ready to take him in.

It was not immediately clear whether this transfer will be actually allowed by Russian health authorities, given the seriousness of Navalny's condition.

Alexey Navalny may have experienced a rapid drop in blood sugar levels during a flight on Thursday, leading to him losing consciousness.
"Today, we have worked out diagnoses. The main one, which we are inclined to favor, is a disorder in the carbohydrate balance, that is, a metabolic disorder. This could be caused by a sharp drop in blood sugar, which can lead to a loss of consciousness."

The director of Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK), Ivan Zhdanov, questioned how a "metabolic imbalance" and a "blood sugar problem" could prevent the activist from being transferred to Germany. Dr Alexander Murakhovsky added that doctors have refused to allow the activist to be evacuated by plane to Germany because "this [metabolic] instability can increase during takeoff and landing."

Murakhovsky also commented on reports of a dangerous substance found on Navalny's body. He said it turned out to be material from a plastic cup or plate, dubbing it "ordinary industrial chemistry."

On Friday morning, Zhdanov said that police had mentioned the presence of a "deadly substance."
Navalny remains in a coma and is attached to a ventilator.

"We also invited German specialists, who arrived to Omsk on an intensive-care plane, so that they could check the patient's condition and the results of our own tests," Dr Alexander Murakhovsky told reporters.

Kremlin confirmed that President Vladimir Putin is not scheduled to discuss Navalny's condition with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. "No, he is not planning this," his spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Alexey Navalny, who remains in an artificially induced coma at a Siberian hospital, can be transferred to Germany within hours, his doctors have said, agreeing to family requests for treatment abroad. Given the seriousness of Navalny's condition, he must be transferred to the airport with extreme care.

"We don't mind his being transferred to another medical facility - one that relatives have chosen, and, of course, one that agrees to take the patient," one of the team said. "However, we don't think that [Navalny] actually needs the transfer. He can receive the required treatment and all the necessary care at this facility." So far, no evidence of any toxic substance has emerged.

A senior official at the Omsk hospital, Anatoly Kalinichenko, told the media that Navalny could be transported, as his condition has stabilized. German doctors were earlier in the day allowed to examine Navalny.

Navalny's wife had earlier appealed to President Vladimir Putin to allow her husband's evacuation to Germany for urgent medical care. "I officially appeal to you [Putin] to demand you allow the transportation of...Navalny to...Germany," Yulia Navalnaya said in a letter published on social media on August 21. The Kremlin said that the initial decision to refuse the transfer to Germany of Navalny was based only on medical grounds.

Navalny's supporters denounced the medical verdict as a ploy to stall until any poison would no longer be found in his body. Yarmysh, Navalny's spokeswoman, had called the hospital's decision "an attempt on his life being carried out right now by doctors and the deceitful authorities that have authorized it."

Yarmysh quoted Navalny's associate, Ivan Zhdanov, as saying that "a police officer at the hospital had just said that a poison was found in Aleksei's body, which was dangerous not only for him, but also for those around him."

The European Union has asked for a swift investigation into what caused Navalny to fall into a coma.

White House national-security adviser Robert O'Brien said on August 20 that the suspected poisoning was "extraordinarily concerning" and could have an impact on U.S.-Russia relations. O'Brien said in an interview on Fox News:

"He's a very courageous man. He is a very courageous politician to have stood up to [Russian President] Putin inside Russia, and our thoughts and our prayers are with him and his family. It's extraordinarily concerning and if the Russians were behind this...it's something that we're going to factor into how we deal with the Russians going forward."

The head of the legal department of the Anti-Corruption Foundation Navalny founded, Vyacheslav Gimadi, wrote on Twitter, "There is no doubt that Navalny was poisoned for his political position and activity."

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