MONDAY, AUGUST 10 , 2020. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ RE A
The World
NIGER
6 French citizens, 2
guides killed at park
G unmen killed six French
citizens and two Nigerien guides
visiting a wildlife park east of
Niger’s capital on Sunday, the
nation’s Interior Ministry said.
French President Emmanuel
Macron’s office confirmed that
some French citizens were killed
but did not elaborate. Macron had
a phone call with Niger’s
president, Mahamadou Issoufou,
on Sunday, his office said.
The attack occurred in Kouré,
where Niger has a giraffe reserve,
said Oumarou Moussa, an adviser
to Niger’s interior minister. The
area is a protected national park
about 45 miles southeast of the
capital. T he park is in the Tillabériregion, where extremists tied to
the Islamic State killed four U.S.
soldiers and five Nigeriens in
2017.
France has warned its citizens
against traveling outside the
capital, Niamey, as Islamist
militants linked to Boko Haram,
the Islamic State and al-Qaeda
still carry out attacks across the
vast West African nation.
— Associated PressPAKISTAN58 killed in 3 days of
heavy monsoon rainsT hree days of heavy monsoon
rains triggering flash floods killed
at least 58 people across Pakistan,
as troops with boats rushed
Sunday to evacuate people from
flood-hit areas.
The rainfall began last weekand continued Sunday, flooding
streets even in the eastern city of
Lahore. It especially disrupted
normal life last week in Karachi,
the provincial capital of Sindh
and Pakistan’s commercial hub,
where sewage flooded many
streets, prompting Prime Minister
Imran Khan to order the army to
assist authorities in handling the
situation.
— Associated PressFire kills 11 at coronavirus
facility in India: A fire killed 11
patients in a southern Indian
hotel being used as a coronavirus
facility, officials said. A short
circuit seemed to be the cause of
the fire, which occurred i n
Andhra Pradesh state, police said.
On Thursday, eight people died in
a fire in a coronavirus-designated
hospital in Gujarat state.
— From news servicesDIGESTBY ISABELLE KHURSHUDYAN
IN MOSCOWInside one
of Moscow’s
oldest
bathhouses
‘God, give us health’: Even during
the pandemic, a venerable banya
holds on to its communal spiritPeople gather a t the Rzhevskie Baths in
Moscow, the city’s second-oldest bathhouse,
on July 30. “I was never worried about
coming here, because this is where you come
to get healthier,” one woman said.A
s the women arranged themselves along the
wooden floors and benches of the sauna, the fur-
nace hissed and bundles of pine and birch
branches filled the space with an herbal aroma.
¶ The attendant poured one ladle of water after
another against the iron rods, ticking up the temperature.
“God, give us health,” she said. ¶ “God, give us health,” the
other women repeated. ¶ As the coronavirus pandemic grinds
on, Russia’s bathhouses — or banyas, as they’re called here —
remain the country’s most popular wellness centers and a
deeply rooted cultural tradition. ¶ But, like other communal
spaces across the globe, they are not suited for social distanc-
ing. And that is one of the core quandaries: Can the commu-
nity bonds and intimacy of places like Russia’s banyas remain
the same in a world reordered by the novel coronavirus? ¶ So
far, life in the banyas appeared remarkably unchanged. ¶ “It’s
just the same as it ever was,” said Natalia Dyakina, who joins
friends weekly at the Rzhevskie Baths, Moscow’s second-old-
est bathhouse, dating back to 1888. ¶ “I just wish it was open
during coronavirus. We really suffered without it,” she added.
“I was never worried about coming here, because this is where
you come to get healthier.” ¶ One woman inside the sauna
cracked a joke that there was no coronavirus in the steamy
room. Another promptly hushed her. This was a sacred space,
and such talk didn’t belong, she scolded. ¶ “Russian values
might have changed after the Soviet Union was dissolved orthe 2008 financial crisis, but the banya is our history,” said
Oleg Pashkov, the director of the Rzhevskie Baths. “We were
never worried about people’s habits changing. The people
who appreciate this culture will always come.” ¶ During
World War II, Rzhevskie Baths was a stop for Soviet soldiers
to bathe before boarding the nearby train that would take
them to the front. One gentleman has visited its sauna every
week for the past 49 years — until Russia’s virus restrictions
closed Rzhevskie and other bathhouses for three months. ¶
It’s not practical to wear a mask or gloves inside when tem-
peratures can reach 100 degrees Celsius, but Russia’s health
regulator initially instructed bathhouses that patrons would
have to observe a roughly five-foot distance from each other in
the sauna. ¶ The agency then backed off that, believing the
rooms get so hot that it’s not possible to infect someone inside.
But the World Health Organization website’s “Mythbusters”
page warns that the virus can be transmitted in hot and hu-
mid environments. ¶ Other restrictions remain, such as limit-
ing the capacity and closing the swimming pools. ¶ Sitting in
a booth in the Rzhevskie Baths’ dressing room, Irina Sergeye-
va recounted her own close call with covid-19. Her daughter
had been infected and has since recovered. But Sergeyeva still
ignored her daughter’s pleas to stay away from the banya and
has resumed the once-a-week visits. ¶ “I think the Russian
mentality is different. We just don’t care,” Sergeyeva said. “It
didn’t even occur to me that it might be risky.”NANNA HEITMANN/MAGNUM PHOTOS FOR THE WASHINGTON POST