Police and federal agents in Nashville sought clues on Saturday to determine how and why a motor home was blown to pieces in an apparent bombing on Christmas Day that injured three people and damaged dozens of buildings in the heart of America’s country music capital.
The motor home, parked on a downtown street of Tennessee’s largest city, exploded at dawn on Friday moments after police responding to reports of gunfire in the area noticed the recreational vehicle and heard an automated message emanating from it warning of a bomb.
‘Intentional’ Blast Wounds 3 in Nashville on Christmas Day RV explodes after blaring message warning of a bomb The means of detonation and whether anyone was inside the RV when it blew up were not immediately known, but investigators were examining what they believed might be human remains found in the vicinity of the blast, police said.
Police offered no possible motive, and there was no claim of responsibility, though Nashville Metropolitan Police Department officials called the blast an “intentional act” and vowed to determine its origin.
Agents of the FBI and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were assisting in the probe.
“All the windows came in from the living room into the bedroom. The front door became unhinged,” Buck McCoy, who lives on the block where the blast occurred, told local TV station WKRN. “I had blood coming from my face and on my side and on my legs and a little bit on my feet.”
McCoy told CNN that he and some neighbors were returning to the area on Saturday in search of pets they had been forced to leave behind.
Adding to the cryptic nature of Friday’s incident was the eerie preamble described by witnesses – a crackle of gunfire followed an apparently computer-generated female voice from the RV reciting a minute-by-minute countdown to an impending explosion.
Nashville Explosion May Have Been ‘Intentional’ Police Say Metro Nashville Police Department says authorities believe an explosion that rocked the downtown Nashville area early on Christmas Day was a deliberate actPolice scrambled to evacuate nearby homes and buildings and called for a bomb squad, which was still en route to the scene when the RV blew up just outside an AT&T office building where it had been parked.
Police later posted a photo of the motor home, which they said had arrived in the area about four hours prior to the explosion.
The fiery blast, heard for miles away, destroyed a number of other vehicles parked nearby, shattered windows and heavily damaged several adjacent buildings. Mayor John Cooper said a total of 41 businesses were damaged.
Fire officials said three people were taken to hospitals with relatively minor injuries and were listed in stable condition. Authorities said quick action by police to clear the area of bystanders likely prevented more casualties.
Police Chief John Drake said authorities had received no threats of an attack prior to the reports of gunfire at the outset of the incident.
The explosion occurred about two blocks from Lower Broadway, where some of Nashville’s famous live music venues are located. The Ryman Auditorium, former home of the Grand Ole Opry and just three blocks from the blast scene, was undamaged. The Gaylord Opryland and current Grand Ole Opry complexes, which sit outside the downtown area, were not affected.
The explosion’s damage to AT&T’s facilities caused widespread telephone, internet and fiber-optic TV service outages in central Tennessee and parts of several neighboring states, including Mississippi, Kentucky, Alabama and Georgia.
AT&T’s efforts to restore services overnight were waylaid when a fire reignited at the company’s downtown office at the site of the blast, but AT&T said in a statement on Saturday that it was deploying portable cell sites to downtown Nashville and across the region.
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Month: December 2020
Cameroon Appreciates End to Toy Weapon Gifts
Cameroon rights groups and activists say they are gratified that for the first time since 2016, parents no longer give children and teenagers toy guns as gifts during end-of-year feasts. In 2016, rights groups launched a campaign to ban toy guns, mostly imported from China, saying they lead to violence. Alternative gifts for children include educational electronic toys. An educational electronic toy in the form of an electronic workbook helps five children in Cameroon’s capital, Yaounde, learn the letters of the alphabet and how to recognize and spell words. Six-year-old Christina Marfaw says her parents gave her the toy as a gift for the New Year. “It is a touch and teach workbook that our parents bought for us,” said Marfaw.”The book is asking us to find something that begins with the letter ‘R.’In the past it was normal for many parents to give toy guns as gifts to little children like Marfaw.Educational toys like this one have replaced toys like guns, knives and military vehicles that were in high demand and widely used as gifts for Cameroon’s children. In 2016, Cameroon rights groups and activists started advocating for a ban on toy guns, most of which were imported from China. China is the largest producer and distributor of toys, especially toy guns, in Cameroon.
Last year, during the deepening Anglophone separatist crisis and Boko Haram terrorism on the northern border with Nigeria, the rights groups began urging Cameroonians not to buy children toy guns. Activist and gender expert Irene Chinje is among those who pushed to stop toy gun sales. She says it breeds violence. “It signifies violence. Children do not know the difference between it being a toy gun and the significance it carries,” Chinje said. “They just see it as a sign of bravery for them, and so if they can handle the toy gun, then they are encouraged in the future to handle the real weapon with bullets. They can use it in any careless manner. We do not have to encourage children with guns as toys. If we have to stop violence, we start from that youthful age. We must make the children understand that it is something which could in the future impact something very harmful. We have realized even people of the underworld use the toy guns, but you cannot identify it because you do not even have the courage to look at it when you see them stand before you.” Chinje says societies have ethics, so people should avoid toys that seem to encourage violence and consider ethics in their choice of toys. She says she is happy that Cameroonians are also avoiding toys that promote gender bias.”We do not give girls those doll babies that we used to give because it makes them feel that they are girls, they have to cater for babies,” Chinje said. “So, no. We are trying to give what is more gender balanced to children” Chinje and some activists have been visiting markets to express their appreciation to Cameroonians for not buying toy guns. Twenty-four-year-old Kum Yannick, a student at the university of Buea, is in a supermarket in Yaounde to buy gifts for his teenage siblings. He says he wants to buy and share books and toys that promote peace. “As the new year 2021 is approaching, the wish of all Cameroonians is that peace should return in the troubled regions, and what I have to share is a message of goodwill and love, which I think the Bible is the key from which I shall have all these messages that I am going to share,” Yannick said. Cameroon has always blamed the over-involvement of teenagers in crime on what they watch on TV, and some there say the sharing of toy guns as gifts promotes violence, especially during New Year’s celebrations. The crossover from an old to a new year is always widely celebrated in Cameroon, with Christians, Muslims and animists sharing gifts and exchanging visits. This year, gifts that promote violence are not found in the markets.
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Children at Risk of Deadly Diseases in Mozambique’s Volatile Cabo Delgado Province
A quarter of a million displaced children in Mozambique’s conflict-ridden Cabo Delgado province are at risk of deadly diseases with the onset of the rainy season UNICEF warns.Children account for nearly half of the more than 530,000 people who have been forced to flee their homes in the face of escalating violence in Mozambique’s northern province of Cabo Delgado. UNICEF says children have faced many dangers over the past two years, including a devastating cyclone, flooding, drought and economic hardships brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. WFP: Unrest in Northern Mozambique Creating Acute Food ShortagesEscalating violence and increased insecurity in the provinces of Cabo Delgado, Niassa and Nampula are disrupting agricultural activities and causing food prices to skyrocket UNICEF spokeswoman Marixie Mercado tells VOA these children now are threatened with an outbreak of deadly water-borne diseases, such as diarrhea and cholera and the further spread of the coronavirus. She says severely malnourished children, in particular, are at great risk.“Severe acute malnutrition is a potentially life-threatening condition, particularly for children who are already sick with malaria or measles, which exists in Cabo Delgado,” said Mercado. “So, children who are suffering from other conditions can be up to nine or 10 times as likely to die as a normal child would from severe acute malnutrition.” UNICEF says 2 out of every 5 children in the province are chronically malnourished. Mercado notes these children require therapeutic treatment and specialized care to survive. UNICEF, she says, is sending mobile health teams to screen children for their nutritional status and provide treatment for severe cases. “We are also, I think very worried about children who have been exposed to high-risk situations and have seen or experienced physical and psychological violence,” said Mercado. “And, for this, it is crucial that we strengthen the protection response for these children, which includes psycho-social support and long-term support and care.” UNICEF is appealing for nearly $53 million to respond to the most urgent humanitarian needs in Mozambique over the coming year. This includes $30 million for the particularly acute needs in Cabo Delgado.
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Heath Agency: British Coronavirus Variant Found in Traveler to Sweden
The new variant of the coronavirus circulating in Britain has been detected in Sweden after a traveler from Britain fell ill on arrival and tested positive for it, the Swedish Health Agency said on Saturday. Health Agency official Sara Byfors told a news conference the traveler, who was not identified, had kept isolated after arrival to Sweden and that no further positive cases had so far been detected.
The new variant is thought to be more transmissible than others currently circulating.
Sweden imposed travel restrictions earlier this month on passengers from Britain amid concerns over the variant. Similar measures have been taken by several other countries in the EU and across the world.
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George Blake: The Spy Who Stayed Out in the Cold
George Blake, who died Saturday in Moscow aged 98, was a British Cold War spy and Soviet double agent who spent half his life in Russia after dramatically escaping jail in London.The last surviving member of a notorious generation of British defectors, Blake was seen as one of the West’s most damaging traitors and claimed to have betrayed hundreds of agents to the KGB. The bearded spy, however, trod a very different path to becoming a Soviet agent than that taken by the establishment insiders of the infamous Cambridge spy ring: Kim Philby, Donald Maclean and Anthony Burgess, all recruited while at the British city’s prestigious university.Born George Behar in the Netherlands in 1922 to a Dutch mother and Egyptian Jewish father, who was a British subject, he led a peripatetic youth that took him through Cairo and into the Dutch World War II resistance before joining Britain’s MI6. Ex-British Double Agent Says Russian Spies Must Save World
A former British intelligence officer who once worked as a double agent for the Soviet Union said Russian spies now have "the difficult and critical mission" of saving the world, according to a statement released Friday.
George Blake has lived in Russia since his escape from a British prison in 1966.
Conversion to communism Blake — a practicing Calvinist Protestant — said he willingly offered to work for the KGB after witnessing the bombing of innocent civilians by U.S. forces during the Korean war, when he spent a harrowing period as a North Korean captive.”I viewed communism as an attempt to create the kingdom of God in this world. The communists were trying to do by action what the church had tried to achieve by prayer,” Blake told one interviewer.”I came to the conclusion I was no longer fighting on the right side.”After returning to London from captivity, Blake’s first major coup for his new handlers was the exposure of a secret tunnel to spy on Soviet communications in East Berlin.At the same time as he was becoming enmeshed ever deeper in his perilous work, handing over troves of secret information to the Russians, he married a woman named Gillian, who knew nothing of his double life, and they went on to have three sons. Soon he moved to Berlin where he claimed to have betrayed all of the “maybe 500, 600” agents operating for the British in Germany. Later Blake repeatedly denied accusations that those he gave up were executed by the Soviet secret police. “I said to them I will only give you this information if you can assure me these people will not be executed,” he said.Escape to the USSR Eventually, however, the tide turned on the traitor and the net finally closed when information from a turncoat Polish intelligence officer unmasked Blake.Summoned to London for questioning, he admitted that he was a Soviet agent and was sentenced at a closed trial in 1961 to an unprecedented 42 years in prison. But just five years into his sentence in 1966, Blake clambered up a rope ladder and over the wall of London’s high-security Wormwood Scrubs jail to freedom with the help of an Irish petty thief and two anti-nuclear campaigners whom he had met inside. Smuggled by his co-conspirators to the border with East Germany, he walked across the Iron Curtain and turned his back on the West for the last time. In Moscow, Blake was celebrated as a hero with a string of medals and the rank of colonel from the KGB, and a flat in the center of the Soviet capital. He married a Russian woman Ida after his first wife divorced him and had one son with her. Eventually he was also reconciled with his British children.Blake, however, came to realize that communism in Russia did not live up to his hopes and he watched the system — and finally the Soviet Union — disintegrate. Disappointment “One of the main things, which to me was a disappointment, was that I believed that a new man was born here,” he told The Times newspaper. “I realized very quickly that this was not so. They were just ordinary people like everyone else and that the same human passions, and greed and ambitions, which governed the lives of most people also governed their lives.”In 1990 he published his autobiography entitled “No Other Choice”.Blake lived out the final years in a wooden dacha on the edge of Moscow — with his eyesight and hearing failing, he seemed a relic of another era.While he kept his opinion of the rampant consumerism of modern Russia to himself, on his 90th birthday he was hailed by ex-KGB agent President Vladimir Putin as one of “a constellation of strong and courageous people, brilliant professionals.”In rare interviews, Blake insisted he had no regrets, despite the failure of the system that he dedicated his life to.”I think it is never wrong to give your life to a noble ideal, and to a noble experiment, even if it doesn’t succeed,” he said.
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France, Romania Receive First Doses of Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine
France on Saturday received its first batches of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine, which were delivered to the Paris hospital pharmacy network.Inoculations are planned to begin in two nursing homes Sunday, the same day the rest of Europe is set to begin vaccinations.France has reported more than 2.6 million COVID-19 infections and over 62,500 deaths. French health officials said they recorded the first case of the new COVID-19 variant that has led to new lockdowns in Britain and global travel restrictions on British residents.The first batch of Pfizer-BioΝTech vaccines also arrived in the Romanian capital, Bucharest, on Saturday and is being stored at a military-run facility. The country, like the rest of Europe, will begin injections on Sunday in nine hospitals across the country.On Saturday, Russia approved its main coronavirus vaccine, Sputnik V, for use in people over 60 years old, Russian media quoted the health ministry as saying.According to Russian official data, the country crossed the 3 million mark of infections on Saturday, with over 29,200 new cases and 560 death in the previous 24 hours.COVID-19 infections in Japan’s capital, Tokyo, recorded a new daily high on Saturday.Japan, like France and some other countries, has also reported cases of the new coronavirus variant. Japan’s health ministry said five people who arrived between Dec. 18 and Dec. 21 tested positive for coronavirus and were sent to quarantine straight from the airports. Officials said further analysis showed they had contracted the new variant of the coronavirus.British authorities have said the new coronavirus variant appears more contagious and may have led to a spike in COVID-19 cases, leading countries around the world to restrict travel from Britain.U.S. authorities announced Thursday that passengers arriving from Britain must test negative for COVID-19 before departure. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the new requirement is effective beginning Monday.In another development Friday, Pope Francis said in his Christmas message that COVID-19 vaccines must be available to all and called on political and business leaders to “promote cooperation, not competition” in the distribution of them.In Israel, the government announced it would impose its third nationwide lockdown beginning Sunday to try to stop the spread of the coronavirus. The new restrictions will last for two weeks.Health officials in China’s northeastern port city of Dalian are testing millions of residents after seven new coronavirus cases were reported there in the previous 24 hours. Authorities there have ordered anyone except essential workers to stay home.South Korea, Japan and Indonesia recorded their highest daily increases in coronavirus cases Friday as a third wave of COVID-19 hit the countries.
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3 Peacekeepers Killed in Central African Republic Ahead of Election
Three United Nations peacekeepers from Burundi were killed and two others wounded by what the U.N. termed “unidentified armed combatants” in the Central African Republic on Friday as the country heads toward national elections Sunday.The U.N. said in a statement that the assaults on U.N. and Central African forces took place in Dékoa, in the Kémo prefecture, and Bakouma, in the Mbomou prefecture, but did not give further details.Secretary-General António Guterres’ spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said attacks against U.N. peacekeepers “may constitute a war crime.”Guterres, according to the statement, called on Central African authorities to investigate the “heinous” assaults and “swiftly bring perpetrators to justice.”Guterres reaffirmed the U.N.’s continued commitment to work closely with national, regional and international partners, the statement said, for peace and stability in the Central African Republic.The Coalition of Patriots for Change, a rebel group that has been battling the government, Friday canceled a three-day cease-fire and said it would resume pushing toward Bangui, the capital.Meanwhile, Faustin Archange Touadera, the country’s president, has accused predecessor Francois Bozize, of planning a coup.Bozize, sanctioned by U.N. and prohibited from running, has denied the accusation.
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EU-China Investment Talks Near Completion, Raising Concerns
The European Union agreement with Britain on how to handle affairs post-Brexit has been widely celebrated, yet another of the bloc’s tentative deals – that of a comprehensive investment agreement with China – is creating new headaches for European leaders.The negotiations between the EU and China are being closely watched in Washington, as elsewhere.The EU and China are in their seventh year of talks aimed at a comprehensive investment treaty. Last week, reports surfaced that the 27-nation bloc, currently led by Germany, had entered the final stage of negotiations with Beijing, with a goal of concluding the pact by the end of 2020.Those reports have caught the attention of Jake Sullivan, U.S. President-elect Joe Biden’s nominee for national security adviser.“The Biden-Harris administration would welcome early consultations with our European partners on our common concerns about China’s economic practices,” Sullivan said in a tweet on Dec. 21, citing a Reuters story with the headline, “China, EU aim for investment pact by year-end.”The Biden-Harris administration would welcome early consultations with our European partners on our common concerns about China’s economic practices. https://t.co/J4LVEZhEld— Jake Sullivan (@jakejsullivan) December 22, 2020Sullivan’s choice of words – such as “early consultations,” “European partners,” and “common concerns” – has been read by analysts as signaling frustration within the incoming administration that EU leaders are not showing a serious intent to work with the United States.A key message the Biden team has been its commitment to reverse President Donald Trump’s “America First” doctrine and work more closely with U.S. allies to confront common challenges.“Any agreement now would be a slap in the face to the Biden team given Sullivan’s comment,” Stephen F. Szabo, a senior fellow at the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies, said in an interview with VOA.“They [the EU] have been critical of the Trump approach of trade wars with both China and the EU simultaneously, arguing that the U.S. needs the EU to have a joint Western approach, something which is essential to a successful Western policy,” Szabo said.“If China splits the West, it can pursue a divide-and-conquer strategy,” he added.Kasper Zeuthen, an EU spokesperson in Washington, told VOA this week that “the EU-China investment talks are intensive. Progress has been achieved in a number of areas. There are still some important outstanding matters and talks are continuing this week. The EU remains committed to the end-of-year deadline for conclusion of the negotiations, provided we have a deal worth having. We will not put speed over substance.”On Friday, Wang Wenbin, spokesperson for the Chinese foreign ministry, said at a routine news briefing held in Beijing that China will “conduct negotiations with external parties in accordance with its own pace” while “striving to achieve a comprehensive, balanced, high-quality investment treaty with the EU.”Wang’s remarks reiterated a similar statement released less than 24 hours earlier by China’s Commerce Department.The latest remarks made in Beijing were picked up by news media and China-EU-U.S. watchers.A day after declaring that investment talks with the EU were going smoothly, China suggests otherwise, saying it will conduct the talks “at its own pace” https://t.co/YSlB8N2bK8— Noah Barkin (@noahbarkin) December 25, 2020In the days leading up to the talked-about conclusion of negotiations between the EU and Beijing, a group of EU scholars issued a strongly worded joint statement opposing any such deal.“Why the fast track, the hurry, and the sidestepping of a public debate, why play into China’s hand? What message is Europe, so proud of its deepening integration, so talkative about its open strategic autonomy, so insistent on its respect for values, sending to the rest of the world? Member states should think twice,” urged a large group of prominent scholars specializing in EU-China-U.S. ties.“This has been a year in which China has rescinded its international treaty over Hong Kong. It has been a year during which China clashed on the border with India, engaged in military coercion of Taiwan, and economic coercion against Australia,” the group of French, German, Italian, Czech, Polish, Belgian, Dutch, Greek and Slovakian scholars wrote.“From Beijing’s perspective, having the EU sign an investment treaty after this sequence of events and in the phase of power transition in the U.S., amounts to a strong endorsement of its political trajectory, if not an encouragement to behave more assertively.”One of the signers, Mathieu Duchâtel, an analyst at the French think tank Institut Montaigne, tweeted on Thursday, “What China would have gained strategically: the neutralization of Europe as a values-oriented international player and as a transatlantic partner.”What China would have gained strategically: the neutralization of Europe as a values-oriented international player and as a transatlantic partner. That forced labor in Xinjiang killed this Christmas phase is really a bad scenario for Beijing https://t.co/UJbzbkV748— Mathieu Duchâtel (@mtdtl) December 24, 2020
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US Spending Bill Awaits Trump’s Decision
U.S. President Donald Trump is spending the holiday weekend at his Florida resort as both Democrats and Republicans wait to see whether he will sign a critical pandemic relief and government funding package that he sharply criticized earlier this week.The $2.3 trillion spending legislation, which includes $892 billion for coronavirus relief, has been flown from Washington to his Mar-a-Lago club to be available for him to sign into law. Trump has not specifically threatened to veto the bill, but he surprised lawmakers in both parties by labeling the legislation as a “disgrace” after it had been passed in the House and Senate, capping months of negotiations.President Donald Trump’s motorcade drives to Trump International Golf Club, Dec. 25, 2020, in West Palm Beach, Fla.Trump said the package gave too much money to special interests and foreign aid, and said direct payments of $600 for most Americans should be increased to $2,000. That was seen as a rebuke to members of his own Republican party, which had resisted Democratic efforts to negotiate larger payments.A partial federal government shutdown looms early Tuesday if Trump does not sign the bill. Congress is planning to return to work Monday, interrupting its usual Christmas recess, and could take up a stopgap measure to extend government funding for a few days or weeks while the impasse is resolved.House members are also scheduled to vote Monday to override Trump’s veto of a $740 billion bill authorizing the country’s defense programs. If the House vote passes, the Senate could vote on the measure as early as Tuesday. It requires a two-thirds vote in both chambers to override a presidential veto.Trump has criticized the defense bill on several fronts, arguing without explanation that the bill benefits China, and has demanded the removal of language that allows for the renaming of military bases that honor Confederate leaders. He has also demanded the addition of a provision making it easier to sue social media companies over content posted by their users.House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, of Calif., speaks during her weekly briefing, Dec. 4, 2020, on Capitol Hill in Washington.House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called Trump’s veto “an act of staggering recklessness that harms our troops.”However, Pelosi has embraced Trump’s call for $2,000 direct payments to all Americans below a specified income level, and on Thursday used a maneuver to force Republicans to defy Trump by blocking the increase.Pelosi has announced plans to force another vote on the issue Monday. It is liable to be passed in the House, where Democrats have a majority, but unlikely to progress in the Republican-controlled Senate.The White House declined to share details of the president’s schedule during his Christmas holiday. It said only: “During the holiday season, President Trump will continue to work tirelessly for the American people. His schedule includes many meetings and calls.”Nevertheless, Trump was photographed playing golf at his Florida course near Mar-a-Lago both Thursday and Friday. Reports say he was joined on the course Christmas Day by his close ally, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham.
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Tunisia Extends 5-Year-Old State of Emergency
The Tunisian presidency on Friday announced a six-month extension of the country’s state of emergency, in place since a 2015 attack on a presidential guard bus claimed by the Islamic State group.President Kais Saied “decided on the six-month extension of the nationwide state of emergency, from December 26, 2020, to June 23, 2021,” a statement said.The measure, extended continuously since late 2015, grants exceptional powers to the country’s security forces.It allows measures to “ensure the control of the press” and for strikes and meetings that “create disorder” to be banned.Tunisia has seen political and social instability in recent weeks, along with protests in several regions.The country faced a rise in jihadist activity after its 2011 revolution, with attacks killing dozens of security personnel, civilians and foreign tourists.The 2015 attack in the capital, Tunis, killed 12 presidential guards and came after two other deadly attacks claimed by IS that year: one at the capital’s Bardo museum and another at the coastal resort of Sousse.On Thursday, a man of “extremist appearance” attempted to attack a police officer with a knife in Tunis while yelling “Allahu akbar” (God is greatest in Arabic), the interior ministry said in a statement.Last Sunday, officials said the decapitated body of a 20-year-old man had been found in the country’s central Kasserine region in a probable “terrorist” attack.The mountainous central region is also a hideout for the Tunisian branch of jihadist group al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), known as Okba Ibn Nafaa.As well as the state of emergency, a nighttime curfew is in place in Tunisia to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus, which has infected more than 126,000 people and killed more than 4,300 in the country, according to health ministry figures.
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Uighur Diaspora Hails Removal of ETIM From US Terror List
Uighur activists and experts alike welcomed the removal of the East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM) from the U.S. terrorist list, saying the move by Washington last month helps the religious minority fight more effectively for its rights, while making it harder for China to portray its crackdown in Xinjiang as a counterterrorism measure.“To some degree, the Chinese government succeeded in labeling Uyghur organizations and personnel as terrorists in some international platforms,” said Ilshat Hasan Kokbore, a member of Munich-based World Uyghur Congress (WUC), which China has accused of being a group of “East Turkistan terrorist forces.”The ETIM, also referred to as the East Turkistan Islamic Party (ETIP), was founded in 1997 in Pakistan by then-33-year-old Uighur religious figure Hasan Mahsum, who was living there in exile. The leader reportedly had led a few dozen Uighur militants in the Afghanistan and Pakistan border region before being killed by a Pakistani army drone in October 2003.The U.S. designated the group in September 2002, accusing it of terrorist acts, such as arson, assassination, and bombing of buses, movie theaters, department stores, markets and hotels in China. The U.N. followed suit the same month, upon a request by the U.S., China, Afghanistan and Kyrgyzstan.U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in a brief October 20 directive that was published November 5, revoked the terror designation. The decision, according to a State Department spokesperson quoted by Agence France-Presse, came because “for more than a decade, there has been no credible evidence that ETIM continues to exist.”Part of a trade-offJames Millward, a professor of Chinese history at Georgetown University, told VOA the U.S. listing of ETIM originally used language from a PRC white paper but mistakenly attributed a long list of violent acts from the white paper to a single group, ETIM.The designation, Millward said, “was part of a tit for tat to get PRC’s endorsement of the U.S. plans to invade Iraq.”“[T]he think-tank and counterterrorism world, on the other hand, have used the U.S. listing and PRC propaganda far too credulously to talk about terrorism in Xinjiang as an ongoing, even escalating reality,” Millward added.Another Chinese history professor, Michael Clarke from Canberra-based Australian National University, said the ETIM has lacked capacity to harm China since the death of its leader, Mahsum, in 2003. Nevertheless, authorities in Beijing continue to exaggerate its strength to gain international sympathy for their policy toward minority Uighurs.“The ETIM designation has been used by Beijing ever since 2002 as a blanket term deployed against any and all violence and opposition to the state in Xinjiang in order to delegitimize Uighur grievances and justify increased repression,” Clarke said.FILE – A protester from the Uighur community living in Turkey holds an anti-China placard during a protest in Istanbul, Oct. 1, 2020, against what they allege is Chinese oppression of Muslim Uighurs in far-western Xinjiang province.Human rights organizations say China since early 2017 has used fighting extremism and separatism as an excuse to hold more than 1 million Uighurs in internment camps where they face torture, indoctrination and forced labor. The organizations say the rest of the Uighur population in Xinjiang lives under heavy state surveillance.Suppression cited, not terrorism“The overwhelming majority of the violence in the Uighur region of China since 2001 cannot be characterized as terrorism,” said Sean Roberts, a professor at George Washington University.“Often, this violence has erupted when peaceful protests have been suppressed by security organs, and much of it can be attributed to violent responses to police brutality,” Roberts told VOA.China, however, rejects allegations of human rights violations in Xinjiang. Chinese officials have called the detention camps “vocational training schools” where “students who were infected by extremist thoughts learn Chinese law, language and skills” in order to become “normal” people.Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin, in a news conference November 6, said his country “deplores and firmly opposes” the removal of ETIM from the U.S. terror list.Describing the group as posing “serious threats” to security and stability in China, Wang said the U.S. had “flip-flopped” and exposed “the current U.S. administration’s double standard on counterterrorism.”“The United States should immediately correct its mistakes, refrain from whitewashing terrorist organizations and stop backpedaling on international counterterrorism cooperation,” Wang told reporters from Beijing.Exiled Uighur activists, contrary to China’s party line, say the U.S. decision is an important step to recognize the plight of Uighurs who have been deprived of basic cultural and political rights under the PRC.Salih Hudayar, founder and director of the Washington-based East Turkistan National Awakening Movement, said the State Department decision is equally important for Uighur Americans who have been afraid of using their preferred term “East Turkistan” instead of Xinjiang lest they be associated with this ETIM group.“Many Uighurs defaulted to calling it ‘Xinjiang,’ which means ‘new territory’ in Chinese, even though most Uighurs consider it to be an offensive, colonialist term designed to erase our identity, culture and history,” Hudayar told VOA.
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Central Africa Rebel Groups Call Off Cease-Fire Before Election
A rebel coalition that has been fighting the government in the Central African Republic said Friday that it was calling off a three-day cease-fire ahead of a tense general election on the weekend.The rebel groups launched an offensive a week ago threatening to march on the capital, Bangui, in what the government described as an attempted coup, but their progress was halted with international help.The Coalition of Patriots for Change (CPC) then announced a brief truce before presidential and legislative elections Sunday, which are seen as a crucial test for the troubled country.But the CPC said in a statement Friday it had “decided to break the 72-hour truce it had imposed on itself and resume its unrelenting march towards its final objective” – taking the capital.In the statement, the CPC said that it made the decision faced with “the irresponsible stubbornness of the government.”The cease-fire’s signatories had “invited the authorities to observe the cease-fire” and called on President Faustin Archange Touadera to suspend the election.But government spokesman Ange-Maxime Kazagui dismissed the cease-fire on Thursday, saying it was “a non-event” and that “we haven’t seen these people stop what they’re doing.”The CPC said the government had “cavalierly rejected” this “chance for peace.””Several attacks followed on positions occupied” by CPC forces, its statement said.The authenticity of the statement was confirmed to AFP by two of the main armed groups in the coalition – the 3R and the Popular Front for the Rebirth of Central Africa (FPRC).’We march on Bangui’General Bobo, the leader of 3R, told AFP that “now either the government disperses us, or we march on Bangui, which is our final objective.”A convoy of the U.N. Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic passes by an election poster of opposition candidate Anicet Georges Dologuélé, in Bangui, Dec. 25, 2020.After a brief lull in fighting on Thursday morning, clashes resumed in Bakouma, about 800 kilometres (500 miles) northeast of Bangui, according to Vladimir Monteiro, spokesman for the U.N.’s MINUSCA peacekeeping force.The CPC was created on December 19 by armed groups who accuse Touadera, the front-runner in Sunday’s election, of trying to rig the vote.Its components are drawn from militia groups that, together, control two-thirds of the country.Earlier, the government accused Touadera’s ousted predecessor, Francois Bozize, of fomenting a coup with the rebels, a charge he denies.Gunmen had sought to advance on the main highways toward Bangui but were stopped, according to MINUSCA.On Tuesday, rebels took the CAR’s fourth-largest town, Bambari, 380 kilometres (240 miles) northeast of Bangui. Security forces backed by U.N. peacekeepers regained control the following day.MINUSCA said Thursday that a 300-strong contingent of Rwandan reinforcements had arrived in the country.Russia, which recently signed a military cooperation agreement with Touadera’s government, has also sent at least 300 military instructors to bolster the CAR’s forces.’I am not afraid’Sunday’s elections are deemed a key test of the strife-torn country’s ability to recover stability.Touadera, 63, is considered a shoo-in for a second term after the CAR’s top court barred Bozize, who is on a 2014 wanted list and under U.N. sanctions, from standing.But a crucial question is whether turnout will be badly affected by violence or intimidation, denting the credibility of the next president and the 140-seat legislature.On the streets of Bangui on Friday – the last official day of campaigning – more attention seemed to be paid to Christmas celebrations than the looming elections.”I am not afraid. I’m going to vote on Sunday, and I think peace will return after the elections,” said Wallace, 27.Mineral-rich but rated the world’s second-poorest country on the Human Development Index, the CAR has been chronically unstable since independence 60 years ago.
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Britain Says Thousands of Lorries Cross Channel After Virus Testing Stepped Up
More than 4,500 lorries, among a huge backlog of trucks stranded for days in the British port of Dover, crossed the Channel on Friday after extra troops were deployed to step up coronavirus testing, a minister said.Ferry services between Dover and the French port of Calais resumed on Thursday, ending a blockade France had imposed for several days following the discovery of a new coronavirus variant in England.British Transport Minister Grant Shapps said on Twitter on Friday that more than 10,000 coronavirus tests had been carried out on lorry drivers and only 24 of them had tested positive.Britain deployed additional troops to help clear the queues of lorries waiting for COVID-19 tests before being allowed to board cross-channel ferries. British media said 800 extra soldiers were sent to support 300 initially deployed.Soldiers checked vehicles and drivers’ documents at the entrance to the port. In one case, French officials, who were in Dover to help clear the backlog, were seen administering a nasal swab to a driver.The French and British governments agreed to end the blockade on Tuesday but the British authorities had said it would take days to clear the long lines of trucks.
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Sculpture Honors First Black President of an American College
The first Black president of an American college is being honored with a sculpture installed in the Vermont city where he was born in 1826.The larger-than-life marble bust of Martin Henry Freeman, a scholar, sits on a stack of books in a downtown square as part of the Rutland Sculpture Trail.”It’s a very soft, gentle portrayal of Martin Freeman,” said Al Wakefield, one of the sponsors of the piece that was installed in November. “I don’t know how many people remember either through historical writings what kind of person he was, but he’s depicted as a very gentle, kind, literary, artsy kind of a guy.”It’s the eighth sculpture to be added to the city’s sculpture trail aimed at celebrating local history and drawing more people to visit the working-class community. Among the pieces is a marble relief honoring the Vermont volunteers who served in the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, made up of African Americans soldiers, during the Civil War.In 1856, Freeman became president of the all-Black Allegheny Institute and Mission Church in the Pittsburgh area, later named Avery College. He attended Middlebury College in Vermont, graduating at the top of his class in 1849. Freeman’s father fought in the American Revolution, one way for enslaved men to win their freedom.The sculptures of Freeman and the Black Civil War soldiers were recently added to the Vermont African American Heritage Trail, a guide to various spots around the state that highlights the lives of African Americans in Vermont.From the start, organizers of the sculpture trail wanted to be inclusive of all kinds of history, events and people, said Steve Costello, who came up with the idea for the trail.”The country is full of sculptures planned without much consideration of the contributions of women or minorities, so we developed a broad list of ideas, which included Freeman from the get-go,” he said by email.Vermont racial issuesThe very white and liberal state of Vermont has struggled with issues of race. Two years ago, the state’s only Black female lawmaker at the time resigned from the Legislature after receiving racist threats. At the end of this year, the head of the Rutland chapter of the NAACP is stepping down after she said she and her family had been targeted by racially motivated harassment. This fall, in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police and the wounding of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin, protesters camped out for more than a month in a park across the street from the Burlington Police Department and held marches calling for the firing of three police officers. The officers are accused in lawsuits of using excessive force against two Black men in separate incidents in 2018.The Freeman sculpture, designed by Mark Burnett, who is Black, and carved by Don Ramey, was installed at a time when some cities are reconsidering and even removing sculptures or monuments related to the Confederacy or to other historical figures, such as Christopher Columbus.Just this week, Virginia removed a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee that has represented the state in the U.S. Capitol for 111 years. A state commission has recommended replacing it with a statue of Barbara Johns, who protested conditions at her all-Black high school in 1951. Her court case became part of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision by the U.S. Supreme Court striking down racial segregation in public schools.Wakefield, a Black man who moved to Vermont from New York City 30 years ago and whose family helped sponsor the sculpture of Freeman, said it was “really, really relevant,” in the context of the nationwide protests for racial justice and the reassessment of public statues.Success at MiddleburyFreeman’s academic success took hold at Middlebury College, where he was the only Black student in a state that was the first to abolish adult slavery in 1777. Abolitionists in town had urged Middlebury to enroll Black students as a demonstration that the school really stood against slavery, said William Hart, an emeritus professor of history of Black studies at Middlebury College.Freeman went on to teach mathematics and natural philosophy at Allegheny Institute and Mission Church in the Pittsburgh area, where he became president in 1856. He supported the colonization of Liberia for Black Americans and abruptly resigned in 1863 with a plan to teach at Liberia College.He went to Liberia, as he often said, to be a man, which he felt he could not be in the United States, Hart said. It was an act of self-determination, he said. But unlike Freeman, many of the Black Americans who went to Liberia were biracial, the sons and daughters of former enslavers, Hart said. Being dark-skinned, Freeman felt discrimination there, too.He taught at Liberia College and subsequently also became its president. He died in Monrovia in 1889.”I think that what is important for Vermonters to know is that there has always been a place for persons of African descent in the state of Vermont,” said Curtiss Reed, executive director of the Vermont Partnership for Fairness & Diversity. He would like to see more public works of art like the sculpture of Freeman.”There are those who would say that we can deny the existence of folks of color as well as their contributions, whether as pastors, or as legislators, or as business people, as abolitionists, as veterans,” he said. “There’s a lot of education to be done.”
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Ethiopia Says National Election to Be Held in June
Ethiopia will hold a parliamentary election on June 5, the electoral board said Friday, as Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed seeks to quell political and ethnic violence in several regions.Abiy’s Prosperity Party, a pan-Ethiopian movement he founded a year ago, faces challenges from increasingly strident ethnically based parties seeking more power for their regions.Africa’s second most populous nation has a federal system with 10 regional governments, many of which have boundary disputes with neighboring areas or face low-level unrest.In the northern Tigray region, thousands of people are believed to have died and 950,000 have fled their homes since fighting between regional and federal forces erupted on November 4. Tigray held its own elections in September in defiance of the federal government, which declared the polls illegal.The National Electoral Board said next year’s calendar for polls did not include an election in Tigray. It said the date for a Tigray vote would be set once an interim government, which was established during the conflict, opened election offices.The national vote was postponed from August this year because of the coronavirus crisis. The head of the winning party becomes prime minister.FILE – Ethiopians who fled fighting in the Tigray region gather to receive relief aid at the Um Rakouba camp on the Sudan-Ethiopia border, in Kassala state, Sudan, Dec. 17, 2020.For nearly three decades until Abiy’s appointment, Ethiopia was ruled by a coalition of four ethnically based movements dominated by the party from Tigray. That administration ruled in an increasingly autocratic fashion until Abiy took power in 2018 following years of bloody anti-government street protests.The initial months after Abiy’s appointment saw a rush of political and economic reforms, including the release of tens of thousands of political prisoners.’Restoring peace’Abiy merged three of the main regional parties last year to form the Prosperity Party. The fourth, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), refused to join.Voter registration for the June vote would take place March 1-30, the electoral board said.Abiy’s peace deal with Eritrea, which won independence from Ethiopia in 1993 after years of conflict, helped earn him the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019. But his moves to loosen the Ethiopian government’s iron grip was followed by outbreaks of violence as regional politicians and groups jostled for resources and power.Abiy ordered troops to the western Benishangul-Gumuz region, which borders Sudan, on Thursday after attackers torched homes and killed more than 200 people in a village.FILE – A man drives a cart past the wreckage of a truck torched during demonstrations along the road in Holonkomi town, in the Oromiya region of Ethiopia, Dec. 17, 2015.The prime minister is also grappling with a long-running insurgency in Ethiopia’s most populous region, Oromiya.The opposition Oromo Liberation Front, deemed a terrorist movement until Abiy lifted a ban on the group, had said on December 12 that the government wanted to hold elections to divert attention from Ethiopia’s security problems.”We recommend that repairing the fractured administrative regions and restoring peace and security must be undertaken before the election takes place,” it had said.Many Oromo politicians are in jail, such as Jawar Mohammed, a prominent media mogul and member of the Oromo Federalist Congress party.He and other party leaders were charged in September with terrorism offenses after the killing of popular Oromo musician Haacaaluu Hundeessaa, whose death sparked protests that killed at least 178 people in Oromiya and the capital, Addis Ababa.
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Algeria Seeks Tougher Jail Term for Prominent Activist
Algerian prosecutors have requested a tougher two-year jail sentence for prominent anti-government activist Amira Bouraoui during her trial on appeal, a prisoners’ rights group said Friday.Bouraoui, a 44-year-old gynecologist, is a prominent figure in the “Hirak” protest movement that secured the resignation of former president Abdelaziz Bouteflika in April last year.She came to prominence in 2014 when she opposed Bouteflika running for a fourth term.She was sentenced to a one-year jail term in June over a string of charges, including insulting the president and Islam.Bouraoui was tried on appeal on Thursday night in a court in Tipaza, in the country’s west, the CNLD prisoners’ rights group said.Prosecutors are now seeking two years behind bars for the activist, the CNLD said in a statement Friday on its Facebook page.A verdict is expected December 31.The CNLD says over 90 people, including activists, social media users and journalists, are currently in custody in connection with the country’s anti-government protest movement or individual liberties actions – mostly for dissenting social media posts.Bouraoui was granted provisional release in July, along with several other opposition figures.
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No Time to Rest: EU Nations Assess Brexit Trade Deal with UK
The fast-track ratification of the post-Brexit trade deal between the U.K. and the European Union got underway on Christmas Day as ambassadors from the bloc’s 27 nations started assessing the accord that takes effect in a week.At Friday’s exceptional meeting, the ambassadors were briefed about the details of the draft treaty by the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier.They are set to reconvene again on Monday and have informed lawmakers at the European Parliament that they intend to take a decision on the preliminary application of the deal within days.While voicing their sadness at the rupture with Britain, EU leaders are relieved that the tortuous aftermath of the Brexit vote had come to a conclusion in Thursday’s agreement about future trade ties.All member states are expected to back the agreement as is the European Parliament, which can only give its consent retrospectively as it can’t reconvene until 2021. British lawmakers have to give their approval, too, and are being summoned next week to vote on the accord.European Union chief negotiator Michel Barnier carries a binder of the Brexit trade deal during a special meeting at the European Council building in Brussels, Dec. 25, 2020.Both sides claim the agreement protects their cherished goals.British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said it gives the U.K. control over its money, borders, laws and fishing grounds. The EU says it protects its single market of around 450 million people and contains safeguards to ensure the U.K. does not unfairly undercut the bloc’s standards.Johnson hailed the agreement as a “new beginning” for the U.K. in its relationship with European neighbors. Opposition leaders, even those who are minded to back it because it’s better than a no-deal scenario, said it adds unnecessary costs on businesses and fails to provide a clear framework for the crucial services sector, which accounts for 80% of the British economy.In a Christmas message, Johnson sought to sell the deal to a weary public after years of Brexit-related wrangling since the U.K. voted narrowly to leave the EU in 2016. Although the U.K. formally left the bloc on Jan. 31, it remains in a transition period tied to EU rules until the end of this year.Without a trade deal, tariffs would have been imposed on trade between the two sides starting Jan. 1. Both sides would have suffered in that scenario, with the British economy taking a bigger hit at least in the near-term, as it is more reliant on trade with the EU than vice versa.British Prime Minister Boris Johnson holds a news conference in Downing Street in London, Dec. 24, 2020.”I have a small present for anyone who may be looking for something to read in that sleepy post-Christmas lunch moment, and here it is, tidings, glad tidings of great joy, because this is a deal,” Johnson said in his video message, brandishing a sheaf of papers.”A deal to give certainty to business, travelers and all investors in our country from Jan. 1. A deal with our friends and partners in the EU,” he said.Though tariffs and quotas have been avoided, there will be more red tape because as the U.K. is leaving the EU’s frictionless single market and customs union. Firms will have to file forms and customs declarations for the first time in years. There will also be different rules on product labeling as well as checks on agricultural products.Despite those additional costs, many British businesses who export widely across the EU voiced relief that a deal was finally in place as it avoids the potentially cataclysmic imposition of tariffs.”While the deal is not fully comprehensive, it at least provides a foundation to build on in future,” said Laura Cohen, chief executive of the British Ceramic Confederation.One sector that appears to be disappointed is the fishing industry with both sides voicing their discontent at the new arrangements. Arguments over fishing rights were largely behind the delay in reaching an agreement.Under the terms of the deal, the EU will give up a quarter of the quota it catches in U.K. waters, far less than the 80% Britain initially demanded. The system will be phased in over 5 1/2 years, after which quotas will be reassessed.”In the end, it was clear that Boris Johnson wanted an overall trade deal and was willing to sacrifice fishing,” said Barrie Deas, chief executive of the National Federation of Fishermen’s Organizations.The French government, which had fought hard for fishing access, announced aid for its fishing industry to help deal with the smaller quota, but insisted that the deal protects French interests.The president of the French ports of Calais and Boulogne-sur-Mer, Jean-Marc Puissesseau, said no matter what is in the Brexit trade deal, life for his port will become more difficult because “there will no longer be free movement of merchandise.”Some 10,000 jobs in the Boulogne area are tied to fishing and its seafood-processing industry, he said, and about 70% of the seafood they use comes from British waters.”Without fish, there is no business,” he told The Associated Press.
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Judge Delays Execution of Only Woman on US Death Row
A federal judge said the Justice Department unlawfully rescheduled the execution of the only woman on federal death row, potentially setting up the Trump administration to schedule the execution after president-elect Joe Biden takes office.U.S. District Court Judge Randolph Moss also vacated an order from the director of the Bureau of Prisons that had set Lisa Montgomery’s execution date for Jan. 12. Montgomery had previously been scheduled to be put to death at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana, this month, but Moss delayed the execution after her attorneys contracted coronavirus visiting their client and asked him to extend the amount of time to file a clemency petition.Moss prohibited the Bureau of Prisons from carrying out Lisa Montgomery’s execution before the end of the year and officials rescheduled her execution date for Jan. 12. But Moss ruled on Wednesday that the agency was also prohibited from rescheduling the date while a stay was in place.”The Court, accordingly, concludes that the Director’s order setting a new execution date while the Court’s stay was in effect was ‘not in accordance with law,'” Moss wrote.A spokesperson for the Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Under the order, the Bureau of Prisons cannot reschedule Montgomery’s execution until at least Jan. 1. Generally, under Justice Department guidelines, a death-row inmate must be notified at least 20 days before the execution. Because of the judge’s order, if the Justice Department chooses to reschedule the date in January, it could mean that the execution would be scheduled after Biden’s inauguration on Jan. 20.A spokesperson for Biden has told The Associated Press the president-elect “opposes the death penalty now and in the future” and would work as president to end its use in office. But Biden’s representatives have not said whether executions would be paused immediately once Biden takes office.Montgomery was convicted of killing 23-year-old Bobbie Jo Stinnett in the northwest Missouri town of Skidmore in December 2004. She used a rope to strangle Stinnett, who was eight months pregnant, and then a kitchen knife to cut the baby girl from the womb, authorities said.Prosecutors said Montgomery removed the baby from Stinnett’s body, took the child with her, and attempted to pass the girl off as her own. Montgomery’s legal team has argued that their client suffers from serious mental illnesses.”Given the severity of Mrs. Montgomery’s mental illness, the sexual and physical torture she endured throughout her life, and the connection between her trauma and the facts of her crime, we appeal to President Trump to grant her mercy, and commute her sentence to life imprisonment,” one of Montgomery’s lawyers, Sandra Babcock, said in a statement.Two other federal inmates are scheduled to be executed in January but have tested positive for coronavirus and their attorneys are also seeking delays to their executions.
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Russia Historian Gets More Than 12 Years for Murdering, Dismembering Girlfriend
A Russian court has sentenced a flamboyant Russian professor who killed and dismembered his student lover to 12 1/2 years in prison after convicting him of her murder.Oleg Sokolov, 64, who was once awarded France’s Order of Legion d’Honneur for his research into military leader Napoleon Bonaparte, was detained in St. Petersburg in November 2019 after being pulled out of the Moika River with a backpack containing the severed body parts of a woman.
Investigators later found the woman’s head in his apartment.
Sokolov later admitted to killing and dismembering his lover, 24-year-old postgraduate student Anastasia Yeshchenko.
State prosecutors had requested a 15-year sentence for Sokolov.
Sokolov, who regularly dressed in Napoleon-era costumes and took part in battle reenactments, said during the hearing that he fully accepted guilt on all charges, but added that he was not sure if the murder was premeditated as, according to him, he killed his lover in state of “temporary insanity.”
The high-profile case was adjourned or postponed several times in recent months for various reasons, including restrictions imposed to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
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South Korea, Japan, Indonesia Record Highest Daily Increases in COVID Cases
South Korea, Japan, and Indonesia recorded the highest daily increase in coronavirus cases Friday as a third wave of COVID-19 hit the countries.In South Korea 70% of the more than 1,200 new cases were in the greater Seoul area, where half the country’s 52 million people live.In Japan, with 884 cases reported Friday nationwide, Tokyo had the largest number of infections.Indonesia reported its biggest daily rise in deaths, with 258 fatalities and 7,259 infections, bringing the country’s total numbers to 20,847 and 700,097, respectively.Mexico on Thursday became the first Latin American country to launch a COVID-19 vaccination initiative, offering hope to a nation that has lost more than 120,000 people to the pandemic.A 59-year-old head nurse at the intensive care unit at Mexico City’s Ruben Lenero hospital was the first to get the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, in keeping with the country’s strategy to focus first on health care workers.“This is the best gift that I could have received in 2020,” Ramirez said after being inoculated in a ceremony broadcast by national media.Chile will immediately start inoculations of health care workers after receiving the first 10,000 doses of a 10 million-dose order of the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine Thursday, officials said.Also Thursday, Costa Rica was preparing to vaccinate two senior citizens in a home near San Jose, while Argentina received about 300,000 doses of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine.The United States is about to complete its second week of vaccinations with about 1 million inoculations, mainly among health care workers and elderly residents of nursing homes. The numbers, however, are far short of the goal set by Operation Warp Speed, the federal government’s effort to mass produce millions of doses of vaccines, to inoculate 20 million Americans by the end of the year.U.S. Operation Warp Speed chief adviser Dr. Moncef Slaoui has warned that it would take longer to administer the doses.The Trump administration has reached a deal worth $2 billion to secure an additional 100 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which would boost the nation’s supply to 200 million doses by mid-July.With surges throughout the U.S. leading to 327,000 COVID-19 deaths and 18.5 million coronavirus infections, according to Johns Hopkins University, the speed with which immunizations can be administered becomes increasingly important.California became the first U.S. state Thursday to record 2 million coronavirus cases.Iran said it has U.S. approval to transfer funds to pay for coronavirus vaccines, Central Bank Governor Abdolnaser Hemmati said Thursday.The U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control gave permission for the transfer of $244 million to a Swiss bank to pay for initial imports of 16.8 million doses of vaccines from COVAX, the multiagency group set up to assure fair access to vaccines for all countries.U.S. authorities announced on Thursday that passengers arriving from Britain should test negative for COVID-19 before departure, after the discovery of a new and more contagious strain of the novel coronavirus.China on Thursday became the latest country to suspend all travel with Britain.
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Russia Opens Criminal Probe Into Navalny Lawyer Who Tried to Meet With FSB Agent
Russian law enforcement agencies have opened a criminal case against Lyubov Sobol, a lawyer for the outspoken Kremlin critic Aleksei Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) and took her in for questioning, the head of the foundation said on December 25.FBK Director Ivan Zhdanov said on Twitter that investigators launched a probe into Sobol for trespassing “with the use of violence or a threat to use it” after she rang the doorbell of an agent who has implicated the Federal Security Service (FSB) in the poisoning of the 44-year-old Kremlin critic.Sobol’s lawyer Vladimir Voronin told the AFP news agency that the opposition lawyer was currently a witness in the probe but added that he expected Sobol to be charged later on December 25.
There was no immediate comment from Russian authorities.
Earlier on December 25, police raided Sobol’s apartment and took away her computers and phones, Navalny’s supporters said.
“Lyubov Sobol was taken for questioning to the Investigative Committee. The apartment is being searched,” the foundation said via Twitter on December 25. Любовь Соболь увезли на допрос в Следственный комитет. В квартире проходит обыск.— Навальный LIVE (@navalnylive) December 25, 2020Sobol posted a video on Twitter from inside her apartment before going incommunicado. In the video, her seven-year-old daughter can be heard crying as someone pounds on the front door, demanding it be opened.
“They knock on the door and say the police are here. Apparently, the search will be at my home. I’ve never had a personal search before. Well, everything happens for the first time. Apparently, because I recently went to Navalny’s poisoner, ” Sobol says in the video.Separate CCTV image released by Navalny’s allies shows masked men in black uniforms inside Sobol’s Moscow residential building.Sobol was among journalists and political activists who tried to meet with Konstantin Kudryavtsev late in the evening on December 21, the day Navalny published an audio-recording of what appears to be a conversation with Kudryavtsev over the FSB’s role in the poisoning.
She was briefly detained at a police station.Sobol’s lawyer said the probe had been launched following a complaint from Kudryavtsev’s mother-in-law.
Russian Opposition Leader Navalny Trailed for Years Before Poisoning, Report Says An elite Russian intelligence chemical weapons unit tracked opposition figure Alexei Navalny for the past three years, according to investigative website BellingcatNavalny said the Russian authorities’ “hysterical reaction” only proved their guilt.
“You call a killer’s doorbell — they break down your door and take you in for questioning,” Navalny wrote on his blog on December 25.
Laboratory tests in three separate European countries, confirmed by the global chemical weapons watchdog, established that Navalny was poisoned with a Soviet-style Novichok nerve agent.
Russia has rejected calls for an investigation into the poisoning and denies the involvement of state agents in the case, saying it has yet to be shown any evidence.Navalny is currently in Germany where he is recovering from the poisoning. He has said he plans to return home an undisclosed date.
The European Union and Britain have imposed asset freezes and travel bans against six senior Russian officials believed to be responsible for the Navalny poisoning, as well as one entity involved in the program that has produced a group of military-grade nerve agents known as Novichok.
With reporting by Current Time, Reuters and AFP.
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Vehicle Explosion Rocks Nashville on Christmas, Police Call It an ‘Intentional Act’
A parked motor home exploded in downtown Nashville on Christmas morning in what police described as an “intentional act,” and fire officials reported taking three people to hospital, but none were critically injured.
Police initially responded to an emergency call of “shots fired” in the downtown tourist area about 6 a.m. CST (1200 GMT), when they reported seeing the vehicle, said Nashville police spokesman Don Aaron, without specifying what made it suspicious.
“Circumstances about the vehicle caused the officers to call the bomb squad,” Aaron said. The bomb squad was on the way when the explosion occurred.
“We do believe that the explosion was an intentional act,” he said, describing the explosion as “significant” and adding that police were working with federal authorities including the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Andrew McCabe, a former deputy FBI director, told CNN police may have been the target of the explosions given they were answering the report of a suspicious vehicle when it blew up. He said an explosion of this size would be investigated as a possible act of terrorism, whether domestic or foreign.
Moments before the blast, police officers went door-to-door in nearby buildings to hustle residents to safety and motioned a man walking his dog near the vehicle to change direction.
Police said it was not immediately clear if anyone was inside the motor home when it exploded.
The explosion, which could be felt nine blocks away, knocked one officer off his feet and caused what was hoped to be only a temporary hearing loss, the spokesman said. Residents reported seeing a number of other vehicles on fire amid the debris.
Most of the buildings were closed given the hour and Christmas holiday in the heart of the city, the capital of both the state of Tennessee and U.S. country music.
“There was trees lying everywhere, glass laying everywhere,”Nashville resident Buck McCoy told CNN.
The explosion destroyed several other vehicles and damaged several buildings, launching black smoke in the sky that could be seen for miles.
“We are not aware of any other attempted explosion,” the spokesman said.
Nashville Mayor John Cooper urged people to stay away from the downtown area, as police and federal authorities investigated, aided by bomb dogs and surveillance camera footage.
President Donald Trump was briefed on the explosion, a White House spokesman said.
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US to Require Negative COVID-19 Test From British Travelers
The United States will require airline passengers from Britain to get a negative COVID-19 test before their flight, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced late Thursday.
The U.S. is the latest country to announce new travel restrictions because of a new variant of the coronavirus that is spreading in Britain and elsewhere.
Airline passengers from the United Kingdom will need to get negative COVID-19 tests within three days of their trip and provide the results to the airline, the CDC said in a statement. The agency said the order will be signed Friday and go into effect on Monday.
“If a passenger chooses not to take a test, the airline must deny boarding to the passenger,” the CDC said in its statement.
The agency said because of travel restrictions in place since March, air travel to the U.S. from the U.K. is already down by 90%.
Last weekend, Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the new variant of the coronavirus seemed to spread more easily than earlier ones and was moving rapidly through England. But Johnson stressed “there’s no evidence to suggest it is more lethal or causes more severe illness,” or that vaccines will be less effective against it.
This week, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said three airlines with flights from London to New York — British Airways, Delta and Virgin Atlantic — had agreed to require passengers to take a COVID-19 test before getting on the plane. United Airlines on Thursday agreed to do the same for its flights to Newark, New Jersey.
Britain has been under considerable pressure since the word of the new variant of the virus was made public. Some 40 countries imposed travel bans on Britain, leaving the island nation increasingly isolated.
France relaxed its coronavirus-related ban on trucks from Britain on Tuesday after a two-day standoff that had stranded thousands of drivers and raised fears of Christmastime food shortages in the U.K.
French authorities said delivery drivers could enter by ferry or tunnel provided they showed proof of a negative test for the virus.
But the French restrictions were particularly worrisome, given that Britain relies heavily on its cross-Channel commercial links to the continent for food this time of year.
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Malawi Musicians Obtain Injunction Against COVID-19 Ban
A group of musicians in Malawi has obtained a court order halting enforcement of a ban on gatherings of more than 100 people to curb COVID-19. Malawi’s government this week reintroduced the restrictions after a jump in confirmed cases of the virus. The musicians argue the restriction on public gatherings unfairly affects scheduled holiday concerts.The musicians, who include Lulu, Kell Kay, Dan Lu, Skeffa Chimoto and Great Angels, say some of them had already hired international musicians to perform during their planned concerts. Innocent Kubwalo is the lawyer for the musicians.He says by announcing the restrictions, the Presidential Task-Force on COVID -19 flouted procedures. “For instance, before rules and regulations or subsidiary legislation is made, it must be laid before parliament, which has not been done,” said Kubwalo. “And in our opinion, the powers to make such rules in this particular case, they lie in the minister, not the committee. So the committee doesn’t have those powers in our opinion.”Kubwalo says the injunction means all social gatherings lined up across the country can proceed.Announcing the measures Tuesday, the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 said the aim was to curb cases of the disease, which have risen by 75% over the past two weeks.George Jobe, executive director of the Malawi Health Equity Network, says the injunction shows the government did not consult key stakeholders before it reintroduced the measures.“Because, if they were consulted, probably, much as we appreciate the regulations, it could not have been with immediate effect,” said Jobe. “It could have given room to those who have invested in certain activities unless, [the COVID-19] situation had consistently meant people were dying.”Malawi Reintroduces COVID-19 Restrictions as Cases SurgeMalawi authorities attribute the surge to relaxed preventive measures and increased cross-border traffic for the holidaysHowever, the task force says it started announcing plans to reintroduce some of the restrictions two weeks ago when confirmed cases of COVID-19 started to surge.Gospel Kazako is the spokesperson for Malawi’s government. He says the government will obey the injunction. “We are a nation that believes in a rule of law, so we are going to comply with what the injunction has ordered us to do,” said Kazako. “At the moment, we are waiting for advice from the attorney general on what we can do next.”The High Court in Lilongwe has set December 31 for hearing on the matter and also to decide whether the injunction should be extended or not.
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