Germany’s health minister said Friday he expects the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine to be approved for emergency use later in the day but possibly only for restricted use.
Speaking at a Berlin news briefing, German Health Minster Jens Spahn said Europe’s drug regulator, the Europe Medicines Agency (EMA) could approve the new vaccine with restrictions because data on its use on the elderly was “insufficient.”
Spahn said it was important to point out the difference between insufficient data and “bad” data.
Speaking at the same news conference, Paul Ehrlich Institute (PEI) President Klaus Cichutek, said there had been heated debate regarding the vaccine during the approval process this past week, but he believed the “essential groundwork” had been laid to approve the drug without an age restriction.
He said, “the basis for approval has to be, especially for vaccines, that the benefits far outweigh the risks,” and he believed the drug met that standard. The PEI is the research and regulatory agency within Germany’s health ministry.
Also at the same news conference, Robert Koch Institute for Infectious Diseases (RKI) President Lothar Wieler warned of potential dangers from new COVID-19 variant strains.
He said characteristics of the variants aren’t fully known and it’s not known if they are more dangerous, and, in some cases, if people who already had COVID-19 or were vaccinated have immunity against them.
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Month: January 2021
Rights Groups Denounce China For Blocking Democracy Activist’s Trip to US
Rights groups and activists at home and abroad Friday denounced China for barring a prominent Chinese democracy and rights activist from leaving for the United States to care for his cancer-stricken wife. They called the action “inhuman” and said China is a “fascist” state because the activist, Guo Feixiong, is a free man and the communist government has no right to restrict his travel.Guo launched a hunger strike Thursday to protest after he was stopped at the Shanghai airport.“I now begin my hunger strike indefinitely at the Shanghai Pudong International Airport. The customs have officially barred me from leaving the country on suspicion of endangering national security. I urge all the Chinese people and governments around the world to help me,” Guo wrote in a short message to VOA Thursday night, saying that he was being seized by two police officers at customs.A brutal action“What a brutal action by the state police and the customs,” he added.Guo, 54, has since been unreachable, with his whereabouts unknown. The public security bureau in Shanghai said Friday that it is unable to handle VOA’s inquiry as it is uncertain which unit made the arrest. Prior to his departure from Guangzhou in south China’s Guangdong province, Guo told VOA he is determined to join his wife, who is in the U.S. and about to begin months of chemotherapy after her cancerous colon tumors were removed during surgery earlier this month.“I will only stop my hunger strike the minute I’m allowed to board the plane. My life will apparently hang in the hands of the state police if you’re unable to reach me at my cellphone [later]… The [police’s] move is extremely inhuman, and they have to be held legally and morally responsible for my hunger strike,” Guo told VOA a day before his planned flights Thursday. According to Guo, local police in Guangzhou had warned him on Tuesday about attempting to travel to the U.S. They said that his travel plan was vetoed at the last minute by their higher-ups in the Ministry of Public Security, even though Guo has legally obtained all necessary travel permits from local authorities, including proof of a negative COVID-19 test. The ministry also threatened to send police to intercept him if he made it to the airport in Shanghai on Thursday, he added.Some kind of agreementThe local police, in addition, demanded that Guo fly to his birthplace in Hubei province and talk with public security officers there to reach “some kind of agreement” – a request Guo said he flatly rejected.It is widely speculated among Chinese rights lawyers and activists, many of whom are not free to speak, that Chinese authorities want to hold Guo hostage and keep him quiet.“The police have absolutely no rights to deprive Guo of his freedom to travel. This is outrageous. What harm can dissidents, who travel overseas, do to endanger the regime?” a rights activist surnamed Lee told VOA on condition of anonymity. Guo, whose real name is Yang Maodong, has been an active rights defender and political dissident since 2005. He had served a total of 11 years in prison on charges such as “picking quarrels and provoking” and “assembling a crowd to disturb order at public places.” He was last freed from jail in late 2019 after having served a six-year sentence for his participation in a protest against the Guangzhou government’s censorship of a local liberal-leaning publication – the Southern Weekly. However, Guo remains an outspoken dissident, who has called on Chinese President Xi Jinping to launch political reforms, abide by the country’s constitution and ensure press freedom, while urging the Chinese government to deepen its cooperation with the U.S. To avoid China’s alleged political persecution, Guo’s wife, Zhang Qing, and their two children fled to the U.S. in 2009 and have been granted political asylum there.A group of more than 100 dissidents, led by former Tiananmen Square movement leader Wang Dan, signed a petition in support of Guo.They said, in a press statement, that “given Guo is a free man, China has no rights to keep him from visiting his family overseas whether it is from the legal, human rights or humanitarian perspectives. China’s inhuman move has proved again that its regime is increasingly fascist.” “We called on western governments to help Guo facilitate his trip through diplomatic avenues,” the statement read.In particular, Wu’er Kaixi, another Tiananmen student leader who also signed the petition, called on U.S. President Joe Biden and his administration to extend a helping hand to Guo.Calls on U.S. to take action“President Biden has and [Secretary of State] Mr. [Antony] Blinken has also strongly reiterated their stance against China, based on values, … We want to see action following [their] very well-said statement. And we want to see action to help Guo Feixiong and that action will ratify those statements,” Wu’er told VOA.The former Tiananmen activist, who now lives in Taipei, said that many in Taiwan are also “outraged” about China’s disapproval of Guo’s travel – a move he said “was against the minds and hearts of all mankind.”Several other rights groups, including the Hong Kong-based China Human Rights Lawyers Concerned Group, the U.S.-based Human Rights Lawyers of China and the Taipei-based New School for Democracy, all denounced China’s restriction on Guo’s ability to travel freely. The restriction “is inhuman and it is also a reprisal to legal activists in China,” Du Song of the Hong Kong-based rights group said in a written reply to VOA, urging China to quickly reverse its decision. In a press statement, the U.S.-based rights group expressed concern over Guo’s health. “We’re deeply concerned about his health and life after he has staged another indefinite hunger strike. Guo was once on hunger strike in 2014 for a long time, which had taken a toll on his physical condition… We urge all relevant bodies [in China] to reconsider and soon greenlight his trip to take care of his wife in the U.S.” its statement read.
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China to Stop Recognizing Hong Kongers’ British National Overseas Passport
China said Friday it will not recognize the British National Overseas passport for Hong Kong residents after Jan. 31, as Britain is planning to admit millions of people from its former colony to take residency and eventually British citizenship.Foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian told reporters “the British side’s attempt to turn a large number of Hong Kong people into second-class British citizens has completely changed the nature of the two sides’ original understanding of the BNO.”Zhao said that such move “seriously infringes on China’s sovereignty, grossly interferes in Hong Kong affairs and China’s internal affairs, and seriously violates international law and the basic norms of international relations.”The move came in response to a promise made by the British government to offer refuge for Hong Kong residents following Beijing’s crackdown on dissent.“I am immensely proud that we have brought in this new route for Hong Kong BNOs to live, work and make their home in our country,” British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in a statement.“In doing so we have honored our profound ties of history and friendship with the people of Hong Kong, and we have stood up for freedom and autonomy” values that Britain and Hong Kong hold dear, the statement said.According to the plan, 5.4 million Hong Kong residents would be eligible to live and work in Britain for five years and then apply for citizenship.When the BNO passport was first issued prior to Hong Kong’s transfer to Chinese rule in 1997, it offered Hong Kongers born before the handover only the right to visit Britain for six months, but not to work there or become British citizens.
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Taliban Calls on Biden Administration to Honor Trump Afghan Commitments
The Taliban on Friday said its February 2020 agreement with the United States is meant to give American “invading” troops a “safe passage” out of Afghanistan, insisting the insurgent group expects President Joe Biden administration’s “review” of the document will not disrupt it.Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, the deputy Taliban peace negotiator, made the statement during an ongoing visit to Moscow, where his delegation is meeting with top Russian officials.Stanikzai told a news conference that the Taliban signed the pact with a “legal, elected government in America” and the new U.S. administration reviewing it “is their “internal decision.” But it does not mean Washington is abandoning the treaty, he added.“In the history of Afghanistan, no one ever gave a safe passage to foreign invading troops. So, this is a good chance for the Americans that we are giving them safe passage to go out according to this treaty. We hope that when they are reviewing it they will come to the same positive [conclusion],” Stanikzai stressed.He also rejected as “completely false” allegations that the Taliban had received bounties from Russia for killing U.S. troops in Afghanistan.“We do not need anyone to give us reward for the killing of Americans. Americans are the invaders and we are [have been] killing them since 2001,” Stanikzai said and stressed the need for Washington to stick to the mutually agreed troop withdrawal timeline.VOA has requested comment from U.S. military officials in the Afghan capital, Kabul. So far, there has been no response.The U.S.-Taliban agreement requires all American and NATO troops to leave the country by May in return for the insurgents’ counterterrorism guarantees and pledges they will negotiate with Afghan rivals a political deal to permanently end two decades of Afghan war.“If they remain in Afghanistan after this [the agreed deadline] we will also kill them even if somebody reward us or do not reward us. We take our reward from God. We fight the invaders without a reward, without any bounty,” Stanikzai warned.The U.S.-initiated Feb. 29 accord opened direct talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government in September but the process has progressed slowly with both Afghan foes blaming the other for not being serious in moving the dialogue further.Kabul has been demanding the Taliban declare a cease-fire for the talks to progress while the insurgents insist a political understanding must lead to its cessation of the conflict.“Without them [the Taliban] meeting their commitments to renounce terrorism and to stop the violent attacks on the Afghan National Security Forces … it’s very hard to see a specific way forward for the negotiated settlement, but we’re still committed to that,” Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby told reporters on Thursday.But Stanikza accused Washington of failing to meet their timelines outlined in the deal, such as removal of the names of Taliban leaders from a United Nations blacklist and release of all insurgent prisoners from Afghan jails.
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US Unprepared to Meet its First COVID Evacuees from Wuhan Last Year
Federal officials at a California military base last year who met with the first American evacuees from Wuhan, China, the place where the coronavirus emerged, were not prepared for their mission, according to The Washington Post.They did not wear masks and had “no virus prevention plan or infection-control training” when they met with the evacuees, the Post said, according to two federal reports the newspaper said it has obtained.The newspaper reported on its website late Thursday that the reports supported “a whistleblower’s account of the chaos as U.S. officials scrambled to greet nearly 200 evacuees” who eventually did not test positive for the coronavirus.The whistleblower’s complaint, however, resulted in “internal reviews by the Health and Human Services Department and an investigation overseen by the Office of Special Counsel,” the Post said.According to the newspaper’s account, the federal officials who first interacted with the Wuhan evacuees at March Air Reserve Base in Riverside County, California, were instructed to remove their protective gear when meeting with the evacuees to avoid “bad optics.” ((bad appearances))The Health and Human Services general counsel’s office, headed by Robert Charrow, a Trump appointee, conducted a campaign against the whistleblower among members of Congress who received from HHS an account of what the agency said was the whistleblower’s conflicting information. That HHS move was “reprehensible,” Special Counsel Henry Kerner said in a letter to President Joe Biden on Thursday. Kerner praised the whistleblower’s “tremendous courage in bringing these allegations forward.”There are more than 101 million global COVID-19 infections, the disease caused by the coronavirus, Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center reported early Friday. The U.S. tops the list with more than 25 million cases, followed by India with 10.7 million infections and Brazil with 9 million. More than 2 million people have died from the disease, Johns Hopkins said.Health officials in South Carolina say they have detected two cases of the South African COVID-19 variant, the first cases in the United States.So far, the variant does not appear to cause more serious illness, but the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a statement that “preliminary data suggests this variant may spread more easily and quickly than other variants.””That’s frightening,” because it means there are likely more undetected cases within the state, Dr. Krutika Kuppalli, an infectious diseases physician at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, said in an interview with CBS News. “It’s probably more widespread.”A man wearing a face mask visits the Shinjuku City Hall promoting the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, rescheduled for this summer, in Tokyo on Jan. 29, 2021.Officials say the two South Carolina cases do not appear to be connected or travel related.It is normal for viruses to mutate. So far, variants from Britain and Brazil have also been discovered.In other COVID-19 news, World Health Organization investigators emerged from a two-week quarantine Thursday in Wuhan, China, to begin their work in search of the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.The international team boarded a bus after leaving their hotel in the afternoon.China, which for months rejected calls for an international probe, has pledged adequate access for the researchers. The team is expected to spend several weeks interviewing people from research institutes, hospitals and a market linked to many of the first cases.WHO has said the purpose of the mission is not to assign blame for the pandemic but to figure out how it started in order to better prevent and combat future outbreaks.“We are looking for the answers here that may save us in the future, not culprits and not people to blame,” Mike Ryan, WHO’s top emergencies official, said earlier this month.The novel coronavirus emerged in Wuhan in late 2019 and has since spread across the world, infecting more than 100 million people and killing about 2.1 million.More than 120 countries have called for an independent investigation into the origins of the virus, with many governments accusing China of not doing enough to contain its spread.”It’s imperative that we get to the bottom of the early days of the pandemic in China, and we’ve been supportive of an international investigation that we feel should be robust and clear,” White House spokesperson Jen Psaki said Wednesday.Concern remains in many countries about access to and supplies of COVID-19 vaccines.Japan’s top government spokesman said Thursday that AstraZeneca will make more than 90 million doses of its vaccine in Japan.”We believe it is very important to be able to produce the vaccines domestically,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato told reporters.Like many countries already carrying out vaccination campaigns, Japan plans to prioritize front-line medical workers when it begins administering the shots in late February.Japan has arranged to buy 120 million doses of the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University. The vaccine requires a two-shot regiment for each person.The European Union and AstraZeneca clashed this week after the company said it would have to cut planned deliveries to the EU due to production delays.EU officials are demanding the doses be delivered on time and have threatened to put export controls on vaccines made in EU territory.
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US Judge Allows Extradition of Alleged Ghosn Accomplices
A U.S. federal judge on Thursday gave the go-ahead to extradite to Japan two Americans arrested in May 2020 on suspicion of having helped former Renault-Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn flee Japan.Judge Indira Talwani ruled that Michael Taylor and his son Peter Taylor could not satisfactorily back up their claim that they would be subjected to conditions approaching torture in Japanese prison to merit breaching the extradition treaty between Tokyo and Washington.”Although the prison conditions in Japan may be deplorable and although the criminal procedures that the Taylors may be subjected to may not satisfy American notions of due process, those allegations do not constitute the ‘severe physical or mental pain or suffering’ contemplated by the enacting regulations,” the ruling said.The two men did not establish “that they are more likely than not to suffer ‘severe physical pain and suffering,’ to be subjected to ‘procedures calculated to disrupt profoundly the senses or the personality,’ or to be threatened with death,” Talwani said.”They have therefore failed to establish that no reasonable factfinder could find anything other than that they are more likely than not to be subjected to torture in Japan.”And the judge pointed out their alleged actions would be considered a crime in the United States, as well as in Japan.Michael Taylor, a former U.S. special forces member turned private security, and his son were arrested in May 2020 after Japan issued a warrant.Peter Taylor was apprehended in Boston as he was trying to leave the country for Lebanon, where Ghosn had taken refuge and where there is no extradition treaty with Japan.The two men have been imprisoned while awaiting the extradition hearing due to being considered flight risks.Japan has accused the Taylors, along with Lebanese George-Antoine Zayek, of helping Ghosn escape justice by fleeing the country on Dec. 29, 2019. At the time, he had been free on bail after facing accusations of financial misconduct. U.S. court documents show the three men allegedly tried to help Ghosn hide a large sum of money — in a suitcase that looked like a musical instrument bag — and then board a private jet. The Taylors’ lawyers immediately appealed Talwani’s decision, though it is not clear when the appeal would be heard.
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Biden’s Trade Representative Expected to Play Hardball with China
If China’s leadership had any question about how the Biden administration would approach the ongoing trade disputes between the two countries, the appointment of Katherine Tai to be U.S. trade representative ought to have answered them pretty clearly.An attorney by training, Tai comes to the job from the U.S. House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee, where she has been chief trade counsel since 2017. Before joining the committee in 2014, she spent several years at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, including three years as the chief counsel for China Trade Enforcement, where it was her job to manage U.S. disputes with China before the World Trade Organization.A fluent speaker of Mandarin, Tai knows China very well, having spent the years after receiving her undergraduate degree from Yale teaching English at Zhongshan University in Guangzhou.She has been reserved in her comments since her nomination, because she is awaiting Senate confirmation. But in remarks before the National Foreign Trade Council earlier this month, Tai made it clear that she sees the U.S.-China trade relationship as one of the most important factors in a world that “feels like a more complicated and a more fragile place today than it has at any point in my lifetime,” she said.“Our nation and our people confront substantial challenges in navigating and maintaining our values and our place in the world,” she said. “In the international arena, we face stiffening competition from a growing and ambitious China — a China whose economy is directed by central planners who are not subject to the pressures of political pluralism, democratic elections, or popular opinion.”Thoughtful, strategic, assertiveJason E. Kearns, the chairman of the politically independent U.S. International Trade Commission, describes Tai as a “strategic thinker” who nevertheless tries to approach difficult decisions without preconceived notions of how to address them.Kearns preceded Tai in her role on the House Ways and Means Committee, with jurisdiction over taxes and trade, where he hired her and worked with her for years. He agreed to speak about her in a personal capacity and not in his role as USITC chair.“She’s a very deep and inclusive listener,” Kearns said. “And that’s how she approaches all the problems that she handles. She tries to build a lasting consensus, and I think she’s very successful at it.”Tai, he said, combines a good sense of humor with a confidence that will serve her well in international trade negotiations, particularly with China. She recognizes that “China does pose some very serious challenges to us,” Kearns said, and her approach to Beijing will be both “thoughtful” and “assertive.”That’s what many American companies trying to compete in China also hope — and expect — to get from Tai.No ‘pushover’“Anyone that thinks that Katherine Tai is going to be a pushover or easy on China is in for a surprise,” said Doug Barry, a spokesperson for the U.S.-China Business Council, which operates from Washington, Beijing and Shanghai. “She is certainly the most qualified person on China to have come along in that office in recent memory. She knows the issues inside out. She knows China inside out. And as a result, there will be no wool pulled over her eyes by anybody.”Barry said that Tai will be very aware of the past difficulties the U.S. has had making China observe the commitments it has made in previous trade deals.“China’s approach has largely been sort of foot dragging on some of the concessions that it has promised to make, and she will hold them to a much stricter standard and a much more rigorous timeline, in terms of when the Biden administration expects China to fulfill the commitments that it’s been making for years,” he said.Tai’s connections to China run deep. Her parents were born in mainland China, grew up in Taiwan and emigrated to the United States. Tai was born in Connecticut in 1974 but was raised primarily in Washington, where her father worked as a researcher at Walter Reed Medical Center and her mother worked for the National Institutes of Health.After attending Harvard Law School, Tai began making a name for herself as a trade attorney, working at prominent Washington law firms before joining the government.Deep knowledge of the issuesTrade experts know that in Tai, the U.S. is getting someone exhaustively familiar with the arcana of trade deals and the complexities of trade law. Less clear, though, are her own personal beliefs about striking the right balance between those who support trade with as few restrictions as possible and those who believe trade policy ought to be used to protect U.S. jobs and industries from competition with low-cost countries.“I think you’re getting a skilled technician with tons of experience in the weeds,” said Scott Lincicome, a senior fellow at the libertarian Cato Institute. “Her experience is primarily as a behind-the-scenes counsel. In that regard, you are typically implementing the policies that your principal — a politician — wants, and thus, you are somewhat beholden to those policy positions. And that makes it difficult to really know where she is on the ideological spectrum.”And it’s not only Tai’s preferences that aren’t clear, Lincicome said.“There’s a massive political question mark about what the Biden political side wants to do on trade,” he said. “We saw [Biden] just this week announce his ‘Buy American’ policy, sounding very Trumpian, very economic nationalist, pro industrial policy. … But it’s very early, and it’s difficult to really say where they’re going to go.”Hints on policyTai may have provided some clues in her remarks to the NFTC, when she said that the Biden administration’s goal is to “implement a worker-centered trade policy.”In practice, she said, that means “U.S. trade policy must benefit regular Americans, communities, and workers. And that starts with recognizing that people are not just consumers — they are also workers, and wage earners.“Americans don’t just benefit from lower prices and greater selection in shops and markets,” she continued. “Americans also benefit from having good jobs, with good wages.”
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China’s Diversion of Upstream Mekong Flows Seen Drying Up Southeast Asia
Analysts say Chinese officials are diverting so much water from dams along the upper Mekong River system that Southeast Asian countries are going dry during prime agricultural seasons and turning to other powers for help.Eleven southwest China dams have left much of the Lower Mekong region, with its population of 60 million, dry since 2019, according to data from the Stimson Center in Washington. The affected countries — Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam — seldom complain because they are smaller than China and because of the relationships between some of their leaders and Beijing, analysts say.Chinese dam authorities normally divert water but increase flows ahead of events with Southeast Asian officials to project a good image, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a political science professor at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University, said. They divert it for domestic irrigation and power use.“It’s very clear that the Chinese are using the dams for political leverage,” he said, meaning they increase the amount of water released when they want to improve relations with downstream countries.“In the low season, the dry season, of course this is the most challenging for the lower, downstream countries,” he said.Beijing began sharing upper Mekong River data in November through an online platform that it set up to provide “reliable forecasting and early warning services” on floods and droughts, Chinese state-controlled news website Global Times said in December. Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia can obtain data from two Chinese hydrological stations in the upper Mekong basin, the report says.’Devastating impacts’Experts, though, believe that effort diverts attention from problems China has caused by what the Stimson Center calls “impounding” — withholding — water upstream before it can flow through Southeast Asia into the sea.The lower river basin supports surrounding rice fields and the world’s largest freshwater fishery. Overall, the lower Mekong system supplies those living in the basin with about 80% of their animal protein needs, California-based advocacy group International Rivers says on its website.“Chinese dam construction on the Upper Mekong is having devastating impacts on downstream communities, and dozens of dams are either planned, under construction or built within the Lower Mekong basin,” International Rivers says. “This rapid expansion of hydropower threatens all countries who share the Lower Mekong Basin, with downstream Cambodia and Vietnam at greatest risk.”During a 2019 Mekong basin drought, the upper reaches in China received record rainfall but dams kept nearly all of it from flowing downstream, the Stimson Center website says. Without that diversion, it says, the Mekong along the Thai-Lao border would have seen above average flows from April 2019 onward.“This is part of a long pattern that has driven numerous droughts,” the research organization says. “The increasing frequency of drought in the lower basin tracks closely to the way China restricts water upstream during the dry season.”Since the completion of the Nuozhadu dam in 2012 on part of the Mekong in China’s Yunnan province, known there as the Lancang River, China’s dams overall have withheld more water than the previous 20 years, the Stimson Center says.China’s dams have also been suspected in causing floods, such as those 13 years ago along the Mekong in Laos. The Nuozhadu and another Chinese dam, the Dachaoshan dam, finished in 2003 and also on the Lancang, have generated “unexpected” releases that flooded places downstream and caused millions of dollars in damage, the research organization adds.China’s Global Times attributes downstream floods and droughts of 2019 and 2020 to climate change.’It’s going to be huge’In Cambodia, upstream diversions have weakened seasonal water flows that raise water levels in the Tonle Sap lake, said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch. Normally high waters flood surrounding land and create fish spawning grounds. The lake and adjacent floodplain yield up to 165 kilograms of fish per hectare.The flooding once lasted three months but now stops after six weeks, he said. About 60% of Cambodians get protein from the lake’s fish, he added.“There’s less flow coming down the river to push the water back up into the lake,” Robertson said. “It’s something that’s a core part of like Cambodian seasons, and if it stops happening, it’s going to be huge.”Cambodia, like other lower Mekong countries, does not protest openly to China over river flows. These countries lack bargaining power with China, home of the region’s biggest economy and military. Poorer Cambodia and Laos depend heavily on China for aid and infrastructure investment. Laos benefits from its own dams, which Thailand finances and taps for electricity, Thitinan said.Vietnam is considered the most affected downstream country as Mekong flows into the South China Sea near Ho Chi Minh City. Saltwater intrusion from the sea compounds the problem and exacerbated droughts of 2019 and 2020, according to United Nations data.Officials in the country, which has a centuries-old rivalry with China, have no way to get more water released, said Alexander Vuving, professor at the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in Hawaii.“Vietnam of course has a lot of interest in opposing China in the subregion, but right now the tendency I see is that Vietnam is on the losing side,” Vuving said “It doesn’t have the wherewithal to cope with China.”China continues to build dams along the upper Mekong and its tributaries. Laos is following suit, Thitinan said.Although the four lower Mekong countries have an oversight organization, the Mekong River Commission, they are now turning to the United States and other countries for help in resisting China.The Mekong-U.S. Partnership formed in September to offer anti-drought measures and earmark $6 million for work including access to water data for government planning purposes.New US Aid for Southeast Asia Takes Aim at Chinese Influence The US-Mekong Partnership signed in September will let Washington help Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam ease droughts and COVID-19Remote monitoring and satellite data compiled by the United States this month tracked a 1-meter drop in river levels in the northern Thai district of Chiang Saen along the Mekong River due to a Chinese dam, media reports in Asia say. Japan is helping continental Southeast Asia accelerate industrial development and infrastructure to make these countries less dependent on farming.
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Britain Upholding ‘Freedom and Autonomy’ With New HK Visas
Britain’s government vowed Friday to stand by the people of its former colony, Hong Kong, against a Chinese crackdown as it prepared to launch a new visa scheme potentially benefiting millions. Starting Sunday, holders of British National (Overseas) status — a legacy of British rule over Hong Kong up to 1997 — will be able to apply to live and work in Britain for up to five years, and eventually seek citizenship. Before the change, BN(O) passport holders have had only limited rights to visit Britain for up to six months and not to work or settle. Britain says it is acting in response to the National Security Law imposed by China last year, which has devastated Hong Kong’s democracy movement and shredded freedoms meant to last 50 years under the 1997 handover accord. FILE – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson”I am immensely proud that we have brought in this new route for Hong Kong BN(O)s to live, work and make their home in our country,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in a statement. “In doing so, we have honored our profound ties of history and friendship with the people of Hong Kong, and we have stood up for freedom and autonomy — values both the U.K. and Hong Kong hold dear.” Any Hong Kong resident born before 1997 is eligible for BN(O) status. The new visa path opens up entry to the United Kingdom to an estimated 2.9 million adults in Hong Kong and another 2.3 million of their dependents. In practice, London projects that up to 322,400 of Hong Kong’s 7.5 million population will take up the visa over five years, benefiting the British economy by up to $4 billion. FILE – Protesters against the new national security law gesture with five fingers, signifying the “Five demands – not one less” on the anniversary of Hong Kong’s handover to China from Britain in Hong Kong, July. 1, 2020.The new pathway will not be cheap. A five-year visa will cost a relatively moderate $343 per person. But a mandatory surcharge to access Britain’s state-run health service will run to $4,280 per adult, and $3,224 for those under 18. Shorter, cheaper visas for 30 months will also be available. Security law “We have been clear we won’t look the other way when it comes to Hong Kong. We will live up to our historic responsibility to its people,” Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said. FILE – Britain’s Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab”China’s imposition of the National Security Law in Hong Kong constitutes a clear and serious breach of the [pre-handover] Sino-British Joint Declaration contrary to international law,” he added. The security law was imposed on Hong Kong last June in response to 2019 protests, targeting acts Beijing deems to be secession, subversion, terrorism or collusion with foreign forces. Mass arrests of pro-democracy figures have followed. Some have fled Hong Kong for the West, including to Britain. Between July and this month, about 7,000 people with BN(O) status and their dependents have already been given exceptional leave to live in Britain. China, furious at Britain’s new visa pathway, has in turn accused London of flouting the handover agreement and demanded Western countries stay out of Hong Kong’s affairs.
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Cicely Tyson, Groundbreaking Award-winning Actor, Dead at 96
Cicely Tyson, the pioneering Black actor who gained an Oscar nomination for her role as the sharecropper’s wife in “Sounder,” a Tony Award in 2013 at age 88 and touched TV viewers’ hearts in “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman,” died Thursday at age 96.Tyson’s death was announced by her family, via her manager Larry Thompson, who did not immediately provide additional details.”With heavy heart, the family of Miss Cicely Tyson announces her peaceful transition this afternoon. At this time, please allow the family their privacy,” according to a statement issued through Thompson.A onetime model, Tyson began her screen career with bit parts but gained fame in the early 1970s when Black women were finally starting to get starring roles. Besides her Oscar nomination, she won two Emmys for playing the 110-year-old former slave in the 1974 television drama “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman.”In this file photo, U.S. President Barack Obama presents actress Cicely Tyson with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, during a ceremony honoring 21 recipients, in the East Room of the White House, Nov. 22, 2016.Tyson’s memoir, “Just As I Am,” was published this week.”I’m very selective as I’ve been my whole career about what I do. Unfortunately, I’m not the kind of person who works only for money. It has to have some real substance for me to do it,” she told The Associated Press in 2013.Besides her Oscar nomination, she won two Emmys for playing the 110-year-old former slave in the 1974 television drama “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman.” A new generation of moviegoers saw her in the 2011 hit “The Help.” In 2018, she was given an honorary Oscar statuette at the annual Governors Awards. “This is a culmination of all those years of haves and have nots,” Tyson said.She was one of the recipients for the 2016 Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor. At that ceremony, President Barack Obama said: “Cicely’s convictions and grace have helped for us to see the dignity of every single beautiful memory of the American family.””Sounder,” based on the William H. Hunter novel, was the film that confirmed her stardom in 1972. Tyson was cast as the Depression-era loving wife of a sharecropper (Paul Winfield) who is confined in jail for stealing a piece of meat for his family. She is forced to care for their children and attend to the crops.The New York Times reviewer wrote: “She passes all of her easy beauty by to give us, at long last, some sense of the profound beauty of millions of black women.” Tyson went on to earn an Academy Award nomination as best actress of 1972.In an interview on the Turner Classic Movies cable channel, she recalled that she had been asked to test for a smaller role in the film and said she wanted to play the mother, Rebecca. She was told, “You’re too young, you’re too pretty, you’re too sexy, you’re too this, you’re too that, and I said, `I am an actress.'”In 2013, at the age of 88, Tyson won the Tony for best leading actress in a play for the revival of Horton Foote’s “The Trip to Bountiful.” It was the actress’ first time back on Broadway in three decades and she refused to turn meekly away when the teleprompter told to finish her acceptance speech.”‘Please wrap it up,’ it says. Well, that’s exactly what you did with me: You wrapped me up in your arms after 30 years,” she told the crowd.She told The AP afterward she had prepared no speech — “I think it’s presumptuous” — and that “I burned up half my time wondering what I was going to say.” She reprised her role in a Lifetime Television movie, which was screened at the White House.In the 1974 television drama “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman,” based on a novel by Ernest J. Gaines, Tyson is seen aging from a young woman in slavery to a 110-year-old who campaigned for the civil rights movement of the 1960s.In the touching climax, she laboriously walks up to a “whites only” water fountain and takes a drink as white officers look on.”It’s important that they see and hear history from Miss Jane’s point of view,” Tyson told The New York Times. “And I think they will be more ready to accept it from her than from someone younger”New Yorker film critic Pauline Kael offered her praise: “She’s an actress, all right, and as tough-minded and honorable in her methods as any we’ve got.”At the Emmy Awards, “Pittman” won multiple awards, including two honors for Tyson, best lead actress in a drama and best actress in a special.”People ask me what I prefer doing — film, stage, television? I say, ‘I would have done “Jane Pittman” is the basement or in a storefront.’ It’s the role that determines where I go,” she told the AP.
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North America’s Largest Cemetery Struggles to Cope with COVID Deaths
Rose Hills Memorial Park and Mortuary in Whittier, California, may be the biggest cemetery in North America, but the 1,400-acre park is struggling to cope with the number of bodies awaiting funeral services because of an increase in COVID-19 deaths.Despite the numerous facilities at Rose Hills, there is about a month’s delay before families can receive funeral services for their loved ones.Patrick Monroe, CEO and president of Rose Hills, told Reuters via Zoom that there had been a sharp increase for services since the Thanksgiving holiday in November, with demand nearly doubling.Rose Hills has brought in a large number of refrigeration units to deal with the additional bodies.The park has also set up tented areas to replace on-site chapels and is using new methods like livestreaming to bring services to families.”You can’t replace a hug,” Monroe said. “There’s an old saying that grief shared is grief diminished … you can’t really do that very well on Zoom.”Staff at Rose Hills are also finding it extremely stressful, Monroe said, as they witness grief from families.”Unfortunately for many families this is the first time they’re seeing their deceased in person because they weren’t able to visit at the hospital so it’s already making a very traumatic event even more sensitive,” Monroe said.”Funeral workers, cemetery workers, I think are heroes just like the health care folks,” he said.
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Poles Take to Streets in Protest as Near-total Abortion Ban Takes Effect
Protesters took to the streets of the Polish capital, Warsaw, late Wednesday and more demonstrations were scheduled for Thursday after the government implemented a court ruling that placed a near-total ban on abortions.The ruling, which was made October 22 but came into force Wednesday, permits abortions only in cases of rape and incest, and when the mother’s life or health is endangered. Doctors performing illegal abortions in Poland face jail.The implementation had been delayed by Poland’s conservative government after nationwide protests in October. But publishing the law late Wednesday triggered a new round of protests in Warsaw, with the promise of more, wider-spread protests Thursday, carried out in defiance of COVID-19 restrictions on gatherings.The constitutional court is made up mostly of Law and Justice Party appointees who ruled on a motion brought by lawmakers from the party.Adam Bodnar, Poland’s commissioner of human rights, speaks during an interview with Reuters in Warsaw, July 16, 2019.Poland’s top human rights official, Ombudsman Adam Bodnar, published a statement condemning the ruling, saying the publication of the ruling meant the government was risking women’s lives and, in many cases, “condemning them to torture.”Bodnar said the Constitutional Tribunal and the government proceeded with publishing the ruling without consultations, social debate or parliamentary consideration. He said the government’s decision was not based on social will, but on “political, ideological or religious premises.”The ombudsman or, commissioner of human rights, is independent from the Polish government.Predominantly Catholic Poland already had one of Europe’s most restrictive laws on abortion. There are fewer than 2,000 legal abortions every year and women’s groups estimate that an additional 200,000 women abort either illegally or abroad.
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Departing US Envoy Warns Ethiopia Against Violence
Calling Ethiopia “the critical actor in Horn of Africa stability,” outgoing U.S. Ambassador to Ethiopia Michael Raynor voiced confidence in a strengthened bilateral relationship but warned that violence – especially in the northern Tigray region – threatens the country’s progress. “We remain concerned about ethnic violence around the country and the threat it poses to achieving the country’s potential,” Raynor said of Ethiopia, speaking at a press conference Monday in Addis Ababa, the capital. It was Raynor’s final news briefing as ambassador, a post he has held since September 2017. He has focused on Africa for many of his FILE – Youngsters walk next to an abandoned tank belonging to Tigrayan forces south of the town of Mehoni, Ethiopia, Dec. 11, 2020.Rivalries among some of Ethiopia’s 80 ethnic groups have spawned deadly violence, including the January 12 killings of more than 80 civilians in Metekel, a town in the western Benishangul-Gumaz region, TFILE – People stand at the doors of houses that were damaged by shelling in the town of Mehoni, in southern Tigray, Ethiopia, Dec. 11, 2020.He also brought up the U.S. assessment that FILE – Ethiopians read newspapers and magazines reporting on the military confrontation in the country, one of which shows a photograph of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, on a street in the capital, Addis Ababa, Nov. 7, 2020.During his tenure as ambassador, Raynor said, the U.S. government “brought well over $3 billion” to support Ethiopia’s governance, development and humanitarian priorities. These range from enhancing the country’s food security and health systems to reforming judicial activities and updating economic policies to encourage private investment. Raynor also observed that Ethiopia’s ability “to focus on our areas of partnership has been strained by some degree due to the rate of ethnic tensions and Ethiopian-on-Ethiopian violence and certainly the current Tigray crisis. But by and large I feel very optimistic about the trajectory we have been on and that my successor will be able to build upon.” A successor has not yet been named. “This is a pivotal time for Ethiopia,” Raynor said. “What Ethiopia does in the coming months — particularly in promoting democracy, organizing free and fair credible elections this year, protecting basic human rights including freedom of the press and freedom of expression, resolving conflict and addressing ethnic tension, maintaining regional harmony and promoting economic opportunity — will impact this country’s prospects for generations to come.” Correction: Hailemariam Desalegn served as Ethiopia’s prime minister for over five years, not 23, as mistakenly appeared in an earlier version of this story.
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Biden Orders Expanded Health Care on Two Fronts
U.S. President Joe Biden signed two orders expanding health care on Thursday, saying they would “undo the damage” of policies favored by his predecessor, former President Donald Trump. Biden restored U.S. funding for foreign nongovernmental groups that give information to women about abortions, and also opened a special three-month enrollment period for uninsured Americans who now want to buy health insurance, as well as for those who lost their coverage because of the coronavirus pandemic. Trump, like past Republican presidents, had supported what critics have called the “global gag rule” on abortion information and had refused to reopen the government’s market for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act. Biden’s order also increased access to health care funding for impoverished Americans under a program called Medicaid. “There’s nothing new that we’re doing here,” Biden said, other than to restore programs as they were before Trump changed them. Biden contended that Trump made them “more inaccessible, more expensive and more difficult for people to qualify for.” Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
FILE – The HealthCare.gov website is seen on a computer screen in New York, Oct. 23, 2018.Typically, the program is only open for signups for six weeks a year. “As we continue to battle COVID-19, it is even more critical that Americans have meaningful access to affordable care,” the White House said in a statement ahead of the signing. The order directs federal agencies to reexamine policies that undermine the program’s protections for people who have preexisting conditions, including effects from COVID-19. More than 431,000 people have died from COVID-19 in the United States, according to Johns Hopkins University, and another 25.6 million have been infected. Rochelle Walensky, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told reporters Wednesday that her agency’s forecasts indicated the U.S. death toll would be between 479,000 and 514,000 by February 20.
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UN Chief Urges US-China ‘Reset’
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged China and the United States on Thursday to “reset” relations, suggesting they cooperate on common interests such as fighting climate change. “It is clear that in human rights there is no scope for an agreement or a common vision,” Guterres acknowledged. “There is an area where I believe there is a growing convergence of interests and my appeal is for that area to be pursued by the two sides together with the whole of the international community — and that area is climate action.” FILE – Chinese President Xi Jinping.Since the Trump administration announced in June 2017 that the United States would withdraw from the Paris climate agreement, China has continued to move forward to reduce emissions. At the virtual U.N. General Assembly in September, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced 2060 as Beijing’s target for reaching carbon neutrality. FILE – John KerryThe new U.S. administration of President Joe Biden has made climate action one its top priorities. Biden has appointed former Secretary of State John Kerry as the first U.S. presidential envoy on climate and made him a member of his national security team. Responding to reporters’ questions at a hybrid in-person and virtual news conference, the U.N. chief said “there are reasons to hope” that Beijing and Washington will be “strongly involved” in the preparations of the Paris Agreement review conference that is scheduled to take place in Scotland in November. The White House says Washington is being patient as it seeks a “new approach” toward relations with China at a time when the two countries remain in serious “strategic competition.” FILE – U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.The U.N. secretary-general noted that trade and technology issues between the two powers are complex and could result in either “competition or cooperation.” “My appeal is for a serious negotiation on trade and technology to make sure it is possible to preserve one global economy, one global internet, cyber security, and at the same time to have all that in support of the values that are our common values — of justice, equality, of international cooperation, and also for the respect of human rights.” FILE – Linda Thomas-GreenfieldAt her confirmation hearing Wednesday, the president’s nominee to be U.N. ambassador, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, told lawmakers, “We know China is working across the U.N. system to drive an authoritarian agenda,” which she pledged to push back on firmly. In the last hours before leaving office, outgoing Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared that the Chinese Communist Party has engaged in genocide against the Uighur Muslim population in Xinjiang. The policy determination could trigger new reviews and sanctions. US Classifies China’s Policies Toward Uighurs as ‘Genocide’ Determination could lead to broader US policy reviews, with Secretary of State nominee Blinken saying he agrees with Pompeo’s judgment Asked if he agreed with the designation, the U.N. chief called it a technical expression left to other “competent bodies” to decide. “I reaffirm the need for human rights to be respected, also in Xinjiang, and the need for policies to be in place that fully respect the identity of the communities there — the religious and cultural identities — and simultaneously give conditions for each community to feel that they are part of the nation as a whole,” Guterres said. The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights requested many months ago to visit Xinjiang, and Guterres said “negotiations are taking place” and that there is the prospect for a technical mission, which he hopes will move forward. The secretary-general also welcomed announcements from the Biden administration that it plans to restore funding to several U.N. programs and agencies cut by the previous administration, and to rejoin some multilateral agreements. “All those things are creating a very positive expectation,” the U.N. chief said. VOA’s Nike Ching contributed to this report.
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Greek Students, Teachers Defy Weeklong Ban on Protests
Thousands of students and teachers held peaceful demonstrations in Greece’s two biggest cities Thursday against proposed education reforms, defying a weeklong ban on protests imposed as part of measures to tackle the coronavirus pandemic. About 4,000 people, wearing masks against the virus, marched through the streets of Athens, while another roughly 1,500 demonstrated in the northern city of Thessaloniki. Protesters oppose reforms that include plans to set up a state security division at university campuses. On Tuesday, the government announced a ban on protests attended by more than 100 people until February 1, as part of the measures to contain the spread of the coronavirus. Violations are punishable by fines of up to 3,000 euros ($3,650) for individuals organizing rallies or demonstrations, and 5,000 euros (about $6,000) for groups or organizations. A university student holds a banner during a rally against education reforms in Athens, Jan. 28, 2021.It was not immediately clear if any fines would be imposed on the organizers of Thursday’s protests. The protests ended peacefully in the early afternoon. Left-wing parties criticized the demonstration ban, with the main opposition Syriza Party describing it as “arbitrary and undemocratic.” Greece has been under lockdown-type restrictions since early November when a surge in COVID-19 infections placed the health system under strain. Although hospitalizations in intensive care units have eased, the number of new daily cases has not fallen significantly, despite the restrictions. On Wednesday, authorities reported 858 new confirmed infections and 32 new deaths. The country of around 11 million people has registered a total of just more than 54,000 infections and 5,724 deaths. It began a vaccination drive in the last days of December, and so far, more than 213,000 shots have been administered.
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Sudanese Journalists Accuse Military of Blocking Access to Troubled Darfur
The Sudanese Journalists Network (SJN) has accused Sudan’s military of blocking journalists from the troubled Darfur region. Recent clashes there left hundreds of people dead and more than 100,000 displaced. Sudan’s military initially cited the security situation for the ban, but in a statement Wednesday denied any such ban exists.The issue began when a correspondent for Al Jazeera television applied for a travel permit to Darfur and her application was rejected. Many other journalists say they were also denied permission to go to Darfur. The Sudanese Journalists Network (SJN) called on the journalists to stand up for freedom of the press. Khalid Fathi, a member of SJN, says the network is taking a strong stand against this decision, as they refuse any attitudes or practices by the former regime. He says journalists shall stand against any attempt to take away the freedom of press and free expression and will not allow it at all.The Sudanese military is denying the allegations. It says it has been facilitating access for the journalists and correspondents in different volatile regions of Sudan, including the tense northeastern border with Ethiopia. Sudan’s ministry of information issued a press statement Wednesday backing up the military’s stance. Yousif Hindosa is part The Committee to Restore the Sudanese Journalist Union, which was shutdown after the ouster of President Omar al-Bashir. Hindosa condemned the denials. Hindosa says this is so disappointing that as journalists, we can’t do our duty to inform the people and the world what is going on in El-Genina. There are thousands of displaced families, killed and injured people. Only a journalist could reflect what is going on in the ground. To restrict a journalist is an apostasy and a disappointing attitude from a government supposed to represent the revolution.The Sudanese Journalists Network was honored with Press Freedom Award last year by Reporters Without Borders for its stance on freedom of the press and its role in pushing for political change in Sudan. U.N. agencies say at least 117,000 people have been internally displaced because of last week’s inter-communal clashes in Darfur, with thousands fleeing to neighboring Chad.
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Belarus Media Crackdown Intensifies, Rights Groups Say
The Belarusian government is escalating its clampdown on the media that began after Alexander Lukashenko won a disputed presidential election in August, according to two news freedom rights groups.The Belarus Journalist Association (BAJ) and Reporters Without Borders said Thursday they referred to the United Nations 15 cases of journalists who were arbitrarily arrested after Lukashenko’s victory, which his political opponents and many Western countries have deemed questionable.The groups demanded an end to media censorship, website blockages, internet blackouts and cancellations of journalists’ accreditation credentials.Women wearing carnival masks march down the streets under umbrellas with the colors of the former white-red-white flag of Belarus to protest against the Belarus presidential election results in Minsk, on Jan. 26, 2021.They said Lukashenko’s government has taken a more threatening turn since the beginning of 2021, with phony criminal charges being placed against journalists that could lead to several years in prison.In addition to allegations of raiding journalists’ homes, the rights groups accused the Belarusian government of threatening reporters over their coverage of the election and the mass anti-government protests that began before the election, and which have since gained momentum.“The Belarusian authorities are pursuing a new tactic in which they permanently lock up journalists to prevent them from covering the protests, which have continued for more than five months despite the crackdown,” said Jeanne Cavelier, the head of RSF’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia desk. Ten journalists are currently in Belarusian jails, six of whom are subject to criminal investigations, a situation the BAJ and RSF considered serious enough to prompt them to refer 15 cases of arbitrary arrests to the U.N. special rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression.Among those jailed during the protests was a popular blogger, Ihar Losik, who is facing an eight-year prison term and recently ended a six-week hunger strike. Belarus accuses him of helping organize riots.FILE – Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya speaks during a news conference in Brussels, Belgium, Sept. 21, 2020.Also under arrest are four members of the Belarus Press Club accused of large-scale tax fraud, a claim rejected by rights groups that call the charges retaliatory, and three journalists facing charges of organizing mass protests and disclosing information about a protester that Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who lost the disputed election to Lukashenko, said was “killed by the regime’s cronies.”According to the BAJ, independent journalists were detained in Belarus more than 470 times last year, 50 media websites were blocked, and 15 journalists currently are facing criminal charges.Tsikhanouskaya said earlier this month at an informal meeting of the U.N. Security Council that unrest in Belarus “has only worsened” since September and that Lukashenko’s government continues to attack media outlets in the former Soviet country of 9.5 million people.Tsikhanouskaya said she and her supporters have refused to recognize Lukashenko’s victory, contending the election results were riddled with fraud.Lukashenko has been reelected as president of Belarus every five years since 1994.The former Soviet Republic was ranked 153 out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2020 World Press Freedom Index.
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Effects of Trump-Era Travel Ban Expected to Linger
Coffee shops in downtown Tripoli, Libya, are closed because of the coronavirus pandemic, so Mohammed Abdulwaheb, 37, got his ”to-go” and drank it in the parking lot. Libya and other countries had been subject to the Trump-era “travel ban” for four years before it was lifted last week. Back then, Abdulwaheb had wanted to attend graduate school in the United States. But that was a long time ago, he said. “The ban wasn’t fair,” Abdulwaheb added. “And of course it impacted our lives. The end of the ban will especially improve the lives of Libyans in America.” But experts say it will take time to unravel the regulations that grounded so many travelers. And locals in Libya, Nigeria and Sudan — three impacted countries — say resolving the personal setbacks experienced by individuals may take even longer. FILE – Demonstrators opposed to President Donald Trump’s travel ban listen to speakers during a rally outside the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, in Richmond, Virginia, Jan. 28, 2020.When former president Donald Trump introduced the policy in 2017, critics quickly dubbed it the ”Muslim ban” because it initially applied to Muslim-majority countries and came after Trump had promised to close U.S. borders to Muslims. The administration had said the ban was needed to keep the country safe. But the measure was introduced so abruptly that travelers were left stranded in airports around the world. It separated families and sparked protests at airports across the U.S. By the time newly inaugurated President Joe Biden declared the ban canceled last week, it applied to 13 countries in various forms. Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar and Nigeria were added to the list in 2020, which by then also included Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Yemen, North Korea and Venezuela. Residents of Sudan and Tanzania were prohibited from immigrating through the U.S. Diversity Visa lottery. “Hopefully, with the removing of this ban, we will see a lot of change now,” said Abdulwaheb in Tripoli. “Hopefully.” Missed chances Thousands of kilometers south in Abuja, Nigeria, Wole Olaoye, a leading local journalist, was less sanguine about the ban. His son had already been accepted to a graduate program in California doing research on artificial intelligence when Nigeria was added to the list in early 2020. His son’s visa was subsequently rejected. “I think America needs to make up its mind on whether it wants foreign students or not,” said Olaoye in a phone interview on Wednesday. “You cannot allow your universities to go through the motions of requesting transcripts from universities, processing applications for students, taking initial deposits, only for you to say the students are a ’no go.'” FILE – Volunteer immigration attorneys organize to help as people grappling with President Donald Trump’s executive order travel ban, at Los Angeles International Airport, Jan. 31, 2017.Besides students, the ban kept out potential workers and tourists, and separated families for years, said Sarah Pierce, a policy analyst at the Washington-based Migration Policy Institute. “Immigration is one of the greatest resources for the United States,” she argued. “So the idea that we are just indiscriminately blocking certain populations is a huge loss to the United States. It’s a loss of family reunification. It’s a loss of potential workers and a lot of other intangible things that we can’t quite measure.” But the end of the ban will not necessarily mean a quick solution for hopeful visa applicants, Pierce said. Rejected applications will have to be reviewed or resubmitted, and many people in the affected countries are expected to put in new applications as the coronavirus pandemic subsides and travel becomes safer. “It will be difficult,” she said. “But at the very least it is something that the administration is already looking into it.” Long-term impact The lifting of the travel ban is a cause for celebration in Sudan, a country that has long suffered from international isolation. For decades Sudan has not just been on the U.S. travel ban list, but on a list of states the U.S. said sponsored terrorism. In December, Sudan was also removed from the “terror” list. Mohammed Ahmed, a 38-year-old civil servant, says it may take a long time for Sudan to feel the impact of the lifting of the travel ban and other restrictions, in Gadarib, Sudan, Jan. 27, 2021 . (VOA/Yan Boechat)In a crowded cafe in Gadarib, Mohammed Ahmed, a 38-year-old civil servant, said the lifting of the travel ban is of little significance to many Sudanese who are more concerned about rising prices and increasing insecurity. But after decades of sanctions and travel restrictions, it could mean an increase in investment, development and general prosperity. “For me the issue is different,” Ahmed said. “I can see a long-term impact.”
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WHO Europe Chief Says Region in Midst of COVID-19 ‘Pandemic Paradox’
The World Health Organization’s Europe director Hans Kluge said Thursday the continent is in the midst of what he calls the COVID-19 “pandemic paradox,” in which vaccine programs offer remarkable hope, while emerging variants present greater uncertainty and risk. Speaking at a news briefing from his headquarters in Copenhagen, Kluge said a total of 35 countries in the European region have already administered 25 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. FILE – Hans Kluge, World Health Organization regional director for Europe, attends a meeting in Moscow, Russia, Sept. 23, 2020. (Sputnik/via Reuters)But he said continued high rates of transmission and emerging variants of the coronavirus have raised the urgency of the task to vaccinate priority groups. “The increasing expectation of science and vaccine development, production and equitable distribution, is not being met as fast as we would all like,” he said. Kluge also noted the controversy over vaccine shortages that prompted tension between European Union officials and drug manufacturers. He said WHO has “no doubt that manufacturers and the producers are also working 24/7 to bridge the gap, and that I will remain confident that the delay which we are seeing now is going to be made up by extra production in the near future.” WHO’s Europe director also said COVID-19 restrictions do appear to be having an effect, but it is too soon to relax them. Kluge said he understands the strain the current situation is putting on communities. “This paradox, where communities sense an end is in sight with the vaccine, but at the same time are called to adhere to restrictive measures in the face of a new threat, is causing tension, angst, fatigue and confusion. This is completely understandable in these circumstances,” Kluge said.
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GM Aims to End Sale of Gasoline-Powered Cars, Light Trucks by 2035
General Motors Co said Thursday it was setting a goal to sell all its new cars, SUVS and light pickup trucks with zero tailpipe emissions by 2035, a dramatic shift by the largest U.S. automaker away from gasoline and diesel engines.
GM, which also said it plans to become carbon neutral by 2040, made its announcement just over a week after President Joe Biden took office pledging to tackle greenhouse gas emissions and dramatically boost the sales of electric vehicles. GM sold 2.55 million vehicles in the United States last year, only about 20,000 of which were EVs. It said in November it was investing $27 billion in electric and autonomous vehicles over the next five years, up from $20 billion planned before the coronavirus pandemic.
GM, which was up as much as 7.4% on Thursday, was trading up 3% at midday eastern time.
GM Chief Executive Mary Barra has aggressively pushed the automaker internally to embrace electric vehicles and shift away from gasoline-powered vehicles. She said in a statement the automaker had worked with the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), an environmental advocacy group, to “develop a shared vision of an all-electric future and an aspiration to eliminate tailpipe emissions from new light-duty vehicles by 2035.”
In September, California Governor Gavin Newsom said the state plans to ban the sale of new gasoline-powered passenger cars and trucks starting in 2035. Several states including Massachusetts say they plan to follow suit.
“We’re taking actions so that we can eliminate tailpipe emissions by 2035,” said Dane Parker, GM’s chief sustainability officer, in a briefing with reporters. “Setting a goal for us 15 years from now is absolutely reachable.”
EDF President Fred Krupp said in a statement: “with this extraordinary step forward, GM is making it crystal clear that taking action to eliminate pollution from all new light-duty vehicles by 2035 is an essential element of any automaker’s business plan.”
GM also said it will source 100% renewable energy to power its U.S. sites by 2030 and global sites by 2035, five years ahead of a prior goal.
More than half of GM’s capital spending and product development team will be devoted to electric and electric-autonomous vehicle programs, GM said.
Biden on Monday vowed to replace the U.S. government’s fleet of roughly 650,000 vehicles with electric models as the new administration shifts its focus toward clean-energy.
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‘Little to No Progress’ in Global Corruption Fight, Watchdog Says
Most countries have made “little to no progress” in tackling corruption in nearly a decade, a new report by Transparency International says. The Berlin-based nonprofit group ranks countries on a scale of zero to 100, with 100 being the least corrupt.According to its report, more than two-thirds of the 180 countries had a score below 50.“The data shows that despite some progress, most countries still fail to tackle corruption effectively,” the group said in a statement.The least corrupt countries are Denmark and New Zealand, with both scoring 88. They were followed by Finland, Singapore, Sweden and Switzerland, with scores of 85.The most corrupt countries were South Sudan and Somalia, with scores of 12 each, followed by Syria with a score of 14, and Yemen and Venezuela with scores of 15. The United States scored 67, its lowest since 2012.
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Biden’s Challenge: Navigating Filibuster and Reconciliation in Congress
One of the consistent themes during Joe Biden’s campaign for president and since he won and was inaugurated has been a desire to find bipartisan agreement with Republicans on his agenda items.“The American system contemplates that there has to be cooperation to get most things done,” said Chris Edelson, assistant professor in the School of Government at American University.The false claims by former President Donald Trump that the election was stolen and the votes by Republicans in Congress casting doubt on the election “creates a special challenge for President Biden, and one with no easy solution,” he added.“Joe Biden spent 36 years in the Senate and has a very warm relationship with the body and a veneration for it,” said Norm Ornstein, emeritus scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. “During the campaign and since his election, he said that he believes he can find Republicans to work with. The initial picture is not as rosy.”If the Democrats hold majorities — slim as they are — in both Houses of Congress, why do they need Republicans to get things done?FilibusterMajority parties almost always get their way in the 435-seat House of Representatives. That is because the rules are written to favor the majority party.In the Senate, long-standing rules protect the minority party’s voice. The filibuster is one such rule. It allows a minority of senators to prevent a vote on an issue by continuing to debate it.Senate rules require three-fifths of the Senate — 60 senators — to vote to end the debate.The way the Senate stands now, 10 Republicans need to agree with all 50 Senate Democrats just to hold a vote to get much of Biden’s agenda enacted.But there are rules to allow Biden and Democrats to get around the filibuster: reconciliation.ReconciliationReconciliation is an arcane process that dates to the 1970s, allowing legislation to bypass the filibuster, as long as it deals with budget issues.This includes raising or cutting taxes and changing priorities for government spending.Senate debate for a reconciliation bill is limited, with just a simple majority needed to pass. With Vice President Kamala Harris presiding, Democrats hold the tiebreaker in the split Senate.Reconciliation has its limits. It can only be done once per fiscal year and could leave out key Biden goals like immigration reform and passing a new voting rights act.Kill the filibuster?Preserving the filibuster is so important to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell that he held up passage of an organizing resolution seeking a promise that Democrats would not use their slim majority to get rid of it.Democrats Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona have indicated they will not vote to eliminate the filibuster.While Biden has been quiet about it lately, Republicans tweeted part of his Senate speech from 2005, in which he said the filibuster “is not about stopping a nominee or a bill, it is about compromise and moderation.”But as vice president, Biden saw the filibuster used to thwart President Barack Obama’s agenda and be a useful campaign tool.“When the filibuster was used over and over in 2009 and 2010, in the next midterm election, Republicans won more seats in the House than they had in 100 years,” Ornstein said. “And then after Obama won reelection, it was used again. And in the midterm that followed, they won back the Senate. So, their game plan that’s to obstruct has worked in the past, and it’s likely they’re going to try it again.”Biden navigated those rules of the Senate for 36 years. How he plays by them now will test the success of his presidency.
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Kenya Denies Role in Somalia’s Internal Conflict
Kenya has denied accusations by Somalia that it is stirring up a conflict between the Somali federal government and Jubaland state, where fighting killed more than 20 people this week. Somalia insists its neighbor is behind the political tension and insecurity.Speaking to reporters in Nairobi Thursday, Kenya government spokesman Cyrus Oguna said his country has nothing to do with the tension between the Mogadishu administration and Jubaland federal state.”As a country, we want to state very clearly and categorically that we will not accept to be drawn into the internal politics of Somalia. We are therefore calling on all Somali leadership to desist from dragging Kenya into their domestic issues. We will, however, continue to push for peace and therefore urge all leaders in Somalia to create an environment that will facilitate the resolution of the conflict through dialogue,” he said.On Monday, Jubaland forces and Somali government troops clashed in the town of Beled Hawo, on the Kenya-Somalia border.The fighting claimed the lives of 21 people, most of them children, and at least 30,000 people have fled their homes, according to the local aid agencies in the region.Mustaf Abdullahi’s nieces were injured in Beled Hawo and are receiving treatment in Mogadishu.“My sister’s house was hit by mortar in the Monday fighting in Beled Hawo. Some of the children were injured and five died. The two girls have received a lot of help and they will be in the hospital for at least 60 days. One of the girls is injured in the stomach and has a broken hand. The other one has suffered a broken hand and a leg,” said Abdullahi.The damaged facade of the Hormuud building is seen after fighting between the Somali federal army and Jubaland state forces in Beled Hawo, in the Gedo region of Somalia Jan. 25, 2021. (SHAFIE A. MAGAN @ShafiMagan)Visiting the town Thursday to assess the situation, Somalia’s information minister, Osman Dubbe, told journalists his country wants peace but will defend itself from any internal and external attack.“We will defeat anyone who attacks us. We will defeat both our enemies inside and outside of the country. We want peace, we want good neighborliness, we want brotherhood, but some people do not want to understand that. We want our towns to be peaceful. We want Jubaland, Gedo, and Beled Hawo to be peaceful. When some people refuse to understand that, then the option open for us is to defend ourselves,” he said.Somalia accuses Kenya of arming the Jubaland forces to attack government positions, an accusation denied by Kenyan officials.
Kenya’s spokesman Oguna said Kenya helps Somalia and a peaceful Somalia is beneficial to his country.“If this is a country where they run into a situation of violence, how then can we be the same country that is destabilizing that country? Yet this is where they run for refuge. It beats logic. Honestly, it will be counter-productive for Kenya to destabilize Somalia in any way,” he said.Kenya hosts 270,000 Somali refugees and tens of thousands live and work in small towns and cities.The East African nation is one of the African countries with a military presence under the AMISIOM is supporting the Somali government in their fight against terror group al-Shabab which has threatened to overthrow the internationally recognized government.
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