Six foreigners have been arrested on suspicion of illegal logging in South Sudan’s Eastern Equatoria state and are expected to appear in court this week to face charges.Illegal logging is a chronic problem near the border with Uganda, in heavily wooded areas where there are no roads or security personnel to enforce the law, according to Magwi County Commissioner David Otto.Otto said Magwi County officials were tipped off last week by farmers who were tilling land or collecting firewood when they heard the sounds of high-powered machines cutting down trees. He said the six who are being detained were from the Mugali area.“These are our neighbors from Uganda, the residents of Amuru,” Otto told VOA’s South Sudan in Focus.Otto did not specify what charges the loggers will face in court, saying it will depend on further investigations. He says Eastern Equatoria Governor Louis Lobong has ordered state authorities to crack down on the unlawful cutting of trees.“That is against the law and the state also through our governor, he has issued a decree [against] illegal logging in the state, whereby the whole community, the citizens in Eastern Equatoria must stop this illegal logging,” Otto told VOA.Timber is a valuable natural resource that is vulnerable to exploitation because of the high profit margins. Illegal logging is the most lucrative natural resource crime, currently valued between $52 billion and $157 billion per year globally, according to C4ADS, a nonprofit that provides analysis and reporting on global conflict and transnational security issues.In South Sudan, illegal cutters target the country’s teak forests. Teak is a tropical hardwood used for wood carving, furniture, and shipbuilding. In recent years, much of the world’s teak comes from South Sudan as its trees, planted in the 1940s by British colonists, reached maturity about the same time the country gained independence.Rising demand for South Sudan’s teak has driven environmentally harmful and unsustainable exploitation of the forests that could otherwise have long-term benefits for South Sudan’s economy.The massive clear-cutting of forests also negatively impacts farmers because deforestation reduces rainfall, which affects food production, Otto said.“We are not going to access more rain because those trees have been there for a long time and these are the trees that can actually help us, and again, it affects the issue of learning, you know these trees are our learning centers,” Otto told VOA. He said the trees are “the beauty of the country,” and must be maintained.The governor warned investors looking to get into the illegal teak logging industry to think twice before coming to Magi County.“When you have that in your mind, the government will not allow, especially me, I will not entertain and I will not accept those activities happening to my place,” said Otto.In 2019, residents of Magwi County’s Ayaci payam raised similar concerns over illegal logging in Obbo-Kalishoni, Palwa, Pajok, Agoro, Afiriha, Owiny Kibul and Obbo payams. Former state Governor Alberio Tobiolo immediately responded by confiscating the logs and auctioning them off to fund community development projects.Deforestation in South Sudan has become such an issue that in 2018, the South Sudan government banned the export of charcoal in an effort to counter illegal logging of the country’s forests, including teak.Carol Van Dam Falk contributed to this report.
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Month: March 2021
US Dispatches Officials for Migration Talks in Mexico, Guatemala
Three senior U.S. immigration officials headed to Mexico and Guatemala on Monday for talks with their governments to try to figure out a way to stem the tide of migrants headed north to enter the United States. Ambassador Roberta Jacobson, President Joe Biden’s coordinator for the Southwest border, is traveling to Mexico to meet with officials there “to develop an effective and humane plan of action to manage migration,” the U.S. National Security Council said. FILE – National Security Council Coordinator for U.S. Southern Border Roberta Jacobson speaks at a press briefing at the White House, March 10, 2021.She is being joined by Juan Gonzalez, Biden’s senior director for the Western hemisphere, who then is headed to Guatemala to meet with officials there. Gonzalez, a security spokeswoman said, is also talking with representatives from civil society and nongovernment organizations in Guatemala “to address root causes of migration in the region and build a more hopeful future in the region.” FILE – National Security Council Senior Director for the Western Hemisphere Juan Gonzalez listens during a virtual meeting at the White House, Feb. 23, 2021.In addition, Richard Zuniga, the State Department’s special envoy to the Northern Triangle countries of Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, is joining Jacobson and Gonzalez in the talks. Two months into his presidency, Biden is faced with streams of mostly Central American migrants walking toward the U.S., overwhelming border officials who are refusing entry to single adults and families, but caring for thousands of unaccompanied children, as mandated by U.S. law. U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told interviewers on Sunday talk shows that the country’s southwestern border with Mexico is “secure” and “closed,” yet the U.S. is seeing Central American migrants arrive at the border at a pace that would be the highest in 20 years. Migrants rest on a gazebo at a park after they were expelled from the U.S. and pushed by Mexican authorities off an area where they had been staying, in Reynosa, Mexico, March 20, 2021.When he took office, Biden blocked further construction of a border wall championed by former President Donald Trump and embraced what he said would be more humane treatment of migrants. Now, Republican opponents of the Democratic president are blaming him for the thousands of migrants arriving at the border. Trump, who never conceded his loss to Biden in last November’s election, told Fox News on Monday, that his successor is “enforcing nothing” at the southwestern border. “People are just walking into our country and they will destroy our country,” Trump said. The former president added, “We want people to come in, but they have to be able to help our country. They have to come in through merit and they have to come in legally.” Biden has urged migrants to not make the treacherous journey to the U.S. His spokeswoman, Jen Psaki, told reporters that since Biden took office, the U.S. has broadcast more than 17,000 radio ads in Central American countries and more social media statements saying that “our borders are closed. This is not the time to travel.” U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents take into custody people near the U.S.-Mexico border, in Hidalgo, Texas, March 20, 2021.The U.S. currently is holding 15,000 unaccompanied migrant children, nearly a third of them at the border, but Mayorkas said the U.S. was obligated to care for them, rather than expel them to their home countries as was the policy under Trump. Mayorkas said it was “just false” to say that the children were “dealt with humanely” under the Trump administration. “The prior administration dismantled the asylum process,” he told the Fox News Sunday show. “We are encouraging families not to send their children” to the border. But if the children cross into the United States, he said they will be cared for over several days, sent to relatives already living in the United States or placed with vetted people willing to take care of them. “This is about vulnerable children,” he said. “We can (process them) in a safe and orderly manner. We will succeed.”
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US House Holds Hearing on Statehood for Washington, DC
The U.S. House of Representatives Oversight Committee held a hearing Monday on a bill that would make Washington, D.C., the country’s 51st state.The bill — which passed in the House last year but died in the then-Republican-controlled Senate — represents what was once considered a fringe proposition among a handful of advocates to becoming part of the agenda for Democrats in Congress.The District of Columbia was created on an undeveloped tract of land between the U.S. states of Maryland and Virginia in 1790 and became known as the Federal City for a brief period afterward. Residents initially were allowed to vote in either Maryland or Virginia.But in 1800, the U.S. Congress moved into the new Capitol, and later passed the District of Columbia Organic Act of 1801, which stripped D.C. residents of voting rights in all federal elections, including for U.S. president, and gave Congress oversight of the city.Washington currently has more than 700,000 residents — a population greater than the states of Wyoming and Vermont — who do not have a vote in Congress. At Monday’s hearing, D.C. House Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, author of the legislation, said it was designed to correct that situation.As a delegate, Norton can vote in committee but not for the final bill passage.Under her plan, the area that includes the Capitol, the White House and federal office buildings would become the “federal district,” with the remaining portions of the city becoming the State of Washington, Douglass Commonwealth, named partially for former slave, abolitionist and voting rights advocate Frederick Douglass.Republicans in Congress vehemently oppose the bill as a “power grab” by Democrats, as the staunchly Democratic city would mean more seats for their party in Congress.Republicans argued their opposition last week on constitutional grounds, with conservative witnesses arguing that statehood could not be achieved through simple legislation and that a constitutional amendment would be required.If it passes in the House, the measure will have difficulty passing the Senate, where Democrats have only a one-seat majority, and the bill would need eight Republican votes.
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Burkina Faso’s IDPs Struggle to Access Aid
The U.N. refugee agency calls Burkina Faso the world’s fastest-growing displacement crisis, with more than one million internally displaced people and counting. Among the displaced are some 140,000 disabled who struggle with discrimination, exploitation, and accessing aid, as Henry Wilkins reports from Kaya, Burkina Faso.
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Mozambique’s Humanitarian Crisis in Cabo Delgado Has Displaced 700,000
The U.N. refugee agency warns the humanitarian crisis in Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province is evolving rapidly, and could negatively impact the surrounding region if it is not addressed.Two senior officials who visited makeshift settlements for displaced people in Cabo Delgado say the insurgency, which began four-and-a-half years ago, is escalating rapidly and forcing increasing numbers of people to flee their homes. They report 90 percent of the displaced are living with family and friends in urban areas where they receive support. About 10 percent, they say, are unable to find refuge and are living under appalling conditions. UNHCR’s Assistant High Commissioner for Protection Gillian Triggs says the shelters are of the most primitive kind, and the government last distributed food to them in December. Consequently, she says, people are scrounging for roots and leaves in fields to feed themselves and their families. FILE – Women wait in line during the United Nations World Food Program’s distribution at a school in Matuge district, northern Mozambique, Feb. 24, 2021.She says she heard shocking stories from grandmothers who were caring for orphan children. “In this case, a grandmother was caring for a baby a few months old,” Triggs said. “Her daughter had been killed in the conflict and the father of the child had been killed and beheaded and the grandmother was now in this period of grief trying to care for this child without milk. Where they were grinding up root vegetables for the children, giving them diarrhea and exposing them to all sorts of other things.” Triggs says the displaced in Cabo Delgado need everything — shelter, food, clothing, medical care and protection from violence. There is no electricity in the makeshift settlements, and women are terrified of going out at night. More than 2,000 people have been killed since the start of the insurgency in October 2017, but Triggs notes there has been a significant increase in violence in the past year. “In terms of what actually has been happening, villages have been set on fire, people killed, beheaded, including children,” she said. “There are reports of children being beheaded, raped and, of course, huge levels of sexual violence of one kind or another. This is a full insurgency, a conflict of a very serious kind.” The insurgency is led by militants who affiliated themselves with the Islamic State group in 2019. The UNHCR warns the current number of 700,000 internally displaced people is expected to rise to one million by June if the increasingly brutal conflict continues to be overlooked by the international community. The agency reports last November’s $254 million appeal has received just five percent — a sum far too low to make a dent in providing the most basic of needs for people struggling to survive.
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Officials Say More 3 Million Children Are Out of School in Nigeria
Nigeria’s Ministry of Education has said the number of out-of-school children stands at 10.1 million, an increase of more than 3 million from last year. While no reasons were given for the increase announced Friday, experts point at the coronavirus pandemic and insecurities around schools.Abuja resident Florence Ulo is reviewing her five-year-old son’s schoolwork at home and preparing him for an upcoming term examination.When COVID-19 hit last year, Ulo, like many Nigerian parents, withdrew her child from school over fear of exposing him to the coronavirus.Even after the reopening of schools, she says she decided that he’ll remain at home for some months. “When the Covid thing started, once you contract the virus they’ll take you away. So the thought of being away from my child and being in another place and I can’t have access to him was quite frightening, so I couldn’t take the risk, we had to stay back for a while,” she said.Ulo’s son recently returned to class after she said the school’s precautionary measures to keep pupils safe had improved.But now, with many months out of school, he’s trying to catch up. “I was going to the school to see their COVID-19 compliant level, when I was satisfied to an extent, not that I was totally comfortable with the whole thing. Left for me, my child won’t go anywhere,” said Florence Ulo.Nigeria’s Education Ministry last Friday said the country has seen a jump of 3 million students out of school compared to a year ago. Even though authorities did not give reasons for the increase, the COVID-19 pandemic clearly was a factor. The Nigerian Union of Teachers, NUT, says recent attacks on schools in parts of northern Nigeria is also to blame for the increase. A mother reacts as she receives her daughter after she arrived along with other rescued JSS Jangebe schoolgirls in Jangebe, Zamfara, Nigeria, March 3, 2021.Emmanuel Hwande is teachers’ union spokesperson. “The bandit attacks on schools have significantly kept most of our children out of school, considering that most schools are now closed down and the desire for parents to equip their children with formal education will be on the low scale because the fears are still there, the kidnappers are on a rampage,” he said.Around 700 students have been kidnapped from schools since December, of which scores of remain in captivity. Abductions have happened at schools in Zamfara, Katsina, Jigawa, Niger and Kaduna states. Authorities have promised to strengthen security at schools, and last week President Muhammadu Buhari said his government will “take a strong stance” against criminal gangs.
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Bachelet: Conditions in DR Congo’s Volatile Kasai Region Continue to Worsen
U.N. human rights experts say conditions are deteriorating for millions of civilians caught up in the chronic armed conflict in the northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The experts presented their latest findings to the U.N. Human Rights Council Monday.The last time U.N. human rights chief Michele Bachelet testified about conditions in Congo’s eastern Kasai region was October. At that time, she presented evidence of the devastating impact of armed conflict on the people, noting that some incidents could amount to war crimes or crimes against humanity.She told the Council Monday that since then, the situation in the eastern DRC, especially in the provinces of North and South Kivu and Ituri, has continued to worsen. She called the scale of violence alarming. She said that last year, her office had verified the killing of nearly 3,000 civilians by armed groups.She said hateful rhetoric from politicians, community leaders and members of the Congolese diaspora is making the situation worse.“Given the context of escalating bloodshed, and the country’s history of intercommunal violence, I am deeply concerned that the current widespread increase in hate speech could further inflame conflict…Widespread impunity for violations and abuses of human rights, mistrust between communities, and discrimination against certain groups contribute to this terrain,” she said. Bachelet called on Congolese authorities to strengthen efforts to combat discrimination and hostility against people because of their ethnic, religious and gender identity.Bintou Keita is head of MONUSCO, the U.N. stabilization mission in the DRC. She has just returned from a visit to Goma, Bukavu, Beni, and Bunia, where she met with military and civil authorities.Keita said she discussed her concerns about the rampant violence, escalating armed attacks and worsening human rights situation in the eastern provinces. She spoke through an interpreter.“It is urgent to redouble efforts in order to bring security to the populations, to attack the different causes underlying conflicts and guarantee stability in the east. All of this, in the strict respect of international humanitarian law and human rights,” she said.The DRCs minister for human rights, Andre Lite Asebea, told the Council Monday that his government is working to promote and protect human rights.He said his country had problems with terrorist groups in the east and that it was exploring all avenues to eradicate this scourge. He said efforts were under way to reform the security service, as well as legal procedures regarding international crimes.
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US Supreme Court Could Reimpose Boston Marathon Bomber Death Sentence
The Supreme Court said Monday it will consider reinstating the death sentence for Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, presenting President Joe Biden with an early test of his opposition to capital punishment.The justices agreed to hear an appeal filed by the Trump administration, which carried out executions of 13 federal inmates in its final six months in office.The case won’t be heard until the fall, and it’s unclear how the new administration will approach Tsarnaev’s case. The initial prosecution and decision to seek a death sentence was made by the Obama administration, in which Biden served as vice president.But Biden has pledged to seek an end to the federal death penalty.In August, the federal appeals court in Boston threw out Tsarnaev’s sentence because it said the judge at his trial did not do enough to ensure the jury would not be biased against him.The Justice Department had moved quickly to appeal, asking the justices to hear and decide the case by the end of the court’s current term, in early summer. Then-Attorney General William Barr said last year, “We will do whatever’s necessary.”Tsarnaev’s lawyers acknowledged at the beginning of his trial that he and his older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, set off the two bombs at the marathon finish line in 2013. But they argued that Dzhokar Tsarnaev is less culpable than his brother, who they said was the mastermind behind the attack.Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, died following a gunfight with police and being run over by his brother as he fled. Police captured a bloodied and wounded Dzhokhar Tsarnaev hours later in the Boston suburb of Watertown, where he was hiding in a boat parked in a backyard.Tsarnaev, now 27, was convicted of all 30 charges against him, including conspiracy and use of a weapon of mass destruction and the killing of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer during the Tsarnaev brothers’ getaway attempt. The appeals court upheld all but a few of his convictions.The initial prosecution and decision to seek a death sentence was made by the Obama administration, in which Biden served as vice president.
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EU Solidarity Breaks Down, States Complain of Unfair Vaccine Distribution
European Union solidarity is breaking down amid a vaccine debacle that analysts say may have long-lasting repercussions for the future of European political integration.Member states are divided over the wisdom of imposing a vaccine export ban threatened by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. The ban is mainly focused on Britain, a bid to secure more vaccines for the EU, but critics warn it could backfire on the bloc and tarnish its much vaunted commitment to free trade and internationalism.And there is also an emerging dispute on whether the vaccines the bloc is receiving are being distributed fairly by the European Commission among the EU’s 27 member states.Five central European and Baltic countries, led by Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, have complained of unequal treatment and plan to raise more forcefully their objections over the apportionment at a summit Thursday of EU heads of state and government.“The last few weeks have shown that deliveries are currently not being made according to population keys and that this is set to intensify in the coming months,” reads a complaint signed by Kurz and four other national leaders.The disgruntled national leaders added: “This approach clearly contradicts the political goal of the European Union — the equal distribution of vaccine doses to all member states. If the distribution were to continue in this way, it would result in significant unequal treatment — which we must prevent.”Cases and frustration growingThe mood in European capitals is turning sour. Locals complain they can’t see the light at then of the pandemic tunnel. Coronavirus infections are rising rapidly across the continent, in contrast to Britain and America, where much quicker and nimbler vaccine rollouts are seeing a significant falloff in the rate of confirmed cases.Much of the frustration among member states is being directed at von der Leyen, who was the driving force behind persuading member states to sign on to a vaccine procurement and distribution program managed by the authorities in Brussels.Medical workers prepare doses of Oxford/AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine at a vaccination center in Antwerp, Belgium, March 18, 2021.She and EC commissioners argued a bloc-wide approach would alleviate the risk of vaccine rivalry between member states as they scrambled to place procurement orders and would advertise the strengths of the EU, which in turn would help garner more public support for greater political integration.But it hasn’t turned out that way and Europe is lagging behind on inoculation as a third wave of the pandemic hits the continent. EU countries are short overall on vaccines — but are also sitting at the same time on millions of doses of the British-developed AstraZeneca vaccine because of public doubts about its safety.Seventeen states, including France and Germany, paused administering Astra jabs last week because of worries that the vaccine caused blood-clots, but then reversed the halt, leaving behind however residual public fear about Astra and increasing incidents of Europeans refusing Astra jabs.Vaccine fightVon der Leyen on Sunday raised the vaccine war stakes with London, threatening again to block AstraZeneca from exporting jabs manufactured in the EU to Britain if the Anglo-Swedish company doesn’t first meet its supply obligations to EU countries. Brussels says Britain has grabbed more than its “fair share” of vaccines and hasn’t been sending to Europe any Astra vaccines produced in Britain. The British argue their contract pre-dates the EU’s by several months and because the EU was late in ordering, it is suffering the consequences.“We have the possibility to forbid planned exports,” Von der Leyen told German newspapers. “That is the message to AstraZeneca, ‘You fulfill your contract with Europe before you start delivering to other countries.’” An export ban would likely target not just the Astra vaccines manufactured in the EU but also the export of Pfizer-BioNTech doses, which are produced in Belgium.Privately, British officials say they would consider retaliating if a ban is imposed by blocking crucial ingredients shipped from Yorkshire needed for the manufacture in Belgium of the Pfizer vaccine. The U.S. drug maker has warned Brussels that production at its main vaccine plant in Belgium would “grind to a halt,” if Britain opted to retaliate.The threat of an export ban is causing alarm among several member states, with Belgium, Ireland, the Netherlands, Poland and Sweden all against the proposal to block vaccine exports. They have warned it would tarnish the bloc’s reputation as a champion of free trade and the rule of law. Belgian officials say they’re worried that export bans would impair supply chains that rely on international trade.British Prime Minister Boris Johnson spoke with Alexander De Croo, the Belgian Prime Minister. “We discussed our efforts to tackle COVID-19. We also touched on the importance of global supply chains and on common efforts to speed up vaccine production,” De Croo said after the conversation. British officials say they are hopeful about shaping an alliance against Brussels on the issue of an export ban and remain confident German Chancellor Angela Merkel would also oppose such a drastic step.EC commissioners place some of the blame for the slow pace of inoculations largely on member states. EU countries have vaccinated barely 10% of the bloc’s population compared to Britain which has inoculated more than 50%. EU officials say they are being scapegoated by member states.But major EU powers, including Germany and Italy, are pointing the finger at Brussels, and their leaders are tiring of what they say are severe shortages in EU supplies. A German official told VOA the EU commissioners are proving to be “the gang that can’t shoot straight.”The Sputnik optionJens Spahn, the German health minister, told reporters “there is not yet enough vaccine in Europe to stop the third wave through vaccination alone. Even if the deliveries from EU orders now come reliably, it will still take several weeks until the risk groups are fully vaccinated.” He has warned Germany might decide to buy Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine even before the EU medicines regulator has authorized it. “I am very much in favor of us doing it nationally, if the EU does not do something,” he said Saturday.German Chancellor Angela Merkel, center, looks on as Health Minister Jens Spahn, left, and Interior Minister Horst Seehofer talk prior to the weekly cabinet meeting in Berlin, March 17, 2021.Mario Draghi, the Italian Prime Minister and a former head of the European Central Bank, has also raised the prospects of ignoring the EU and purchasing the Russian vaccine. With case numbers spiraling out of control in Italy, there are fears that the third wave could be as deadly as the first wave, and Draghi says his priority is “giving the greatest number of vaccinations in the shortest time possible.”“If European coordination works, fine,” the Italian leader said at a press conference when asked about buying Sputnik “Otherwise on health, you have to be ready to do it yourself. This is what Merkel said and this is what I am saying here,” he added.Hungary and Slovakia have already purchased Sputnik doses.Frustrations over the vaccine program and the reimposition of lockdown restrictions in many European countries is boiling over in parts of the continent. Thousands of anti-lockdown protesters took to the street in Germany and Switzerland in protests organized by activists by both far-left and far-right groups.Police officers remove demonstrators from a square during a protest against the government’s COVID-19 restrictions in Kassel, Germany, March 20, 2021.There are also signs voters mean to make their feelings clear in upcoming elections about their frustrations with the vaccine rollout as well as re-tightened lockdowns. German Chancellor Angela Merkel Christian Democrats suffered last week historic defeats in state elections, seen as a test of voter opinion before September’s nationwide German federal ballot. French President Emmanuel Macron has also seen his polls numbers drop.Guy Verhofstadt, an EU lawmaker and the former Belgium prime minister, admits the vaccine campaign has been “ a fiasco,” but says, “in these troubled times, European integration is the only sensible way forward for our continent.” He maintains it proves the EU needs a proper “health union.”However, voters might not see it that way. Some analysts question whether the EU will come out of the pandemic stronger than it went into it with some suggesting that Brussels’ handling of the pandemic will undermine the appetite for further political integration.“With its disastrous vaccine procurement policy, the EU committed the ultimate mistake: it has given people a rational reason to oppose European integration,” argues Wolfgang Münchau, director of Eurointelligence, a specialist news service.
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Clashes in English City of Bristol Leave 20 Police Injured
A protest in the English city of Bristol against new policing legislation turned into violent clashes that left at least 20 officers injured — two of them seriously — widespread damage to a police station and police vehicles torched, police said Monday.Seven people were arrested during the protest, which started Sunday afternoon and ran through to the early hours of Monday morning. Police said the number of arrests would likely increase in coming days as officers study closed circuit television footage.The violence, which also saw several police vehicles damaged, was branded as “unacceptable” by Britain’s interior minister, Priti Patel.”Thuggery and disorder by a minority will never be tolerated,” she said.What started as a peaceful demonstration of around 3,000 people on College Green in the heart of the city in western England turned violent after hundreds of protesters descended on the New Bridewell police station.Many demonstrators donned face masks and carried placards criticizing the legislation, such as “Say no to U.K. police state” and “Freedom to protest is fundamental to democracy.”The protesters were ostensibly venting their anger at the government’s Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, which is currently going through parliament. Under the terms of the legislation, which covers England and Wales, police will be handed new powers to tackle demonstrations.Sue Mountstevens, police and crime commissioner for the Avon and Somerset region, said seven people have been arrested but that there would be “many more” detained.”It’s disgraceful and outrageous,” she said. “Police officers went to work yesterday and some have returned home via hospital battered and bruised.”Protesters attempted to smash the windows of the glass-fronted police station and damaged 12 vehicles, including two that were set on fire.Andy Marsh, chief constable of Avon and Somerset Police, said 12 police vehicles were damaged and “significant damage” was caused to the New Bridewell police station.”Officers were pelted with stones and missiles and fireworks and it was a terrifying situation for them to deal with,” he said.”I believe the events of yesterday were hijacked by extremists, people who were determined to commit criminal damage, to generate very negative sentiment about policing and to assault our brave officers,” he added.Two of the police officers injured were treated in hospital after suffering broken ribs and an arm. Both have since been discharged.Bristol mayor Marvin Rees, who said he had “major concerns” about the bill, condemned the violence and said the unrest would be used to justify the legislation.One of the reasons why the British government has pushed through new legislation on the police’s powers over protests relates to last summer’s anti-racism protests, including the toppling of a statue of slave trader, Edward Colston, in Bristol.
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Donations Pour In for Families of Atlanta Shooting Victims
Shortly after his mother was killed in the Atlanta-area shootings, Randy Park launched a GoFundMe page asking for $20,000 to pay for funeral expenses. By Sunday, the donations were approaching $3 million.With many people seeking a way to support the families of the dead, Park’s page and others have offered an outlet for tens of thousands of donors, and the accounts have surpassed their goals only days after they were opened.”I’ve never had a good understanding how much money was worth, but every cent of it will be used only in pure necessity,” wrote Park, son of Hyun Jung Grant, 51, who was one of the eight people killed in the attacks on massage businesses.Rani Ban contributed to Park just to show kindness.”It’s important that he knows there are still good people. That’s simply it,” said Ban, who is from the San Francisco Bay Area.To date, no central fund been created to aid families of the victims — a contrast with some other mass shootings where groups were set up to collect and distribute money to those directly affected.For example, following the 2017 attack on the Las Vegas Strip that killed 58 people that night and at least two others who died later, a nonprofit corporation was formed to pay $275,000 to the families. The nonprofit stemmed from a GoFundMe account that received more than 90,000 donations.In 2019, a group of nonprofits organized a relief effort after a gunman opened fire in El Paso, Texas, killing 22 people in an attack that police said targeted Mexicans.For now, donors to victims of the Atlanta shootings must scour individual GoFundMe accounts.”We all have to stand up for all the innocent lives that fall victim to such reckless hate,” Mallory Spalding wrote on a GoFundMe page set up for Suncha Kim, 69, who was fatally shot in the chest.The page has seen more than $125,000 in donations in a single day.”It brings tears to our eyes that you are all standing with us and our beloved halmoni, mother, and wife. Suncha was such a strong, loving presence in all of our lives, and we miss her so much,” the family said in a statement posted on the page.A page for Delaina Yaun has collected more than $102,000, and one for survivors of Paul Michels has raised more than $57,000. A page for Yong Yue’s family drew more than $94,000.The donations will help pay for travel for family members who would otherwise be unable to attend funerals.Yong Yue’s family issued a statement less than 24 hours after creating the GoFundMe page that the money would be used to fly her six grandchildren to the funeral, as well to take care of Yue’s “business and home affairs.”People view a makeshift memorial, March 19, 2021, in Atlanta. Robert Aaron Long, a white man, is accused of killing several people, most of whom were of Asian descent, at massage parlors in the Atlanta area.The suspect, 21-year-old Robert Aaron Long, is charged with killing four women at the Atlanta spas and four other people at a massage business about 30 miles (50 kilometers) away in Cherokee County. Seven of the slain were women, and six of them were of Asian descent.Park’s family was the first to launch a GoFundMe page. He explained that he had “no time to grieve” because financial obligations were quickly mounting.After his page began taking off, others soon followed to raise money for more families.”To put it bluntly, I can’t believe you guys exist. People I will probably never meet, hear nor express my thanks to. This is simply a change in my life,” Park wrote to the 70,000 people who had contributed as of Sunday afternoon.
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Democracy Activists Freed from Chinese Jail Back in Custody in Hong Kong
Eight Hong Kong democracy activists, jailed in China last year after being captured at sea, arrived back in the city and were immediately detained on Monday in a case that has drawn international attention and concern over their treatment.
They were among 12 activists facing charges in Hong Kong over pro-democracy protests, who were intercepted by mainland authorities in August 2020 on a boat allegedly en route to Taiwan.
They were sent home to Hong Kong on Monday after serving a sentence in China for illegally crossing the border, only to be detained on arrival on the previous Hong Kong charges.
Activist and barrister Chow Hang-tung, speaking on behalf of a concern group for the defendants, said she was unhappy with the handover arrangements for them.
“(Authorities) never communicated with the family about the whole arrangement so the family members are forced to come here and wait all day until now,” Chow said at a press briefing outside a Hong Kong police station close to the mainland border.
“Just for the very thin hope of seeing their families, waving to them, shouting to them, even till now, they still haven’t had any chance to meet their sons.”
Johnny Patterson, policy director for rights group Hong Kong Watch, said the “appalling ordeal” the group faced “shines a spotlight on the draconian new normal in Hong Kong.”
“It’s a case of out of the frying pan, into the fire.”
Among the eight is Andy Li, arrested under a sweeping national security law Beijing imposed on the Asian financial hub in June 2020 that critics say is aimed at crushing dissent.
In December, a Chinese court sentenced 10 of the 12 to between seven months and three years in jail. Defendants Tang Kai-yin and Quinn Moon, who were sentenced to three and two years, respectively, are still in southern Guangdong province.
Two minors who were among the 12 pleaded guilty to illegally crossing the border and were returned to Hong Kong in December.
During the detention of the 12 in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, mainland authorities denied their families and lawyers access, insisting they be represented by officially appointed lawyers, provoking criticism from rights groups.
Pro-democracy activists began fleeing Hong Kong for Taiwan from the early months of the protests in 2019, most legally by air, but some by boat, activists in Taipei have told Reuters.
Hong Kong, a former British colony, returned to Chinese rule in 1997 with the guarantee of freedoms not seen on the mainland, including freedom of speech and assembly. Democracy activists complain that Communist Party rulers in Beijing are whittling away at those freedoms, a charge China rejects.
Since Beijing imposed the national security law on Hong Kong, scores of democracy campaigners have been arrested, some elected legislators have been disqualified and others have fled overseas.
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Congolese Presidential Opposition Candidate Dies of COVID-19
Guy Brice Parfait Kolelas, the main challenger in the Republic of Congo’s presidential election, has died of COVID-19.A spokesman for Kolelas’s campaign says the 61-year-old candidate died Sunday as he was being evacuated from Brazzaville to France for treatment. FILE – Guy Brice Parfait Kolelas speaks to supporters while receiving oxygen, in Brazzaville, Congo Republic, in this still image taken from Reuters TV video said to be filmed March 19, 2021. (Parfait Kolelas/Handout via Reuters)Kolelas was too ill to participate in a final campaign rally Friday, two days before the election. He recorded a video from his hospital bed Saturday holding an oxygen mask, declaring that he was “battling against death” but urging his supporters to “stand up and vote for change.” Sunday’s election was the second time Kolelas had challenged incumbent President Denis Sassou Nguesso, having finished second in the 2016 election. The results are not expected for several days, but observers believe the 77-year-old Sassou Nguesso will emerge the winner and extend his decades-long grip on power. Sassou Nguesso first took office in 1979 and served until 1992, and has served uninterrupted since winning the presidency again in 1997.
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EU Approves Sanctions over China, Myanmar Abuses
EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels on Monday approved sanctions over abuses in China, Myanmar and Russia, as the bloc expands measures targeting global rights breaches.The 27 nations are due to place four Chinese officials and one state-run entity on a blacklist over Beijing’s crackdown on the Uighur minority after ambassadors gave the go-ahead last week.The highly symbolic move — reported by EU diplomats and expected to be formally unveiled in the EU’s official journal later Monday — is the first time Brussels has hit Beijing over human rights abuses since it imposed an arms embargo in 1989 after Tiananmen Square.China’s foreign ministry has warned that Beijing will “react with a firm hand” against any punishment over its actions in the western Xinjiang region.The measures are part of a package of human rights sanctions targeting a dozen people that also includes individuals in Russia, North Korea, Eritrea, South Sudan and Libya, diplomats said.”This is a very important step which shows how committed we are,” Slovak Foreign Minister Ivan Korcok said.The mechanism — designed to make it easier for the bloc to target rights abusers — was launched this month with sanctions on four Russian officials over the jailing of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.Diplomats said the fresh sanctions on Russia will target individuals behind abuses in the country’s Chechnya region, which is ruled with an iron-fist by Kremlin loyalist Ramzan Kadyrov.The EU will also slap asset freezes and visa bans on 11 officials of Myanmar’s junta over the military coup last month and crackdown on demonstrators.”What we see there in terms of excesses of violence is absolutely unacceptable,” German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said. “That is why we will not be able to avoid imposing sanctions.”Myanmar has been in turmoil since the military ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi on February 1, triggering a mass uprising that security forces have sought to crush with a campaign of violence and fear. Diplomats have said businesses tied to the military will likely be placed under sanctions in the coming weeks.People stage a protest in support of pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democracy Party, or HDP, in Istanbul, in Istanbul, March 18, 2021. The European Union voiced concerns over the “backsliding of rights” in Turkey.Turkey tiesTurkey will feature prominently at the meeting as member states debate efforts to improve ties after a spike in tensions last year over the eastern Mediterranean.Brussels has welcomed steps by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to reduce tensions by restarting talks with Greece over their disputed maritime border. But there remain major concerns, including over domestic freedoms after moves to ban a key opposition party and Erdogan’s decision to leave a global treaty to prevent violence against women. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has drawn up a report outlining the bloc’s options to be discussed by leaders at a video conference this week.Warming ties have seen efforts to impose sanctions agreed on in December over Turkish drilling off Cyprus put on the back burner for fear of derailing the rapprochement.”There are different signals from Turkey,” Maas said.”We will continue to try to remain in dialogue, but also to use this dialogue to address the issues where we believe that Turkey is sending out the wrong signals.”
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Why Biden Sends Warships to the South China Sea, Just as Trump Did
U.S. President Joe Biden is keeping pace with his predecessor in the frequency of American warships sent to Asia, analysts believe, a way to get a foothold in contested seas and routinize warnings aimed at the region’s strongest maritime force, Beijing. The guided missile destroyer USS John S. McCain arrived February 5 near the Paracel Islands, a South China Sea archipelago controlled by China but claimed as well by Taiwan, and Vietnam. Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines vie with China over sovereignty in other parts of the 3.5 million-square-kilometer sea that stretches from Hong Kong to Borneo. Less than three weeks later, a U.S. Navy destroyer passed through the Taiwan Strait, parts of which are contested by China and Taiwan, as what the navy described as a “commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific” — often a reference to the adjacent South China Sea. Another navy ship repeated the voyage March 11.“The Biden administration has inherited most of (U.S. former president Donald) Trump’s political legacy on the South China Sea issue and has not shown much inclination to change it so far,” Beijing’s state-run China Daily news website said on March 18.Trump’s administration sent navy ships to the South China Sea 10 times in 2019 and another 10 times last year, a U.S. Indo-Pacific Command spokesman said for this report. His administration allowed five in each of the years 2017 and 2018. U.S. officials call the voyages “Freedom of Navigation Operations,” or FONOPs for short.In this July 4, 2019, photo, magazines with front covers featuring Chinese President Xi Jinping with South China Sea and Xi against U.S. President Donald Trump are placed on sale at a roadside bookstand in Hong Kong.Administrations before Trump’s would seek approval from the White House and other agencies before sending ships, effectively “politicizing” each move, said Alexander Vuving, a professor at the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in Hawaii. China would protest each one and follow up with its own military maneuvers in the sea. “I think the higher frequency of FONOPs also by the Biden Administration reflects the results of a learning process that the United States has undergone in the last several years,” Vuving said. “Lesson number is don’t make a fuss out of the FONOPs,” he said. “Do not politicize them but normalize them.” Washington more broadly wants to increase its South China Sea presence, Vuving added, and regular naval operations advance that goal. Beijing says 90% of the South China Sea falls under its flag and cites historical usage records to support that claim. The six claimants prize the sea for fisheries, undersea fuel reserves and marine shipping lanes. The United States, China’s former Cold War rival and modern-day superpower rival, makes no claim to the sea. It has stepped in as Beijing takes a military lead in the maritime dispute, threatening a network of pro-U.S. actors such as Taiwan and the Philippines. China particularly alarmed other states before 2017 by landfilling islets to build up military infrastructure. “FONOPs will become a more institutionalized mechanism, so the U.S. can say that FONOPs is just a regular feature in this part of the world,” said Eduardo Araral, associate professor at the National University of Singapore’s public policy school. U.S. ships sent to the sea for FONOPs do not make port calls or directly challenge Chinese maritime activity. Beijing takes a “wait and see” stance now toward the U.S. South China Sea policy, said Huang Chung-ting, assistant research fellow with the Institute for National Defense and Security Research in Taipei. He said it wants to know whether Washington and its allies will differ over how to approach the maritime dispute. “China under this situation of course will wait and see, then it will attempt to find possible inconsistencies in terms of China policy between the United States and its partners or allies, letting China find a breach,” Huang said. France, Germany and the United Kingdom, among others, have sent vessels to the South China Sea already this year or made plans to go. Analysts have said they are pushing back against China’s maritime expansion.Western Countries Send Ships to South China Sea in Pushback Against Beijing Western governments see an urgency to help the US government reduce Beijing’s reach in the waterway that supports marine shipping and fossil fuel, scholars say Chinese officials say U.S. FONOPs disrupt peace in the sea and violate international law. Just before U.S. and Chinese officials met last week in Anchorage, Alaska, a foreign ministry spokesman from Beijing said China has no “room for compromise on issues concerning its sovereignty, security and core interests.”
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Japan Car Makers Scramble to Assess Impact of Renesas Auto Chip-plant Fire
Toyota, Nissan, Honda and other Japanese automakers scrambled on Monday to assess the production impact of a fire at a Renesas Electronics automotive chip plant that could aggravate a global semiconductor shortage. “We are gathering information and trying to see if this will affect us or not,” a Honda spokesperson said. Other car makers including Toyota and Nissan said they too were assessing the situation. The effect on car makers could spread beyond Japan to other auto companies in Europe and the United States because Renesas has around a 30% global share of micro control unit chips used in cars. Renesas said it will take at least a month to restart production on a 300 mm (millimeter) wafer line at its Naka plant in northeast Japan after an electrical fault caused machinery to catch fire on Friday and poured smoke into the sensitive clean room. Two-thirds of production at the affected line is automotive chips. The company also has a 200 mm (millimeter) wafer line at the Naka plant, which has not been affected. Concerns on the impact of the fire on production sent auto shares sliding in Tokyo on Monday, with the big three, Toyota, Honda and Nissan, down more than 2% by the midday break. Renesas shares tumbled as much as 5.5% and were down 3.9% midday. The benchmark Topix index shed 1.1%. “It will probably take more than a month to return to normal supply. Given that, even Toyota will face very unstable production in April and May,” said Seiji Sugiura, senior analyst at Tokai Tokyo Research Institute. “I think Honda, Nissan and other makers will also be facing a difficult situation.” Semiconductors such as those made by Renesas are used extensively in cars, including to monitor engine performance, manage steering or automatic windows, and in sensors used in parking and entertainment systems.An employee wearing protective equipment pushes a cart at a semiconductor production facility for Renesas Electronics during a government organized tour for journalists in Beijing, May 14, 2020.Nissan and Honda had already been forced to scale back production plans because of the chip shortage resulting from burgeoning demand from consumer electronic makers and an unexpected rebound in car sales from a slump during the early months of the coronavirus pandemic. Toyota, which ensured parts suppliers had enough stocks of chips, has fared better so far. “It could take three months or even half a year for a full recovery,” said Akira Minamikawa, analyst at technology research company Omdia. “This has happened when chip stockpiles are low, so the impact is going to be significant,” he added. Government promises help Renesas said it customers, which are mostly automotive parts makers rather than the car companies, will begin to see chip shipments fall in around a month. The company declined to say which machine caught fire because of the electrical fault or which company made it. The Japanese government promised help for the auto industry. “We will firmly try to help the Naka factory achieve swift restoration by helping it quickly acquire alternative manufacturing equipment,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato told a regular news conference on Monday. The latest incident at the Naka facility comes after an earthquake last month shut down production for three days and forced Renesas to further deplete chip stocks to keep up with orders. The plant was closed for three months in 2011 following the deadly earthquake that devastated Japan’s northeast coast.
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Blinken Heads to Europe to Boost Alliances
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrives in Brussels Monday for meetings this week that the State Department says are aimed at boosting ties with the North American Treaty Organization (NATO) allies and partnering on issues such as climate change, counterterrorism and ongoing efforts in combating the coronavirus pandemic. Blinken is scheduled to take part in a meeting of NATO foreign ministers Tuesday and Wednesday, and to also hold talks with NATO’s Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. “It’ll be an opportunity for the secretary and the foreign ministers to discuss the NATO 2030 initiative,” Acting Assistant Secretary Philip Reeker for the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs told reporters ahead of Blinken’s trip. “Proposals under that [2030 initiative] for alliance adaptation, concerns over China and Russia, as well as climate change, cybersecurity, hybrid threats, combating terrorism, energy security — clearly the global pandemic enters into this, and other common challenges that we face together.”Banners displaying the NATO logo are placed at the entrance of new NATO headquarters during the move to the new building, March 18, 2021.After four years of foreign policy under former President Donald Trump that focused only on prioritizing U.S. interests, Reeker said Blinken will deliver a speech in Brussels outlining a commitment to “rebuilding and revitalizing alliances” while highlighting the importance of NATO. “We know we’re stronger and better able to overcome challenges when we face them together, and we’re going to modernize our alliances, mend them as needed, and deal with the world as we face it,” Reeker said. Blinken’s itinerary also includes a meeting with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Union’s (EU) foreign policy chief Josep Borrell. The State Department said agenda items include economic recovery efforts in response to the coronavirus pandemic and addressing “global challenges that come from Iran, Russia and China.” Specifically, regarding Iran, Reeker said the top U.S. diplomat will consult with EU colleagues about the prospects of the United States and Iran mutually returning to the agreement signed in 2015 that limited Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief. Both the United States, which left the deal under Trump in 2018, and Iran, which responded by taking steps away from its commitments, have expressed a willingness to observe the agreement once again, but each has signaled the other side should start first. The final part of Blinken’s trip agenda is bilateral talks with Belgian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sophie Wilmès.
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European Countries Enter New Lockdowns as Vaccine Campaigns Lag
Germany will likely institute another lockdown to contain the spread of the coronavirus, which would make it the latest European country enacting fresh restrictions.A draft of recommendations to be presented to German Chancellor Angela Merkel will push for lockdowns to be extended until April 18, Reuters reported Sunday.In Poland, which is seeing the highest number of daily cases since November, new measures have forced nonessential shops and other facilities to close for three weeks. Poland recorded more than 26,000 new cases Sunday and more than 350 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University. Nonessential stores have also been closed in Ukraine’s capital of Kyiv, where only food markets are allowed to stay open. It recorded more than 15,000 new cases Sunday and nearly 270 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data. Largest Vaccine Producer Delays Shipments to Some CountriesSome European countries resume use of AstraZeneca vaccineAbout one-third of France’s population is under lockdown after measures were imposed Friday in Paris and several regions in northern and southern parts of the country. More than 4,300 people were in intensive care units in France Saturday, the health ministry said, the most this year.About 6.1 million people in France have received their first COVID-19 shot, or just less than 12% of the adult population.But in Marseille, in the south of France, thousands of people took to the streets Sunday to celebrate carnival in defiance of pandemic restrictions.In the United States, officials in the popular Florida tourist destination of Miami Beach extended an emergency curfew of 8 p.m. for up to three weeks after dozens were arrested Saturday. Officials say 1,000 people have been arrested in the beach town since March 1. On Saturday, crowds of Spring Break partiers were met with pepper spray balls and SWAT teams in the beachfront city as they defied the highly unusual 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew. On February 26, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a Republican, said the state is an “oasis of freedom” from coronavirus restrictions. Meanwhile, the world’s largest vaccine producer has told at least three countries that their COVID vaccine shipments will be delayed. The Serum Institute of India has informed Brazil, Morocco and Saudi Arabia that India’s overwhelming need for the vaccine is the cause of the delay.India is experiencing a surge in infections. The South Asian nation has the third-highest number of coronavirus cases, with 11.6 million. Only the United States and Brazil have more, at 28.7 million and 11.9, respectively.India’s Serum Institute has come under criticism for selling or donating more vaccines than putting shots into arms in India.Meanwhile, Brazil is in talks with the United States to import excess doses of coronavirus vaccines, its Foreign Ministry tweeted Saturday.On Sunday, Brazil reversed a decision that required local authorities to save half their COVID-19 vaccine stockpiles for second doses, instead opting to get the first shots in as many Brazilians as possible.The South American country’s vaccine campaign has lagged, as it recorded 79,069 new cases of coronavirus infections in a 24-hour period, its Health Ministry said Saturday, and reported more than 2,400 COVID-19 deaths.The U.S. has millions of doses of vaccine developed by Britain’s University of Oxford and the pharmaceutical giant that have been approved by the World Health Organization and the European Medicines Agency but not for use in the U.S. yet.Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who famously told his country to “stop whining” about the country’s death from “a little flu,” has signed three measures to speed the purchase of vaccines, including those from Pfizer-BioNTech and Johnson & Johnson.
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Greece Set to Mobilize Private Doctors to Cope With Surging Coronavirus Infections
A year ago, Greece prided itself on successfully quashing its coronavirus curve like few countries worldwide. Now, it is struggling with a roaring resurgence of the bug that causes the COVID-19 disease. As infections continue to surge, the government in Athens is preparing to draft doctors from the private sector to aid the state’s strained health system and hospital staff exhausted by an influx of patients.Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis says Greece is fighting a last battle in its war against the pandemic.But the voluntary assistance it has requested from doctors across the nation, in recent days, has not come through. … And that has the conservative leader here saying he will not think twice about drafting medical personnel from the private sector to reinforce the health care system in the public sector.Greece Sidelines Thousands of Asylum-Seekers in National Inoculation DriveCritics say the policy echoes far-right practices and is further proof Greece is mistreating refugeesThe prime minister’s warning comes as Greece grapples with a surge in coronavirus infections, a startling spike that has seen cases grow from around 3,000 in September to nearly 240,000 this past week.Sofia Pouriki, a doctor at the state Sotiria hospital, describes the severity of the situation.This last wave, she says, is just terrible. She says too many patients are being admitted to hospitals and that is overwhelming the health care system with intensive care wards running out of beds to treat people.Hospital doctors and staff, says Pouriki, are exhausted. Of about 200 doctors requested by the government to assist their colleagues in the public sector, just 50 have come forward. Worse yet, attempts over the weekend to woo them with bonus fees failed. Doctors associations across the country say the government should first recruit residents at state hospitals and other medical staff waiting to be hired before proceeding with the order, which they describe as absolutely extreme.Athanasios Exadaktylos, president of the country’s doctors’ federation, warns against it.Ultimatums of this sort he says, can only prove counterproductive. Much of Greece has been in lockdown since November, fueling frustration, riots and deepening financial woes in a country still crawling out from a decade-long recession. And while draconian measures have not helped the government effectively manage the health crisis, it is now opting for a different approach, allowing shops and businesses to operate anew in a desperate bid to least salvage the failing state of the economy.The government says it will also start distributing free self-test kits in the coming weeks to alleviate pressure on the health care system. Experts say the move may pave the way for a new way of self-care against the pandemic within the European Union.
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Biden Focuses on Housing Child Migrants at the Border
With a surge of migrants at the southern U.S. border, the Biden administration is under pressure to quickly create policies and procedures to address the situation, particularly when it comes to children. Michelle Quinn reports.Producer: Mary Cieslak
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Canadian Railroad to Buy Kansas City Southern for $25 Billion in Bet on North American Trade
Canadian Pacific Railway on Sunday said it has agreed to buy Kansas City Southern for $25 billion in a deal to create the first rail network connecting the United States, Mexico and Canada, betting on an increase in North American trade.The cash-and-shares deal would create the first U.S.-Mexico-Canada railroad, offering a single integrated rail system connecting ports on the U.S. Gulf, Atlantic and Pacific coasts with overseas markets.The deal is contingent on the U.S. Surface Transportation Board (STB) blessing the transaction and Canadian railroad operators’ previous attempts to buy U.S. rail companies have met limited success.”I’m not going to speculate about the STB rejecting,” Canadian Pacific Chief Executive Keith Creel told Reuters in an interview. But he said based on the facts of the case, including that the two railroads currently have no overlap in their network, he expects regulators to approve it. The STB review is expected to be complete by mid-2022.It is the top merger and acquisition deal announced in 2021 and the biggest merger involving two rail companies, though it ranks behind Berkshire Hathaway’s purchase of BNSF in 2010 for $26.4 billion. Creel said in a statement that the new competition the deal would inject into the North American transportation market “cannot happen soon enough,” as the new USMCA Trade Agreement makes the efficient integration of the continent’s supply chains more important than ever before.The new and modernized U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade pact took effect in July of last year, replacing the earlier deal that lasted 26 years, and is expected to foster manufacturing and agriculture trade activities among the three countries.”It gives us certainty given that the USMCA trade deal was resolved,” Creel added.Creel will continue to serve as CEO of the combined company, which will be headquartered in Calgary, the statement said.The KCS board has approved the bid.The companies also highlighted the environmental benefits of the deal, saying the new single-line routes that would be created by the combination are expected to shift trucks off crowded U.S. highways, and cut emissions.Rail is four times more fuel efficient than trucking, and one train can keep more than 300 trucks off public roads and produce 75% fewer greenhouse gas emissions, the companies said in the statement.Calgary-based Canadian Pacific is Canada’s No. 2 railroad operator, behind Canadian National Railway Co Ltd, with a market value of $50.6 billion.Kansas City Southern has domestic and international rail operations in North America, focused on the north-south freight corridor connecting commercial and industrial markets in the central United States with industrial cities in Mexico.
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Biden Condemns Turkish Withdrawal from Treaty Aimed at Protecting Women
U.S. President Joe Biden on Sunday criticized Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s surprise withdrawal from a European treaty aimed at protecting women against violence.In a statement, Biden called Turkey’s rejection of the treaty “unwarranted” and “deeply disappointing.”“Countries should be working to strengthen and renew their commitments to ending violence against women, not rejecting international treaties designed to protect women and hold abusers accountable,” the U.S. leader said. “This is a disheartening step backward for the international movement to end violence against women globally.”Turkey’s Erdogan Quits European Treaty on Violence Against WomenNo reason was provided for the withdrawalIn 2011, Turkey was the first European country to adopt the pact known as the Istanbul Convention, but Erdogan withdrew from it early Saturday. In recent years, Erdogan and other members of his ruling party claimed the agreement reached in Turkey’s largest city undermined the country’s conservative policies.“We will not leave room for a handful of deviants who try to turn the debate into a tool of hostility to our values,” Erdogan told his party during a speech in Ankara in August.The accord was aimed at eliminating domestic violence and promoting equality, but femicide has nonetheless surged in Turkey in recent years.Conservatives in Turkey and in Erdogan’s Islamist-rooted ruling AKP contended that the accord undercut family structures and encouraged violence.Some critics also were opposed to the pact’s principle of gender equality and viewed it as promoting homosexuality, given the convention’s call for non-discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation.”Preserving our traditional social fabric” will protect the dignity of Turkish women, Vice President Fuat Oktay said on Twitter. “For this sublime purpose, there is no need to seek the remedy outside or to imitate others.”Family, Labor and Social Policies Minister Zehra Zumrut said the Turkish constitution and laws guarantee women’s rights.The Council of Europe said the Turkish action was “devastating.”“The Istanbul Convention covers 34 European countries and is widely regarded as the gold standard in international efforts to protect women and girls from the violence that they face every day in our societies,” the council said in a statement.“This move is a huge setback to these efforts and all the more deplorable because it compromises the protection of women in Turkey, across Europe and beyond,” the council said.In his statement, Biden said, “Gender-based violence is a scourge that touches every nation in every corner of the world. In the past few weeks, we’ve seen too many examples of horrific and brutal assaults on women, including the tragic murders in (the U.S. state of) Georgia.” He was referring to a shooting last week in the Atlanta area in which six of eight people killed were women of Asian descent.“And we’ve seen the broader damage that living under the daily specter of gender-based violence does to women everywhere,” the U.S. leader said. “It hurts all of us, and we all must do more to create societies where women are able to go about their lives free from violence.”
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Restrictions on Restaurants, Events in NYC Continue to be Relaxed
New York, one of the U.S. cities hit hardest by the coronavirus last year, is continuing to open, with commercial event organizations allowed to operate again, restaurants increasing indoor dining capacity to 50%, and live venues, like Broadway theaters, to start up as well. But the city is far from any kind of normalcy. Henry Morton reports.Camera: Henry Morton
Producer: Igor Tsikhanenka
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Somalia’s Leaders Plan to Move Forward with Polls Following US Call
Somalia’s government says it is making a commitment to conduct delayed presidential and parliamentary polls after the U.S. urged the leadership to hold transparent elections. On Friday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said leaders should set aside “narrow political objectives” and “uphold their responsibilities to the people of Somalia.” Somalia’s Minister of Information Osman Dubbe confirmed the announcement about the elections after the U.S. call for leaders to end disagreements among the political class and move forward with the democratic process. Dubbe says the federal government of Somalia is ready to conduct the elections as quickly as possible according to the September 17, 2020 agreement approved by the two houses of parliament. The Minister added that the outcome of the technical committee on elections on 16th February will soon be put in place. President Mohamed Abdullahi, popularly known as Farmajo, whose term in office expired on February convened a two-day election summit between the leadership of the federal government and regional state leaders. The National Salvation Council, an opposition partly, said the president has no constitutional mandate to convene such a meeting but called for a summit where all concerned political stakeholders are represented. The leader of Somalia’s semi-autonomous region Puntland state Saed Abdullahi Deni who is a key member of the National Salvation Council called on Somali citizens to unite in order to prevent setbacks. Deni said the country is at crossroads and Somali people need to unite in safeguarding the progress made in the past two decades. The basis of the National Salvation Council is to respond to the ongoing political situation in the country, Deni says. A U.N. statement Sunday appealed to Somali leaders to seize the opportunity for a peaceful political settlement leading to elections. The statement by the U.N. office in Somalia further called on leaders to find a common ground in the interest of the country and its people.
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