The head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) expressed concern Monday about the number of people traveling in the United States in recent days, saying the pandemic is far from over, and people should not act as though it is. Speaking during a virtual briefing as part of the White House COVID-19 response team, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said more than 1.3. million people traveled through U.S. airports last Friday, more than on any single day since the pandemic began more than a year ago. FILE – In this image from video, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky speaks during a briefing on the Biden administration’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, in Washington, Jan. 27, 2021. (White House via AP)Walensky said she saw news coverage of people enjoying spring break in locations around the country without masks, all while the country is still seeing as many as 50,000 new coronavirus infections a day. She noted this comes as many European nations are seeing surges in infection numbers after those nations saw declines in new cases and the public began ignoring accepted virus mitigation measures. She said those nations “simply took their eye off the ball.” “For the sake of our nation’s health,” Walensky said, pleading with the public to heed the warning signs from Europe, “continue following recommended public health prevention precautions and be ready to get vaccinated when it is possible.” “We’re just starting to turn the corner,” she said. “The data are moving in the right direction, but where this goes is dependent on whether we all do what must be done to protect ourselves and others.” She said she is assessing new research that indicates a social distance of 3 feet between students in schools could be just as safe as the currently recommended 6 feet, as long as everyone is wearing masks.Walensky said she understands the 6-feet guidance was among the biggest challenges to schools in their efforts to reopen safely. She said the CDC is expecting other studies on the issue soon and is examining the data carefully before revising its recommendations.
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Month: March 2021
European States Halt AstraZeneca Vaccine Over Blood Clot Fears
Germany, France and Italy are the latest European countries to halt the rollout of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine following reports of possible adverse side effects – but as Henry Ridgwell reports, the World Health Organization says the drug is safe. Camera: Henry Ridgwell
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Tanzanian VP Implies President is Sick, Says Nothing about Coronavirus Rumors
Tanzanian President John Magufuli has remained out of sight since late February, amid rumors he has COVID-19. Officials have insisted he is well, but the country’s vice president said Monday it is normal for people to get sick. She asked Tanzanians to ignore outside information that may cause confusion. Speaking in the northeastern town of Tanga at the launch of a government project, Tanzania’s Vice President Samia Suluhu Hassan made comments that seemed to refer to President John Magufuli without mentioning him by name.“I want to confirm to you Tanzania is safe. It’s normal for a human being to undergo checkups like flu and fever and could suffer other illnesses. I want to plead with Tanzanians, if there was a time to hold together is now. This is the time to build unity. It’s not a time to listen to information coming from outside,” said the vice president.Tanzanian authorities have come under pressure to reveal Magufuli’s health status after some people, including opposition politicians, said he was sick with coronavirus.The president has not been seen in public since February 27, and several media reports said he was taken abroad for treatment.Since the worldwide pandemic began a year ago, Magufuli has either denied the virus is present in Tanzania or said it can be defeated with steam inhalation and prayer.Philbert Komu is a political commentator and teaches philosophy at the University of Dar es Salaam. He said the vice president is trying to keep Tanzanians calm.“Her comments seem to be normal to me for someone to be sick with the flu or coughing. It should be a normal thing to us. It shouldn’t bring too much chaos and uprising in a state like Tanzania. … I really believe that she wanted to deliver a message that she has not clearly really wanted to say,” said Komu.On Friday, Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa refuted claims the president was sick, saying he was well and working.Ansbert Ngurumo is a Tanzanian journalist in exile who runs an online news website, Sauti Kubwa, meaning “loud voice.”He said Tanzanian government officials tend to hide the health status of government officials.”From the look of things, it’s like if you don’t provoke them, if we don’t keep asking questions, they will never tell us in time. Even the most recent event from the statehouse when Ambassador John Kijazi, Magufuli’s top aide in the statehouse, we never knew he was sick until they told us he is dead. So, they are not in a position to tell us what is happening now. They are just waiting to tell us the eventuality if he is dead or if he finally recovers from wherever he was,” said Ngurumo.Tanzania stopped recording COVID-19 positive cases just a few weeks after announcing its first case in March 2020. After months of downplaying the virus’s effect recently, government officials called on the population to take precautions and wear masks.
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Surge in Migrants at US-Mexico Border Reignites Washington Debate
Thousands of unaccompanied children crossing the Mexican border into the United States have quickly reignited the contentious immigration debate in Washington, with Republicans and Democrats at odds over who is to blame for what both parties describe as a crisis.House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy led a group of Republican lawmakers to the border Monday to condemn policies of Democratic President Joe Biden that McCarthy said have opened the border to unfettered illegal migration.“The security of our nation and our border is first and foremost the responsibility of our president,” McCarthy told reporters in El Paso, Texas, at the border. “It didn’t have to happen. This crisis is created by the presidential policies of this new administration. There’s no other way to claim it than a Biden border crisis.”Upon taking office in January, Biden stopped construction of the border wall championed by former President Donald Trump and has advanced what he says are more humanitarian immigration policies.The Biden administration has stopped short of calling the influx of migrants, including nearly 30,000 unaccompanied children in February alone, a crisis, preferring to call it a challenge.But Biden and his aides have been hard-pressed to keep thousands of impoverished Guatemalan, Honduran and Salvadoran migrants from traveling on a dangerous trek through Mexico to what they believe will be a safer, more prosperous life in the United States.FEMA to helpOver the weekend, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said that for the next 90 days, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) would help process the large number of unaccompanied migrant children.”Our goal is to ensure that unaccompanied children are transferred to HHS (Health and Human Services) as quickly as possible, consistent with legal requirements and in the best interest of the children,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement.The children are being kept in makeshift facilities at the border — already at 94% capacity — before they can be sent to relatives already living in the U.S. or to vetted families willing to take care of or adopt them.On Sunday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters “the Biden administration is trying to fix the broken system that was left to them by the Trump administration. The Biden administration will have a system based on doing the best possible job, understanding this is a humanitarian crisis.”Trump weighed in with his immigration thoughts at the recent Conservative Political Action Conference, contending that Biden “wants it all to go to hell.”“When I left office just six weeks ago, we had created the most secure border in U.S. history,” Trump claimed, ignoring the increased number of illegal crossings during his last months in office.“It took the new administration only a few weeks to turn this unprecedented accomplishment into a self-inflicted humanitarian and national security disaster by recklessly eliminating our border, security measures, controls, all of the things that we put into place,” Trump argued.McCarthy asks for meetingIn early March, McCarthy asked Biden for a meeting on immigration at the border, saying he felt “compelled to express great concern with the manner in which your administration is approaching this crisis, but with hope that we can work together to solve it.”McCarthy said he had not heard back from the president.White House press secretary Jen Psaki rejected Republicans’ contention that the new administration had adopted an “open border” policy.“That is absolutely incorrect,” she said last week. “The border is not open.”Roberta Jacobson, White House coordinator for the southern border, acknowledged last week that the surge in migrants may have been fueled by the belief that it would easier to get into the United States under Biden.”I certainly think that the idea of a more humane policy would be in place, may have driven people to make that decision,” she told reporters. “But perhaps more importantly, it definitely drove smugglers to express disinformation about what is now possible.”Democrats working on two plansLawmakers in Washington have been stalemated for years over immigration policies. Aside from dealing with the current quandary at the border, House Democrats this week are trying to advance two pieces of immigration legislation.One would establish a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as children and have lived, attended school and worked in the country since then.The House is also considering a measure in which a migrant worker in the agricultural industry could earn temporary status to stay in the U.S. with an eventual option to become a permanent resident.Democrats strongly support both bills and also passed them in 2019. Even if they are approved again, however, their fate in the politically divided Senate is uncertain, at best.
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Myanmar’s Media Freedoms Could Vanish in Months, Journalist Says
Myanmar’s military has imposed martial law in its latest move to suppress widespread protests over the February 1 coup, with journalists warning of continued media suppression.Dozens of protesters were killed Sunday in the deadliest day so far since the military overthrew the civilian government over unproven claims of election fraud and arrested senior leaders of the National League for Democracy party, including Aung San Suu Kyi.The military has used force and arrests to try to end protests, suspended licenses for at least five news networks and imposed nightly internet blackouts. Over 2,000 people have been arrested, and 126 killed, according to the Thailand-based non-profit the A protester holds onto the shirt of a fallen demonstrator during a crackdown by security forces on anti-coup protests in Hlaing Tharyar township in Yangon, Myanmar, March 14, 2021.Journalists in Myanmar are finding themselves increasingly targeted by the country’s armed forces, with at least 38 detained in recent weeks, the AAPPB says. Several said they have changed how they cover the unrest to avoid arrest or worse.Win Zaw Naing, an editor for the independent news website This undated family photo provided, March 3, 2021, shows Associated Press journalist Thein Zaw in Yangon, Myanmar. (Credit: Thein Zaw family)Thein Zaw, who was arrested with several other members of the media, is being held on charges of “violating a public order law.” The AP journalist’s remand has been extended until March 24, when he faces a court hearing.Local media reports say Polish photojournalist Robert Bociaga was also beaten and arrested last week. Bociaga, a freelancer for German news agency Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA), was detained while covering demonstrations.Myanmar’s military has denied media freedom is under threat.The head of the State Administrative Council press team and spokesman for the army, Brigadier General Zaw Min Tun, said at a March 11 news conference that the military “respects and values media freedom” and has only arrested journalists who were inciting unrest. Under threatA freelance journalist in Yangon, who asked to remain anonymous to protect his identity, said he has resorted to staying indoors after security officials confronted him.“At the time, the security force pointed his gun at me and said, ‘I don’t want to shoot you, go back,’” the journalist told VOA. “As a freelance journalist, no one guarantees for me if I get arrested or injured or something happens in a negative way in the front line.”Fears have been amplified for journalists and protesters alike with reports of regular night-time raids by soldiers.Alongside night curfews still in place because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the junta has imposed nightly internet shutdowns for weeks, in what it says are efforts to ensure the country’s “stability.”Internet and social media platforms like Facebook are a key source of information in Myanmar. Residents have had to resort to using scarcely available WIFI to stay online or connecting via Virtual Private Network (VPN) or by using sim cards from neighboring Thailand.News outlets covering the unrest are also being targeted with legal action and raids.Five media companies had licenses revoked, three of which are VOA affiliates. Myanmar Now reported that armed men who arrived in military trucks raided its office in Yangon on March 8. And independent media outlet The Irrawaddy, reported that the company faces a lawsuit from the military over allegations of “disregarding” armed forces in its coverage.Another local journalist, who also asked to stay anonymous, told VOA the country’s freedom of the press is at stake.“I am very concerned now that the freedom of press will vanish within a few months,” he said.The journalist, currently in Yangon, admitted he “keeps a low profile” and has had to change his reporting tactics.“I put on a full uniform, (a) press helmet and vest. But after the crackdowns on journalists, we disguise as protesters and citizens to stay inside the crowd. Sometimes, due to our camera, we are targeted as a spy by the police,” he said.
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Turkey Pushes for Better Deal on Refugees
This month marks the fifth anniversary of Turkey’s deal with the EU that expanded a mass exodus of refugees and migrants to Europe in exchange for aid. But as Dorian Jones reports for VOA from Ankara, the future of the deal is in question as Ankara calls for revisions to the agreement.
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European States Halt AstraZeneca Vaccine Over Blood Clot Fears, But WHO Insists It Is Safe
Germany, France and Italy became the latest European countries to halt the rollout of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine Monday, as scientists investigated reports of possible adverse side effects among several people in Norway who received the injection. Norwegian officials said Saturday that one person had died from a brain hemorrhage and three others were hospitalized with blood clots shortly after receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine. “So far, we cannot speak to whether the cases are connected to the vaccine. But due to the seriousness of the cases, we are investigating thoroughly,” Sigurd Hortemo, chief physician at the Norwegian Medicines Agency, told reporters in Oslo. A woman receives the AstraZeneca vaccination at a drive-through site, in Milan, Italy, March 15, 2021.The World Health Organization (WHO) said the AstraZeneca drug is safe to use and urged countries to continue with their vaccination programs. German Health Minister Jens Spahn said Monday the decision to pause the rollout was a “purely precautionary measure. Millions of AstraZeneca vaccinations have been administered across the globe. All of us are very aware of the consequences of this decision, and we did not take this decision lightly,” Spahn told a press conference in Berlin. French President Emmanuel Macron said the suspension would be lifted as soon as the European Medicines Agency (EMA) gave its approval. “The decision, which has been taken out of precaution, in conformity with our European policy, is to suspend, by precaution, vaccinating with the AstraZeneca vaccine in the hope that we can resume quickly if the EMA gives the green light,” Macron told reporters Monday. A pharmacist administers the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine to a patient in a pharmacy in Roubaix, France, March 15, 2021.The suspension appears to be further undermining confidence in the AstraZeneca vaccine among the European public. Germany and France had already been accused of fueling skepticism after recommending in January that the drug not be given to people over 65, a position both governments later reversed. “I would not have taken (the AstraZeneca vaccine) myself,” 77-year-old Dutch citizen Marja Vestrik told Reuters on Monday, “though I think it’s going to be all right in the end. If I had the choice, I wouldn’t take AstraZeneca.” Other countries outside Europe have also paused AstraZeneca vaccinations, including the Democratic Republic of Congo and Indonesia. AstraZeneca supportWHO said there is no evidence that the AstraZeneca vaccine causes blood clots and urged countries to continue using it. Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, a clinical scientist, said that all the vaccines approved by WHO had excellent safety records. “Of the 330 million vaccines doses that have been deployed, we are not aware of any one confirmed COVID vaccine-related death. There have been deaths following vaccination in people, but people die of diseases every day,” Swaminathan said at a virtual press conference Monday. FILE – Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks with a man waiting to receive an Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, during his visit at a vaccination center at Cwmbran Stadium in Cwmbran, south Wales, Britain, Feb. 17, 2021.AstraZeneca insisted Monday that the vaccine is safe and echoed WHO’s view that there is no evidence of a link to blood clots. Out of the 17 million people in Europe who have received its vaccine, AstraZeneca says fewer than 40 have developed blood clots, which health experts say is a lower rate than in the general population. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson gave his support to the AstraZeneca vaccine Monday, which was developed in conjunction with the University of Oxford. “We have one of the toughest and most experienced (medicine) regulators in the world. They see no reason at all to discontinue the vaccination program for any of the vaccines that we’re currently using,” Johnson said. The AstraZeneca vaccine is a key pillar of many countries’ mass inoculation programs. It is relatively cheap and does not need to be stored at ultra-low temperatures, so it is seen as particularly suitable for less well-funded health systems, especially in parts of Africa. FILE – Dr. Ngong Cyprian, left, is the first Nigerian to receive the first dose of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine at the National Hospital Abuja, Nigeria, March 5, 2021.Nigerian health workers began to receive the AstraZeneca vaccine Friday. “We don’t believe that this information is a reason for us to slow down our COVID-19 vaccination response,” Lagos State Health Commissioner Akin Abayomi said Friday. Vaccine skepticismScientists fear the halt in vaccinations could affect global confidence in the vaccines. “It clearly has to be investigated. I think the big concern, though, is that we do know that, especially at a time when the disease is still actually very common and increasing across a number of European countries, that ultimately any delay in vaccinations will lead to more severe cases and more deaths,” Paul Hunter, a professor at the Norwich School of Medicine, told VOA in an interview Monday. “It will make it more difficult for people to accept the vaccine. It will put people off. And if it does that, as it almost certainly will, it will lead to more people getting ill, more people getting severely ill and more people dying.” Hunter added that investigations into reported side effects could have unintended consequences. “As soon as you start worrying about a particular adverse outcome, then more people are likely to report that outcome. And you can actually almost generate a false impression of an epidemic purely because of increased reporting, because people have heard this sort of thing on the news,” he said. The AstraZeneca vaccine has just received official approval in Brazil, one of the countries worst hit by the pandemic. It has yet to be authorized for use in the United States, as regulators await the results of Phase 3 trials, expected in the next few weeks.
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US Charges 2 Suspects in Chemical Attack on Capitol Officer Who Later Died
The U.S. Justice Department on Monday charged two suspects who allegedly worked together to spray a chemical irritant on three Capitol Police officers on January 6, one of whom later died. Julian Elie Khater and George Pierre Tanios are facing multiple counts, including assaulting police with a deadly weapon, after investigators said they sprayed at least three officers with an unidentified but powerful chemical agent. FILE – A photo of U.S. Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick is seen during a memorial ceremony, at the Capitol, in Washington, Feb. 3, 2021.One of those officers, Brian Sicknick, was later rushed to a hospital and died the next day. Khater and Tanios are not charged with killing Sicknick. According to the complaint, the FBI said the two men “appeared to time the deployment of chemical substances to coincide with other rioters’ efforts to forcibly remove the bike rack barriers that were preventing the rioters from moving closer to the Capitol building.” Khater, 32, of State College, Pennsylvania, was arrested as he disembarked from an airplane at Newark Airport in New Jersey. Tanios, 39, of Morgantown, West Virginia, was arrested at his residence in West Virginia. Both are scheduled to make initial appearances in court later this afternoon. In video footage, investigators say Khater walked toward Tanios and said, “Give me that bear s—” and reached into a backpack Tanios was carrying. Tanios then replied, “Hold on, hold on. Not yet, not yet. … It’s still early.” The complaint said the officers were temporarily blinded and disabled by the substance and “needed medical attention and assistance from fellow officers.” More than 300 people have been charged in connection with riots at the U.S. Capitol by a mob of former President Donald Trump’s supporters who were hoping to stop Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s election victory. Five people, including Sicknick, died in connection with the deadly attack, and lawmakers hid in fear for their lives. In court filings last week, the Justice Department revealed it intends to file charges against more than 100 additional defendants in what it described as the most complex investigation it has ever handled.
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UN Court Opens Maritime Dispute Hearing Without Kenya
Kenya has refused to attend a weeklong hearing by the United Nations’ highest court over a long-running maritime dispute with Somalia.In a letter last week to The Hague-based International Court of Justice, or ICJ, the Kenyan government cited a mix of reasons for not participating, including the COVID-19 pandemic that it said made it hard to adequately prepare and make its case.The court’s president, Judge Joan Donoghue, rejected Kenya’s request to brief it before the start of Monday’s opening. “The court regrets the decision of Kenya not to participate in the oral proceedings,” she said. But she said the court had a raft of material previously filed by the country in arguing its side of the case. FILE – Somali women shout slogans during a demonstration against the maritime border dispute with Kenya, in Mogadishu, Somalia Sept. 21, 2016.Kenya’s dispute with Somalia centers on some 100,000 square kilometers of Indian Ocean waters rich in fish, and possibly also oil and gas. Mogadishu argues its maritime border with Kenya should be extended along the same southeasterly line as its land border. Nairobi claims the frontier should head in a straight line east. Over the months, Kenya filed several requests for this hearing to be postponed, along with other demands. Presenting his country’s opening arguments, Somalia’s Deputy Prime Minister Mahdi Mohamed Guled described the dispute as of key national importance to his country. “We hoped that it would be possible to settle our dispute with Kenya bilaterally, through negotiations. Unfortunately, that proved impossible,” Guled said. The maritime spat adds to mounting diplomatic friction between the East African neighbors. In December, Mogadishu announced it was cutting ties with Kenya for allegedly meddling in its internal political affairs. It may take years for the ICJ to rule on the maritime dispute. It has no power to enforce its rulings, and in the past, some countries have simply ignored them.
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Ten Years On, Syrian Refugees in US Express Loss, Hope
The complicated war in Syria between Russian and Iranian backed government forces and rebels supported by the U.S. and Turkey has now lasted ten devastating years. It has created millions of refugees, thousands of whom now live in the U.S. Kulsoom Khan spoke with some of them in this story narrated by VOA’s Bezhan Hamdard.Camera: Kulsoom Khan
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Somalia Receives Its First Batch of COVID-19 Vaccines
Somalia’s government on Monday announced the arrival of 300,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine from the international COVAX vaccine initiative. Inoculations could start as early as Tuesday, according to the health ministry.This is the first batch out of 1.2 million doses Somalia will receive to vaccinate 600,000 frontline workers and members of other vulnerable groups, said the World Health Organization. The WHO facilitates COVAX, designed to obtain and equitably distribute COVID-19 vaccines globally. “The first consignment of vaccines targets, as recommended by the COVID-19 National Task Force, the country’s frontline workers, elderly and people with chronic health conditions and it aims to reduce deaths and diseases caused by COVID-19,” the Somali government and the United Nations office in Somalia said in a joint statement Monday. Doctors Report Sudden Coronavirus Spike in Somalia Experts blame the increase on travels and political gatherings Somalia also announced it has made plans to get enough vaccine from COVAX to vaccinate at least 20% of its population. The East African nation has more than 15 million people. The government still needs to secure the funds and doses to vaccinate the rest. The vaccine’s arrival comes as Somalia struggles with a second wave of COVID-19 cases. On Sunday, Somalia reported 244 new confirmed cases among 2,028 tested. The government also reported 18 deaths, bringing the overall number of fatalities to 367. The total number of confirmed cases stands at 9,190.“The arrival of the COVID-19 vaccines happens at a critical time as Somalia is now experiencing a new wave of the epidemic. It can only be contained if all countries stand together, Somalia included,” said Fawziya Abikar Nur, Somalia’s health minister. She urged health workers and others identified as high priority “to receive vaccines from this first batch.”The U.N. office in Somalia pledged to help the government reach the most vulnerable groups and frontline workers to help contain the virus.
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Uganda’s Bobi Wine Briefly Detained After Leading Street Protest
Ugandan police Monday briefly detained opposition leader Bobi Wine as he led opposition lawmakers and supporters in a demonstration. Wine’s National Unity Platform party was protesting the arrest and disappearance of hundreds of supporters. At midday, under scorching heat in downtown Kampala, Bobi Wine, together with a few legislators and supporters, began marching to protest the alleged abduction, torture and murder of his supporters.Wine and his National Unity Platform party say more than 600 of their supporters are missing and are demanding they be released unconditionally or be produced in court if they are facing charges.The party says three other NUP supporters were murdered in the run-up to this year’s elections. Authorities say the deaths were accidental. Elbows intertwined Monday as the marchers moved towards the constitutional square, and crowds gathered upon seeing the musician turned politician, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi. National Unity Platform party President Robert Kyagulanyi, better known as Bobi Wine, was being arrested at the Constitutional square after a street protest against abductions and torture, March 15, 2021. (Halima Athumani/VOA)Confronted by the police, Wine and his team raised placards calling for the release of their arrested colleagues. Together with the crowds, they chanted their message before police moved in to arrest Wine.Kampala Metropolitan Deputy police spokesperson Lucas Owoyesigire spoke to VOA.“Him (Wine) and a few people decided to have a procession, that is of course illegal,” Owoyesigire said. “They were briefly detained and later on driven to their homes of residence. They’ve just arrived there so let them be patient. We shall leave the place when we feel everything is normal.”After Wine’s brief arrest, the police used tear gas and fired bullets into the air to disperse the growing crowds around the Central Police station. The army’s anti-terrorism unit drove around some city spots, with other military officers doing foot patrols.On Sunday night, President Museveni accused the NUP of massively cheating, intimidating voters, and attacking members of the president’s NRM party during the January 14 elections.He also accused the party of attempting to disrupt his inauguration. “The opposition have been again planning that they will stop the swearing in of the president,” Museveni said. “They won’t, because anybody who is planning that, it’s criminal. The security forces will go for him or her.”David Lewis Rubongoya, the National Unity Platform Secretary General, refutes these accusations.”It’s laughable, Museveni is very hypocritical, how can he even say such a thing. You heard him say that we rigged the elections,” Rubongoya said. “Certainly, there holds no water whatsoever.”The NUP has previously accused Museveni of rigging the presidential vote to ensure re-election and extend his 35-year stay in power.
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‘Mank’ Leads Academy Awards Nominations With 10 Nods
David Fincher’s “Mank” led FILE – Chloe Zhao poses for a portrait to promote her film “Nomadland” during the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, Jan. 22, 2018.The other directing nominees were Lee Isaac Chung for “Minari,” Fincher for “Mank” and Thomas Vinterberg for “Another Round.”For performers, it’s the most diverse slate of nominees ever — and a far cry from the all-white acting nominees that spawned the #OscarsSoWhite hashtag five years ago. Nine of the 20 acting nominees are people of color, including a posthumous best-actor nomination for Chadwick Boseman (“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”), and nods for Riz Ahmed (“Sound of Metal”), Steven Yeun (“Minari”), Daniel Kaluuya and Lakeith Stanfield (“Judas and the Black Messiah”), Leslie Odom Jr. (“One Night in Miami”), Viola Davis (“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”), Andra Day (“The People vs. Billie Holiday”) and Yuh-Jung Youn (“Minari”).Davis, who won for her performance in 2016’s “Fences,” landed her fourth Oscar nomination, making Davis the most nominated Black actress ever. Yeun is the first Asian American ever nominated for best actor.The other nominees for best actress are: Carey Mulligan, “Promising Young Woman”; Frances McDormand, “Nomadland”; Vanessa Kirby, “Pieces of a Woman.”The remaining nominees for best actor are: Anthony Hopkins, “The Father”; Gary Oldman, “Mank.”After a pandemic year that shuttered most movie theaters, the best-picture nominees had hardly any box office to speak of. The Oscars won’t just lack blockbusters, it’s going forward with many movies that have barely played on the big screen at all. That leaves streaming services set to dominate Hollywood’s biggest and most sought-after awards.This image released by Netflix shows, from left, Yahya Abdul-Mateen, Ben Shenkman, Mark Rylance, Eddie Redmayne and Alex Sharp in a scene from “The Trial of the Chicago 7.”Netflix, as expected, led the pack with 35 nominations. The service is still gunning for its first best-picture winner, and this year has two shots in “Mank” and “The Trial of the Chicago 7” — a movie Paramount Pictures sold off during the pandemic. Netflix led last year, too, with 24 nominations, but came away with just two wins.Other streamers were in the mix. Amazon, in particular, was well represented with “Sound of Metal,” “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm” and “One Night in Miami.”The nominations were announced from London by presenters Nick Jonas and Priyanka Chopra Jonas. The Academy Awards would typically have happened by now but this year were postponed by two months due to the pandemic. They will instead be telecast April 25.The film academy confirmed Monday that the show will be held at both its usual home in the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles and the city’s railway hub, Union Station.In addition to Youn, the nominees for best supporting actress are: Maria Bakalova, “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm”; Glenn Close, “Hillbilly Elegy”; Olivia Colman, “The Father”; Amanda Seyfried, “Mank.”In addition to Odom Jr., Kaluuya and Stanfield, the nominees for best supporting actor are: Sacha Baron Cohen, “The Trial of the Chicago 7”; Paul Raci, “Sound of Metal.”The nominees for best documentary feature are: “Collective”; “Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution”; “The Mole Agent”; “My Octopus Teacher”; “Time.”The nominees for best international film are: “Quo Vadis, Aida?,” Bosnia and Herzegovina; “Another Round,” Denmark; “Better Days,” Hong Kong; “Collective,” Romania; “The Man Who Sold His Skin,” Tunisia.The nominees for best original song are: “Husavik” from “Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga”; “Fight for You” from “Judas and the Black Messiah”; “Io Sì (Seen)” from “The Life Ahead (La Vita Davanti a Se)”; “Speak Now” from “One Night in Miami”; and “Hear My Voice” from “The Trial of the Chicago 7.”The nominees for best animated feature: “Onward”; “Over the Moon”; “A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon”; “Soul”; “Wolfwalkers.”The nominees for best original screenplay are: “Judas and the Black Messiah,” Shaka King and Will Berson; “Minari,” Lee Isaac Chung; “Promising Young Woman,” Emerald Fennell; “Sound of Metal,” Darius Marder and Abraham Marder; “Trial of the Chicago 7,” Aaron Sorkin.The nominees for best costume design are: Alexandra Byrne, “Emma”; Ann Roth, “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”; Trish Summerville, “Mank”; Bina Daigeler “Mulan”; Massimo Cantini Parrini “Pinocchio.”The film academy and ABC will hope that the nominees can drum up more excitement than they have elsewhere. Interest in little golden statuettes has nosedived during the pandemic. Ratings for a largely virtual Golden Globes plunged to 6.9 million viewers — a 64% drop from 2020 — last month. Though on Sunday the Grammys managed to break through the Zoom trap that has bedeviled other awards shows.With the notable exception of fueling streaming subscriber growth, the pandemic has been punishing for the movie industry. Production slowed to a crawl, blockbusters were postponed or detoured to streaming and thousands have been laid off or furloughed.But the outlook for Hollywood has recently brightened as coronavirus cases have slid and vaccines have ramped up. Movie theaters are reopening in the U.S.’s two largest markets, New York and Los Angeles. And several larger movies — including the Walt Disney Co.’s “Black Widow” (May 7) — are scheduled for May and beyond.
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Massive Sandstorm Shrouds China’s Capital
The Chinese capital, Beijing, was shrouded in thick brown dust on Monday as heavy winds blew in from the Gobi Desert and parts of northwestern China, in what the meteorological agency has called the biggest sandstorm in a decade.The China Meteorological Administration announced a yellow alert in the morning, saying sandstorms had spread from Inner Mongolia into the provinces of Gansu, Shanxi and Hebei, which surrounds Beijing.Beijing-based conservation expert Zhou Jinfeng told the Associated Press the sandstorm was caused by heavy winds from Mongolia and Inner Mongolia blowing the desert’s fine particles into the capital overnight, turning the air a hazy yellow color.State media report Beijing’s official air quality index reached a maximum level of 500 on Monday morning, considered well beyond the point where the air is hazardous to human health. The city’s environmental monitoring center said floating sand particles known as PM10 rose beyond 8,000 micrograms per cubic meter in some districts. The World Health Organization recommends average daily PM10 concentrations of no more than 50 micrograms.Beijing faces regular sandstorms in March and April due to its proximity to the massive desert as well as deforestation and soil erosion throughout northern China.
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Britain Imposes New Sanctions on 6 Members of Syrian Regime
Britain said Monday it was imposing new sanctions on Bashar al-Assad’s regime, including asset freezes and travel bans on the Syrian dictator’s close allies.The announcement came on the 10th anniversary of the start of the Syrian uprising. The six sanctioned individuals include Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Miqdad, presidential adviser Luna al-Shibl, and two military generals who Britain said were responsible for the violent repression of civilians by troops under their command.The Foreign Office said they also include two prominent businessmen, one of whom, Yassar Ibrahim, allegedly “acts as a front” for the “personal hold on the Syrian economy” wielded by Assad and his wife, Asma, while millions of Syrians go without food.Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab condemned the Assad regime for subjecting the Syrian people “to a decade of brutality for the temerity of demanding peaceful reform.”“Today we are holding six more individuals from the regime to account for their wholesale assault on the very citizens they should be protecting,” Raab said in a statement.The sanctions were the first against the Syrian leadership under Britain’s new autonomous sanctions regime after Brexit.
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Vatican Excludes Gay Union Blessing as God ‘Can’t Bless Sin’
The Vatican decreed Monday that the Catholic Church cannot bless same-sex unions since God “cannot bless sin.”The Vatican’s orthodoxy office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, issued a formal response Monday to a question about whether Catholic clergy can bless gay unions.The answer, contained in a two-page explanation published in seven languages and approved by Pope Francis, was “negative.”The decree distinguished between the church’s welcoming and blessing of gay people, which it upheld, but not their unions.The Vatican holds that gays much be treated with dignity and respect, but that gay sex is “intrinsically disordered.” Catholic teaching holds that marriage between a man and woman is part of God’s plan and is intended for the sake of creating new life.Since gay unions are not intended to be part of that plan, they cannot be blessed by the church, the document said.“The presence in such relationships of positive elements, which are in themselves to be valued and appreciated, cannot justify these relationships and render them legitimate objects of an ecclesial blessing, since the positive elements exist within the context of a union not ordered to the Creator’s plan,” the response said.God “does not and cannot bless sin: He blesses sinful man, so that he may recognize that he is part of his plan of love and allow himself to be changed by him,” it said.Francis has endorsed providing gay couples with legal protections in same-sex unions, but that is in reference to the civil sphere, not within the church. His comments were made during an interview with a Mexican television station, Televisa, in 2019, but were cut by the Vatican until they appeared in a documentary last year.
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Myanmar Junta Extends Martial Law in Yangon After Dozens of Anti-Coup Protesters Killed
Authorities in Myanmar extended martial law in more areas of the main city of Yangon Monday amid reports of more killings of protesters at the hands of security forces.State-run MRTV news channel announced that the districts of North Dagon, South Dagon, Dagon Seikkan and North Okkalapa are under martial law, a day after security forces killed at least 40 people across Myanmar. Most of the killings took place in the Yangon suburb of Hlaingthaya, making it the bloodiest day of demonstrations against the junta that seized power in a February 1 coup.Protesters carry an injured man after riot policemen and soldiers shot rubber bullets during a crackdown on demonstrations in Yangon, Myanmar, March 14, 2021.Authorities imposed martial law on Hlaingthaya, a suburb of Myanmar’s main city, after several Chinese-owned factories were set on fire and about 2,000 people had stopped fire engines from reaching them, according to Reuters quoting army-run Myawaddy television. China is seen as supportive of the Myanmar junta.Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian responded to Sunday’s attack on the factories during a regular news briefing Monday, “The burning and looting of Chinese companies is abhorrent. We hope the Myanmar side will take concrete measures to protect the safety of Chinese citizens in Myanmar.”The spokesman also said, “The top priority is to prevent the occurrence of new bloody conflicts and to achieve an easing of the situation as soon as possible.”Various reports quoting the advocacy group Assistance Association for Political Prisoners said more than 30 people were killed Sunday in Hlaingthaya, up from the initial 22 fatalities reported by the group.Sixteen more protesters were killed in other cities and townships, the AAPP said, as well as one police officer. [[ https://aappb.org/?p=13671 ]] The previous deadliest day was March 3, when 38 deaths were reported across Myanmar.Two people were killed in protests in Myingyan, while three people were killed there and two in Aunglan town, according to Reuters which quoted the Myanmar Now media outlet.On Monday the AAPP was quoted as saying the nationwide death toll for Sunday had reached 44.As the violence continued to rage across Myanmar Monday, a scheduled court hearing in the capital Napyitaw for deposed de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi via videoconference was postponed because internet service had been blocked, according to her lawyer Khin Maung Zaw.Suu Kyi has been detained since the February 1 coup and is facing five criminal charges, including accepting $600,000 in illegal payments plus gold bars while in office. She is also charged with illegally possessing six unregistered walkie-talkie radios, operating communications equipment without a license, violating COVID-19 protocols by holding public gatherings and attempting to incite public unrest.The AAAP says security forces have killed at least 126 people in the seven weeks since the coup, not including the latest fatality reports since Sunday, and detained more than 2,150 as of Saturday, with more than 300 released so far. Christine Schraner Burgener, the U.N. special envoy of the secretary-general on Myanmar, Sunday strongly condemned the continuing bloodshed. “The international community, including regional actors, must come together in solidarity with the people of Myanmar and their democratic aspirations,” Burgener said in a statement. We ‘Have the Mind to Win This Battle’ – Myanmar Activist Speaks Out About Coup, Crackdown‘Our future must be defined by the civilians, not by the soldiers,’ says Thinzar Shunlei YiOn Saturday, the acting head of the country’s parallel civilian government, who was appointed by deposed legislators after the military coup, promised a “revolution” to oust the junta. Mahn Win Khaing, who is in hiding along with most other top NLD (National League for Democracy, a ruling political party in Myanmar since 2015 until the 2021 coup) officials, addressed the public for the first time, announcing on Facebook that the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, or CRPH, plans to establish a federal democracy. CRPH is formed by NLD MPs who escaped arrest and are elected members of the ousted parliament on February 5. Mahn Win Khaing told supporters the CRPH would try to “legislate the required laws so that the people have the right to defend themselves.” He added, “This revolution is the chance we can put our efforts together.” The military government did not immediately respond to Mahn Win Khaing’s remarks, but it has declared the CRPH illegal. The junta has called the CRPH a terrorist organization and said anyone involved with it could face treason charges, which are punishable by death, the military government said. Military officials have claimed widespread fraud in last November’s general election, which the NLD won in a landslide, as justification for the takeover. The fraud allegations have been denied by Myanmar’s electoral commission.
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Fauci Says US Going In ‘Right Direction’ With COVID
The top U.S. infectious disease expert said Sunday the country is going in the “right direction” with millions of Americans receiving coronavirus vaccinations, but he was cautious about the high plateau of U.S. cases. Speaking on the NBC-TV program “Meet the Press,” Anthony Fauci warned that “When you get a plateau at a level around 60,000 new infections per day, there’s always the risk of another surge.” Fauci used Italy as an example of a location that experienced “a diminution of cases.” People walk past army vehicles at a street on the final day of open restaurants and bars before tighter coronavirus disease (COVID-19) restrictions are enforced, in Rome, Italy, March 14, 2021.He said Italy “plateaued, and they pulled back on public health measures,” which contributed to Italy’s current surge of infections, forcing officials to place portions of the European country in lockdowns Monday. “He urged people to continue to observe “public health measures,” especially wearing masks. The U.S. remains at the top of the list as the location with the most COVID-19 cases, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, a research body constantly updating with COVID-19 data and expert input.The U.S. has 29.4 million of the world’s almost 120 million COVID infections, followed by Brazil with 11.4 million and India with 11.3 million. AstraZeneca said Sunday a review of its data found no evidence that its vaccine against COVID-19 causes blood clots. A woman receives a vaccine as Vietnam starts its official rollout of AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine for health workers, at Hai Duong Hospital for Tropical Diseases, Hai Duong province, Vietnam, March 8, 2021.“A careful review of all available safety data,” the company said in a statement. The vaccine “has shown no evidence of an increased risk of pulmonary embolism, deep vein thrombosis or thrombocytopenia, in any defined age group, gender, batch or in any particular country.” Pulmonary embolism occurs when lung arteries are blocked as a result of blood clotting whereas thromboembolic events occur when a blood clot breaks loose and travels through the body, causing harm. The AstraZenica review, which covered more than 17 million people who had received the vaccine in Britain and the European Union, was conducted as Ireland and the Netherlands joined Denmark, Norway, and Iceland in suspending the use of the vaccine because of clotting issues. Austria stopped using a batch of the shot last week while investigating a death from coagulation disorders. However, the company asserts that there is no connection with the vaccine. This photo provided by Berkshire Community College shows cellist Yo-Yo Ma performing at Berkshire Community College’s second dose Pfizer vaccination clinic in the Paterson Field House on March 13, 2021 in Pittsfield, Mass.In Massachusetts on Saturday, Yo-Yo Ma, the internationally acclaimed cellist, celebrated receiving his second vaccine. While he waited seated with others for the 15 minutes of observation post vaccination, Ma, 65 and wearing a mask, started playing his cello at a clinic in Berkshire Community College, Massachusetts, on Saturday. His impromptu performance included Ave Maria and Bach’s Prelude in G Major. As Ma got up to leave, he was applauded by others seated and socially distant waiting for their own observation periods to end.
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Australia Plans to Restart International Travel With COVID-19 Bubble with Singapore
Australia is working on an ambitious plan to establish Singapore as a COVID-19 quarantine gateway and potential vaccination hub for returning Australians, international students and business travelers. The deal with Singapore could allow passengers en route to Australia to satisfy strict biosecurity rules before arrival. Ministers hope the proposal with the south-east Asian city would help about 40,000 Australians stranded overseas return home, boost tourism and revive the multibillion-dollar market for international students at Australian universities, which has been badly hit by border closures. It is a year since Canberra, Australia’s capital, barred most foreign travelers in an attempt to curb the spread of COVID-19. The ban has recently been extended until at least June. Australian deputy prime minister Michael McCormack says the government is preparing to restart international travel. “We are also making sure that the planes are going to be ready. You cannot just roll a plane out of a hangar and stick it back on an international route. We are working with Singapore at the moment potentially for a bubble in July, and these are positive signs. And as the vaccine rolls out in not only Australia but in other countries as well, we will reopen more bubbles,” McCormack said.Under the plan, Australians would be allowed to fly to Singapore without government approval provided they have been vaccinated against COVID-19. Also, Singaporeans who have been inoculated would be permitted to travel to Australia without having to undergo two weeks of hotel quarantine. Australia has given travelers from New Zealand similar concessions, but authorities in Wellington have yet to reciprocate to allow entry to Australians. Australian citizens can return home from overseas, but they face mandatory quarantine. Thousands of people have been left stranded because of limited capacity in secure hotels. Australia has recorded just over 29,000 COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began. 909 people have died, according to the Health Department. There have been four key parts to the nation’s coronavirus strategy; restrictions on international travel, strict lockdowns, sophisticated contact tracing and mass testing. A nationwide vaccination program began last month.
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Group Reports Health Facilities Looted in Ethiopia’s Tigray
Health facilities in Ethiopia’s embattled region of Tigray have been “looted, vandalized and destroyed in a deliberate and widespread attack on health care,” the humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders said Monday. Nearly 70% of 106 health facilities surveyed from mid-December to early March had been looted and more than 30% had been damaged. Only 13% were functioning normally, the group said, citing destroyed equipment and smashed doors. “The attacks on Tigray’s health facilities are having a devastating impact on the population,” said Oliver Behn, Doctors Without Borders general director. “Health facilities and health staff need to be protected during a conflict, in accordance with international humanitarian law. This is clearly not happening in Tigray.” The findings deepen concern for the wellbeing of Tigray’s 6 million people. Ethiopia’s federal government and regional officials in Tigray both maintain that each other’s governments are illegitimate after the pandemic disrupted elections. Fighting persists as government forces and their allies hunt down the region’s fugitive leaders. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed faces pressure to end the war as well as to institute an international investigation into alleged war crimes, ideally led by the United Nations. The government’s critics say an ongoing federal probe simply is not enough because the government cannot effectively investigate itself.FILE – In this Monday, Nov. 30, 2020 file photo, Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed responds to questions from members of parliament at the prime minister’s office in the capital Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said last week that some of the atrocities in Tigray amount to “ethnic cleansing,” charges dismissed by Ethiopia as unfounded. Blinken has urged Abiy, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019 for his efforts to make peace with neighboring Eritrea, to end hostilities in Tigray. Eritrean troops as well as fighters from Amhara, an Ethiopian region bordering Tigray, “need to come out,” Blinken said on Wednesday, adding that the region needs “a force that will not abuse the human rights of the people of Tigray or commit acts of ethnic cleansing, which we’ve seen in western Tigray. That has to stop.” According to Doctors Without Borders, health facilities in most areas of Tigray “appear to have been deliberately vandalized to render them nonfunctional.” One-fifth of the health facilities were occupied by soldiers and few health facilities now have ambulances after most were seized by armed groups. In the past four months, the group said in a statement, “few pregnant women have received antenatal or postnatal care, and children have gone unvaccinated, raising the risk of future outbreaks of infectious diseases.” The group’s staff in rural areas have heard of women who died in childbirth because they were unable to reach a hospital amid insecurity on the roads and a nighttime curfew, it said. Accounts of atrocities by Ethiopian and allied forces against residents of Tigray have been detailed in reports by The Associated Press and by Amnesty International. Humanitarian officials have warned that a growing number of people might be starving to death in Tigray. The fighting erupted on the brink of harvest in the largely agricultural region and sent an untold number of people fleeing their homes. Witnesses have described widespread looting by Eritrean soldiers as well as the burning of crops.
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Maritime Law Expected to Give Beijing an Edge in South China Sea Legal Disputes
Chinese officials will pass a basic maritime law to formalize their sovereignty claims over the contested, resource-rich South China Sea and defend those claims more effectively in the international legal space, media reports and analysts say. A plan disclosed at annual legislative sessions in Beijing early this month calls for approving a basic maritime law, media outlets in China reported. The country must brace for “legal struggles” and “resolutely defend national maritime interests,” the plan says as quoted by the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post news website. Experts in the Asia Pacific believe China will use the law to bolster its claims to about 90% of the sea located in Western Pacific Ocean, especially if another country takes it to international court as the Philippines did in 2013 — on its way to a victory over Beijing in 2016. China rejected the outcome as a “farce.” Brunei, China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam claim all or parts of the sea that stretches from Hong Kong to the island of Borneo. The 3.5 million-square-kilometer waterway is prized for fisheries, shipping lanes and undersea fossil fuel reserves. Vietnam hinted last year it was weighing its own international court case against China.Vietnam Weighs World Court Arbitration Against China if Maritime Diplomacy Fails Southeast Asian country would ask an international tribunal to rule on sovereignty disputes in resource-rich sea between them “I think China knows this, so they’re just trying to lawyer up, as it were, in the South China Sea for that eventuality,” said Derek Grossman, senior analyst with the U.S.-based Rand Corp. research organization. The Beijing government, backed by the world’s third strongest armed forces, took a lead in the six-way maritime dispute about a decade ago by landfilling tiny islets and placing military equipment on some. Chinese naval drills and passage of vessels through the claims of other countries have prompted the United States to send warships to the sea, including two forays under President Joe Biden. China cites historical usage records to back its claims, but an international arbitration court in The Hague rejected that argument’s legal validity in its 2016 decision. A law that supports Chinese activity in the contested sea will irritate other countries, said Collin Koh, a maritime security research fellow at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. “It has to befit China’s status as a rising power,” Koh said. “Once they have it, then I think it will start to create regional attention. People will start to take a jab at the law itself and see what kind of implications they can drive when it comes to maritime disputes.” National People’s Congress delegate Shao Zhiqing proposed a basic maritime law in 2019 to protect China’s maritime safety and promote its development at sea including trade routes, the government-run Academy of Ocean of China [cq] says in an online statement. Shao raised the legal question again at the legislative sessions last year. China commonly passes laws in the face of domestic or regional disputes to use as justification when facing pressure from offshore, especially in the legal space, said Huang Kwei-bo, vice dean of the international affairs college at National Chengchi University in Taipei. “For the outer world, they’re saying they have legal evidence, so they can use that to carry out movements to protect their own interests,” Huang said. China cites its 2005 Anti-Secession Law when warning Taiwan not to seek independence, for example. Taiwan has been self-ruled since the 1940s, but China says the island should fall under its flag. It has threatened military force, if needed, to unite the two sides. The National Security Law passed last year makes it easier for China to crack down on Hong Kong protesters and reduces Hong Kong’s autonomy. A maritime law would not change China’s occupation of islets or passage of vessels to unnerve other countries with undersea energy exploration projects, experts say. Legal disputes aside, they say, China wants to show its power relative to other countries. To show that China is a “great maritime nation,” Chinese leaders need a “comprehensive set of policies and documents” to back up that status, Koh said.
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US Urges Paraguay to Work with Taiwan Amid Pandemic Protests
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has urged Paraguay to work with its diplomatic ally Taiwan to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic, after protests in the South American country over the government’s handling of the health crisis. Thousands of Paraguayans have protested in the capital Asunción over the lack of medicine and intensive care beds amid a spike in coronavirus cases and calls to impeach President Mario Abdo. The U.S. State Department said Blinken spoke with Abdo on Sunday, outlining U.S. efforts to help tackle the pandemic, and underscored the importance of free expression, peaceful demonstration, and the rule of law. “The secretary stressed the importance of continuing to work with democratic regional and global partners, including Taiwan, to overcome this global pandemic, combat corruption, and increase transparency and accountability,” it said in a statement. Paraguay is Taiwan’s sole remaining diplomatic ally in South America. China views democratic Taiwan as one of its provinces, with no right to the trappings of a state. The United States has expressed concern at Beijing’s efforts to win over the remaining 15 countries that still have formal ties with Taipei and expand Chinese influence, especially in Latin America, which Washington traditionally views as its backyard. Paraguay had kept infections very low early last year, but COVID-19 cases have jumped since September and vaccines have been slow to arrive, though Chile donated around 20,000 doses of the Chinese-made Sinovac vaccine to Paraguay this month. Paraguay’s Senate last week approved a declaration of support for a plan to use $12.8 million in funds given by Taiwan for a housing development project to be used to buy 2 million vaccine doses. Taiwan Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou said Taiwan and Paraguay have a “solid friendship.” “Our government will continue to uphold the spirit of pulling together in times of trouble and trying our best to assist allies to fight the pandemic together within the scope of our capabilities,” she said.
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Farmers Fight Back Against Ravenous Locust Swarms in Africa
A massive locust outbreak continues threatening farmers’ fields in East Africa. Now a Kenyan company says it has a solution to turn the pests into profit. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has more.
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Worldwide Major Arms Sales Remain Flat but Middle East Increases Imports
International deliveries of arms were flat in the period from 2016 to 2020, ending more than a decade of increases, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said in a report on Monday.The United States, France and Germany, three of the world’s biggest exporters, increased deliveries, but decreases in exports from Russian and China offset the rise, SIPRI said.It was the first time since 2001-2005 that the volume of deliveries of major arms between countries — an indicator of demand — did not increase from the previous five-year period, SIPRI said.While the pandemic has shut down economies across the world and pushed many countries into deep recessions, SIPRI said it was too early to tell whether the slowdown in arms deliveries was likely to continue.”The economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic could see some countries reassessing their arms imports in the coming years,” Pieter Wezeman, senior researcher with the SIPRI Arms and Military Expenditure Programme, said in a statement.”However, at the same time, even at the height of the pandemic in 2020, several countries signed large contracts for major arms.”The United Arab Emirates, for example, recently signed an agreement with the United States to purchase 50 F-35 jets and up to 18 armed drones as part of a $23 billion package.Middle Eastern countries accounted for the biggest increase in arms imports, up 25% in 2016-20 from 2011-15.Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest arms importer, increased its arms imports by 61% and Qatar by 361%.Asia and Oceania were the largest importing regions for major arms, receiving 42% of global arms transfers in 2016-20. India, Australia, China, South Korea and Pakistan were the biggest importers in the region.”For many states in Asia and Oceania, a growing perception of China as a threat is the main driver for arms imports,” said Siemon Wezeman, senior sesearcher at SIPRI.
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