Liberty University, which parted ways acrimoniously last year with then-leader Jerry Falwell Jr., has filed a civil lawsuit against him seeking millions in damages.The complaint, filed Thursday in Lynchburg Circuit Court, alleges Falwell crafted a “well-resourced exit strategy” from his role as president and chancellor in the form of a 2019 employment agreement while withholding from the school key details about a personal scandal that exploded into public view last year.”Despite his clear duties as an executive and officer at Liberty, Falwell Jr. chose personal protection,” the lawsuit says.It also alleges that Falwell failed to disclose and address “the issue of his personal impairment by alcohol” and has refused to fully return Liberty’s confidential information and other personal property.Falwell responded to a phone call from The Associated Press on Friday with a text saying he was not available to talk. It wasn’t immediately clear if he has an attorney representing him in the matter. The AP left a message seeking comment with an attorney who has represented him previously.ScandalFalwell’s departure from the Virginia university in August 2020 came soon after Giancarlo Granda, a younger business partner of the Falwell family, said he had a yearslong sexual relationship with Falwell’s wife, Becki Falwell, and that Jerry Falwell participated in some of the liaisons as a voyeur.Although the Falwells acknowledged that Granda and Becki Falwell had an affair, Jerry Falwell denied any participation. The couple alleged that Granda sought to extort payment from them by threatening to reveal the relationship.The lawsuit says that Falwell had a “fiduciary duty to disclose Granda’s extortive actions, and to disclose the potential for serious harm to Liberty.”Instead, Falwell “furthered the conspiracy of silence and negotiated a 2019 Employment Agreement that contained a higher salary from Liberty,” the suit said.A Liberty spokesman didn’t immediately respond to an inquiry about whether the school had additional comment.Before the Granda scandal exploded, Falwell had already been on leave after he posted a photo on social media that sparked an uproar. It showed Falwell on a yacht with a drink in his hand and his arm around a young woman who was not his wife, their pants unzipped and his underwear exposed.The lawsuit, which alleges breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty and statutory conspiracy, is seeking more than $10 million in damages.Falwell, an attorney and real estate developer, had led the evangelical school since the 2007 death of his father, the Reverend Jerry Falwell, who also founded the Moral Majority, the political organization that made evangelical Christians a key force in the Republican Party.In early 2016, Falwell become one of the first conservative Christians to endorse Donald Trump for the presidency and defended him after Trump’s lewd remarks about women and sexual assault, captured in a 2005 “Access Hollywood” recording, became public late in the campaign.Falwell went on to court controversy and stay in the news, vigorously criticizing Democrats online.
…
Month: April 2021
Divers Say No Response After Knocking on Hull of Capsized Ship off Louisiana
The U.S. Coast Guard says rescue divers were still searching Friday for 12 missing crew members of a commercial lift boat that capsized three days earlier in a fierce storm off the Louisiana coast.The U.S. Coast Guard Heartland, based in New Orleans, reported on its Twitter account that divers from a salvage company were able to take advantage of break in the weather Thursday and reached the exposed hull of the 39-meter-long Seacor Power. It said divers knocked on the hull but received no response.The Coast Guard says most of the ship is submerged in roughly 15 meters of water, about 20 kilometers off the Louisiana coast. Coast Guard Petty Officer 3rd Class Carlos Gonzales told reporters the divers would continue the search Friday if weather permits.FILE – A Coast Guard Station Grand Isle boat crew heads toward a capsized 175-foot commercial lift boat while searching for people in the water 8 miles (about 13 km) south of Grand Isle, Louisiana, April 13, 2021. (U.S. Coast Guard/Handout)Gonzales also provided more information about the rescue operation that ensued Tuesday after the ship activated its emergency beacon. The crew of a Coast Guard ship that responded to the scene reported seeing five men clinging to the hull. A helicopter crew from the marine company Bristow, a marine company, lowered life vests and VHF radios to them.He said two of the men dropped into the water and were picked up by the Coast Guard. About the same time, “Good Samaritan” vessels — boats responding to the emergency call — rescued four other people.The Coast Guard also was able to talk to the three people still on the ship’s hull using the radios that had been dropped. Later Tuesday night, the Coast Guard was notified that one person had fallen in the water and wasn’t seen again.The Coast Guard says a total of six people were rescued that day and the body of another was recovered.The ship, named the Seacor Power, is what is known as a lift ship, a self-propelled commercial vessel with an open deck that is deployed to carry heavy equipment, often to support drilling or exploration. It can float freely or deploy “legs” to secure itself to the bottom of the ocean.
…
NATO Slams Russian Plan to Block Parts of Black Sea
NATO is accusing Russia of again ramping up tensions, calling Moscow’s plans to limit access to the Black Sea and the Kerch Strait starting later this month “an unjustified move.”
In a statement, NATO spokesperson Oana Lungescu said the planned restrictions appear to be part of “a broader pattern of destabilizing behavior.”
“Russia’s ongoing militarization of Crimea, the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov are further threats to Ukraine’s independence, and undermine the stability of the broader region,” Lungescu said. “We call on Russia to ensure free access to Ukrainian ports in the Sea of Azov and allow freedom of navigation.”
NATO, along with the United States and other Western allies, has been calling on Russia to de-escalate following what it has described as the Kremlin’s biggest military build-up since it seized Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.
The top commander for U.S. forces in Europe, Air Force General Tod Wolters, said Thursday there is a “low to medium” risk that Russia will launch some sort of military operation against Ukraine in the next week or two.
“There is a very large ground domain force … There’s also a sizable air force, and there’s a notable maritime force,” he told members of the House Armed Services Committee during a hearing in Washington. “It’s of great concern.”
Ukraine’s foreign ministry first expressed alarm Thursday at Russia’s move to shut down some access to the Black Sea and Kerch Strait, while also accusing Russian boats of trying to block Ukrainian ships in the Azov Sea.#Russia illegally closing part of the Black Sea near the Kerch strait for foreign warships from next week until October, according to @MFA_Ukraine. https://t.co/eNd4buu5vw— Steve Herman (@W7VOA) April 15, 2021Russia’s RIA news agency reported Friday that Moscow plans to suspend access to the Black Sea for foreign warships and “other state ships” starting next week, and that the restrictions will remain in place for about six months.
RIA, citing a statement from the Russian defense ministry, said the restrictions would not affect the Kerch Strait, which is a critical transit point for regional trade.
…
Nigeria Steps Up Vaccination Efforts After Slow Rollout Blamed on Misinformation
Nigerian authorities are stepping up efforts to vaccinate more people against COVID-19 after a slow rollout blamed on misinformation. Authorities aim to vaccinate over 80 million Nigerians by year’s end but are running far behind schedule.
An Abuja vaccination center, which opened March 16, one week after Nigeria’s official vaccine rollout, vaccinates between 50 and 100 people daily. It is one of many vaccination locations in the Nigerian capital. Abuja resident Olu Agunbiade visited the center to get his first shot and says receiving the vaccine makes him feel safer. “I can venture out into the world with a form of protection,” he told VOA. “I know that doesn’t mean I can’t still contract COVID, but at least I have antibodies, I can fight it.” Nigeria received about 4 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine early last month. Authorities say they will vaccine around 80 million people by the end of the year, but so far, only about 1 million have received shots. Although authorities say more Nigerians are now getting vaccinated, Abuja Primary Healthcare Board Executive Secretary Ndeyo Iwot says vaccine hesitancy and misinformation about the coronavirus are to blame for the low numbers. “There’s a very big problem. Now start from the beginning, how many people even believed that we have the pandemic here? And now you want to bring vaccine for what they did not believe in the first instance? We have a lot of work to do,” Iwot says. Dr Ngong Cyprian receives his first dose of the Oxford/AstraZeneca coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine from Dr Faisal Shuaib, Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, in Abuja.As workaround, authorities are trying to increase vaccine awareness in communities, villages, and marketplaces. Despite this, though, citizens like Richard Uka insist they will not get the vaccine. “To be sincere, I don’t think this is necessary, to me it’s not necessary,” Uka told VOA. “And I believe that in Nigeria nothing works. How do you think that that vaccine works or how do we know that it works?” Nigeria needs to vaccinate about 150 million citizens by next year to attain herd immunity. Iwot, though, says getting adequate doses of vaccines may prove difficult. “Looking at the pandemic situation in Europe, India and the U.S.A. and the U.K., some of them are experiencing the third and fourth spikes now and India that was giving us is also having spikes now. So many of the dosages they have will be consumed there,” Iwot told VOA.Very few African countries are able to manufacture the coronavirus vaccines, creating heavy dependence on foreign manufacturers. The World Health Organization says the continent has so far received less than 2% of the global 690 million doses of the coronavirus vaccines.
…
Biden’s Afghanistan Decision Draws Mixed Reaction From British Veterans
“How can we cope with this?” That was Patrick Bury’s thought after attending his first in-country briefing in 2008 at the headquarters of British forces in Afghanistan’s Helmand province.
Then a second lieutenant in the Royal Irish Regiment, Bury wrote in a subsequent memoir that he was left reeling by the three-hour briefing. “The situation is so complicated, there are so many tribal, cultural, political, religious and military dynamics, that I am overwhelmed,” he noted.
He added: “It seems that we soldiers, primarily trained to fight conventional wars, need to be friendly police, social workers, government representatives, aid workers, bomb detectors, engineers, killers, medics …the list is as endless as the problems we face.”
The announcement this week by U.S. President Joe Biden that he intends to withdraw all American armed forces from Afghanistan has brought back the war memories for Bury and other British war veterans, and the American leader’s decision is drawing mixed reactions, with some questioning the whole mission, others saying it was worth the effort.
President Biden said this week that it was time to end America’s “forever war” in Afghanistan.
The drawdown will be completed on September 11, the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks, which triggered the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan. Britain says it will work in tandem with the U.S. and withdraw its remaining 700 troops. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg says the alliance will withdraw about 7,000 military personnel from the country.
Britain sent forces to Afghanistan to contribute to the U.S.-led mission to root out al-Qaida and to prevent future terrorist attacks against the West being planned from Afghanistan, say British officials. At the height of the Afghan war, NATO had more than 130,000 troops from 50 nations deployed in Afghanistan. About 9,500 of those were British.
Bury thinks the effort in retrospect was a “noble” one, despite the doubts he harbored while serving there when he struggled with the question of whether it was a country worth saving. “It is a deeply, deeply fragmented and troubled society, even if you can call it that,” he says. “The idea we could fix it was unrealistic. It is beyond the power of the West,” he adds.
Now an academic at Britain’s University of Bath, he told VOA that the announcement brought back memories of “what we went through.” Above all he thinks about the Afghans who he encountered during his tour. “I do remember the Afghan people and the kids especially, and the ones we tried to help.” And he is left wondering: “How are the cadets we trained, and the soldiers we worked with, and the decent people going to get on?”FILE – British troops prepare to depart upon the end of operations for U.S. Marines and British combat troops in Helmand, Afghanistan, Oct. 27, 2014.He adds: “But now, you know, you have to move on. Unless you want to go and live there, you have to let it go.” He accepts it is time for Western forces to leave. “You have to draw a line at some point, don’t you? Otherwise, it would just go on forever. There is never a perfect moment,” he says.
Bury’s reaction to the withdrawal announcement is echoed by other British veterans, including Colonel Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, a former British Army commander who specializes in chemical and biological warfare.
“I think it is probably correct as the greatest threat to the UK is jihadists in Syria and Iraq and our focus should be there,” he told VOA. “Like many military people I’ve lost friends and colleagues in Afghanistan and it’s a sad time but we must focus where the threat is highest now,” he says.
He worries, though, that the Afghanistan experience is leading Western leaders to draw the wrong conclusions about Western interventions. “It appears that politicians are unwilling to get involved in Syria and Iraq and this would be an error in my opinion,” he says.
“It’s the Afghan interpreters and soldiers who I fought and patrolled alongside who I’ll be thinking of in the coming months …whose livelihoods and families will be at risk,” Robert Clark, another British veteran tweeted. Clark, now a research fellow at Britain’s Henry Jackson Society, a London-based think tank, fears the gains made in the past 20 years by the Western intervention in Afghanistan likely will be undone when the allies withdraw in September.
He is not alone in forecasting the Taliban will be quick to exploit the weakness of Afghanistan’s government.
Toby Harnden, author of the book Dead Men Risen: The Welsh Guards and the Defining Story of Britain’s War in Afghanistan, says many British veterans believe this “withdrawal will lead to further bloodshed in Afghanistan, and the deaths of brave Afghans who worked with the U.S. and NATO forces.” That in turn is prompting a “sadness and a questioning of what all the sacrifices were for,” he told VOA.
“There’s also a fear that by leaving no residual force, there will be a vacuum that could be filled by al-Qaida and eventually lead to attacks on the U.S. — the very thing the invasion after 9/11 was designed to stop,” he says. “Soldiers have not forgotten how the hasty withdrawal from Iraq in 2011 led to the rise of ISIS,” he adds.
He and others are predicting that the U.S. and Britain will still be involved, by drone strikes and special forces, after September, especially if there are signs of an al-Qaida resurgence. “You can bet good money, they’ll get walloped,” says Bury.
The Afghanistan campaign claimed the lives of 454 British servicemen. Several British veterans mentioned to VOA that on Saturday they will watch the funeral of Britain’s Prince Philip and it is lost on them that the “Last Post” bugle call for the queen’s husband will be sounded by Sergeant Jamie Ritchie. The 31-year-old Ritchie performed the Last Post for fallen comrades during his four-month tour of Afghanistan.
And as the Last Post sounds Saturday at Windsor Castle, they say, they will remember their fallen friends.
…
US Broadcaster Asks European Court to Block Russian Fines
U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is asking the European Court of Human Rights to block Russia from enforcing penalties that could cost the broadcaster millions of dollars.
Russia’s media watchdog Roskomnadzor last year ordered broadcasters designated as foreign agents to add a lengthy statement to news reports, social media posts and audiovisual materials specifying that the content was created by an outlet “performing the functions of a foreign agent.”
The law, which applies to non-governmental political organizations and media receiving foreign funding, has been widely criticized as aiming to discredit critical reporting and dissent. The term “foreign agent” carries strong pejorative connotations in Russia.
Since October, Roskomnadzor has filed 390 violation cases against RFE/RL and was expected to announce more Friday. The broadcaster says the fines could total the equivalent of $2.4 million.
RFE/RL said it is asking the human rights court to order Russia to refrain from enforcing the fines until the court can make a full ruling on Roskomnadzor’s moves, which the broadcaster contends violates the European Convention on Human Rights.
“We are hopeful that the European Court of Human Rights will view these actions by the government of Russia for what they are: an attempt to suppress free speech and the human rights of the Russian people,” RFE/RL president Jamie Fly said in a statement Thursday.
Russia recently has stepped up actions that appear to be aimed at stifling dissent. Criminal charges were filed this week against four editors of an online student magazine that had posted a video connected to the nationwide protests in January calling for the release of imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
A court last week fined Twitter 8.9 million rubles, about $117,000, for failing to take down posts in which users called for minors to take part in unauthorized protests.
The statement that Roskomnadzor has ordered RFE/RL to place on its material reads: “This report (material) was created and (or) disseminated by a foreign mass medium performing the functions of a foreign agent and (or) a Russian legal entity performing the functions of a foreign agent.”
…
UN Suspends Aid in Nigeria’s Borno State as Thousands Flee Armed Attacks
The United Nations says it has suspended aid operations in Damasak in the Nigerian state of Borno after armed groups attacked aid workers and humanitarian agencies.A series of clashes this week between insurgent groups and the Nigerian armed forces in the town have sent 80 percent of the town’s population — about 65,000 people — fleeing for their lives. Preliminary reports indicate eight people have been killed and a 12 injured in the fighting. U.N. and nongovernmental operations have been suspended, and staff have been relocated since April 11, one day after the first of three consecutive attacks by unidentified armed groups. The spokesman for the U.N. Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Jens Laerke, said agencies were forced to shut down because of targeted attacks by insurgents against aid workers, humanitarian assets and facilities. “And recently, (insurgents were) also conducting house to house searches, reportedly looking for civilians identified as aid workers. So, in less than a week we have had incidents on the 10th and 11th of April where humanitarian assets have been targeted,” he said. Laerke said at least five offices of NGOs have been destroyed, in addition to a mobile storage unit, water tanks, several vehicles, a health outpost and a nutrition stabilization center. In addition, the U.N. said that assailants have looted and burned down private homes, warehouses of humanitarian agencies, a police station, and a clinic. Laerke said the suspension of aid will have huge consequences. “Humanitarian aid operations and facilities are the lifeline of people in northeast Nigeria who depend on our assistance to survive,” he said. “These violent attacks in Damasak will affect the support of nearly 9,000 internally displaced people that we were helping and 76,000 people in the host communities who were receiving humanitarian assistance and protection.” Violence in the Lake Chad Basin has uprooted 3.3 million people since 2009, when the Islamist extremist group Boko Haram launched its insurgency. The displaced include more than 300,000 Nigerians, who have fled to neighboring countries for refuge, and some 2.2 million people within northeastern Nigeria, especially in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states.
…
Biden, Japan’s Suga to Discuss China at White House Summit
U.S. President Joe Biden plans to discuss ways to counter competitive pressure from China during a White House summit Friday with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga aimed at revitalizing the U.S.-Japan alliance.
Biden, who took office in January, has focused on reviving the alliance, as well as U.S. involvement in multilateral institutions, which were often criticized or shunned by former U.S. President Donald Trump.
Suga will be the first foreign leader to visit the White House since Biden took office.
The meeting underscores the importance of the alliance between the two countries, particularly as their rival, China, grows in strength and aggressiveness.
“We have to shore up American competitiveness to meet the stiff competition we’re facing from an increasingly assertive China,” Biden said earlier this week as he explained his decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan.
WATCH LIVE: Joint press conference at 415pm EDT Japan recently joined the U.S. and other countries in calling out Beijing’s human rights abuses and incursions into disputed areas of the East and South China Seas, seen as a departure from a longstanding trade and economics-centered approach.
China, however, is Japan’s longtime rival and largest trading partner, leading some analysts to predict Suga will refrain from overtly antagonizing Beijing during his meeting with Biden.Japan’s ambassador to the U.S., Koji Tomita, recently told VOA the need for a stronger U.S.-Japanese alliance and a “free and open” Indo-Pacific region will be top issues at the summit.Japan Ambassador Lays Out US Summit Priorities Koji Tomita notes similar backgrounds of US and Japanese leaders, predicting warm personal relationship Tomita said Japan is “very encouraged” by Biden’s active engagement in the Indo-Pacific region, citing last month’s virtual Quad Summit, in which Biden hosted the leaders of Japan, Australia and India.
“The international order is being challenged in various ways, so we hope to continue having specific discussions on the ways that Japan and the U.S. can take initiative in realizing our shared vision,” he added.
Before Suga’s meeting with Biden, China’s Foreign Affairs Ministry warned Japan against “being misled by some countries holding biased views against China.”
Earlier this month, China also sent a naval strike group near Okinawa, where the U.S. has troops, a signal Beijing is prepared to counter the U.S.-Japan alliance.
Japan hosts approximately 55,000 U.S. troops. The two sides routinely describe their alliance as the “cornerstone” of peace and stability in Asia.William Gallo contributed to this story from Seoul, Natalie Liu from Washington.
…
Greek, Turkish Foreign Ministers Clash at News Conference
Tensions between Greece and Turkey reached a new high this week when the two countries’ foreign ministers traded accusations during a live, televised news conference. The two NATO allies have been trying to rebuild relations after a dispute over a Turkish drilling ship pushed them to the brink of war last year.
At first, the talks looked like they were going well and the chances of re-booting relations between Greece and Turkey appeared positive.
Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias, in fact, got a surprise invite to meet Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during Dendias’ trip to Ankara, and at a later news conference, said his country was keen to support Turkey’s bid to join the European Union.
But then, the climate instantly turned sour, when Dendias said Greece’s position was clear in that Turkey was violating international law and maritime rules in the Aegean Sea, adding that Ankara had to finally lift its threat to go to war with Athens if it moved to extend its territorial waters beyond the current six-mile range in the sea that divides them.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu shot down the remarks, calling them unacceptable and a provocation. He said Turkey had never infringed on Greek sovereignty in its search and drilling work in the Aegean Sea and the eastern Mediterranean. And then he lashed out at Athens for allegedly pushing back more than 80,000 migrants in the Aegean over the past year.
In addition, Cavusoglou warned that if Greece wanted to continue lodging accusations and fanning tension, Turkey was ready to reciprocate.
Greece and Turkey have been at odds for decades over a wide range of issues, ranging from competing claims in the Mediterranean, air space, energy resources, and the status of some uninhabited islands in the Aegean Sea.
Tensions flared dangerously high last year when Turkey dispatched a drilling ship in contested waters in the Mediterranean – a move that brought the navies of the two countries to the brink of war.
The European Union and the United States have since pushed both sides to the negotiating table, but the talks have made little progress.
Dendias’ trip to Ankara was intended to give the talks a boost.
But as sparks flew at the heated news conference Thursday, analysts in Athens, like Alexis Papachelas of the Kathimerini daily, wondered, “now what?”
Two scenarios, he said, can play out. Either both sides find a way to keep the talks moving, to show the West they are committed to the process without making any substantial concession. Or, Papachelas said, things can get ugly.
Greek intelligence officials contacted by VOA say they are already picking up chatter through social media that Turkey is mobilizing migrants and refugees to push into Greece – a move that strained relations between the two countries last year when President Erdogan lifted border controls for millions of refugees trapped in his country and seeking refuge in Europe.
Whether a new wave of migration materializes remains to be seen. Until then, Greece says it hopes to see Cavusoglu in Athens in the coming weeks for a second round of high-level talks.
…
Nigeria Worries About Meeting Vaccination Targets
Nigerian authorities are stepping up efforts to vaccinate more people against COVID-19 after a slow rollout blamed on misinformation. Authorities aim to vaccinate over 80 million Nigerians by year’s end but are running far behind schedule.
An Abuja vaccination center, which opened March 16, one week after Nigeria’s official vaccine rollout, vaccinates between 50 and 100 people daily. It is one of many vaccination locations in the Nigerian capital. Abuja resident Olu Agunbiade visited the center to get his first shot and says receiving the vaccine makes him feel safer. “I can venture out into the world with a form of protection,” he told VOA. “I know that doesn’t mean I can’t still contract COVID, but at least I have antibodies, I can fight it.” Nigeria received about 4 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine early last month. Authorities say they will vaccine around 80 million people by the end of the year, but so far, only about 1 million have received shots. Although authorities say more Nigerians are now getting vaccinated, Abuja Primary Healthcare Board Executive Secretary Ndeyo Iwot says vaccine hesitancy and misinformation about the coronavirus are to blame for the low numbers. “There’s a very big problem. Now start from the beginning, how many people even believed that we have the pandemic here? And now you want to bring vaccine for what they did not believe in the first instance? We have a lot of work to do,” Iwot says. Dr Ngong Cyprian receives his first dose of the Oxford/AstraZeneca coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine from Dr Faisal Shuaib, Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, in Abuja.As workaround, authorities are trying to increase vaccine awareness in communities, villages, and marketplaces. Despite this, though, citizens like Richard Uka insist they will not get the vaccine. “To be sincere, I don’t think this is necessary, to me it’s not necessary,” Uka told VOA. “And I believe that in Nigeria nothing works. How do you think that that vaccine works or how do we know that it works?” Nigeria needs to vaccinate about 150 million citizens by next year to attain herd immunity. Iwot, though, says getting adequate doses of vaccines may prove difficult. “Looking at the pandemic situation in Europe, India and the U.S.A. and the U.K., some of them are experiencing the third and fourth spikes now and India that was giving us is also having spikes now. So many of the dosages they have will be consumed there,” Iwot told VOA.Very few African countries are able to manufacture the coronavirus vaccines, creating heavy dependence on foreign manufacturers. The World Health Organization says the continent has so far received less than 2% of the global 690 million doses of the coronavirus vaccines.
…
US Protests of Police Shootings Remain Peaceful
Cities in two Midwestern U.S. states — Minnesota and Illinois — had braced Thursday for a night of unrest that did not materialize. Peaceful protesters did, however, take to the streets in an on-edge Minneapolis suburb and in Chicago to demonstrate against police shootings of young males of color.
Demonstrators in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, gathered in front of the police station Thursday to protest the shooting Sunday of 20-year-old Daunte Wright, who was bi-racial and the father of a 1-year old son. Wright was pulled over on a traffic stop by Officer Kim Potter.
Potter said she thought she had pulled her Taser to use on Wright, but instead pulled her gun. She has been charged with second-degree manslaughter, but protesters want Potter, who is white, to face more serious charges.
Earlier Thursday, Chicago police released the body camera footage of the officer who shot Adam Toledo, a 13-year-old Hispanic boy, in March. Several protests sprang up in Chicago after the footage was released. In one of the protests, demonstrators marched to the headquarters of the Fraternal Order of Police, but none of the demonstrations erupted into violence.
In a portion of the Chicago video, a police officer can be heard saying, “Hey show me your ******* hands, drop it, drop it.” The boy appears to drop something and then as he turns and puts his hand up, he is shot and then falls to the ground. Police say the officer was in a life-threatening situation.
Chicago’s police accountability office had said it could not release the video because the victim was a minor but released it after numerous requests. Chicago has a history of suppressing police videos.
In Brooklyn Center protesters have demonstrated in front of the police station every night since Wright’s shooting, with police sometimes using rubber bullets and gas grenades in skirmishes with protesters.
Brooklyn Center is a suburb of Minneapolis where George Floyd, a Black man, died last year after Derek Chauvin, a white police officer placed his knee on Floyd’s neck for over nine minutes. Chauvin’s trial is currently underway in Minneapolis.
…
Jimmy Lai Among 5 Hong Kong Democracy Activists Jailed
Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai was jailed for 12 months on Friday along with four other veteran democracy activists for helping to lead one of the city’s biggest-ever protests.Organizers say 1.7 million people — almost one quarter of Hong Kong’s population — turned out for a huge rally that formed the backbone of demonstrations that wracked the city throughout 2019.Lai was among nine of Hong Kong’s most prominent democracy campaigners found guilty of organizing and participating in the rally.Many of them have spent decades advocating non-violence in their ultimately fruitless campaign for universal suffrage.Lai, 73, was sentenced to 12 months in prison while four other campaigners were jailed for between eight and 18 months.Among the other defendants were Martin Lee, 82, a respected barrister known as the “father of democracy” in Hong Kong, who was once chosen by Beijing to help write the city’s mini-constitution.They also include Margaret Ng, a 73-year-old barrister and former opposition lawmaker.Lee and Ng were also given prison terms, but their sentences were suspended.Lai was brought to the court from custody, where he was being held after arrest under Beijing’s new national security law.Seven of the defendants who had earlier pleaded not guilty submitted their mitigation on Friday morning.”There is no right so precious to the people of Hong Kong as the freedom of expression and the freedom of peaceful assembly,” said Ng, who discharged her legal team and gave her statement in person.She added that she’s prepared to stand with and stand up for the people who “in the last resort, had to give collective expression of their anguish and urge the government to respond.””I stand the law’s good servant but the people’s first,” said Ng, whose submission ended with a round of loud applause in courtroom.Judge Amanda Woodcock earlier said in her verdict that the march had caused serious traffic disruption and the fact it was peaceful was no defense.”I’m ready for the sentencing and I’m proud that I can walk with the people of HK in this road for democracy,” former lawmaker Lee Cheuk-yan said outside court ahead of the hearing.”We’ll walk together through the storm even in darkness.”Lee was sentenced to 12 months in jail.Lee and Jimmy Lai had pleaded guilty to taking part in another illegal assembly on Aug. 31, 2019.The maximum penalty is five years in prison and the sentencings are also expected to be delivered on Friday afternoon.The rallies in 2019 often descended into clashes between riot police and a knot of hardcore participants and posed the most concerted challenge to China’s rule since the former British colony’s 1997 handover.Since then, authorities have unleashed a broad crackdown, with the imposition of a sweeping security law that criminalizes much dissent and passed a radical overhaul of the city’s electoral system.
…
How a Vietnam-Malaysia Fishing MOU Could Ease the Wider South China Sea Dispute
Malaysia and Vietnam intend to sign a memorandum of understanding that experts say could eventually help ease a decades-old, six-party dispute over sovereignty in the resource-rich South China Sea.Maritime law enforcement agencies from the two Southeast Asian countries aim to sign the memo this year and resolve at least 15 years of trouble over the movement of Vietnamese fishing vessels, the official Bernama news agency in Malaysia reported in early April. Bernama quoted the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency director-general saying he’s confident the deal, now in its final stages, will solve the issue of Vietnamese fishing boats that enter Malaysian-claimed waters.Vietnamese boats are known for fishing in waters off the peninsular Malaysian east coast, leading Malaysian authorities to detain 748 vessels and 7,203 Vietnamese crew members from 2006 through 2019, Malaysia’s Foreign Affairs Ministry says on its website. The ministry calls the “encroachments” a violation of Malaysia’s sovereignty.If the memo helps both sides, their cooperation could eventually go deeper and enable them to resist the sea’s militarily strongest claimant, China — or work alongside it — some analysts believe. Deals to date call for joint use of parts of the sea, set up joint crime-fighting mechanisms and, in one case, require China to delineate its maritime boundary.’No other options but to cooperate’Brunei, the Philippines and Taiwan claim all or parts of the same 3.5 million-square-kilometer sea. Indonesia chafes with China over the waterways’ southern reaches.“If Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia can work together, then at that time China will have no other options but to cooperate with these Southeast Asian claimants,” said Nguyen Thanh Trung, Center for International Studies director at University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Ho Chi Minh City.China alarms the other governments by landfilling small islets for airstrips and hangars. Its fishing fleets, survey vessels and coast guard ships periodically enter waters claimed by the Southeast Asian states. Beijing rejected a 2016 ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration at the Hague. against the legal basis for its claims and has been unable to agree on a maritime code of conduct with the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which includes four South China Sea claimants.A Malaysia-Vietnam memorandum should serve as a “role model” for other deals between South China Sea claimants, said Alexander Vuving, a professor at the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in Hawaii.“This would be a very good steppingstone to more cooperation between Vietnam and Malaysia on the maritime domain,” Vuving said.Fishing a sticking pointAgreements around the South China Sea are few today but have a record of building trust by solving local problems even as the wider sovereignty issue lingers.Analysts believe the Vietnam-Malaysia memorandum would start by easing tension between Vietnam and Malaysia. Vietnamese fishing boats end up in Malaysian waters because the waters are close, not always clearly marked on maps and offer more fish than the seas nearer Vietnam.Fishing has become a sticking point for both countries, said Shariman Lockman, senior foreign policy and security studies analyst with the Institute of Strategic and International Studies in Malaysia. Malaysian authorities said in August a Vietnamese fisherman had been shot to death during a confrontation over the location of his vessel.“The Vietnamese fishing fleets, in search of stocks, they come south, so this [reported memo] is one way to regulate it. It’s becoming a real irritant in the bilateral relationship,” Lockman said. “When people in Malaysia talk about problems in the South China Sea, I think they tend to speak about China and Vietnam almost in the same breath.”China and Vietnam have abided since 2000 by a boundary demarcation in the Gulf of Tonkin, which extends along both Vietnamese and Chinese coastline and is one of the few places where Beijing has clarified the extent of its sovereignty. China uses a nine-dash line to delineate the remaining claim to about 90% of the South China Sea. China and Vietnam agreed in the same year to a joint Gulf of Tonkin fishing mechanism.Authorities from Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines agreed in 2017 to pool naval personnel who could track Islamic militants who had taken advantage of porous sea borders in waters near their coastlines.In 2009, Malaysia and Vietnam together sent to the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf documents showing the extent of their South China Sea continental shelves.Their submission irked China but “forced claimant states to gradually clarify their positions on the legal status of features and the limits of their claims in the South China Sea,” Nguyen Hong Thao, associate professor of international law at the National University of Hanoi, wrote in a commentary this month.Any subsequent upgrade to the Vietnam-Malaysia memorandum would avoid content offensive to China, Lockman said. Vietnam regularly speaks out against Chinese activity in the disputed sea, but Malaysia keeps quieter. China is its biggest trading partner and top source of investment.
…
2.5 Billion T. Rex Roamed Earth, but Not All at Once, Study Says
One Tyrannosaurus rex seems scary enough. Now picture 2.5 billion of them. That’s how many of the fierce dinosaur king probably roamed Earth over the course of a couple million years, a new study finds.Using calculations based on body size, sexual maturity and the creatures’ energy needs, a team at the University of California, Berkeley figured out just how many T. rex lived over 127,000 generations, according to a study in Thursday’s journal Science. It’s a first-of-its-kind number, but just an estimate with a margin of error that is the size of a T. rex.“That’s a lot of jaws,” said study lead author Charles Marshall, director of the University of California Museum of Paleontology. “That’s a lot of teeth. That’s a lot of claws.”The species roamed North America for about 1.2 million to 3.6 million years, meaning the T. rex population density was small at any one moment. There would be about two in a place the size of the Washington, D.C., or 3,800 in California, the study said.“Probably like a lot of people, I literally did a double-take to make sure that my eyes hadn’t deceived me when I first read that 2.5 billion T. rexes have ever lived,” said Macalester College paleobiologist Kristi Curry Rogers, who wasn’t part of the study.Marshall said the estimate helps scientists figure the preservation rate of T. rex fossils and underscores how lucky the world is to know about them at all. About 100 or so T. rex fossils have been found — 32 of them with enough material to figure they are adults.If there were 2.5 million T. rex instead of 2.5 billion, we would probably have never known they existed, he said.Marshall’s team calculated the population by using a general biology rule of thumb that says the bigger the animal, the less dense its population. Then they added estimates of how much energy the carnivorous T. rex needed to stay alive — somewhere between a Komodo dragon and a lion. The more energy required, the less dense the population.They also factored in that the T. rex reached sexual maturity somewhere around 14 to 17 years old and lived at most 28 years.Given uncertainties in the creatures’ generation length, range and how long they roamed, the Berkeley team said the total population could be as little as 140 million or as much as 42 billion with 2.4 billion as the middle value.The science about the biggest land-living carnivores of all time is important, “but the truth, as I see it, is that this kind of thing is just very cool,” said Purdue University geology professor James Farlow.
…
Politicians Turn to Hollywood Talent Agents to Boost Their Image
Ronald Reagan and Arnold Schwarzenegger are among the most well-known celebrities who used their superstar status to jump into politics. Now some politicians are using Hollywood talent agents to build their political brand. Karina Bafradzhian has the story.
…
Traditional Cambodian Silk Ikat at Risk of Extinction
A handmade pictorial Cambodian silk ikat that uses all-natural silk and dyes takes nearly a year to produce and can sell for thousands of dollars. But this traditional handicraft, which is being preserved by fewer than a dozen small nonprofits in the country, is at risk of disappearing. VOA’s Bopha Phorn tells the story in this report narrated by Chetra Chap.
…
Sydney Man Finds Venomous Snake in Lettuce Bought at Supermarket
Alex White thought he was watching a huge worm writhing in plastic-wrapped lettuce he’d just brought home from a Sydney supermarket — until a snake tongue flicked.”I kind of completely freaked out when I saw this little tongue come out of its mouth and start flicking around and realized it was a snake because worms don’t have tongues,” White said on Thursday.”I definitely kind of panicked a bit,” he added.It was a venomous pale-headed snake that authorities say made an 870-kilometer journey to Sydney from a packing plant in the Australian city of Toowoomba wrapped in plastic with two heads of cos lettuce.The refrigerated supermarket supply chain likely lulled the cold-blooded juvenile into a stupor until White bought the lettuce at an ALDI supermarket on Monday evening and rode his bicycle home with salad and snake in his backpack.White and his partner Amelia Neate spotted the snake moving as soon as the lettuce was unpacked onto the kitchen table.They also noticed the plastic wrapping was torn and that the snake could escape, so they quickly stuffed the reptile with the lettuce into a plastic food storage container.White phoned the WIRES rescue organization and a snake handler took the snake away that night.Before the handler arrived, White said WIRES had explained to him: “If you get bitten, you’ve got to go to hospital really quickly.”ALDI is investigating how a snake could have found its way into a supermarket.”We’ve worked with the customer and the team at WIRES to identify the snake’s natural habitat, which is certainly not an ALDI store!” the German-based supermarket chain said in a statement.WIRES reptile coordinator Gary Pattinson said while the snake was less than 20 centimeters long, it was “as venomous as it will ever be.”Pattinson is caring for the snake until it is returned to Queensland state next week, following the WIRES policy of returning rescued wildlife to where it comes from.”It’s the first snake I’ve ever had in sealed, packed produce,” Pattinson said. “We get frogs in them all the time.”Neate, a German immigrant, said her brush with a venomous snake in a Sydney kitchen was a setback in her efforts to assure relatives in Europe that Australia’s notoriously deadly Outback wildlife was nothing to worry about.”For the last 10 years or so, I’ve told my family at home that Australia’s a really safe country,” Neate said.”I’ve always said I’m just in the city; it’s totally fine here,” she added.
…
Biden Nominates US Haiti Ambassador to State Department Position
U.S. President Joe Biden has nominated U.S. Ambassador to Haiti Michele Sison for the position of assistant secretary of state for international organization affairs.Sison, a career ambassador, the highest rank in the U.S. Foreign Service, has served in Haiti since 2018. She is a respected diplomat in Port-au-Prince, where she has been outspoken about democratic governance, the rule of law and respect for human rights.”We are very concerned about any action that risks undermining democratic institutions in Haiti,” Sison told VOA during an exclusive interview in February.Before arriving in Port-au-Prince, she served as U.S. deputy representative to the United Nations with the rank of ambassador from 2014 to 2018.She is experienced in global coalition building, transnational threats, peacekeeping, international development and humanitarian relief.Among Sison’s prior posts are U.S. ambassador to Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates; assistant chief of mission in Iraq; and deputy chief of mission in Pakistan.At the State Department, she held the position of principal deputy assistant secretary of state for South Asian affairs.Sison has been recognized with multiple awards, notably the Distinguished Service Award and the Presidential Meritorious Rank Award.The U.S. Senate must confirm her nomination before it becomes effective.
…
US Slaps Tough Sanctions on Russia for Election Meddling
The Biden administration on Thursday imposed tough sanctions targeting the Russian economy to punish the Kremlin for the SolarWinds cyberespionage campaign against the United States and efforts to influence the 2020 presidential election. White House correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has the story.
…
Report: Kim Jong Un Visits Family Tomb to Pay Tribute to Grandfather
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un paid his respects at the mausoleum for his grandfather Kim Il Sung on Thursday to mark the birthday of the founder of the state, official state news agency KCNA reported.Kim and his wife, Ri Sol Ju, also watched a performance of song and dance at the Kumsusan Palace of Sun, where his father and grandfather lie in state, in celebration of the national holiday, KCNA reported Friday.”When the performance was over, the audience again broke into stormy cheers for the General Secretary,” it reported.Kim’s no-show at last year’s anniversary fanned speculation about his health. A flurry of unconfirmed reports about his condition and his whereabouts followed, including reports suggesting that Kim was in grave danger after a surgery.Kim was accompanied to the palace this year by senior North Korean officials, including his sister Kim Yo Jong, KCNA reported.Earlier this month, North Korea said it would not take part in the Tokyo Olympic Games due to coronavirus concerns, dashing South Korean hopes that the games could be a catalyst to revive peace talks.North Korea says it has not had any coronavirus cases.
…
Ambassador Lays Out Japan’s Summit Priorities
The following is the full text of an interview with Koji Tomita, the Japanese ambassador in Washington, conducted this week in advance of a visit to the White House by Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga. An article based on the interview is also being published. VOA: What is the significance to Japan of the upcoming summit between President (Joe) Biden and Prime Minister (Yoshihide) Suga? What would Japan like to see happen at the summit? Will we see new evidence of closer cooperation between Tokyo and Washington in regional and global affairs? AMBASSADOR KOJI TOMITA: This is the first in-person Japan-U.S. summit for both leaders, an event that has always been important in setting a positive tone for our overall diplomatic relationship. We are also honored that Prime Minister Suga will be the first leader of a foreign nation to hold a face-to-face meeting with President Biden since he took office in January. Considering the circumstances with the COVID-19 pandemic and regional affairs, this meeting has an even higher profile than usual. I’m confident that both Prime Minister Suga and President Biden are going to rise to that challenge and build on the foundations of our strong relationship on a number of key points. FILE – Japanese Ambassador to South Korea Koji Tomita, left, arrives at the foreign ministry in Seoul, March 6, 2020.First, the leaders will coordinate the strategy needed to further strengthen our alliance, and to realize a “Free and Open Indo-Pacific.” This is particularly important as the security environment in the region has become increasingly severe. President Biden and Prime Minister Suga will be building on the strong joint statement released following the recent “2 + 2” meetings in Tokyo, which endorsed the enhancement of the deterrence and response capabilities of the Japan-U.S. Alliance.We are very encouraged by President Biden’s active engagement in the Indo-Pacific region, as exemplified by the historic first Quad Summit meeting that he hosted. The international order is being challenged in various ways, so we hope to continue having specific discussions on the ways that Japan and the U.S. can take initiative in realizing our shared vision. Second, Japan fully supports President Biden’s resolve to revert to multinationalism and to restore leadership in the international community. A multinational approach is critical for many of the challenges facing us today, and I expect the leaders to discuss our shared strategy in a number of these areas. Climate change will certainly be one of those topics, especially in view of the Leaders Summit on Climate later this month, and the COP26 (United Nations Climate Change Conference) conference this November. Both Prime Minister Suga and President Biden have placed climate change policy at the center of their agendas, so I expect a substantial discussion during their meeting. I think this will be very productive, as they share a common vision on the topic, associating climate policy with economic growth realized through new investment, job expansion and innovation. FILE – Japan’s Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga speaks during a press conference in Tokyo, March 18, 2021.Multilateralism is, of course, also important in response to the COVID-19 global pandemic, including the distribution of vaccines to countries in need. Japan and the U.S. have closely cooperated on the pandemic response so far, so this will be another important topic to be discussed. Finally, as I mentioned, the visit will be a perfect opportunity for Prime Minister Suga and President Biden to a build a personal relationship and trust, as the leaders of our countries have always done. The Japanese people admire President Biden’s warm personality, which will obviously be a big part of this initial encounter. We will never forget his visit to the affected area right after the 3/11 Great East Japan Earthquake 10 years ago. I was actually there for that visit, and I greatly appreciated the way that he consoled victims and gave them a sense of hope. I think Prime Minister Suga has a lot of similarities to President Biden, as a leader who did not inherit a political support network and had to build up his career through politics by themselves. Prime Minister Suga’s strength is that he understands the life of ordinary citizens and feels their joy and pain. I think these shared personal traits will lead to a solid rapport, which will allow them to tackle the tough questions that they must face together. VOA: Many see Japan as taking a more proactive approach in the security (e.g., the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue/Quad) and political realms (e.g., recent pronouncements concerning human rights issues in China) alongside the United States and other democratic nation-states, compared with a more economics and trade-centered approach. Could you explain the rationale behind this? To what extent does this have to do with Beijing’s rising power and posture? TOMITA: As the strategic environment around Japan has become increasingly complex and uncertain, we need to utilize an increasingly complex set of policy responses, using everything in our diplomatic and security toolkits. Today we are faced with a variety of nonconventional threats, including cyberattacks, terrorism, trade restrictions and threats to the freedom of navigation that endanger critical sea lanes. Japan places importance on multilateralism and aims to realize a “united world” that collectively tackles challenges facing the international community. While some of these challenges require us to develop new approaches, I think that it is important to note that continuing to build economic and trade ties will be key to addressing all of these areas. The progress of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership and the entry into force of the Japan-U.K. Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement have contributed to the establishment of a free and fair economic order. As this year’s chair of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Commission, Japan will lead the discussions for the steady implementation and expansion of the TPP. As shown in the leadership that Japan is assuming, we will continue to be proactive on the trade front as well. China’s growing economic and military influence is an important part of this changing landscape, but our approach, including our growing partnership with the Quad, is not directed toward any specific country. Our strategic goal has always been to maintain the peace and prosperity of the entire region. In this regard, the importance of the Japan-U.S. alliance has never been greater. VOA: China, or the People’s Republic of China governed by the Chinese Communist Party, has been described as an adversary by the last U.S. administration and a competitor by the current one; rivalry between Washington and Beijing has been cast as a rivalry between democracy and autocracy. The European Union describes its ties with Beijing as one of “simultaneously (in different policy areas) a cooperation partner, a negotiation partner, an economic competitor and a systemic rival.” How does Japan see China/the PRC? TOMITA: While China is a growing topic in Washington, D.C., these days, I can assure you that as a country situated nearby, China is always a big presence for Japan. With the world’s second-largest economy, and a population of 1.4 billion, I think that China actually has the capacity and the responsibility to make positive contributions to efforts to solve global issues. I therefore think it is in everyone’s interest to have stable relations with China. Having said that, we have to build that relationship on the basis of frank and open discussion, so we have to be honest with our Chinese friends about our concerns with certain aspects of their behavior, including trade practices, and the human rights situations in Xinjiang and Hong Kong. From Japan’s perspective, it is particularly troubling to see their maritime practices, which attempt to unilaterally change the status quo in the region. I think our approach to China has been very consistent. We are seeking a stable relationship with China, but at the same time, will continue to be very clear about our concerns. And as I mentioned before, this is one of the areas where a multilateral approach will be critical: Japan isn’t alone in navigating our relationship with China, any more than the U.S. is. VOA: U.S. allies with both Japan and the Republic of Korea and consistently calls for Japan and ROK to work more closely together, toward shared strategic goals in the region and beyond. You served as Japan’s ambassador to ROK before coming to Washington. In your view, do Japan and ROK share enough common strategic goals in the region and beyond to exercise the political will to put history behind, to address the trauma from wartime to a satisfactory degree, and work more closely together? TOMITA: Before I came to Washington, D.C., this year, I was the Japanese ambassador to the Republic of Korea, and with that experience in mind, I can assure you that the ROK is an important neighbor which shares democratic values with Japan. We believe that the trilateral Japan-U.S.-ROK relationship is key to the peace and stability of the region, and we will continue to engage with our Korean friends for the maintenance of trilateral solidarity and coordination on issues like North Korea. I think many Americans who read updates from the region would be surprised by the extremely high levels of exchange that flourish between our two countries. From a deep economic relationship to people-to-people and cultural exchanges, the ties between Japanese and Koreans are actually very robust, although currently constrained due to COVID-19. However, it is fair to say that Japan and ROK are going through a difficult patch due to a few outstanding issues. These issues originate from some recent Korean court decisions that are not in conformity with Japan-ROK agreements and the principles of international law. My answer to your question would be yes, Japan and ROK share so many common strategic goals in the region. But we must say that what is at stake at the moment is the very basis of our diplomatic relations in the postwar era. We would like to protect the foundation on which we have developed our relations, and this is why we are asking the Korean government to take firm action to prevent these issues from damaging our overall relationship.
…
Nigerian Authorities Worry About Meeting Vaccination Targets
Nigerian authorities are stepping up efforts to vaccinate more people against COVID-19 after a slow rollout blamed on misinformation. Authorities aim to vaccinate over 80 million Nigerians by year’s end but are running far behind schedule. Timothy Obiezu reports from Abuja.
Camera: Emekas Gibson
…
Zimbabwe Reports Major Rise in Teen Pregnancies During Pandemic
Zimbabwe’s government this month reported nearly 5,000 teenage pregnancies in January and February — a major jump from previous years. Advocates are blaming the rise on coronavirus lockdowns and poverty. Columbus Mavhunga reports from Harare, Zimbabwe. Camera: Blessing Chigwenhembe
…
Afghan Women, Experts Worry About Future
Experts are warning that the announced U.S. departure from Afghanistan will lead to intensified conflict in the South Asian nation, while Afghan women say they are worried about their rights. VOA’s Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports on U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s efforts to reassure Afghan leaders during an unannounced visit Thursday.
…