Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov began a two-day official visit Tuesday to Pakistan amid growing diplomatic, economic, and military ties between the two countries.
Pakistani and Russian officials said Lavrov’s delegation-level talks with Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi also will focus on ongoing diplomatic efforts to bring an end to the war in neighboring Afghanistan.
Qureshi received the chief Russian diplomat and his delegation at the military base outside Islamabad, where the two leaders also held an initial interaction.
“Pakistan attaches great importance to its relations with Russia and the relationship is gradually expanding,” a post-meeting statement quoted the Pakistani foreign minister as telling the visitor.
Additionally, Lavrov, accompanied by Russian presidential envoy to Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov, is scheduled to hold meetings with Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan and the country’s military leadership.
“There are plans to conduct a detailed discussion on the current status of bilateral relations and their development prospects, including opportunities for further strengthening trade, economic and counterterrorism cooperation,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a pre-visit statement.
Foreign Minister Lavrov last visited Islamabad in 2012, and the ensuing years saw a marked improvement in Russia’s otherwise strained and mistrustful relations with Pakistan.
The distrust stemmed from Islamabad’s decision to side with the United States-backed Afghan armed resistance of the 1980s that forced Moscow to withdraw Soviet occupation forces from Afghanistan.
Bilateral trade between Russia and Pakistan last year hit an all-time high of $790 million, an increase of 46 percent, mainly due to large supplies of Russian wheat to help Islamabad bridge its domestic shortfalls.
Officials said both countries are working closely to increase business partnerships in the energy sector to open a fast-growing gas market for Russian energy companies.
Moscow and Islamabad signed an agreement in 2015 to build a 1,100-km pipeline in Pakistan linking the port of Karachi to the city of Lahore to transport 1.6 billion cubic meters of gas per day.
Russian and Pakistani officials say negotiations on the multi-billion dollar “flagship project” are ongoing “with a view to an early start of its practical implementation.”
The Russian foreign minister is visiting the region as a May 1 deadline approaches for American forces to exit Afghanistan in line with an agreement Washington signed with the Taliban insurgency in February 2020.
Lavrov landed in Pakistan after visiting India, where he stressed the need for the inclusion of the Taliban in any political settlement to end the civil war in Afghanistan.
“Any other way that foresees the exclusion of any group from this process will not deliver an implementable and sustainable peace agreement,” Lavrov told reporters in New Delhi before leaving for Islamabad.
Last month, Moscow hosted an Afghanistan conference, where representatives of the Afghan government and the Taliban, along with senior Chinese, U.S. and Pakistani diplomats, explored ways to push Afghan peace efforts.
President Joe Biden’s administration is reviewing the deal with the Taliban and has also intensified efforts to push the two Afghan adversaries to urgently resume peace talks and negotiate a power-sharing deal.
Biden said last month it will be tough for the U.S. to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan by May 1 for logistical reasons.
On Monday, White House spokesperson Jen Psaki said the president is continuing to consult internally with his national security team and U.S. partners and allies on the way forward.
“Well, he set the expectation it will be tough for a full withdrawal, for logistical reasons, by that timeline. And that certainly has—also something that we’ve conveyed clearly to our partners as well,” Psaki said when asked whether U.S. troops were expected to remain in Afghanistan beyond the May deadline.
The Taliban repeatedly has urged Washington to abide by the mutually agreed upon timeline and withdraw all foreign forces from the country. The insurgent group has threatened to resume attacks on U.S. and allied forces if the U.S. fails to honor the deadline.
The U.S.-Taliban deal binds the insurgents to immediately halt attacks on foreign troops in Afghanistan.
Pakistan and Russia both maintain close contacts with the Taliban.
Afghan officials accuse Islamabad of sheltering insurgents and helping them militarily, charges Pakistani officials reject and take credit instead of facilitating the signing of the U.S.-Taliban peace deal.
Pakistan still hosts several million Afghan refugees and has long blamed the displaced population for serving as hiding place for Taliban fighters.
…
Month: April 2021
Malawi Teachers Resume Strike Over COVID-19 Risk Allowances
Teachers in Malawi’s public schools have resumed a nationwide strike after the government backed out of a promise to pay bonuses for COVID-19 risk. Malawi authorities say the government has no money to pay the teachers, who risk contracting the coronavirus by teaching classes in person.Malawi’s public-school teachers resumed their nation-wide strike Tuesday after the government did not honor a promise to pay bonuses for their risk of contracting the coronavirus while on the job.President of the Teachers Union of Malawi, Willy Malimba, said they began the stop work action after authorities failed to meet a seven-day ultimatum. “We felt cheated on this one because we agreed and at that time it was a high-level meeting. We did that one at parliament,” said Malimba. “We had Presidential Task Force [on COVID-19], we had committee of education, when we were making that agreement.”Malimba said teachers take risks when working in packed classrooms during the pandemic and will not resume work until the government gives them the promised bonus.But Malawi’s government says teachers were not among those budgeted to receive a COVID-19 risk allowance. Teachers in Malawi Strike Over COVID-19 Risk Allowances The teachers are demanding bonus pay for working during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as better protective equipmentMalawi government spokesperson Gospel Kazako says, despite what was promised, they do not have the money to meet the teachers’ demands.”People can squeeze government but, if the government doesn’t have a resource, it does (not) have a resource and you must know that we are not doing these things out of malice or that we are careless,” said Kazako. “No, we are not.”Kazako is also Malawi’s Information Minister and a member of the Presidential Taskforce on COVID-19. He says they will meet teachers on Thursday to discuss their welfare – but not the bonus, which he argues would be short-term anyway. “Teachers have a lot of problems beyond COVID allowances,” said Kazako. “We need to sort out their salaries, we need to sort out their condition of service, we need to sort out their housing allowances, so many other things not just COVID. The thing is, assuming in the next three months there is no COVID, it means they will not have any allowance.”Steve Sharra specializes in education for the Nairobi-based, non-profit African Institute for Development Policy. He says the government should reach a deal with teachers so that Malawi’s students don’t lose any more class time. “It will be important for movement to be quite open about what’s going on. If they say there is no money, that’s not enough of an explanation,” said Sharra. “It is possible for the government to have no money but to come up with an explanation that teachers can understand and can compromise and then they can resume work.”Malawi’s teachers first began striking in January when schools reopened after months of being closed due to the coronavirus. They resumed work in February after the government promised to give them money to buy personal protective equipment.Malawi first closed schools in March 2020, even before it confirmed its first cases of COVID-19.The government reopened schools in September only to suspend classes again in January after a surge in infections, including among some teachers and students.
…
Democratic US Congressman Alcee Hastings of Florida Dies at 84
Democratic U.S. Representative Alcee Hastings has died at the age of 84, his office said on Tuesday, further narrowing the party’s majority in the lower chamber of Congress.
His office did not provide details on the cause of death. In January 2019, Hastings said he was diagnosed with and receiving treatment for pancreatic cancer.
“I’m heartbroken at the passing of my dear friend, Alcee Hastings,” said fellow Florida Democratic lawmaker Ted Deutch in a statement. “Alcee spoke up for the quiet voices that would otherwise go unheard. He never backed down from a fight for the people he represented and anyone else who needed defending.”
Hastings, who became the first African American elected to Congress in Florida since the post-Civil War period, was serving his fifteenth term in the U.S. House of Representatives in a Florida district that now includes parts of Fort Lauderdale, Palm Beach and the area around Lake Okeechobee, his website said. He was first elected in 1992.
He most recently won his seat with 78.7% of the vote, according to the Florida Department of State.
Hastings served on the powerful Rules Committee, which determines the conditions under which legislation in the House is considered, and was a commissioner on the Commission of Security and Cooperation in Europe, which monitors and encourages compliance of human rights.
“We sat side by side in the committee for many years and I watched him take down phony arguments and lift up the truth with a turn of a phrase that only he could deliver,” James McGovern, chairman of the House Rules Committee, said in a statement. “I have lost a friend, this Congress has lost a giant, and those who all too often go unseen in America have lost a champion.”
Before his election to Congress, Hastings was an attorney and civil rights activist.
The son of parents who were domestic workers, Hastings was born in 1936 and attended a segregated high school. He spoke about how his parents, grandparents and great-grandparents were not allowed to vote, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported.
In 1979, he was appointed to be a federal district court judge. But two years later, Hastings was indicted on charges of conspiracy and obstruction of justice for soliciting a $150,000 bribe for reducing the sentences of two mob-connected felons convicted in his court, according to the Senate website.
Though Hastings was acquitted, he was impeached and removed from office by the U.S. Senate in 1989. He was not disqualified from holding future elected office.
His death leaves a sixth vacancy in the House of Representatives, which Democrats would now control with 218 seats, against the Republicans’ 211, according to a tally by the House press office.
The further narrowing of the Democrats’ majority could make it even more difficult for the party to pursue their legislative agenda.
…
Tanzania Orders Reopening of Media Houses Closed Under Magufuli
Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan has ordered the reopening of media outlets that were closed or otherwise repressed under President John Magufuli, who died last month. In a further break from Magufuli, Hassan said Tuesday that Tanzania will begin following scientific procedures in handling the coronavirus.Tanzania’s new president Samia Suluhu Hassan made the remarks at the State House Tuesday during an event to swear in newly appointed permanent secretaries. She ordered responsible authorities to lift a ban on all media outlets that were closed under the previous administration. She said, I am told you revoked licenses of some media outlets, including some online television stations. You should lift the ban but tell them to follow the law and government guidelines, she said. She added, let us not give them a chance to say that we are limiting press freedom.Will Tanzania’s New President Break With Magufuli’s Leadership?Tanzanian citizens are waiting to see how President Samia Suluhu Hassan chooses to lead the countryIn recent years, some Tanzanian media organizations were shut down for long periods of time, after publishing material that apparently did not please the Magufuli government.Journalists in Tanzania are hopeful the president’s remarks will lead to real reforms. Ibrahim Chawe is a journalist working with local government-owned media, Mlimani media.I have received this news with big hopes that this can be a good beginning of press freedom and freedom of speech in Tanzania, he says. The president has said that the law should be observed, he says, but when you have a look at the laws or regulations that should be observed, still they’re oppressive. Chawe went on to say he thinks this step of reopening the press should be an opportunity for new regulations and laws for running the press so as to create full freedom.Salome Kitomari of the Media Institute of Southern Africa in Tanzania (MISA), an organization that defends freedom of expression, believes that full freedom for journalists is coming soon.It has been a new hope, she says, because we all know there are some media outlets that were suspended because they were accused of breaking the law and regulations. Kitomari adds that “we believe that with the president’s statement we are going to have the freedom to fulfill our responsibility according to the laws and regulations.” Tanzania’s President Criticized for Dismissing COVID-19 Vaccines John Magufuli claimed that Tanzanians vaccinated abroad had brought a coronavirus variant back to the country and repeated his stance that praying and inhaling steam offered better protection against the virusOn a separate issue, Hassan Tuesday also announced her intention to form a special committee to advise the government on steps to take in the fight against coronavirus.The late president had denied that COVID-19 was a problem in Tanzania and questioned the efficacy of vaccines. Magufuli proposed the use of alternative therapies to treat the illness.Hassan’s announcement on fighting the virus was welcomed by many, including opposition politicians. Abdul Nondo is a youth wing national chairperson of the opposition Alliance for Change and Transparency Party.Hassan shows us the way that we need to have scientific direction, he said, and use scientific measures because for a long time our government has been using local measures. Nondo says Tanzania didn’t have effective measures to combat and prevent the coronavirus pandemic – adding that many people died and the government failed to take any effective scientific measures to combat the pandemic.The full extent of COVID-19 in Tanzania remains unknown, as the government under Magufuli stopped counting cases and deaths in the early days of the pandemic.
…
All US Adults Will Be Eligible for COVID Vaccinations on April 19, Biden Says
U.S. President Joe Biden is announcing Tuesday that every adult in the country will be eligible by April 19 to get vaccinated against the coronavirus, about two weeks earlier than his original May 1 date.
As the available supply of three vaccines expands in the U.S., Biden last week said that about 90% of U.S. adults would be eligible by the April 19 date, but he now is expanding that to all adults who want a shot in the arm.
National polls in the U.S., however, show that about 20% of adults say that for various reasons they will refuse to get vaccinated. Some have said they think it is unnecessary or that the injections could prove to be harmful, while other have expressed distrust in a government-run program.
The percentage opposed to the inoculations has declined over the last several months, as most people vaccinated have reported no or only temporary medical reactions lasting a day or so.
Biden, who was inoculated before taking office in January, is making the announcement at the White House after visiting a vaccination site in suburban Virginia outside Washington.
He is expected to make remarks on the “state of vaccinations” in the country. WATCH LIVE
The latest government figures show that more than 62 million Americans have been fully vaccinated, about 23% of the country’s adult population 18 and older. More than 107 million people have received at least one shot of the two-shot regimen required with either the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines, or a smaller group of people with the single-shot doses produced by drug-maker Johnson & Johnson.
Originally, the U.S. made the vaccines available to older people and essential, front-line workers. The new eligibility date in two weeks will give all adults a chance then to schedule appointments for their shots at community health centers, pharmacies, drive-through vaccination sites in parking lots and elsewhere.
…
Norwegian Coast Guard Rescues Crew of Dutch Cargo Ship in Distress
Norwegian coast guard officials said Tuesday the 12-member crew of a Dutch cargo ship that was adrift and in danger of capsizing in rough seas has been rescued off the coast of Norway.Crew members onboard the Eemslift Hendrika raised an alert in the North Sea on Monday, prompting the coast guard to launch a helicopter operation to evacuate the vessel.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 7 MB480p | 10 MB540p | 14 MB720p | 35 MB1080p | 59 MBOriginal | 60 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioCoast guard video shows rescuers airlifting the crew from the ship as it was battered by waves of up to 15 meters in height. Some crew members were seen being airlifted from the sea, while others were rescued from the ship’s deck. While the crew is safe, the coast guard told Norwegian Public Radio that the 111-meter Netherlands-registered ship had lost power in its main engine and was now drifting toward land. The vessel is carrying smaller yachts, and officials fear a fuel oil spill if the ship capsizes and sinks.
…
Over 10,000 Flee Mozambique Town After Jihadist Attacks
The United Nations reports more than 11,000 people have fled the coastal town of Palma in northern Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province since jihadist insurgents attacked the town nearly two weeks ago.Civilians arriving in Pemba, the capital of Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado, are telling aid workers that thousands of people are trapped inside Palma and the surrounding area. They also report that people fleeing Mozambique have been refused entry into nearby Tanzania.Mozambique’s Government Regains Control of Key Coastal Town Authorities claim that Palma is under government control, but observers urge additional regional support is needed to fight insurgency in northern province of Cabo Delgado U.N. refugee agency spokesman Babar Baloch says it is very worrisome that people fleeing for their lives are being prevented from seeking asylum.“More than 1,000 tried to cross into Tanzania, tried to cross the border from Mozambique into Tanzania, and they were turned back,” Balloch said. “At this stage, we do not know how this happened, who did this, but we are trying to seek clarification from the authorities on the other side, inside Tanzania.” The UNHCR is appealing to Mozambique’s neighbors to allow entry to people escaping violence and seeking protection.Dozens of people reportedly were killed by Islamist militants who attacked Palma on March 24. Thousands of people have been displaced and the economic fallout from the onslaught is potentially huge. The French energy giant Total has suspended its multi-billion dollar liquified natural gas project in the area.Balloch says his agency and others are scaling up relief efforts for the thousands of destitute, deeply distressed survivors of the attacks in Palma.“The majority of new arrivals are women and children who are coming with few belongings. Most showing signs of severe trauma following the atrocities they witnessed and are worried for those relatives who were left behind. The sudden and deadly nature of the attacks have left families torn apart, many still unable to leave,” Balloch said.Balloch notes many children are unaccompanied when they arrive. He says efforts are being made to trace and reunite them with their families. Balloch adds the needs are immense. They range from basic relief, including food, water, health care and shelter to psychological counseling and protection from gender-based violence and sexual exploitation.The UNHCR warns it will be unable to properly assist the displaced without more generous support from donors. It recently appealed for $19.2 million to help Cabo Delgado. To date, the agency says, less than 40 percent of that has been received.
…
France to Open Archive for Period Covering Rwandan Genocide
France’s role before and during the 1994 Rwandan genocide was a “monumental failure” that the country must acknowledge, the lead author of a report commissioned by President Emmanuel Macron said, as the country is about to open its archives from this period to the public.The report, published in March, concluded that French authorities remained blind to the preparations for genocide as they supported the “racist” and “violent” government of then-Rwandan President Juvénal Habyarimana and then reacted too slowly in appreciating the extent of the killings. But it cleared them of complicity in the slaughter that left over 800,000 people dead, mainly ethnic Tutsis and the Hutus who tried to protect them.Macron’s decision to commission the report — and open the archives to the public — are part of his efforts to more fully confront the French role in the genocide and to improve relations with Rwanda, including making April 7, the day the massacre began, a day of commemoration. While long overdue, the moves may finally help the two countries reconcile.Historian Vincent Duclert, who led the commission that studied France’s actions in Rwanda between 1990 and 1994, told The Associated Press that “for 30 years, the debate on Rwanda was full of lies, violence, manipulations, threats of trials. That was a suffocating atmosphere.”Duclert said it was important to acknowledge France’s role for what it was: a “monumental failure.””Now we must speak the truth,” he added. “And that truth will allow, we hope, (France) to get a dialogue and a reconciliation with Rwanda and Africa.”Macron said in a statement that the report marks “a major step forward” toward understanding France’s actions in Rwanda.About 8,000 archive documents that the commission examined for two years, including some that were previously classified, will be made accessible to the general public starting Wednesday, the 27th anniversary of the start of the killings. Duclert said documents — mostly from the French presidency and the prime minister’s office — show how then-President Francois Mitterrand and the small group of diplomats and military officials surrounding him shared views inherited from colonial times, including the desire to maintain influence on a French-speaking country, that led them to keep supporting Habyarimana despite warning signs, including through delivery of weapons and military training in the years prior to the genocide.”Instead of ultimately supporting the democratization and peace in Rwanda, the French authorities in Rwanda supported the ethnicization, the radicalization of (Habyarimana’s) government,” stressed.FILE – Historian and Commission chief on France’s role in 1994’s Rwandan genocide, Vincent Duclert, right, presents a report to French President Emmanuel Macron, at the Elysee Palace, in Paris, March 26, 2021.France was “not complicit in the criminal act of genocide,” he said, but “its action contributed to strengthening (the genocide’s) mechanisms.””And that’s an enormous intellectual responsibility,” he said. The report also criticized France’s “passive policy” in April and May 1994, at the height of the genocide. That was a “terrible lost opportunity,” Duclert noted. “In 1994, there was a possibility to stop the genocide … and it did not happen. France and the world bear a considerable guilt.”Eventually they did step in. Operation Turquoise, a French-led military intervention backed by the U.N., started on June 22.Duclert said that France’s “blindness must be questioned and, maybe, brought to trial,” though he insisted it was not the commission’s role to suggest charges.The report was welcomed as an important step by activists who had long hoped France would officially acknowledge its responsibilities in the genocide. On a visit to Rwanda in 2010, then-French President Nicolas Sarkozy admitted that his country had made “errors of judgment” and “political errors” regarding the genocide — but the report may allow Macron to go further. Dafroza Gauthier, a Rwandan who lost more than 80 members of her family in the mass killing, welcomed it as a “a great document against genocide denial.””For 27 years, or longer, we were in a kind of fog,” said Gauthier, who with her husband, Alain, founded the Collective of Civil Plaintiffs for Rwanda, a French-based group that seeks the prosecution of alleged perpetrators of the genocide. “The report is clearly stating things.”There also may be a shift in the attitude of Rwandan authorities, who welcomed the report in a brief statement but have given no detailed response. They said the conclusions of their own report, to be released soon, “will complement and enrich” it. That’s different from Rwanda’s firm assertions of French complicity as recently as 2017. Relations between the two countries, strained for years since the genocide, have improved under Macron’s presidency.Félicien Kabuga, a Rwandan long wanted for his alleged role in supplying machetes to the killers, was arrested outside Paris last May.And in July an appeals court in Paris upheld a decision to end a years-long investigation into the plane crash that killed Habyarimana and set off the genocide. That probe aggravated Rwanda’s government because it targeted several people close to President Paul Kagame for their alleged role, charges they denied.It now appears Rwandan authorities will accept “the olive branch” from Paris, said Dismas Nkunda, head of the watchdog group Atrocities Watch Africa who covered the genocide as a journalist. “Maybe they’re saying, ‘The past is the past. Let’s move on,'” he said of Rwandan authorities. The Gauthiers said the report and access to the archives may also help activists in their efforts to bring people involved in the genocide to justice — including potentially French officials who served at the time.There have been three Rwandan nationals convicted of genocide so far in France, they stressed. Four others are expected to go on trial. That’s out of about 30 complaints against Rwandan nationals living in France that their group has filed with authorities. That’s still “very few” compared to the more than 100 alleged perpetrators who are believed to live on French territory, they said.
…
Myanmar’s Online Pop-Up Markets Raise Funds for Protest
With security forces in Myanmar having shot dead at least 570 protesters and bystanders in the past two months, many of the country’s residents see venturing out onto the street as a brave but foolhardy act.
Online, many have found a safer, more substantive way to show their defiance against February’s military takeover — virtual rummage sales whose proceeds go to the protest movement’s shadow government and other related political causes.
Everything from clothes and toys, to music lessons and outdoor adventures are on sale. Foreign friends are encouraged to donate, but fundraising inside Myanmar also serves the purpose of raising political consciousness for challenging the ousting of Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government.
Facebook users have taken to the social network to sell off their possessions, advertising that all the money raised will go to fund the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, formed by elected members of Parliament who were blocked from taking their seats by the coup.
The committee styles itself as the sole legitimate government of the country, rejecting the ruling junta as without legal standing. In turn, the junta has outlawed the committee and declared it treasonous, threatening to jail not just its members but anyone supporting it.
Formed from scratch shortly after the Feb. 1 coup, the CRPH needs money to carry on its organizing activities inside the country and diplomatic efforts abroad.
Even as the authorities keep narrowing access to the internet, lately limited to a relatively small number of households with fiber broadband connections, deals are still available. Anti-coup protesters holding pictures of those who died during a protest against the military offer them prayersin Yangon, Myanmar.Last week, one young woman was offering her collection of K-Pop music and memorabilia, especially of the band Exo. Anyone interested had to show her a receipt for a donation to CRPH, and the item would go to whoever gave the most.
Another put his collection of LEGO Marvel Super Heroes up for sale.
“It is not very pricey but difficult to collect. If you show me your CRPH donation slip, choose anything and I will give it to you,” his message read.
One group of friends advertised their collection of novels, poems and motivational books, with proceeds again going to the democracy fight and delivery “when everything becomes stable.”
And it isn’t just goods that are being hawked. Services are also on offer to help bankroll the struggle.
A quick check through Facebook notices turned up a seamstress offering to sew a traditional Myanmar dress for free to those who donate $25, a musician offering lifetime guitar and ukulele lessons and an outdoor expedition leader offering to take five people on an adventure holiday.
The expedition would go to the winner of a lucky draw from among receipts for donations to either the CPRH, the Civil Disobedience Movement that organizes the daily resistance activities or to help thousands of internally displaced people.
However, there’s one small caveat to that last offer — it’s advertised as being redeemable “after the revolution.”
…
New Zealand and Australia Announce COVID-19 Travel ‘Bubble’
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has said a quarantine-free travel “bubble” with trans-Tasman neighbor Australia will start on April 18. It will allow unrestricted movement between two countries that have managed to contain the virus through strict lockdowns and international border closures.New Zealanders have been allowed into most parts of Australia since October, but travel the other way was banned. New Zealanders who did make the journey across the Tasman Sea also faced a mandatory two-week stay in hotel quarantine on their return. Those arrangements will soon change. New Zealand authorities say that just before midnight local time on April 18 a so-called travel “bubble” allowing unrestricted movement will start between the two countries. Authorities believe the risk of transmission of COVID-19 from Australia to New Zealand is low. At a press conference in Wellington, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the travel plan was the only one of its type anywhere. New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern speaks at a news conference on the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in Wellington.“I can confirm that quarantine-free travel between New Zealand and Australia will commence in just under two weeks’ time,” she said. “This is an important step forward in our COVID response and represents an arrangement I do not believe we have seen in any other part of the world. That is safely opening up international travel to another country while continuing to pursue a strategy of elimination and a commitment to keeping the virus out.” However, travel between Australia and New Zealand could be disrupted should future outbreaks of COVID-19 infections be detected. Officials have said that flights would be suspended from any Australian state or territory if authorities there ordered a local lockdown. To be eligible to travel to or from New Zealand on a quarantine-free flight, passengers must not have returned a positive coronavirus test result in the previous 14-days. They must also not be waiting for the results of a test taken during that period. FILE – A man crosses a mostly empty city center street as people in Greater Brisbane have been ordered into lockdown as authorities try to suppress a growing coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cluster in Brisbane, Australia, March 30, 2021.New Zealand has recorded 26 deaths related to COVID-19 since the pandemic began, while about 2,500 infections have been detected, health authorities say. Australia has recorded just over 29,000 coronavirus cases, and 909 fatalities. Both countries have closed their international borders to most foreign nationals. They have allowed citizens and permanent residents to return home, but they face 14-days in mandatory hotel quarantine at their own expense when they arrive. Australia and New Zealand have both embarked on mass coronavirus vaccination programs.
…
N. Korea Withdraws from Tokyo Summer Olympics Due to COVID-19 Pandemic
North Korea says it will not participate in the upcoming Tokyo Olympics due to concerns about the coronavirus pandemic. The country’s sports ministry said the decision was made “in order to protect players from the world public health crisis caused by COVID-19,” in a statement dated Monday. If North Korea follows through with the decision, it would be the first time it has skipped an Olympics since 1988, when the games were in Seoul. It is the first country to pull out of this year’s Tokyo games. The Tokyo games have been delayed a year due to the coronavirus but are set to begin July 23 with strict virus-prevention measures in place. North Korea, which is particularly vulnerable to disease outbreaks, has imposed perhaps the world’s most stringent coronavirus prevention measures. For more than a year, the country has attempted to almost completely seal its borders and has implemented even stricter than usual domestic travel restrictions. North Korea insists its border restrictions have succeeded in keeping the virus out of the country — a claim largely dismissed by experts. Some Korea watchers express concern Pyongyang will use the pandemic to extend its draconian restrictions indefinitely to impose greater control on the population. North Korea has one of the world’s poorest countries, observers say, and does not have adequate health infrastructure. The coronavirus lockdown made things worse, with reports emerging of food and medicine shortages. Impact on diplomacy The North’s decision to skip the Tokyo Olympics suggests the lockdown will not end anytime soon. But experts say Pyongyang could reverse its decision. “This seems as much a political decision designed to snub/pressure Tokyo & Seoul as much as it is a public health concern,” tweeted Jean Lee, Director of the Korea Program at The Wilson Center in Washington, D.C.Has any other country announced it would skip #Tokyo2020 Olympics? This seems as much a political decision designed to snub/pressure Tokyo & Seoul as much as it is a public health concern.https://t.co/rzvlS1ZL60— Jean H. Lee (@newsjean) April 6, 2021South Korea had proposed using the summer games as a catalyst for renewed sports diplomacy between the two Koreas. Such a strategy has worked in the past. In 2018, Seoul successfully converted inter-Korean sports cooperation at the Winter Olympics into a series of North-South meetings, which eventually led to talks between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump. Those talks have now been stalled for more than a year. North Korea said last month it considers any talks a “waste of time” unless the United States changes its approach. South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in, leader of the country’s Democratic Party, has less than a year in office and is willing to resume talks with North Korea.North Korea Tops Agenda for US-Japan-South Korea MeetingDiscussions about Pyongyang follow recent provocative missile tests it conducted Some in South Korea are pushing for South and North Korea to jointly host the 2032 Olympic games, though it is far from clear whether Pyongyang would accept.
…
Mozambique’s Government Regains Control of Key Coastal Town
Mozambique’s government said it is reclaiming territory from Islamic State-affiliated insurgents that besieged the key northern coastal town of Palma, with some of the thousands of civilians who fled now going back to take stock of their losses. “The population is returning, but they have nothing to eat because the terrorists have looted almost everything,” Agostinho Muthisse, a Mozambican military commander, said to a small group of journalists that the government flew in to visit Palma on Sunday. Militants armed with rocket launchers, rifles and machetes began an assault on Palma — a town of 75,000 in Mozambique’s impoverished but resource-rich province of Cabo Delgado — on March 24. That day, the French oil gas company Total had planned to resume work on a nearby liquified natural gas (LNG) project after insecurity forced it to suspend operations in December. By last Friday, the company had withdrawn all its personnel. The fresh attacks have uprooted more than 9,100 people in the province, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Even before the recent attacks there had been roughly 670,000 internally displaced people since 2017 as a result of the insurgency in northern Mozambique In this image taken from militant video released by the Islamic State group on Monday March 29, 2021, purporting to show fighters near the strategic north eastern Mozambique town of Palma.“The government urgently needs help from the Southern African Development Community and the African Union,” Dewa Mavhinga, southern Africa director for Human Rights Watch, wrote last week in an op-ed for News 24.He encouraged Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi, current SADC chairperson, to “tap into regional support to ensure civilian protection against attacks and to restore security in Cabo Delgado.” Mavhinga, who also accused the African Union of being “slow to act” in the Cabo Delgado crisis, recommended that SADC and the AU “consider appointing special envoys to lead stepped-up efforts to protect civilians, “end the abuses by armed groups and government security forces,” and ensure accountability. Amnesty International, in a report in early March, called upon the African Union to get more involved in resolving Cabo Delgado’s “massive humanitarian crisis.” SADC already has met several times on the issue. Separately, several sources in South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s administration told VOA they’ve been trying to get Maputo’s cooperation for a long time, to no avail. “South Africa is pivotal to at least decreasing the violence,” Liesl Louw-Vaudran, a senior researcher with the Institute for Security Studies in Pretoria, told VOA. The Maputo government has accepted limited support from outsiders, Louw-Vaudran noted. “The stumbling block seems to be that Mozambique doesn’t want help from the neighbors,” Louw-Vaudran said. “… Is it because Mozambique doesn’t want to admit that its army is too weak to actually safeguard citizens?” Military training The Pentagon announced March 15 that a team of U.S. Special Operations Forces had just launched a two-month program to train and support Mozambican marines in fighting violent extremism. Portugal also is training troops to take on the insurgents.US Warns Containment the Only Option for Some African Terror Groups Intelligence revealed in a new inspector general report sees gains by al-Qaida and Islamic State affiliates outpacing the ability of the US and African countries to fight backMozambique also has been paying the Dyck Advisory Group, a South Africa-based private military company, to supply security agents and helicopter gunships to bolster Mozambican forces. These agents been accused of atrocities in Cabo Delgado. Dyck’s contract with Mozambique expires Tuesday, DAG founder Lionel Dyck confirmed to AFP. Willem Els, a former senior South African police and intelligence officer, pointed out the insurgency’s broadening threat. It has drawn in “foreign fighters from especially Tanzania as far as Somalia, Kenya, Uganda, Burundi, DRC and even South Africa,” he told VOA. “So, what started off as a very localized challenge is now a regional challenge.” Trouble ahead? Eva Renon, a senior analyst with the London-based risk and research firm HIS Markit, anticipates more danger. “Unless the security situation changes significantly,” she wrote in an assessment posted Monday on the company website,“in the next six months insurgents are likely to attempt to capture Pemba,” the Cabo Delgado provincial capital. Renon also wrote that insurgents “will likely target beachfront hotels, government facilities, and the personnel and assets of non-governmental organizations, the Catholic Church, and the United Nations.” The analyst sees other potential hazards. “If insurgents capture Pemba,” she wrote, “they are likely to turn their attention west” to areas around the Cabo communities of Montepuez and Balama. “These areas are rich in ruby and graphite deposits, respectively, with the insurgents likely to seek to extort then ultimately control mining operations, with associated risks of kidnap, injury, and death to mining staff and subcontractors.” Most observers agree the long-term solution lies in SADC states, the African Union and the United Nations drawing up a road map to peace, with special emphasis on the development of Cabo Delgado. This would mean less opportunity for the extremists to exploit local grievances. This report originated in VOA’s Africa Division, with Darren Taylor reporting for the English to Africa Service from Johannesburg and Simião Pongoane for the Portuguese Service from Maputo.
…
Hikers Scramble as New Fissure Opens Up at Icelandic Volcano
Steam and lava spurted Monday from a new fissure at an Icelandic volcano that began erupting last month, prompting the evacuation of hundreds of hikers who had come to see the spectacle. The new fissure, first spotted by a sightseeing helicopter, was about 500 meters (550 yards) long and about a kilometer (around a half-mile) from the original eruption site in the Geldinga Valley. The Icelandic Department of Emergency Management announced an immediate evacuation of the area. It said there was no imminent danger to life because of the site’s distance from popular hiking paths. The Icelandic Meteorological Office said the new volcanic activity wasn’t expected to affect traffic at nearby Keflavik Airport. The long-dormant volcano on the Reykjanes Peninsula in southwest Iceland flared to life March 20 after tens of thousands of earthquakes were recorded in the area in the past three weeks. It was the area’s first volcanic eruption in nearly 800 years.People watch as lava flows from an eruption of a volcano on the Reykjanes Peninsula in southwestern Iceland late on March 24, 2021.The volcano’s proximity to Iceland’s capital, Reykjavík, about 32 kilometers (20 miles) away, has brought a steady stream of tourists to the area, even with the country in partial lockdown to combat the coronavirus. Around 30,000 people have visited the area since the eruption began, according to the Icelandic Tourist Board. Live footage from the area showed small spouts of lava coming from the new fissure. Geophysicist Magnus Gudmundsson said the volcanic eruption could be moving north from its original location. “We now see less lava coming from the two original craters,” he told The Associated Press. “This could be the beginning of second stage.” Iceland, which sits above a volcanic hot spot in the North Atlantic, averages one volcanic eruption every four to five years. The last one was at Holuhraun in 2014, when a fissure eruption spread lava the size of Manhattan over the interior highland region. In 2010, ash from Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull volcano shut down much international air travel for several days.
…
Details, Venues Emerge for Talks to Revive Iran Nuclear Deal
New details have emerged about Tuesday’s planned diplomatic talks in Vienna to try to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, including the apparent venues where representatives of world powers are to have separate meetings with U.S. and Iranian delegations. In Washington, U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price told a press briefing that U.S. Special Envoy for Iran Robert Malley will lead the U.S. delegation to the Vienna talks in which Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia are seeking to revive the Iran nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. The four other world powers are seeking to bring the U.S. back into 2015 agreement and to return Iran to full compliance with it. The two likely venues for the talks will be the Austrian capital’s Hotel Imperial and Grand Hotel Vienna, according to VOA Persian. A VOA Persian reporter in the city identified the venues by observing Iranian delegation members moving between the two hotels, which are a few minutes’ walk from each other on opposite sides of a major boulevard, and by speaking with several hotel representatives.دوعضو هیئت #ایران در #وین @VOAIran pic.twitter.com/7SychR9VLe— Guita Aryan (@GuitaVOA) April 5, 2021The Iranian delegation members seen in video clips and photos exclusively obtained by VOA Persian could not be immediately identified. It was not clear which of the two Vienna hotels would host Tuesday’s meeting of the U.S. and the four other world powers and which would host Iran’s meeting with the same four nations. Price said Tuesday’s talks will be “structured around working groups” that the European Union will form with Iran and the other remaining parties to the JCPOA. He said the agenda would focus on the “nuclear steps” that Iran would need to take to restore its compliance with the JCPOA and the “sanctions relief steps” that the U.S. would need to take to rejoin the deal. Price said the U.S. would consider lifting nuclear-related sanctions that former President Donald Trump had reimposed on Iran in return for “more permanent and verifiable limits” on the Iranian nuclear program. Speaking Monday in Tehran, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh reiterated that his side wants the talks to focus on the U.S. lifting what he called its cruel Iran sanctions. He said Tehran will not accept the U.S. doing so in a “step-by-step” manner in tandem with Iran taking steps to resume JCPOA compliance. “We (seek) only one step, which includes lifting of all U.S. sanctions. In return, Iran is ready to suspend its remedial measures and reverse actions,” Khatibzadeh said. Iran has referred to its expansions of uranium enrichment and other nuclear activities as remedial measures that it asserts can be reversed. But some Western nuclear experts have said that at least some of Iran’s recent advances in sensitive nuclear capabilities cannot be easily undone. Price tried to downplay expectations for the Vienna talks, saying the U.S. does not anticipate early or immediate breakthroughs. “These discussions, we fully expect, will be difficult,” he said. “But we do believe that these discussions with our partners and, in turn, our partners (discussions) with Iran, are a healthy step forward,” he added. Khatibzadeh also repeated Iran’s vow not to meet directly with the U.S. as part of Tuesday’s talks. Price said the U.S. does not anticipate direct talks with Iran but remains open to them. This article originated in VOA’s Persian Service.
…
George Floyd Death Leads States to Require Cops to Intervene
When a police officer knelt on the neck of George Floyd in Minneapolis, other officers at the scene didn’t intervene, even while Floyd said he couldn’t breathe and stopped moving. That lack of action is leading a growing number of states to compel police to stop misconduct by a fellow officer. Since Floyd’s death, Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Nevada, and New Jersey have passed laws requiring police to intervene when they see a fellow officer engaged in misconduct, said Katie Ryan of Campaign Zero, a group that encourages reforms to reduce police violence. Previously, many laws were aimed at compelling police to only report misconduct. But activists say Floyd’s death makes clear that is not enough. “The one essential component is that, in real time, a fellow officer has to intervene when witnessing another officer of any rank using excessive force,” Ryan said. In OregonOregon’s Legislature also passed a bill in a special session last year requiring intervention by an officer witnessing police misconduct. It also requires officers to report abuses to a supervisor. This year, lawmakers are tweaking the new law to strengthen how the complaints are handled. It is sponsored by Representative Janelle Bynum, a Democrat who chairs the House subcommittee on equitable policing. “For me, the original trigger was the George Floyd case,” said Bynum, who is Black and from a Portland suburb. FILE – Police advance on protesters to clear a street on the 100th consecutive night of protests against police violence and racial inequality, in Portland, Oregon, Sept. 5, 2020.Portland was an epicenter of Black Lives Matter protests that erupted nationwide after Floyd’s death. On the night of September 5, a Black resident came to police officers to inform them their tear gas was seeping into his house, affecting his son and dog. One officer struck the man on the head with his baton, causing a concussion. Other officers told their colleague the man was an area homeowner, not a protester. Bynum says that shouldn’t matter, that even if he was a protester, he shouldn’t be attacked unprovoked. “He wasn’t doing anything. And so I never got really clear answers from the city about why that was OK,” Bynum said. Police said that the incident was being investigated, but a half-year later they remain silent on the outcome or status. “I have not been provided information to release about the incident,” Lt. Greg Pashley, a police spokesman, said in an email. “Generally, the Professional Standards Division does not provide updates about internal investigations.” Bynum’s new bill aims to address such cases. Under a proposed amendment, it requires complaints to be filed with a direct supervisor of the reporting officer, their chain of command or with the Oregon Department of Public Safety Standards and Training, or DPSST, which licenses law enforcement officers across the state. The bill sets a three-month deadline for investigations to be completed. Under the proposed amendment, if an investigation confirms misconduct occurred, the officer’s unit must notify the DPSST, which would be tasked with establishing a database for reports of misconduct. Failure by an officer to intervene or report misconduct are grounds for disciplinary action. The employer may not retaliate against a reporting officer. In Maryland, Washington stateMaryland lawmakers are also working on legislation containing duty to intervene provisions. So is Washington state. When the Washington state Senate passed such a bill in February, Republican senators opposed. Some said it should clarify that force being used by an officer should be excessive to an objective, reasonable observer, not just to the officer witnessing it. Democrats said that would cause an officer to think twice before intervening. Senator Manka Dhingra, the bill’s sponsor, said good officers must be empowered to stop wrongdoing. “They want to make sure they’re doing the right thing. This bill helps them do that,” Dhingra said.
…
Navalny Moved to Sick Ward as Fellow Inmates Hospitalized With Suspected Tuberculosis
Jailed Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny has been moved to a sick ward after complaining of a cough and temperature, the Izvestia newspaper reported Monday. Earlier Monday, Navalny said in an Instagram post that a third prisoner in his quarters had been sent to the hospital with suspected tuberculosis. In the post, Navalny said prison doctors had officially diagnosed him with a “severe cough” and a temperature of 38.1 degrees Celsius, which indicates a slight fever. Navalny, 44, President Vladimir Putin’s most prominent critic, is currently incarcerated in Penal Colony No. 2, about 100 kilometers from Moscow, which is known as one of the toughest penitentiaries in Russia. FILE – A general view shows Penal Colony No. 2, where opposition leader Alexey Navalny, who was sentenced this month on parole violations, supposedly serves his jail term, in the town of Pokrov, Russia, Feb. 28, 2021.Navalny said his prison unit consists of 15 people, three of whom have been hospitalized with suspected tuberculosis. Tuberculosis is a potentially serious infectious disease that mainly affects the lungs and is spread from person to person through tiny droplets released into the air mainly through coughing and sneezing. It has largely been eradicated in developed countries, and a person with a healthy immune system often successfully fights it. In his Monday post, Navalny said his prison unit had been malnourished with clay-like porridge and frozen potatoes. He is currently on a hunger strike to demand better conditions. Malnutrition and weight loss undermine an immune system’s ability to fight tuberculosis. Navalny had previously complained of acute back and leg pain, and his guards not allowing him to sleep. Navalny criticized recent news reports by state-owned media that he is serving in a prison with comfortable conditions. He invited state media correspondents to spend the night in his prison with tuberculosis-infected cellmates. Russian police arrested Navalny in January upon his return from Germany on charges of violating his parole, sparking large-scale protests. The anti-corruption fighter had been recuperating in Berlin for several months after being poisoned with a military-grade nerve agent. Navalny has accused agents of Russia’s Federal Security Service of attempting to assassinate him with the poison. A Moscow court in February found him guilty of violating the terms of his parole from an older embezzlement case that is widely considered to be politically motivated. His suspended 3-and-a-half-year sentence was converted into jail time, though the court reduced that amount to 2-and-a-half years for time already served in detention. Navalny’s imprisonment has drawn a chorus of international criticism, with the United States and its allies demanding his unconditional release and vowing to continue to hold those responsible for his poisoning to account.
…
40 People Killed in Ethnic Clashes in West Darfur, UN Says
At least 40 people have been killed in Sudan’s West Darfur region after three days of ethnic clashes that have prompted the government to declare a state of emergency, the United Nations announced Monday. The clashes in El Geneina, which is close to the border with Chad, also left at least 58 people wounded. Fighting among members of the Arabi Rizeigat and Masalit tribes in El Geneina began after armed men shot two people and wounded two others in the Masalit tribe, according to the U.N. While authorities have yet to determine the cause of the shootings, gunfire exchanges between the two tribes continued into Monday, claiming at least 40 residents. Residents told Agence France-Presse they heard fresh gunfire accompanied by loud explosions at dawn Monday as the violence spread to the suburbs. The witnesses who described thick smoke hovering over the city also said women and children are among those fleeing. Sudan’s security council, which declared a state of emergency, said it had deployed troops to the area to restore peace. Conflicts erupted into war in 2003 in the Darfur region, claiming at least 300,000 lives and displacing about 2.5 million people, according to the U.N Several peace accords have been signed since, but the area remained under the shadow of the war. Easy access to weapons, coupled with ethnic differences and confusion about land or water ownership, has resulted in a string of killings. In January, two weeks after the United Nations-African Union peacekeeping mission ended its 13-year occupation of the area following the October peace deal, about 200 people died in ethnic clashes. Like now, this conflict also stemmed from disagreements between Arab herdsmen and non-Arab farmers in South Darfur.
…
US Asks Russia to Explain ‘Provocations’ on Ukraine Border
The United States, finding reports of Russian military movements on Ukraine’s border credible, asked Moscow to explain the “provocations” and is ready to engage on the situation, the U.S. State Department said Monday. The reported Russian troop buildup and movements bordering eastern Ukraine have become the latest point of tension in icy U.S.-Russian relations less than three months after U.S. President Joe Biden took office. State Department spokesman Ned Price told a news briefing that the United States would be concerned by any effort by Moscow to intimidate Ukraine, whether it occurred on Russian territory or within Ukraine. He declined to say whether the United States believed Russia was preparing to invade the neighboring former Soviet republic. Later Monday, a State Department spokesperson told Reuters that the United States is “open to engagement with Moscow” on the situation, describing as credible reports of Russian troop movements on Ukraine’s border and Crimea, the peninsula seized by Russia in 2014. The movements, the spokesperson said, were preceded by violations of a July 2020 cease-fire that killed four Ukrainian soldiers and wounded four others. “We call on Russia to refrain from escalatory actions,” the spokesperson said. FILE – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks during a news briefing in Kyiv, Ukraine, Oct. 12, 2020.The comments followed a telephone call Friday in which Biden reassured his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, of “unwavering support” in Ukraine’s confrontation with Russia-backed separatists holding parts of the country’s eastern Donbas region. Russia on Monday denied that Russian military movements posed a threat to Ukraine and dismissed fears of a buildup, even as it warned that it would respond to new Ukrainian sanctions against Russian companies. White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters that “recent escalations of Russian aggression and escalation in eastern Ukraine” is “something we’re watching closely.” Biden’s call with Zelenskiy came after the NATO alliance expressed concern over what it said was a large Russian military buildup on Russia’s side of the border with eastern Ukraine. “We’ve asked Russia for an explanation of these provocations,” Price said. “But more importantly, what we have signaled with our Ukrainian partners is a message of reassurance.” Pressed on whether the United States viewed troop movements on Russia’s side of the border as intimidation of Ukraine, Price responded, “Of course, the Russians have for quite some time sought to intimidate and bully their neighbors.” Ukraine, Western countries and NATO accuse Russia of sending troops and heavy weapons to prop up proxies who seized a swath of the eastern Donbas region in 2014. Moscow says it provides only humanitarian and political support to the separatists.
…
Two Yemenis on Terror Watchlist Arrested Trying to Cross US-Mexico Border
U.S. border agents in recent months arrested two Yemeni men on a terror watchlist in separate incidents as they crossed the border with Mexico illegally, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced Monday. The men, arrested in January and March near a port of entry in California, were on a U.S. government watchlist for terrorism suspects and a no-fly list, CBP said in a press release. A group of Republican lawmakers that visited the border in El Paso, Texas, in March said border agents told them during the trip that some people caught crossing the border were on a U.S. terrorism watchlist. Republicans have criticized President Joe Biden for easing some restrictions put in place by former President Donald Trump as the number of border crossings has risen in recent months. MORE: @CBP on arrests of #Yemen|i men on terror watch list”Our border security efforts are layered & include multiple levels of rigorous screening that allow us to detect & prevent people who pose nat’l security or public safety risks from entering…” spox tells @VOANews— Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) April 5, 2021One of the men, age 33, was arrested January 29 after allegedly attempting to cross the border illegally near a port of entry in Calexico, California, CBP said. Border agents found a mobile phone SIM card beneath the insole of the man’s shoe, the agency said. The second man, age 26, was arrested March 30 in the same vicinity. A CBP spokesman said in a written statement that it is very uncommon for border agents to encounter people suspected of terrorism at U.S. borders and that the arrests underscore the agency’s critical vetting efforts. The agency did not provide the names of the men. The watchlist is maintained by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Terrorism Screening Center. The list contains “the identities of those who are known or reasonably suspected of being involved in terrorist activities,” according to the FBI.
…
More Than 1,800 Prisoners Escape After Nigeria Prison Attack
More than 1,800 inmates have escaped after a heavily armed gang attacked a prison in southern Nigeria using explosives, correctional authorities said Monday. It is one of the West African country’s largest prison breaks. The attackers blasted their way into the Owerri prison in Imo state, engaging guards in a gun battle and freeing inmates, the national corrections authority said in a statement. “I can confirm that the Imo State command of the Nigerian Correctional Service was attacked by unknown gunmen in Owerri,” Imo state corrections service spokesman James Madugba told AFP, adding that the number of escaped inmates was yet to be confirmed.”The situation is under control,” he said. The assailants arrived in pickup trucks and buses before storming the facility, the correction authority said. No group claimed responsibility for the assault, though President Muhammadu Buhari called the attack an “act of terrorism” carried out by anarchists and urged security forces to capture the assailants and the escaped detainees. Prisons in Africa’s most populous country are often overcrowded, and as many as 70% of inmates can be held awaiting trial for years. The governor of neighboring Abia state imposed a night curfew on two towns there, a statement said, to protect local residents without direct reference to the prison attack. Imo state is part of a region that has long been a hotbed for Nigerian separatist groups and where tensions between federal authorities and the indigenous Igbo population are often high. The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) separatist movement has recently been posting videos on social media of dozens of its militiamen in training. Authorities imposed a curfew on parts of Imo state earlier this year after clashes between the army and the local militia. But IPOB spokesman Emmanuel Powerful rejected any involvement in the Imo prison attack in a statement sent to AFP, dismissing any accusations. Calls for a separate state of Biafra in the south are a sensitive subject in Nigeria, after a unilateral declaration of independence from British rule in 1967 sparked a brutal 30-month civil war. Buhari is facing several security challenges including a more than decadelong jihadist insurgency in Nigeria’s northeast, a spate of mass kidnappings by criminal gangs in the northwest and a surge in piracy on commercial shipping in the Gulf of Guinea off the coast.
…
Biden Looks to Raise US Corporate Taxes, with Dozens of Companies Now Paying Nothing
U.S. President Joe Biden is looking to raise corporate income tax rates to help pay for his proposed $2.3 trillion infrastructure spending plan, but dozens of the country’s biggest and best-known companies are currently legally avoiding paying any federal taxes. Biden says he wants to raise the corporate income tax rate from 21% to 28%. The rate was cut from 35% in 2017 under Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump. FILE – Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen speaks during a virtual roundtable with participants from Black Chambers of Commerce across the country to discuss the American Rescue Plan, Feb. 5, 2021.On Monday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen called for a global minimum tax. In a speech before the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, she said the tax would apply to multinational corporations no matter where they locate their headquarters, to prevent countries from trying to outdo one another by lowering tax rates in order to attract business. “Competitiveness is about more than how U.S.-headquartered companies fare against other companies in global merger and acquisition bids,” Yellen said. “It is about making sure that governments have stable tax systems that raise sufficient revenue to invest in essential public goods and respond to crises, and that all citizens fairly share the burden of financing government.” Republican lawmakers in Congress are already criticizing the new Democratic president’s infrastructure plan as too expensive and straying far afield from traditional road and bridge repair and construction. The plan aims to fund other programs favored by liberal Democrats, such as manufacturing investment, child-care services and raising wages for essential home-care workers. For the most part, Republicans also are adamantly opposed to raising taxes, with Biden also proposing to increase taxes on the wealthiest individual taxpayers, those making more than $400,000 a year. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said there is no chance Republicans would back any tax increases to pay for Biden’s infrastructure plan. Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
FILE – President Joe Biden speaks about infrastructure spending at Carpenters Pittsburgh Training Center, March 31, 2021, in Pittsburgh.As the United States added 916,000 jobs in February, Biden defended his tax increase proposal. “Asking corporate America just to pay their fair share will not slow the economy at all,” he said last week. “It will make the economy function better. It will create more energy.”
…
Putin Signs Law that Paves the Way to Him Ruling Until 2036
Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed into law a controversial bill that opens the door for him to potentially remain in power until 2036. The bill, which was recently approved by the lower and upper chambers of parliament, aligns the election laws with constitutional changes approved by voters last year. One of the constitutional changes resets Putin’s term-limit clock to zero, allowing him to seek reelection when his current term expires in 2024, and again in 2030 if he wishes. Under the current election laws, a president is forbidden from seeking a third consecutive six-year term. Putin is currently in his second consecutive six-year term. The constitutional amendments were initiated in January 2020 by the 68-year-old Russian leader, who has been running the country as prime minister or president since late 1999. The nationwide vote for the amendments held last summer sparked protests in Moscow that were dispersed by law enforcement. According to the results of a poll by the independent Levada Center last month, 41 percent of Russians do not want Putin to stay in power after his current term expires in 2024.
…
The Weeknd Donates $1 Million to Ethiopian Relief Efforts
Pop star The Weeknd has announced he will be donating $1 million to relief efforts in Ethiopia amid the country’s ongoing conflict in the Tigray region.A U.N. statement said his donation, the equivalent of 2 million meals, went to World Food Program USA, the U.S. affiliate of the United Nations World Food Program, and will be put towards providing lifesaving food for those affected.”My heart breaks for my people of Ethiopia as innocent civilians ranging from small children to the elderly are being senselessly murdered and entire villages are being displaced out of fear and destruction,” wrote the Super Bowl half-time singer on Instagram Sunday.The Weeknd, born Abel Makkonen Tesfaye, is the son of Ethiopian immigrants Makkonen and Samra Tesfaye.The conflict in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region broke out in November when Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) fighters attacked army bases in the region, prompting Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to launch a military offensive to push the group out.Since then, thousands of civilians in the region have been killed and hundreds of thousands have been displaced from their homes.The Ethiopian government now estimates 4.5 million people are in need of emergency food assistance and have asked the U.N. World Food Program to help support 1.4 million.
…
Russia Backs Off Plan to Block Twitter, Extends Slowdown
Russia Monday backed off a threat to block Twitter inside the country but said it will continue to slow down the social media site until mid-May.The move comes as the state media watchdog, Roskomnazdor, said Twitter has been removing banned content more quickly. It had said Twitter failed to remove content encouraging child suicide, pornography and content about drug use.Roskomnazdor said it took into account “the decision made by Twitter for the first time to change the principles and speed of its own moderation service in Russia, and the removal of a significant part of the prohibited content,” according to a statement.Still, the agency said Twitter took, on average, 81 hours to remove flagged content. Russian laws require that such content be removed within 24 hours after notification.Twitter now has until May 15 to come into “full compliance” with Russian law, the agency said.Roskomnazdor announced March 10 that it would slow Twitter and threatened to block it completely.Twitter said it has been in contact with Roskomnazdor.“It was a productive discussion about how we can both work to ensure that reports of such illegal content are dealt with expeditiously,” Twitter said in a statement.Twitter maintained it has a zero-tolerance policy for child exploitation, and content encouraging suicide and unlawful behavior.In addition to potentially harmful content, Russian officials have been critical of social media’s role in fueling protests. In January, tens of thousands of Russians participated in protests calling for the release of jailed opposition leader Alexey Navalny.Officials said social media platforms were used to encourage children to participate in the demonstrations.The Russian government has been threatening Twitter and Facebook for years with shutdowns, but never followed through.
…