ABOARD THE MSC GRANDIOSA — Italy may be in a strict coronavirus lockdown this Easter with travel restricted between regions and new quarantines imposed. But a few miles offshore, guests aboard the MSC Grandiosa cruise ship are shimmying to Latin music on deck and sipping cocktails by the pool.In one of the anomalies of lockdowns that have shuttered hotels and resorts around the world, the Grandiosa has been plying the Mediterranean Sea this winter with seven-night cruises, a lonely flag-bearer of the global cruise industry.After cruise ships were early sources of highly publicized coronavirus outbreaks, the Grandiosa has tried to chart a course through the pandemic with strict anti-virus protocols approved by Italian authorities that seek to create a “health bubble” on board.Passengers and crew are tested before and during cruises. Mask mandates, temperature checks, contact-tracing wristbands and frequent cleaning of the ship are all designed to prevent outbreaks. Passengers from outside Italy must arrive with negative COVID-19 tests taken within 48 hours of their departures and only residents of Europe’s Schengen countries plus Romania, Croatia and Bulgaria are permitted to book under COVID-19 insurance policies. On Wednesday, the Grandiosa left the Italian port of Civitavecchia for its week-long Easter cruise, with 2,000 of its 6,000-passenger capacity and stops planned in Naples and Valletta, Malta, before returning to its home port in Genoa.Passengers welcomed the semblance of normalcy brought on by the freedom to eat in a restaurant or sit poolside without a mask, even if the virus is still a present concern.”After a year of restrictive measures, we thought we could take a break for a week and relax,” said Stefania Battistoni, a 39-year-old teacher and single mother who drove all night from Bolzano, in northern Italy, with her two sons and mother to board the cruise.The pandemic has plunged global cruise ship passenger numbers from a record 30 million in 2019 to over 350,000 since July 2020, according to Cruise Lines International, the world’s largest cruise industry association representing 95% of ocean-going cruise capacity. Currently, fewer than 20 ships are operating globally, a small fraction of CLIA’s members’ fleets of 270 ships. The United States could be among the last cruise ship markets to reopen, possibly not until fall and not until 2022 in Alaska. Two Royal Caribbean cruise lines that normally sail out of Miami opted instead to launch sailings in June from the Caribbean, where governments are eager to revive their tourism-based economies.MSC spokeswoman Lucy Ellis said positive virus cases have cropped up on board MSC ships, particularly during the fall surge. “The important thing is we have never had an outbreak,” she said. The Grandiosa is equipped with a medical center with molecular and antigen testing facilities, as well as a ventilator. Extra cabins are set aside to isolate suspected virus cases. Because of the contact tracing wrist bands, if a passenger tests positive, medical personnel can identify anyone with whom they were in contact. Once the situation is clear, anyone who is positive is transferred to the shore.According to an independent consulting firm, Bermello Ajamii & Partners, just 23 COVID-19 cases have been confirmed on ships since the industry began its tentative relaunch last summer, for a passenger infection rate of 0.006%. But cruise industry critics say the risk isn’t worth it and add that cruise companies should have taken the pandemic timeout to address the industry’s longstanding environmental and labor problems.”All large cruise ships burn huge volumes of the dirtiest, cheapest fuel available,” said Jim Ace of environmental group Stand Earth, a member of the Global Cruise Activist Network. “Cruise ship companies could have used the COVID shutdown to address their impacts on public health and the environment. Instead, they scrapped a few of their oldest ships and raised cash to stay alive.”On board, though, passengers are relishing the chance to enjoy activities that have been mostly closed in Italy and much of Europe for a year: a theater, restaurant dining, duty-free shopping and live music in bars. The rest of Italy is heading back into full lockdown over the Easter weekend, with shops closed and restaurants and bars open for takeout only to try to minimize holiday outbreaks. In addition, Italy’s government imposed a five-day quarantine on people entering from other EU countries in a bid to deter Easter getaways.”Let’s say that after such a long time of restrictions and closures, this was a choice done for our mental health,” said Federico Marzocchi, who joined the cruise with his wife and 10-year-old son Matteo. The cruise industry is hoping for a gradual opening this spring.Cruises are circulating on Spain’s Canary islands in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Africa, including the company AIDA catering to German tourists. Costa Cruises, which with MSC is one of Europe’s largest cruise companies, will resume cruises on May 1, with seven-night Italy-only cruises. Costa plans to begin sailing in the western Mediterranean from mid-June. Britain is opening to cruise ships in May, with MSC and Viking launching cruises of the British Isles, among several companies offering at-sea “staycation” cruises aimed at capturing one of the most important cruise markets. The cruise industry is hoping Greece will open in mid-May, but the country hasn’t yet announced when it will reopen tourism. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a “framework” for resuming cruises in the U.S., but the industry says the health agency hasn’t spelled out the details that companies need to operate their ships. Once the CDC provides technical requirements, industry officials say it takes about 90 days to prepare a ship for sailing.The cruise companies complain that last fall’s CDC framework is outdated and should be scrapped. They say it was issued before vaccines were available and before the restart of cruises in Europe, which they say have safely carried nearly 400,000 passengers under new COVID-19 protocols. And they complain that cruising is the only part of the U.S. economy that remains shuttered by the pandemic.The Cruise Lines International Association trade group is lobbying for an early July start to U.S. cruising.”Cruisers love to cruise, and they will go where the ships are sailing,” said Laziza Lambert, a spokeswoman for the trade group. “The longer cruises are singularly prohibited from operating in the United States, the more other places in the world will benefit from the positive economic impact generated by an influx of passengers.”
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Month: April 2021
G-7 Nations Call for Swift Withdrawal of Eritrean Troops From Tigray
G-7 foreign ministers have called for a “swift, unconditional and verifiable” withdrawal of Eritrean troops from Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region.
The ministers of the world’s leading economies gathered Friday for an annual meeting in Berlin and issued a statement following a recent announcement from Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed of Ethiopia that Eritrea’s forces will withdraw from Tigray soon.
G-7 ministers urged all parties to exercise “utmost restraint, ensure the protection of civilians and respect human rights and international law.”
The ministers of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United States, and the high representative of the European Union called for “the end of violence and the establishment of a clear, inclusive political process that is acceptable to all Ethiopians, including those in Tigray.”
The process has to lead “to credible elections and a wider national reconciliation process,” the statement said.
The ministers also expressed deep concern about recent reports on “human rights violations and abuses, and violations of international humanitarian law in Tigray.”
Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 23 MB480p | 32 MB540p | 46 MB720p | 114 MB1080p | 198 MBOriginal | 204 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioAbiy ordered Ethiopian troops to move into Tigray in November to detain and disarm leaders of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, saying that the group was responsible for inciting attacks on federal army camps.
Both countries denied for several months that Eritrean troops had entered Tigray, contrary to accounts from diplomats, aid workers, residents, and even some Ethiopian officials.The armed conflict in Tigray has taken thousands of people’s lives and forced hundreds of thousands to flee their homes. The region of more than 5 million people is facing shortages of food, water and medicine.
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Christians Mark Good Friday Amid Lingering Virus Woes
Christians in the Holy Land are marking Good Friday this year amid signs the coronavirus crisis is winding down, with religious sites open to limited numbers of faithful but none of the mass pilgrimages usually seen in the Holy Week leading up to Easter.The virus is still raging in the Philippines, France, Brazil and other predominantly Christian countries, where worshippers are marking a second annual Holy Week under various movement restrictions amid outbreaks fanned by more contagious strains.Last year, Jerusalem was under a strict lockdown, with sacred rites observed by small groups of priests, often behind closed doors. It was a stark departure from past years, when tens of thousands of pilgrims would descend on the city’s holy sites.This year, Franciscan friars in brown robes led hundreds of worshippers down the Via Dolorosa, retracing what tradition holds were Jesus’ final steps, while reciting prayers through loudspeakers at the Stations of the Cross. Another group carried a wooden cross along the route through the Old City, singing hymns and pausing to offer prayers.The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, built on the site where Christians believe Jesus was crucified, died and rose from the dead, is open to visitors with masks and social distancing.”Things are open, but cautiously and gradually,” said Wadie Abunassar, an adviser to church leaders in the Holy Land. “In regular years we urge people to come out. Last year we told people to stay at home … This year we are somehow silent.”Israel has launched one of the world’s most successful vaccination campaigns, allowing it to reopen restaurants, hotels and religious sites. But air travel is still limited by quarantine and other restrictions, keeping away the foreign pilgrims who usually throng Jerusalem during Holy Week.The main holy sites are in the Old City in east Jerusalem, which Israel captured along with the West Bank in the 1967 war. Israel annexed east Jerusalem and considers the entire city its unified capital, while the Palestinians want both territories for their future state. Israel included Palestinian residents of Jerusalem in its vaccination campaign, but has only provided a small number of vaccines to those in the occupied West Bank, where the Palestinian Authority has imported tens of thousands of doses for a population of more than 2.5 million.Israeli authorities said up to 5,000 Christian Palestinians from the West Bank would be permitted to enter for Easter celebrations. Abunassar said he was not aware of any large tour groups from the West Bank planning to enter, as in years past, likely reflecting concerns about the virus.Pope Francis began Good Friday with a visit to the Vatican’s COVID-19 vaccination center, where volunteers have spent the past week administering some 1,200 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to poor and disadvantaged people in Rome.Pope Francis speaks to medical staff on Good Friday at a vaccination site in the Paul VI Hall where the poor and homeless are being inoculated, at the Vatican, April 2, 2021. (Vatican Media/Handout via Reuters)The Vatican City State bought its own doses to vaccinate Holy See employees and their families, and it has been giving away surplus supplies to homeless people. A masked Francis posed for photos with some of the volunteers and recipients in the Vatican audience hall.Later Friday, Francis was to preside over the Way of the Cross procession in a nearly empty St. Peter’s Square, instead of the popular torchlit ritual he usually celebrates at the Colosseum.In France, a nationwide 7 p.m. curfew is forcing parishes to move Good Friday ceremonies forward in the day, as the traditional Catholic night processions are being drastically scaled back or canceled. Nineteen departments in France are on localized lockdowns, where parishioners can attend daytime Mass if they sign the government’s “travel certificate.” Although a third lockdown “light” is being imposed Saturday, French President Emmanuel Macron has wavered on a travel ban for Easter weekend, allowing the French to drive between regions to meet up with family on Friday.FILE – Churchgoers wearing face masks lineup outside the Notre-Dame-des-Champs church in Paris, France.Fire-ravaged Notre Dame will not hold a Good Friday Mass this year, but the cathedral’s “Crown of Thorns” will be venerated by the cathedral’s clergy at its new temporary liturgical hub in the nearby church of Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois.In Spain, there will be no traditional processions for a second year in a row, and churches will limit the number of worshippers. Many parishes are going online with Mass and prayers via video streaming services.In the Philippines, streets were eerily quiet and religious gatherings were prohibited in the capital, Manila, and four outlying provinces. The government placed the bustling region of more than 25 million people back under lockdown this week as it scrambled to contain an alarming surge in COVID-19 cases.The Philippines had started to reopen in hopes of stemming a severe economic crisis, but infections surged last month, apparently because of more contagious strains, increased public mobility and complacency.
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‘Boogie’ Film Gives View of How It Feels to be Asian in America
“Boogie,” a recent film by Chinese American filmmaker Eddie Huang, addresses stereotypes Asian people face in the United States. Lead actor Taylor Takahashi spoke with VOA’s Penelope Poulou about his film character and Asian representation in the film.
Camera: Penelope Poulou Producer: Penelope Poulou
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Fire Kills 3 in Market near Rohingya Camp in Bangladesh
A fire on Friday destroyed more than 20 shops in a makeshift market near a Rohingya refugee camp in southern Bangladesh, killing at least three people, police and witnesses said.Local police chief Ahmed Sanjur Morshed said they recovered the bodies from the debris after it took firefighters several hours to bring the blaze under control. Several other people were injured.The fire broke out early Friday when residents of the sprawling Kutupalong camp for Myanmar’s Rohingya refugees were asleep.Sayedul Mustafa, the owner of a shop, confirmed the dead were his staff.”We had five workers who slept in the shop but three of them were missing. Then after the fire was put out with water, we found one body first, then all three. Two people survived by the grace of Allah,” said Aneesul Mustafa, a Rohingya refugee and the owner’s relative.It was not clear how the fire began.Aid agencies and the government had started rebuilding shelters after another massive fire last month left 15 people dead, 560 others hurt and about 45,000 homeless.Authorities have sent about 13,000 refugees to an island in recent months, promising better life for more than 1 million Rohingya, most of whom fled Myanmar in 2017 in a major crackdown by the country’s military.Bangladesh has hosted the refugees in crowded camps and is eager to begin sending them back to the Buddhist-majority Myanmar, but several attempts failed because the Rohingya refused to go, fearing more violence in a country that denies them basic rights including citizenship.The repatriation effort was made even more uncertain in February, when Myanmar’s military staged a coup and replaced the elected, civilian government that had been in office since 2016.
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UN Security Council Calls for Release of Myanmar Detainees, End to Violence
The United Nations Security Council has repeated its call for the immediate release of all detainees in Myanmar, including State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint, and an end to violence.In a statement late Thursday, the council expressed its deep concern for the “rapidly deteriorating situation” in Myanmar and strongly condemned the use of lethal force by security forces and police against peaceful pro-democracy protesters and the deaths of hundreds of civilians, including women and children.The council also called on the military “to exercise utmost restraint” and on all sides “to refrain from violence.”The Security Council also reiterated the need for full respect for human rights and the pursuit of “dialogue and reconciliation in accordance with the will and interests of the people of Myanmar.”Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s de facto leader, was charged Thursday with breaking a secrets law that dates to the country’s colonial days, her lawyer said. It is the most serious of the charges leveled against her by the military since the Feb. 1 coup.Suu Kyi and President Win Myint, among other members of Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy, have been detained since the coup. She has been accused of breaking COVID-19 protocols and having in her possession six handheld radios.Her lawyer, Khin Maung Zaw, told Reuters on Thursday that Suu Kyi, three of her cabinet ministers and Sean Turnell, an Australian economic adviser, were charged a week ago under the secrets law. If convicted, they face up to 14 years in prison. Suu Kyi appeared via video for the Thursday hearing and appeared to be in good health, Min Min Soe, another of her lawyers, said.A spokesperson for the junta did not answer telephone calls from Reuters seeking comment.Anti-coup protesters were back on the streets Thursday, some symbolically burned copies of the country’s constitution as a group of deposed lawmakers announced a new civilian government to run counter to the ruling military junta. Reuters, citing media reports, said two more protesters were killed.The rebel government, dubbed the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, is made up of members of deposed NLD government who were elected in November but not allowed to take their seats after the military detained Suu Kyi and replaced the civilian government.The CRPH also announced a new federal constitution to replace the one drafted by the military in 2008, which brought democracy to Myanmar after five decades while still maintaining the army’s power and influence in any civilian government. The CRPH-drafted constitution was written to meet the longstanding demands of Myanmar’s regional ethnic groups, who have been fighting for decades for greater autonomy.
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Details Emerge on Floyd’s Medical Condition in Day 4 of Chauvin Trial
Prosecutors make their case on Day 4 in the trial of Derek Chauvin, the former police officer charged in the death of George Floyd. VOA’s Jesusemen Oni has more.
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Scholars Rally to Defend Colleagues Sanctioned by Beijing
Hundreds of academics and intellectuals around the world are signing onto a joint statement in support of European colleagues who have been banned by Beijing from visiting China and hit with other sanctions because of their work.The Chinese Foreign Ministry announced the sanctions last week against the Mercator Institute for China Studies in Germany, the Alliance of Democracies Foundation in Denmark and other individuals and institutions, accusing them of actions that “severely harm China’s sovereignty and interests and maliciously spread lies and disinformation.”In announcing the move, the ministry made clear it was reacting to sanctions announced earlier this month by Britain and the European Union over China’s treatment of the Uyghur minority in its western Xinjiang region.Now, scholars across the United States, Europe and Asia are adding their names to a fast-growing list of signatories to a statement of solidarity with their sanctioned colleagues.A similar statement has been signed by 37 directors of research institutes in Europe.“It is troubling enough that the [Chinese government and Chinese Communist Party] under Xi Jinping have sought to silence discussion of any topics that they deem controversial among scholars within China, including Xinjiang and now Hong Kong,” said Princeton University professor Martin S. Flaherty, one of nearly 1,000 academics in Europe, North America and Asia who have signed the current statement so far.Sanctions issued against members of the academic community represent an attempt to “likewise silence scholars outside China,” he wrote in response to written questions from VOA.Among those hit by the Chinese sanctions are Jo Smith Finley, a social anthropologist and political scientist at Newcastle University in Britain; Adrian Zenz, a German scholar at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation; and Björn Jerdén, who heads Sweden’s National China Center.In Washington, four scholars at one of America’s leading think tanks, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), have weighed in with their own statement in support of the Mercator Institute.Matt Pottinger, U.S. deputy national security adviser under President Donald Trump, now a distinguished visiting fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, is among the signatories of the Solidarity Statement. Pottinger himself was among 20 plus American officials Beijing issued sanctions against towards the end of the Trump administration.“If China’s precondition for stable relations with the West is that scholars all agree with Beijing’s position on Xinjiang, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Tibet, other ‘red lines,’ and its broader narrative — regardless of where or in which language the opinions are shared — then China is unfortunately choosing to close the door to genuine scholarly exchange,” their statement said.In a telephone interview with VOA, Matthew P. Goodman, one of the four scholars at CSIS who co-authored the statement, described the Berlin-based think tank as a highly respected, “thoughtful” institution, with which he and his colleagues have often collaborated on research.Goodman and his colleagues are concerned about the sanctions’ impact on not just the Mercator projects, but on the researchers themselves.“This is going to have a significant impact on them, beyond them not being able to travel to China. Their reputation is at stake, their relationship with other parties could be affected by this, their funding. It’s a serious issue for them,” Goodman said.“I can’t speak to what this is going to do to them operationally. In terms of their attitude, I’m guessing it’s not going to stop them from continuing to do their research and say what they think,” Goodman said.Goodman served as director for international economics on the National Security Council staff before joining CSIS in 2012. He is currently senior vice president for economics and holds the Simon Chair in Political Economy at the think tank. Three other prominent scholars on China — Scott Kennedy, Bonnie S. Glaser and Jude Blanchette — co-authored the CSIS statement.“There’s been a lot of buzz about this — not just about our piece, but this development in Europe and then [the] U.K. I think a lot of scholars are [not only] troubled by those actions by Beijing, but also by those things we touched on in our piece,” Goodman said.Princeton’s Flaherty noted that while the EU and the United States sanctioned Chinese officials for participation in gross violations of international law, “China is silencing academics simply for saying things that the government and party don’t like.” That effort, he said, needs to be called out.“I signed the letter first and foremost to uphold the principles of academic freedom and freedom of expression.”
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Justice Department Working with Tribes on Missing-Person Cases
Jermain Charlo vanished in June 2018. The member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes has not been seen since.Valenda Morigeau, Charlo’s aunt, reported her missing to the Missoula Police Department in the days after her disappearance. But Morigeau said the detective initially assigned to the case failed to take the report seriously and was slow to act, a pattern she said is common when Native Americans report missing loved ones.”You would think that there would be more urgency to go find the person that is missing,” Morigeau said. “Here we are, three years later, because they assumed she was avoiding responsibilities.”Charlo’s case brought the problem of missing and murdered Indigenous women to the fore in the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. Now, almost three years after her disappearance, the tribes on Thursday are the first in the nation to complete a community response plan — a U.S. Department of Justice initiative aimed at creating collaboration among law enforcement agencies — including tribal police, county police and federal authorities — when Native Americans go missing on tribal land.Alarming situationStill, there are major holes. Among the most glaring: There is no plan for when a tribal citizen goes missing off a reservation or outside tribal lands, as Charlo did.In 2018, an Associated Press investigation found that 633 Indigenous women made up 0.7% of open missing-person cases despite being 0.4% of the U.S. population.The situation is especially alarming in Montana and other states that have large Native American populations. Native Americans make up less than 7% of Montana’s population but account for 25% of reported missing-person cases.It is not a federal crime for an adult to go missing, and the FBI would generally step in only if there was clear evidence that a crime had been committed that led to a disappearance. The federal government could lend its resources to local law enforcement officials to help in the search.”The things that we will learn and implement from the work that the good people here have done can be utilized nationwide,” said Terry Wade, an FBI executive assistant director, at a news conference Thursday on the Flathead Reservation.President Donald Trump signs an executive order establishing the Task Force on Missing and Murdered American Indians and Alaska Natives, in the Oval Office on Nov. 26, 2019, in Washington.The Justice Department sees its work with local law enforcement and tribal communities as a major initiative. In 2019, President Donald Trump initiated a federal task force, and his then-attorney general, William Barr, who visited the Flathead Reservation in Montana, committed to hiring 11 coordinators at U.S. attorney’s offices across the country.The new plan aims to increase communication among local law enforcement officials, especially in places where jurisdiction overlaps. For example, in the immediate area around the Flathead Reservation, there are eight police and sheriff’s departments in addition to the Montana Highway Patrol, the tribal police and federal investigators.As part of the initiative, the police departments are now sharing dispatch information. When one sheriff’s office receives a missing-person report, it can be shared quickly and widely. Also, the U.S. attorney’s office and the FBI would offer resources and make a sheriff’s office aware of how the federal government could help.Craige Couture, police chief for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, said the plan will eventually extend to address cases that occur beyond tribal land and even in other states.’Establish model protocols’Over the past two years, the federal government has tried to put in place the tribal plans, holding listening sessions and working with tribes to “establish model protocols,” said Ernie Weyand, coordinator of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons Program for the Justice Department in Montana.Weyand, a former FBI official and the first coordinator to be hired, has helped to develop the protocols with other coordinators and tribes across the country.”They are a community deeply affected by its members who have gone missing or been murdered,” Weyand said in an interview.Officials around the Flathead Reservation are also working to create a common missing-person policy, shared by all the agencies working on the reservation, and have discussed storing information on a secure information server, he said.Robust responseIt seems to be working.In early 2020, when 16-year-old Selena Not Afraid disappeared from a New Year’s party in Big Horn County, the reaction was swift and the response from law enforcement robust. The FBI dispatched its elite child abduction team and offered its vast resources to the local sheriff’s office.It was too late. But unlike so many others who have never been found, her body was discovered 20 days after she went missing. An autopsy found she died of hypothermia. Her family still questions how she died.Rae Peppers, a former Montana state House member who has worked to address the crisis through legislation and nonprofit work, said several of the federal initiatives have come across as disingenuous and unproductive.”It looks like we’re at a standstill,” she said, calling Trump’s efforts “a political move and not a compassionate move for the Native people.”Few untouched by crisisIn tribal communities in Montana, hardly anyone can remain untouched by the crisis. Peppers recounts that no charges were pressed in the killing of her neighbor, who was her husband’s cousin.Peppers said the Tribal Community Response Plan could prove effective, but it remains to be seen whether such an initiative can translate to all tribal communities and bring real change.Native Americans who have seen their neighbors and loved ones disappear agree that while the political attention may be new, the problem is not.”It’s a crisis that has happened clear back to Columbus’ time,” Peppers said. “It’s always been, ‘Oh, another dead Indian.’ That was always the discussion, and it’s still like that.”
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Pandemic Poised to Surge Again in California’s Silicon Valley
A California community that has been a bellwether of the coronavirus pandemic’s rampage across the United States warned on Thursday that the number of cases of more contagious COVID-19 variants is increasing to worrisome levels.”The region’s progress in curbing the pandemic remains precarious,” the health department in Santa Clara County, home to Silicon Valley, said.”County residents are therefore urged to avoid travel, quarantine if travelling, and consistently use face coverings.”The situation in Santa Clara, which was home to an early surge of coronavirus in California last year and the nation’s first death from COVID-19, offers a window into the pandemic’s progress across the wider United States.Several states, including Florida and Michigan, are struggling to contain a resurgence of the virus linked to new highly contagious variants.The seven-day daily average of cases across the United States has been increasing continuously since March 19, a Reuters analysis shows. Over the past 13 days, the average daily number of new COVID-19 cases has increased by about 17%, from 55,591 on March 19 to 64,814 on March 31. Total cases stand at more than 30 million, including more than 552,000 deaths.”We’re already seeing surges in other parts of the country, likely driven by variants,” Santa Clara Health Officer Sara Cody said in a statement. “Combined with the data we are seeing locally, these are important warning signs that we must continue to minimize the spread.”The rise in cases comes despite unprecedented efforts to vaccinate people worldwide and across the United States, where nearly 30% of the population had received at least one vaccine dose by Thursday, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).Many U.S. states are moving to ease pandemic public health restrictions, and people who have been vaccinated are starting to venture out after a year of staying mostly at home.But with most of the population still unvaccinated, experts warn that it could be a recipe for a deadly fourth wave of the disease.In California, the most populous U.S. state, with 40 million residents, about 5.6 million people, or 17.3% percent of the population, had received one vaccine dose, the CDC said.As cases have leveled off in recent weeks, state officials have reopened activities such as restaurant dining and are making plans to send children back to school.California Gov. Gavin Newsom, however, warned that with at least seven variants of the virus in circulation, the state is not close to achieving so-called herd immunity, which would require most residents to be inoculated.”Now is not the time to spike the ball,” said Newsom, who received his own vaccination on Thursday in Los Angeles. “Now is not the time to announce ‘Mission accomplished.’”In Canada, officials in the province of Ontario declared a limited lockdown beginning on Saturday, while French president Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday ordered his country into its third national lockdown.
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Dutch Prime Minister Fights for Political Life in Tough Debate
Caretaker Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte fought for his political life Thursday in a bitter parliamentary debate about the country’s derailed process of forming a new ruling coalition following an election last month.Rutte’s conservative party, known by its Dutch acronym VVD, won the most seats in parliament in the vote, putting him in line to form his fourth governing coalition and possibly become the country’s longest-serving prime minister.That looked a long way off Thursday as lawmakers accused him of trying to sideline a popular lawmaker, a charge that Rutte denies.Negotiations halted a week ago after one of the two officials leading the coalition talks tested positive for COVID-19 and was photographed carrying notes laying out details of the talks.Sigrid Kaag, leader of the centrist D66 party that finished second in elections last month, right, gestures during a debate in parliament in The Hague, Netherlands, early Friday, April 2, 2021.Among the text was a line saying: “Position Omtzigt, function elsewhere.” That was a reference to lawmaker Pieter Omtzigt of the Christian Democrat Appeal party, who, with his tough questions, has long been a thorn in the side of the government.After the note was photographed, Rutte told reporters last week that he had not discussed Omtzigt in his coalition talks. But according to notes made by civil servants that were published Thursday, Rutte did talk about the lawmaker.Rutte told the ensuing debate that he did not remember that part of the discussion and had answered reporters’ questions “in good conscience.””I am not standing here lying. I am telling the truth,” Rutte said.One of the officials who led the coalition talks, caretaker Interior Minister Kajsa Ollongren, also told lawmakers that she did not recall discussing Omtzigt with Rutte, saying that it was the first of 17 separate discussions with party leaders.”We didn’t speak with anybody, with none of the party leaders about a function elsewhere for Mr. Omtzigt,” she said as the hourslong debate extended deep into the night.The debate around the coalition talks and Rutte’s leadership comes as the Netherlands is battling rising coronavirus infections despite a monthslong lockdown. Rutte’s popularity soared last year as he was seen as a steady hand steering the Netherlands through the coronavirus crisis, but it ebbed as the March election approached.Opposition lawmaker Geert Wilders demanded that Rutte step down immediately and called for a motion of no confidence.”Don’t you realize that your time is up?” Wilders said.Omtzigt was not present for the debate between party leaders. He is taking time off, after complaining of exhaustion.Sigrid Kaag, leader of the centrist D66 party, which finished second in the election, said she had seen a “pattern of forgetfulness, amnesia” from Rutte over his more than a decade in office.”How can you, in the greatest crisis that we face in the Netherlands, restore the trust that has again been damaged?” Kaag asked.
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North Korea Tops Agenda for US-Japan-South Korea Meeting
“Every aspect of North Korea policy” will be discussed when national security advisers from the United States, South Korea and Japan meet on Friday, according to a senior administration official in Washington.It will be the first such three-way meeting of the countries since Joe Biden became U.S. president.The talks come amid important differences in policy toward North Korea among Washington, Seoul and Tokyo, according to analysts.North Korea’s recent missile provocations, the response by Pyongyang to the coronavirus, and recent diplomatic discussions between China and North Korea are on the agenda, according to the U.S. official, who told reporters Thursday that “our intent is to have a deep review that will inform our process forward.”The meeting at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, comes after North Korea test-fired into waters a cruise missile and then a pair of short-range ballistic missiles.FILE – People watch a TV showing an image of North Korea’s new guided missile during a news program at the Suseo Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, March 26, 2021.”Anything that we do with respect to North Korea, we believe we need to do in partnership and in harmony with Japan and South Korea,” said the senior administration official, speaking on condition of not being named.”It’s unlikely that there will be any trilateral breakthroughs at Annapolis or in the coming year before the South Korean presidential election” next year, predicted Sue Mi Terry, senior fellow and Korea chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.US seeks changeThe conversations at the Naval Academy will follow travel by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to Japan and South Korea. Such visits meant to demonstrate that Biden seeks to bolster U.S. alliances in Asia following a rocky four years under the previous administration.Former President Donald Trump criticized Tokyo and Seoul as “free riders” that did not contribute sufficiently for their own defense under the U.S. nuclear umbrella. Trump sought more money from Japan and South Korea, which both host numerous U.S. military bases on their soil.The senior administration official said Friday’s talks would also touch on other regional issues of mutual concern, including the “tragic situation in Myanmar” and Beijing’s growing assertiveness in the South China Sea.”It’s very critical for them to get on the same page and closely coordinate on China and North Korea. But a big challenge is getting Seoul on board,” Duyeon Kim, adjunct senior fellow of the Indo-Pacific Security Program at the Center for a New American Security, told VOA.South Korean President Moon Jae-in is viewed as reluctant to join efforts to increase pressure on China, more so if that includes open cooperation with Japan.”Getting Seoul’s participation on China and in trilateral cooperation will require a ton of creativity and spin at best,” predicted Kim. “Anti-Japan sentiment runs especially deep in Moon’s base, to the point where they can’t compartmentalize and cooperate on common challenges like North Korea, in contrast to the previous conservative government [in South Korea].”Better ‘atmospherics’Yuki Tatsumi, a Stimson Center senior fellow, agreed and noted “a great amount of frustration” among those in Washington due to Seoul’s continuing to push Tokyo, its former colonizer, on issues about history “when there’s way more serious stuff going on in Pyongyang.”FILE – Protesters hold banners during a rally to mark the March First Independence Movement Day against Japanese colonial rule, in front of a statue symbolizing a wartime sex slave, near Japan’s embassy in Seoul, South Korea, March 1, 2021.The fundamental differences between Japan and South Korea over history “can’t readily be altered,” Terry concurred. “But at least the atmospherics should improve somewhat after the rock-bottom relations between Japan and South Korea in recent years, because the Biden administration has made it a priority to get Seoul and Tokyo more in alignment or at least less at odds. There will be at least a show of cooperation even if the substance is lacking. But symbols count for a lot.”South Korea has been slightly warming to Japan because it desires a four-way meeting with North Korea at this year’s Tokyo Olympics, hoping that could lead to a renewed flurry of summitry, according to Kim.”But it’s pretty clear Washington and Seoul are at odds on the timing and conditions for a U.S.-North Korea summit,” Kim told VOA.Tatsumi said Japan shares some of the blame for the state of its relationship with South Korea, which hinders three-way progress because “they are completely wary of the current government [in Seoul] and have zero interest in engaging with them in any way whatsoever.”Analysts expect Pyongyang, in response to the trilateral huddle, will have an attention-seeking reaction.”North Korea will likely engage in further provocations, starting slowly to test the Biden administration and increasingly building up pressure if they don’t get what they want,” Terry told VOA. ”In other words, they will likely revert to their tried-and-true tactics to deal with any new administration.”
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Ukraine: Russia Massing Troops on Border; US Warns Moscow
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday accused Moscow of building up troops on his country’s border as the United States warned Russia against “intimidating” Ukraine.Kyiv has been locked in a conflict with Russian-backed separatists since 2014, and this week Ukrainian officials reported Russian troop movement in annexed Crimea and on the border, near territories controlled by Moscow-backed separatists.On Thursday, Zelensky’s ministers discussed the escalating security situation with Western allies, including U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.Zelensky said in a statement that “military exercises and possible provocations along the border are traditional Russian games.” He accused Moscow of seeking to create “a threatening atmosphere” as Kyiv hopes to resume a cease-fire brokered last year.The U.S. State Department said it was “absolutely concerned by recent escalations of Russian aggressive and provocative actions in eastern Ukraine.””What we would object to are aggressive actions that have an intent of intimidating, of threatening, our partner Ukraine,” State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters.Some observers said the reported Russian troop buildup was a test for the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden, who caused an uproar in Moscow last month by calling his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin a “killer.”This week, Moscow and Kyiv blamed each other for a rise in violence between government forces and Kremlin-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, which has undermined the cease-fire.Zelensky said 20 Ukrainian servicemen had been killed and 57 wounded since the start of the year.Separately, the military announced that a Ukrainian soldier had been wounded in an attack it blamed on separatists.FILE – U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin speaks to Defense Department personnel at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, Feb. 10, 2021..’Ready for an offensive’On Thursday, U.S. defense chief Austin called his Ukrainian counterpart, Andriy Taran, Ukraine’s defense ministry said.Austin said during the call that Washington would “not leave Ukraine alone in the event of escalating Russian aggression,” the ministry said.Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, for his part, discussed the “aggravation by the Russian Federation of the security situation” on the front line with his Canadian counterpart, Marc Garneau.Ukraine’s military intelligence accused Russia of preparing to “expand its military presence” in the separatist-controlled eastern regions of Donetsk and Lugansk.In a statement, the intelligence service said it “does not rule out” an attempt by Russian forces to move “deep into Ukrainian territory.”A high-ranking Ukrainian government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, claimed that the Russian army was practicing “military coordination” with separatists.”From mid-April their combat units will be ready for an offensive,” the official told AFP.FILE – Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov listens during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s annual end-of-year news conference in Moscow, Russia, Dec. 19, 2019.West shouldn’t ‘worry’Moscow has repeatedly denied sending troops and arms to buttress the separatists, and Putin’s spokesman stressed on Thursday that Moscow was at liberty to move troops across its territory.”The Russian Federation moves its armed forces within its territory at its discretion,” spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, but he did not directly confirm a troop buildup on the Ukrainian border.He added that “it should not worry anyone and does not pose a threat to anyone.”The war in eastern Ukraine broke out in 2014 when Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula following a bloody uprising that ousted Ukraine’s Kremlin-friendly president, Viktor Yanukovych.On Wednesday, the Pentagon said U.S. forces in Europe had raised their alert status following the “recent escalations of Russian aggression in eastern Ukraine.”Mark Milley, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, also spoke with his Russian and Ukrainian counterparts, Valery Gerasimov and Ruslan Khomchak.Khomchak said this week that 28,000 separatist fighters and “more than 2,000 Russian military instructors and advisers” were currently stationed in eastern Ukraine.On Thursday, the deputy head of Zelensky’s office, Roman Mashovets, called for joint drills with NATO forces to “help stabilize the security situation.”Zelensky was elected in 2019 promising to end the years-long conflict, but critics say a shaky cease-fire was his only tangible achievement.The fighting has claimed more than 13,000 lives since 2014, according to the United Nations.
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Survivors From Mozambique Attack Stream Into Pemba Safe Haven
More than a week after jihadis staged a deadly raid on the northern Mozambican town of Palma, survivors streamed Thursday into the port of Pemba, the capital of gas-rich Cabo Delgado province.Scores of relatives huddled outside the port, straining to spot family members disembarking from boats arriving from Palma, about 200 kilometers (120 miles) away.More than 8,000 were displaced, dozens killed and many more are still missing following a coordinated attack on the town of Palma on March 24.The jihadis reportedly beheaded residents and ransacked buildings in a rampage that forced thousands to seek safety in surrounding forests.The attack is seen as the biggest escalation of the Islamist insurgency ravaging Cabo Delgado province since 2017.Internally displaced people arrive in Pemba on April 1, 2021, from the boat of evacuees from the Palma.‘No sense of normalcy’On fishing boats or on foot, thousands of survivors fled the city of 75,000 inhabitants, more than 40,000 of whom had already been displaced from their original homes and were living in Palma.Hundreds more were still arriving in Pemba, the U.N. said Thursday.There is “no sense of normalcy returning, unfortunately,” the U.N. refugee agency’s Juliana Ghazi told AFP in Johannesburg from Pemba on Thursday.A woman wearing a blue denim pinafore and pink face mask sat on the ground at the port, with a vacant stare, one hand clutching a fence, waiting for her son.Another woman consoled her as she broke down in sobs.A ferry carrying almost 1,200 passengers, mainly women and children, had docked at the port overnight.The most vulnerable escapees, including unaccompanied and injured children, are being flown to the city. The U.N. said nearly half of the 8,166 people who are registered as displaced are children.’Utmost concern’The attack launched last Wednesday was the latest in a string of more than 830 organized raids by the Islamist militants over the past three years, killing more than 2,690 and uprooting nearly 700,000.A South African man was among those killed when a convoy of cars trying to evacuate survivors from a hotel was ambushed, his family said.Britain’s Times newspaper Thursday reported that a Briton also died in the ambush and that his remains had been handed to the Special Air Services rescue team.The defense ministry could not confirm or deny the death.The African Union has called for urgent and coordinated international action to jointly address the “urgent threat to regional and continental peace and security.”In a statement, AU Chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat expressed “utmost concern” at the presence of international extremist groups in southern Africa.The regional Southern African Development Community (SADC) held emergency talks Wednesday in Harare to discuss the violence.”This has heightened insecurity in the area, leading to a serious humanitarian crisis,” the SADC chair, Botswana’s President Mokgweetsi Masisi, said in a statement Thursday. “It is our fervent hope that the perpetrators will be quickly arrested and brought to justice.”But Mozambique President Filipe Nyusi on Wednesday played down the attack as “not the biggest,” despite its unprecedented proximity to Africa’s single biggest investment project.Gas project protectedFrench oil giant Total and other international companies have invested in a multibillion-dollar gas exploration scheme off the Afungi Peninsula, about 10 kilometers (six miles) away from Palma.Total evacuated some staff and suspended construction work in late December following a series of jihadi attacks near its compound.Army spokesman Chongo Vidigal said the gas project was protected.”We are currently in the special area in Afungi and never had a terrorism threat,” he told reporters in Palma.The aid-dependent country has sent troops to Palma to try to recapture the town. On Tuesday, Mozambique’s former colonial master, Portugal, announced plans to send about 60 troops to back them up.Cabo Delgado’s jihadis have wreaked havoc across the province with the aim of establishing a caliphate. The insurgents are affiliated with the Islamic State group, which claimed the attack on Palma this week.
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US Supreme Court Rules in Facebook’s Favor in Case About Unwanted Texting
The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday tossed out a lawsuit accusing Facebook Inc. of violating a federal anti-robocall law.The justices, in a 9-0 decision authored by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, sided with Facebook in its argument that text messages the social media company sent did not violate a 1991 federal law called the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA).The case highlighted the challenge for the justices in applying outdated laws to modern technologies. The ruling sparked calls for Congress to update the law, enacted three decades ago to curb telemarketing abuse by banning most unauthorized robocalls.”By narrowing the scope of the TCPA, the court is allowing companies the ability to assault the public with a nonstop wave of unwanted calls and texts, around the clock,” Democratic Senator Edward Markey and Democratic Representative Anna Eshoo said in a joint statement.The court ruled that Facebook’s actions — sending text messages without consent — did not fit within the technical definition of the type of conduct barred by the law, which was enacted before the rise of modern cellphone technology.The lawsuit was filed in 2015 in California federal court by Montana resident Noah Duguid, who said Facebook sent him many automatic text messages without his consent. The lawsuit accused Menlo Park, California-based Facebook of violating the TCPA’s restriction on using an automatic telephone dialing system.Facebook said the security-related messages, triggered when users try to log in to their accounts from a new device or internet browser, were tied to users’ cellphone numbers.”As the court recognized, the law’s provisions were never intended to prohibit companies from sending targeted security notifications, and the court’s decision will allow companies to continue working to keep the accounts of their users safe,” Facebook said in a statement.’A disappointing ruling’Sergei Lemberg, Duguid’s lawyer, said anyone could avoid liability under the law if they use technology like Facebook’s.”This is a disappointing ruling for anyone who owns a cellphone or values their privacy,” Lemberg added.In this instance, the lawsuit asserted that Facebook’s system that sent automated text messages was akin to a traditional automatic dialing system — known as an autodialer — used to send robocalls.”Duguid’s quarrel is with Congress, which did not define an autodialer as malleably as he would have liked,” Sotomayor wrote in the ruling.The law requires that the equipment used must use a “random or sequential number generator,” but the court concluded that Facebook’s system “does not use such technology,” Sotomayor added.Duguid said that Facebook repeatedly sent him account login notifications by text message to his cellphone, even though he was not a Facebook user and never had been. Despite numerous efforts, Duguid said he was unable to stop Facebook from “robotexting” him.Facebook responded that Duguid had most likely been assigned a phone number that was previously associated with a Facebook user who opted in to receive the notifications.A federal judge threw out the lawsuit, but in 2019, the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals revived it. The 9th Circuit took a broad view of the law, saying it bans devices that automatically dial not only randomly generated numbers but also stored numbers that are not randomly generated.The National Association of Federally Insured Credit Unions said the decision “to narrowly interpret autodialers is a win for the credit union industry.””We have long fought for this clarity to ensure credit unions can contact their members with important, time-sensitive financial information without fear of violating the TCPA and facing frivolous lawsuits,” the association said in a statement.
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Oklahoma Town Eases Pandemic Stress, One Restaurant Meal at a Time
In Miami, Oklahoma, restaurants and their customers are doing their part to ease pandemic heartache, one meal at a time.Cafes in and around the close-knit town in the state’s northeastern corner have put up “receipt walls,” allowing diners to prepay for meals and the needy to grab what they like, have a seat and refuel — judgment-free, no questions asked.The idea of providing free, prepaid meals spread from restaurant to restaurant a few months ago. Many recipients are homeless or have otherwise hit hard times since the pandemic rolled into Miami (pronounced my-AM-uh), population about 13,000. Two February blizzards brought even more trouble.Receipts for prepaid meals hang on the wall inside the Dawg House in Miami, Okla., Feb. 11, 2021. Customers pay for them so that others in need, many of them struggling financially because of the pandemic, can get a meal, no questions asked.Jennifer White, a Miami native who owns the Dawg House, a gourmet hot dog spot, transitioned from food truck to brick and mortar last September, a bold move in the middle of a pandemic. She was the first to put up a giving wall. Within eight hours, she had a wall full of meal receipts.So far, customers at the Dawg House have provided more than 600 meals.”And we have only eight tables in our restaurant, so that says a lot about how amazing our community is,” White said.Some who have peeled off a taped-up receipt have paid it forward, returning to add receipts of their own. She’s had regulars purchase 10 to 50 giveaway meals at a time.’A lot of homeless people’Lasay Castellano, a nursing student who recently left her job as manager of Zack’s Cafe, said the diner serves about 600 people a day. She’s been taping up receipts for nearly two months.”We have a lot of homeless people here. A lot. Within a day we had almost $600 in meals on the wall,” she said. “We’re having a hard time keeping tickets on the wall.”Among White’s donors is Derrick Hayworth, 32, who owns a food delivery company that services the Dawg House and other restaurants and retailers.”It’s the whole community behind it,” he said. “It wasn’t forced. It was just meant to happen.”When the blizzards hit, everybody pitched in to help those without places to stay. Mayor Bless Parker helped ease people who are homeless into hotels and supply them with food from the restaurant walls.Life in Miami, in an area where lead and zinc mines ruled more than 100 years ago, inches closer to something that looks like the old normal every day. The area’s plentiful casinos have reopened, and restaurants like the Dawg House have welcomed back in-person dining, with fewer tables to provide for social distancing.White said a couple and their four young daughters stand out among the beneficiaries of the free meals.”They were just so sweet, and their parents were beyond grateful and thankful,” she said. “They seemed like they had a lot going on and got to sit for an hour and a half or so to just have a meal, have fun and laugh, and not worry about how much they were having to spend.”
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Zimbabwe’s Food Insecurity Escalates During COVID-19 Lockdowns
A new report from Zimbabwe’s government says hunger and food insecurity have increased during the coronavirus pandemic. The World Food Program says the problem is especially acute for unemployed residents of the cities. The government report, called the Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment, says about 2.4 million people in the country’s urban areas are struggling to meet their basic food needs because of lockdowns to contain the spread of COVID-19. Murambiwa Simon Mushongorokwa, 61, used to get casual jobs in the factories before the lockdowns began.“I used to get about $30 a week,” he said. “It was not enough for my needs. But when the lockdown came, it got worse, until I started growing mushrooms. It’s slowly improving my life, if the market prices improve, we will survive.” He uses forage from his backyard corn and sorghum field to grow the mushrooms. He says he now gets about $5 a week from selling them and uses some for consumption with his wife and five dependents.Simon Julius Kufakwevanhu, an official from a local NGO, has been teaching people in a poor suburb to grow mushrooms.“Before the introduction of mushroom farming in this place, it was very tough for people in this community to survive because of the lockdowns and so forth. But when The Future of Hope [a nonprofit committed to skills empowerment] brought in mushroom growing, it’s changing because you can now buy something, able to go to shops and buy mielie meal [coarse flour], sugar and so forth. Even if I fall sick I can go to the hospital after selling mushrooms,” he said.The World Food Program says it is looking for more ideas and resources to help 550,000 people like Mushongorokwa in urban areas get basic food for survival.FILE – A woman with a baby strapped on her back carries firewood for cooking on the streets of Harare, Zimbabwe, March 2, 2021.Tomson Phiri, head of communications at the World Food Program, speaking from his base Geneva, said, “COVID-19 has not only wiped out lives, it has wiped out livelihoods as well. The number of people who are unable to put food on their table in Zimbabwe’s urban areas has increased from 30 percent during the same period in 2019 to 42 percent right now.”Zimbabwe’s government says it is giving about $12 a month to families affected by lockdowns. That’s nowhere near the $500 an average family of five to seven people needs to survive each month.People like Mushongorokwa hope that with the lockdowns recently eased, jobs and livelihoods will come back.In the meantime, the WFP is seeking $32 million to feed food-insecure urbanites.
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UN: Crippling Debt Keeps Developing Countries Mired in Poverty
A new study warns developing countries will have difficulty recovering from the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic without relief from crushing debt burdens keeping them mired in poverty. The U.N. Development Program (UNDP) is releasing the study ahead of next week’s World Bank-International Monetary Fund meetings.
The study finds 120 low- and middle-income economies will owe more than $1 trillion in debt service payments this year. It reports 72 countries, classified as vulnerable, are responsible for more than half that accumulated debt.
UNDP administrator Achim Steiner says these 72 countries are facing sovereignty or liquidity challenges that will crowd out important socioeconomic expenditures crucial for the well-being of their people.
“We need bold new mechanisms. These are urgently needed to help low- and middle-income countries address crippling debt, which has been sharply worsened by COVID-19 and which will prevent vital investments to tackle poverty and climate change for years to come. Investments that we are seeing in a number of wealthier countries now playing out and unfolding. … The service of public debt crowds out room for these investment in developing countries,” he said.
Steiner said most of the advanced economies are looking forward to a rapid recovery from the pandemic this year. However, the same cannot be said for the poorer countries. He said they are facing increasing poverty as COVID-19 continues to wreak havoc with the physical and economic health of their societies.
Steiner said a number of wealthier countries are investing significant amounts of money in stimulus packages to tackle the pandemic and boost their economies. He said similar investments are needed in developing countries, adding they would be transformative.
For example, he said, funding in Africa could help the continent recover from the pandemic based on green energy technology.
“There are, as of this year, still 600 million people on the African continent that have no access to electricity. Nothing would be simpler than to drive their recovery and an energy transition with a significant investment in renewable energy infrastructure — helping to both accelerate development on the continent and accelerate the transition towards clean energy infrastructure for what will soon be 2 billion people on the African continent by the middle of the century,” Steiner said.
UNDP economists say debt distress and vulnerability do not just threaten the poorest countries. They say middle-income countries and small island states also are buckling under heavy debt burdens.
They urge delegates attending next week’s World Bank-IMF meeting to agree to provide liquidity support to all seriously indebted countries. Given the magnitude of the crisis, they say a combination of debt restructuring, additional financing and reforms are needed.
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Report on France’s Role in Rwanda’s Genocide Fails to Lay to Rest a Dark Past
French President Emmanuel Macron will reportedly visit Kigali in coming weeks, following a report he commissioned which sheds a harsh light on France’s alleged role in Rwanda’s 1994 genocide.If Macron hoped the report would put the controversy over French actions to rest, it now seems to be doing the opposite.Sounds of a Paris ceremony a few years ago, commemorating a new memorial to the roughly 800,000 victims of Rwanda’s genocide.The memorial wasn’t enough to end a dark chapter in French-Rwandan relations. Today, it’s uncertain whether a new report by French historians can do so either.Reactions have been trickling in this week to the so-called Duclert report on France’s role in the genocide.The report, based on two years of research, is named after Vincent Duclert, who headed the fact-finding commission of 14 historians. It found Paris, under former President Francois Mitterrand — who was close to the Hutu-led government that carried out the genocide — bears serious responsibility in the mass slaughter of Tutsis and moderate Hutus in Rwanda between April and July of 1994.But, it concluded there was no evidence France was an accomplice in the killing spree.Historian Duclert told France 24 that Mitterrand was blinded by an effort to extend France’s post-colonial influence in Rwanda, and saw events though an ethnic prism. Mitterrand had close ties with Rwanda’s Hutu president Juvénal Habyarimana, whom the report described as racist, corrupt and violent. His death in a helicopter crash unleashed the genocide.The commission’s members were historians, not judges, Duclert said. Although no documents showed France wanted a genocide, it was important to question the country’s blindness and heavy responsibility.France and Rwanda have long traded accusations over the killings. Former president Nicolas Sarkozy earlier conceded France had made mistakes.Now, Rwanda describes the Duclert report a step forward. France’s leading newspaper, Le Monde, called it a “decisive step on the path to truth.”Based on cables, documents and other material from government archives, the roughly 1,000-page report looks at France’s role before and during the genocide — including its controversial military and humanitarian Operation Turquoise. Kigali is expected to shortly release its own report on the genocide.But instead of putting this chapter to rest, the Duclert report has unleashed mixed reactions and soul searching here.France’s former foreign minister Hubert Vedrine, a top Mitterrand aide during the genocide, calls the report important. But in a Radio France International interview, he disputed France was blind to warnings of an impending slaughter. He said the country was just trying to preserve peace.Others said the report doesn’t go far enough. Genocide-era documents are missing or destroyed, they said, and the commission has left many questions unanswered.Survie Association, a French group highly critical of France’s colonial rule, slams it as superficial.Spokesman David Martin: “First what’s needed is a recognition of complicity from France and apologies to the Rwandan people, the Rwandan government. Second there should be trial for people who have taken decisions (during 1994), have assisted in decisions. There are still people who are alive today … It is very important that justice is done.”Martin’s association has filed several judicial complaints related to the genocide. But the process is slow and expensive, he says. He doubts French courts have the appetite to take on the country’s controversial past.
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DC Chef Mobilizes to Stop Attacks on Asian Americans
After seeing the recent reports of elderly Asian Americans being attacked, a chef in Washington, D.C., decided to fight back using what he does best. Karina Bafradzhian has the story, narrated by Anna Rice.
Camera: Andrey Degtyarev
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Rights Court Backs RFE/RL Journalist in Case to Protect Phone Data From Ukrainian Officials
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ruled in favor of a journalist from RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service who has battled against the handover of her smartphone data to authorities in what the court agreed is an essential defense of a free press and privacy in democratic society. Natalia Sedletska, who hosts the award-winning investigative TV program “Schemes,” has been locked in a three-year effort to protect her phone data from seizure by Ukrainian prosecutors investigating a leak of state secrets nearly four years ago. Natalia Sedletska hosts the award-winning investigative TV program Schemes. (RFE/RL Graphics)The ECHR concluded that Sedletska should be protected from the data search under Article 10 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and stressed the importance of protection of sources for a functioning free press. “[T]he court is not convinced that the data access authorization given by the domestic courts was justified by an ‘overriding requirement in the public interest’ and, therefore, necessary in a democratic society,” the decision read. Sedletska turned to the European rights court after a Ukrainian court ruling in 2018 gave authorities unlimited access to 17 months of her smartphone data. Schemes had reported on several investigations involving senior Ukrainian officials, including Prosecutor-General Yuriy Lutsenko, during the period in question. Sedletska has argued that the Ukrainian ruling contravened domestic law and Kyiv’s commitments to a free press. Her application to the ECHR sought protection from the seizure of her communications data as such judicial action was not “necessary in a democratic society,” and was grossly disproportionate and not justified by any “overriding requirement in the public interest.” The ECHR agreed and stressed that “the protection of journalistic sources is one of the cornerstones of freedom of the press.” “RFE/RL applauds this ruling, which protects the confidentiality of journalistic communications and sets limits for executive power,” RFE/RL President Jamie Fly said in connection with the April 1 decision. “The work of investigative journalists, by its nature, is hard and often dangerous. “Credible investigative journalism cannot be done in an atmosphere of official impunity, and without the certainty that exchanges between source and journalist will remain private.” The prosecutors pressed for access to Sedletska’s phone data in connection with a criminal investigation into the alleged disclosure of state secrets to journalists in 2017 by Artem Sytnyk, director of the country’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau. On August 2018, Kyiv’s Pechersk district court approved a request by the Ukrainian Prosecutor-General’s Office to allow investigators to review all of Sedletska’s mobile-phone data from a 17-month period. The European Parliament in 2018 passed a resolution expressing “concern” at the Ukrainian ruling and stressing the importance of media freedom and the protection of journalists’ sources. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the watchdog groups Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and Reporters Without Borders have also backed Sedletska’s arguments. “Schemes” is a corruption-focused TV program produced by RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service and Ukrainian Public Television. It had a combined audience across its two channels of more than 10 million last year.
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Traveling Kenyan Music Producer Gives Hope to Rural Artists
A Kenyan music producer is taking his work to remote villages to record up-and-coming artists on location to offer something new and different for Kenya’s competitive music industry. Juma Majanga caught up with producer Presta George in Awendo, Kenya, and filed this report.Camera: Jim Makhulo, Producer: Henry Hernandez
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More Than 70 Journalists Harassed in Cambodia in 2020 , Report Finds
Fear of physical violence and legal risks are a daily part of the job for Cambodia’s journalists, a new report says.The Cambodian Journalists Alliance Association – also known as CamboJa – found 35 cases of harassment against 72 journalists in 2020. Imprisonment and violence were the most common press freedom violations documented by the rights organization, which was founded in 2019. Nearly all cases (64 incidents) involved journalists working at online news organizations.“Journalists who dare to cover and report on the interests of military and powerful officials are still being persecuted through a judiciary system that uses criminal law instead of press law and have been repeatedly beaten and subjected to violence,” Nop Vy, executive director of CamboJA, said in a statement.Meas Sophorn, a spokesperson for Cambodia’s Ministry of Information, questioned the report’s findings, saying that all journalists working in the country have “full rights and freedom to report.”“The report has motive to distort public about the environment of journalists’ profession in Cambodia,” Meas Sophorn told VOA Khmer.More than 20 cases documented by the group involved violent attacks or threats while reporting, the report found. In all cases, no one has been held accountable.The report cited how four reporters were attacked by a group of men armed with knives and axes in September, leaving one journalist with a serious rib injury.The journalists, who work for the news outlets Phnek Mnoas and Chakra Phup, told VOA at the time they regularly traveled to the region to report on illegal timber routes. One of them, Ren Samnang, said he believes the attackers apparently went there with the intent to kill.“They broke the [car] window and beat me,” he said. “I started the car and drove away. They followed us in their van for a kilometer and threw an ax at my car.”Following the release of the CamboJa report, Nop Vy called on the government to “ensure the safety and security of all journalists so that they can exercise their rights to freely report without fear.”Chilling effectIn the capital, Phnom Penh, most of the 25 violations the association recorded involved journalists arrested or facing legal action because of commentary on politics and coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic.Overall, at least 10 journalists remained in prison or pre-trial detention at the end of last year, including Ros Sokhet, of the Cheat Khmer, and radio journalist Sok Oudom, who were convicted of incitement, according to CamboJA. Others, including former Radio Free Asia journalists Yeang Sothearin and Uon Chhin, have charges still hanging over them.The harassment of journalists “undermines the media’s role in a democratic society and strikes fear in those who cover stories or cases involving powerful officials,” the CamboJA report said.The association found that journalists most commonly were charged with incitement to commit felony or extortion, and it said the country’s criminal code is “too often used to intimidate and jail journalists.”Journalists jailed under Article 495—creating “serious turmoil” through public speech or writing—can face up to five years in prison.Government spokesperson Meas Sophom said journalists who have been jailed had violated Cambodian laws. “The legal actions against some journalists don’t mean harassing, prosecuting or intimidating journalists,” he said.Ith Sothoeuth, media director at the Cambodian Center for Independent Media, said the fact that more than 70 journalists have been harassed is “a concern for Cambodia press freedom.”The country has a poor record for free expression, scoring 144 out of 180 countries, where 1 is the most free on the world press freedom index compiled by Reporters Without Borders.This story originated in VOA’s Khmer service.
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Southern African Leaders Promise Action on Mozambique Islamist Insurgency
Botswana’s President Mokgweetsi Masisi says member states of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) will respond in a “meaningful manner” to the deadly Islamist insurgency in northern Mozambique. Masisi made the comments Wednesday after meeting with Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa. Botswana President Mokgweetsi Masisi told reporters late Wednesday he talked to his South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa about the deteriorating situation in northern Mozambique prior to his arrival in Harare. At the State House in Harare, Masisi said his talk with Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa was dominated by the situation in Mozambique. “I have reported to President Mnangagwa the contents of the discussions with President Ramaphosa, and we have formed views as [a] Troika. One of them will result in taking this further, so that we as SADC respond in a helpful manner to ensure that we assure the integrity and sovereignty of one of our own never to be assaulted by dissidents, rebellious non-state forces that undermine the democratic credentials and peace of the region,” he said.Since 2017, an Islamist insurgency has raged in Mozambique’s oil-rich Cabo Delgado province.
Calling it “an acute crisis,” UNICEF said this week that approximately 350,000 children have been displaced since the insurgency began. The children’s world body said there is a cholera outbreak underway and COVID-19 is spreading, as well. Tendaiwo Peter Maregere, who is with Coventry University’s Center for Trust, Peace and Social Relations in England, says all SADC leaders must call for another meeting and come up with a more specific program for Mozambique. “That program of action must have deliverables and actionable points of what sort of outcomes does SADC require or look up to following the intervention,” he said. “It must also provide regional collaborative intervention strategies with east African communities given that there is a likelihood that the conflict may spill into Tanzania, Malawi and therefore that regional comparative approach must also inform program of action.” SADC does not have a standing army, unlike the West Africa bloc ECOWAS. In the past, individual countries have deployed their armies to quell security threats in other member countries. Zimbabwe sent troops to the Democratic Republic of Congo and in Mozambique in the 1980s and in 1998, respectively, while South Africa deployed to quell post-election violence in Lesotho.
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