President Joe Biden’s efforts to rescue and ultimately reshape the U.S. economy may be getting most of the attention, but his administration has also been busy on the international front, in large part by expanding and adjusting the vast net of sanctions that the U.S. imposes on countries and individuals around the world.In his first weeks in office, Biden imposed new sanctions on individuals in Russia over interference in U.S. elections; on generals in Myanmar for their overthrowing a democratically elected government; on Saudi Arabian nationals involved in the killing of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi; on Chinese officials for undermining Hong Kong’s democracy movement and human rights abuses against the country’s Uyghur minority; and against an Israeli businessman accused of corruption.FILE – Iranian President Hassan Rouhani reviews his country’s nuclear achievements, in Tehran, April 10, 2021. The Biden administration is weighing a rollback of some Trump-era sanctions imposed on Iran to encourage compliance with a nuclear pact.The new administration has also begun adjusting existing sanctions regimes, lifting those leveled at officials affiliated with the International Criminal Court, and considering a rollback of additional sanctions imposed on Iran after then-President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action nuclear deal.True to formFor all of Biden’s repeating that America is “back” on the international stage, when it comes to trying to influence other countries via sanctions, the U.S. never actually left.For decades, and increasingly since the attacks of September 11, 2001, the U.S. has employed sanctions as a means of coercing other countries into policy changes or, at very least, expressing its distaste for actions the government views as unacceptable.“Sanctions have become, to a large extent, the default tool for addressing concerns about the behavior of foreign governments,” said Jordan Tama, a professor in the School of International Service at American University in Washington who studies sanctions policy.“In most situations where the United States has a concern about the behavior of foreign governments, sanctions are going to be part of the policy conversation about what the United States should do,” Tama said. “And often sanctions appear more attractive to policymakers than some of the other alternatives, such as military action, which has obvious costs, or, as it’s often framed, ‘doing nothing’ by engaging in diplomacy. That’s kind of what gives sanctions their appeal.”FILE – The U.S. Embassy is seen behind a monument to the Workers of 1905 Revolution in Moscow, Russia, Dec. 30, 2016. In mid-April 2021, Russia announced plans to order 10 U.S. diplomats to leave Russia in a retaliatory response to U.S. sanctions.Comprehensive sanctionsThe Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) manages three dozen different sanctions programs, some of which target specific countries while others go after criminals, terrorist networks or human rights abusers.So-called “comprehensive” sanctions, such as the U.S. travel and trade embargoes on Cuba, North Korea, Iran, Syria and the Crimean region of Ukraine annexed by Russia in 2014, are the most severe, with the ability to do great damage to a nation’s economy, often at the expense of the citizens the policy is nominally intended to help.Other countries, including Russia, China and Venezuela, are also subject to significant sanctions that fall short of an outright trade embargo.Targeted sanctionsThe U.S. also imposes “targeted” sanctions, typically aimed at individuals and business entities engaged in certain activities, such as Chinese government officials involved in the internment of Muslim Uyghurs, or Russian banks accused of laundering money for corrupt oligarchs.OFAC’s list of subjects of targeted sanctions, who are known as “Specially Designated Nationals,” runs to 1,500 pages and contains the names (and countless aliases) of thousands of individuals and companies with which U.S citizens are barred from doing business.Being placed on that list can be financially devastating for those who do not have the support of a sovereign government, because it freezes all assets held in U.S. jurisdictions and bars financial institutions that operate in U.S. jurisdictions from conducting dollar-based transactions with them. Because of the importance of the U.S. market to the global financial services business, the dollar transaction ban can effectively shut a person or company off from the global economy.But do they work?For a tool that has been used for as long and as widely as U.S. sanctions, there is still considerable debate about how effective they are. Proponents can point to a few big wins, such as the fall of the apartheid government in South Africa and Iran’s accession to nuclear talks during the Obama administration, both of which followed years of punishing economic sanctions.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.But opponents can point to a far larger number of cases in which sanctions failed to achieve their ends. Cuba, for instance, remains a communist thorn in the side of U.S. presidents despite 60 years of economic deprivation associated with the embargo. North Korea’s nuclear weapons program has grown, not disappeared, in the face of a comprehensive sanctions regime.On balance, according to an analysis by Jeffrey J. Schott, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, a Washington research group, and a member of the State Department’s Advisory Committee on International Economic Policy, sanctions have achieved their desired outcome about one-third of the time, and usually when their aims have been modest.Return to multilateralismUnder the Trump administration, sanctions were used frequently, but often on an ad hoc basis, with little coordination with other countries. That, said American University’s Tama, is typically the least effective method of changing a country’s behavior.“Sanctions are more effective when they’re coordinated with allies and partners,” he said, and Biden’s predilection toward multilateralism may make his imposition of sanctions more effective than those of his predecessors.Additionally, Tama said he expected to see the Biden administration take more care to pair U.S. sanctions with other aspects of U.S. foreign policy, including active diplomatic engagement, foreign aid and military deterrence.A major challengeOver the years, there has been a growing recognition that some U.S. sanctions programs have taken a high economic toll on the innocent civilian populations in targeted countries, often without producing the desired outcome. In addition, they may have the effect of pushing countries away from using the dollar and doing business through U.S. institutions.“One of the challenges for the use of sanctions is how can we preserve the effectiveness of this tool and still use sanctions when needed, while recognizing that sometimes sanctions can have some effects that we really don’t want,” said Tama.It’s far from clear how the Biden administration will address this problem, but one step toward doing so appears to have been taken. The administration will be relaunching the State Department’s Office of Sanctions Coordination, an operation closed by the Trump administration in 2017, to better align sanctions policies and implementation across various federal agencies.
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Month: May 2021
G-7 Countries Back Taiwan’s Observer Status in World Health Assembly
Leading industrial nations came out in support of Taiwan’s observer status in the World Health Assembly (WHA), the decision-making body of the World Health Organization (WHO), leading into Attendees leave the G-7 foreign ministers meeting at Lancaster House in London, Britain, May 5, 2021.Taiwan said it is grateful for the G-7’s strong support. “#Taiwan thanks all G7 FMs and the EU for voicing such a strong support in the Communique for our meaningful participation in #WHO & #WHA. #LetTaiwanHelp and contribute to the global health system,” Taiwan’s main representative office in the U.S. said in a tweet. #Taiwan thanks all G7 FMs and the EU for voicing such a strong support in the Communique for our meaningful participation in #WHO & #WHA. #LetTaiwanHelp and contribute to the global health system.https://t.co/vsfTEY6PSm— Taiwan in the US (@TECRO_USA) May 5, 2021Officials from Australia, India, South Africa, South Korea and Brunei are also joining the G-7 Foreign and Development Ministers’ Meeting as guests in London. “We underscore the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, and encourage the peaceful resolution of cross-Strait issues. We reiterate our strong opposition to any unilateral actions that could escalate tensions and undermine regional stability and the international rules-based order, and express serious concerns about reports of militarization, coercion and intimidation in the region,” said the communique, which was released after the meeting. The statement comes as China steps up military activities, sending aircraft into Taiwan’s air space. “It is very consequential that democracies are speaking with one voice on an important occasion like the G-7 to underscore their support for Taiwan’s participation” in the World Health Organization, said Bonnie Glaser, Asian program director at the German Marshall Fund of the United States.Other analysts said Wednesday’s G-7 communique underscores the deep and abiding concern Western countries plus Japan have about China’s increasingly coercive activities in the Indo-Pacific region.
“Let’s also not lose sight of the fact that the G-7 statement included references to China’s bad behavior in places like Hong Kong, Xinjiang, and Tibet, which certainly won’t sit well with Beijing either,” said Derek Grossman, a senior defense analyst at the RAND Corporation.
The move is seen as an open rebuke to China. The Beijing government has been blocking Taiwan’s representation at WHO meetings after the self-ruled democracy elected Tsai Ing-wen, a China skeptic, as Taiwan’s president in 2016 and again in 2020. FILE – Taiwan Health Minister Chen Shih-chung holds a news conference about Taiwan’s efforts to get into the World Health Organization (WHO) in Taipei, Taiwan, May 15, 2020.Delegates from Taiwan had attended the World Health Assembly as nonvoting observers from 2009 to 2016, during a period of relatively warm ties between Beijing and Taipei. Non-member states and territories can participate in the WHA as observers. On Monday, China’s ambassador to the United Nations, Zhang Jun, repeated Beijing’s opposition to invite Taiwan to the WHA sessions later this month. “It is our clear position and firm position that the U.N. is an organization composed of sovereign member states, and Taiwan is not qualified for any participation in these organizations,” Zhang said when he was asked if Taiwan should be allowed at the WHA as an observer. “Beijing’s actions to block Taiwan from participating in the WHO are counterproductive” and do not serve the interests of the broader international community, Glaser told VOA on Wednesday. A senior U.S. official told reporters that Taiwan has “a lot of experience” in fighting the spread of the coronavirus, which “can help all of us, and it just seems really self-defeating to exclude them.” In Washington, Democratic and Republican members of Congress have spoken up in recent weeks to support Taiwan’s participation in the World Health Assembly. Chairman of Senate Foreign Relations Committee Bob Menendez, a Democrat, said in a tweet that “Beijing’s efforts to shut Taiwan out of the international community hinder pandemic recovery & response.” Menendez called on the Senate to pass a bipartisan bill “championing Taiwan’s participation in the World Health Assembly.” Beijing’s efforts to shut Taiwan out of the international community hinder pandemic recovery & response. The Senate must pass my bill with Sen. @JimInhofe championing Taiwan’s participation in the World Health Assembly. #LetTaiwanHelphttps://t.co/jAitel0Iih— Senate Foreign Relations Committee (@SFRCdems) April 27, 2021Republican Senator Jim Risch, the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, denounced WHO for sidelining Taiwan in the last four years “despite its vast expertise & successful handling of #COVID19.” “I hope that in 2021, this will not be the fifth. #LetTaiwanHelp, & we will all be better for it,” Risch said in a tweet. The @WHO sidelined #Taiwan for the last four meetings of the #WorldHealthAssembly despite its vast expertise & successful handling of #COVID19. I hope that in 2021, this will not be the fifth. #LetTaiwanHelp, & we will all be better for it. https://t.co/oFcz5M9gTx— Senate Foreign Relations Committee Ranking Member (@SenateForeign) April 27, 2021
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Are Europe’s Climate Action Goals Realistic?
How politically realistic are the climate action goals that European governments are setting in lockstep with the United States?Some analysts are warning that the rich can afford the necessary changes, but the burdensome costs of a green transition for middle-class and poorer voters could trigger a backlash and prompt electoral reversals.Others worry European governments have still not fleshed out in practical terms how to meet their ambitious climate action and emissions reduction goals and that a failure to deliver solutions, as happened after the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference, risks undermining an emerging public consensus about the danger of climate change and a recognition action is required.“If you create a deadline that is unrealistic, which we will not be able to actually achieve, you put it completely beyond the bounds of possibility — that doesn’t mean you can’t have a high bar, you should be aiming for a high bar — but it can’t be unrealistic,” Jamie Clarke, executive director of the British charity Climate Outreach, cautioned British lawmakers recently.Previous climate conferences have been followed by plummeting public interest in the environment after political leaders failed to live up to the expectations they set, he told a parliamentary panel.Clarke was testifying in the wake of last month’s U.S.-hosted virtual two-day climate change summit, which coincided with Earth Day. Dozens of leaders reiterated their pledges to tackle climate change, including China, which said it would phase out coal-powered electricity generation starting in 2025. President Joe Biden promised to cut U.S. emissions in half by the end of the decade.French President Emmanuel Macron listens to U.S. President Joe Biden speaks during a Climate Summit video conference, at the Elysee Palace, in Paris, April, 22, 2021.Britain’s Boris Johnson said his country planned to achieve a 78 percent reduction in carbon emissions by 2035, compared with 1990 levels, the most ambitious climate target announced by any country in the world.More spending on renewable energyBiden focused his comments on the contribution that innovation can make to help countries meet their climate goals. He announced the United States would revive participation in an initiative among dozens of nations and investors to increase spending on renewable energy research, development and deployment.Biden acknowledged that the challenges of reducing planet-warming emissions would be met by “working people” but emphasized that as the world transitions to clean energy, “we must ensure workers who have thrived in yesterday’s and today’s industries have as bright a tomorrow in the new industries as well as in the places where they live.”Biden has been stressing the potential energy transition has to create new jobs.And experts say there has been an extraordinary reduction in the likely costs of tackling climate change. “Climate action is becoming more affordable across the board,” according to Gernot Wagner, a professor at New York University and co-author of the book “Climate Shock.”In a commentary this week for Project Syndicate, an online platform of opinion, Wagner says climate action is becoming less expensive. He cites solar panels. “The costs of solar photovoltaic [PV) panels have plummeted by over 85 percent in under a decade, and by well over 99 percent since the first panels found their way onto people’s roofs in the early 1980s,” he says.FILE – A general view shows solar panels to produce renewable energy at the Urbasolar photovoltaic park in Gardanne, France, June 25, 2018.Climate action and political dilemmaNonetheless, for Western governments climate action poses a massive political dilemma.If they impose green tax hikes and the costly measures on transportation, home heating, power generation and lifestyles that scientists say are needed to lower emissions and to shift economies away from dependency on fossil fuels, governments risk prompting a backlash, largely from middle-class and lower-income workers, as well as pensioners who can ill afford to bear the expense.But if governments move too slowly, they risk strong reaction from climate activists and their supporters, who are often affluent.Reconciling those who demand fast-track climate-friendly measures and those who want to move slowly isn’t going to be easy — as France’s Yellow Vest protests in 2018 and 2019 made abundantly clear, say analysts.The European Union is negotiating on how to translate its planned 55 percent reduction in greenhouses gases into legislation that will work for all 27 member states, all of which have different economic and domestic political interests and different levels of energy development.European trade unions have welcomed EU climate goals but they warn that climate-action measures need to be implemented alongside an equally ambitious social transition plan to mitigate costs for ordinary families, according to Judith Kirton-Darling, deputy general secretary of IndustriALL Europe, an international trade union federation.Costly green transitionThe likely cost to living standards is undeniable. In Britain commentators are questioning how the government will transition towards climate-friendly home heating.Nearly a third of Britain’s greenhouse gas emissions is produced by residential central heating and Johnson’s government has announced plans to phase out the sale of natural gas boilers for newly-built homes by 2025 and for all homes by the mid-2030s.Eighty-five percent of British homes are heated by natural gas, which produced greenhouse cases, and transitioning to hydrogen boilers or more likely electric heat pumps will be costly. A natural gas fired home furnace costs around $1,400 but heat pumps are far more expensive, costing over $20,000. Who will bear the cost — the consumer or the government?Action on climate change involves “policies that will hit people in the pocket,” says economics commentator Jeremy Warner, a columnist for Britain’s Daily Telegraph. Tough choices loom, he says, and there will be costs to people’s pockets, and costs to established livelihoods made obsolete by the transition from one age to the next.“In their newfound enthusiasm for all things green, the politicians would be wise to bear this in mind and design mitigating policies accordingly,” he adds.
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Officials in South Sudan’s Jonglei State Accused of Stealing Food Aid
Civil society activists and residents in the capital of South Sudan’s Jonglei state have accused state officials of stealing food donated by President Salva Kiir that was meant for flood victims.The president donated 12 truckloads of food to victims of last year’s massive floods while visiting Bor on April 1.David Garang Goch, chairperson of the Jonglei State Civil Society Network, said he saw some of the food being offloaded from a truck straight into shops at Bor’s Marol Market this week.”The donated food is different from the food items Ethiopian traders are selling in their shops. The color and the writings are different. It is written ‘KKM,’ and it was brought from Germany, so this food is different from what we already have, and now they are selling it,” Goch told VOA’s South Sudan in Focus.The deputy mayor of the municipality, Mabil Tot, who was tasked with distributing the food to beneficiaries, denied that officials had sold any of the donated food in markets, saying his office promptly turned over the food to residential community leaders for distribution among the displaced.Given to block leadersTot said it was possible, however, that individual recipients took the donated food to the market.”We distributed it to the block leaders so that they can go and distribute it to the households. Bor municipality has no capacity to distribute the food house to house, so we just planned to divide the food according to the blocks,” Tot told South Sudan in Focus.Flood victims have been living in “blocks,” areas designated for internally displaced persons.Goch said the amount of food he saw being offloaded into shops was too large to belong to individuals. He also said there was no reason food-insecure people would sell their shares of the president’s food donations.The rations given were “not enough and didn’t reach the people intended,” Goch said. He also questioned the amount of money the government earns from the country’s oil revenues and insisted that some of the food donations were “taken by the government officials.”Goch is urging the office of the president to investigate what happened to the food donations and take appropriate measures against those found responsible for stealing food assistance.More than 100,000 people were affected in Bor town by flash floods following heavy rains and the overflow of the Nile in 2020, according to state authorities.Michael Ghai, a resident of the Block 2 suburb in Bor, told South Sudan in Focus he had expected to receive his ration of the president’s food aid but received nothing.More than a month, and no aid”When our president came to Bor on April 1st, he promised to support people who are affected by the flood,” Ghai said. “He brought food items. We were told the distribution will be done in different phases. … I am now in Block 2, and up to now, I have not received any information about the food.”Kiir donated mainly maize flour, beans, cooking oil and wheat flour during his visit to Bor last month.Corruption has been a persistent and widespread problem in South Sudan since the country won independence in 2011.In April, on his last day as head of the U.N. Mission in South Sudan, David Shearer told reporters he had no doubt South Sudan could reignite its economy if it eliminated widespread corruption.”There hasn’t been a statement of account coming from South Sudan. … Apparently there’s been no formalized budget that’s been put in place, there’s no real transparency about where money is coming into the country and how it’s being spent, and all those are all important benchmarks of a modern state,” Shearer said.In a 2020 report, Transparency International ranked South Sudan the second most corrupt country or territory in the world, following Somalia. The Corruption Perceptions Index ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public-sector corruption. It draws on 13 expert assessments and surveys of business executives.Carol Van Dam contributed to this report.
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Taliban Link Progress in Afghan Peace Talks to Delisting of Top Leaders
The Taliban have ruled out progress in otherwise stalled peace negotiations with their adversaries in Afghanistan unless, they say, their leaders are removed from U.S. and U.N. sanctions lists.The hardened Taliban stance toward a political settlement to the deadly Afghan conflict comes amid intensified insurgent battlefield attacks, since the United States and NATO began pulling their last remaining troops from the country on May 1.In a commentary published on their official website, the Taliban described the sanctions as an obstacle in the negotiation process, saying that “so long as such lists exist” it would be “unreasonable” for the United Nations and other countries to expect intra-Afghan peace talks to successfully deliver a political settlement.Afghan security forces stand near an armored vehicle during ongoing fighting between Afghan security forces and Taliban fighters in the Busharan area on the outskirts of Lashkar Gah, the capital city of Helmand province, May 5, 2021.”It is imperative for mutual trust that names of individuals associated with the Islamic Emirate (Taliban) be completely, and not conditionally or temporarily, be removed from black and reward lists,” the Taliban said. The international sanctions were imposed in 1999, when the Taliban were in power in Kabul and had enforced harsh Islamic laws in Afghanistan.The punitive U.N. measures were expanded and U.S. subsequently also placed bounties on Taliban leaders after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, which Washington said al-Qaida leaders plotted from sanctuaries in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.Scores of top insurgent leaders were placed on the U.N. Security Council’s blacklist that imposes travel bans and asset freezes. Continued fighting Violence continues in Afghanistan, as U.S.-coalition forces pull out of the country. American warplanes reportedly backed Afghan forces in battling a major Taliban offensive in the southern Helmand province. The U.S. military continues “to deliver precision air strikes in support” of Afghan forces in Helmand and other regions of the country, a provincial official told AFP. A policeman stands guard at a road checkpoint as an internally displaced family flees from the ongoing fighting between Afghan security forces and Taliban fighters, on the outskirts of Lashkar Gah, the capital city of Helmand province, May 5, 2021.The fighting has inflicted casualties on both sides and forced thousands of people to flee to safety, say residents in the province. On Wednesday, officials said the Taliban captured the district of Barka in northern Baghlan province, made territorial advances in other areas and killed a district police chief, among others, in southeastern Paktika province. Foreign military withdrawal The foreign military drawdown, which is supposed to be concluded by September 11, stems from a February 2020 agreement the United States signed with the Taliban to wind down what has been America’s longest war. In return, the Taliban ceased attacks on U.S. and NATO forces and pledged to fight terrorism as well as negotiate a political settlement with Afghan rivals that would end the country’s long conflict.The deal had required all foreign troops to leave Afghanistan by May 1, but U.S. President Joe Biden missed the deadline, citing logistical reasons.However, peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban, which started in Qatar last September after the signing of the U.S.-Taliban deal, have mostly been deadlocked. FILE – Taliban delegates speak during talks between the Afghan government and Taliban insurgents in Doha, Qatar, Sept. 12, 2020.The Taliban denounced Washington for missing the troop withdrawal deadline and has refused to attend any peace-related meetings until all international forces leave the country. The insurgents have also called for the release of around 7,000 Taliban prisoners from Afghan jails, saying Washington pledged to deliver on those commitments at the signing of the pact.A senior U.S. State Department official confirmed on Tuesday during a background briefing that the Taliban repeatedly raised the prisoners’ release and delisting of their leaders in talks with American interlocutors.”The message that they have gotten back from us is that those things are nice, but our agreement with them also talked about a reduction in violence. It talked about a genuine negotiations toward a political settlement, and it also has some counterterrorism requirements that are not entirely met,” said the U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity.”Our message to the Taliban is that they need to get back to the negotiating table,” the official added. “There may be a package of steps eventually that gets talked about as to exactly how to orchestrate that and specially how to make the process successful.”Critics of Biden’s decision to withdraw say the Taliban will try to sweep back into power. The insurgents control or contest nearly half of Afghan territory.
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US Reports Steep Drop in Migrant Children Held by Border Patrol
Tens of thousands of migrants continue to arrive at the U.S.-Mexico border weekly, but for the first time in months the number of unaccompanied minors held by the U.S. Border Patrol has dipped below 1,000, down from more than 5,000 a month ago, according to U.S. officials.Earlier this week, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas reported an 88% drop since March 28 in the number of migrant youths being kept at U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) facilities that for months have been strained beyond capacity.The sharp decline constitutes the first concrete sign of progress in an early and thorny challenge for the Biden administration, which has faced criticism from lawmakers of both political parties amid a sharp rise in migrant arrivals at America’s southern border.In a statement Mayorkas hailed what he termed “dramatic” results, adding, “We remain committed to this critical mission.”Recent months have seen severe overcrowding at CBP facilities, which are the first stop for migrants encountered at the border and are not designed to care for children.U.S. policy has long been to transfer migrant youths within 72 hours to the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement under the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and place them in specialized facilities designed to accommodate children’s needs. From there, unaccompanied minors are typically released to family members living in the United States or into foster care.For months, inadequate capacity at HHS facilities delayed transfers from CBP beyond the 72-hour window, causing migrant youth populations at CBP stations to rise. As of Tuesday, there were 22,000 children under HHS care.The Biden administration said it is solving the problem by expanding An asylum-seeking migrant girl is carried by a Department of Public Safety agent while her mother is disembarking from an inflatable raft after crossing the Rio Grande river into the United States from Mexico in Roma, Texas, May 5, 2021.South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham suggested the massive federal effort to accommodate migrant minors serves to draw more unauthorized border crossers.“The new Biden Administration policy of processing all 16-year-old and younger unaccompanied minors in the United States has led to a dramatic increase in unaccompanied minors showing up at our border,” Graham tweeted earlier this week.The Biden administration has exempted minors from a pandemic-related emergency measure implemented by the former Trump administration that blocked people of all ages from seeking asylum in the United States.Migrant border arrivals, including unaccompanied children, rose late last year and have accelerated further in the early months of 2021.
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Tokyo Olympics Test Event Praised By Key Track & Field Official
An Olympic test event to evaluate COVID-19 safety protocols for the upcoming Tokyo Games has won praise from the head of the world governing body of track and field.
Organizers of Wednesday’s test marathon race in the northern Japanese city of Sapporo pleaded with the general public not to attend the event, even deploying staff along the route with signs that read “please refrain from watching the event from here.” The few athletes who took part in the race had to undergo strict testing protocols before and after entering Japan, and were largely restricted to their hotel rooms unless they were training.
World Athletics chief Sebastian Coe said the organizing committee demonstrated “the highest level of capability” to stage the marathon and race walk events in Sapporo. The events were originally supposed to be staged in Tokyo, but were moved to avoid the city’s hot summer temperatures.
The delayed Tokyo Olympics will be held from July 23 to August 8. Organizers postponed the games for a year when the novel coronavirus began spreading across the globe.
But with Tokyo and other parts of Japan under a state of emergency to quell a surge of new COVID-19 infections, recent public opinion polls show an overwhelming majority of Japanese believe the Olympics should be postponed again or cancelled.
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Germany’s Merkel Stresses Importance of US-European Relations
German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday stressed the importance of the transatlantic relationship, saying the United States will always be Europe’s most important partner. Speaking during a digital foreign relations conference, sponsored by her parliamentary coalition, Merkel said transatlantic cooperation is “back in business, if you want to put it that way,” referring to the election of U.S. President Joe Biden. Merkel conceded that relations with the Trump administration hadn’t been as good as they might have been. Relations between Merkel and President Donald Trump had been strained over issues such as Russia and funding for NATO. She added that “back in business” did not necessarily mean “business as usual,” as a lot has changed in recent years. But Merkel said it was clear to her during “difficult” years that “we can only find answers to common tasks and the questions of the future in closer cooperation.” Merkel said that while Germany had no interest in a world divided into camps as it was during the Cold War, it was good that the United States, Europe’s “most important ally,” stood alongside the continent in rivalries with China and Russia. The chancellor also said global issues such as trade and climate change cannot be solved without good relations with China as well. Merkel said she also supported a bilateral trade agreement between the European Union and the United States. “We have trade agreements with so many of the world’s regions,” she said. “It would make a lot of sense to develop such a trade agreement here, similar to what we have done with Canada.” After 13 years in office, Merkel has announced she will not seek reelection in the national vote later this year.
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Spain’s Bullrings Reopen and Reignite Fiery Debate
As its COVID-19 lockdown eases, Spain has resumed bullfights — and reignited a fiery political debate between right-wingers who defend the tradition and leftists who condemn it as animal cruelty. Jonathan Spier narrates this report from Alfonso Beato in Barcelona.Camera: Alfonso Beato
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Report: US Birth Rate Lowest Ever
A report released Wednesday shows the U.S. birth rate fell 4 percent last year, the largest single-year decrease in 42 years, to the lowest level since statistics began more than a century ago.The National Center for Health Statistics, part of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, (CDC) says the general birth rate dropped for mothers of every major race and ethnicity, and in every age group, falling to 55.8 births per 1,000 women between the ages of 14 and 44.The report shows the number of births fell to 3,605,201, the lowest number of births since 1979, down 4 percent from 2019 and the sixth consecutive year that the number fell an average of two percent per year. That compares to 4.3 million U.S. births in 2007.The report shows the birth rate among 15 – to -19-year-olds fell 8 percent from 2019, the 30th consecutive year births dropped among that age group.By ethnicity, birth rates fell 8 percent for Asian American women, 3 percent for Hispanic women; 4 percent for Black and white women; and 6 percent for Native American women.The percentage of infants born small and premature — at less than 37 weeks of gestation — fell slightly, to 10 percent, after rising five years in a row. The data is considered provisional because it is based on 99.87 percent of all 2020 birth records received and processed by the National Center for Health Statistics as of February 11, 2021. Comparisons are made with final 2019 data and earlier years.
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French Journalist Kidnapped in Northern Mali Appears in Video
A journalist who disappeared last month in Mali’s northern city of Gao appeared in a video on Wednesday appealing to authorities to do everything they can to free him from Islamist militants holding him.
“I’m Olivier Dubois. I’m French. I’m a journalist. I was kidnapped in Gao on April 8 by the JNIM (al-Qaeda North Africa).
“I’m speaking to my family, my friends and the French authorities for them to do everything in their power to free me,” Dubois said in a 21-second video shared on social media.
French civilians have long been favored targets for kidnapping by criminal and Islamist groups in West Africa’s arid Sahel region, partly because of perceptions that the French government is prepared to pay ransoms to secure their release.
France has repeatedly denied paying ransoms for hostages.
“We confirm the disappearance in Mali of Mr. Olivier Dubois,” the French Foreign Ministry said in a statement, stopping short of describing it as a kidnapping.
The ministry said it was in contact with his family and carrying out technical checks on the authenticity of the video.
Malian authorities were not immediately available for comment.
Dubois is the first French national to be taken hostage by jihadist militants in Mali since French aid worker Sophie Petronin was freed in October last year. She had been abducted near Gao in late 2016.
Islamist militants have repeatedly declared French citizens in West Africa to be targets since a 2013 military intervention by France drove back al-Qaeda-linked groups that had seized cities and towns in northern Mali a year earlier.
Scores of Islamist insurgents were released in a prisoner swap deal that liberated Petronin, a senior Malian politician and two Italians.
The head of Reporters Without Borders said on Twitter that the media freedom organization had been aware of Dubois’s disappearance two days after he did not return to his hotel in Gao after lunch.
Christophe Deloire said Dubois worked for France’s Le Point magazine and Liberation newspaper.
“In consultation with the news organizations that employed him, we decided not to announce that he had been taken hostage so as not to hinder a rapid possible outcome,” Deloire said. “We are asking Malian and French authorities to do everything possible to obtain his release.”
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Australia Faces Court Challenge to Indian Travel Ban
The Australian government on Wednesday faced a court challenge to its temporary Indian travel ban brought by a 73-year-old citizen stranded in the city of Bengaluru.
The government is resisting growing pressure to lift the travel ban imposed last week until May 15 to reduce COVID-19 infection rates in Australian quarantine facilities.
Lawyers for Gary Newman, one of 9,000 Australians prevented from returning home from India, made an urgent application to the Federal Court in Sydney on Wednesday for a judge to review the travel ban imposed under the Biosecurity Act by Health Minister Greg Hunt.
Lawyer Christopher Ward told the court one of the grounds was related to questions of proportionality and reasonableness. Two grounds were based on statutory interpretation and a fourth questioned the ban’s constitutionality.
Justice Stephen Burley said an expedited hearing date would be announced within 48 hours.
Hunt announced late Friday that anyone who sets foot in Australia during the travel ban within 14 days of visiting India faces up to five years in prison and a fine of up to 66,000 Australian dollars ($51,000).
The Australian Medical Association this week called on Hunt and Prime Minister Scott Morrison to withdraw the order, which the nation’s top doctors’ group condemned as “overreach.”
Some critics have accused the government of racism because such drastic travel restrictions were not introduced when infection rates were rapidly increasing in the United States and Europe.
Morrison said he was not concerned that the travel disruption might damage relations with India, which he described as “a great friend of Australia.”
“This pause is enabling us to get on the right footing to be able to restore those repatriation flights and we’re making good progress to do that,” Morrison said.
“Had we not done the pause, we would have been eroding our capability to do that over the medium-to-longer term,” he added.
Critics of the travel ban include former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson as well as several Australian lawmakers and Indian community leaders.
India is in the grip of a devastating surge that has overwhelmed hospitals struggling to secure oxygen supplies.
A chartered Qantas flight had departed Sydney carrying medical supplies to India including 1,056 ventilators and 43 oxygen concentrators, the Australian government said in a statement.
The donated supplies will be distributed by the Indian Red Cross and local authorities to ensure support reaches those in greatest need, the government said.
Australia has used its geographic isolation as an island nation to its advantage in fighting the pandemic. It has been among the most successful countries in preventing the virus’s spread in the community.
But a libertarian group will challenge in the Federal Court on Thursday Australia’s tight restrictions on its citizens leaving the country for fear that they would bring the virus home.
LibertyWorks will argue that Hunt does not have the power under the Biosecurity Act to ban most Australians from leaving the country.
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Faith Leaders Join Efforts to Promote Covid-19 Vaccines
With an estimated one-third of the U.S. population hesitant to get a COVID-19 vaccine, a new study indicates that approaches by faith community leaders can help convince people to get the shot. VOA’s Laurel Bowman reports from a church in Washington which was the site of the city’s first reported COVID-19 case.Camera: Sabiq Ul Islam
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Italy Jury Deliberates Fate of 2 Americans in Police Slaying
A jury in Rome on Wednesday began deliberating the fates of two young American men who are charged with killing an Italian police officer near the hotel where they were staying while on summer vacation in 2019. Finnegan Lee Elder, 21, and Gabriel Natale-Hjorth, 20, were indicated on charges of homicide, attempted extortion, assault, resisting a public official and carrying an attack-style knife without just cause. Judge Marina Finiti indicated the verdicts could come later Wednesday or on Thursday. Prosecutors alleged that Elder stabbed Vice Bridgadier Mario Cerciello Rega 11 times with a knife he brought with him on his trip to Europe from California and that Natale-Hjorth helped him hide the knife in their hotel room. The July 26, 2019 slaying of the officer from the storied Carabinieri paramilitary police corps shocked Italy. Cerciello Rega, 35, was mourned as a national hero. The two Californians on trial were allowed out of steel-barred defendant cages inside the courtroom to sit with their lawyers before the case went to the jury, which consists of presiding judge Finiti, a second judge and six civilian jurors. “I’m stressed,” Elder said to one of his lawyers. At another point during Wednesday’s brief court hearing, Elder took a crucifix he wears on a chain around his neck and kissed it. Cerciello Rega had recently returned from a honeymoon when he was assigned along with a plainclothes police partner, officer Andrea Varriale, to follow up on a reported extortion attempt. Prosecutors contend the young Americans concocted a plot involving a stolen bag and cellphone after their attempt to buy cocaine with 80 euros ($96) in Rome’s Trastevere nightlife district didn’t pan out. Natale-Hjorth and Elder testified they had paid for the cocaine but didn’t receive it. Both defendants contended they acted in self-defense. During the trial, which began on Feb. 26, 2020, the Americans told the court they thought that Cerciello Rega and Varriale were thugs or mobsters out to assault them on a dark, deserted street. The officers wore casual summer clothes and not uniforms, and the defendants insisted the officers never showed police badges. Under Italian law, an accomplice in an alleged murder can also be charged with murder even without materially doing the slaying. Varriale, who suffered a back injury in a scuffle with Natale-Hjorth while his partner was grappling with Elder, testified that the officers did identify themselves as Carabinieri. Prosecutor Maria Sabina Calabretta has asked the court to convict both defendants and to mete out Italy’s stiffest punishment, life imprisonment. At the time of the slaying, Elder was 19 and traveling through Europe without his family, while Natale-Hjorth, then 18, was spending summer vacation with his Italian grandparents, who live near Rome. Former classmates from the San Francisco Bay area, the two had met up in Rome for what was supposed to be couple of days of sightseeing and nights out.
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US Customs Seizes Malaysian Firm’s Medical Gloves After Forced Labor Finding
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has seized a shipment of 3.97 million nitrile disposable gloves estimated to be worth about $518,000 from Malaysia’s Top Glove Corp. on indications they were made by forced labor, it said Wednesday.CBP on March 29 issued a forced labor finding based on evidence of multiple forced labor indicators in the world’s largest medical glove maker’s production process.It had initially banned products from two of Top Glove’s subsidiaries in July but extended the ban to all the manufacturer’s products made in Malaysia in March.The indicators included debt bondage, excessive overtime, abusive working and living conditions, and retention of identity documents, the CBP said in a statement.The agency then directed personnel at all U.S. ports of entry to begin seizing disposable gloves produced in Malaysia by the glove maker.”CBP continues to facilitate the importation of legitimate PPE needed for the COVID-19 pandemic while ensuring that the PPE is authorized and safe for use,” said Cleveland Area Port Director Diann Rodriguez, referring to personal protective equipment.Top Glove said last month its glove production has been affected because of the U.S. ban, and it announced last week it had resolved all indicators of forced labor in its operations, citing a report by the ethical trade consultancy it hired.
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Facebook Oversight Panel to Rule on Trump Ban
Facebook’s quasi-independent Oversight Board is set to announce Wednesday whether the social media company was correct to indefinitely prohibit former U.S. President Donald Trump from posting to his Facebook and Instagram accounts.The board is made up of 20 members, including legal scholars, human rights experts and journalists. A panel of five members prepares a decision, which must be approved by a majority of the full board, and which Facebook is then required to implement unless the action could violate the law.The board says its mission is to “answer some of the most difficult questions around freedom of expression online: what to take down, what to leave up, and why.”Trump’s ban dates to the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by his supporters that came as members of Congress were meeting to certify the results of the November presidential election.In this Jan. 6, 2021, file photo, Trump supporters participate in a rally in Washington.He made several posts during the attack continuing his false claims that the election was “stolen.” Facebook removed two of Trump’s posts and initially banned him from posting for 24 hours.“These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly unfairly treated for so long,” Trump posted about two hours before police and National Guard troops secured the Capitol. “Go home with love in peace. Remember this day forever!”Facebook decided the next day to extend Trump’s ban indefinitely, at least past the inauguration of President Joe Biden.“His decision to use his platform to condone rather than condemn the actions of his supporters at the Capitol building has rightly disturbed people in the US and around the world. We removed these statements yesterday because we judged that their effect — and likely their intent — would be to provoke further violence,” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a January 7 statement.Twitter instituted a permanent ban against Trump, saying several of his posts “are likely to inspire others to replicate the violent acts that took place on January 6, 2021, and that there are multiple indicators that they are being received and understood as encouragement to do so.”The Facebook Oversight Board was created last October after the company faced criticism it was not quickly and effectively dealing with what some feel is problematic content.The board announced its first decisions in January, supporting Facebook’s decision to remove content in one case, but overruling the company and ordering it to restore posts in four other cases.
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Indian Diaspora in US Heartbroken as COVID Rages in India
The Indian diaspora living in the United States is watching in horror as India battles a devastating surge of COVID-19. More with VOA Correspondent Mariama Diallo.
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Mali Woman Gives Birth to 9 Babies, Government Says
A Malian woman gave birth to nonuplets in Morocco on Tuesday, and all nine babies are “doing well,” her government said, although Moroccan authorities had yet to confirm what would be an extremely rare case. Mali’s government flew 25-year-old Halima Cisse, a woman from the northern part of the West African state, to Morocco for better care on March 30. She was initially believed to have been carrying septuplets. Cases of women successfully carrying septuplets to term are rare; nonuplets, even rarer. Moroccan health ministry spokesman Rachid Koudhari said he had no knowledge of such a multiple birth having taken place in one of the country’s hospitals. But Mali’s health ministry said in a statement that Cisse had given birth to five girls and four boys by cesarean section. “The mother and babies are doing well so far,” Mali’s Health Minister Fanta Siby told AFP, adding that she had been kept informed by the Malian doctor who accompanied Cisse to Morocco. They are due to return home in several weeks’ time, she added. Doctors had been concerned about Cisse’s health, according to local press reports, as well as her babies’ chances of survival. Mali’s health ministry said in a statement that ultrasound examinations conducted in both Mali and Morocco had suggested that Cisse was carrying seven babies. Siby offered her congratulations to “the medical teams of Mali and Morocco, whose professionalism is at the origin of the happy outcome of this pregnancy.”
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Chauvin’s Lawyer Seeks New Trial, Impeachment of Verdict
The defense attorney for the former Minneapolis police officer convicted of killing George Floyd has requested a new trial, saying the court abused its discretion on several points and that the verdict should be impeached because of jury misconduct, according to a court document filed Tuesday. Derek Chauvin, who is white, was convicted last month of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in the May 25 death of Floyd. Evidence at trial showed Chauvin pressed his knee against Floyd’s neck for 9 1/2 minutes as the Black man said he couldn’t breathe and went motionless. Defense attorney Eric Nelson cited many reasons in his request for a new trial. He said Judge Peter Cahill abused the discretion of the court and violated Chauvin’s right to due process and a fair trial when he denied Nelson’s request to move the trial to another county due to pretrial publicity. He also said Cahill abused his discretion when he denied an earlier request for a new trial based on publicity during the proceedings, which Nelson said threatened the fairness of the trial. Nelson also took issue with Cahill’s refusal to sequester the jury for the trial or admonish them to avoid all media, and with his refusal to allow a man who was with Floyd at the time of his arrest to testify. Nelson asked the judge to impeach the verdict on the grounds that the jury committed misconduct, felt pressured, and/or failed to adhere to jury instructions, though the filing did not include details about that assertion. To impeach a verdict is to question its validity. The brief did not mention recent reports that one of the jurors participated in an August 28 march in Washington, D.C., to honor Martin Luther King Jr. That juror, Brandon Mitchell, has defended his actions, saying the event was to commemorate the 1963 March on Washington and was not a protest over Floyd’s death. Floyd’s brother and sister, Philonise and Bridgett Floyd, and relatives of others who had been shot by police, addressed the crowd at the march last summer. Nelson did not immediately return a message seeking details on his allegation of juror misconduct.
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Taiwan Star Wars Fans Celebrate Unofficial Holiday Atop Nation’s Tallest Building
Dozens of Taiwanese Star Wars fans gathered on the top floor of the nation’s tallest building Tuesday to salute their favorite movie, while stressing the importance of wearing face masks to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.Fans dressed in full Star Wars costumes held mock lightsaber battles and posed for pictures on the 89th floor of the Taipei 101 financial building for what has become an annual observance of what has become known as international Star Wars Day.Organizer of the event Makoto Tsai told reporters he also wanted the “opportunity to introduce interesting places of Taiwan to the world,” because International Star Wars Day, “is an event watched by all the Star Wars fans in the world.”Tsai said their annual event was cancelled last year because the pandemic was at its worst in Taiwan. He said while COVID-19 is largely contained in Taiwan, he is aware that much of the world is continuing to struggle with it.He said he wanted to use his Taiwan gathering to show the world the importance of wearing a mask to fight COVID.“Every character today, including those who wear a helmet, is wearing a mask. I hope to show Star Wars fans of the world that even in Taiwan, we all have to wear the mask. And I hope the pandemic goes away soon.”May the 4th has become the unofficial international “Star Wars Day” over the years, as a play on the famous catch phrase of the movie, “May the force be with you.” Media reports trace the international origins of the day to 1979, when Britain’s Conservative Party won elections there and then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher first assumed her office.The party reportedly took out a newspaper advertisement congratulating the day she took office — May the 4th — saying “May the Fourth Be With You, Maggie. Congratulations!”Reports say a copy of the original advertisement has yet to be found, so the story has not been officially verified.
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Rights Groups Urge Kenya to Reconsider Closing Refugee Camps
Human rights groups in Kenya are urging authorities to reconsider plans to close two camps that are home to over 400,000 refugees and asylum-seekers.Kenya has said it will close the Kakuma and Dadaab camps next year, but residents of the camps, who are mostly from Somalia and South Sudan, are hoping that further negotiations can keep the camps open.Among them is Ribe Andro, who fled the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2012 during violent clashes between militia groups and police. He has since found a home in Kakuma, where he is raising his five children.Andro is hopeful that the Kenyan government can work with the U.N. refugee agency and find a way to keep the camps open.Kenyan authorities argue the two camps pose a security threat and are a strain on the country’s resources. The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees and the government have held ongoing talks about keeping the camps open. But in a statement released April 29, Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i said Kenya is serious about completing a repatriation program, which began in 2016. “We, therefore, reiterate our earlier position to close both Dadaab and Kakuma camps by June 30, 2022,” Matiang’i said. But security experts say incidents of crime and violence related to the camps are too low to warrant their closure. “Let’s police the refugee camps more,” said George Musamali, a security analyst in Kenya. “Let’s provide resources to the refugee camps, and you’ll find that some of these refugees were born there, so you are sending them to countries that they have never been to, they don’t even know.” FILE – An aerial picture shows a section of the Dadaab camp near the Kenya-Somalia border.Irungu Houghton, executive director at Amnesty International Kenya, agrees that many camp residents are ill-suited to build new lives in Somalia or South Sudan. “Many of the refugees in Kenya are third-generation refugees and, therefore, some of them may opt to stay in Kenya and to be integrated into the Kenyan society,” Houghton said. “I think that option should be explored and supported for those refugees that would prefer to stay in a country that they have known.” Kenya has threatened to close the camps in the past without following through, but as things stand now, refugees like Andro have just over a year to leave the camps and settle elsewhere.
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US Lawmaker Liz Cheney Drawing Criticism for Attacks on Trump
U.S. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said Tuesday there is growing concern among Republican lawmakers about the ability of Congresswoman Liz Cheney to lead the party’s caucus in the chamber while she continues to assail former President Donald Trump for inciting his supporters to storm the U.S. Capitol on January 6. “I have heard from members concerned about her ability to carry out her job as conference chair, to carry out the message” supporting Republicans trying to win control of the House from Democrats in next year’s congressional elections, McCarthy told the Fox News Channel. FILE – House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., responds during his weekly news conference at the Capitol in Washington, March 18, 2021.”We all need to be working as one if we’re able to win the majority,” he said. “Remember, majorities are not given. They are earned.” McCarthy’s comments came as Cheney, the No. 3 Republican leader in the House and the daughter of former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, continued her barrage of attacks on Trump for his role in the deadly assault on the Capitol as lawmakers were certifying Democrat Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential election. On Monday, Cheney told the annual retreat of the conservative American Enterprise Institute in Sea Island, Georgia, that Trump’s false claim that he was cheated out of a second term in the White House was “poison in the bloodstream of our democracy.” The 54-year-old lawmaker accused Trump of encouraging hundreds of his supporters to confront lawmakers as they were ratifying Biden’s victory, which she described as an attack on the peaceful transfer of power from one president to another. “We can’t whitewash what happened on January 6 or perpetuate Trump’s big lie,” she said. “It is a threat to democracy. What he did on January 6 is a line that cannot be crossed.” FILE – Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., center, speaks with President Donald Trump during a bill-signing ceremony for the Women’s Suffrage Centennial Commemorative Coin Act in the Oval Office of the White House, Nov. 25, 2019.Earlier Monday, six months to the day he lost the election, Trump said in a statement, “The Fraudulent Presidential Election of 2020 will be, from this day forth, known as THE BIG LIE!” But Cheney, one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump for his role in the insurrection at the Capitol, responded quickly on Twitter, saying, “The 2020 presidential election was not stolen. Anyone who claims it was is spreading THE BIG LIE, turning their back on the rule of law, and poisoning our democratic system.” Cheney has said she has no intention of quitting her Republican leadership position. In February, she easily defeated an attempt by Republican critics to oust her, but dismay about her attacks on Trump seems to have grown since then. Another Republican Trump critic, Senator Mitt Romney, who voted twice to convict Trump at the former president’s two Senate impeachment trials, voiced support for Cheney’s stance. “Every person of conscience draws a line beyond which they will not go: Liz Cheney refuses to lie,” Romney said on Twitter. “As one of my Republican Senate colleagues said to me following my impeachment vote: ‘I wouldn’t want to be a member of a group that punished someone for following their conscience.'” But other Republican lawmakers have remained beholden to Trump or muted themselves in assessing his role in the attack on the Capitol. Several leading Republican lawmakers, including McCarthy, have traveled to Florida to visit with Trump at his oceanfront mansion and talk politics. Trump has suggested he might run for the presidency again in 2024 but said he won’t decide until after the 2022 congressional elections.
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US Intelligence Assessment Backs Fears for Afghan Women
A newly declassified U.S. intelligence assessment warns that women in Afghanistan are likely to see their rights disappear should the Taliban come to power following the withdrawal of U.S. forces.The two-page Sense of the Community Memorandum, released Tuesday by the U.S. National Intelligence Council, finds no reason to believe the Taliban have changed their views on women’s rights despite some public statements to the contrary.”The Taliban remains broadly consistent in its restrictive approach to women’s rights and would roll back much of the past two decades’ progress if the group regained national power,” the assessment states.”The Taliban has seen minimal leadership turnover, maintains inflexible negotiating positions, and enforces strict social constraints in areas that it already controls,” it adds.The findings echo fears expressed by a variety of officials and human rights groups and are likely to feed a growing anxiety among many Afghan women.”Right now, all Afghan women are concerned, really concerned,” a woman who identified herself as Mehbooha told VOA. “We wish the international community would do something about protecting us. We fear things will go back to the past.”Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
FILE – Afghan women wait to receive free wheat donated by the government during a quarantine, amid concerns about the COVID-19 in Kabul, April 21, 2020.Still, the assessment warns that women’s rights in Afghanistan are likely to face setbacks even without the Taliban finding ways to force their views on Afghan society.”After decades of intensive international focus and funding, Afghanistan still ranks at or near the bottom of multiple U.N. (United Nations) and other global indices of conditions for women,” the assessment notes.”In some rural Pashtun areas, tribal codes that predate the Taliban require women’s full-body covering or seclusion in their homes as a means of protecting their perceived virtue and their families’ honor,” the intelligence memorandum says. “Nationwide, child marriage and stoning for adultery persist, and rape victims are killed by relatives for shaming their families.”The U.S. assessment also points out that of the approximately 9 million Afghan children enrolled in school, only about 3.5 million are girls, and that less than half of all girls attend secondary school.U.S. Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen, who has been vocal about the potential setbacks facing Afghan women, on Tuesday praised women members of Afghanistan’s parliament following a virtual meeting.“[The] women engaged in the political and civil discourse around the rights of Afghan women and girls are so brave. But they shouldn’t have to be,” Shaheen said in a statement. “We cannot afford the hard-fought gains for women and minority populations to be lost.”U.S. President Joe Biden has pledged to continue support for women’s rights in Afghanistan after troops leave.Ayesha Tanzeem in Kabul and Cindy Saine in Washington contributed to this report.
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G-7 Foreign Ministers Meet in London as Russia, China Top Agenda
Foreign ministers of the Group of Seven (G-7) industrialized nations are meeting in London this week, with climate change, Russia and China among the challenges topping the agenda. It is the first face-to-face G-7 meeting in two years, after the coronavirus pandemic forced the Pittsburgh 2020 foreign ministers’ meeting to be held via video link. Russia was ejected from what was then the G-8 in 2014, after its forceful annexation of Crimea. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday condemned Moscow’s recent deployment of troops on Ukraine’s border. “We are focused very much on Russia’s actions and what course it chooses to take,” Blinken told reporters in London. “President Biden has been very clear for a long time, including before he was president, that if Russia chooses to act recklessly or aggressively, we’ll respond. But we are not looking to escalate. We would prefer to have a more stable, more predictable relationship.” FILE – Chinese staffers adjust U.S. and Chinese flags before a session of negotiations between U.S. and Chinese trade representatives, at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, in Beijing, China, Feb. 14, 2019.China challenge The secretary of state also addressed the challenge posed by China. “It is not our purpose to try to contain China or to hold China down,” said Blinken. “What we are trying to do is to uphold the international rules-based order that our countries have invested so much in over so many decades to the benefit, I would argue, not just of our own citizens but of people around the world, including, by the way, China.” Chinese state media accused the United States on Tuesday of “deliberately hyping up the so-called ‘China threat”’ and attempting to “sow discord between China and the world.” But the G-7 is simply upholding the principles enshrined at its foundation in 1975, said analyst John Kirton of the G7 Research Group at the University of Toronto. Its aim was “to protect within its own members, and promote globally, the values of open democracy and individual liberty. They were very much threatened by an expanding Russia above all in 1975. And they’re still threatened by Russia today, but also China and other authoritarian regimes,” said Kirton. Britain, which is hosting the meeting, as it holds the rotating presidency of the G-7, also invited foreign ministers from Australia, India, South Africa and South Korea to the talks, a demonstration of London’s focus on the Indo-Pacific region, Kirton said. “What we are seeing is the birth of a broader democratic family. And if they’re willing to put their countries’ names on paper alongside the democratic seven, the G-7 itself, that will be an even more powerful signal,” he noted. FILE – U.S. soldiers load onto a U.S. military plane as they leave Afghanistan, at the U.S. base in Bagram, north of Kabul, Afghanistan, July 14, 2011.Global conflicts G-7 foreign ministers also discussed a coordinated response to the military coup in Myanmar and the violent crackdown on pro-democracy protests. The U.S. and NATO pullout from Afghanistan, which began this month, was also on the agenda. British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab denied reports U.S. allies felt ignored by Washington regarding the decision to withdraw. “We’ve had very good consultation on this, and we continue that,” Raab told reporters Monday. “We certainly see the priority is protecting our troops in the period between now and September, making sure that we preserve the ability to deal with counterterrorism, that the gains that were hard-won in Afghanistan are not lost, and also ultimately promoting dialogue and a peace process that benefits all Afghans and leaves Afghanistan as stable as possible, as inclusive as possible.” The European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell updated delegates on negotiations with Iran over the future of the 2015 nuclear deal, which the Biden administration is considering rejoining. “I had the opportunity to talk with my colleagues about the situation of the negotiations of the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action), the nuclear deal with Iran, sharing with Secretary of State Blinken the situation of these negotiations, which are difficult but going on, and from Friday, we’ll start a new round of these negotiations,” Borrell said Tuesday. A patient collapses as she is rushed on a cycle rickshaw outside a Gurudwara (Sikh Temple), which provides free oxygen to patients amid COVID-19 surge in Ghaziabad, India.Pandemic response G-7 foreign ministers also discussed the coronavirus pandemic and issued a statement calling for the recovery to focus on women’s employment and girls’ education. The ministers pledged to invest $15 billion in the next two years to help women in developing countries find jobs, build sustainable businesses and weather the “devastating” economic effects of COVID-19. “They will also sign up to new global targets to get 40 million more girls into school and 20 million more girls reading by the age of 10 in low and lower middle-income countries by 2026,” the statement said. Campaigners are calling on the G-7 to ensure that poorer countries get access to coronavirus vaccines. The United Nations says close to 90% of all vaccines administered worldwide have gone to richer nations. The response to the pandemic will be a focus when Britain hosts the G-7 leaders’ summit in June, set to be Joe Biden’s first overseas visit as U.S. president.
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