Three people were killed and more than two dozen others were hospitalized after a wooden boat capsized Sunday in what may be a human smuggling operation just off the San Diego coast, authorities said. Local lifeguards, the U.S. Coast Guard and other agencies responded around 10:30 a.m. following reports of an overturned vessel near the peninsula of Point Loma, according to the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department.Three people died at the scene and 27 people were taken to hospitals with “varying degrees of injuries,” department spokesman Jose Ysea said. Ysea said when he arrived at the scene near the Cabrillo National Monument there was a “large debris field” of broken wood and other items in the choppy waters. “In that area of Point Loma it’s very rocky. It’s likely the waves just kept pounding the boat, breaking it apart,” Ysea said. He said it was possible, but not confirmed, that the group had been packed in a low-slung panga boat, a type of motorized vessel often made of wood used by smugglers to bring people illegally into the U.S. from Mexico.Officials believed everyone on board was accounted for, but crews in boats and aircraft continued to search the area for possible survivors, Ysea said. U.S. Border Patrol didn’t immediately respond to inquiries about the capsizing.Border Patrol often spots pangas off the San Diego coast, many of them crowded with about 20 passengers. Some boats have landed hundreds of miles north of the border. Deaths are unusual but not unprecedented.On Thursday, border officials intercepted a panga-type vessel traveling without navigation lights 11 miles (18 kilometers) off the coast of Point Loma with 21 people on board. The crew took all 15 men and six women into custody. Agents determined all were Mexican citizens with no legal status to enter the U.S., according to a statement released by Customs and Border Protection. Two of the people on the boat, the suspected smugglers, will face federal charges, it said. Border Patrol on Friday said law enforcement officials would be ramping up operations to disrupt maritime smuggling off the coast of San Diego this weekend. As warmer weather comes to San Diego, there is a misperception that it will make illegal crossings safer or easier, the agency said in a statement.
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Month: May 2021
New Portuguese Bridge Not for the Faint-hearted
It’s probably best if you prepare yourself before you look down from the Arouca Bridge.The narrow footbridge suspended across a river canyon in northern Portugal claims to be the world’s longest pedestrian bridge and was officially inaugurated Sunday.The Arouca Bridge offers a half-kilometer (almost 1,700-foot) walk across its span, along a metal walkway suspended from cables. Some 175 meters (574 feet) below, the Paiva River flows through a waterfall.Arouca lies 300 kilometers (186 miles) north of Lisbon, the Portuguese capital. Local residents took a first walk on the bridge last week. Many were thrilled — even as some admitted it was a little unnerving to feel so high up and exposed.Guinness World Records says on its website that the world’s longest suspension bridge for pedestrians is Japan’s Kokonoe Yume Bridge, which opened in 2006 and spans 390 meters (1,280 feet). But the Charles Kuonen Suspension Bridge, which opened in the Swiss Alps in 2017, challenges that mark at 494 meters (1,621 feet).The Arouca Bridge cost 2.3 million euros ($2.8 million) to build. Children younger than 6 are not allowed on it and all visits will be accompanied by guides.
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Manchester United’s Game Off After Fans Storm Stadium in Protest
Anti-ownership protests by Manchester United fans forced the postponement of Sunday’s Premier League game against Liverpool as supporters stormed the stadium and reached the pitch, while thousands of others gathered outside the Old Trafford pitch to demand the Glazer family ownership sell the club.Long-running anger against the American owners has boiled over after they were part of the failed attempt to take United into the European Super League. Supporters have been kept out of games due to the coronavirus pandemic.United and Liverpool players were unable to travel to the stadium where there were clashes briefly between fans and the police under a shower of glass bottles as flares were sent off. Although the crowds were later dispersed around the time the game was due to start, United said the game was postponed “due to safety and security considerations around the protest” after discussions with police, authorities and the league.”Our fans are passionate about Manchester United, and we completely acknowledge the right to free expression and peaceful protest,” United said in a statement. “However, we regret the disruption to the team and actions which put other fans, staff, and the police in danger. We thank the police for their support and will assist them in any subsequent investigations.”The Premier League, which was yet to announce a new date for the match, expressed concern about the disorder.”The security and safety of everyone at Old Trafford remains of paramount importance,” the Premier League said in a statement. “We understand and respect the strength of feeling but condemn all acts of violence, criminal damage and trespass, especially given the associated COVID-19 breaches. Fans have many channels by which to make their views known, but the actions of a minority seen today have no justification.”We sympathize with the police and stewards who had to deal with a dangerous situation that should have no place in football.”The Glazers, who also own the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers, have declined to engage with fans since buying United in 2005 in a leveraged takeover that loaded debt onto the club.”Get out of our club,” fans chanted as flares were set off. “We want Glazers out.”Fans found a way into the stadium and also climbed onto vantage points next to turnstile entrances.Supporters wore green-and-gold scarves and also set off flares in the colors of the club’s 1878 formation. More than 100 fans got inside the stadium and some could be seen from windows waving down to protesters. Corner flags were held aloft and one supporter was seen throwing a tripod from the interview zone.Police on horseback later cleared protesting fans from outside the stadium, with glass bottles being thrown in brief clashes. Some fans moved back to a main road near the stadium with police forming a line to stop them returning.If United had lost the planned game, Manchester City would have won the Premier League title. United is the record 20-time English champion but hasn’t lifted the trophy since 2013.United and Liverpool were among six Premier League clubs that tried to form an exclusive European Super League along with three clubs each from Spain and Italy. Widespread opposition quickly ended the project, with all six English teams backing out within 48 hours of the announcement.The “Big 6” clubs have been in damage control since, offering various forms of apologies and statements of regret, while fans long frustrated with billionaire owners have called for wholesale changes.
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US Denies Hostage Deal With Iran
The United States is denying a report on Iranian state television that Tehran has reached a deal with Washington and Britain to free prisoners with Western ties in exchange for billions of dollars in new economic aid.”Reports that a prisoner swap deal has been reached are not true,” U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price said Sunday. “As we have said, we always raise the cases of Americans detained or missing in Iran. We will not stop until we are able to reunite them with their families.”White House chief of staff Ron Klain also denied the Iranian report on CBS News’s “Face the Nation” show, saying, “There is no agreement to release these four Americans. We’re working very hard to get them released.”Iranian state TV quoted a source as saying, “The Americans accepted to pay $7 billion and swap four Iranians who were active in bypassing sanctions for four American spies who have served part of their sentences.”Iran is known to hold four Americans in prison, including Baquer and Siamak Namazi, environmentalist Morad Tahbaz and Iranian-American businessman Emad Shargi. The state TV report did not name the Iranians that Tehran hoped to have repatriated in the swap.In addition, the state TV report quoted the source as saying Britain had agreed to pay $552 million for the release of a British-Iranian woman, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe.FILE – Richard Ratcliffe, husband of charity worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, imprisoned in Iran, calls for his wife’s release, outside the Iranian Embassy in London, Jan. 16, 2017.The British Foreign Office said the country continues to explore options to resolve the case, adding, “We will not comment further as legal discussions are ongoing.”Zaghari-Ratcliffe was sentenced last week to an additional year in prison, her lawyer said, for participating in a protest in front of the Iranian embassy in London in 2009.The new sentence came after she completed a five-year prison term in the Islamic Republic on her conviction for plotting to overthrow Iran’s government, a charge that she has denied. She was employed at the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of the news agency, when she was taken into custody at the Tehran airport in April 2016 as she was returning home to Britain after visiting family.The Iranian hostages-for-cash report came amid recent indirect talks in Vienna between the U.S. and Iran over U.S. President Joe Biden’s effort to rejoin the 2015 international compact with Tehran to curb Iran’s program to build a nuclear weapon. Biden’s immediate predecessor, Donald Trump, withdrew from the agreement in May 2018.Tehran says its nuclear weapons program is for peaceful purposes but has recently increased its enrichment of uranium.
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Black Candidate Challenges Political Status Quo in Spain
Two young Senegalese men met on a Europe-bound migrant boat in 2006, a year that saw a record influx of Africans to Spain’s Canary Islands. Since then, one died of a heart attack running away from Spanish police and the other is running in a polarized election Tuesday for a seat in Madrid’s regional assembly.Serigne Mbaye not only wants to fight what he considers to be “structural racism” against African migrants but also to defy a history of underrepresentation of the Black community and other people of color in Spanish politics.“That’s where all discrimination begins,” the 45-year-old told The Associated Press.In 2018, having failed to secure legal work and a residence permit, the man he met on the boat — Mame Mbaye, no relation — died of a heart attack eluding a police crackdown on street vendors.After that, Serigne Mbaye, who at the time represented a group of mostly Black African hawkers, became one of the most vocal voices against Spain’s Alien Law, saying it ties migrants arriving unlawfully to the underground economy. The regulation also punishes them with jail for committing minor offenses, leaving them with a criminal record that weighs against their chances of getting a residence permit.“His image at night when we were on the boat always haunts me,” said Serigne Mbaye, who is now a Spanish citizen. “The sole fact that he is dead and I’m alive is because of an unjust law that condemns and punishes us. Some of us make it. Some can spend 20 years in a vicious circle without papers.”Mbaye is running on a ticket with the anti-austerity United We Can party, the junior partner in the country’s ruling, Socialist-led coalition.Only a handful of Black people have succeeded in at the top level of Spanish politics. Equatorial Guinea-born Rita Bosaho, now the director of racial and ethnic diversity at Spain’s Equality Ministry, in 2015 became the first Black national lawmaker in four decades of democratic rule. Luc André Diouf, who also migrated from Senegal, also won a seat in Spain’s Lower House in 2019. At a lower, regional level, Mbaye wants to show that “Madrid is diverse.”“That a Black person is running in the lists has surprised many. In that way, this is making many people think,” he said.Vox, the country’s increasingly influential far-right party, has responded to Mbaye’s candidacy with an Instagram post vowing to deport him, even though that’s impossible because the far-left candidate is a Spanish citizen. With its mixture of patriotism and populist provocation, Vox has become the third force in the national parliament and might emerge as the kingmaker in Madrid’s May 4 election.“They are basically saying that because I’m Black there is no place for me here,” said Mbaye. “These are the kind of messages that criminalize us and that we continue receiving.”Vox has also made waves with large subway ads citing inaccurate figures comparing Madrid’s alleged public spending on unaccompanied foreign minors with the alleged average stipend for a retiree. The party blames the minors — a total of 269 people in the region’s population of 6.7 million — for increased insecurity.Judges have ruled that the billboards fall under free speech. But when Vox is accused by opponents of being racist, the party says its crusade is only against illegal migration and that a racist party wouldn’t have a mixed-race spokesman in northeastern Catalonia’s regional parliament. That’s Rafael Garriga, a dentist of Belgian and Equatorial Guinean descent.“By surrounding themselves with what they see as some kind of respectability, they try to legitimize clearly racist speech while not crossing certain legal lines,” said Antumi Toasijé, a historian who heads the National Council Against Ethnic and Racial Discrimination.The ascent of the far-right and the polarization in social media has normalized hate speech in Spain, he said.The Black Lives Matter movement led last year to some of the largest protests against racism seen in Spain. But while many condemned the murder of Black citizens by police in the United States, few reflected on domestic racism or Spain’s own history of colonialism, slavery and, according to Toasijé, “a long tradition of attempts to conduct ethnic cleansing.”In a country where the census doesn’t ask about race or ethnicity, like in much of Europe, a recent government study put the number of Black people in Spain at just over 700,000.Toasijé’s own estimation elevates the figure to at least 1.3 million “visibly” Black people, including sub-Saharan Africans, Black Latin Americans and Afro-descendants born in Spain. That would be 2.7% of the population, or at least nine Black lawmakers if the 350-seat Congress of Deputies reflected the country’s diversity. There is currently one Black lawmaker.Still, quotas or other measures that would help address racial inequality aren’t even part of the debate, said Toasijé.That underrepresentation also affects Spain’s Roma people, a community of 700,000 that scored a historic victory in 2019 by snatching four parliamentary seats, close to the 1.5% share it represents in the total population. But one of them failed to retain his seat in a repeated election. The situation isn’t better for descendants of Latin Americans or Moroccans, who represent some of the largest groups of non-white Spaniards, or the more than 11% of foreign-born residents who can’t even run in regional or national elections.Moha Gerehou, a Spanish journalist and anti-racism activist, said “structural racism” is inbred in Spanish life.“It has a lot to do with education, because the main bottleneck is in access to universities, leaving low-paid and precarious employment like domestic work or harvesting, where there is rampant exploitation,” he said.Barring sports figures and some artists, people of color are pretty much invisible in high-powered Spanish circles from academia to big business, said Gerehou, who just published a book on growing up as a Black person in a provincial northern Spanish capital.His description is of a largely white country that considers itself non-racist and welcoming to migrants, even when numerous studies have captured rampant discrimination against people of color, especially in jobs or housing.”The problem is that the debate of racial representation is still on the fringes,” Gerehou said. “We need to go much faster.”
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Berlin Police Slam ‘Unacceptable’ May Day Violence
Nearly 100 police officers were injured and over 300 people arrested after May Day rallies in Berlin descended into “unacceptable” violence, police and local authorities said Sunday.Around 30,000 people from across the political spectrum took part in several marches in the German capital on Saturday as part of the traditional Labor Day workers’ rights demonstrations. Most of the demonstrations passed off peacefully, police said. But the mood darkened in the evening after police pulled far-left “black bloc” protesters out of the crowd for not adhering to pandemic hygiene regulations such as social distancing. Along with thousands of others, they had been marching in the “Revolutionary May Day” demonstration to protest against racism, capitalism and rising rents in the city. Heavy scuffles ensued, with protesters throwing glass bottles and stones at police and setting dustbins and wooden pallets ablaze in the streets. At least 93 officers were injured in the clashes, Berlin’s interior ministry said, and 354 people were detained. “Violence during demonstrations is absolutely unacceptable,” said Berlin police chief Barbara Slowik. “The situation did degenerate but was quickly brought under control,” she added. Berlin state interior minister Andreas Geisel strongly condemned the “blind destruction rage” and violence towards police. Berlin mayor Michael Mueller said “violence, hatred and ignorance have no place in our society, not on May 1 or any other day.”Organisers behind the “Revolutionary May Day” rally said in a statement that dozens of protesters were injured in “groundless beatings” by police. The German capital had deployed around 5,600 officers on Saturday to monitor the May Day protests, which have turned violent in the past. Large rallies in Hamburg and Frankfurt also saw unrest, with police in both cities using water cannon to disperse protesters throwing bottles or setting off fireworks. Similar May Day protests took place around the world on Saturday, some of which also descended into skirmishes. In Paris, police fired tear gas at protesters who smashed the windows of bank branches, set dustbins alight and threw projectiles at police. France’s CGT union said 21 of its members had been injured in clashes with other protesters in Paris, four of them seriously, although they have since been discharged from hospital. The union said the perpetrators were “a large group of individuals, some of whom identified themselves as yellow vests”, the anti-elite protest movement that rocked France two years ago. “In 20 years of unionism, I have never seen anything like it,” CGT official Benjamin Amar told BFM television, saying it was difficult to know who was behind the violence but that they had thrown homophobic sexist and racist insults associated with the far-right.
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Thousands Rally against Myanmar Junta, Calling for ‘Spring Revolution’
Thousands of anti-coup protesters marched in Myanmar Sunday, calling for a “spring revolution” with the country in its fourth month under a military regime.Cities, rural areas, remote mountainous regions and even rebel-controlled border territories have been in uproar since the military ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi in a February 1 coup.The junta has aimed to suppress dissent through a brutal crackdown involving mass arrests and an escalating death toll.Demonstrations kicked off early in commercial hub Yangon as activists called for a show of force and a “spring revolution”.Youths gathered on a street corner before marching swiftly down the streets in a flash mob — dispersing soon after to avoid clashing with authorities.People protest in Hlaing Township, Yangon, Myanmar, May 2, 2021, in this still image from a video.”To bring down the military dictatorship is our cause!” they chanted, waving a three-finger salute of resistance.In eastern Shan state, youths carried a banner that read: “We cannot be ruled at all.”Local media reported that security forces were chasing protesters down and arresting them.”They are arresting every young person they see,” a source in Yangon told AFP, adding that he was hiding at the time.”Now I am trapped.”Protesters take part in a demonstration against the military coup during “Global Myanmar Spring Revolution Day” in Taunggyi, Shan state, May 2, 2021.Bomb blasts also went off across different parts of Yangon on Sunday. Explosions have been happening with increasing frequency in the former capital, and authorities have blamed it on “instigators.”Bloodshed across the countrySo far, security forces have killed 759 civilians, according to local monitoring group the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.The junta — which has labelled the AAPP an unlawful organization — says 258 protesters have been killed, along with 17 policemen and seven soldiers.Violence erupted again on Sunday by 10 am in Shan state’s Hsipaw township, when security forces opened fire on protesters, killing at least one.”He was shot in the head and died immediately,” said one protester, who said he rushed to hide his friend’s body in case authorities tried to take it away.”They are asking for his dead body, but we will not give them… We will have his funeral today,” he told AFP.In northern Kachin state, security forces also fired on protesters, even flinging grenades into the crowd.A 33-year-old man was shot in the head, a fellow demonstrator told AFP, adding that many others were wounded in the attack.”They all had to be treated at a hidden area. They could not go to the hospital for treatment or they would have been arrested,” the protester said. Urban centers have become hotspots for unrest, especially in Yangon, where residents share videos of security forces beating up civilians on the streets.Night raids and arrests are also common, with informers reporting to authorities about people suspected to be aiding the anti-coup movement.Mourners attending the funeral, April 29, 2021, of Felix Thang Muan Lian, a night security guard at a gas station who was shot by security forces on his way to work in Dedin in western Myanmar’s Chin state. (Credit: Chin World)State-run newspaper Mirror Daily reported that a woman accused of supporting an underground parallel government opposing the junta was sentenced by military tribunal to seven years in prison with hard labor.She had been arrested in Yangon’s North Dagon Township — which is currently under martial law — after police had raided her home and searched her Facebook and Telegram messaging apps.Airstrikes in the eastThe junta’s violence against civilians has drawn the ire of Myanmar’s myriad ethnic armies — many of whom have been battling the military for decades in the country’s border regions.Among the most prominent opponents is the Karen National Union (KNU), which has admitted offering shelter to fleeing activists in the territory they control along Myanmar’s east.Clashes have ramped up in Karen state between the KNU’s fighters and the military, which has responded with serious artillery power and airstrikes in towns next to the Thai border.Thai authorities announced that the Myanmar military fired rocket offensives from the air to a KNU base on Saturday, and grenade launchers and sporadic gunfire could be heard throughout the day from the kingdom’s bordering Mae Hong Son province.A letter was sent last week to Myanmar counterparts calling for the military to “increase caution on airstrikes to avoid it falling into Thai territories”, said Sunday’s statement from Mae Hong Son province.”[This] could cause danger to Thais living on the border and affect the good relationship,” it said.So far, more than 2,300 Myanmar nationals have crossed over for refuge.Junta leader Min Aung Hlaing has justified the putsch by saying it was done to defend democracy, alleging electoral fraud in November’s elections, which Suu Kyi’s party won in a landslide.
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China’s Central Bank Works with Ant, Tencent to Develop Digital Currency
China’s central bank has signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Ant Group, the fintech affiliate of Alibaba Group, to help build a technical platform for its sovereign digital currency, state media reported.China has been developing its electronic yuan, or e-CNY, since 2014 with an aim to replace some of the cash in circulation. In lieu of a timetable for its official launch, the digital cash will first be used for retail payments domestically before it is used abroad, Chinese authorities have said.The two sides will jointly promote the development of the e-CNY, based on Ant’s database, Ocean Base, and its mobile development platform, mPaaS, according to the state tabloid Global Times.The planned e-CNYThe bank has also been working with Ant and Tencent over the past three years to co-develop the e-CNY, the report added, citing information recently disclosed by the country’s two largest e-payment providers.The disclosure appears to suggest that both companies were touting close ties with the regulator despite having come under the government’s intensive anti-monopoly crackdown and investigation.Analysts say the bank needs support from local fintech giants and big retailers to build the infrastructure, including distribution channels for the national virtual currency, which is being tested in cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen.Its success, though, may end up taking market shares from these tech firms — a move observers argue would show that China has planned steps to crack down on monopolies and “nationalize” troves of consumer financial data they own.Who’s the boss?“The Chinese authorities are telling Ant that you should hand over your big data to the central bank. The data won’t remain in private hands since the Communist Party is the boss,” Francis Lun, CEO of Geo Securities Ltd. in Hong Kong, told VOA by phone.The Financial Times has reported that Beijing has asked Ant to turn over its data to a new state-controlled credit scoring company, which would be run by former executives of the central bank while serving other financial institutions, including competing with Ant’s lending arms.Ant insisted on leading the company, arguing that too much government intervention would drag the industry down, according to news reports. But the regulator disagreed, saying Ant’s involvement in the new company would create a conflict of interest.Lun said that there’s little Ant can do to defy the regulator’s demand.Prospects of the e-CNYHe also expected the e-CNY to be in wide use since all banks in China will also have to comply with the regulator.Lun said that the digital yuan, domestically, will allow the government to monitor every transaction of the users “like a big brother.” Its use abroad it will allow China to bypass the international settlement system, dominated by the U.S. dollar, in what he called a de-dollarization attempt.Jerry Lin, director of the Financial Research Institute at the Taiwan Academy of Banking and Finance in Taipei, however, has doubts that the private sector will accept the e-CNY since most private businesses consider cash flows sensitive.He said, once a technical platform is completed, the central bank will next work with retailers to expand the e-CNY’s distribution – a key step that will determine whether the virtual currency is widely accepted.The bank considers its latest efforts to roll out e-CNY a win-win strategy for itself and the nation’s fintech giants, according to Lin.“By collaborating with the central bank [to launch the e-CNY], these fintech giants will be relieved from pressure in the regulator’s anti-monopoly probe. Their monopoly is hard to break up unless there emerges a competitor as strong as the e-CNY to take up at least one-third of the market shares,” Lin told VOA.Ant and Tencent respectively control 54% and 40% of China’s e-payment market.Trade-offLin said that, in the short to medium term, it will also be in the fintech firms’ interests to trade some of their shares in China’s e-payment market in exchange for the regulator’s lenient treatment of their online microlending, personal financial management and insurance operations, which generate higher profits.In the long run, though, it is highly likely that China will try to “nationalize” most financial services, which are now dominated by private fintech firms, including e-payment, credit ratings or financial management, he added.No distinctionSome have viewed China’s rapid digitalization of its yuan as a threat to accelerate the decline of the U.S. dollar’s dominance as the world’s leading reserve currency, but New York-based Anne Stevenson-Yang, co-founder and research director of J Capital Research, disagreed.“I think there’s too much focus being placed on the idea that this is a totally distinct currency and they are in competition. I mean, there’s no difference between the DCEP [digital currency electronic payment for e-CNY] and the renminbi,” she said.“Despite many declarations by China about opening the capital accounts, the reason why it’s not in international use, it remains in less 2% of SWIFT payments by value, the reason for that is because China doesn’t want to make it available,” she told VOA by phone, referring to the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, the global system for financial messaging and cross-border payments.She added that she believes China’s planned rollout of e-CNY is purely for supervisory reasons, neither for innovation nor its rivalry with the U.S. dollar.China’s general public will not notice any change, she said, because Ant’s Alipay or Tencent’s WeChat Pay will remain what consumers see, while the central bank will likely work as the engine in the background for both fintech platforms.
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SpaceX Returns 4 Astronauts to Earth in Rare Night Splashdown
SpaceX returned four astronauts from the International Space Station on Sunday, making the first U.S. crew splashdown in darkness since the Apollo 8 moonshot.The Dragon capsule parachuted into the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Panama City, Florida, just before 3 a.m., ending the second astronaut flight for Elon Musk’s company.It was an express trip home, lasting just 6 1/2 hours.The astronauts, three American and one Japanese, flew back in the same capsule — named Resilience — in which they launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in November.Their 167-day mission is the longest for astronauts launching from the U.S. The previous record of 84 days, about 3 months, was set by NASA’s final Skylab station crew in 1974.Saturday night’s undocking left seven people at the space station, four of whom arrived a week ago via SpaceX.“Earthbound!” NASA astronaut Victor Glover tweeted after departing the station. “One step closer to family and home!”Glover — along with NASA’s Mike Hopkins and Shannon Walker and Japan’s Soichi Noguchi — should have returned to Earth last Wednesday, but high offshore winds forced SpaceX to pass up a pair of daytime landing attempts. Managers switched to a rare splashdown in darkness, to take advantage of calm weather.SpaceX had practiced for a nighttime return, just in case, and even recovered its most recent station cargo capsule from the Gulf of Mexico in darkness. Infrared cameras tracked the capsule as it re-entered the atmosphere; it resembled a bright star streaking through the night sky.All four main parachutes could be seen deploying just before splashdown, which was also visible in the infrared.Apollo 8 — NASA’s first flight to the moon with astronauts — ended with a predawn splashdown in the Pacific near Hawaii on Dec. 27, 1968. Eight years later, a Soviet capsule with two cosmonauts ended up in a dark, partially frozen lake in Kazakhstan, blown off course in a blizzard.That was it for nighttime crew splashdowns — until Sunday.Despite the early hour, the Coast Guard was out in full force to enforce an 18-kilometer keep-out zone around the bobbing Dragon capsule. For SpaceX’s first crew return in August, pleasure boaters swarmed the capsule, a safety risk.Once aboard the SpaceX recovery ship, the astronauts planned to hop on a helicopter for the short flight to shore, then catch a plane straight to Houston for a reunion with their families.Their capsule, Resilience, will head back to Cape Canaveral for refurbishment for SpaceX’s first private crew mission in September. The space station docking mechanism will be removed, and a brand-new domed window put in its place.A tech billionaire has purchased the entire three-day flight, which will orbit 120 kilometers above the space station. He will fly with a pair of contest winners and a physician assistant from St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, his designated charity for the mission.SpaceX’s next astronaut launch for NASA will follow in October.NASA turned to private companies to service the space station, after the shuttle fleet retired in 2011. SpaceX began supply runs in 2012 and, last May, launched its first crew, ending NASA’s reliance on Russia for astronaut transport.Boeing is not expected to launch astronauts until early next year.
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US Secretary of State to Hold Talks in Ukraine About Russian Aggression
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken leaves for Europe on Sunday, where he will hold meetings in London and Kyiv.Blinken’s first stop will be London, where he will meet with the foreign secretaries from the Group of Seven countries. Later in the week, he will travel to Kyiv to show U.S. support for Ukraine’s government as it faces threats to its sovereignty from Russia.The meetings in London with the G-7 ministers are in preparation for the meeting of the G-7 leaders in June in Cornwall.The ministers are also expected to discuss their handling of challenges they are all facing, including the coronavirus outbreak and climate change.Blinken is also scheduled to meet with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab.In Kyiv, Blinken will meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other senior government officials. His appearance is designed to show Washington’s support for Ukraine’s government against Russian threats.While Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, Russia has most recently engaged in a military buildup along its border with Ukraine.State Department spokesperson Ned Price said in a statement that Blinken will “reaffirm unwavering U.S. support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity in the face of Russia’s ongoing aggression.”
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2 Killed in Shooting at Wisconsin Casino; Gunman Slain
A gunman killed two people at a Wisconsin casino restaurant and seriously wounded a third before he was killed by police late Saturday, in what authorities said appeared to be a targeted attack.Brown County Sheriff’s Lt. Kevin Pawlak said investigators believe the gunman was seeking a specific person.“He was targeting a specific victim who was not there, but he decided to still shoot some of the victim’s friends or co-workers, it appears,” Pawlak said.Neither the gunman nor the shooting victims were immediately identified.Pawlak was not sure if the shooter was a former employee of the restaurant but said “it appears there’s some relationship that had to do with employment.”“Whether or not they all worked there, we’re still working on,” he said.The wounded person was being treated at a Milwaukee hospital, Pawlak said.The attack happened around 7:30 p.m. at the Oneida Casino, operated by the Oneida Nation on the western side of Green Bay, in the upper Midwestern U.S. state of Wisconsin, with the casino tweeting that an active shooter was on the scene.There is currently an active shooter situation at the Oneida Casino. Several Law Enforcement agencies are working to secure the location. Please do not go near the Main Casino on Hwy 172. We’ll post information as it becomes available.— Oneida Casino (@OneidaCasino) May 2, 2021Jawad Yatim, a witness, said he saw at least two people shot.“I know for sure two, because it happened right next to us, literally right next to us,” Yatim said. “But he was shooting pretty aggressively in the building, so I wouldn’t doubt him hitting other people.”Yatim said the shooting began in a casino restaurant.“We got the hell out of there, thank God we’re OK, but obviously we wish the best for everybody who’s been shot,” he said.Attorney General Josh Kaul tweeted shortly before 10 p.m. that the scene was “contained. There is no longer a threat to the community.”Webster said the casino is connected to a large hotel and conference center, the Radisson, also owned by the Oneida Nation.Gambler Max Westphal said he was standing outside after being evacuated for what he thought was a minor issue.“All of a sudden we hear a massive flurry of gunshots — 20 to 30 gunshots for sure,” Westphal told WBAY-TV. “We took off running towards the highway … There had to have been 50 cop cars that came by on the highway. It was honestly insane.”Pawlak said authorities called for a “tactical alert” after receiving the report of an active shooter. That “brings every agency from around the area to the casino, to the Radisson,” he said of the large law enforcement presence.Gov. Tony Evers issued a statement late Saturday saying he was “devastated” to hear about the shooting.“Our hearts, thoughts, and support go out to the Oneida Nation, the Ashwaubenon and Green Bay communities, and all those affected by this tragedy.”The Oneida tribe’s reservation lies on the west side of the Green Bay area.
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Myanmar Journalists ‘Living in Fear’ as Junta Curbs Freedoms
Not long after enjoying their first taste of freedom, Myanmar’s journalists say they are barely able to function, as the soldiers who toppled the country’s democratically elected government three months ago have moved to choke off the flow of information through intimidation, arrests, and violence.In interviews with Radio Free Asia, or RFA, multiple reporters, editors, and photographers — speaking from hiding and on condition of anonymity to protect their safety — say the junta that deposed Aung San Suu Kyi and her government on Feb. 1 has made it dangerous and difficult to gather news about the biggest story of their lives.The media professionals cite a litany of measures — including internet and satellite blackouts, confiscation of mobile phones, closures of independent media outlets, beatings, and arrests — that the military regime is using to thwart them and to scare off sources from talking to media.“Journalists are living in fear because there is no safety for us,” a senior editor from a Myanmar news agency told RFA’s Myanmar Service this week.“Many reporters have been arrested. Some of us have been barred from reporting,” the editor said.“We cannot contact any of our sources due to the internet blackout, we cannot make phone calls effectively and we cannot carry our mobile phones as we travel,” the editor said.“If they check Facebook accounts, the journalists will be arrested one way or another. We cannot carry any reporting gadgets now,” the editor added. “The flow of news in this country has almost stopped.”A multimedia journalist from Mandalay, the country’s second-largest city, told RFA that no one is safe from the junta efforts to clamp down on coverage of nationwide protests that have seen millions turn out in protests rejecting the coup, and violent crackdowns that have killed more than 750 people, mostly civilians.“Previously they would excuse journalists who were working for international outlets, but now they arrest everyone. They are also terminating licenses for local media outlets, so it is not inaccurate to say that media freedom is completely gone,” the Mandalay journalist said.Conditions have never been great for journalists in a country run by military men for two-thirds of its 72-year existence as modern state, but they were improving during a political thaw and the transition from a quasi-military government to civilian rule from 2013-17, according to Reporters Without Borders.Protesters take part in a demonstration against the military coup during Global Myanmar Spring Revolution Day in Taunggyi, Myanmar, on May 2, 2021.During that time frame, the country’s rank in RSF’s annual freedom index rose considerably, and “Myanmar’s journalists hoped they would never again have to fear arrest or imprisonment for criticizing the government or military,” the Paris-based media freedom watchdog group said in a recent report.“The coup d’état … brought that fragile progress to an abrupt end and set Myanmar’s journalists back 10 years,” lamented RSF.The Mandalay journalist said that the situation is so bad that people can’t use mobile phones in public, because security forces now search everyone and arrest and beat those who carry mobile phones, or demand cash to avoid legal prosecution, sources said.If they find photos, videos, or social media posts they deem offensive to the military, they press charges and confiscate gear. In some cases, they confiscate expensive, latest-model phones without finding any offending content, or demand cash if they are unable to extract fines because their target left their phone alone.“They inspect everyone’s mobile phone. Journalists cannot go out and do their jobs because we always have news photos on our phones,” the Mandalay journalist said.“Some of us wear helmets with a prominent ‘PRESS’ label on them, but that only gets us targeted for beatings from the authorities. We have seen them going after reporters in the field, to arrest them,” the Mandalay journalist added.“It’s now very dangerous for reporters. We have to take videos from a distance, and that’s not great for many multimedia platforms, as we have to use these poor-quality videos shot from such a distance,” the reporter added.A Yangon photojournalist said the junta’s security forces have actively prevented him from covering events.“As I travel into the field to take photos, the authorities have opened my bag to inspect it. They asked me to surrender my memory cards,” the photojournalist said.Freelance reporters who cannot afford to rent a car take public buses, “so now the authorities are stopping … buses for inspections,” added the Yangon photojournalist.“We cannot know where they will be inspecting, because the inspections on buses and vehicles are sudden,” added the photojournalist.Citizens are also afraid to talk to the media or be photographed out of fear that they could be identified and punished by the junta.“As I try to cover news from different parts of the country, it is rare that the people open up and confide in me with all the information they have. They have lost their trust in the media because the military is using all kinds of tactics to suppress freedom of speech and the press,” said the senior editor.People on the streets of Myanmar’s largest city “get nervous as soon as they see someone holding a camera,” sad the Yangon photojournalist.“It used to be pretty easy to get a photo or video because the people would work with us. But lately they are worried about repression,” the photojournalist said.“Some people in the neighborhood are suspected military informants, so when you hold a camera, people might think you are an informant.”According to an RFA tally, 73 journalists and media personnel have been arrested since the coup on Feb. 1, and 44 remain in detention.While Myanmar journalists had looked at the rule of Suu Kyi as a golden era for reporting, RSF said dark clouds were already gathering midway through her 2015-20 term.It cited the prosecution in 2018 of two Reuters reporters who had revealed an army massacre of Muslim Rohingya civilians in western Myanmar and were jailed for 500 days, or for about a year and a half, “on the basis of fabricated evidence and bogus criminal proceedings.”“This coup was not a complete surprise inasmuch as the climate for press freedom had already been worsening again during the past three years,” said RSF.
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Extreme Weather Kills 11, Injures 66 in Eastern China
An extreme thunderstorm hit an eastern Chinese city, leaving 11 dead and 66 injured, with strong winds causing buildings and trees to collapse, officials said.Nantong city, located in the eastern province of Jiangsu, was among the hardest-hit when the extreme weather swept the Yangtze Delta on Friday night, according to state-affiliated newspaper Global Times.Rescuers evacuated 3,050 people, a local government notice said.Wind speeds of 162 kph overturned a fishing ship. Two sailors were rescued and search operations were under way for the nine remaining crew, the notice said.Electricity has been restored in Nantong, and collapsed trees, damaged vehicles as well as windows that have been blown away were being cleared.
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Mourners Hold Protester Funerals in Chad’s Tense Capital
Hundreds of chanting mourners carrying Chadian flags gathered Saturday to bury some victims who were shot dead during demonstrations against the country’s new military government, the first change in leadership in this central African nation in more than three decades.The outpouring of grief in the capital of N’Djamena came as authorities put down another anti-government demonstration in southern Chad and as the country’s new prime minister urged calm amid calls for more protests.The crowds of mourners arrived by minibus and motorcycle taxis under a scorching sun at midday, as military and police vehicles lined the road to the cemetery’s entrance. Family members wailed as Yannick Djikoloum’s flag-draped casket was lowered into the ground.”The history of great men is written in blood. The victory of the Chadian people is in hand,” read a sign held by one mourner.The 20-year-old was one of at least six people who died Tuesday when demonstrations began before dawn in the largest unrest to hit N’Djamena since the military announced a week earlier that rebels had killed President Idriss Deby Itno on a distant battlefield.The fear of further crackdowns kept demonstrators home in N’Djamena on Saturday, though a protest was swiftly put down in the southern town of Sarh.On Tuesday, security forces were accused of shooting at the crowds who took to the streets to protest that the military put Deby’s 37-year-old son, Mahamat, in charge after his death. Under Chad’s constitution, power should have been handed over to the president of National Assembly.People mourn during the funeral of people killed at a protest this week in N’Djamena, Chad, Saturday, May 1, 2021.The U.N. human rights office expressed alarm at Tuesday’s violence, saying it was “deeply disturbed by the apparently disproportionate use of force — including the use of live ammunition — by defense and security forces.”Meanwhile, the interim government’s prime minister urged unity on Saturday after civil society groups called for protests to continue.”We must join forces to guarantee peace and restore calm,” Prime Minister Albert Pahimi Padacke said, urging people to support the interim government.The specter of more anti-government protests is just one of the threats now facing the transitional military council in power. The rebels blamed for killing Deby also have continued to battle the Chadian military 300 kilometers north of the capital.The armed group known as the Front for Change and Concord in Chad has threatened to attack the capital and depose Deby’s son. A march on N’Djamena, though, became less likely after former colonizer France lent its support publicly to the new administration.The French have a large military base in Chad, and the rebels already have accused France of providing intelligence on rebel positions to the Chadian army.France’s acceptance of Mahamat Idriss Deby comes after Chad became a vital partner in the fight against Islamic extremism during his father’s tenure. Chadian forces have played a critical role in the fight against Islamic extremism, particularly in northern Mali, and the French government described Deby as a “courageous friend” following his death.
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COVID Spurs Uganda to Suspend Flights from India
Uganda has suspended all flights coming into the country from India after recording new variants of the coronavirus, including the COVID-19 variant from India.The ban began Saturday at midnight.The new directive follows the Ministry of Health researchers detecting one case of the coronavirus disease, an Indian variant, in the East African country.India has so far recorded more than 18.8 million COVID-19 cases, with deaths topping 200,000 in the past week — with new infection cases surpassing 400,000.Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng, Uganda’s minister for health, outlined the travel restrictions.“All passenger flights between Uganda and India are suspended until further notice,” she said. “No travelers from India shall be allowed into Uganda, regardless of the route of travel.”Aceng stressed that all travelers who may have been in India or traveled through India in the last 14 days, regardless of route taken, will not be allowed into Uganda.She said Uganda has so far recorded 399 cases out of the five variants circulating in Uganda. Other variants identified include variants from Nigeria, the United Kingdom and South Africa.Minister Aceng says even though the epidemiological distribution and impact of these variants in Uganda is currently unknown, experts continue to study the progression.Mohan Rao, head of the Indian Association in Uganda, a community-led organization, said that even though the cancelation of flights is going to affect trade and other engagements, the association welcomes the move.Rao said his group has written to the Ministry of Health seeking permission to carry out a sensitization drive among the Indian community. He has been sending text messages to members of the community and also wants to have community meetings. These are allowed in Uganda, as long as people wear masks and social distance, with a limit of 200 people at a time.Back in March, India was one of the countries that donated 100,00 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to Uganda as it kicked off distributing vaccination among frontline workers, such as health care professionals and other service providers.In an address to the country in March, President Yoweri Museveni noted it was becoming riskier for a country like Uganda to depend on external vaccine support to curb the spread of COVID-19.“India now has got very big rise in the cases,” the president said. “They are in a very big crisis. They are struggling to solve their own problems and here we are waiting also in line to get support from them. This is not correct.”Since March 2020, Uganda has recorded 41,866 COVID cases and 342 deaths.
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North Korea Slams Biden’s New Approach to Diplomacy
North Korea has lashed out at President Joe Biden, warning the U.S. will face a “very grave situation,” after the White House announced the broad outlines of its plan for diplomacy with Pyongyang.The statement, issued Sunday by a senior North Korean diplomat, was the country’s first official reaction to the Biden administration’s just-completed North Korea policy review, which expresses an openness to talks with the nuclear-armed country.Kwon Jong Gun, director general of the Department of U.S. Affairs of the North’s Foreign Ministry, dismissed the U.S. approach as a “spurious signboard for covering up its hostile acts” against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the country’s official name.“Now that … the keynote of the U.S. new DPRK policy has become clear, we will be compelled to press for corresponding measures, and with time the U.S. will find itself in a very grave situation,” Kwon said, according to the state-run Korean Central News Agency.“The U.S. will face worse and worse crisis beyond control in the near future if it is set to approach the DPRK-U.S. ties, still holding on the outdated policy from Cold War-minded perspective and viewpoint,” he added.Middle approachFollowing a monthslong internal review, the White House on Friday announced a general overview of its North Korea plan. The policy attempts to take a middle approach between those of Biden’s recent predecessors.“Our policy will not focus on achieving a grand bargain, nor will it rely on strategic patience,” said White House press secretary Jen Psaki. “Our policy calls for a calibrated, practical approach that is open to and will explore diplomacy with the DPRK and to make practical progress that increases the security of the United States, our allies and deployed forces.”FILE – Then-President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, in Hanoi, Vietnam, Feb. 28, 2019.North Korea has boycotted talks with the U.S. since 2019. In February of that year, a summit between then-U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ended abruptly after Trump rejected Kim’s offer of sanctions relief for partial steps to dismantle his nuclear program.Biden, who took office in January, has long been critical of Trump’s meetings with Kim. He believes top-level meetings should occur only if there is progress on denuclearization.But Biden is also attempting to discard aspects of the approach taken by former President Barack Obama, who relied on a policy of “strategic patience.” That plan sought to apply carefully calibrated economic and military pressure until Pyongyang was ready to make concessions at the negotiating table.Human rightsNorth Korea seems unhappy with either approach. In their statements Sunday, North Korean officials slammed recent joint U.S.-South Korea military exercises. It also accused the Biden administration of “insult[ing] the dignity of our supreme leadership” by criticizing Pyongyang’s human rights record.Last week, the U.S. Department of State issued a statement noting the “millions of North Koreans who continue to have their dignity and human rights violated by one of the most repressive and totalitarian states in the world.”In response, a North Korean Foreign Ministry official said Sunday that Pyongyang “will be forced to take corresponding measures.”“We have warned the U.S. sufficiently enough to understand that it will get hurt if it provokes us. The U.S. will surely and certainly regret for acting lightly, defying our warnings,” the official said.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.More tests coming?North Korea in March conducted its first ballistic missile test in about a year. Many experts had expected North Korea to resume tests near the outset of Biden’s term, as it has done with past U.S. administrations.Kim said in January of last year that he no longer felt bound by his self-imposed moratorium on long-range missile and nuclear tests.Pyongyang has not conducted a nuclear test or launched an intercontinental ballistic missile since 2017, before Kim’s diplomacy with Trump.
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In Senegal, Young Christians Supply an Iftar for Ramadan
Senegal has a long tradition of interfaith respect and tolerance. In honor of that, young Christians made a goodwill gesture by distributing snacks to Muslims breaking their fasts one evening during the holy month of Ramadan. Allison Lékogo Fernandes reports from Dakar. Carol Guensburg narrates.
Camera: Bachir Yazz Bodian Producers: Carol Guensburg and Betty Ayoub
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‘London to Delhi’ Cycle Raises Cash for India’s COVID Crisis
For British IT consultant Yogen Shah, India’s COVID-19 crisis is deeply personal.The pictures of people hooked up to oxygen bottles on the streets of New Delhi and patients sharing beds in overcrowded hospitals remind him of his uncle in India, who recently contracted the disease.So Shah joined volunteers from one of Britain’s largest Hindu temples who set out to raise 500,000 pounds ($690,000) by racking up 7,600 kilometers (4,722 miles) on stationary bikes — roughly the distance from London to Delhi — in 48 hours.”I think every single person of Indian origin will have someone affected over there,” Shah, 40, said Saturday outside the temple in northwest London. “And anywhere around the world that you have COVID, you feel for that human being, you feel for that person, whether they’re Indian origin or not.”The ride at Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in London’s Neasden neighborhood is one of many fundraising drives taking place across the U.K. as members of the Indian diaspora seek to help India battle the raging pandemic. The British Asian Trust, a charity founded by Prince Charles, has launched an emergency appeal to buy oxygen concentrators, which can extract oxygen from the air when hospital supplies run short.Grim milestoneIndia recorded more than 400,000 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday, the first time daily infections topped that milestone. The country reported 3,523 coronavirus-related deaths in the past 24 hours, raising overall virus fatalities to 211,853. Experts believe both figures are undercounts.A man takes part in “Cycle to Save Lives,” a 48-hour nonstop static relay cycle challenge, at the Neasden Temple, the largest Hindu temple in the U.K., in north London, to raise money to help coronavirus relief efforts in India, May 1, 2021.In normal times, British Indian families might respond to a crisis in the homeland by buying a plane ticket and going back to help their relatives. But these aren’t normal times for the 1.4 million people in the U.K. who have Indian roots.Looking for a way to help, members of the Hindu temple in Neasden decided to organize a fundraiser that would be socially distanced and attract young people. They decided on the bikeathon because they also wanted to bring London and New Delhi closer together — connecting the two capitals in spirit even though most travel is barred by COVID-19 restrictions.The need is dire, but so is the message of solidarity, said Tarun Patel, one of the organizers.”India is starving for oxygen,” he said. “We need to help.”Hundreds of ridersOrganizers arranged a bank of 12 bikes in front of the temple. Joining with temples in Leicester and Chigwell, they attracted 750 riders.Each volunteer gets an hour on the bike — 50 minutes to clock up the kilometers and 10 minutes to sanitize the bike before handing it over. Each volunteer has set up a fundraising page that goes toward an overall fundraising goal.The efforts won’t solve India’s pandemic catastrophe, but the bikers of Britain want everyone in India to know that they did their best to ride to the rescue.”You are not alone in this fight,” Patel said. “We are with you. We may geographically be thousands of miles away, but we are with you.”
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Malawi COVID-19 Response Gets Commonwealth Award
A citizen-funded COVID-19 effort in Malawi has received an award from Queen Elizabeth for its work fighting the coronavirus pandemic. The queen said the initiative shows the utmost transparency in the use of its privately raised funding.Malawi’s COVID Response Private Citizens Initiative started in January, when the country’s hospitals were overwhelmed with coronavirus patients and lacked resources at the peak of the second wave of the pandemic.Public hospitals were in short supply of oxygen cylinders, concentrators, diagnostics kits and other equipment essential to treat COVID-19 patients.Dr. Thandie Majenda Hara, deputy lead organizer for the initiative, said, “At some point we had a patient who literally went to Kamuzu Central Hospital and put up an SOS on his Facebook page saying that, apparently, they did not have enough flow meters, so he couldn’t have access to oxygen, as well as patients that were in the ward with him. And it was that particular cry for help that was a trigger for what in the end became this initiative.”Equipment, food, repairsShe said the group spearheaded a crowdfunding campaign that raised $286,000 to buy oxygen cylinders, ventilators, personal protective equipment and other items most needed in public hospitals.The initiative also brought food to health workers, fixed ambulances and repaired some damaged infrastructure inside hospitals.“The people that actually came together to donate here were not people who had extra cash to spend,” Hara said. “We had primary students; we had people [from] as far away [as] Australia, Chitipa, Nsanje [districts], everywhere. People were committed to doing something about the lot.”In Britain, in a press release Friday, Queen Elizabeth said the award was given in recognition of the initiative’s transparency, accountability and efficiency.Arrests, auditThe Commonwealth Points of Light award was given at a time when police in Malawi have arrested more than 64 government officials after an audit revealed misuse of $8 million in government funds allocated for the fight against COVID-19.Police said some of the suspects were out on bail facing charges including fraud, theft by public servant and abuse of public office. In a statement this week, police said detectives were still investigating and more arrests would follow.David Beer, center, British high commissioner in Malawi, is pictured with members of Malawi’s COVID Response Private Citizens Initiative. (British High Commission)David Beer, the British high commissioner in Malawi, said the award was a token of appreciation for what Malawi’s citizen-driven COVID-19 response initiative had done.“The award on behalf of the queen, you know, is very much because the group, eight of them, has done such an astonishing job,” Beer said. “This initiative is having incredible effect — not the amount of money they have raised, but what they have managed to do with it, and we want them to have recognition.”Health rights campaigners said the award would send a message to those in charge of COVID-19 funds that good work pays.’Amazing response’Hara said the award was not something the team expected.”We never really went out to gain the award,” she said. “We are very, very happy; we are very proud that the initiative has been recognized. So, for us the award isn’t really about the team. It’s not about any of us. It’s about the amazing response Malawians gave in a time of the crisis.”She said the initiative would continue to assist in critical situations.Hara said the initiative above all had proved that collective responsible action by Malawi’s citizens was possible even in a time of national crisis.
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More Than 800 Migrants Rescued at Sea Head to Italy
Two Italian ports faced an influx of hundreds of migrants on Saturday, as a charity ship sailed toward a Sicilian port with 236 people rescued in the Mediterranean from traffickers’ boats, while Italian coast guard and border police brought 532 others to a tiny island.The maritime rescue group SOS Mediterranee said a ship it operates, Ocean Viking, pulled the migrants to safety four days ago from two rubber dinghies. Upon instructions from Italian authorities, the Ocean Viking was sailing to Augusta, Sicily, with its passengers, 119 of whom were reported to be unaccompanied minors.SOS Mediterranee said some passengers told rescuers they had been beaten by smugglers based in Libya and forced to embark on the unseaworthy dinghies despite high waves.On Italy’s southern island of Lampedusa, which is closer to North Africa than to the Italian mainland, Mayor Salvatore Martello said migrants from four boats that needed rescuing stepped ashore overnight. They were brought to safety by Italian coast guard and customs police boats.Separately, an Italian navy vessel rescued 49 migrants, Italian state TV reported.Another boatStill in the central Mediterranean Sea on Saturday was another charity boat, Sea-Watch 4, with 308 people aboard who had been rescued in four separate operations from trafficker-launched vessels, Sea-Watch said in a statement. The first rescue, of 44 people, took place Thursday, it said.Sea-Watch 4 has asked Italy and Malta for a port at which to disembark the migrants.”The fact that we, as a civil rescue ship, saved so many people from distress at sea in such a short time again demonstrates the fundamental rescue gap European states have created at the world’s most dangerous maritime border,” said Hannah Wallace Bowman, the head of mission for Sea-Watch 4.Warmer weather in the spring often increases the number of vessels launched toward Europe by Libya-based migrant traffickers.Last month, SOS Mediterranee personnel and a merchant ship spotted several bodies from a shipwrecked dinghy, believed to have been carrying 130 migrants. People on the boat had appealed for help in the waters off Libya, but no coast guard vessels from Libya, Italy or Malta came to their aid, the group said. No survivors were found.Humanitarian groups have been urging European Union nations to resume the deployment of military vessels on rescue patrols in the Mediterranean. After hundreds of thousands of rescued migrants, many of them ineligible for asylum, were brought to Italy by ships from the coast guard, navy, border police and other nations, large-scale rescue operations in the sea north of Libya were ended.Italy has been equipping and training the Libyan coast guard to save migrants in their search-and-rescue area and to discourage traffickers.Harsh treatment reportedHuman rights groups and U.N. agencies have denounced inhumane treatment at Libyan detention centers, where migrants rescued or intercepted by the Libyan coast guard are taken. They say migrants endure beatings, rapes and insufficient rations.On Friday, the United Nations’ child welfare agency said a total of 125 Europe-bound children were among those intercepted at sea earlier in the week by Libyan authorities off the Mediterranean coast. UNICEF said most of those rescued were sent to overcrowded detention centers with no or limited access to water.”Europe can no longer remain passive in the face of recurring shipwrecks while consciously upholding a system of unspeakable abuse by supporting forced returns to Libya,” SOS Mediterranee said.The risk migrants run of perishing at sea is high. UNICEF says at least 350 people, including children and women, have drowned or gone missing in the Mediterranean since January.According to the Italian Interior Ministry, as of Friday, 9,000 migrants had reached Italy by sea this year.Both the Italian and Maltese governments in recent years have claimed that private charity boats effectively facilitate trafficking by rescuing migrants at sea. At times, rescue vessels, including commercial ones, have been kept waiting for long stretches before safe ports were assigned.
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Indiana’s Governor: ‘Pain Will Persist’ for Families of FedEx Shooting Victims
Indiana’s governor told Sikh community members and others gathered at an Indianapolis stadium Saturday to remember the eight people killed in a shooting at a warehouse that he knew their anguish from the attack was far from over.The three-hour event at Lucas Oil Stadium came two weeks after a former FedEx employee fatally shot the eight people, including four Sikhs, before killing himself. Authorities have not released a motive in the April 15 shooting.Governor Eric Holcomb said the capital was “still reeling from the impact of that dark night.””Never in my wildest imagination did I see this day or this cause of gathering as a reason for our unification,” Holcomb said. “Why must any day be that dark? Why must tragedy strike and tear a community, tear humanity apart? This pain will for sure persist as we continue to live with the loss.”In a letter read during the ceremony, former Vice President Mike Pence, a former Indiana governor, emphasized the grief of the Sikh community, whose members “add to the tapestry of this country.””Know that our hearts and our prayers are with you all,” Pence’s letter said. “We join fellow Hoosiers across the state of Indiana and Americans across the country in expressing our heartfelt condolences.”A monotheistic faith founded more than 500 years ago in India’s Punjab region, Sikhism is the world’s fifth-largest religion with about 25 million followers, including about 500,000 in the United States.Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett said his message to the Sikh community, to immigrants and “to anyone who feels threatened by this act simply because of who they are” is that they are “welcome in Indianapolis, and it is the responsibility of every one of our residents to make sure you know that to be true.”Gun lawsHogsett also reiterated his previous calls for changes to gun policy, saying the shooting could have been prevented. He said the city, state and country are “far past due for transformative action.”Authorities have said that Brandon Scott Hole, 19, had two rifles that he was able to purchase legally, even after his mother called police last year to say her son might undertake “suicide by cop.” Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears has faced sharp criticism for choosing not to pursue court hearings that could have prevented Hole from accessing the guns.Private services for victims from the Sikh community are also expected to take place in the coming week. The proceedings will begin with cremation, followed by up to 20 days of reading of the 1,400-page Guru Granth Sahib scripture.The victims’ families were granted roughly two dozen fast-tracked visas so relatives overseas could travel for the funerals, said Amrith Kaur, legal director at the Sikh Coalition. They’re arriving just days before the U.S. restricts travel from India — a response spurred by a rise in COVID-19 cases in the country.
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Many Americans Anxious About Returning to ‘Normal’ After Pandemic
In the United States, as millions of people are getting vaccinated and signs indicate the pandemic is easing, there is an excitement about the possibility of things going back to normal.Many people are looking forward to attending sports events and concerts and dining inside restaurants again. But for others, returning to normalcy provokes an uneasiness about what the new normal will look like.FILE – Diners eat in isolated rooms outside the Townhouse restaurant, in Birmingham, Mich., March 25, 2021. While many people are eager to discard this kind of protection, others will hesitate about the transition back to a new normal.”Transitions are hard, especially after a collective trauma,” Lucy McBride, a primary care physician in Washington, told VOA.”While planning for a post-pandemic life can feel comfortable, thinking about the future too much can also increase our anxious thoughts,” said Kevin Antshel, director of the clinical psychology program at Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York.According to a survey by the American Psychological Association, about half of adults are uncomfortable about returning to in-person interactions after the pandemic. Their concerns range from getting COVID-19 to communicating with friends, family and co-workers again.”Some people will feel paralyzing anxiety about resuming their normal activities after being in a fear mode for more than a year,” McBride said. Even when the threat is gone and they’ve been vaccinated, it is going to take time for them to be comfortable reentering society after the pandemic, she said.That’s true for Cassie Davis in Pensacola, Florida, whose uncle died of the virus. Even though she got vaccinated, she is nervous about being near people in shopping centers.”When my uncle died, it really hit home how terrible the virus is and that it might never completely go away,” she said.FILE – A man walks into a restaurant displaying a “Now Hiring” sign, March 4, 2021, in Salem, N.H. For some people, looking for a new job to replace one lost to the pandemic will be a stressful experience.Some people will “feel a loss because things are different,” said Karestan Koenen, a professor of psychiatric epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston. That could mean feeling uncomfortable with a good friend you haven’t seen for a long time or losing a job and looking for new one.Some ‘quite comfortable’Others, however, have found contentment in their lifestyle during the pandemic.They “have grown quite comfortable being alone,” Antshel pointed out. “They’ve grown accustomed to not having to interact with people or fearing scrutiny and rejection from others.””I have been enjoying my own company by being at home,” said Elizabeth Albrecht, a single 27-year-old who lives in Washington. “I have no desire to go out with my friends all the time like I did before.”FILE – Kyree Kayoshi, his dog Kumi, and Miranda De Llano use circles marked for social distancing at the Pearl Brewery in San Antonio, March 3, 2021. What will happen when restrictive, virus-related rules for interaction are all gone?It’s also going to be stressful unlearning some of the things you were supposed to do during the pandemic, said Deborah Serani, a psychologist and professor at Adelphi University in Garden City, New York. For example, she said, “how do I interact with everyone with their masks off?”Patrick Reed in Alexandria, Virginia, who just got vaccinated, is trying to figure that out. Virginia’s mask mandate recently changed to allow fully vaccinated people to participate in outdoor activities and small outdoor gatherings without wearing masks.”I didn’t like wearing a mask for months and then got used to it,” he said, “and now I don’t feel comfortable not having it on around people.”A matter of timeAccording to Christine Runyan, a clinical psychologist and professor at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, it will take time for everyone to adjust to the changes, but some will do that quicker than others.”Our nervous systems are quite sensitive to these rapid adjustments,” she said. “A lot of people might find themselves really tired after in-person social engagements because they’re not used to it.”Antshel suggested that people “reacclimate gradually” back into society and not isolate themselves.”I’m hoping we’re going to come back together with a greater appreciation and gentleness for each other,” Serani said.
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Cameroon Anglophone Separatists Stage Attack, Release Disturbing Video
Cameroon is asking civilians to return to towns in Francophone regions of the country after Anglophone separatists entered a French-speaking village in the West region and killed four government soldiers. The military says the separatists took weapons and freed suspects from prison before returning to their hideouts in the English-speaking North-West region.
In a disturbing video released by the separatists, a man, calling himself commander of fighters in Ngo-Ketunji, an administrative unit in Cameroon’s English-speaking North-West region, his face unseen, is holding a human hand as a trophy, allegedly cut from one of the victims, a soldier in the French-speaking West region of Cameroon. Beside him are 12 people holding rifles and machetes. The man says the men are his fighters, back from an operation.
The video, whose authenticity VOA hasn’t independently verified, is widely circulating on social media and local radio and TV stations. It was allegedly released by Anglophone separatist fighters, and the Cameroonian military has confirmed that weapons shown in the clip were seized from its troops Friday.
In the video, the man who calls himself a commander displays nine military rifles and military uniforms that he claims his group seized from Cameroon government troops in the French-speaking village of Galim. Galim, the Francophone town, shares a border with the Anglophone, or English-speaking, North-West region.
Awa Fonka Augustine, the governor of the French-speaking West region of Cameroon, where Galim is located, said fighters attacked a military camp in the vicinity Friday.
“We registered four deaths on the part of the military men as well as one [soldier] that is seriously wounded. I am seizing this opportunity to express the sympathy of the entire hierarchy to the families of the bereaved soldiers. It is again an opportunity for us to ask the raison d’être of all these [attacks]? Why do we continue killing ourselves in this manner? It is regrettable and it is an act to condemn,” he said.
Fonka said the fighters left unhurt after an intense shootout that lasted several hours.
The military confirmed the attack saying that four of its troops were killed on the spot. One was rushed to a hospital in the neighboring French-speaking town of Bafoussam, located in western highlands of Cameroon, where he is said to be responding to treatment.
Fonka said the fighters returned to their hideouts with weapons.
Arouna Hassan, a cattle rancher in Galim, said he escaped from Takijah, an English-speaking North-West village with his cattle in April 2018 when separatists attacked his family.
Hassan said his family and eight other internally displaced families were attacked at Galim. He said the fighters seized money from civilians. He spoke via WhatsApp from Bofoussam, where he has escaped for safety.
“They (the Anglophone separatists) went to the house and took my father. He paid a sum of money before they released him. All my belongings (clothes) have been taken by them (the fighters). They terrorized us. They took me, locked me, then I ran away. That is why I find myself here [in Bafoussam],” he said.
Hassan said several dozen civilians who live near the military camp escaped to the bushes.
Fonka and the military has been calling on fleeing civilians to return to Galim. The military says more troops have been deployed to protect lives and property.
Fighters have crossed over to Galim at least nine times. The fighters attack markets, schools and military positions in the neighboring French-speaking West region. Cameroon on several occasions said it had deployed more troops to stop the fighters.
Cameroon’s separatists have been fighting since 2017 to create an independent English-speaking state in the majority French-speaking country’s western regions.
The conflict has cost more than 3,000 lives and forced 550,000 people to flee to French-speaking regions of Cameroon or into neighboring Nigeria, according to the United Nations.
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Turkish Police Detain Hundreds at Lockdown May Day Marches
Turkish police detained 212 demonstrators after scuffles broke out at May Day marches Saturday amid a coronavirus-related curfew, according to the Istanbul governor’s office and Reuters witnesses.
Riot police and plainclothes officers jostled with union leaders and other demonstrators and threw some to the ground before detaining dozens of them near Istanbul’s Taksim Square, Reuters video and images showed.
The governor’s office said some labor unions were allowed to hold memorials to mark the annual holiday, while others who had “gathered illegally” in violation of the lockdown, and ignored calls to disperse, were detained.
State-owned Anadolu Agency said 20 protesters were also detained in the western city of Izmir.
Turkey this week adopted a 17-day partial lockdown, including stay-home orders and the closure of schools and some businesses, to curb a wave of coronavirus infections.
Local media reported efforts by police in Istanbul and Ankara to block reporters from filming the May Day demonstrations and detentions, with officers citing a new police circular.
Turkish media reported Friday that officers were instructed to prevent people from filming or recording security forces on smartphones while they are on duty, a move critics called unlawful and a threat to citizens’ rights.
Turkish police have not commented on the reports. The DISK press union said on Twitter that journalists filming the May Day events “are being blocked by police,” adding “a police circular cannot prevent” coverage.
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