French voters went to the polls on Sunday in regional elections that will test the appeal of far-right leader Marine Le Pen’s softened image less than a year before the next presidential election. Coming after a grueling year and a half of lockdowns, curfews and restrictions, Sunday’s first round is likely to prove dire for President Emmanuel Macron, whose party is projected to win none of mainland France’s 13 regions. Boosted by a resurgence of law-and-order issues during the campaign, despite the fact French regions have no police powers, Le Pen is hoping to capitalize on a rebrand that has seen her ditch promises of “Frexit” and inflammatory rhetoric. “She appears less extreme in the eyes of the French, less dangerous for democracy, than she did a decade ago,” Brice Teinturier, an analyst with pollster IPSOS told Reuters. The best chance for her Rassemblement National party is in the south of France, the region around Marseille and Nice, where one of Le Pen’s lieutenants, a former conservative minister, is projected by one opinion poll as winning the race even if all parties rally against him. Gaining one region, for the first time ever, would give Le Pen a major boost less than a year before presidential elections, and would be a slap in the face for Macron, who has painted himself as a bulwark against the far-right. “If the choice is effectively between the Rassemblement National and the center-right, like Mr. Macron, personally I will not vote [in the presidential elections],” film director Emmanuel Barraud, 61, told Reuters outside a polling station in Paris. “I think we must accept that the game is over, and we must start preparing for the future and the future is reconstructing a real Leftist party.”Low turnout Participation at midday was one of the lowest for a French election in history at just 12.2%, down from 16.3% in 2015. The far-right is also likely to do well in two other regions, around Calais in the north and in Burgundy, helped by low turnout in a country whose attention is shifting to summer holidays to forget the pandemic. In the north, the incumbent and frontrunner to become the conservatives’ candidate in the presidential election, Xavier Bertrand, is facing Le Pen’s party spokesman and Macron’s justice minister. Whether Macron’s party reaches the 10% threshold will determine if it can force Bertrand into an alliance to defeat the far-right, which would undermine his pitch as Macron’s opponent-in-chief in 2022. However, a win for Bertrand would bolster his chances of becoming the conservatives’ presidential candidate. Macron aides see the one-time health minister as a rival who would erode the president’s center-right voting base. Results of Sunday’s first round will send parties into frantic backroom dealing for two days to strike alliances ahead of June 27’s final round. “I came to vote so that the totalitarian parties like the France Insoumise [far-left], or the Greens or the Rassemblement National — don’t win,” said Vincent Thomas, a 52-year-old artist who was also voting in Paris.
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Month: June 2021
Taiwan Pulls Trade Office Staff Over Hong Kong Ultimatum
Taiwan said seven employees of its trade office in Hong Kong left the financial hub on Sunday after authorities there demanded they sign a pledge recognizing China’s sovereignty over the self-ruled island.The move comes after both Hong Kong and Macau closed their trade offices in Taipei and as Beijing seeks to pile diplomatic and economic pressure on Taiwan.Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said Hong Kong’s government had demanded its trade office staff sign a “one China pledge,” which supports Beijing’s view that the island is part of its territory.Taiwan’s current democratically elected government views the island as a de facto sovereign state.”China and Hong Kong government use the ‘one China pledge’ to set up barriers and affect the rotation of staff and normal operations of our office in Hong Kong,” Taiwan’s MAC said in a statement on Sunday.”We firmly reject the irrational political suppression of forcing our staff to sign the ‘one China pledge,’ and condemn the Chinese and Hong Kong authorities over this.”Seven staff members flew out of Hong Kong on Sunday, MAC deputy chief Chiu Chui-cheng said.Just one Taiwanese employee is left in the office, although their visa runs out next month. The only remaining members will be local staff.Chiu said that the pledge Hong Kong demanded staff sign also included a promise not to “interfere with Hong Kong’s affairs, nor to do or say anything that undermines Hong Kong’s stability and prosperity or that embarrasses the Hong Kong government.”Taiwan is a major trading partner with both China and Hong Kong but relations between their governments are cratering.Last month, Hong Kong suspended operations of its trade office in Taiwan.It accused Taiwan of “grossly interfering” in the city’s affairs and causing “irretrievable damage” to relations.Macau followed in shutting its office last Wednesday, saying it was having trouble getting visas for staff.Both Hong Kong and Macau are semi-autonomous cities, but Beijing decides foreign policy and is ramping up direct control in both former colonies.China had encouraged trade offices when relations were warmer with Taiwan.But after the 2016 election of Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen, Beijing cut official contacts and began a concerted pressure campaign.Tsai’s government is also a vocal supporter of democratic principles and has quietly helped open its doors to some Hong Kongers trying to escape Beijing’s crackdown on dissent after huge democracy protests rocked the financial hub in 2019.Hong Kong says that amounts to “interference.”
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US Sending 23.5 Million COVID-19 Vaccines to Taiwan
The Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center reported early Sunday more than 178 million global COVID-19 infections and almost 4 million global deaths. More than 2 billion vaccines have been administered around the world.The U.S. says it is sending 23.5 million COVID-19 vaccines to Taiwan, substantially increasing its initial promise of 750,000 doses. Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen said the increased doses from the U.S. are a “moving gesture of friendship.” U.S. President Joe Biden has said his administration will distribute 80 million vaccines to countries around the world.India’s health ministry said Sunday that it had recorded more than 58,000 new COVID-19 cases in the previous 24-hour period. India has recorded close to 30 million COVID-19 cases. Only the U.S. has more, with 33.5 million.A Ugandan athlete has tested positive for the coronavirus after arriving in Japan ahead of the Tokyo Olympics, according to an Associated Press report. The athlete was not named and has been placed in quarantine in a government facility. The other eight members of the team tested negative in Japan. The Ugandan team was fully vaccinated and tested before their flight to Japan, AP said.Brazil became the second country, behind the United States, to record more than half a million COVID-19 deaths, a Health Ministry official said Saturday.Health Minister Marcelo Queiroga tweeted “500,000 lives lost due to the pandemic that affects our Brazil and the world,” according to an Agence France-Presse report.Ethel Maciel, an epidemiologist from Espirito Santo University, told AFP, “The third wave is arriving, there’s already in a change in the case and death curves. … Our vaccination (program), which could make a difference, is slow and there are no signs of restrictive measures, quite the contrary.”Britain held its first full music festival since all mass events were canceled in March of last year, the start of the pandemic.About 10,000 fans attended a three-day Download Festival held at Donington Park in central England. The event featured 40 U.K.-based bands. The event ends Sunday.All of those who attended, which was only about a tenth of the festival’s prepandemic audience, were required to take COVID-19 tests before the event. Neither masks nor social distancing protocols were required, event organizers said.Britain has recorded nearly 128,000 COVID-19-related deaths, the fourth most in the world and the worst in Europe. It also ranks seventh in the number of confirmed cases of the coronavirus, with 4.6 million.Earlier last week, Prime Minister Boris Johnson delayed by four weeks a planned lifting of coronavirus-related restrictions on June 21. Britain is battling the highly contagious delta variant of the virus, which was first identified in India.
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Memphis Erases Confederate General From its Public Spaces
Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest’s polarizing presence has hung over Memphis since he moved here in 1852 — his legacy cemented by a giant statue that loomed over all who passed his gravesite in a popular park.Defenders considered him a hero for his Civil War exploits. Detractors called him a violent racist and noted his early leadership role in the Ku Klux Klan.Now the former slave trader’s remains are set to be moved to a new Confederate museum in Columbia, Tennessee — another milestone in the effort to remove statues, monuments, and now the remains, of Confederate leaders from public spaces.As workers prepared to dig up his grave earlier this month, a white man waved a rebel flag, sang Dixie and launched an expletive-laced tirade at Shelby County Commissioner Tami Sawyer. Sawyer, who is Black, plucked Confederate flags off a chain-link fence surrounding the site as George Johnson paced behind her on a concrete platform.When he cursed at her again, Sawyer replied: “It’s not your property,” and turned toward reporters gathered for the June 1 news conference.Health Sciences Park, where Forrest and his wife had been buried for more than a century, was called Forrest Park until 2013, when the name was changed. The statue of the general on horseback was removed in 2017, after a campaign Sawyer helped lead.Now, the Sons of Confederate Veterans have agreed to transport his remains to their National Confederate Museum at the historic Elm Springs estate in Columbia, 200 miles away.The group’s spokesperson, Lee Millar, a distant cousin of Forrest, said the bodies of Forrest and his wife were in an undisclosed location until they can be moved to the museum.“Memphis is not the town that Forrest grew up in,” he said. “It’s just deleting his history and forgetting about the past.”Gradually, Forrest’s legacy has been dismantled in Memphis. Forrest traded slaves near the area where people of many races now come to eat, drink and watch ball games downtown. A short drive away is the old Lorraine Motel, where civil rights leader Martin Luther King. Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968.Many in majority-Black Memphis are eager to see Forrest gone. The park where his grave was located has been the site of protests related to the Black Lives Matter movement. A music festival for Juneteenth, which marks the end of American slavery, is scheduled there this weekend.“It’s like a burden has been lifted,” said Van D. Turner, a Black county commissioner who pushed for the Forrest statue removal. “It just gives us breath.”Elsewhere in Tennessee, activists and Democratic lawmakers have called for the removal of a bust of Forrest from the state Capitol in Nashville. At Republican Gov. Bill Lee’s recommendation, the Tennessee Historical Commission voted to take down the bust, but GOP legislators argued another commission’s vote is needed. No removal plans have been announced.Workers dig up the remains of Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest and his wife to move the bodies from Health Sciences Park, June 4, 2021, in Memphis, Tenn.After amassing wealth in Memphis, Forrest joined the rebel cause. Wounded four times, he led lightning raids on supply lines and commanded troops at Shiloh, Chickamauga and other Civil War battles.Jack Hurst, author of Nathan Bedford Forrest: A Biography, says Forrest was the only soldier on either side to rise from private to lieutenant general.In April 1864, Forrest’s troops attacked Fort Pillow in northwest Tennessee and killed an estimated 200 to 300 Union soldiers, most of them Black. Forrest was later accused of massacring them as they tried to surrender.Historians say he was an early Klan leader, though some Forrest supporters dispute that, saying he was offended by its growing penchant for violence.The remains of Forrest and his wife were moved to the Health Sciences Park site in 1904, where his statue towered above passers-by walking to work or to the nearby University of Tennessee medical school until its 2017 removal.“The statue was reprehensible and was offensive,” said Sawyer, who says she received threats for her activism in getting it taken down. “It wasn’t something I believed belonged in our city.”In December 2017, Memphis sold Forrest Park to a newly created non-profit, Memphis Greenspace, led by Commissioner Turner. The sale to a private entity circumvented a state law prohibiting the removal of historical monuments from public areas.Workers dig up the remains of Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest and his wife to move the bodies from Health Sciences Park, June 4, 2021, in Memphis, Tenn.On the night of Dec. 20, 2017, a crane removed the statue from its pedestal. The Sons of Confederate Veterans sued, citing the state law, but a Nashville judge ruled against them.Greenspace eventually gave the statue to the Sons of Confederate Veterans, and a judge signed an agreement approved by Forrest’s relatives to send the couple’s remains to the group’s privately funded museum, where Civil War artifacts are displayed.The Sons of Confederate Veterans paid for the disinterment, using contractors and volunteers, including Johnson, the man who confronted Sawyer.A monument to Forrest at the museum likely will be installed outdoors, in a park setting, where Millar said the former Confederate general can rest in peace.“There has been some vandalism, some spray paint, protests,” Millar said of the park in Memphis. “The general wouldn’t be happy the way things are here.”For Turner, the ouster of the Confederate monuments and Forrest’s remains is “undoing an injustice” in a city still dealing with King’s assassination.“I hope that it gives life to the city,” Turner said, “and it lets the city know that we don’t have to allow our past to drag us down.”
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June 20 Is World Refugee Day
Sunday is World Refugee Day. June 20 is a day designated by the United Nations to honor and celebrate the world’s refugees.UNCHR, the U.N.’s refugee agency, says World Refugee Day is “an occasion to build empathy and understanding” for the plight of refugees and to recognize their resilience in rebuilding their lives.U.S. President Joe Biden said in a statement Sunday, “Today, I join people around the globe in commemorating World Refugee Day, a day when we recognize the courage and humanity of the millions forced to flee violence, persecution, and war.”Biden also said, “On this day, we reaffirm our sacred commitment to alleviate suffering through humanitarian relief, and redouble our efforts to achieve lasting solutions for refugees—including through resettlement. We also recommit to engaging in diplomatic efforts to bring an end to the ongoing conflicts that compel refugees to seek safety elsewhere.”There are more refugees today than there have ever been, UNHCR reports, despite the restrictions and closures imposed on people and countries because of the COVID-19 pandemic.UNHCR said in a statement that, “the number of people fleeing wars, violence, persecution and human rights violations in 2020 rose to nearly 82.4 million,” a number representing a “4% increase on top of the already record-high 79.5 million at the end of 2019.”“And what is quite shocking,” UNHCR Assistant High Commissioner Gillian Triggs told VOA’s Laurel Bowman, “is that over the last 10 years the numbers of people who are refugees or forcibly displaced has more than doubled. Something like 48% are children or youths, so we really have generations of children who are separated from their countries of origin.”UNHCR urges the world to remember that “Behind each number is a person forced from their home and a story of displacement, dispossession and suffering. They merit our attention and support not just with humanitarian aid, but in finding solutions to their plight.”World Refugee Day was held globally for the first time on June 20, 2001, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees. It was originally known as Africa Refugee Day, before the U.N. General Assembly officially designated it as an international day in December 2000.
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Parties to Iran Nuclear Deal to Meet on Sunday, EU Says
Parties negotiating a revival of the Iran nuclear deal will hold a formal meeting in Vienna on Sunday, the European Union said Saturday.Iran and six world powers have been negotiating in Vienna since April to work out steps for Washington and Tehran to take. The United States withdrew in 2018 from the pact, under which Iran accepted curbs on its nuclear program in exchange for a lifting of many foreign sanctions against it.Sunday’s formal meeting comes more than a week after this round of talks resumed and is an indication that the talks are likely to be adjourned.Officials over the week have indicated that differences remain on key issues.”The Joint Commission of #JCPOA will meet on Sunday, June 20,” Mikhail Ulyanov Russia’s envoy to the talks said on Twitter.”It will decide on the way ahead at the #ViennaTalks. An agreement on restoration of the nuclear deal is within reach but is not finalized yet.”The remaining parties to the deal — Iran, Russia, China, France, Britain, Germany and the European Union — meet in the basement of a luxury hotel.The U.S. delegation to the talks is based in a hotel across the street as Iran refuses face-to-face meetings, leaving the other delegations and EU to work as go-betweens.Since former U.S. President Donald Trump pulled out of the deal and reimposed sanctions on Iran, Tehran has embarked on counter measures, including rebuilding stockpiles of enriched uranium, a potential pathway to nuclear bombs.
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Police Parade in Addis Ababa Ahead of Elections
Hundreds of police officers took part Saturday in a parade in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, ahead of elections scheduled to take place on Monday.The show of force included police dogs and riot police, which paraded past government officials.The mayor of Addis Ababa, Adenach Abebe, addressed police officers, suggesting they uphold “the integrity” of Ethiopians by staying impartial and “upholding” and “abiding by the rule of law.”One local resident, Eskedar Teklegiorges felt the police shouldn’t be needed and that the Ethiopian people could maintain a friendly atmosphere.”We do not need the government to ensure peace, as peace belongs to us,” she said, adding it’s the people’s “duty to remain united.”The election has been overshadowed by reports of famine in the country’s war-hit Tigray region and beset by logistical problems that mean some people won’t be able to vote until September.It is also the centerpiece of a reform drive by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, whose rise to power in 2018 seemed to signal a break with decades of authoritarian rule and led to his Nobel Peace Prize the following year.
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Architect of European Unity Moves Ahead on Sainthood Path
Robert Schuman, a French statesman who paved the way for the bloc that eventually evolved into European Union, has moved ahead on the Catholic Church’s path toward possible sainthood.The Vatican said Pope Francis on Saturday approved a decree declaring the “heroic virtues” of Schuman, a former prime minister, finance minister and foreign minister for France after World War II. In 1950, as foreign minister, he developed a plan to promote European economic unity in hopes of furthering peace.Schuman died in 1963 after serving as the first president of the forerunner of the European Parliament.The pope’s decision means Schuman can be called “venerable” by the Catholic faithful. It is one of several steps in a usually long process that can result in sainthood.The European Commission website describes Schuman as “one of the founding fathers of European unity,” hailing him as “the architect of the project of European integration.”The Vatican described Schuman as a man of Catholic faith.”Behind the action of the public man, there was the interiority of the man who lived the sacraments, who, when he could, would take to an abbey, who would reflect on the sacred Word before finding the shape of his political words,” it said.Born in Luxembourg in 1886 to a Luxembourg mother and a French father in a area annexed by Germany, he was a German citizen at birth. After World War I, when the area was returned to France, Schuman became a French citizen.FILE – The bust of French statesman Robert Schuman, one of the founders of the European Union, is seen while environmental activists launch a hot air balloon during a demonstration outside an EU summit in Brussels, Dec. 10, 2020.Active in French ResistanceA lawyer and a member of the French National Assembly, Schuman was arrested in 1940 by the German Gestapo after the German occupation of France but escaped in 1942. The European Commission biography of him notes his activity in the French Resistance.After the war, Schuman served as finance minister, prime minister, foreign minister and justice minister.On May 9, 1950, Schuman gave a speech pitching cooperation between European nations to help converge their economic interests. Such cooperation, especially involving France and Germany, he argued, would make another war on the continent both unthinkable and impossible.His plan helped see the realization of the 1952 European Coal and Steel Community, a forerunner of the Common Market formed in 1958.Last year, noting the 70th anniversary of his speech, which became known as the Schuman Declaration, the pope praised the statesman’s legacy. Francis said from that point on there came “a long period of stability and peace which we benefit from today.”
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Driver Rams Cyclists in Arizona Race, Critically Injuring 6
A driver in a pickup truck plowed into bicyclists during a community road race in Arizona on Saturday, critically injuring several riders before police chased the driver and shot him outside a nearby hardware store, authorities said.Six people were taken to a hospital in critical condition after the crash in the mountain town of Show Low, about a three-hour drive northeast of Phoenix, police said. Helmets, shoes and crumpled and broken bicycles were strewn across the street after the crash, and a tire was wedged into the grill of the truck, which had damage to its top and sides and a bullet hole in a window.Two other people went to a hospital themselves, city spokeswoman Grace Payne said, and one of the severely injured was later flown by medical helicopter to a Phoenix-area hospital.The suspect, a 35-year-old man, also was hospitalized in critical but stable condition.”We don’t know the motivation,” Payne told The Associated Press. “We know he fled the scene.”Police said a Ford pickup truck struck the bicyclists about 7:25 a.m. in downtown Show Low during the annual 93-kilometer (58-mile) Bike the Bluff race, then fled. Officers pursued the driver and tried to stop him before he was shot, authorities said.Payne said the driver did not comply when officers tried to arrest him, but the circumstances of the shooting were not immediately released. Neither were the identities of the suspect and victims.Officials said the race had 270 participants.”Our community is shocked at this incident and our hearts and prayers are with the injured and their families at this time,” police spokeswoman Kristine Sleighter said in a statement.The Navajo County sheriff’s office and the Arizona Department of Public Safety were helping investigate. U.S. 60, the main street in the town tucked in the White Mountains, was closed in the area.
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WHO Declares End to Second Ebola Outbreak in Guinea
The World Health Organization officially announced Saturday the end of Guinea’s second Ebola outbreak, which was declared in February and claimed 12 lives.At 16 confirmed cases and seven probable infections, according to WHO figures, the limited size of the flare-up has been credited to experience from the 2013-16 epidemic, which killed more than 11,300 people, mostly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.”I have the honor of declaring the end of Ebola” in Guinea, WHO official Alfred Ki-Zerbo said at a ceremony in the southeastern Nzerekore region, where the disease surfaced at the end of January.International rules meant that Guinea had to wait 42 days — twice the virus’s incubation period — without a new case before declaring the epidemic over.That wait was over Friday, weeks after the last person was declared cured on May 8, a senior health ministry official told AFP.Health Minister Remy Lamah also declared the outbreak finished “in the name of the head of state,” President Alpha Conde.Saturday’s event in a health ministry building was attended by around 200 people, including local religious and community leaders.”We must also thank the communities who pitched in to overcome the disease,” the WHO’s Ki-Zerbo said.Previous resistanceDuring last decade’s outbreak, reluctance and outright hostility toward anti-Ebola infection control measures led some people in Guinea’s forested southeast to attack and even kill government employees.”Community engagement, effective public health measures and the equitable use of vaccines” had this time been key to overcoming Ebola, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement.The U.N. body said it had delivered about 24,000 vaccine doses to Guinea and that 11,000 people at high risk had received shots, including more than 2,800 frontline workers.”We’ve beaten Ebola but let’s remain vigilant” read a banner unfurled at Saturday’s ceremony.”We must stay alert for a possible resurgence and ensure the expertise in Ebola expands to other health threats such as COVID-19,” WHO Africa director Matshidiso Moeti said.The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in a statement that genetic sequencing showed links between the previous outbreak and the latest epidemic.This year’s outbreak could have been caused by “persistent infection in a survivor from the West Africa outbreak” back then, the CDC said, emphasizing “the necessity for strong and ongoing survivor programs,” as well as more research.Ebola causes severe fever and, in the worst cases, unstoppable bleeding. It is transmitted through close contact with bodily fluids, and people who live with or care for patients are most at risk.
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Uganda Imposes 42-Day COVID-19 Lockdown
Uganda has reimposed a 42-day lockdown as coronavirus infections surge in the East African country. President Yoweri Museveni said in his Friday night address that he was tired of receiving calls about deaths, but critics say he presented a wish list that would instead worsen the situation for Ugandans. Earlier Friday, the Health Ministry shared the latest coronavirus figures indicating 1,564 new cases recorded in the previous 24 hours. This included 42 new deaths, bringing the total to 584. One thousand four active cases have been admitted at health facilities around the country.After presenting those figures in his national address Friday night, Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni said Ugandans had been violating an earlier ban on interdistrict travel.In his speech, Museveni said every village has community health workers who are in touch with families and keep records on the health status of the villages. They know how many people are in the village, how many are pregnant, how many have children, etc. Private vehicles, other than those operated by essential workers will only be allowed to travel if they have permission from their local village chairman or health worker to transport a patient to hospital.”All cross-boundary district and intradistrict movement of public transport and by private vehicles or boda bodas is hereby suspended for 42 days starting today,” said Museveni. “Why 42 days? Because we know that this virus, once it doesn’t spread in 14 days, it gets out of your body.”Uganda Sees Sharp Rise in COVID-19 Cases From 200 cases per day in April, the East African country is now recording over 1,000 cases per day amid a looming vaccine shortageThe virus has significantly spread to 108 districts, out of which 20, including Kampala and Wakiso, have been most affected. Museveni noted that the country is experiencing very high hospitalization and death rates for COVID-19 patients among all age groups. He says Ugandans have not been serious and have not adhered to earlier COVID-19 directives. “I’m getting from all over the place, telephones, telephones, so and so has died, so and so has died. Imagine. And yet we told you,” said Museveni. “We told you from March last year, I said you people … And when people listened, we controlled the disease. As such, the curfew time throughout the country is pulled back to 19:00 hours up to 05:30 hours.”Museveni also noted that the number of severely and critically ill COVID-19 patients has more than doubled, straining the health system, particularly the available oxygen supply. While an average non-COVID-19 patient requires one to two cylinders per day, a severely ill COVID-19 patient needs four to six cylinders per day. “With the estimated COVID-19 patient increase in the coming weeks, the daily oxygen consumption will rise to 25,000 cylinders per day in one month, unless we change the course. This is nearly a ninefold increase in the overall national oxygen requirement,” said Museveni.The Health Ministry this week indicated that they had secured $7 million from the Global Fund to install seven oxygen plants in the country.Unlike last year’s distribution of food to vulnerable city dwellers – an effort that did not reach many of the targeted people and spurred complaints about the food — Ugandans must use the little they have to survive the 42 days this time.Sarah Birete, who is executive director at Center for Constitutional Governance, criticizes Museveni’s directives, saying they are merely wish lists that will only worsen the already difficult situation for citizens. “It’s a good thing to do, but with no budget line, with no capacity, no arrangements,” said Birete. “The way our systems are normally disorganized, it’s a wish list and it’s going to risk people’s lives more. When you look at general limitation constraints on transport. You know people don’t want to engage with the LDUs [local defense units] and the way they treat people. So many people who do not want to be caught up in that fracas are likely to die in silence.”Ugandans will now have to wait till July 30 to resume normal lives unless the spread of the coronavirus is contained before then.
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Bidens Announce Death of ‘First Dog’ Champ
President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden on Saturday announced the passing of their German shepherd Champ, who they called a “constant, cherished companion” for 13 years.”In our most joyful moments and in our most grief-stricken days, he was there with us, sensitive to our every unspoken feeling and emotion. We love our sweet, good boy and will miss him always,” the Bidens said in a statement.
Champ was one of two German shepherds living at the White House with the president and first lady. Biden got Champ in 2008, the year he was elected vice president under President Barack Obama.
Champ lived alongside Major, who the Bidens adopted in November 2018 and became the first rescue dog to live in the White House. Major had to be briefly removed from the premises after two incidents of nipping staff on White House grounds.
Major returned to the White House in April after being sent to an off-site training so he could adjust to life in the White House.
The arrival of Champ and Major marked the return of pets to the White House after a four-year hiatus under former President Donald Trump, who was the first president since Andrew Johnson in the 1860s not to share the presidential digs with a dog or a cat.
Champ lived with the Bidens when the current president served as vice president and spent his days, “chasing golf balls on the front lawn of the Naval Observatory.”
“Even as Champ’s strength waned in his last months, when we came into a room, he would immediately pull himself up, his tail always wagging, and nuzzle us for an ear scratch or a belly rub,” the statement said.
The Bidens also have addressed the idea of getting a cat. “She is waiting in the wings,” Jill Biden said in April.
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Cameroon Sickle Cell Patients Say They Can Live Longer
Hundreds of sickle cell disease patients in Cameroon are using World Sickle Cell Day, June 19, to teach their neighbors that people with the disease can live longer, contrary to popular beliefs and stigma that label them as witches who must die before the age of 24. Cameroon says 20% of its 25 million people are carriers of the gene primarily seen in people of African descent. The government is also telling hesitant sickle cell patients to accept vaccinations against COVID-19.At least 300 sickle cell patients and their family members turned out at the Cameroon Baptist Convention hospital at Etoug-Ebe, a neighborhood in Cameroon’s capital, Yaoundé. Hospital officials said hundreds of other sickle cell patients came out in the coastal city Douala and the English-speaking western towns of Buea, Bamenda, Kumba and Kumbo to observe the 2021 World Sickle Cell Day.Fifty-five-year-old Ashu Egbe was diagnosed with sickle cell when he was seven months old. He says he is living proof that people can live long with the disorder, in which red blood cells contain an abnormal type of hemoglobin. ‘I am a sickle cell sufferer, I usually tell people that I am a sickle cell warrior because we go through the challenges of life, the pains and we think that we are warriors, we are overcomers,” Egbe said. “The younger ones should be courageous, avoid extreme colds or extreme heat and drink plenty of nonalcoholic fluids. You have a normal diet of good vegetables and then you have continuous follow up. You can live a good life.”Egbe said he created Ashu Egbe Foundation to educate sickle cell patients on their rights and encourage people to consider sickle cell patients normal citizens. Gene-editing Treatment Shows Promise for Sickle Cell, Other Blood DiseaseDoctors hope one-time treatment, which involves permanently altering DNA in blood cells with tool called CRISPR, may treat, possibly cure sickle cell disease, beta thalassemiaCameroon’s health ministry reports that 20% of the country’s 25 million people are carriers of the gene primarily seen in people of African descent.Cameroon says patients suffer stigma, including superstitious beliefs that sickle cell is divine punishment for wrongdoing. There are beliefs that people with the disease die before they reach 25 years because they are witches and wizards. Couples with sickle cell children are forced by their families to divorce.Twenty-seven-year-old Somo Francis Glenn lives with sickle cell. He says communities should stop abusing the rights of sickle cell patients. He says the government should ask hospitals to pay more attention to patients.”At times we are sick, but we are afraid to go to the hospital because if you get to the hospital at 7 a.m., you shall be received at 10 [a.m.],” Somo said. “Imagine the pain you go through. Doctors will tell you that you are not the first person to have pain. Those are the things that make us go psychologically mad. I am begging the minister of health to create a hematology center only for sickle cell patients in Cameroon. Our immune system is first of all weak. COVID-19 and sickle cell are a whole lot of problems.”Somo said the government could help eradicate the disease by asking people to have medical consultations before marriage and before having children.Cameroon’s health minister, Manaouda Malachie, said special services exist in all hospitals in the central African state to treat sickle cell patients. He said patients should not fear going to hospitals for fear of being infected by COVID-19.Lydie Ze Meka is president of Cameroon’s National Association for the Protection of Sickle Cell Patients. She says the association she leads is encouraging all sickle cell patients to be vaccinated against COVID-19.She says sickle cell patients are reluctant to be vaccinated against COVID-19. She says the coronavirus attacks lungs and sickle cell patients have fragile lungs which are constantly exposed to pulmonary infections that can cause deaths. She says on this year’s World Sickle Cell Day, she is pleading with reticent patients to voluntarily agree to be vaccinated against COVID-19 to save their lives. The United Nations reports that sickle cell is common in most of sub-Saharan Africa, affecting close to 3% of births in some African countries.The U.N. recognizes June 19 as World Sickle Cell Day to raise awareness of the disease, which they say has not been eradicated due to ignorance. The U.N. encourages couples to have medical consultations before marriage and before having children.
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Africa Appeals for Vaccines to Combat Third Wave of COVID-19
African health officials are urgently appealing for vaccines to combat a third wave of COVID-19 surging across the continent.The World Health Organization reports the number of African COVID-19 cases has exceeded 5 million and the disease has killed 136,000 people.WHO regional director for Africa Matshidiso Moeti says cases have been increasing over the past four weeks. She says new cases in the past week have risen by nearly 30% across the continent and deaths have increased by 15%. She says five countries—South Africa, Tunisia, Zambia, Uganda, and Namibia—account for 76% of new coronavirus infections in Africa. “Africa is in the midst of a full-blown third wave. The sobering trajectory of surging cases should rouse everyone to urgent action,” said Moeti. “We’ve seen in India and elsewhere how quickly COVID-19 can rebound and overwhelm health systems. Public health measures must be scaled up fast to find, test, isolate and care for patients and to quickly trace and isolate their contacts.” Moeti says it is urgent that Africa quickly receive more vaccines as the circulation of more contagious variants across the continent is accelerating. She says the Delta variant, the most virulent strain, has been reported in 14 African countries, and the Beta and Alpha variants have been found in more than 25 countries.She says 12 million people in Africa now are fully vaccinated against COVID-19. She welcomes the receipt of vaccine doses from the WHO COVAX sharing facility and from government donations that has made this possible. Threat of Third COVID Wave in Africa ‘Real and Rising’, WHO WarnsDoctor warns that Italian migrants are not being vaccinated. India orders 300 million doses of unapproved vaccineHowever, she says those 12 million people represent less than 1% of Africa’s 1.3 billion population. “At the continental level, we are seeing a rise in cases similar to the first wave peak in July 2020 and about 50% of the second wave peak in January 2021. … Africa needs millions more doses here and now to curb the third wave, and best practice approaches will be key to make the most of the available vaccines,” said Moeti. WHO says Africa needs 200 million vaccine doses by the end of September to inoculate 10% of the population against the coronavirus. The European Union has pledged to donate 100 million doses to low-income countries and the United States has said it would provide 80 million doses to poorer countries.
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Juneteenth Becomes US Federal Holiday
Juneteenth is America’s newest federal holiday after President Joe Biden signed it into law Thursday. But African Americans have celebrated every June 19 since 1865, when the last enslaved Blacks learned of their freedom on that date, two-and-a- half years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. It also has been a day to reflect on their struggle for freedom and justice, and to teach vital history to younger generations.Kelly Elaine Navies, a museum specialist and oral historian at the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, explains that General Gordon Granger arrived in the city of Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865. He was accompanied by 1,800 Union troops, many of whom were United States Colored Troops, and he announced General Order No. 3, which notified Texans that all enslaved people were no longer in bondage. President Joe Biden hands a pen to Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., after signing the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act, in the East Room of the White House in Washington, June 17, 2021.“That’s stating that the slavery was legally ended and that the enslaved were now free. This was important because although the Emancipation Proclamation had been signed on January 1, 1863, that really only impacted states in the Confederacy, and then only states where there was a union presence,” Navies said.Navies recalled when she was a child, her father, who was an educator, made it a tradition to celebrate Juneteenth, also known as Freedom Day.“He would invite not just his students at Berkeley High School, but he would also invite his friends and family and members of the community. Barbecuing all hours of the night, from a young age, my job was to chop onions and potatoes,” Navies said. “And we would have a program that was intergenerational. Children would perform and read poetry, create dances and open mic. Elders will speak and share stories of their experiences with being Black in America.”Juneteenth has been a state holiday in nearly all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. Last year, in the wake of millions demonstrating against racial injustice after the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and others, a bipartisan group tried to get Congress to recognize Juneteenth as a federal holiday.Terrence Floyd, brother of the late George Floyd who was killed by a police officer, reacts during the unveiling event of Floyd’s statue, as part of Juneteenth celebrations, in Brooklyn, New York, June 19, 2021.On Thursday, after more than 150 years, Juneteenth was established as the newest federal holiday at a White House ceremony after a bill was passed days earlier by Congress.Howard University School of Law Professor Justin Hansford said Juneteenth is not just a celebration of the emancipation of enslaved African Americans, but also a day of remembrance.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 19 MB480p | 28 MB540p | 36 MB720p | 75 MB1080p | 140 MBOriginal | 181 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioJuneteenth Becomes a Federal Holiday in the US“I am eager to see not only the Juneteenth holiday be recognized by the federal government, but I am eager to see how it is recognized, how it is celebrated, how it is used as a tool of education for people and how it can ultimately bring us more in line with what the hope of the emancipation was, which is freedom for everybody. I think it can be a positive development for good for all of us,” Hansford said. But the Howard University law professor also noted the dichotomy between what happened in Washington and current events in the state of Texas.“On the same day that Juneteenth [bill] passed in the Senate, the state of Texas, where Juneteenth originates from, passed the law banning the teaching of the 1619 Project, banning critical race theory, banning the opportunity to teach about Black history,” Hansford said. “So, it’s almost like a joke where you pass a proclamation recognizing an important moment in Black history and at the same time on the same day, the state where that particular incident took place is passing a law banning the teaching of Black history.”HB 3979, legislation to abolish critical race theory in Texas, was signed into law on June 16 by Texas Governor Greg Abbott. The bill, which takes effect on September 1, was sponsored by state Representative Steve Toth. Despite the fact the measure banned critical race theory, he said in an interview with the National Review that “The facts are very clear, very explicit, we don’t ban, we don’t discourage the discussion of anything.”But Hansford said it’s important to understand there is a connection between Juneteenth and the banning of certain teachings.“Don’t forget that the Juneteenth story is a story about Black people who were free, but the knowledge of their freedom, the awareness of their freedom was denied to them,” Hansford said. “And here at the same time, we see that same denial of access to information, and the denial of access to knowledge being written into law in the state of Texas, the state of Florida and other states that are passing these anti-critical-race-theory laws.”Declaration of Juneteenth Holiday Sparks Scramble in States They sought to clarify their policies on the observance with less than a business day’s noticeCritical race theory, according to Hansford, is “a field of study that seeks to uncover the way that race played a central role in how American society is structured.” While debated by academics since the 1970s, it has only recently become a political issue.Last week, Florida’s Board of Education banned the teaching of the theory from its public schools. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis explained why he supports the ban in a recent interview with WPLG, an ABC-affiliated television station in Miami.“I think it’ll cause people to think of themselves more as a member of a particular race based on skin color rather than based on the content of their character,” DeSantis said.In Leesburg, Virginia, near Washington, last weekend, a rally was held against critical race theory teaching. Activist Patti Menders explained she opposes anti-racism teaching because she believes it trains white children to see themselves as “oppressors.”But while school curriculum is a lightning rod for controversy, a Juneteenth federal holiday has become law.
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Thailand Starts Human Trials of Homegrown COVID-19 Vaccines
Thailand has begun human trials with two of four homegrown vaccine candidates local scientists are developing against COVID-19, as the country scrambles to secure shots from abroad amid its worst wave of infections since the pandemic began.The homegrown vaccines will not be ready for mass production in time to help Thailand fight off the latest wave. Officials and developers are hoping, though, that they will arrive in time to give Thailand — and maybe its neighbors — booster shots tailored to the main variants of the novel coronavirus by next year.“The vaccine will be against the variants like the South African variant and the Indian variant and others, so that will be our strategy,” said Kiat Ruxrungtham, who is spearheading development of one of the most anticipated candidates at Chulalongkorn University’s Vaccine Research Center in Bangkok.A shot in the armFor now, Thailand is relying on a mix of vaccines from foreign drugmakers to reach herd immunity by the end of the year.Having kept infection rates low through 2020 with tight border controls and strict social distancing, Thailand secured relatively few doses early in the pandemic. It bought a few million shots from China’s Sinovac for the most vulnerable and struck a deal with AstraZeneca that lets local drugmaker SiamBioscience manufacture its COVID-19 vaccine in the country.Then came the third wave in April, sending death and infection rates to record highs, and authorities on a vaccine shopping spree, striking deals with Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson and Sinopharm. The government says it has now locked in 105.5 million doses, enough to cover over 70% of Thailand’s 69 million people, and is looking for more.Thai authorities and developers, though, still see a crucial role for the homegrown vaccines.Tanarak Plipat, deputy director-general of disease control at the Public Health Ministry, said the new vaccines will help keep Thailand safe once the effects of the first full round of doses start wearing off.“There [is] growing evidence that very soon we may need the booster dose of the vaccine, I mean the third or the fourth or the fifth. We don’t exactly know about that, and we don’t know how frequent we need to boost the antibodies,” he said.“So in the long run, I think we are going to need a constant supply,” he said.He said some of the vaccines Thailand is developing may also prove better at fending off infection from some of the more contagious variants sweeping the globe. The alpha variant, first identified in Britain, is already the dominant strain in Thailand. The Health Ministry’s medical sciences department recently warned that the even more contagious delta variant, first found in India, could soon take over.Self-relianceTanarak said the difficulties most countries have had securing not just vaccines, but masks and ventilators as well, have taught Thailand that it still needs to try to rely on itself for what it needs when it needs it.“To secure [the] health for our people, we need to be able to rely on ourselves in the time of [the] pandemic,” he said. “No matter how much money you have, we are not going to get the most important supplies of medical device or medicine or vaccines if you are not being able to produce it yourself.”If all goes well, he said Thai laboratories could be producing tens of millions of doses of the country’s own COVID-19 vaccines by around the middle of next year.The Government Pharmaceutical Organization, a state drugmaker, started Phase 1 human trials in March of its candidate using an inactive Newcastle disease virus, which mainly infects birds, and has moved on to Phase 2 with more volunteers.Chulalongkorn’s Vaccine Research Center started Phase 1 human trials on Monday with what could be the first vaccine against COVID-19 developed in Southeast Asia using messenger RNA, the same technique pioneered by U.S. drugmakers Pfizer and Moderna.BioNet-Asia, an established local drugmaker, and Baiya Phytopharm, a startup, have yet to begin human trials with their own vaccine candidates.The Vaccine Research Center had been hoping to start human trials in late 2020. Instead, it says, it had to wait for slots to open at the U.S. labs making their vaccine for the trials, and that government funding — while generous — took longer to arrive than expected.With human trials of their first-generation vaccine now under way, Kiat and his team are already making plans to do the same in a few months with a second-generation candidate targeting the virus’s variants, a relatively simpler feat with the mRNA technique than with others.“The same technology, the same formulation, you just change the [gene] sequence,” he said. “If you have more data [from] the first generation, you can use that data to support your second generation. So, second generation we don’t have to [try] too many doses because we learn from the first generation what dose will be the best.”In the neighborhoodIf and when approved, Kiat said BioNet-Asia was lined up to start making 50 million to 80 million shots per year.Beyond targeting the dominant global variants of the novel coronavirus, mastering the mRNA technique could also let Thailand quickly tailor vaccines to strains, or combinations of strains, specific to the region or the country, said Lorenz von Seidlein, a vaccine expert at Thailand’s Mahidol Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit.“So, if there’s a combination of strains which is particular to Thailand, there would be probably a niche then for them to say, this new variant — which we don’t know yet but may pop up next year — we quickly can address this in combination with the variants that were here before,” he said.The benefits could spill over to Thailand’s neighbors, some of which are also battling their worst waves of infection since the start of the pandemic, including Malaysia, Cambodia and Vietnam.Kiat said a few other Southeast Asian countries have expressed interest in joining late-stage Phase 2 human trials of his team’s vaccines if the results from Phase 1 are promising. He said they were especially interested in the second-generation vaccines they are working on and may consider placing orders.“Our intention is that if we have efficient production and good-quality vaccine … we should be able to supply neighborhood countries either through COVAX or whatever,” he said, referring to an international plan for supplying poorer countries with free or subsidized COVID-19 shots.
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Tour de France to Hold Women’s Cycling Race in July 2022
A women’s version of the Tour de France will be held in 2022 with a start on Paris’ iconic Champs-Elysees boulevard after the conclusion of the men’s race, organizers announced Thursday.The “Tour de France Femmes” aims to become a permanent fixture on the women’s world tour cycling calendar after various failed attempts in the past.The route and length of the race were not immediately disclosed but a video accompanying the launch said riders will “tackle the most challenging route” and “defy the most iconic climbs.”It is scheduled to start on July 24, 2022.“This is a huge moment for professional women’s cycling,” Anna van der Breggen, a rider for UCI Women’s WorldTeam SD Worx, said in a statement.“The Tour de France is the most famous race in cycling,” she continued, “and it’s long been a dream for many of us to compete in a women’s Tour de France. I’m hopeful that the race will help us grow our sport even more by providing us with a media platform to take the excitement of women’s cycling to new audiences.”Tour de France organizer Christian Prudhomme earlier this year had revealed the likelihood of the race for 2022.A women’s Tour stage race took place from 1984 to 1989, running parallel with the men’s race before later being shortened. Various other versions have been tried but they usually were underfunded.Online fitness platform Zwift has signed on in a four-year sponsorship. Tour de France owner Amaury Sport Organization (ASO) and Zwift worked together last year to hold a virtual edition of the race.”I really believe the women’s peloton puts on some of the most exciting bike racing to watch and it deserves a much bigger platform to exhibit these talents and skills,” Zwift chief executive Eric Min said.Female cyclists have spent years calling for a women’s version of the race. They’ve put together petitions, and some even rode every stage of the men’s race just to raise awareness.ASO currently organizes La Course, an elite women’s race — typically one day — held in Paris coinciding with the Tour.The Tour de France begins June 26 in Brest.
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Court Denies Bail for Hong Kong Pro-democracy Media Executives
Two executives from Hong Kong’s pro-democracy Apple Daily appeared in court on Saturday on charges of collusion and were denied bail after authorities deployed a sweeping security law to target the newspaper, a scathing critic of Beijing.Chief editor Ryan Law and CEO Cheung Kim-hung are accused of colluding with foreign forces to undermine China’s national security over a series of articles that police said called for international sanctions.Chief magistrate Victor So said there were insufficient grounds “for the court to believe that the defendants will not continue to commit acts endangering national security.”The two will remain in custody until their next court appearance on Aug. 13 as prosecutors said police needed time to examine more than 40 computers and 16 servers seized from the newsroom.The case is the first time political views and opinions published by a Hong Kong media outlet have triggered the security law, which was imposed last year by Beijing to stamp out dissent in the financial hub.Apple Daily and its jailed owner Jimmy Lai have long been thorns in Beijing’s side, with unapologetic support for the city’s pro-democracy movement and caustic criticism of China’s authoritarian leaders.More than 500 police officers raided the paper’s newsroom on Thursday. Five executives were arrested. Law and Cheung were charged on Friday while the three others were released on bail pending further investigations.”We will continue to publish our paper tomorrow,” deputy chief editor Chan Pui-man said outside court. She was released late Friday on bail.Dozens of supporters were queuing to get seats in court on Saturday morning, including many former and current employees of Apple Daily.A staff member, who gave her surname as Chang, said she and many other Apple Daily employees treat “every day like it is our last” working for the paper.”At first, authorities said the national security law would only target a tiny number of people,” she told AFP.”But what has happened showed us that is nonsense,” she added.Another staff reporter, who gave her first name as Theresa, said she felt Apple Daily’s legal troubles were a warning shot.”I think what has happened to Apple Daily today can eventually happen to every other news outlet in the city,” she said.Plunging press freedomMultiple international media companies have regional headquarters in Hong Kong, attracted to the business-friendly regulations and free speech provisions written into the city’s mini-constitution.But many are now questioning whether they have a future there and are drawing up contingency plans as Beijing presses on with a broad crackdown on dissent in the city.Local media have an even tougher time, with journalist associations saying reporters are increasingly having to self-censor.Hong Kong has steadily plunged down an annual press freedom ranking by Reporters Without Borders, from 18th place in 2002 to 80th this year.Mainland China languishes at 177th out of 180, above only Turkmenistan, North Korea and Eritrea.Hong Kong and Chinese officials say the arrests were not an attack on the media.Earlier this week, security secretary John Lee described Apple Daily as a “criminal syndicate.”Apple Daily is by far the most outspoken of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy media outlets. But it is not clear how long it can survive.Its wealthy owner Lai, 73, is currently serving multiple jail sentences for his involvement in democracy rallies in 2019.He has also been charged under the national security law and has had his Hong Kong assets frozen.Authorities froze a further HK$18 million (US$2.3 million) of Apple Daily’s company assets on Thursday.Police say they also plan to prosecute three companies owned by Apple Daily under the security law, which could see the paper fined or banned.It is the first time companies, rather than an individual, have faced a national security investigation.Mark Simon, an aide to Lai who lives overseas, said the paper would have difficulty paying its staff of about 700.Company lawyers were trying to work out the breadth of the asset freeze order, he added.”Money is not an issue. Draconian orders from Beijing via the NSL (national security law) are the issue,” he told AFP.
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Researchers Begin Trials of COVID-19 Nasal Spray Vaccine
Researchers in Australia are starting clinical trials of a new type of COVID-19 vaccine — a nasal spray. Scientists at Brisbane’s Nucleus Network believe that the treatment could be more effective against the virus than the AstraZeneca and Pfizer drugs and that it would allow patients who are afraid of needles to be inoculated.Despite concerted public health campaigns, the vaccination program in Australia has been slow compared with those of other countries. There have been supply problems, complaints about poor planning by the government and, with the country’s relatively low level of coronavirus cases, complacency and hesitancy in the community.Australia is accelerating its inoculation rollout. In the future, vaccines could be administered more easily — as a nasal spray designed to “attack the virus” as it enters the body.Dr. Paul Griffin, medical director at the Nucleus Network, a research organization that’s beginning trials of the nasal therapy, said that while other drugs mostly protect against developing severe symptoms of COVID-19, this one aims to reduce the risk of infection.“The main benefit is, when we give the vaccine via the same route that the pathogen or the virus gets in through, then hopefully the response will be more adept at actually stopping the virus getting in,” he said. “So, we will get a response that is particularly active at that site, which will hopefully mean that people are much less likely to get infected, which is something that we really want to see with vaccines for this virus.”An independent ethics committee has approved the Australian trial. Researchers say the nasal spray could be available in a year or two.Two COVID-19 vaccines — AstraZeneca and Pfizer — are currently approved for use in Australia. This week, health authorities said the AstraZeneca drug would now be recommended for use in people 60 and older, after they received new advice from the country’s vaccine experts about the risk of rare blood clots.The government plans to vaccinate every Australian who wants to be inoculated by the end of 2021. Australia has recorded about 30,000 coronavirus cases. More than 900 people have died.
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US Facing Triple Weather Threats
The U.S. National Weather Service warned Friday that the country is facing “three weather areas of concern,” noting the Gulf Coast, the Midwest and the West are experiencing three different but powerful weather conditions.The weather agency said the Gulf Coast and portions of the Southeast are facing “tropical downpours and an increasing threat for dangerous flash flooding” from a storm in the Gulf of Mexico. States affected by the heavy rains include southeastern Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia. A few “isolated tornadoes” could make an appearance in southern Alabama and the Florida Panhandle on Saturday.“Severe thunderstorms and flash flooding” are expected in the Ohio Valley and Midwest, the service said. In addition, “a slow-moving cold front draped across the Great Lakes and into the Central Plains will be the focus for thunderstorm activity,” according to the agency. “Warm temperatures and an abundance of atmospheric moisture will lead to potent thunderstorms and the capability of intense rainfall rates” for the region.Meanwhile, the weather service said, “An oppressive, dangerous, and long-duration heat wave will continue” in the West, which has been experiencing record-breaking, triple-digit temperatures. The statement said, “Excessive Heat Warnings and Heat Advisories are still in effect across much of California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, and sections of western Colorado and northern New Mexico. Red Flag Warnings have also been issued in order to highlight the fire danger associated with the ongoing heat and extremely dry soils.”
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Happy Pride, From Your Neighborhood Corporation
June is Pride Month, and American consumers have seen an uptick in corporations adopting inclusive rainbow branding.Notably, a few brands that generally cater to children have endorsed inclusive messages.This month Lego, the building block company formally for children but popular among all ages, released an “Everyone Is Awesome” Lego set in rainbow colors.”I wanted to create a model that symbolizes inclusivity and celebrates everyone, no matter how they identify or who they love,” the set’s designer, Matthew Ashton, said in a statement when the launch was announced.Teaming up with GLAAD, a nonprofit organization promoting acceptance and positive portrayal of LGBTQ people, food manufacturer Kellogg’s unveiled a heart-shaped take on its Froot Loops breakfast cereal, already a rainbow product.People from all points along the ideological spectrum have taken to social media to express their opinions on large brands and corporations embracing social justice causes, marketing experts say, and if companies decide to participate, it’s likely because they’re confident it will be profitable.”Companies are rethinking who’s at the table,” Angeli Gianchandani, professor of brand marketing at the University of New Haven, told VOA.”They’re looking at the data, and they’re understanding who their consumer is,” she said.Gianchandani also pointed out that the shift in marketing may also be in part because of increased diversity within companies, with employees feeling more comfortable pitching ideas tied to social justice.”A lot of these companies have a more diverse set of employees, so that’s helping them find new ways to create products and think about who their customer is,” she said.For example, Ashton, the designer of the “Everyone Is Awesome” Lego set and vice president of design at the company, has spoken openly about his struggles growing up as a member of the LGBTQ community in the 1980s.Many adults have tweeted their support for the product.”48yo me would like to thank @matthew__ashton for a set that 20yo me (just out of the closet) would never have imagined would one day exist,” one fan wrote to the designer on Twitter.I can’t think of a better set to assemble on my birthday. 48yo me would like to thank @matthew__ashton for a set that 20yo me (just out of the closet) would never have imagined would one day exist. Love you mister. #Pride🖤🤎❤️🧡💛💚💙💜💙🤍💖 pic.twitter.com/oByfU9ZKPm— Shannon 🐧🐻🐙🦊🐱🐸🐬🦄🐦🐻❄️🐷 (@himbobrite) June 4, 2021While some companies such as Kellogg’s have demonstrated support for pro-LGBTQ organizations, some critics have pointed out that many corporations using rainbow graphics have not indicated they actually support gay rights.U.S. Representative Pramila Jayapal has tweeted at multiple corporations who have adopted rainbow versions of their logos but have donated to the political campaigns of Republicans who have blocked legislation banning discrimination based on sexual orientation.”Woah, CUTE Pride logo 🏳️🌈! What’s not cute is giving more than $150,000 to Mitch McConnell and other GOP Senators who are actively blocking the Equality Act from becoming law,” Jayapal tweeted, along with a photo of superstore Walmart’s new rainbow logo.Woah, CUTE Pride logo 🏳️🌈!What’s not cute is giving more than $150,000 to Mitch McConnell and other GOP Senators who are actively blocking the Equality Act from becoming law. pic.twitter.com/dev9T6KYw5— Rep. Pramila Jayapal (@RepJayapal) June 10, 2021While Jayapal and others on the left are skeptical about some corporations’ embrace of social justice, evangelical Christian groups have denounced the popularization of Pride month.Still, marketing experts believe that regardless of the discourse from the far sides of the spectrum, the customer base for many of these companies will stay the same, if not increase.According to Lisa Monahan, assistant professor of marketing at Meredith College, brands such as Kellogg’s and Lego have “significant data on their consumers and how such a move might affect their bottom line.”Monahan says there is “significant evidence” suggesting not only that those loyal to a brand will overlook its political views in the long term, but also that some who aren’t currently loyal to a brand may be moved to patronize it.”Ultimately, showing support for social causes that may be polarizing can have upside despite the risk of alienating consumers whose values are in opposition to the brand’s voice,” Monahan told VOA via email.
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US General: ‘Wildfire of Terrorism’ on March in Africa
A senior U.S. general warned Friday that the “wildfire of terrorism” is sweeping across a band of Africa and needs the world’s attention. He spoke at the close of large-scale U.S.-led war games with American, African and European troops.The African Lion war games, which lasted nearly two weeks, stretched across Morocco, a key U.S, ally, with smaller parts held in Tunisia and Senegal. The annual drills were skipped last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.Gen. Stephen J. Townsend, head of the U.S. Africa Command, praised the work accomplished in joint operations, and painted a dark picture of threats besetting parts of Africa.”I am concerned about the security situation across a band of Africa,” from the Sahel region in the west to the Horn of Africa, Townsend told reporters. He noted deadly attacks by al-Qaida- and Islamic State-linked militants and al-Shabab. “All of them are on the march,” he said.African neighbors are helping governments deal with the threat, but, he added, “all of that does not seem to be sufficient enough to stop what I call … (the) wildfire of terrorism that’s sweeping that region.”African Lion saw more than 7,000 troops from seven countries and NATO carry out air, land and sea exercises together.”It has helped our interoperability, our joint capabilities, and provided readiness and a good opportunity to build cohesion across the forces,” said Maj. Gen. Andrew Rohling, commander of the U.S. Army’s Southern European Task Force Africa. He spoke Friday in the desert town of Tan-Tan.There was a hitch at the start, with Spain withdrawing from the war games, citing budgetary reasons. Press reports attributed the move to Spain’s poor relations with Morocco, a former key partner.The two countries have been at loggerheads since Spain took in the leader of the Polisario Front independence movement — Morocco’s No.1 enemy — for COVID-19 treatment in a Spanish hospital earlier this year. The Polisario is fighting for independence for the Western Sahara, a vast region that Morocco claims as its own.During the exercise, Morocco held some airborne operations near the Western Sahara and not far from Polisario refugee camps in Tindouf, in neighboring Algeria.”Those activities have been perfectly conducted and agreed upon between the two militaries,” Moroccan Brigadier Gen. Mohammed Jamil told The Associated Press.Townsend, asked whether any action spilled into the disputed Western Sahara, was categoric: “I can confirm it did not.”The participating countries in African Lion were the U.S., Morocco, Tunisia, Senegal, Italy, The Netherlands and Britain. Observers also attended from countries including Egypt, Qatar, Niger and Mali.
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Namibian Chief who Urged German Reparations Dies of Virus
A prominent Namibian traditional leader, Vekuii Rukoro, the paramount chief of the OvaHererero people who led international legal battles to bring Germany to pay reparations for its genocide in the southern African country, has died of COVID-19.Rukoro died early Friday, secretary-general of the Ovaherero/OvaMbanderu and Nama Council, Mutjinde Katjiua, told The Associated Press.Rukoro, who was elected Paramount Chief of the OvaHerero in 2014, represented both ethnic groups in the international legal cases.Rukoro and other traditional chiefs have accepted Germany’s offer of compensation but said it should be improved through further negotiations, while some other traditional leaders have rejected it.Last month the German government apologized for the colonial-era massacres and agreed to pay 1.1 billion euros ($1.3 billion) to Namibia over a 30-year period.In what is now acknowledged to be the first genocide of the 20th century, the mass killings of the OvaHerero and Nama people were perpetrated by German colonial forces between 1904 and 1908.Namibia is currently experiencing a surge of COVID-19. The country’s seven-day rolling average of daily new cases has more than doubled over the past two weeks from 17.31 new cases per 100,000 people on June 3 to 49.13 new cases per 100,000 people on June 17, according to Johns Hopkins University.Namibia, a country of 2.5 million people, has a cumulative total of just over 70,000 confirmed cases, including 112 deaths, according to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The current surge has brought the government to restrict movement into and out of the capital, Windhoek, as well as restrict public gatherings to 10 people.Six tourists from South Africa recently died of COVID-19 while on a bus tour of Namibia in which 37 of the 40 people on the tour became ill with the disease.
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11 US Mayors Say They are Committed to Paying Reparations for Slavery
Eleven U.S. mayors said Friday they are committed to paying reparations for slavery but gave few details on how they would accomplish the task.The group, led by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and Denver Mayor Michael Hancock, announced a coalition to pursue reparations, Mayors Organized for Reparations and Equity (MORE).“Our coalition stands on the belief that cities can — and should — act as laboratories for bold ideas that can be transformative for racial and economic justice on a larger scale,” the group said on its website.It said the 11 cities would create local commissions comprised of representatives from Black-led organizations that would determine how to implement the reparations. Questions that would need to be decided include who would qualify for reparations, how much money would be spent and who would pay for the reparations.The mayors said on their website that city programs would vary in “style and scope” but would “serve as high-profile demonstrations for how the country can more quickly move from conversation to actions” on the issue.They noted that the conversation “has hardly moved beyond theory since the end of the Civil War.”Garcetti said during a news conference Friday that “cities will never have the funds to pay for reparations on our own,” according to the Associated Press.“When we have the laboratories of cities show that there is much more to embrace than to fear, we know that we can inspire national action as well,” Garcetti said.The other mayors involved in the coalition are from St. Louis, Missouri; Tullahassee, Oklahoma; Providence, Rhode Island; Austin, Texas; Durham, North Carolina; Asheville, North Carolina; Kansas City, Missouri, Sacramento, California, and St. Paul, Minnesota.The formation of the coalition comes as the nation marks Juneteenth, a celebration of the end of slavery in the United States. President Joe Biden signed a bill this week creating a federal holiday on Juneteenth — June 19.
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