Britain’s Health Minister Matt Hancock quit Saturday after he was caught breaking COVID-19 rules by kissing and embracing an aide in his office, enraging colleagues and the public who have been living under lockdown.Hancock, 42, wrote to Prime Minister Boris Johnson to resign after The Sun newspaper published photos on Friday of the married minister embracing a woman whom he had appointed to a taxpayer-funded role to scrutinize the performance of his department.Hancock has been at the center of the government’s fight against the pandemic, routinely appearing on television and radio to tell people to follow the strict rules to contain the virus.His departure means Johnson will have to appoint a new minister to take on the huge department that is responsible for overseeing the health service and tackling the virus, at a time when cases have started to rise again.Johnson said Friday that he had accepted an apology from the minister and considered the matter to be closed, but Hancock faced rising pressure to quit.”We owe it to people who have sacrificed so much in this pandemic to be honest when we have let them down as I have done by breaching the guidance,” Hancock said in his letter.Johnson expresses gratitudeJohnson said in reply that he was sorry to receive it. “You should be immensely proud of your service,” he wrote. “I am grateful for your support and believe that your contribution to public service is far from over.”The Sun showed Hancock kissing the aide in his office last month, at a time when it was against the rules for people to have intimate contact with others outside their households.The opposition Labor Party also questioned whether he had broken the ministerial code: the woman, a longtime friend of Hancock’s, was appointed as a nonexecutive director, on a taxpayer-funded salary, to oversee the running of his department.Labor leader Keir Starmer said on Twitter that Hancock was right to resign. “But Boris Johnson should have sacked him.”With 128,000 deaths, Britain has one of the highest official death tolls from COVID-19 in the world and Hancock, in the post for almost three years, had been heavily criticized for his initial handling of the pandemic.Johnson’s Conservative government has been boosted by a rapid rollout of the vaccine program, however, with 84% of adults having one dose and 61% having both, well ahead of most other countries.
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Month: June 2021
Zimbabwe Receives COVID-19 Shots From China
Zimbabwe on Saturday received a half-million Sinopharm shots against COVID-19 it bought from China, a development officials said would put its vaccination program back on track.After the plane with the Sinopharm shots landed, Zimbabwe Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube said his government would ensure that the country has no vaccine shortages in the future.Zimbabwe Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube, pictured in Harare, June 26, 2021, said his government would ensure that the country does not have a vaccine shortage in the future. (Columbus Mavhunga/VOA)“We are receiving 2 million vaccines by end of next week, and after that we will order 1.5 million vaccines, and in the month of August will order another 3.5 million vaccines,” Ncube said. “So you can see we are very focused in terms of our vaccine acquisition agenda. We will not have a shortage at all. We are headed for herd immunity and we will get there.”Zimbabwe is one of the African countries seeing recent increases in COVID-19 cases. On Saturday, Dr. John Mangwiro, Zimbabwe’s deputy health minister, said the government intensified its vaccination program to contain the spike in cases.“COVID-19 disease is back via a third wave,” he said. “As a government, we are goingDr. John Mangwiro, Zimbabwe’s deputy health minister, says on June 26, 2021, in Harare that his government had intensified its vaccination program to contain a spike in COVID19 cases. (Columbus Mavhunga/VOA)to target border towns for vaccination so that we make sure that if things are getting worse, our border areas are protected, because you find that most of these [new cases] are coming via our borders. We are going to target areas that are very risky and that the disease can come through. … These are tobacco-auction floors, markets, cotton sales floors. All those will be targeted.”On Thursday, Vice President Constantino Chiwenga, who doubles as Zimbabwe’s health minister, said he wanted everyone vaccinated, starting with vendors. On Saturday, Samuel Wadzai, executive director of the Zimbabwe Vendors Initiative for Social and Economic Transformation, said his organization understood the importance of vaccination.Zimbabwe vendors, pictured in Harare, June 26, 2021, will soon be asked to have COVID-19 vaccination certificates if they are to continue trading, Vice President Constantino Chiwenga says. (Columbus Mavhunga/VOA)“But we expect the government to urge citizens to embrace the vaccination program,” Wadzai said. “That should be done through information dissemination on its importance to the country and economy. We know the pandemic has decimated economies, lives and livelihoods. But we disagree [about] forcing citizens to get vaccinated. When the program started, we were told that people would not be forced. It should remain that way.”So far, fewer than 738,000 Zimbabweans have received their first shots, and nearly 485,000 have received their second shots since the program started in February.Zimbabwe has had 45,217 confirmed coronavirus infections and 1,721 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center in the United States, which tracks the global outbreak.
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Iran Says Nuclear Deal Salvageable but ‘Will Not Negotiate Forever’
Iran said Saturday it believes a reinstatement of its 2015 nuclear deal with major world powers is possible but warned that Tehran “will not negotiate forever.””Out of a steadfast commitment to salvage a deal that the U.S. tried to torpedo, Iran has been the most active party in Vienna, proposing most drafts,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said on Twitter, referring to talks aimed at reviving the nuclear deal.
Iran and the United States have been holding indirect talks on reviving the 2015 agreement between Tehran and six powers that imposed restrictions on Tehran’s nuclear activities in exchange for lifting international sanctions.US Could Quit Iran Nuclear Deal if Talks Do Not AdvanceBlinken addresses reporters after meeting with French foreign minister
Then U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew Washington from the agreement in 2018, but President Joe Biden has been seeking to revive it. Officials on all sides have said there are major issues to resolve before the deal can be reinstated.
“Still believe a deal is possible, if the U.S. decides to abandon Trump’s failed legacy. Iran will not negotiate forever,” Khatibzadeh tweeted.
The U.N. nuclear watchdog Friday demanded an immediate reply from Iran on whether it would extend a monitoring agreement that expired overnight. An Iranian envoy responded that Tehran was under no obligation to provide an answer.
The Vienna talks, which began in April, are now in a pause that had been expected to last until early July, but failure to extend the monitoring accord could throw those negotiations into disarray.
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Blinken to Arrive in Italy Sunday for Meetings With Top Leaders, Pope
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s multination trip to Europe takes him to Italy Sunday for several days of meetings with top Italian leaders, Pope Francis, Group of 20 leaders and ministerial-level officials.After being warmly welcomed in France and Germany, Blinken arrives in Rome from Paris on Sunday, when he meets with the Italian foreign minister, United Nations food security agencies and U.S. embassy officials.Blinken and Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio will co-chair a meeting of the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS in Rome on Monday, when he also meets with Prime Minister Mario Draghi and President Sergio Mattarella to discuss the Syrian civil war and the humanitarian needs in that country.The State Department says Syria remains a big concern, with tens of thousands of women and children in humanitarian camps subject to security issues as members of the Islamic State terrorist group work to exploit the camps to recruit the next generation of fighters. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken leaves as French President Emmanuel Macron, center, gestures toward French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves le Drian, left, at the Elysee palace, June 25, 2021.The top U.S. diplomat arrived in France from Germany, where on Thursday he and German leaders said the U.S. and Germany were partnering to counter Holocaust denial and antisemitism, an effort the secretary of state said will “ensure that current and future generations learn about the Holocaust and also learn from it.” Speaking at the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin, Blinken said Holocaust denial and antisemitism go hand in hand with homophobia, xenophobia, racism and other forms of discrimination, and have become “a rallying cry for those who seek to tear down our democracies.” The top U.S. diplomat also met Thursday with Libya’s interim Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dabaiba on the heels of an international conference focused on supporting Libya’s transition to a permanent, stable government. Wednesday’s conference, hosted by Germany and the United Nations, included officials from 17 countries and reinforced support for national elections in Libya scheduled for late December. Libya has experienced political instability since the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that ousted longtime ruler Moammar Gadhafi from power. Rival governments operated in separate parts of the country for years before a cease-fire deal in October that included a demand for all foreign fighters and mercenaries to leave Libya within 90 days. VOA’s Cindy Saine contributed to this report. This report also includes information from Reuters and AFP.
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UN Leader Condemns Myanmar Military Over Sexual Violence
A U.N. investigator described an “extremely concerning” pattern of sexual violence by Myanmar’s military in a statement Friday.Pramila Patten, the U.N. special representative of the secretary-general on sexual violence in conflict, identified a swath of human rights violations by the ruling political power, which seized control of the country in February.Patten focused particularly on reports of sexual violence against women in detention centers. In her statement, Patten called for not only an immediate end to violence against women but also the ability to independently investigate reports of sexual violence in the country.FILE – Pramila Patten in 2017.“The patterns of sexual violence perpetrated by the Tatmadaw against women from ethnic and religious minority groups, as well as against individuals on the basis of their sexual orientation and gender identity, as documented by the UN Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar, is extremely concerning,” the statement said.The Myanmar military, also known as the Tatmadaw, staged a coup in February, overtaking the recently elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of the National League for Democracy.The Tatmadaw, invoking an article from the country’s 2008 constitution, declared a one-year state of emergency, overtaking all three branches of government.There have since been reports that the military has killed at least 860 people and detained more than 4,800 activists, journalists and opponents of the coup.In advocating for the prevention of violence against women, Patten pointed out that the Tatmadaw was in direct violation of a 2018 agreement between the then-government of Myanmar and the U.N. that promised to address and prevent sexual violence during conflict.Patten added that the current political turmoil has disrupted access to health and social services, as many organizations have shut down to avoid being attacked or looted.“In the midst of this civilian suffering, and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it is essential that appropriate multisectoral services are available to all civilians including non-discriminatory care for survivors of sexual violence, and unimpeded access for humanitarian actors to provide essential lifesaving services,” she said.Patten ended her statement by applauding the work of the women’s rights organizations in the country that are helping citizens despite the increasingly volatile situation.
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Engineer’s Report: Florida Condo Building Had ‘Major Structural Damage’
The New York Times reported early Saturday that a three-year-old engineer’s report on the 13-story condominium building in the southern U.S. state of Florida that partially collapsed Thursday said the building had “major structural damage” on the concrete slab below the pool deck. In addition, the engineer observed “abundant” cracking and crumbling in the walls, beams and columns of the parking garage located under the building, according to the newspaper. The report, The Times said, was the basis for “a multimillion-dollar repair project that was set to get underway soon.”The newspaper said municipal officials released the engineer’s report late Friday. Miami Officials Say 4 Confirmed Dead, 159 Still Missing in Building CollapseSearch and rescue efforts focused on collapsed portion of apartment complexThe 2018 report did not give any evidence that the building was about to collapse but it did say “most of the concrete deterioration needs to be repaired in a timely fashion.”The Washington Post, citing a study conducted last year, reported the building was constructed on reclaimed wetlands on the barrier island that makes up the Miami Beach area and has been gradually sinking since the 1990s. It is unclear if those factors contributed to the incident. Rescue workers used heavy equipment Friday to search for survivors in the rubble of the collapsed building after officials said four people were confirmed dead and 159 people remain missing.The rescuers in the Miami suburb of the Town of Surfside used cranes as well as their own hands to dig through debris.Officials from the city of Miami and surrounding Dade County held a news briefing earlier Friday at the scene, just north of Miami. The collapse happened about 1:30 a.m. local time Thursday. Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava told reporters rescue officials were still searching for survivors, along with additional victims in the collapsed portion of the building. She said 129 people have been confirmed safe, adding that the numbers are very fluid. Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Assistant Chief Raide Jadallah said the entire building has been cleared and checked so rescue operations can focus on the rubble. He said 130 firefighters are working at the site. Miami-Dade Police Director Freddy Ramirez said his office is working with the local medical examiner’s office to identify victims. U.S. President Joe Biden has approved an emergency declaration for the site, which will allow the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to coordinate relief efforts and supply additional funds. The president spoke with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis Friday and said the federal government stands ready to provide additional resources if needed. Information from The Associated Press and the Reuters news service contributed to this report.
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US Pacific Northwest Experiencing Heat Wave
The U.S. Pacific Northwest is experiencing a heat wave. It’s a potentially dangerous situation for a region of the country where many proudly boast about living without air conditioning.Temperatures this weekend are expected to rise as much as 30 degrees higher than normal levels. The trend is expected to continue into next week. In the states of Washington and Oregon, officials have lifted COVID-19 capacity restrictions on cooling centers, pools, movie theaters and shopping malls. US Facing Triple Weather ThreatsUS experiencing varying, but intense weather conditionsMeanwhile, many stores have sold all their air conditioners and fans.
Seattle is forecast be above 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius) this weekend. In Portland, Oregon, it’s likely to be 108 degrees Fahrenheit (42 Celsius) Sunday, which would break a record of 107 F (42 Celsius) in 1981.Seattle has reached 100 Fahrenheit just three times in recorded history, according to the National Weather Service. There’s a possibility it could surge Monday above the record of 103 Fahrenheit (39 Celsius).“We know from evidence around the world that climate change is increasing the frequency, intensity and duration of heat waves,” University of Washington Professor Kristie Ebi, who studies global warming, told the Associated Press. “We’re going to have to get used to this going forward.”The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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German Investigators Seek Motive in Fatal Knife Attack
Investigators were looking Saturday for a motive behind an attack in the German city of Wuerzburg in which a man armed with a long knife killed three people and wounded at least five others.The suspect, a 24-year-old Somali, was shot in the leg by police and arrested after the Friday afternoon attack in the southern city’s downtown area. Police said his life was not in danger and he was being questioned in a hospital.Bavaria’s top security official, Joachim Herrmann, said the suspect had been known to police and had been admitted to a psychiatric unit a few days earlier. He told news agency dpa late Friday that he couldn’t rule out an Islamic extremist motive because one witness had reported hearing the suspect shout “Allahu akbar,” Arabic for “God is great.”The man had lived in Wuerzburg since 2015, most recently in a shelter for the homeless. He apparently did not know the victims. People laid flowers and candles at the scene of the attack.Videos posted on social media showed pedestrians surrounding the attacker and trying to hold him at bay with chairs and sticks.Bavarian governor Markus Soeder praised the “really impressive dedication” of those who tried to stop the man. “Now the circumstances have to be cleared up, the motives,” he said in a statement to reporters in Nuremberg.“All of Bavaria is in mourning today,” said Soeder, who added that he would order flags flown at half-staff in the state.
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Chinese Ambassador Leaves Washington With Relations at Low Ebb
Cui Tiankai, the 69-year-old career diplomat who has served as China’s ambassador to the United States since April 2013, is getting ready to go home.American analysts mostly give Cui high marks for how he represented his country — or at least its government — during his eight-year tenure. But they also question the degree to which he or any Chinese diplomat has been able to influence decision-making in Beijing.Winston Lord, former U.S. ambassador to China, and Bonnie Glaser, director of the Asia Program at the German Marshall Fund in Washington, are among those who say Cui has been a highly effective diplomat.“Ambassador Cui Tiankai has done an outstanding job in my view, during a very difficult period,” Lord said in a phone interview from his home in New York.Skilled, respectedThe fact that Cui remained in his post for so long attests to his skill and the respect in which he is held, Lord said. “He’s been very strong in defending Chinese interests, of course, but he’s always done so with a sense of trying to encourage some sort of dialogue, even though we’ve got some sharp disagreements.”Glaser attended some events Cui hosted at the Chinese Embassy. When asked about the senior diplomat’s mannerisms at those functions, she recalled that “sometimes he was gracious, sometimes he used tougher language when that was appropriate — he’s a very good diplomat, and he adjusts his messaging based on the prevailing situation in the U.S.-China relationship.”FILE – China’s Ambassador to the U.S. Cui Tiankai walks past the closed-door morning session of U.S.-China talks in Anchorage, Alaska, March 19, 2021.When Cui took up his post, FILE – Attendees masked to curb the spread of the coronavirus sit near a screen showing China’s Ambassador to the U.S. Cui Tiankai at the Lanting Forum on improving China-U.S. relations, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing, Feb. 22, 2021.The Chinese ambassadors, meanwhile, “probably are going to have a more difficult time,” he said. “It’s a lot more difficult politically for the [Chinese] ambassador here to go back to Beijing and say, ‘Look, you’re making a mistake,’ or that the American point of view is not unreasonable.”David Stilwell, who served as the U.S. assistant secretary of state for the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs from June 2019 until January, said Cui’s dilemma has its roots in the political culture in Beijing.“I feel sorry for Ambassador Cui; he’s been between a rock and a hard place for the last eight years,” Stilwell said in a phone interview from Honolulu. “As the man on the ground in D.C., he was responsible for telling Beijing what to expect from the new administration.” Stilwell was referring to hardened stance towards the Chinese government adopted by the administration led by President Donald Trump.Criticism ‘not tolerated’However, “suggesting that General Secretary Xi [Jinping] needed to change course, to compromise, would be tantamount to criticism,” Stilwell continued. “In the cult of personality that surrounds Xi Jinping, criticism is not tolerated.”Stilwell said that he imagined “Cui saw the train wreck that was coming but couldn’t do anything to stop it, nor could he get out of the way.” By “train wreck,” Stilwell said he was referring to the perception in Beijing of the drastic downturn in bilateral relations.“From where I sat, it was long overdue course correction,” he said.
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Attack on UN Base in Mali Injures 12 German Soldiers
The United Nations said 12 German troops and a Belgian soldier serving in the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Mali were wounded Friday in an attack in the country’s restive north.The U.N. mission in the country, MINUSMA, had earlier said that 15 peacekeepers were wounded when a temporary operational base in the Gao region was targeted with a vehicle bomb. Later, it corrected the numbers.German Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer said three of the soldiers were seriously wounded. She told reporters in Bonn, Germany, that two soldiers were in a stable condition while the third was still undergoing surgery.All of the wounded soldiers were flown by helicopter to Gao, where they were being treated at German, French and Chinese medical facilities, the minister said.”The military operations on site aren’t completed yet,” she said.A German medevac plane will fly to Gao overnight to bring the wounded soldiers back to Germany on Saturday, said Kramp-Karrenbauer.Germany has hundreds of troops taking part in U.N. stabilization and European Union training missions in the West African nation.Mali has been trying to contain an Islamic extremist insurgency since 2012.Islamic extremist rebels were forced from power in Mali’s northern cities with the help of a French-led military operation in 2013. However, the insurgents quickly regrouped in the desert and began launching frequent attacks on the Malian army and its allies fighting the insurgency.The extremists have expanded their reach well into central Mali, where their presence has inflamed tensions between ethnic groups in the area.
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Chauvin Sentenced to 22.5 Years in Jail for George Floyd’s Death
Derek Chauvin will face 22 and a half years in prison for the murder of George Floyd, the case that triggered international protests and calls for greater racial reckoning. The former Minneapolis police officer was convicted on two charges of murder and one charge of manslaughter in April. VOA’s Robert Raffaele has more about Friday’s sentencing.
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South Sudan VP: Government Lost $4 Billion in Uncollected Oil Taxes
South Sudan’s government says it has lost more than $4 billion in unpaid oil taxes since the country gained its independence a decade ago.Vice President James Wani Igga, who chairs the country’s economic cluster, said the government is enacting measures to get hold of the money.”In the area of oil, we are discovering painful malpractices, maladministration. For example, we have over 500 service companies. Most of them have never paid income tax,” Igga told reporters this week in Juba.After poring over the activities of oil companies since the country’s independence in 2011, the government determined that hundreds of companies owed it a total of $1.5 billion dollars in income taxes and $3.3 billion dollars in arrears, according to Igga.”We are taking this seriously. If you add $1.5 billion plus $3.3 billion, you have $4.8 billion. This would have done a lot for the country. You don’t even need to borrow from anyone, but we have been cheated,” Igga said Wednesday at an event officially launching the country’s first oil and gas licensing auction.Igga did not explain how the government had failed to collect the taxes and arrears, but he vowed to take concrete measures to recover the money.”Let me here in my capacity as the economic cluster chair warn all that we are going to be more stringent. For sure, we are not going to continue like that. We are going to be more stringent, and we will never stomach any defrauding or nonpayment of government rights by any concerned company,” Igga said.Ahmed Morjan, a senior economics lecturer at the University of Juba, said he was not surprised to hear the government lost billions of dollars in oil-related tax revenue. The discovery may just be the tip of the iceberg, he said.”There have been a lot of loopholes in the tax arrangements in South Sudan, especially those who are responsible for collection. Now you can imagine if taxes are not collected from companies for 10 years, then one may suspect foul play in it because under normal circumstances, every business is supposed to be paying its taxes on an annual basis,” Morjan told VOA’s South Sudan in Focus.Morjan said the government should step up its investigations into companies that never pay taxes.”They have to find out and strategize how these companies should be paying their taxes to the government, and the arrears, and they should make clear that every year, taxpayers pay their taxes,” he said.The 2012 South Sudan Petroleum Act requires that all companies operating in the oil industry pay taxes and customs duties to the national government. Chapter 16 states that anyone conducting petroleum activities in the country shall pay taxes and customs duties in accordance with the applicable law, and that the Ministry of Petroleum shall develop “a model petroleum agreement in cooperation with the ministry of finance.”The act also requires that all taxes, royalties, rental fees and any other fees payable to a licensee or contractor in the oil sector be paid to the National Revenue Fund.
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Arbitrary Detention of IDPs Is Focus During Angelina Jolie’s Burkina Faso Visit
Deep in Burkina Faso’s war-torn Sahel province lies the Goudoubo refugee camp. It was rebuilt after Islamist militants burned much of it to the ground last year.Around 11,000 refugees live here in makeshift tents or plastic flat-pack shelters provided by the United Nations. They fled Mali, a country plagued by armed groups linked to the Islamic State and al-Qaida terror groups, to another country beset by the same problem.Actor Angelina Jolie, who is special envoy for the U.N.’s refugee agency (UNHCR), recently visited Goudoubo to mark World Refugee Day and praised Burkina Faso for its treatment of the displaced.“The truth is we are not doing half of what we could and should to find solutions to enable refugees to return home — or to support host countries, like Burkina Faso, coping for years with a fraction of the humanitarian aid needed to provide basic support and protection,” she said.Other sites off-limitsHer visit took place in the country’s only major refugee camp. Official sites for the country’s 1.2 million internally displaced people (IDPs) are off limits to the media because of a government ban.FILE – Women queue at the water pump in Goudoubo, a camp with about 11,000 refugees, in northern Burkina Faso, June 20, 2021.Burkina Faso is one of the world’s most neglected humanitarian crises, according to the Norwegian Refugee Council, and the West African country is struggling both to prevent terrorist attacks and to protect IDP rights.But its security forces have been accused by a local human rights group, the Collective Against Impunity and Stigmatization of Communities, of atrocities against IDPs.A victim of one attack, whose name is being withheld for his safety, described watching his friends being killed in front of him by security forces.He said the security forces gathered up all the young people in the community, then burned everything — houses as well as crops. Then they took two people away and shot them dead. Another person was beaten to death right next to him, just a few feet away.’Worrying trend’Human Rights Watch said abductions and extrajudicial killings of civilians are common in Burkina Faso.Jonathan Pedneault, an HRW researcher, said that “since 2019, Human Rights Watch has documented over 200 cases of extrajudicial killings by Burkinabe armed forces in the context of counterterrorism operations. This is an extremely worrying trend, which feeds, of course, in recruitment efforts by armed Islamist groups.”IDPs live in constant fear, UNHCR said.Fatoumata Sinkoun Kaba, a UNHCR spokesperson, said, “In conflict-affected areas of the Sahel, IDPs literally live with the fear of the next attack, and that’s what’s driving up the number of people forcibly displaced. And with that, of course, comes higher needs for basic humanitarian services.”Burkina Faso’s Defense Ministry did not respond to requests for comment on the accusation of extrajudicial killings and abductions.
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VP Harris Visits the US-Mexico Border
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris traveled to El Paso, Texas, on her first official visit to the U.S. southern border on Friday. Her focus – following up on her Guatemala and Mexico trips and seeing firsthand the detention centers that hold migrants and how U.S. Customs and Border Patrol is managing the situation. VOA News’ Celia Mendoza has the story from El Paso, Texas. Camera: Celia Mendoza
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China Poised to Help Southeast Asia Recover from Pandemic, Experts Say
China is likely to help Southeast Asia recover from the economic shocks of COVID-19 because of its outsized growth and pivotal role in cross-border development, experts said following a regional summit.China, which had a $15.4 trillion economy last year, is expected to sell more vaccines, restart infrastructure projects and open manufacturing supply chains for the region, according to economists.The moves are liable to bolster China’s drive to enhance its economic and diplomatic influence across the region through efforts such as its Belt and Road Initiative and so-called “vaccine diplomacy,” making COVID vaccines available to developing countries.China Bids for Friends in Southeast Asia as US Influence GrowsForeign ministers from Beijing and 10 Southeast Asian nations agreed to seek a resumption of talks about South China SeaAs Western countries begin to recover from the financial effects of the pandemic, many of the 660 million people in Southeast Asia are still grappling with COVID-19 outbreaks and the effects of economic inactivity.Help is coming, a Chinese spokesman suggested Monday ahead of the East Asia Summit meeting of senior officials, which convened by video conference Thursday in part to discuss post-pandemic recovery.“Amid profound changes in regional and international landscapes, China hopes that through these senior officials’ meetings, we will work with all parties to … advance post-epidemic sustainable development,” Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Zhao Lijun told a news briefing.The Chinese economy grew 2.3% last year, after strict lockdowns contained most of its coronavirus spread, even as other countries worldwide reported economic contractions. China reported the world’s first virus cases.Officials in Beijing will probably invest abroad in energy transitions for steel, petrochemicals and other industries that aim to cut emissions, said Rajiv Biswas, Asia-Pacific chief economist at IHS Markit. The 10-country Association of Southeast Asian Nations has set a target of using renewable energy for 23% of consumption by 2025.Projects started in Southeast Asia under China’s $1 trillion-plus Belt and Road Initiative should power back up as pandemic containment measures ease, he added. Some 15 Belt and Road projects worth a combined $2.4 billion were delayed or hit by financing glitches last year, the London-based Overseas Development Institute think tank said in February.Around Southeast Asia, COVID-racked Malaysia has allowed Chinese companies to invest in real estate, ports and entertainment. Indonesia, which faces its own pandemic battles, has gotten help with a dam and a railway line.“Probably for China, the main focus will be on restarting a lot of those, because some of those projects during the pandemic were put on hold because it was very difficult for people to move around so they couldn’t send their experts and so on,” said Biswas.China may offer separate aid or investment packages country by country, he added.In the Philippines, which has battled COVID-19 steadily for more than a year, China would at least consider “fast tracking” donations of its domestically produced vaccines, said Jonathan Ravelas, chief market strategist with Banco de Oro UniBank in Metro Manila.Vaccine Seen as Potentially Shoring Up China’s Image in Indonesia, the PhilippinesChina says it believes in spreading its anti-COVID vaccine beyond the world’s wealthiest countries; its image is at stake in some of those places“What will really reset the Philippines is more immunizations, so we can further open the economy,” he said. “The government has procured various vaccines and the first ones that eventually arrived were from China. Maybe they could offer more vaccines and probably some funding for some [infrastructure] projects.”Benefits for ChinaBeijing’s economic aid helps it ease a decades-old dispute over sovereignty in the South China Sea, analysts said after a world arbitration court ruled in 2016 against the Chinese maritime claims. China has a military and technological lead in the resource-rich sea, chafing against rival claimants Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam.China May Offer Aid, Investment, in Talks on South China Sea
Countries in Southeast Asia are talking one-on-one with China about shared rights to fish and fossil fuels in the contested South China Sea, but nationalism or lack of political trust may snarl any agreements and shift focus to informal economic deals.Senior leaders from China and Vietnam met last month to talk about maritime cooperation that could include a joint search for undersea oil or gas.
Meanwhile Chinese COVID-19 vaccines have been shipped to more than 80 countries, some for emergency use, in an effort that some Chinese analysts have contrasted to “the ‘me-first’ policies of the United States and the European Union.The Belt and Road Initiative is also seen in Western countries as an effort to supplant the United States as the dominant power in the Indo-Pacific region. U.S. President Joe Biden and other G-7 leaders countered this month by announcing a Build Back Better World Partnership to address infrastructure needs in low- and middle-income countries.Can Biden’s ‘Build Back Better World Partnership’ Really Challenge China? Experts say the devil is in the details as US aims to compete with Beijing’s Belt and Road initiative Belt-and-Road projects give brisk business to major Chinese contractors while smoothing trade. China depends too on manufactured goods from Vietnam, a Southeast Asian manufacturing powerhouse that has weathered the pandemic without nationwide lockdowns.“Vietnam produces inputs for Chinese, which assembles and sends off,” said Adam McCarty, chief economist with Mekong Economics in Hanoi. “They have to get the supply chain up and running again as quickly as possible without the supply bottlenecks.”The senior officials exchanged views at the East Asia Summit event on regional and international developments including COVID-19 and the post-pandemic recovery. China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations will hold another online forum for officials on June 29.
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Knife Attack in German City Leaves 3 Dead; Suspect Arrested
A man armed with a long knife killed three people and injured five others, some seriously, in Germany’s southern city of Wuerzburg on Friday before being shot by police and arrested, authorities said. Police identified the suspect as a 24-year-old Somali man living in Wuerzburg. His life was not in danger from his gunshot wound, they said. Bavaria’s top security official Joachim Herrmann said the injured include a young boy, whose father was probably among the dead. The suspect was in psychiatric treatment before the attack and had been known to police, Herrmann said. There was no immediate word on a possible motive. Emergency services vehicles are seen at the site of a knife attack, in Wuerzburg, Germany, June 25, 2021.Videos posted on social media showed pedestrians surrounding the attacker and trying to hold him at bay with chairs and sticks. A woman who said she had witnessed the incident told German RTL television that the police then stepped in. “He had a really big knife with him and was attacking people,” Julia Runze said. “And then many people tried to throw chairs or umbrellas or cellphones at him and stop him.” “The police then approached him, and I think a shot was fired, you could hear that clearly.” Police spokeswoman Kerstin Kunick said officers were alerted around 5 p.m. (1500 GMT) to a knife attack on Barbarossa Square in the center of the city. Würzburg is a city of about 130,000 people located between Munich and Frankfurt. Bavaria’s governor Markus Soeder expressed shock at the news of the attack. “We grieve with the victims and their families,” he wrote on Twitter. “A big thank you and respect for the spirited intervention by many citizens, who confronted the suspected attacker in a determined way,” Soeder added. “And also to all first responders for their work at the scene.” Almost five years ago, a 17-year-old refugee from Afghanistan wounded four people with an ax on a train near Wuerzburg. He then fled and attacked a woman passerby before police shot him dead.
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US Justice Department Launches Task Force to Combat Threats Against Election Workers
Amid growing concern about the safety of the nation’s election officials, the U.S. Justice Department is launching a task force aimed at combating threats against poll workers and administrators.In a memo issued on Friday, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco directed federal prosecutors and FBI agents to prioritize identifying, investigating and prosecuting such threats.FILE – Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco speaks during a news conference at the Justice Department in Washington, June 7, 2021.A recent survey by the liberal-leaning Brennan Center for Justice found that one in three election officials felt unsafe while one in six reported receiving work-related threats.“To protect the franchise for all workers, we must identify threats against those responsible for administering elections, whether federal, state, or local,” wrote Monaco.“We will promptly and vigorously prosecute offenders to protect the rights of American voters, to punish those who engage in this criminal behavior, and to send the unmistakable message that such conduct will not be tolerated,” she added.FILE – In this Nov. 4, 2020, file photo, election challengers yell as they look through the windows of the central counting board as police were helping to keep additional challengers from entering due to overcrowding, in Detroit.The task force reflects the Justice Department’s more aggressive enforcement of voting rights and civil rights laws since President Joe Biden took office, in contrast to the former Trump administration’s seemingly hands-off approach to the issue.Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Friday that the Justice Department is suing the southern U.S. state of Georgia over the recent adoption of voting regulations that the department says are restrictive and discriminatory against African Americans.Attorney General Merrick Garland departs after speaking at the Justice Department in Washington, June 15, 2021.Speaking at a press conference, Garland said he directed the new Justice Department initiative on threats against election workers after learning about “a significant number” of threats reported by the media.There is no hard data on the number of threats against election officials, although there has been plenty of anecdotal evidence of election officials and their families in Georgia, Arizona, Michigan and elsewhere receiving threats. Many officials have blamed former President Donald Trump for inspiring the threats by making false claims the November election had been rigged against him.“We’d been going after these threats as they occurred, sporadically and individually, but given the collection and the number it became apparent we needed a more focused and prioritized result,” Garland said.The new task force will be made up of members from the Justice Department’s criminal, civil rights and national security divisions, as well as the FBI, Monaco said. To help the public report threats against election officials, the department is also launching a toll-free hotline.Speaking at the same press conference, Monaco said the task force is designed to bring “the full resources of the department” to bear on behalf of election officials “whether they’re appointed, whether they’re elected, whether they’re volunteers regardless of party.”Election experts say Republicans’ baseless claims of election fraud perpetuated on social media by Trump supporters have pushed many into making threats against officials.In the FILE – In this Dec. 14, 2020, file photo, Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs addresses the members of Arizona’s Electoral College in Phoenix.In May, Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, reported that a man called her office saying she deserved to die and inquiring what she was wearing “so she’ll be easy to get.””It was one of at least three such threats today,” Hobbs tweeted on May 6. “Then a man who I’ve never seen before chased me and my staffer outside of our office.”The state governor subsequently assigned state troopers to provide Hobbs with round-the-clock protection.In February, the National Association of Secretaries of State passed a resolution condemning “violence and threats of violence against election workers” and calling “on all leaders to denounce these dangerous occurrences.”Federal and state Republican officials and lawmakers who have been pressing for tough new voting laws and restrictions insist their goal is more transparency and honesty in the voting process, and not to threaten election officials.
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Biden Says Afghans Now Have to Decide Their Future
“Afghans are going to have to decide their future,” U.S. President Joe Biden said Friday in his first face-to-face meeting with Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani.The two met in the White House Oval Office as U.S. forces continued their withdrawal from the nation in south-central Asia.Biden insisted that Washington’s support was not ending. The United States will maintain support for Afghanistan’s military from abroad as well as continue to provide economic and political support, the president said.”We’re going to stick with you,” Biden said.’A choice of values’Ghani, sitting alongside Biden, said Afghanistan was grateful for the blood and treasure America had spilled during the past two decades to defend his country, which now finds itself facing direct battle against the Taliban.Ghani compared his position at this juncture to that of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln in 1861, at the start of the war between the Northern states and the rebellious Southern states.”It’s a choice of values, the values of an exclusionary system or inclusionary system. We’re determined to have unity, coherence, national sense of sacrifice, and we’ll not spare anything,” the Afghan president said, adding that on Friday, his government’s forces had “retaken six districts, both in the south and the north,” from the Taliban.Ghani added, “We will overcome all odds.”Those odds may be long.Abdullah Abdullah, who leads the High Council for National Reconciliation in Afghanistan, left, and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani meet with Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin at the Pentagon in Washington, June 25, 2021.Earlier in the day, during a meeting at the Pentagon with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, the Afghan president smiled when asked by a reporter about a reported U.S. intelligence analysis concluding his government might fall within six months of the American military withdrawal.”There have been many such predictions and they have all proven — turned out false,” Ghani replied.”We will remain partners with the Afghan government and the Afghan military. And we will continue to work toward our common goal in a new and different way,” Austin said.After meeting Thursday with Ghani and the country’s unity government Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, Senator Mitch McConnell said Biden’s decision to withdraw U.S. forces “leaves our Afghan partners alone to confront threats that his own top advisers acknowledge are grave and growing worse. The Taliban, emboldened by our retreat, is rolling back years of progress, especially for the rights of Afghan women, on its way to taking Kabul.”Asked on Friday by VOA to respond to the Senate minority leader’s concerns, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Biden “had made a decision, which is consistent with his view that this was not a winnable war, to bring the U.S. troops home — after 20 years of fighting this war.”FILE – Former White House national security adviser John Bolton talks to VOA, June 24, 2020.Ghani’s visit to the White House was “absolutely critical for the future of Afghanistan,” according to former national security adviser John Bolton, who termed it possibly the last opportunity “to try to persuade President Biden, if not to reverse his decision to withdraw all American forces, at least to provide more time to provide some other indication of continuing American support that will give the people of Afghanistan confidence that we’re not abandoning the country.”Bolton, who served in the administration of former President Donald Trump, told VOA’s Afghan Service, “We need to look for additional ways to show that the United States is not leaving entirely, that this is not going to be a Vietnam situation.”The chaotic 1975 withdrawal of U.S. forces from South Vietnam followed the signing of a peace accord that effectively handed the country to the communists in Hanoi.Target date: September 11Biden has said the American military presence in Afghanistan will end by September 11 of this year — the 20th anniversary of the coordinated suicide attacks against the United States by al-Qaida, which was based in Afghanistan under the protection of the then-governing Taliban.The drawdown of U.S. and NATO forces, which formally began May 1, has led to an unprecedented escalation in fighting between Afghan security forces and Taliban insurgents, dealing fresh blows to slow-moving U.S.-brokered peace negotiations between the Afghan adversaries.FILE – Afghan commando forces are seen at the site of a battlefield where they clashed with Taliban insurgents in Kunduz province, Afghanistan June 22, 2021.The insurgents have in recent weeks captured dozens of new districts, and both sides are said to have suffered heavy casualties, with Afghan civilians continuing to bear the brunt of the country’s long war.This has led to a sense of urgency concerning the Afghans — interpreters, translators, drivers and other support civilian personnel — who worked for the U.S. military over the past two decades.Those who have already applied for special immigrant visas “will be relocated to a location outside of Afghanistan before we complete our military drawdown by September, in order to complete the visa application process,” Psaki told reporters Friday.U.S. officials told The Associated Press on Thursday that about 650 U.S. troops were likely to remain in Afghanistan as a security detail for diplomats.Troops at Kabul airportThe officials also told AP that several hundred additional U.S. forces would remain at the Kabul airport, possibly until September. The troops’ role, the officials told AP, would be to aid Turkish troops who are providing security there. It would be a temporary move until a more formal Turkey-led security operation was in place, the officials said, according to the AP.The Afghan government and the Taliban have been holding peace negotiations in Doha, Qatar, since last September, with the host government, among others, playing the role of facilitator. But the process has made no significant headway, with each negotiating team blaming the other for the deadlock.Carla Babb at the Pentagon, Ayaz Gul in Islamabad and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Three Aid Workers Murdered in Ethiopia’s Tigray
Médecins Sans Frontières said Friday that three aid workers for the organization were found dead near their vehicle in Ethiopia’s embattled Tigray region.
“No words can truly convey all our sadness, shock and outrage against this horrific attack,” the medical charity said in a statement. “Nor can words soothe the loss and suffering of their families and loved ones, to whom we relay our deepest sympathy and condolences.”FILE PHOTO: The logo of Medecins Sans Frontieres is seen at the MSF logistics center near Bordeaux, France, Dec. 6, 2018.MSF said they lost contact with the staffers Thursday, and Friday morning their vehicle was found empty, and their bodies lay a few meters from it.
They identified the victims as Maria Hernandez, 35, MSF’s emergency coordinator who is a Spanish national; Yohannes Halefom Reda, 31, assistant coordinator and an Ethiopian national; and Tedros Gebremariam Gebremichael, 31, their driver and also an Ethiopian citizen.
“The death of Maria, Yohannes and Tedros is a devastating blow to all of us, both in Ethiopia and in the other countries where we operate around the world,” MSF said in the statement.
U.N. Spokesman Stephane Dujarric tweeted, “We cannot condemn strongly enough attacks on humanitarian workers.”We cannot condemn strongly enough this attack. In too many places humanitarian workers are targeted to sow fear and deny men, women and children desperately needed assistance. We send our sympathy and condolences to our partners at @MSF. https://t.co/Fa7p9uEr3S— UN Spokesperson (@UN_Spokesperson) June 25, 2021
He noted that aid workers are too often targeted with the intention of scaring away humanitarians.
“But what it does is denies men, women and children who need help, the help that they need,” he said, adding the United Nations condolences to those tweeted by UNICEF and the ICRC.I’m shocked and horrified by the brutal killing of three @MSF colleagues in #Tigray. On behalf of all @UNICEF, I share our deepest sympathies following this heinous attack.Our thoughts are with the families, friends and MSF colleagues of Maria, Yohannes and Tedros.#NotATarget— Henrietta H. Fore (@unicefchief) June 25, 2021 Doctors. Nurses. Paramedics. Medical staff. They are not part of the fight. They are there to help anyone who needs care.They are #NotATarget— ICRC (@ICRC) June 25, 2021
Tigray has been the center of hostilities since November, when fighting broke out between the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and the government of Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.
The fighting has exacerbated an already complex humanitarian situation in Tigray, where some 350,000 people are facing famine and at least 4 million others are coping with severe hunger. Aid groups have appealed for access, but they are often denied it by armed groups.
U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi urged parties to the conflict to protect the safety of both civilians and humanitarians on the ground in a statement earlier Friday.
“Civilians, including refugees have suffered enough and UNHCR and other humanitarian agencies must be allowed to help them,” Grandi said. “Only improved security and entry and access throughout Tigray will allow UNHCR and other humanitarian partners to carry out our mandate to assist those desperately in need.”
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Iran’s Absentee Voting Events at US Hotels Raise Sanctions, Ethics Questions
Iran’s apparent use of 20 U.S.-based hotel properties as polling sites for its recent presidential election has raised questions about the hotel owners’ compliance with U.S. sanctions and the appropriateness of their involvement in a vote that Washington criticized as neither free nor fair.The U.S. was one of dozens of countries in which Iran said it had arranged for members of the Iranian diaspora to cast absentee ballots in the June 18 vote, won in a landslide by ultraconservative Iranian judiciary chief Ebrahim Raisi, an ally of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.Iran’s Islamist leaders have long said they draw legitimacy for their 42-year authoritarian rule from strong participation in national elections, and a high turnout by overseas voters could have bolstered that impression. However, official final figures showed a record low turnout of 48% for an election in which Khamenei’s allies blocked any formidable competition to Raisi’s candidacy.Ahead of the vote, Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said FILE – A member of the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office, center, walks into the Comfort Inn Sandy Springs – Perimeter hotel, where Iran set up a station for its citizens to vote in its presidential election, June 18, 2021, in Atlanta.Brian O’Toole, a former senior adviser in the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control who managed OFAC’s sanctions program during former U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration, told VOA Persian that what the U.S. hotels did by hosting the voting events was “clearly” an export of a service to the Iranian government, something he said is generally prohibited by OFAC’s Iranian Transactions and Sanctions Regulations.“The voting event organizers are taking in results and sending them to Iran and the hotels are performing a service where essentially the benefit is received in Iran,” said O’Toole, now a senior analyst for the Atlantic Council. “So, the hotels would almost certainly need to have a U.S. government license [to be exempt from sanctions]. I can’t think of a context in which they wouldn’t need one for this kind of activity.”VOA Persian contacted the corporate headquarters of Hilton, Marriott, Hyatt, Best Western, Choice Hotels, North Central Group Hotels and InterContinental Hotels Group by phone and email to ask whether they had requested and received U.S. government licenses for their U.S. properties to be used in the Iranian presidential election but received no responses.The Biden administration’s State and Treasury departments also did not respond to multiple VOA Persian requests to comment on whether Iran’s absentee voter events in the U.S. were licensed. A woman who answered the phone at the Iranian Interests Section office in Washington hung up when told that a VOA reporter wanted to ask a question.Ethics questionsFor the Iranian American nonprofit group National Union for Democracy in Iran, Tehran’s use of U.S. hotels for its presidential election raises not just legal issues but also ethical ones.“American hotels allowed a regime that recently slaughtered hundreds of protesters and executes gay people to hold an election on their premises during LGBTQ Pride Month,” NUFDI policy director Cameron Khansarinia said in a VOA Persian interview. “It is really shameful.”Iran’s Islamist rulers killed hundreds of people in a violent crackdown on nationwide anti-government protests in November 2019. They also have executed a number of men in recent years and decades for alleged homosexual acts, a crime punishable in Iran by death.Iranian authorities’ disqualification of hundreds of candidates for the recent presidential contest, including all prominent rivals to eventual winner Raisi, also caused outrage among opposition activists who led a campaign inside and outside Iran to encourage a boycott of what they called a sham election.U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price criticized the vote in a Monday press briefing as “pretty manufactured.”Foundation for Defense of Democracies senior adviser Richard Goldberg told VOA Persian that Iran’s use of U.S. hotels for election activities and the lack of transparency regarding U.S. government licensing should prompt Congress to seek answers from both the Biden administration and the hotels.He said U.S. lawmakers need to determine whether the Biden administration was using the absentee voting as a “carrot” to entice Iran into reviving a 2015 nuclear deal in which Tehran promised to curb nuclear activities that could be weaponized in return for sanctions relief from the U.S. and other world powers.Indirect talksIn 2018, then-President Donald Trump withdrew from that deal, called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, and started tightening U.S. sanctions to get tougher on Iran, which retaliated the next year by exceeding its nuclear limits. The Biden administration has been holding indirect talks with Iran in Vienna in recent months to try to secure what it calls a mutual return to JCPOA compliance.Goldberg said Iran’s inability to set up polling stations in Canada indicated that Ottawa deemed them to be inappropriate.“If the U.S. is more accommodating to Iran than our ally and neighbor Canada, that is another reason to ask some serious questions [about the U.S. policy],” he said.The office of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau did not respond to an emailed VOA Persian question about why Ottawa did not grant Iran’s request to set up polling stations in Canada for the June 18 vote.U.S. hotels have hosted polling stations for previous Iranian presidential elections, including in 2017. O’Toole, the former Treasury adviser, said licenses for Iranian election activity at U.S. hotels typically would be granted long in advance, when it was not yet clear which presidential candidates Iran would permit to run.In view of the mass disqualification for last week’s vote, O’Toole said Iran’s use of the U.S. hotels “doesn’t look great because of the way the elections went.” But he said that not licensing Iran’s U.S. polling stations would “disenfranchise” Iranian American voters.“We let people vote. That’s what we do,” O’Toole said. “We should not make it harder to vote, especially when a lot of people can’t travel back to Iran for fear of being arrested.”Khansarinia rejected that argument. “There is no equivalency, moral or otherwise, between elections we have in America and these elections in the Islamic Republic,” he said.The activist said NUFDI has been calling the U.S. hotels to express its displeasure about the Iranian absentee voting events. “We intend to continue the pressure,” he said.This article originated in VOA’s Persian Service. State Department correspondents Nike Ching and Cindy Saine contributed.
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China Slams US Curbs on Solar Materials as Economic Attack
China’s government on Friday criticized U.S. curbs on imports of solar panel materials that might be made with forced labor as an attack on its development and said Beijing will protect Chinese companies but gave no details of possible retaliation.
The U.S. customs agency said Thursday it will block imports of polysilicon from Hoshine Silicon Industry Co., which might use forced labor as part of a Beijing campaign against ethnic minorities in the Xinjiang region in the northwest. Imports from six other Chinese suppliers of raw materials and components for solar panels also are to be restricted.
Washington is using “human rights as a disguise” to “suppress the industrial development of Xinjiang,” said a Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Zhao Lijian.
“The United States doesn’t care at all about the Xinjiang people,” Zhao said. “Their real plots and sinister intentions are to mess up Xinjiang to contain China.”
Chinese officials reject accusations of forced labor and other abuses against predominantly Muslim groups in Xinjiang. They say detention camps in which as many as 1 million people are held are for job training and to combat radicalism.
The U.S. move is a potential hurdle for President Joe Biden’s ambition to promote solar power. Hoshine is one of the biggest global suppliers of polysilicon, a material used to make solar panels.
Zhao said Beijing will “take all necessary measures” to protect its companies but gave no details. Chinese spokespeople have made similar comments in response to earlier U.S. trade sanctions, usually followed by no official action.
The U.S. customs agency said an investigation found evidence that workers in the Xinjiang polysilicon industry were intimidated and threatened and their movement restricted.
Direct imports from Hoshine into the United States over the past 2 1/2 years totaled about $6 million while finished goods that include material from the company were about $150 million, according to the U.S. government.
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EU Leaders Reject Putin Summit; Defend LGBT Rights
On the first day of its summit in Brussels, the 27-member European Union failed to agree to terms for proposed an EU-Russia summit, and sharply debated Hungary’s new LGBT legislation.
The Russia summit, proposed by France and Germany, was opposed by most eastern European nations, which felt such face-to-face discussions would appear to be rewarding Russian President Vladimir Putin for recent aggressive actions, such as cyberattacks or amassing troops on Ukraine’s border.
Talking to reporters ahead of day two of the summit in Brussels, German Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed regret her fellow EU members could not come to an agreement on terms for such a summit, which she argued was necessary to address issues with Russia. But she said the EU members established what conditions and prerequisites must be met before a future summit could take place.
Merkel said the most important thing was for the bloc to act together, rather than individual states acting on their own.
In his comments to reporters, French President Emmanuel Macron agreed, saying that unity among member states is what’s most importance. But he also questioned why the eastern European nations did not express similar objections to U.S. President Joe Biden’s meeting with Putin earlier this month.
Both Merkel and Macron said most EU members let Hungary know their objections to the recently approved legislation banning depictions interpreted to “promote” homosexuality or gender fluidity to any person under the age of 18. Merkel said the EU members let Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orban, know that the legislation goes against European values.
Macron said the legislation is an example of certain European states being pulled by “models of society, political models, that are contrary to our values.” He said it was important member states work through those differences.
Merkel also said she has warned member states of the rise of the delta variant of the virus that causes COVID-19. The variant spreads more quickly and can lead to more severe symptoms. She said it is on the rise in Germany and elsewhere in Europe and if left unchecked, it could stifle the recovery from the pandemic. She urged nations to step up their vaccination programs.
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Modern Terminal Opens at Somaliland’s Berbera Port
A new container terminal has opened at Berbera in the breakaway region of Somaliland, as part of an effort to build a major regional trade hub.Port operator DP World opened the shipping facility Thursday during ceremonies attended by a high-level Ethiopian delegation led by Ahmed Shide, Ethiopia’s minister of finance, and by Mustafa Mohammed Omar, the president of Ethiopia’s Somali region. The development is a part of a $101 million project to expand the port on the southern coast of the Gulf of Aden.According to Somaliland and DP World officials, Berbera’s new terminal will increase the port’s container capacity from the current 150,000 Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) to 500,000 TEUs annually.Speaking to the media, Somaliland President Muse Bihi Abdi said the new facility is an economic opportunity for his region and areas nearby.“With the new terminal, along with the second phase of expansion and economic zone along the Berbera corridor, we are now firmly positioned to further develop and grow our economy through increased trade, attracting foreign direct investment and creating jobs,” Abdi said.He added: “This port will serve for the landlocked countries, mainly Ethiopia.”In an exclusive interview with VOA Somali, the president of the Somali region of Ethiopia, Mustafa Mohammed Omar said the development of Berbera port is also an opportunity for the people of his region and those of Ethiopia.“The livelihood of the Somalis in Ethiopia and that of the people in Somaliland are interdependent. Any development or economic success in Somaliland has a direct impact on our region because we are a strong and competitive market for the business in the region.”Responding to a question on the security situation of his region, Mustafe said things are getting better, though not entirely settled.“The situation is now calm. The clashes and conflict between our region and the Oromia region have been generally solved,” he said. He added there were still “acts of aggression” west of City province in the Somali region that have left people displaced and called for the end of those hostilities.Dubai-based DP World said it has committed to invest up to $442 million to develop and expand Berbera Port, with the first phase now completed. The project was started in October 2018.According to DP World, the second phase of the expansion includes extending the new quay from 400 meters to 1,000 meters and enabling the port to handle up to two million TEUs per year.Somaliland broke away from Somalia in 1991 and acts as an independent state, although it has not secured international recognition.Unlike the rest of Somalia, the region is generally peaceful and holds one-man-one-vote democratic elections. Last month, it held elections for its parliamentary and local representatives.Somali authorities in Mogadishu consider Somaliland to be part of Somalia, but always decline to comment on development projects in Somaliland.
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US Says Georgia Voting Law Targets Black Voters, Sues to Block It
The Justice Department is suing Georgia over the state’s new election law, alleging Republican state lawmakers rushed through a sweeping overhaul with an intent to deny Black voters equal access to the ballot.
“Where we believe the rights of civil rights of Americans have been violated we will not hesitate to act,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said Friday in announcing the lawsuit.
Republican lawmakers in the state pushed back immediately, pledging a forceful defense of Georgia’s law.
The Biden administration’s move comes two weeks after Garland said his department would scrutinize new laws in Republican-controlled states that tighten voting rules. He said the federal government would take action if prosecutors found unlawful activity.
The suit also comes as pressure grows on the Biden administration to respond to GOP-backed laws being pushed in the states this year. A Democratic effort to overhaul election laws was blocked this week by Republican senators.
As of mid-May, 22 restrictive laws had passed in at least 14 states, according to the Brennan Center for Justice, which researches voting and supports expanded access. Justice Department officials hinted that prosecutors were looking at other voting laws across the United States and warned that the government would not stand by if there were illegal attempts to restrict voter access.
The increased enforcement of voting rights laws also signals that President Joe Biden and Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke are making good on a promise to refocus the department around civil rights after a tumultuous four years during the Trump administration. Clarke was one of the nation’s leading civil rights attorneys before her nomination to lead the department’s civil rights division.Republican official harshly criticized
Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, said he would contest the suit. The Republican official was harshly criticized by then-President Donald Trump and his allies for rebuffing efforts to challenge the outcome of the state’s vote in the 2020 election. Raffensperger largely supported the new law and faces a primary challenge from a congressman backed by Trump.
“The Biden Administration has been spreading lies about Georgia’s election law for months,” Raffensperger said in a statement. “It is no surprise that they would operationalize their lies with the full force of the federal government. I look forward to meeting them, and beating them, in court.”
Gov. Brian Kemp, R-Ga., said in a statement the suit was “born out of the lies and misinformation the Biden administration has pushed.”
He accused Biden and other Democrats of “weaponizing the U.S. Department of Justice to carry out their far-left agenda that undermines election integrity and empowers federal government overreach in our democracy.”Controversial aspects dropped
While much of the more controversial aspects of Georgia’s new voting law were dropped before it was passed, it is notable in its scope and for newly expansive powers granted to the state over local election offices.
The bill, known as SB 202, also adds a voter ID requirement for mail ballots, shortens the time period for requesting a mailed ballot and results in fewer ballot drop boxes available in metro Atlanta — provisions that drew the challenge from the federal government.
“The changes to absentee voting were not made in a vacuum,” Clarke said. “These changes come immediately after successful absentee voting in the 2020 election cycle, especially among Black voters. SB 202 seeks to halt and reverse this progress.”
In 2020, just two states had ID requirements for voters requesting a mailed ballot. Along with Georgia, lawmakers in Florida have also passed a law requiring additional identification for mail voting. Clarke described the Georgia law as adding “new and unnecessarily stringent” identification requirements to mail voting.Drop boxes allowed
In Georgia, drop boxes were permitted last year under an emergency rule prompted by the coronavirus pandemic. State Republicans have defended the new law as making drop boxes a permanent option for voters and requiring all counties to have at least one. But critics say the new limits mean there will be fewer drop boxes available in the state’s most populous communities.
For the entire metro Atlanta area, Democrats estimate the number of drop boxes will fall from 94 last year to no more than 23 for future elections based on the new formula of one drop box per 100,000 registered voters.
Clarke noted that metro Atlanta is home to the largest Black, voting-age population in the state.
The NAACP and civil rights leaders such as Stacey Abrams applauded the administration’s step. NAACP President Derrick Johnson said Georgia’s law was a “blatant assault on the American people’s most fundamental and sacred right, the right to vote.”
The law already is the subject of seven other federal suits filed by civil rights and election integrity groups that raise a number of claims under the Constitution and the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination in voting.Supreme Court may weigh in
The Supreme Court also is weighing a voting rights dispute from Arizona that predates last year’s election in which the court could again significantly cut back on the use of the voting rights law.
Eight years ago Friday, the high court removed the Justice Department’s most effective tool in combating discriminatory voting laws: the requirement that states with a history of racial discrimination, mostly in the South, obtain advance approval of any voting changes from the government or a court.
The department also announced Friday it was creating a task force and advising FBI and U.S. attorneys to prioritize investigations of threats against election officials.
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