Authorities said Saturday that 10 suspects had been detained in the killing of seven people from an ethnic Kurdish family in Turkey’s central Konya province.The members of the Dedeoglu family were killed in a brutal gun attack Friday. Officials said they had not yet apprehended the gunman. A statement from the Konya prosecutor’s office said initial evidence pointed to an ongoing fight between two families who lived in the same area.But the family’s lawyer and the pro-Kurdish opposition party said the killings were ethnically motivated. After an attack in May, one member of the family — who was among Friday’s victims — told reporters that they were being harassed and attacked for being Kurdish.Lawyer Abdurrahman Karabulut said family members had worried they would be attacked again.Years of frictionThe prosecutor’s office said in a statement that enmity between the two families dated to 2010. Two fights in 2021 led to investigations; two people remain in custody because of those probes, but other suspects were released. The statement rejected the claim of a racially motivated attack.There were few details given about those arrested, but media reports said the other family was not Kurdish.The co-leader of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) said the ethnic Kurdish family members were killed because of hate speech and linked it to a rise in what he called racist attacks. Mithat Sancar accused the government of targeting the HDP and Kurds in general.Media reports said the family’s house was set on fire after the attack.Turkey has been fighting a Kurdish insurgency since 1984 and the conflict has claimed tens of thousands of lives, including civilians targeted by car bombs in 2016 and 2017 that were blamed on the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The decadeslong conflict has also included discriminatory state policies and an ethnically charged atmosphere. Kurds are Turkey’s second-largest ethnic group.Interior minister Suleyman Soylu said allegations that the killings were ethnically motivated were a provocation against the country’s unity.
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Month: July 2021
Blinken, Southeast Asia Leaders to Meet Virtually Next Week
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will meet virtually with Southeast Asian officials every day next week, a senior state department official said Saturday, as Washington seeks to show the region it’s a U.S. priority while also addressing the crisis in Myanmar.The top U.S. diplomat will attend virtual meetings for five consecutive days, including annual meetings of the 10 foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and other nations and separate meetings of the Lower Mekong subregion countries Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and Thailand.”I think it’s a clear demonstration of our commitment to the region,” said the official, who briefed Reuters on condition of anonymity.In recent years top U.S. officials have not always attended ASEAN meetings and have sometimes sent more junior officials to the region’s summits.The virtual meetings come after the Biden administration in its early days was seen as paying little attention to the region of more than 600 million people, which is often overshadowed by neighboring economic giant China, seen by the administration as its major foreign policy challenge.But that has been partly addressed by recent visits to the region. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman visited Indonesia, Cambodia and Thailand in May and June, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was in Vietnam and the Philippines this week, and Vice President Kamala Harris is set to visit Singapore and Vietnam.”That steady flow of high-level engagement is going to pay dividends. It’s noticed,” the official said, adding that countries in the region “notice when we don’t show up and that’s when you start hearing some complaining maybe about not taking them seriously or taking them for granted.”‘Game-changer’The official said that donations of COVID-19 vaccines to the region had been a “game-changer in terms of how our image is perceived.”On Sunday, the United States shipped 3 million doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine to Vietnam, and it has sent doses to other Southeast Asian countries too, but an agreement it reached in March with Japan and Australia and India to provide a billion doses to the region stalled because of an Indian export ban.By midweek the United States will have donated 23 million doses to countries in the region, which is experiencing a surge of the coronavirus with vaccination rates well below countries in the West, the official said.But none of those doses have gone to Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, where military generals staged a coup on February 1 and detained elected leaders including Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, sparking sanctions from Washington and other Western capitals.The meetings next week will see Blinken in the same virtual meetings as representatives of Myanmar’s military government, but the official said rather than bestowing legitimacy on those officials, this was an opportunity to get messages to the military government.”We’re not prepared to walk away from ASEAN because of the bad behavior of a group of generals in Burma,” the official said, adding that U.S. officials were also engaging with the National Unity Government that opposes the military government there.
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Ship Rescues Nearly 200 Migrants Off Libya
The Ocean Viking on Saturday rescued 196 migrants off Libya, the humanitarian ship’s operator said.It first picked up 57 people in an inflatable dinghy struggling in international waters off the North African country, SOS Mediterranee said.In the afternoon, the ship’s crew carried out two additional rescues in the same area, plucking 54 people from a dinghy and 64 others from a wooden vessel.In their latest operation, they saved 21 people from a wooden vessel.The total rescued included at least two pregnant women and 33 minors, 22 of them unaccompanied.According to the International Organization for Migration, at least 1,146 people died at sea trying to reach Europe during the first half of 2021.SOS Mediterranee says it has rescued more than 30,000 people since February 2016, first with the ship Aquarius, then with Ocean Viking.SOS Mediterranee accuses European Union governments of neglecting coordinated search-and-rescue action to discourage migrants from attempting the crossing from war-torn Libya, where they are often victims of organized crime and militia violence.Libyan authorities are also accused of forcibly returning intercepted ships to Libya, even when they are in European waters.A U.N. Human Rights Office report in late May urged Libya and the EU to overhaul their rescue operations, saying existing policies “fail to prioritize the lives, safety and human rights” of people attempting to cross from Africa.
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Turkey Evacuates Panicked Tourists by Boat From Wildfires
Panicked tourists in Turkey hurried to the seashore to wait for rescue boats Saturday after being told to evacuate some hotels in the Aegean resort of Bodrum because of the dangers posed by nearby wildfires, Turkish media reported.Coast guard units were leading the operation and authorities asked private boats and yachts to assist in evacuation efforts from the sea as new wildfires erupted. Video showed plumes of smoke and fire enveloping a hill close to the seashore.The death toll from wildfires raging in Turkey’s Mediterranean towns rose to six Saturday after two forest workers were killed, the country’s health minister said. Fires across Turkey since Wednesday have burned down forests and some settlements, encroaching on villages and tourist destinations and forcing people to evacuate.The minister of agriculture and forestry, Bekir Pakdemirli, said Saturday that 91 of the 101 fires that broke out amid strong winds and scorching heat had been brought under control. Neighborhoods affected by fire in five provinces were declared disaster zones by Turkey’s emergency and disaster authority.Government assistancePresident Recep Tayyip Erdogan inspected some damage Saturday from a helicopter.Speaking from the town of Manavgat, Erdogan announced that the Turkish government would cover the rents for people affected by fire and rebuild their homes. He said taxes, social security and credit payments would be postponed for those affected and small businesses would be offered credit with zero interest.”We cannot do anything beyond wishing the mercy of God for the lives we have lost, but we can replace everything that was burned,” he said.A man watches wildfires in Kacarlar village near the Mediterranean coastal town of Manavgat, Antalya, Turkey, July 31, 2021.Erdogan said the number of planes fighting the fires had been increased from six to 13, including planes from Ukraine, Russia, Azerbaijan and Iran, and that thousands of Turkish personnel, as well as dozens of helicopters and drones, were assisting the firefighting efforts.At least five people have died from the fires in Manavgat and one died in Marmaris. Both towns are Mediterranean tourist destinations. Tourism is an important source of revenue for Turkey, and business owners were hoping this summer would be much better than last year, when pandemic travel restrictions caused tourism to plummet.Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said 400 people affected by the fires in Manavgat were treated at hospitals and released, while 10 others were still hospitalized for fire injuries. In Marmaris, 159 people were treated at a hospital and one person was still undergoing treatment for burns.In southern Hatay province, flames jumped into populated areas but later apparently were brought under control.Common occurrencesWildfires are common in Turkey’s Mediterranean and Aegean regions during the arid summer months. Turkey has blamed some previous forest fires on arson or outlawed Kurdish militants. Erdogan said Saturday that authorities were investigating the possibility of “sabotage” causing fires.Meanwhile, a heat wave across southern Europe, fed by hot air from Africa, has led to wildfires across the Mediterranean.Firefighters on the Italian island of Sicily battled dozens of blazes Saturday fueled by high temperatures, prompting the region’s governor to request assistance from Rome. Some 150 people trapped in two seaside areas in the city of Catania were evacuated late Friday by sea, where they were picked up by rubber dinghies and transferred to Coast Guard boats.Temperatures in Greece and nearby countries in southeast Europe are expected to climb to 42 degrees Celsius (more than 107 Fahrenheit) Monday in many cities and towns.
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Virus Pass Protesters March in France, Clash With Police in Paris
Thousands of people protested France’s special virus pass by marching through Paris and other French cities on Saturday. Most demonstrations were peaceful but some in Paris clashed with riot police, who fired tear gas.About 3,000 security forces deployed around the French capital for a third weekend of protests against the pass that will be needed soon to enter restaurants and other places. Paris police took up posts along the Champs-Elysees to guard the famed avenue.With virus infections spiking and hospitalizations rising, French lawmakers have passed a bill requiring the pass in most places as of August 9. Polls show a majority of French support the pass, but some are adamantly opposed. The pass requires a vaccination or a quick negative test or proof of a recent recovery from COVID-19 and mandates vaccine shots for all health care workers by mid-September.For anti-pass demonstrators, liberty was the slogan of the day.Hager Ameur, a 37-year-old nurse, said she resigned from her job, accusing the government of using a form of blackmail.”I think that we mustn’t be told what to do,” she told The Associated Press, adding that French medical workers during the first wave of COVID-19 were quite mistreated. “And now, suddenly we are told that if we don’t get vaccinated it is our fault that people are contaminated. I think it is sickening.”Tensions flared in front of the famed Moulin Rouge nightclub in northern Paris during what appeared to be the largest demonstration. Lines of police faced down protesters in up-close confrontations during the march. Police used their fists on several occasions.Protesters attend a demonstration called by the “yellow vest” movement against France’s restrictions, including a compulsory health pass, to fight the COVID-19 outbreak, in Paris, July 31, 2021.Tear gas, water cannon, injuriesAs marchers headed eastward and some pelted police with objects, police fired tear gas into the crowds, and plumes of smoke filled the sky. A male protester was seen with a bleeding head and a police officer was carried away by colleagues. Three officers were injured, the French press quoted police as saying. Police, again responding to rowdy crowds, also turned a water cannon on protesters as the march ended at the Bastille.A calmer march was led by the former top lieutenant of far-right leader Marine Le Pen, who left to form his own small anti-EU party. But Florian Philippot’s new cause, against the virus pass, seems far more popular. His contingent of hundreds marched Saturday to the Health Ministry.Among those not present this week was Francois Asselineau, leader of another tiny anti-EU party, the Popular Republican Union, and an ardent campaigner against the health pass, who came down with COVID-19. In a video on his party’s website, Asselineau, who was not hospitalized, called on people to denounce the “absurd, unjust and totally liberty-killing” health pass.French authorities are implementing the health pass because the highly contagious delta variant is making strong inroads. More than 24,000 new daily cases were confirmed Friday night, compared with just a few thousand cases a day at the start of the month.The government announcement that the health pass would take effect August 9 has driven many unvaccinated French to sign up for inoculations so their social lives won’t be shut down during the summer holiday season. Vaccinations are now available at a wide variety of places, including some beaches. More than 52% of the French population has been vaccinated.About 112,000 people have died of the virus in France since the start of the pandemic.
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Switzerland’s Bencic Takes Gold in Women’s Tennis at Tokyo
Belinda Bencic of Switzerland captured the women’s tennis gold medal in the singles tournament Saturday at the Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Bencic defeated Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic 7-5, 2-6, 6-3 for her first major title.Poland upset the U.S. in the Olympic debut of the 4×400 mixed relay competition. The Dominican Republic won the silver medal and the Americans, who competed without Allyson Felix, took the bronze.Qatar won its first Olympic title Saturday when Fares Elbakh captured the gold medal in the men’s 96-kilogram weightlifting category. He lifted 177 kilograms in the snatch and 225 in the clean and jerk for a total of 402 kg. Keydomar Vallenilla took second for Venezuela. The Fiji’s women’s rugby team triumphed over Britain to take home the bronze medal and register a historic victory. The Fijian athletes’ 21–12 win made them the first women from their country to ever win Olympic medals.In swimming, American Caleb Dressel set a world record Saturday and won his third gold medal of the Tokyo Games in his 49.45-second triumph in the 100-meter butterfly.Katie Ledecky of the U.S. holds up her gold medal after winning the women’s 800-meter freestyle final during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at Tokyo Aquatics Center, Jul 31, 2021. (Grace Hollars-USA TODAY Sports.)Katie Ledecky of the U.S. became the first swimmer to win a gold medal in the 800-meter freestyle in three consecutive Olympics. The 24-year-old phenom said she was looking forward to competing in the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. She’s leaving Tokyo with a bundle of medals — gold in the 800- and the 1,500-meter races, in addition to silver in the 400 and the 4×200 relay.Ivan Litvinovich won the gold in the men’s trampoline final. The score for the 20-year-old from Belarus was 61.715, while China’s Dong Dong won the silver with 61.235. New Zealand’s Dylan Schmidt took home the bronze. Simone Biles Makes Mental Health the Talk of the Tokyo GamesOlympians in many sports have spent the past two days coming forward to recount their own battles while offering support to BilesAmerican gymnast Simone Biles will not compete Sunday in the finals for the uneven bars and the vault. USA Gymnastics did not say whether Biles will compete in next week’s floor exercise and balance beam finals. Biles withdrew from the team and individual all-round competitions earlier this week, saying she had mental health issues and trouble maneuvering in the air. She posted on Instagram, “Literally can not tell up from down.” On Saturday, the Olympic Games announced 21 new COVID-19 cases among people connected with the Olympics, bringing the total number to 246, including 26 athletes.
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Taliban Assault Major Afghan Cities as US Troops Exit
Government forces in Afghanistan battled a major assault Saturday by Taliban insurgents on Lashkar Gah, the capital of embattled southern Helmand province, and officials said clashes were ongoing inside parts of the city.Both warring sides reportedly suffered heavy casualties. The fierce fighting forced civilians to flee to safety amid allegations the Afghan air force had bombed and destroyed a city hospital.An Italian medical charity, Emergency, confirmed fighting was taking place inside the city of Lashkar Gah. “Our hospital is full. Four extra bed spaces added so far,” the organization tweeted.🔴 FILE – Afghan security forces stand near an armored vehicle during fighting between Afghan security forces and Taliban fighters in the Busharan area on the outskirts of Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province, May 5, 2021.The Taliban also have previously assaulted and tried to seize control of Lashkar Gah but they were beaten back mainly because Afghan forces at the time had the backing of U.S. military airstrikes.That cover is no longer available to Afghan forces, though U.S. officials confirmed conducting some strikes against Taliban positions in Helmand in recent days, apparently to keep them from threatening the provincial capital.The insurgents control almost all the districts around Lashkar Gah.Taliban hang twoThe Taliban hanged two men Saturday from the entrance gate of a nearby town, accusing them of kidnapping children.An insurgent statement sent to journalists said the men were found guilty of the crime by a Taliban court. The incident revived memories of the harsh Islamic rule the Taliban had imposed on most of Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001.The U.S.-led military coalition invaded Afghanistan and ousted the Taliban weeks after deadly terror strikes against America in September 2001 that Washington said were plotted by al-Qaida leaders from their sanctuaries on Afghan soil at the time.VOA’s Afghan Service contributed to this report.
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International Aid Cuts Could Affect Millions Across Africa
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to cuts in foreign aid from donor nations such as Britain, which this month slashed its aid budget by $5.5 billion. The funding loss is being felt in Burkina Faso, where it could shut down a group that helps thousands of survivors of gender-based violence and rape.Britain has cut its annual aid budget, and so have other countries, such as Australia, Japan and Saudi Arabia. The largest international nonprofits say the shockwaves of the cuts will be felt by people across Africa in all kinds of situations and will result in deaths. “For countries like the U.K. and others to be cutting their aid budgets in a global pandemic is extremely shortsighted, and we know it will put the fight back against poverty by many decades. So, the U.N. secretary general, for example, has called these cuts a death sentence, and it really is that stark for many people,” said Nadel.MSI Reproductive Choices, a group offering family planning to countries in crisis, such as Burkina Faso, where over 1.3 million people have been displaced by conflict, is primarily supported by British aid money. The cuts will affect large numbers of women, says the head of MSI-Burkina Faso, Dr. Toumbi Sissoko. Overall, MSI has been able to assist more than 500,000 beneficiaries over two years, she says. She points to Burkina Faso’s context of insecurity, which she says makes women even more vulnerable. “Alice,” whose name has been changed to protect her identity, received help from MSI after she fled her village in northern Burkina Faso when gunmen attacked. She trekked through the bush for three days, seeking refuge, but then was seized by a group of terrorists. Alice says they told her to put her daughter down before one of them hit her with the butt of his gun, knocking her to the ground. Six of them raped her, then discussed whether they should kill her but, she says, they concluded it was useless to kill a woman. They got on their motorbikes and left. When she reached the relative safety of Kaya the next day, she was directed to MSI-Burkina Faso. Alice OK? says a woman from MSI immediately gave her morning-after pills and advice. She was still traumatized and could neither eat nor breast-feed her daughter. She said that the woman at MSI encouraged her to eat and told her that her life was still worth living. Flora Guibere works for MSI. She thinks that with the aid cuts, beneficiaries will be left on their own, and the funding to support them won’t exist, and many of her organization’s workers will be out of a job. For women who fall victim to gang rape, like Alice,OK? it will mean they may no longer receive emergency birth control or support.
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Uganda Lifts Some COVID-19 Restrictions
Uganda has lifted some COVID-19 restrictions after 42 days, while others stay in place. The lockdown of schools remains until, the government says, some essential workers including health workers, security personnel, teachers, and those over 45 years old, are vaccinated.Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni Friday night announced the partial lifting of the COVID-19 lockdown after 42 days.Museveni says the decision was made by the National Task Force after considering a decrease in cases, positivity rates and hospital admissions.Among other factors, the task force also considered the degree of adherence to safety, procedures by the population and the effects of a continuous lockdown on the economy and on residents. However, there are still restrictions even with this partial lifting of the lockdown.”Curfew time is maintained at 7:00 p.m. Number two, boda bodas are now allowed to move up to 18:00 hours,” Museveni said. “They are now allowed to carry one passenger. Schools should remain closed until sufficient vaccination of the eligible population of children aged 12 to 18 years old has taken place.”Business centers are now required to clear pathways through rented kiosks and places of worship remain closed for another 60 days. In addition, outdoor sports events will be held without spectators, and bars and indoor sports activities remain closed until the population is sufficiently vaccinated.With this partial lifting of the lockdown, Museveni says the National Planning Authority and task force officials project that cases could be reduced to 85 per day by the third week and 66 cases per day by the 28th day. Officials are urging the population to observe standard safety procedures to curb the spread of the coronavirus. As of July 29, Uganda had registered 252 new cases with 29 deaths in the previous 48 hours. Cumulative confirmed cases stand at 93,927.Public transport has been allowed to resume with half the normal number of passengers and private vehicles are only allowed three occupants.Ugandan Health Minister Jane Ruth Aceng says the COVID-19 mass vaccination program was slowed down by the global shortage of vaccine because the demand outweighs production. Aceng says the Ugandan government has issued a list of vaccines that can be used in the country including AstraZeneca, Johnson and Johnson, Pfizer-BioNtech, Sinopharm, Sinovac, Sputnik V, Sputnik Light and Moderna, adding that Health Ministry officials are doing everything possible to obtain vaccine.”Government of Uganda’s strategy is mass vaccination of the eligible population of 22 million people, representing 49.8% as a means of optimal control of the pandemic and full opening up of the economy,” Aceng said. “In addition, consideration will be given to children aged 12 to 15 years with comorbidities.”In his address, Museveni said schools should continue teaching online, something that has kept many schools and poor students out.Ismail Kisule, a private school teacher says the past year has been difficult since his income has been cut.”Since the first lockdown, we have not got any hope of going back to teach. Which means we have not been getting paid,” Kisule said. “So, when the government says they are going to wait until they vaccinate more people so as to allow us resume work, will worsen our situation and force us to drop teaching.”Uganda has concluded the legal requirements with the COVAX facility to acquire 9 million AstraZenca vaccine doses. Additionally, an order of 2 million doses of Johnson & Johnson vaccine has been requested from the African Union and a downpayment of $3 million has been made.Uganda has received 1,725,280 doses of vaccine in the past week from China and Norway. It is still not clear when those vaccines will be distributed.
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Around 90% of Tigray’s People Depend on International Aid for Survival
A United Nations overview of conditions in northern Ethiopia’s Tigray province after more than nine-months of civil strife finds a society of staggering devastation, of ruined lives and livelihoods. Thousands of people have been killed and two million internally displaced since Ethiopian troops invaded Tigray on November 4 to retake the province from rebel forces. The United Nations reports millions of people are suffering from acute hunger, with some 400,000 on the verge of famine. Malnutrition is soaring, putting thousands of children’s lives at riskSpokesman for the Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Jens Laerke, says 5.2 million people—around 90 percent of the population–are now dependent on humanitarian aid for survival. “There is extremely limited time left to halt the rapid deterioration of the food security situation,” said Laerke. “Trucks should be arriving into Mekelle every day. Aid organizations estimate that at least 500 trucks of supplies are needed each week to meet the needs of people in Tigray. That is not happening.” UNICEF: 100,000 Children in Tigray Suffering Life-threatening MalnutritionThis is a tenfold increase over the annual average caseload in this war-torn regionLaerke notes only one 50-truck convoy of aid supplies has been able to enter Tigray since late June.Newly appointed UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, Martin Griffith is halfway through a six-day mission to Ethiopia. He is expected to travel to Tigray to assess the humanitarian situation for himself. Observers say he will find a desolate landscape, full of traumatized people. Laerke says civilians have been victims of multiple atrocities and abuse by the warring parties. “Horrific violations against civilians have been reported throughout the conflict,” said Laerke. “This includes the widespread and systematic use of rape as a tactic of war. More than 1,600 cases of sexual and gender-based violence have been reported since the conflict began…Health facilities have been targeted, attacked, and looted. Only 16 out of 40 hospitals in Tigray are fully functioning. Women and girls who have survived sexual violence have few if any place to go for medical help.” Laerke says U.N. and private agencies are operating within an extremely dangerous environment. He notes at least 12 aid workers have been killed in Tigray. This includes the brutal murder of three staff from the charity, Doctors Without Borders, on June 24.The OCHA spokesman says money also is a problem. He says U.N. agencies require more than $430 million to implement their life-saving operations through the end of the year.
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Ledecky Wins Third Gold Medal in 800-Meter Freestyle
The Fiji’s women’s rugby team triumphed over Britian Saturday to take home the bronze medal and register a historic victory. The Fijian athletes’ 21–12 win made them the first women from their country to ever win Olympic medals.
Meanwhile, Katie Ledecky is now the first swimmer to win a gold medal in the 800-meter freestyle in three consecutive Olympics. The 24-year-old U.S. swimming phenom says she is looking forward to competing in the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. She’s leaving Tokyo with a bundle of medals — gold in the 800- and the 1,500-meter races, in addition to silver in the 400 and the 4×200 relay.U.S. Swimmer Caleb Dressel set a world record and won his third gold medal of the Tokyo Games in his 49.45-second triumph in the 100-meter butterfly.Simone Biles Makes Mental Health the Talk of the Tokyo GamesOlympians in many sports have spent the past two days coming forward to recount their own battles while offering support to BilesAmerican gymnast Simone Biles will not compete Sunday in the finals for the uneven bars and the vault. USA Gymnastics did not say whether Biles will compete in next week’s floor exercise and balance beam finals. Biles withdrew from the team and individual all-round competitions earlier this week, saying she had mental health issues and trouble maneuvering in the air. She posted on Instagram, “Literally can not tell up from down.” Ivan Litvinovich won the gold in the men’s trampoline final. The score for the 20-year-old from Belarus was 61.715, while China’s Dong Dong won the silver with 61.235. New Zealand’s Dylan Schmidt took home the bronze. On Saturday, the Olympic Games announced 21 new COVID-19 cases among people connected with the Olympics, bringing the total number to 246, including 26 athletes. Olympic Swimming: More Gold for Dressel, Ledecky and McKeownBritain wins the inaugural mixed medley relay
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Olympics: French Men’s Basketball Team Coasts to Quarterfinals With Win Over Iran
France secured a comfortable win over Iran in Olympic men’s basketball on Saturday to qualify for the quarterfinals and remain undefeated in the preliminary round.Real Madrid’s Thomas Heurtel led with 16 points in France’s 79-62 victory at the Saitama Super Arena, north of Tokyo. They swept their opponents in Group A, including a shock defeat of Team USA on Sunday, the first Olympic loss for the Americans since 2004.”The focus really was more about us and trying things out,” Evan Fournier, who plays for the NBA’s Boston Celtics, said about France’s decisive win. Despite his team’s dominant showing so far, he wouldn’t speculate on medal odds.”Quarter-final first. Focus on that,” he said. “Too many times we’ve beaten very, very good teams and we lost in the semi-final, so no more of that.”The men’s quarterfinals are Tuesday.Iran finished 0-3 in the group stage. Arsalan Kazemi lamented that the travel restrictions imposed on Iran affected their performance.”We cannot really get out of Iran for any good friendly game,” he said at a press conference. “For Olympic preparation, we could have gone to a lot of different countries like other teams and played like 10, 11, 12 good games, and would have come here and would have competed differently.”The United States bounced back with a win over Iran earlier this week and will face the Czech Republic later on Saturday.Team USA has historically been the team to beat at basketball, with a 139-6 record and 15 gold medals since 1936. But as the sport has grown in popularity around the globe, many national teams can field teams with NBA experience, and the U.S.’s talent advantage has shrunk.Before losing to France at these Games, the United States dropped two straight exhibition games this month, including a defeat to world 22nd-ranked Nigeria.
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Protests, Accusations Against Myanmar Junta Ahead of Coup Anniversary
Small groups of students protested Myanmar’s military junta on Saturday in Mandalay and a human rights group accused the armed forces of crimes against humanity ahead of the six-month anniversary of the army’s takeover.Bands of university students rode motorbikes around Mandalay waving red and green flags, saying they rejected any possibility of talks with the military to negotiate a return to civilian rule.”There’s no negotiating in a blood feud,” read one sign.Myanmar’s army seized power on Feb. 1 from the civilian government led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi after her ruling party won elections that the military argued were tainted by fraud.New York-based Human Rights Watch on Saturday said the armed forces’ violent suppression of protests of the coup and arrests of opponents included torture, murder and other acts that violate international humanitarian conventions.“These attacks on the population amount to crimes against humanity for which those responsible should be brought to account,” Brad Adams, the group’s Asia director, said in a statement.The spokesperson for the military authorities, Zaw Min Tun, could not be reached on Saturday to respond to Human Rights Watch allegations because his mobile phone was turned off.The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners activist group says at least 6,990 people have been arrested since the coup. The group says the armed forces have killed 939 people, a number the military says is exaggerated.The army has branded its opponents terrorists and says its takeover was in line with the constitution.The military took power in February after alleging fraud in the November 2020 election, which Suu Kyi’s party swept. The former electoral commission had dismissed the military’s accusations.
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COVID-19 Spreads in China, Australia as WHO Sounds Alarm on Delta
Mushrooming outbreaks of the highly contagious delta variant prompted China and Australia to impose stricter COVID-19 restrictions on Saturday as the WHO urged the world to quickly contain the mutation before it turns into something deadlier and draws out the pandemic.China’s most serious surge of coronavirus infections in months spread to two more areas Saturday — Fujian province and the sprawling megacity of Chongqing.More than 200 cases have been linked to a delta cluster in Nanjing city where nine cleaners at an international airport tested positive, with the outbreak spanning Beijing, Chongqing and five provinces as of Saturday.The nation where the disease first emerged has rushed to prevent the highly transmissible strain from taking root by putting more than 1 million people under lockdown and reinstituting mass testing campaigns.Worldwide, coronavirus infections are once again on the upswing, with the World Health Organization announcing an 80% average increase over the past four weeks in five of the health agency’s six regions, a jump largely fueled by the delta variant.First detected in India, it has now reached 132 countries and territories.”Delta is a warning: it’s a warning that the virus is evolving but it is also a call to action that we need to move now before more dangerous variants emerge,” the WHO’s emergencies director Michael Ryan told a press conference.He stressed that the “game plan” still works, namely physical distancing, wearing masks, hand hygiene and vaccination.But both high- and low-income countries are struggling to gain the upper hand against delta, with the vastly unequal sprint for shots leaving plenty of room for variants to wreak havoc and further evolve.In Australia, where only about 14% of the population is vaccinated, the third-largest city of Brisbane and other parts of Queensland state were to enter a snap COVID-19 lockdown Saturday as a cluster of the delta variant bubbled into six new cases.”The only way to beat the delta strain is to move quickly, to be fast and to be strong,” Queensland’s Deputy Premier Steven Miles said while informing millions they will be under three days of strict stay-at-home orders.’The war has changed’The race for vaccines to triumph over variants appeared to suffer a blow as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control released an analysis that found fully immunized people with so-called breakthrough infections of the delta variant can spread the disease as easily as unvaccinated people.While the jabs remain effective against severe disease and death, the U.S. government agency said in a leaked internal CDC document “the war has changed” as a result of delta.An analysis of a superspreading event in the northeastern state of Massachusetts found three-quarters of the people sickened were vaccinated, according to a report the CDC published Friday.The outbreak related to July 4 festivities, with the latest number of people infected swelling to 900, according to local reports. The findings were used to justify a return to masks for vaccinated people in high-risk areas.”As a vaccinated person, if you have one of these breakthrough infections, you may have mild symptoms, you may have no symptoms, but based on what we’re seeing here you could be contagious to other people,” Celine Gounder, an infectious diseases physician and professor at New York University, told AFP.According to the leaked CDC document, a review of findings from other countries showed that while the original SARS-CoV-2 was as contagious as the common cold, each person with delta infects on average eight others, making it as transmissible as chickenpox but still less than measles.Reports from Canada, Scotland and Singapore suggest delta infections may also be more severe, resulting in more hospitalizations.Asked if Americans should expect new recommendations from health authorities or new restrictive measures, U.S. President Joe Biden responded, “in all probability,” before leaving the White House by helicopter for the weekend.He did not specify what steps could be taken.
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US Poverty Rate, Slashed During COVID-19, Set to Rise as Relief Expires
The United States made tremendous progress lifting its citizens out of poverty with an expansion of public assistance programs during the coronavirus pandemic, but now, with many emergency measures set to expire, millions face the grim possibility of a return to impoverishment.A sobering report from the Urban Institute, a prominent liberal-leaning think tank in Washington, this week projects poverty levels in the U.S. will sit at 7.7% through the end of 2021, down from 13.9% in 2018. The decline can be attributed to a suite of policies, including stimulus checks, enhanced unemployment insurance payments and eligibility, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) payments and refundable child tax credits.The impact of these various programs was especially pronounced among children. In 2018, government programs kept the rate of poverty among Americans under the age of 18 at 14.2% rather than the 26.9% rate that would have been the case without government assistance. But in 2021, a year when 30.1% of children would have been living in poverty without government assistance, the addition of pandemic-related relief to normal assistance programs drove the child poverty rate down to 5.6%.Amazing … or not“On the one hand, it was rather amazing to see the projected poverty rates that low,” said Laura Wheaton, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute and one of the report’s authors. “But then on the other hand, when we look at the amount of resources that have been provided, it’s not surprising.”The report finds that by the end of 2021, governments at the federal and state levels will have plowed more than $1 trillion dollars in benefits into the bank accounts of low-income Americans, far more than the $237 billion they paid out in 2018.“The average person below poverty is getting almost two and a half times more from the government in 2021, than they did in 2018,” Wheaton said. “And so that really makes a difference.”Support is going awayThe majority of the additional support injected into the economy this year is expected to disappear in the near term. Stimulus checks have been distributed and no additional round of payments is on the horizon; expanded unemployment insurance is scheduled to sunset by later this year — and has already been canceled in some states; likewise, expanded SNAP payments are ending. Most of the subsidy programs were financed through deficit spending.The only additional benefit not slated to disappear is monthly child tax credit refunds. However, according to the Urban Institute analysis, those have a far lower effect on poverty levels than other relief programs.This leaves U.S. policymakers with some difficult choices.Defining povertyIn the U.S., the “poverty threshold” is a level of income below which an individual or family cannot afford the basic necessities of life. For example, in 2021, a family of four living in the contiguous 48 states is considered to be in poverty if its annual income falls below $26,500.For its report, the Urban Institute relied on what is known as the Supplemental Poverty Measure, created by the Census Bureau, which takes a family’s income plus government payments into account to determine whether or not income is below the poverty line.The report from the Urban Institute states its conclusions in fairly anodyne language, saying, “Our projections demonstrate that government benefits can reduce poverty well below traditional levels when substantial resources are devoted to that task.”It continues, “Policymakers who want to make some aspects of the higher level of support permanent will need to consider the appropriate levels and types of increased supports, the best ways to fund such efforts, and the potential macroeconomic implications of various choices.”Other poverty researchers were more pointed in their observations.A ‘policy choice’“Often, we think of poverty as an inevitable social problem; but this is indicating how it’s actually a policy choice in many ways,” said Sarah Halpern-Meekin, a professor in the LaFollette School of Public Affairs and the Department of Human Development and Family Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.At the most basic level, she said, the major lesson here is simple: “Policy works. If we give folks money, they will end up above the poverty line. That, I think, is the most fundamental lesson.”Indivar Dutta-Gupta, the co-executive director of the Center on Poverty and Inequality at Georgetown Law School, agreed, saying, “The central takeaway from the Urban Institute report…is that poverty is a choice, but not by the people who experience it so much as it is by national policymakers.”What next?While the primary lesson in the report may be simple, interpreting it for the future is quite a bit more complex. The benefits people received during the pandemic were broadly understood to be temporary, which means that it’s dangerous to extrapolate from the results of the past year to the future effects of similar policies.“One mistake we could make is assuming that whatever we saw people doing over this last year tells us how these policies would affect people’s behavior during ‘normal’ times,” Halpern-Meekin said. “People react differently to policies when they’re temporary. You react differently to money when it’s your monthly wages that you expect to get over and over again versus a big gift from your aunt or something like that.”She said it is important to be careful when trying to generalize from the experience of the pandemic.“Because families are encountering extraordinary circumstances because of the pandemic, the set of choices that they have to make with their money in terms of employment, around child care and schooling, etc., are different than the options and choices they would have during other periods of time,” she said.Reassessing the need for supportAt the least, the success of the pandemic-era programs at lowering poverty ought to prompt a reassessment by policymakers of who actually needs government support, Dutta-Gupta said.He noted that one aspect of the relief programs implemented during the pandemic was a simple expansion of eligibility, for example, by making unemployment insurance payments available to people who would not ordinarily have qualified. By some estimates, only about three in 10 of the people who received unemployment benefits during the pandemic would have qualified before it.“The truth is some of the hardship that was addressed through the extraordinary emergency and temporary responses during the pandemic were long-standing problems,” Dutta-Gupta said. “Now, policymakers face a choice. Do they want to go back to a system that was excluding, in this case, the vast majority of unemployed workers? Or did they learn something about the shortcomings of our system for protecting unemployed workers and across the board?”
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Tunisia’s Turmoil is Being Watched Warily Around the Globe
Days of political turmoil in Tunisia over a crippled economy and surging coronavirus infections have unnerved allies in Europe and the United States, while garnering the support of key Mideast partners watching to see if Islamists and Tunisia’s fragile democracy will survive.European countries -– most notably nearby Italy — worry about a flood of migrants should Tunisia slide further into chaos.Autocratic leaders from Egypt to Saudi Arabia hope this week’s power grab by Tunisian President Kais Saied spells doom for the region’s Islamists. But they also fear a reignited Arab Spring, like the region-wide uprisings kindled by Tunisia a decade ago.And around the world, pro-democracy campaigners wonder if a country they held up as a beacon is losing its promise of democratic rule, as other nations roiled by Arab Spring protests have.”The ball is now in the people’s court,” said Egyptian activist el-Ghazaly Harb in a Facebook post. “They are able to correct the path without abandoning the peaceful democratic model that we all hope they can see to the end,” he said. “The answer will always be Tunisia.”Tunisia, with only 12 million of Africa’s 1.3 billion people, holds outsized symbolism as a nation that designed a democracy from scratch and earned a Nobel Peace Prize after its largely bloodless revolution.Next steps unclearWithout warning on Sunday, Saied froze the nation’s parliament, fired top ministers and took over executive powers and supervision of public prosecution, saying he had to save the country, which is suffering from its worst outbreak of the virus to date and a failing economy. While many Tunisians welcomed his move, critics called it a coup. Media and human rights groups expressed alarm at the closure of the Al-Jazeera news bureau in Tunis.In recent days, Saied has moved against allegedly corrupt lawmakers and tycoons and strengthened military oversight of the nation’s response to the coronavirus. He and his aides held a flurry of meetings with foreign allies, promising that his power grab is temporary.But his next steps are unclear.The main victim of his decision -– the Islamist party Ennahdha -– promises to resist, peacefully.Tunisian analysts don’t expect an army-driven takeover like that seen in Egypt, or a return to the autocratic past, thanks in part to a population that’s no longer afraid to speak out. But the situation is volatile, and new protests may occur Saturday.Pro-government voices in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are celebrating the moves as a victory over political Islam, which they see as a threat to their governing systems — notably in Gulf states where political parties are banned.A flower seller is pictured at the old market in Tunis, Tunisia, July 30, 2021.Egypt is watching carefully; It was the first to follow Tunisia in an outburst of mass protests in 2011. In the aftermath, the highly organized Muslim Brotherhood rose to power but was ousted in 2013 amid a military-backed popular uprising led by Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, who was supported by Saudi Arabia and the UAE.El-Sissi has embarked on economic reforms and brought some political stability to the Arab world’s most populous country, but his tenure has been marred by the jailing of tens of thousands of people.Leading Brotherhood figures now face death sentences or life in prison. The group has been outlawed and branded a “terrorist group” in Egypt and the UAE, which itself has detained dozens of Emirati Islamist figures.Some activists worry Tunisia could head down a similar path, despite Saied’s credentials as an independent technocrat.”Coups are not only started by the military; they can be started by a civilian and completed by officers,” said Shady Lewis Boutros, an Egyptian novelist and writer who lives in the U.K., in a Facebook post.Strategic importance to EuropeAbdelrahman al-Rashed, who runs a Saudi-owned media group and is close to the royal court, said Saied is saving the country from returning to the chaos sparked by the Arab Spring. In a column for the Arabic Ashraq al-Awsat newspaper, he wrote that political turmoil in Tunisia marks the “death of the Muslim Brotherhood’s authority.”Ennahdha itself has distanced itself from more militant Islamists, and its leader, Rachid Ghannouchi, told The Associated Press this week that its critics are using it as a scapegoat for Tunisia’s problems. He noted that his party has played a major role in parliament in the decade since the revolution, which opened the way for his return from 22 years of exile in London, and won the most seats in the last legislative elections.Some question whether the Gulf states had a role in Tunisia’s current tensions. But others argue that Tunisians are more focused on day-to-day concerns than the discourse around the Muslim Brotherhood.Meanwhile, Tunisia’s strategic importance to the European Union cannot be overstated.From 2014 to 2020, the bloc invested 1.6 billion euros ($1.9 billion) in Tunisia to build democracy and provide social and economic aid. It has given $392 million to help the country recover from the impact of coronavirus restrictions. Another $712 million in EU macro-financial assistance was agreed to in May.Most significantly, Tunisia is a key partner in limiting the flow of migrants from Africa to the EU. The 27 member states are hopelessly divided over how to manage the arrivals of those seeking a better life in Europe, so the bloc has resorted to outsourcing the challenge to other countries.However, Tunisians now make up one of the largest groups of people seeking asylum in Europe. And the “Tunisia corridor” is a growing concern for the EU’s border and coast guard agency Frontex.From 2019 to 2020, the number of people reaching Italy from Tunisia grew by almost 400%, to more than 13,000, according to some nongovernmental organizations. That includes a period when COVID-19 restrictions significantly reduced migrant movements.Saied had a “frank discussion on irregular migration” in Brussels last month with top EU officials, and they agreed to work more closely against smugglers and on border management. The latest turmoil adds to concern in Europe that things might get worse.Risk of new mass unrestOn Tuesday, the EU’s top diplomat called for Tunisia’s constitutional order to be restored, without directly apportioning any blame.The U.S. government also is watching closely. In addition to supporting its democracy, the U.S. has helped fund Tunisia’s efforts to tamp down violent Islamic extremism.Just hours after Saied’s announcement, he spoke with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who urged him to “adhere to the principles of democracy and human rights” and “maintain open dialogue with all political actors and the Tunisian people.”Tunisians themselves want jobs and opportunity, which have remained elusive since their revolution, and many support the president — at least for now.While there is a risk of new mass unrest, Tunisian political scientist Mohamed-Dhia Hammami said “there are strong political actors in Tunisia who can play the role of counterbalance,” including labor unions. And unlike in Egypt, Tunisia’s military has little control over the economy.Omar Oudherni, a retired Tunisian army brigadier and security expert, said the Tunisian people “will not be silent on any tyrant.””Doing what is good will receive support, and if (Saied) wants dictatorship, the people will sweep him up, as they swept others,” he added.
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Evictions Looming in US as Congress Fails to Extend Ban
A nationwide eviction moratorium is set to expire Saturday after President Joe Biden and Democrats in Congress worked furiously but ultimately failed to align on a long-shot strategy to prevent millions of Americans from being forced from their homes during a COVID-19 surge.More than 3.6 million Americans are at risk of eviction, some in a matter of days, as nearly $47 billion in federal housing aid to the states during the pandemic has been slow to make it into the hands of renters and landlords owed payments.Tensions mounted late Friday as it became clear there would be no resolution in sight. Hours before the ban was set to expire, Biden called on local governments to “take all possible steps” to immediately disburse the funds. Evictions could begin as soon as Monday.”There can be no excuse for any state or locality not accelerating funds to landlords and tenants that have been hurt during this pandemic,” Biden said in a statement.”Every state and local government must get these funds out to ensure we prevent every eviction we can,” he said.The stunning outcome, as the White House and Congress each expected the other to act, exposed a rare divide between the president and his allies on Capitol Hill, and one that could have lasting impact as the nation’s renters face widespread evictions.Biden set off the scramble by announcing he would allow the eviction ban to expire, rather than challenge a recent Supreme Court ruling signaling this would be the last deadline. He called on Congress on Thursday to swiftly pass legislation to extend the date.Racing to respond, Democrats strained to rally the votes early Friday. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi implored colleagues to pass legislation extending the deadline, calling it a “moral imperative,” to protect renters and also the landlords who are owed compensation.But after hours of behind-the-scenes wrangling throughout the day, Democratic lawmakers had questions and could not muster support to extend the ban even a few months. An attempt to simply approve an extension by consent, without a formal vote, was objected to by House Republicans. The Senate may try again Saturday.Lawmakers were livid at prospect of evictions in the middle of a surging pandemic.Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., the Financial Services Committee chair who wrote the emergency bill, said House leaders should have held the vote, even if it failed, to show Americans they were trying to solve the problem.”Is it emergency enough that you’re going to stop families from being put on the street?” Waters testified at a hastily called hearing early Friday morning urging her colleagues to act.But Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington, the top Republican on another panel handling the issue, said the Democrats’ bill was rushed.”This is not the way to legislate,” she said.The ban was initially put in place to prevent further spread of COVID-19 by people put out on the streets and into shelters.Congress pushed nearly $47 billion to the states earlier in the COVID-19 crisis to shore up landlords and renters as workplaces shut down and many people were suddenly out of work.But lawmakers said state governments have been slow to distribute the money. On Friday, they said only about $3 billion has been spent.By the end of March, 6.4 million American households were behind on their rent, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development. As of July 5, roughly 3.6 million people in the U.S. said they faced eviction in the next two months, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey.Some places are likely to see spikes in evictions starting Monday, while other jurisdictions will see an increase in court filings that will lead to evictions over several months.Biden said Thursday that the administration’s hands are tied after the Supreme Court signaled the moratorium would only be extended until the end of the month.
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US Seizes Tanker Used to Deliver Oil to North Korea
The United States seized a Singapore-owned oil tanker Friday that was used to make illegal oil deliveries to North Korea, the Justice Department said.A New York federal judge issued a judgment of forfeiture authorizing the United States to take ownership of the M/T Courageous, which is currently in Cambodia.The ship, which has a capacity of 2,734 tons, was purchased by Singaporean national Kwek Kee Seng, who remains at large, according to a Justice Department statement.”Kwek and his co-conspirators engaged in an extensive scheme to evade … U.S. and U.N. sanctions by using vessels under their control to covertly transport fuel to North Korea,” the statement said.From August to December 2019, the Courageous would illegally stop transmitting its location information. Satellite imagery showed that during that time, the tanker engaged in ship-to-ship transfers of more than $1.5 million worth of oil to a North Korean ship.The Justice Department has accused Kwek of trying to hide the scheme by using shell companies, lying to international shipping authorities and falsely identifying the Courageous to avoid detection.Kwek has been charged with conspiracy to evade economic sanctions on North Korea and money laundering conspiracy.Cambodian authorities seized the tanker in March 2020 on a U.S. warrant and have held the Courageous there since.The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York filed a civil forfeiture action against the tanker on April 23.Relations between Washington and Pyongyang are strained, with North Korea’s foreign minister in June ruling out any talks with the United States, saying such dialogue would “get us nowhere.”Negotiations between the two countries have long been stalled over the international sanctions imposed on the nuclear-armed state and what North Korea should give up in return for having them lifted.
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Biden Says Federal Workers Must Attest to COVID-19 Vaccination Status
President Joe Biden says that all federal employees will have to attest to their COVID-19 vaccination status, and those who are unvaccinated will face numerous restrictions. This comes as major U.S. businesses require employee vaccinations, and as U.S. health experts urge even the vaccinated to mask up again due to the virulent delta variant, now the most prevalent in the United States. VOA’s Laurel Bowman has our story.Camera: Saqib Ul Islam
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US Complies With Russia Ban, Lays Off Local Embassy Staff
The United States said Friday it has laid off nearly 200 local staffers working for its diplomatic missions in Russia ahead of an August 1 deadline set by the Kremlin for their dismissal. The move is the latest in a series of measures taken by both sides that have strained U.S.-Russia relations. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the layoffs are regrettable and something the U.S. had hoped to avert, despite a sharp deterioration in ties between Moscow and Washington, which show few signs of improvement. FILE – Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks at the State Department in Washington, July 12, 2021.”These unfortunate measures will severely impact the U.S. mission to Russia’s operations, potentially including the safety of our personnel as well as our ability to engage in diplomacy with the Russian government,” Blinken said in a statement. “Although we regret the actions of the Russian government forcing a reduction in our services and operations, the United States will follow through on our commitments while continuing to pursue a predictable and stable relationship with Russia,” he said. The Russian Foreign Ministry was silent on the matter, and the Russian Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a query. Russia earlier this year announced a ban on almost all non-American staff at the embassy in Moscow and consulates in Yekaterinburg and Vladivostok. That came in response to U.S. expulsions of Russian diplomats and tit-for-tat closures of numerous diplomatic facilities in each country. Those expulsions and closures came in the context of U.S. sanctions imposed over Russian interference in the 2020 U.S. presidential election, the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain, and the arrest of opposition figure Alexey Navalny and crackdown on his supporters, as well as involvement in the SolarWind hack of U.S. federal agencies. All are activities that Russia has denied. After the announcement of the ban, the embassy suspended routine consular services and since May has been processing immigrant visas only in the case of life-or-death emergencies. The suspension of consular services has also left Russian businessmen, exchange students and romantic partners adrift because they are no longer able to obtain U.S. visas in Russia. Still, the U.S. had been cautiously optimistic that the Russian decision might be reversed at last month’s meeting between Presidents Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin in Geneva. But those hopes evaporated even after the two sides resumed strategic arms control talks this week. FILE – U.S. President Joe Biden and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin meet at Villa La Grange in Geneva, Switzerland, June 16, 2021.Thus, Friday’s announcement sealed the employment fate of 182 locally employed staffers who worked as office and clerical staff, drivers and contractors at the U.S. facilities. Only security guards who work outside the gates of the compounds were exempted from the ban. “The United States is immensely grateful for the tireless dedication and commitment of our locally employed staff and contractors at U.S. Mission Russia,” Blinken said. “We thank them for their contributions to the overall operations and their work to improve relations between our two countries. Their dedication, expertise and friendship have been a mainstay of Mission Russia for decades.”We value our deep connection to the Russian people,” Blinken added. “Our people-to-people relationships are the bedrock of our bilateral relations.”
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Millions in 23 Hunger Hot Spots Face Famine, Death, UN Agencies Say
The United Nations warns global hunger is increasing and urgent action is needed to stave off famine and death over coming months in nearly two dozen unstable, violence-prone countries.A report by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Food Program said more than a half-million people are experiencing catastrophic levels of acute food insecurity and 41 million are at risk of famine.The report from the WFP and FAO focuses on the particularly serious situation in 23 so-called hunger hot spots. Most of those countries are in sub-Saharan Africa, with others in Central America, Asia and the Middle East.Patrick Jacqueson, FAO officer in charge of the Geneva office, said acute hunger is set to increase in those countries over the next four months without urgent, scaled-up humanitarian assistance.“Conflict continues to be the primary driver for the largest share of people facing acute food insecurity,” Jacqueson said. “Closely associated with conflict are humanitarian access constraints, which remain significant, compounding food insecurity. Weather extremes and climate variability are likely to affect several parts of the world during the outlook period.”The report said dry conditions are likely to affect Haiti, Nigeria’s Middle Belt and the “Dry Corridor” in Guatemala, while above-average rainfall and flooding are forecast in South Sudan, central and eastern Sahel, and Gulf of Guinea countries.400,000 face starvation in TigrayThe report highlighted the perilous situation in Ethiopia and Madagascar, the world’s newest highest-alert hunger hot spots.Annalisa Conte, WFP Geneva Office director, said the aggravation of conflict in recent months is having a catastrophic impact on the food security of the Tigrayan population in Ethiopia. She warned that more than 400,000 people would face starvation if they did not receive sufficient humanitarian aid.“If we move to Madagascar, Madagascar is experiencing the worst drought in 40 years,” Conte said. “On top of that, economic decline largely caused by COVID. As a result, 1.3 million people are currently facing the acute food insecurity.”The FAO and WFP said fighting, blockades that cut off lifesaving aid to families on the verge of famine, and a lack of funding were hampering efforts to provide emergency food aid to millions of desperate people.The agencies said families who rely on humanitarian aid to survive were hanging by a thread. They noted that most of those on the verge of famine in the 23 hot spots were farmers and must receive help to resume food production. That, they said, will allow them to feed themselves and become self-sufficient.
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Biden Meets Virtually with US Western Governors on Raging Wildfires
U.S. President Joe Biden Friday met virtually with governors from seven Western U.S. states to discuss how the federal government can help fight the wildfires that are raging across that region.
Biden, along with Vice President Kamala Harris, spoke via video conference with the governors of California, Idaho, Minnesota, Montana, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming.
The meeting followed a similar one Biden hosted exactly a month ago, and the president noted that since then, the number of large, uncontained wildfires burning in the western U.S. has doubled to 66. Those fires have destroyed more than 3.4 million acres of land.
In Oregon alone, Biden noted the “Bootleg Fire” has destroyed more than 400 structures, including more than 160 homes.
The president asked the governors what the federal government can do immediately to help address the problem, including fighting the fires and fire prevention.
Montana Republican Governor Greg Gianforte said in his state this year so far, there have been 1,600 fires which have burned 220,000 acres. He said, along with obvious resources such as manpower and equipment, the governor asked for better cooperation between federal agencies such as the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management in taking action to fight fires as they start.
California’s Gavin Newsom said he agreed, noting at times, federal agencies take a “wait and see attitude” in attacking fires, which all too often leads fires to grow out of control. He called for a change in that culture, especially in California, where 57 percent of the forests are under federal management.
Newsom, along with Washington state Governor Jay Inslee also urged Biden to more aggressively take steps to address climate change. The president said climate change is helping drive fire conditions and the factor cannot be ignored.
Much of the region continues to see record heat and drought conditions in recent months.
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US Donating Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine to the Philippines
The United States is sending three million doses of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine to the Philippines, the White House said Friday.A White House official told reporters the shipping process began Friday and that the doses would arrive “early next week.”The U.S. is providing the doses through COVAX, a campaign to provide equitable access to COVID-19 vaccine worldwide, the official said. The White House official said the U.S. is not contributing the doses to the Philippines “with strings attached” but because, “It’s the right thing morally, the right thing from a global public health perspective, and right for our collective security and well-being.”America’s vaccine donations to the Philippines “represents the largest-ever purchase and donation of vaccines by a single country,” according to the official.The U.S. has donated $2 billion to COVAX and will buy 500 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for distribution this year to the African Union’s 55-member nations and “92 low and lower middle-income countries” as defined by COVAX, the official said.Philippines Says US Visiting Forces Agreement to Remain in EffectDuterte retracts termination letter sent last yearThe White House announcement to provide doses to the Philippines came on the same day Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte reversed a decision to end a vital defense agreement with the U.S., as Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin wrapped up a visit to the country on Friday.The deal regulates the rotation of U.S. troops in and out of the Philippines for war drills and exercises. The agreement became increasingly important to the U.S. and its allies as they contend with an increasingly aggressive China.White House Bureau Chief Steve Herman contributed to this report.
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Firefighters Continue to Battle Deadly Wildfires in Southern Turkey
Firefighters continued to battle raging wildfires in southern Turkey Friday that have killed at least four people and forced the evacuation of villages and hotels.More than 70 wildfires broke out this week in Turkey’s Mediterranean and southern Aegean region and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters that crews were still trying to contain them in 14 locations after bringing 57 other wildfires under control since Wednesday. Forestry Minister Bekir Pakdemirli said the uncontained wildfires were in six provinces and vowed to hold accountable anyone found to be responsible for starting them. Authorities said Thursday that investigations into the fires had begun.The mayor of the Turkish resort town of Marmaris said he could not dismiss the possibility of “sabotage” as the cause of a mountainside fire that threatened holiday homes and hotels on Thursday.Erdogan said a plane from Azerbaijan would join planes from Russia and Ukraine to battle the fires, adding “with the arrival of the planes, we are turning in a positive direction.”In addition to at least five planes, the Turkish president said 45 helicopters, drones and nearly 1,100 firefighting vehicles are involved in the effort.Wildfires are common in Turkey’s Mediterranean and Aegean regions during the dry summer season, but arson or Kurdish militants have been blamed for some previous forest fires.
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