Pope Francis was seen leaving the hospital Wednesday, 10 days after undergoing planned surgery to remove half of his colon. Witnesses said a car carrying Francis, 84, was seen leaving Rome’s Gemelli Polytechnic hospital Wednesday morning. Doctors removed half of the pontiff’s colon on July 4 because of a severe narrowing of his large intestine, his first major surgery since he became pope in 2013. It was a planned procedure, scheduled for early July when the pope’s audiences are suspended anyway and Francis would normally take some time off. Francis will have several more weeks to recover before beginning to travel again in September. There are plans for him to visit Hungary and Slovakia in a September 12-15 trip, and then make a quick stop in Glasgow, Scotland, in November to participate in the COP26 climate conference. Other possible trips are also under review. The Vatican had originally said Francis could be discharged last weekend, but later said he would stay a few more days for further recovery and rehabilitation therapy. The pope appeared Sunday for the first time in public since the surgery, looking in good form as he delivered his weekly prayer from the 10th floor hospital balcony, surrounded by young cancer patients. He used the occasion to call for free health care for all. On Tuesday afternoon, the eve of his release, he visited the pediatric cancer ward, which is on the same floor as the papal hospital suite. The Argentine pope had part of one lung removed when he was a young man but has otherwise enjoyed relatively robust health.
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Month: July 2021
US Calls for ASEAN Action on Myanmar, Rejects China Maritime Claims
The United States rejects China’s “unlawful” maritime claims in the South China Sea and stands with Southeast Asian nations faced with Beijing’s “coercion,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday. Addressing a video conference with foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Nations (ASEAN), Blinken also said the United States has “deep concerns” about the situation in Myanmar and urged the group to take action to end violence and restore democracy in the country. The meeting with the 10-member bloc is the first since the Biden administration took office in January and comes amid concerns among diplomats and others that Washington has not been paying sufficient attention to a region that is crucial to its regional strategy to counter an increasingly powerful China. ASEAN has been leading the main diplomatic effort on member country Myanmar since a February 1 coup plunged it into turmoil. Myanmar’s junta has shown little sign of heeding a five-point ASEAN consensus, reached in April, which calls for an end to violence, political talks and the naming of a regional special envoy. Blinken urged ASEAN to take “immediate action” on the consensus and appoint a special envoy to Myanmar, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said in a statement. Blinken asked for the release of all those “unjustly detained” in the country, and the restoration of Myanmar’s democratic transition, Price said. Blinken also emphasized the U.S. rejection of China’s “unlawful maritime claims” in the South China Sea at the meeting and said Washington “stands with Southeast Asian claimants in the face of (Chinese) coercion,” Price said. China claims vast swathes of the disputed South China Sea via its unilaterally declared, U-shaped, “nine-dash line” which intersects with the exclusive economic zones of Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia and the Philippines, all ASEAN members. Trillions of dollars in annual trade flows through the disputed waterway. In addition to the South China Sea, the Mekong River has become a new front in U.S.-China rivalry, with Beijing overtaking Washington in both spending and influence over downstream countries at the mercy of its control of the river’s waters. Price said Blinken “pledged continued U.S. support for a free and open Mekong region under the Mekong-U.S. Partnership.” Malaysian Foreign Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said he hoped Wednesday’s meeting signalled a “refreshed commitment” to U.S. multilateral cooperation in the region. “We understand that multilateralism was not a key focus for the previous administration, but the Biden administration’s embrace of multilateral cooperation is a welcome development,” Hishammuddin said, according to a copy of his delivered remarks. “This path is the only way forward to ensure stability, peace, prosperity and security for our region.”
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Civil Society Groups Must Be ‘Politically Correct’ to Escape Prosecution
With the majority of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy opposition in jail facing myriad charges against individuals and associated groups, authorities’ attention has turned to the city’s civil society organizations, experts say. When Hong Kong’s national security law went into effect last year, it acted as a catalyst for authorities to arrests dozens of high-profile activists following the anti-government protests in 2019. The law prohibits things such as secession and foreign collusion, and those convicted of breaking it can be punished with up to life imprisonment. But the fear of the law alone is now affecting the city’s top civil society groups. The Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Democratic Movements of China is facing its most difficult period to date after announcing it will reduce its number of staff to minimize any security threats. Richard Tsoi, the group’s secretary, is one of the seven who are resigning from their posts. He told VOA the decision was made to reduce the risk for future prosecution, with the alliance operating at a minimum. It will work with volunteers to do some of the work of the full-time staff members who are leaving. The risk to the volunteers would not be great, Tsoi said. “We will definitely continue the operation of the Hong Kong Alliance, we will not surrender. But we think we should at least try to reduce the number of our leadership, our committee members. Basically now, seven out of the 14 committee members will resign. We are hoping to reduce the potential harm to us. With lesser manpower and resources but definitely will continue to see how we deal with the situation in the future,” Tsoi said. The organization was founded two weeks before June 4, 1989, when China’s People’s Liberation Army violently cracked down on pro-democracy protesters in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, killing unknown numbers. The alliance today is known for assembling Hong Kong’s annual Tiananmen Square candlelight vigil commemoration. But authorities have banned the memorial for the last two years, citing the coronavirus pandemic. The current chairman, veteran activist Lee Cheuk Yan, is in jail. But speaking to VOA in 2020, Lee said it would be “very difficult” for the annual vigil to be legally approved again. “It’s not [just] the Tiananmen Square vigils, it’s everything that have attraction for the masses,” he said at the time. Like Lee, the Hong Kong Alliance’s vice-chairman, Albert Ho, also is serving a jail sentence. Both pleaded guilty to participating in an illegal assembly during Hong Kong’s 2019 protests. Tsoi was one of two people who received suspended sentences by a Hong Kong court in May. The remaining eight were given immediate jail terms, including Lee and Ho, as well as media mogul Jimmy Lai.Hong Kong Pro-Democracy Activists Sentenced for 2019 Protests Ten defendants sentenced, eight given immediate jail terms for their roles in one of Hong Kong’s most chaotic street protests Lai, 73, was the founder of the pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily that was forced to close in June after 26 years of publication after national security authorities arrested company executives for suspected foreign collusion and froze the company’s financial access.
Chow Hang-tung, the vice-chairwoman for the Hong Kong Alliance, said she is well aware their organization, like the media, is being targeted.
“Apart from media I think they want to target civil society organizations, NGOs and all these political parties and groups. … A lot of people are saying the Civil Human Rights Front or us [Hong Kong Alliance] are the authorities’ next target,” she told VOA. Chow spoke to VOA hours before police arrested her on June 30, following allegations she was inciting assembly ahead of the July 1 anniversary of Hong Kong’s handover from Britain back to China. She remains in custody.Hong Kong Pro-Democracy Activist Arrested Again Police superintendent tells local media that Chow Hang Tung’s arrest ‘in accordance with the law’ Political analyst Joseph Cheng, formerly of Hong Kong but now in Australia, told VOA in a phone call that civil society groups now face more pressure than in previous years because of the national security law.
“The members, the leaders feel very threatened. There is a concern that staff members working for such groups are in danger,” Cheng said.
He added their reduction of staff numbers reflects Hong Kong’s declining freedoms under the security law.
“In a way, this is very much related to the national security law. The joint alliance (Hong Kong Alliance and the Civil Human Rights Front) insists on using one of the slogans, maintaining one of the principles to terminate one-party dictatorship, and this has been interpreted against the national security law. As a result, there is a distinct danger the members will be prosecuted,” Cheng said.
And he added that civil society groups are going to find it very difficult to operate today in Hong Kong.
“You have to be politically correct to engage in associations. And this demand for political correctness has become very strict,” Cheng added.
It comes after more than half of the 400 elected district councillors across 18 Hong Kong districts quit their posts following a recently implemented oath-taking law that targets “unpatriotic” civil servants. Pledging alliance deemed mandatory to lawmakers and government officials until the new law came into effect in May of this year.
During the height of the anti-government protests in November 2019, the District Council elections saw a landslide victory for the pro-democracy opposition. Although local councillors are usually assigned to improving community welfare, the election results were deemed to be an unofficial referendum supporting the city’s large democratic movement. Nearly 3 million people voted, which is slightly less than half of the 7.5 million population in Hong Kong.
Under the “one country, two systems” agreement signed by Britain and China in 1997, after the city was transferred back to Chinese rule, Beijing promised that Hong Kong would retain a “high degree of autonomy” until 2047.
After 2019’s anti-government protests, Beijing implemented the national security law for Hong Kong that came into effect on June 30, 2020. Among other things, it prohibits secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces, and its details can be widely interpreted.
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‘Survival Struggle’: Ethnic Standoff Drives New Phase of Tigray War
Asfaw Abera fled his homeland in northwestern Ethiopia three decades ago, stealing away on foot into Sudan as soldiers and ethnic Tigrayan rebels exchanged fire nearby. During his long stretch in exile, Asfaw, an ethnic Amhara, scrubbed toilets in Khartoum office buildings while dreaming night and day of going back. Last month, he finally got his wish, entering the town of Humera on a government-chartered bus, fighting tears as he passed sesame and sorghum fields he had last glimpsed as a teenager. The relocation of Asfaw and other Amharas is part of a daring project to reshape the balance of power at the western edge of Ethiopia’s war-hit Tigray region. It comes at a pivotal moment in the eight-month-old conflict that has already left thousands of people dead and pushed hundreds of thousands to the brink of famine. Tigrayan rebels are ascendant again, having stunned the world last month by retaking the regional capital Mekele from forces loyal to Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. Now they have set their sights on Amhara “invaders” like Asfaw and have launched a fresh offensive with the goal of seizing “every square inch” of Tigray. Amharas and Tigrayans have long dueled over who owns the famously fertile lowland territory of western Tigray, with firebrands in both camps saying they are ready to die defending it. ‘We’ll stay no matter what’That includes Asfaw, who is among the first wave of 15,000 Amhara families who local authorities plan to eventually bring over from Sudan. Sitting this week in the courtyard of the spacious Humera home where he now lives with his wife and seven children, Asfaw scoffed at rebel leaders’ threats to drive him out a second time. “They say they are prepared to destroy us, but we will stay no matter what,” Asfaw told AFP. “With the will of God, our time has come now.”People process sorghum in a mill, in a rural area near the village of Dabat, 70 kilometres northeast from the city of Gondar, Ethiopia, on July 13, 2021.Asfaw’s joyous return last month clashed dramatically with his furtive exit in the early 1990s, when the insurgent Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) was on the cusp of taking power. After toppling longtime autocrat Mengistu Hailemariam in 1991, the TPLF went on to dominate Ethiopian politics for 27 years. Its early reforms included dividing the country into nine regions and placing northwestern towns including Humera into the newly constituted region of Tigray. Amharas saw that move as a brazen land grab but were too cowed to do much about it. Today many Amharas in western Tigray recall the era of TPLF rule with bitterness, saying they were afraid of even speaking the Amharic language in public, opting for Tigrinya instead. Amhara officials who agitated for change, and especially those who asked for western Tigray to be administered by the neighboring Amhara region, were often jailed. “I have suffered a lot, and I can’t even start to comprehend what they did to me,” said Siltal Admassie, a local Amhara official who landed behind bars multiple times. ‘A new life’ In 2018, however, Abiy came to power on the strength of persistent anti-government protests, and top TPLF officials were soon sidelined. Deep rancor between the new and old regimes spilt over into conflict in early November, with fierce early fighting taking place in and around Humera. After Tigrayan forces withdrew, the Amhara regional government raced into western Tigray to assert control. Amhara security forces dismantled TPLF monuments and occupied TPLF-era military camps. Amhara officials established local government offices to collect taxes and run schools where students could learn in Amharic. They also allocated land and homes to thousands of Amharas arriving from elsewhere in Ethiopia and — in the case of men like Asfaw — even farther afield. Farmer Seyoum Berihun is among the new arrivals who marvels at Amharas’ sudden change of fortune. “For me, personally, I have just started living now,” he said. “Even if I am 58, I consider my former life to be a waste. Now I have started a new life, and I’m not even exaggerating.” ‘Survival struggle’As Amharas have poured in, Tigrayan civilians have fled by the tens of thousands — either west into Sudan or east, deeper into Tigray. The exodus has been so dramatic that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Congress in March that “acts of ethnic cleansing” had occurred. Senior Amhara officials fervently deny this, yet they also stress they no longer consider western Tigray to be part of Tigray at all, claiming it will be governed by Amhara going forward. During a recent visit by AFP journalists, local officials trotted out several remaining Tigrayan civilians to bolster their claim that no one was forced to leave. Tesfaye Weldegebriel, 67, told AFP he feared for his life when fighting broke out last November. Yet he said Amhara officials assured him he could stay and speculated that those who left did so because they had close ties to the TPLF. “When one government leaves and another comes, you should welcome it joyfully,” he said. But this version of events is difficult to square with myriad descriptions of violent, often deadly expulsions from western Tigray, and Tigrayan leaders have made clear they don’t buy it. In a recent statement, Debretsion Gebremichael, head of Tigray’s pre-war government, indicated his forces would continue fighting until the region’s old borders were reaffirmed. “Those who looted properties of the Tigray government, private citizens and businesspeople have to return the looted properties quickly,” he said. “If not, we will make them.” Meanwhile, Amhara leaders, emboldened by a fresh influx of federal soldiers in western Tigray, also appear to be preparing for a showdown. On Twitter this week, Amhara regional president Agegnehu Teshager posted bank account details for supporters wanting to help fund coming hostilities against the TPLF. The battle, he said, would be nothing less than a “survival struggle.”
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Will China’s European Ambitions Founder in Hungary?
China’s bid to expand its influence in Eastern Europe could hit a snag if Hungary’s controversial Prime Minister Viktor Orban is defeated in what is shaping up to be an unexpectedly close election next year.Hungary under Orban has fostered ever-closer ties with China, which sees the country as a linchpin of its efforts to reach deep into Europe with elements of its global Belt and Road initiative involving infrastructure and cultural projects on several continents.Among those projects is a new railroad running from the Hungarian capital, Budapest, to Belgrade, Serbia. Hungary is also the proposed site of the first overseas campus of Fudan University, one of China’s top educational institutions.FILE – Demonstrators protest against the planned Chinese Fudan University campus in Budapest, Hungary, June 5, 2021.In a letter to Chinese President Xi Jinping late last month which has since been made public, the mayor of Budapest and several other prominent Hungarian politicians pledged to terminate both projects if a new opposition coalition comes to power in next year’s parliamentary election.Until recently, that prospect would have seemed remote, given that Orban has retained power in three successive landslide elections and has steadily increased his control over the nation’s media.FILE – On June 11, 2021, leaders of six opposition parties in Hungary — DK, Jobbik, LMP, Momentum, MSZP, and Dialogue — announce the coalition has established common ground and will lay out a governing program in the fall.(Photo courtesy Dialogue for Hungary)But six opposition parties joined forces in an anti-Orban coalition late last year and have been running neck and neck with the prime minister’s Fidesz party FILE – Budapest’s mayor candidate of the center left opposition party Gergely Karacsony addresses the audience after his victory on Oct. 13, 2019.Gergely Karacsony, who defeated a Fidesz-backed candidate to become mayor of Budapest in 2019, was already an outspoken critic of Orban’s outreach to China, which has included a move to block the European Union from criticizing Beijing’s crackdown on individual rights in Hong Kong.”EU cohesion on foreign policy is key to protecting our values and sustaining the EU as a global player. Time and again Viktor Orban sabotages that unity and protects in our Union the interest of autocracies,” Karacsony said in a statement. Hungary’s “next government will break with all that!”Karacsony has already named streets in Budapest after the democracy movement in Hong Kong and in solidarity with victims of the Chinese Communist Party’s oppression in Tibet and Xinjiang.The Budapest mayor has also taken aim at plans for a Fudan University campus in his city, saying it “would put in doubt many of the values that Hungary committed itself to 30 years ago” after the fall of communism in Central and Eastern Europe.Since Orban took office in 2010, Hungary has been widely accused of moving away from democratic principles. Even so, its membership in Western alliances, including the European Union and NATO, and the efforts of opposition parties have kept the Beijing-backed railroad and university project from advancing unchallenged.During a conversation with Orban in April, Xi described the Budapest-Belgrade railroad as the “leading force” for closer ties between the two countries. But critics say the project, first proposed in 2013, is nowhere near completion.The plan for a Fudan campus has also sparked public protests in Budapest, prompting the Orban government to suggest there could be a referendum on the project in the future. Mareike Ohlberg, a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States and an expert on China’s effort to influence foreign governments, told VOA that an opposition victory in Hungary next year would present a setback for Beijing at the EU.”The Hungarian government has been the Chinese government’s most reliable country to draw on repeatedly to prevent statements at the EU level, most recently a criticism of the National Security Law in Hong Kong,” she said in a written interview.Ohlberg added: “Even if the opposition does not do a 180-degree turn on China policy, it will probably be a less ready ally of Beijing’s in Brussels.”
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US Urged to Offer Refuge to Those Fleeing Climate Catastrophes
The United States should accommodate millions of refugees who will be forced to flee disasters and other effects of a changing climate, according to a task force report released Wednesday. The In this April 15, 2021, file photo, President Joe Biden speaks in the East Room of the White House in Washington. No nation offers asylum or other protections to people displaced because of climate change. Biden’s admin is studying the idea.In an executive order in February, U.S. President Joe Biden instructed National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan to examine how to identify and resettle people who will be displaced by climate change. “We are actively working on a report on climate change and its impact on migration, including forced migration, internal displacement and planned relocation, for the president and expect a final version, or summary thereof, will be made public by the fall,” a senior administration official told VOA. Opposition to resettlement proposal There is certain to be pushback from conservative lawmakers and groups opposing liberal immigration reform. America’s immigration system “is already strained to the breaking point” with more than 1.3 million pending asylum cases, and “inviting untold millions more to seek refugee status, or arrive here and claim asylum, based on assertions of harm as a result of climate change would cause the system to collapse entirely,” predicted Ira Mehlman, media director at the Federation for American Immigration Reform. Climate change “cannot be addressed by advocacy group-driven attempts to engage in mass resettlement of people in the United States,” added Mehlman, who contends the task force’s proposal “ironically would further hinder our ability to address the root causes of climate change. Large-scale, migration-driven population growth would make it nearly impossible for the United States to meet goals set for reductions in CO2 and other harmful emissions.” The founder of another organization seeking stricter limitations on immigration to the United States also expresses concern. “Of all forms of migration, refugee resettlement has tended to have the most direct negative effect on the ability of lower-skilled Americans — disproportionately minorities — to obtain jobs and on depressing the wages of those who retain their jobs,” said Roy Beck, founder of anti-immigration group NumbersUSA. Priority should be given to those from adjacent countries or the same region, but the task force suggests America “would be a destination for the whole world, making the lack of numerical caps in the proposal especially problematic,” added Beck. The NumbersUSA leader also is concerned about the ramifications of Temporary Protection Status for those whose displacement is caused by disasters exacerbated by the effects of climate, as the task force proposes. “This would continue the corruption of the program’s purpose, which already is threatened with losing the support of the American people for the very real and manageable need for the U.S. to provide respite for as many calamities as possible, but only if the respite is truly temporary,” said Beck. Biden previously announced the United States intends to double, by 2024, its annual public climate finance for developing countries and triple public finance for climate adaptation, compared to what the country was providing during the second half of former President Barack Obama’s administration (who was in office from 2009 to early 2017). The 2022 fiscal year request by Biden of $2.5 billion for international climate programs “is very significant but still less than the amounts for which climate experts had advocated,” according to the task force, which wants the U.S. to increase the foreign aid budget to reduce the risks of climate-related disasters and for international programs dealing with climate adaptation. According to the report, there is globally a $2.5 trillion gap in resilience infrastructure. Advocates such as Ober at Refugees International, are optimistic that the Biden administration will help close that gap, saying, “it has already shown a good faith effort to really dig into these issues, and in fact, is the first administration of its kind to really set a high bar for addressing climate change and migration issues.”
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Singapore Says Cruise Ship Returns After Suspected COVID-19 Case
Singapore’s tourism board said on Wednesday that a cruise ship operated by Genting Cruise Lines on a so-called cruise to nowhere had returned to the city-state after a 40-year-old passenger was suspected to have contracted COVID-19. “The passenger was identified as a close contact of a confirmed case on land, and was immediately isolated as part of onboard health protocols,” the tourism board said in a statement. It said the passenger took a Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test onboard, tested positive and had been conveyed to a hospital for further testing to confirm the result. The passenger’s three traveling companions were identified and isolated, the tourism board said. They have tested negative for COVID-19 and further contact tracing was being done. All leisure activities aboard the Dream Cruises’ World Dream ship had ceased and passengers had been asked to stay in their cabins until test results are received and contact tracing was complete, the tourism board said. Genting did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The ship left Singapore on Sunday for a four-day cruise, according to a media report. The global cruise industry has taken a major economic hit from the coronavirus pandemic, with some of the earliest big outbreaks found on cruise ships. Singapore, which has seen relatively few domestic COVID-19 cases, launched round-trips cruses on luxury liners in November, which have no port of call and last only a few days. Such cruises have become popular during the pandemic and are restricted to Singapore residents.
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US Charges Four With Plot to Kidnap New York Journalist Critical of Iran
U.S. prosecutors have charged four Iranians, alleged to be intelligence operatives for Tehran, with plotting to kidnap a New York journalist who was critical of Iran, according to a Justice Department indictment unsealed on Tuesday. While the indictment did not name the target of the plot, Reuters has confirmed she is Iranian American journalist Masih Alinejad, who has contributed to the Voice of America Persian language service and reports on human rights issues in Iran. Asked by Reuters to confirm that Alinejad was the target of the plot, the Department of Justice declined to comment. According to the indictment, the four Iranians hired private investigators under false pretenses to surveil the unnamed journalist in Brooklyn, videotaping the victim’s family and home as part of a plot to take the person out of the country. The four defendants planned “to forcibly take their intended victim to Iran, where the victim’s fate would have been uncertain at best,” said U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss for the Southern District of New York. Reached by phone on Tuesday after the indictment was released, Alinejad said she was in a state of shock. She said she had been working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation since the agency approached her eight months ago with photographs taken by the plotters. “They showed me the Islamic Republic had gotten very close,” she said. Alinejad said she had drawn the ire of Iran by publicizing women in Iran protesting laws requiring head coverings, as well as accounts of Iranians killed in 2019’s demonstrations. Prosecutors said in a press release that the journalist was targeted by Iran “for mobilizing public opinion in Iran and around the world to bring about changes to the regime’s laws and practices.” Alinejad said the FBI agents moved her and her husband to a series of safe houses as they investigated the case. She said she was still reeling from reading the indictment. “I can’t believe I’m not even safe in America,” she said.
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Appeals Court: Dealers Can Sell Handguns to 18-year-olds
A federal law that for more than 50 years has banned licensed firearms dealers from selling handguns to young adults between age 18 and 21 is unconstitutional, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday. In a 2-1 opinion, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond overturned a lower court ruling upholding the law. Judge Julius Richardson, appointed by former President Donald Trump, wrote that the right to bear arms is a “cherished constitutional right” that vests at age 18. “(W)e refuse to relegate either the Second Amendment or 18- to 20-year-olds to a second-class status,” Richardson wrote. It is unclear whether the ruling would have any immediate impact. A different appeals court, the 5th Circuit, ruled in an opposite manner on the same issue several years ago. Also, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, which is named as the defendant in the lawsuit, could seek an appeal before the full 4th Circuit panel. The three-judge panel that ruled Tuesday had a 2-1 majority of GOP-appointed judges, but the 4th Circuit as a whole has a narrow majority of Democratic-appointed judges. The ATF referred questions to the Justice Department, which did not immediately respond Tuesday to a call and two emails seeking comment. Richardson, in his ruling, cites recent U.S. Supreme Court precedent, particularly the 2008 Heller decision, which declared that the Second Amendment applies to individuals and not just those connected to militia service. He also cites historical references to the time of the Founding Fathers, noting that 18-year-olds typically served in the militia at age 18. In a dissent, Judge James Wynn, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, accused his colleagues of breaking “new ground by invalidating a modest and long-established effort to control gun violence.” “But the majority’s decision to grant the gun lobby a victory in a fight it lost on Capitol Hill more than fifty years ago is not compelled by law,” Wynn wrote. Tuesday’s ruling was prompted by a lawsuit by 19-year-old Natalia Marshall, a University of Virginia student who said she wanted a handgun as protection from an abusive ex-boyfriend. A federal law, enacted in 1968, bars federally licensed dealers from selling handguns to persons under age 21. But those age 18 and over are still permitted under federal law to purchase handguns from a private party. They also are allowed to buy long guns from a dealer.
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72 People Killed in South African Riots
Seventy-two people have been killed in riots and looting in South Africa, police said Tuesday, amid protests over the jailing of former president Jacob Zuma. Violence erupted last week when Zuma began serving a 15-month jail sentence for contempt of court. In the country’s worst unrest in years, looters vandalized shopping malls, other retail outlets and businesses in the province of Gauteng, which includes the country’s largest city of Johannesburg. Security forces seemed unable to prevent the looting and attacks, which also occurred in Zuma’s home province, KwaZulu-Natal and in Soweto. But protesters have also taken to the street to denounce economic hardship which has increased during the pandemic over the last year. The increased death toll comes as South Africa announced it would deploy thousands of troops to reinforce overwhelmed police officers in two states. People stand on the roadside after being evicted following protests that have widened into looting, in Durban, South Africa, July 13, 2021, in this screen grab taken from a video. (Courtesy Kierran Allen/via Reuters)Police said Tuesday that most of the deaths were the result of stampedes around incidents of looting. Over 1,000 people have been arrested since demonstrations began last week. In his address to the nation Monday night, President Cyril Ramaphosa denounced the violence and looting, urging calm. “The path of violence, of looting and anarchy, leads only to more violence and devastation,” Ramaphosa said. But the Zuma Foundation said Tuesday that there would not be peace as long as the former anti-apartheid fighter was behind bars. “Peace and stability in South Africa is directly linked to the release of President Zuma with immediate effect,” the foundation wrote on Twitter. Peace and stability in South Africa is directly linked to the release of President Zuma with immediate effect.It was just pure malice to incarcerate President Zuma whilst litigation on his Detention Without Trial case (for a civil contempt) was on-going.#WenzenuZuma— JGZuma Foundation (Official) (@JGZ_Foundation) July 13, 2021 Zuma was convicted of resisting a court order to testify in a state-backed investigation into allegations of corruption during his nine-year term as president that ended in 2018. Defense Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula told reporters at the news conference she did not believe current conditions warrant imposing a state of emergency. Zuma’s lawyer argued Monday before South Africa’s Constitutional Court that Zuma should have his sentence rescinded. Judges on the court said they would consider the arguments and announce their decision at a later date. Some information for this report came from Reuters and The Associated Press.
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‘Scary’: Fuel Shortage Could Ground Firefighting Aircraft
Airport officials facing jet fuel shortages are concerned they’ll have to wave off planes and helicopters that drop fire retardants during what could be a ferocious wildfire season, potentially endangering surrounding communities.Sporadic shortages at some tanker bases in Oregon and Utah have already been reported. The worry is that multiple bases go dry simultaneously during what is shaping up to be a very busy wildfire season in the U.S. West. Tanker bases in Arizona, where many large fires are burning, have also had jet fuel supply issues in the last month.”We haven’t run into that before,” said Jessica Gardetto, a National Interagency Fire Center spokeswoman in Boise, Idaho, and a former wildland firefighter. “It’s a scary thought, with all the shortages going on right now.”It’s not clear if jet fuel supplies and delivery systems can be bolstered in time for this wildfire season to avoid potential problems keeping firefighting aircraft aloft if multiple large fires break out around the West.Airport officials, aviation supply companies and jet fuel transport companies said jet fuel demand declined sharply and supply chains atrophied during the coronavirus pandemic. They have yet to bounce back in the Western U.S. even as the economy zooms ahead and more passengers flock to airports for long-delayed trips.According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, jet fuel supplied in the U.S. in 2020 fell 38% compared to 2019 pre-pandemic levels. Jet fuel demand has increased about 26% since the start of this year, though it hasn’t reached 2019 levels. The administration’s Weekly Petroleum Status Report for July 2 shows demand at 78% of 2019 levels. That’s up from 44% of 2019 levels for the same time period in 2020 when the pandemic had taken hold.Overall, the administration said, jet fuel inventories in the U.S. are at or above the five-year average, except in the Rocky Mountains, where they are 1% below. That appears to point to the supply chain as the potential problem, various industry officials said.”COVID, it lulled everybody to sleep,” said Mark Haynes, vice president of sales for Ann Arbor, Michigan-based Avfuel Corporation, which supplies jet fuel across the U.S., including to about half of the nation’s 44 air tanker bases operated by the U.S. Forest Service or U.S. Bureau of Land Management in Western states. Some states also maintain tanker bases.”Our business went to about zero,” Haynes said. “A lot of trucking companies had to lay off (jet fuel) drivers. What happened with the opening up of the U.S., demand for leisure travel has boomed.”Chris Kunkle is vice president of operations for the Central Coast Jet Center in Santa Maria, California. It’s a private airport known as a fixed based operator that provides services for private jets, such as refueling. It also serves as a Forest Service air tanker base and is large enough for DC-10 air tankers.”In the blink of an eye, we can have a fire here within our response area that can bring in one to three DC-10s and a bunch of variable-sized air tankers,” he said. “We can go from a couple thousand gallons (3,800 liters) a day to 50,000 (190,000 liters) to 60,000 gallons (227,000 liters)”He said he likes to keep 60,000 gallons (227,000 liters) at the airport but is having trouble with limited deliveries. He fears running out if a large fire breaks out in the area.Decisions on where the fuel goes can be difficult. Commercial jet travel can be a huge economic driver in many communities. Air ambulances also need fuel. Industry officials said problems at large commercial carriers this year appear to have more to do with worker and pilot shortages than lack of jet fuel.Jeff Cyphers of Stockton, California-based Humboldt Pacific LCC, said he’s expanding the company’s fleet of 20 jet fuel tanker trucks to transport fuel to West Coast states and, during the wildfire season, Idaho, Montana and Utah. He said there’s currently both a shortage of drivers as well as jet fuel to deliver.”The supply chain right now is probably the most fragile I’ve ever seen in my years of experience,” said Cyphers, who has been in the industry since 1986.Most larger airports, such as those in Denver, Seattle and Boise, are supplied by pipeline. But many smaller, outlying airports such as those in Aspen, Colorado, and Jackson, Wyoming, and Hailey, Idaho, near the resort town of Sun Valley, rely on jet fuel delivery by truck. So do many of the airports with tanker bases, some of them hundreds of miles away from jet fuel refineries or pipelines.Cyphers said his company has even been trucking jet fuel to airports supplied by pipeline because they hadn’t received their full allocation of jet fuel.Hundreds of aircraft are used to fight wildfires each year. Most of the nation’s large retardant bombers are jets. Turboprop retardant bombers also use jet fuel. They lay down strips of red fire retardant ahead of approaching flames in support of ground crews who are more likely to hold a fire line after a retardant bomber has made a drop.Most firefighting helicopters also use the jet fuel that authorities worry could be in short supply for aerial wildfire operations going forward.”I could be wrong, but I don’t foresee them being able to bridge that gap,” predicted Cyphers, from the trucking company.
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UN Calls for Swift Pullout of Eritrean Troops From Tigray
The United Nations Human Rights Council passed a resolution Tuesday calling for the swift pullout of Eritrean troops from Ethiopia’s embattled northern Tigray region. The eight-month war between Ethiopian federal forces and Tigray’s former ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, has killed thousands of people, forced some 2 million others to flee their homes and driven about 400,000 into famine. The council said Eritrean troops were “exacerbating the conflict” that continued Tuesday with the TPLF’s capture of Alamata, the main town in southern Tigray, according to AFP. The town’s reported capture came two weeks after the federal government declared a unilateral cease-fire, following rebel advances. “What is happening in the Tigray region in Ethiopia is appalling,” said Ambassador Lotte Knudsen, head of the EU delegation to the U.N., which presented the resolution. It is imperative for the Human Rights Council to be able to address this situation.” UNHCR chief Filippo Grandi said in a statement that “The violence and intimidation of Eritrean refugees must stop. Refugees are civilians in need of and with the right to international protection.” Eritrea voted against the U.N. resolution to immediately withdraw its troops from the region, which is also a key TPLF demand in cease-fire negotiations. Fighting between the Ethiopian government and the TPLF broke out in November. Troops from Eritrea, Ethiopia’s neighbor to the north, and Amhara, a neighboring region to the south of Tigray, also entered the conflict in support of the Ethiopian government.
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Biden Calls Republican State Election Law Changes ‘Assault on Liberty’
U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday assailed Republican-led states pushing to tighten voting rules, calling it an “unfolding assault … on liberty.” Republicans say they are tightening voting rules so that no election fraud occurs in the future and that Americans can have confidence that votes are fairly counted. But Biden, in perhaps the most emotional speech of his six-month presidency, contended that the 28 laws already adopted in 17 states “make it harder for Americans to vote.” “This is election subversion,” he declared. “It’s simply unconscionable.”Without naming him, Biden rebuked former President Donald Trump for his continuing claims that he was cheated out of another four-year term in the White House by voting and ballot-counting fraud in last November’s election. U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks at National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, July 13, 2021.”The big lie is just that, a big lie,” Biden declared to the loud applause of supporters gathered at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. Biden chose the city for the voting rights address because it is the cradle of American democracy: It’s where the country’s Founding Fathers first declared their independence from England in 1776. “In America, if you lose, you accept the results,” Biden said of Trump, who skipped Biden’s January inauguration and has yet to publicly declare that Biden won the election. Biden called again for the Senate to pass voting-rights legislation already approved by the House of Representatives that would nationalize congressional and presidential election rules, overriding the newly enacted state restrictions that Biden and Democratic lawmakers say would especially inhibit voting by minorities, who most often vote for Democrats. But as it stands, the legislation has little chance of passage in the 100-member Senate, split evenly between 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans. Republicans recently blocked debate on the measure. Biden emotionally implored lawmakers, saying, “Stand up, for God’s sake, and protect the right to vote.” For the moment at least, the United States will head into next year’s congressional elections with no change in the long-standing practice whereby each of the 50 states sets its own rules on voter registration, voting hours, mail-in ballots and more. In advance of Biden’s trip to Philadelphia, the White House said that “an alarming number of states … are erecting new barriers to voting, with additional barriers threatened elsewhere.” Republicans say the laws are necessary to ensure election integrity and prevent fraud, although there were almost no irregularities found in the 2020 voting, and not anywhere close to enough to have upended Biden’s victory. In the latest state political voting law confrontation, Republican legislators in the southwestern state of Texas, the country’s second most populous, are attempting to push through new restrictions. Democratic lawmakers first blocked passage of the measure in May by walking out of a legislative session to deny Republicans a quorum for a vote. This week, they fled the state during a special session to visit national Democratic lawmakers in Washington and push for countrywide election rules. The Texas Democrats said they plan to stay away from their home state until the legislative session ends in early August. Empty seats are seen in the House Chamber at the Texas Capitol, July 13, 2021.The White House said other recent events are undermining voting rights, including what it called the “sham ‘audit’ in Arizona” of the 2020 presidential vote in a state that Biden won over Trump. State Republican officials in Arizona authorized the new recount there, looking for vote-counting irregularities, although official tallies were completed months ago with no evidence of consequential fraud that would have overturned Biden’s victory in the state. The White House contended that the Arizona Legislature “gave conspiracy theorists access to 2020 election ballots without consistent rules or supervision,” eroding “faith in the electoral process.” It said a recent Supreme Court voting rights decision “greatly weakened existing federal tools to combat regressive voting laws.” The government’s Justice Department recently sued the state of Georgia in an attempt to block its election changes, and Biden named Vice President Kamala Harris to lead his administration’s fight for voting rights. She said the Texas Democratic lawmakers “have shown great courage, and certainly great conviction and commitment” in leaving the state to block passage of the proposed Republican election law changes. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday that Biden is redoubling “his commitment to using every tool at his disposal to continue to fight to protect the fundamental right of Americans to vote.” But congressional legislation remains unlikely, with Republicans opposed to the Democratic-proposed nationalization of elections, and at least two Democratic senators opposed to changing legislative voting rules to allow passage of election rules changes with a simple majority vote.
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Taliban Threaten Turkish Troops with ‘Jihad’ if They Stay in Afghanistan
The Taliban warned Tuesday that if Turkey extends its military presence in Afghanistan the Islamist group will view Turkish troops as “occupiers” and wage “jihad” against them.The warning came amid fresh battlefield moves that critics say show the Taliban are planning a military takeover of Afghanistan in defiance of their peace pledges, raising the prospects of a full-blown civil war.The United States has asked Turkey to secure Kabul’s airport after all American and NATO allied troops withdraw from the country by the end of next month.Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday without elaborating that he had agreed with Washington on the “scope” of how to secure and manage the airport.The Taliban condemned the deal as “reprehensible” and demanded Turkey review its decision.“We consider stay of foreign forces in our homeland by any country under whatever pretext as occupation,” the group said in a media release. “The extension of occupation will arouse emotions of resentment and hostility inside our country towards Turkish officials and will damage bilateral ties.”The security and smooth running of the Hamid Karzai international airport in the Afghan capital is crucial for preserving diplomatic missions and foreign organizations operating out of Kabul, where a bomb explosion Tuesday killed at least four people. Hostilities elsewhere in Afghanistan also have escalated to record levels.A blood-stained man rests after he helped people who were injured in a deadly bomb explosion in Kabul, Afghanistan, July 13, 2021.Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar told reporters after a cabinet meeting on Monday evening that Turkey agreed to some points with U.S. counterparts on running the airport. He said work towards a deal continues.“If the airport does not operate, the countries will have to withdraw their diplomatic missions there,” Akar said.Hundreds of American troops are expected to stay in the Afghan capital, guarding the sprawling U.S. embassy compound there.Taliban forces have dramatically extended their territorial control across Afghanistan by overrunning scores of districts without any resistance since U.S. troops formally started withdrawing from the country in early May.In most cases, government forces either retreated to safety or surrendered to the advancing insurgents.A convoy of Afghan Special Forces is seen during the rescue mission of a police officer besieged at a check post surrounded by Taliban, in Kandahar province, July 13, 2021.The battlefield gains have enabled the Taliban to effectively encircle major Afghan cities, including provincial capitals.In Washington, Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby on Monday also voiced concern that the Taliban are planning to militarily take control of the country.“It is clear from what they are doing that they have governance designs certainly of a national scale. It is clear from what they are doing that they believe there is a military solution to the end of this conflict,” Kirby told reporters.“We continue to believe that the most sustainable and the most responsible end and solution to this war is a political one, one through negotiated diplomacy,” Kirby stressed.Afghan authorities have vowed to defend and keep the Taliban from major cities, saying security forces have killed hundreds of insurgents in recent days.Kabul has also protested and criticized regional countries for stepping up their diplomatic engagements with the Taliban in pursuit of a peaceful settlement to the war.“The Taliban delegation is traveling to the regional countries at a time when its brutal attacks have killed more than 3,500 people, displaced more than 200,000 of our compatriots, disrupted public order and life, and economic activities in tens of districts,” ministry said.The Taliban took control of Afghanistan after emerging victorious in the civil war of the 1990s and introduced harsh Islamic laws to govern the conflict-torn country before they were ousted by the U.S.-led foreign invasion in late 2001.The Islamist movement has since been waging a violent insurgency against the U.S.-backed government in Kabul.Washington negotiated and signed a troop withdrawal deal with the Taliban in February 2020 in return for security assurances and pledges the insurgents would negotiate a peace arrangement with Afghan rivals for a sustainable peace in the country.However, the slow-moving U.S.-brokered intra-Afghan negotiations, which started in Qatar last September, have failed to produce a peace deal and remain deadlocked. Some information in this report was provided by Reuters.
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Tibetans Defy China to Celebrate Dalai Lama’s Birthday Online
When His Holiness the Dalai Lama turned 86, he observed his birthday by promising to continue serving humanity and advocating for the environment. Celebrations worldwide marked the day. ICYMI: Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama celebrated his 86th birthday, promising to serve humanity and protect the climate in a virtual address from India’s northern hill town of Dharamsala From the library of Qinghai Normal University, Xining. The script is “Dearest person in exile, the heart-to-heart years will never disappear and change no matter how bumpy the road far away.” (Social media)Other images and footage from Tibet showed Tibetans marking the day creatively. One man wore a sweater with the number “86” embroidered across the back. VOA Tibetan contacted the Chinese Embassy in Washington via phone and email for a comment on the birthday observations but did not receive a response. Tibetans revere the Dalai Lama, who fled his homeland in 1959 and has since lived in the northern Indian city of Dharamsala. More than 140,000 Tibetans live in exile, mostly in India. More than 6 million Tibetans live in the Tibet Autonomous Region and other autonomous prefectures in neighboring Chinese provinces.Chinese authorities have long banned photographs of the Dalai Lama and expression of public devotion to the spiritual leader. China accuses him of seeking to separate Tibet from China. The Dalai Lama repeatedly has said he seeks greater autonomy for Tibet, not independence from China. Sharing photographs of the Dalai Lama and his teachings and talks in defiance of Chinese law has resulted in Tibetans being arrested in Tibetan regions. China has responded to international condemnation of Beijing’s alleged human rights violations in Tibet by saying its actions “are China’s internal affairs, and the outside world should not interfere,” as A young Tibetan draws a portrait of the Dalai Lama in a post from Golog Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, in Qinghai province. The caption is “Leader of world peace, very happy birthday to you.” (Social media)The ban on references to the Dalai Lama is part of the effort by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to bring Tibetans into the Chinese mainstream, by restricting the Tibetan language and culture, according to the U.S. State Department, in a 2020 report on religious freedom. The “Sinification” of Tibetan language and culture, coupled with Beijing’s investment in infrastructure in the region, suggests “China Wants to Build a Tibet With More Wealth and Less Buddhism,” according to a Bloomberg headline. Xinghua, a media outlet controlled by the CCP, reported in February that since 2012, China has built roads that have connected 95 percent of the township-level administrations and 75 percent of the incorporated villages in the Tibet region.
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‘The Crown,’ ‘Mandalorian’ Top Emmy Nominations with 24 Each
“The Crown” tied with “The Mandalorian” for the most Emmy nominations Tuesday with 24 apiece, but the Marvel universe also got bragging rights with runner-up “WandaVision.”
The nominations reinforced the rapid rise of streaming, with the top-nominated scripted shows on services that largely emerged in the past two years. In the top three categories — drama, comedy and limited series — only the NBC show “This Is Us” snagged a nomination.
Netflix’s “The Crown” received its fourth nomination for best series, and is likely the streaming service’s best chance to win its first-ever top series trophy. The British royal drama moved closer to contemporary events with its version of the courtship and rocky marriage of Prince Charles and Diana Spencer, played by Josh O’Connor and Emma Corrin.
“These nominations represent the work done in television through the most challenging year I can think of,” TV academy chief executive Frank Scherma said before the first nominees were announced. “While many of us in our medium worked remotely throughout the last 18 months, I have to say it feels so good to be getting back on a set. Making great television is a collaborative group effort where the sum equals more than the parts, and I can’t tell you how much I’ve missed it.”
The nominees for best drama series are: “The Boys”; “Bridgerton”; “The Crown”; “The Handmaid’s Tale”; “Lovecraft Country”; “The Mandalorian”; “Pose”; “This Is Us.”
The nominees for best comedy series are: “black-ish”; “Cobra Kai”; “Emily in Paris”; “The Flight Attendant”; “Hacks”; “The Kominsky Method”; “PEN15”; “Ted Lasso.”
The nominees for best miniseries are: “The Queen’s Gambit”; “I May Destroy You”; “Mare of Easttown”; “The Underground Railroad”; “WandaVision.”
The nominees for best actress in a comedy series are: Aidy Bryant, “Shrill”; Jean Smart, “Hacks”; Kaley Cuoco, “The Flight Attendant”; Tracee Ellis Ross, “black-ish”; Allison Janney, “Mom.”
The nominees for best actor in a comedy series are: Anthony Anderson, “black-ish”; Michael Douglas, “The Kominsky Method”; William H. Macy, “Shameless”; Jason Sudeikis, “Ted Lasso”; Kenan Thompson, “Kenan.”
The nominees for best actress in a drama series are: Emma Corrin, “The Crown”; Elisabeth Moss, “The Handmaid’s Tale”; Uzo Aduba, “In Treatment”; Olivia Colman, “The Crown”; Mj Rodriguez, “Pose”; Jurnee Smollett, “Lovecraft Country.”
The nominees for best actor in a drama series are: Sterling K. Brown, “This Is Us”; Jonathan Majors, “Lovecraft Country”; Josh O’Connor, “The Crown”; Regé-Jean Page, “Bridgerton”; Billy Porter, “Pose”; Matthew Rhys, “Perry Mason.”
The nominees for outstanding variety talk series are: “Conan”; “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah”; “Jimmy Kimmel Live”; “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver”; “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”
Scherma and father-and-daughter actors Ron Cephas Jones (“This Is Us”) and Jasmine Cephas Jones (“Blindspotting”) announced the nominees.
The Sept. 10 ceremony, which last year was held virtually because of the COVID-19 pandemic, will air live on CBS from a theater and include a limited in-person audience of nominees and guests. Cedric the Entertainer is the host.
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Florida Condo Collapse Death Toll Climbs to 95
The death toll in the June 24 partial collapse of the Champlain Towers South in Surfside, Florida reached 95 Tuesday, with 85 of victims identified.
“At this step in the recovery process, we’re relying heavily on the work of the medical examiner’s office. It’s a scientific, methodical process to identify human remains. This work is becoming more difficult with the passage of time, and although our teams are working as hard as they can, it takes time,” Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said.
Levine Cava said 14 people remain unaccounted for.
“I want to stress again, as we’ve done throughout, that this is truly fluid. We can only account for a missing person who may be deceased once the identification is made. In this case, now through the medical examiner’s office. So, that list of 14 includes 12 where missing person reports have been filed with the police department, and two other reports that our detectives are continuing to try to verify,” she said.
The search for survivors officially ended last Wednesday, nearly two weeks after a section of the 12-story building collapsed.
No one has been rescued from the site since within 12 hours of the collapse.
A grand jury investigation into the cause of the disaster is in progress, and at least six families have filed separate legal suits.
U.S. Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, whose congressional district includes Surfside, and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, have both promised financial aid for victims.
The tragedy in Surfside has prompted the review of other buildings in Miami-Dade County, and a second building — the county courthouse — has been evacuated. The first was a condo building in North Miami Beach.
Some information in this report came from The Associated Press.
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US Strengthens Warnings of Business Risks in China’s Xinjiang Region
The U.S. government strengthened its warnings to businesses about growing risks of supply chain and investment links to China’s Xinjiang region on Tuesday, citing forced labor and human rights abuses there.
“Given the severity and extent of these abuses, businesses and individuals that do not exit supply chains, ventures, and/or investments connected to Xinjiang could run a high risk of violating U.S. law,” the State Department said in a statement.
Signaling broader U.S. government coordination on the issue, the Department of Labor and the U.S. Trade Representative joined in the issuance of the updated advisory, first released on July 1, 2020 under the Trump administration by the State, Commerce, Homeland Security and Treasury departments.
The new advisory strengthens the warning to U.S. companies, noting that they are at risk of violating U.S. law if their operations are linked even “indirectly” to the Chinese government’s “vast and growing surveillance network” in Xinjiang. The warning also applies to the provision of financial support by venture capital and private equity firms.
It also summarized previously announced actions taken by the Biden administration to address forced labor and other rights abuses in Xinjiang, including a U.S. Customs and Border Protection ban on solar equipment imports from the region, and sanctions on Xinjiang companies and entities.
The move follows an action on Friday in which the administration added 14 Chinese companies and other entities to its economic blacklist over alleged human rights abuses and high-tech surveillance in Xinjiang.
The advisory said China’s government continues “horrific abuses” in Xinjiang and elsewhere “targeting Uyghurs, ethnic Kazakhs, and ethnic Kyrgyz who are predominantly Muslim, and members of other ethnic and religious minority groups.”
China denies abuses and says it has established vocational training centers in Xinjiang to address religious extremism.
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First Lady Jill Biden to Lead White House Delegation at Tokyo Olympics
The White House announced Tuesday that first lady Jill Biden will lead the official U.S. delegation at the Tokyo Olympics on July 23 without her husband, U.S. President Joe Biden.
News of her trip comes days after Tokyo officials, upon consultation with Olympic officials, decided to hold the Olympic games without fans, after recent surges in COVID-19 cases prompted the Japanese government to declare a state of emergency in Tokyo and the surrounding area.
White House Press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters in a recent briefing that a White House advance team had been sent to Tokyo to assess the feasibility of Jill Biden’s visit. Last week, she said that despite the increase in coronavirus cases, the president still supports U.S. athletes traveling there for the competition.
The trip will be the first lady’s first solo international trip since her husband took office. She previously accompanied the president on his trip to Britain for the G-7 leaders’ summit and has kept a busy domestic travel schedule in recent months as part of the administration’s efforts to encourage vaccinations.
Some information for this report was provided by the Associated Press and Reuters news services.
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Pope to Leave Hospital ‘as Soon as Possible’, Vatican Says
Pope Francis has been steadily recovering from the scheduled intestinal surgery he underwent on July 4. The Vatican has not yet provided a date for his release from the Rome hospital where his surgery was performed. His stay has now been extended for a few more days.The Vatican said Tuesday that Pope Francis would leave the Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic, where he is recovering, “as soon as possible.”
In its daily medical update, the Vatican did not provide a date for the pope’s discharge. The statement said that the pope is continuing his planned course of treatment and rehabilitation.
The Vatican had originally said Pope Francis would likely be kept in the hospital for a week but has since said he would stay in the hospital for a few more days, thus extending his treatment there.
In its statement Tuesday, the Vatican said that among the many patients that Pope Francis has met during these days, he offered special thoughts to those who are bedridden and cannot go home. “May they live this time as an opportunity, even if experienced in pain, to open themselves with tenderness to their sick brother or sister in the next bed, with whom they share the same human frailty,” the statement said.
The 84-year-old pontiff was admitted to the hospital on July 4 for what the Vatican said was a planned surgery on his colon needed to treat a form of diverticulitis. The operation is said to have removed half of the pope’s colon.
Following the surgery, the Vatican said the pope was recovering well, had gotten out of bed, was walking, greeting other patients and hospital staff and was working. Although he briefly ran a brief fever last week, the Vatican said all scans and tests were normal.
On Sunday Pope Francis appeared in good form when he appeared to the public for the first time since his surgery to deliver his weekly address from the balcony of the 10th floor of the hospital.
The pontiff said that during his days at the hospital he experienced the importance of having a good health system that is accessible to everyone, such as the one that exists in Italy and in other countries. The pope made a call for free health care for all.
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German Chancellor Says More People Must Get Vaccinated to Lift Restrictions
German Chancellor Angela Merkel Tuesday urged all German residents to get vaccinated if they want to enjoy more freedom.
Merkel made the comments following a visit to Germany’s Robert Koch Institute for Infectious Diseases (RKI) along with RKI President Lothar Wieler and Health Minister Jens Spahn.
The visit comes as the country has seen an uptick in its COVID-19 infection rate in the past week, from 4.9 people per 100,000 to 6.4. Germany also reported 646 new cases Tuesday, up from 440 a week ago.
At the same time, as of Tuesday, officials say 42.6 percent of German adults have been fully vaccinated and nearly 59 percent have received at least one shot. However, the vaccination rate has slowed over the past two weeks.
Merkel said she wants more people to get vaccinated in order to lift remaining COVID-19- related restrictions and avoid the possibility of future lockdowns. She said the more people are vaccinated, “the more freely we will be able to live again.”
She said, “We are at the beginning of the phase in which we are still promoting (vaccination), where we have more vaccines than we have people who want to be vaccinated.”
Germany has relaxed many restrictions on social gatherings in recent months, but people are still required to show negative test results or vaccine certificates to dine indoors and attend indoor events where capacity is limited. Masks are still required in stores.
With the highly contagious delta variant of the virus now the dominant strain in Germany, RKI official say the country will need at least 85 percent of the adult population fully vaccinated.
Unlike France, which announced Monday plans to make vaccinations mandatory for health care workers and others, Merkel said Germany will not go that route to reach its goals. Recent polls show about 90 percent of the population say they are willing to get vaccinated and the chancellor said encouraging voluntary vaccinations builds more confidence in the process.
Merkel stressed it is also important to maintain social distancing and other measures to prevent infections from spreading, even as more people are vaccinated, and to prevent further restrictions to be imposed.
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Internet Restrictions Hold Back Africa’s Economic Growth, Study Finds
A report by a non-profit group says Africa needs to increase internet access to boost its economies, especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The advocacy group found that while Africa’s locally routed online traffic has increased, only one in five Africans has internet access. High taxes and frequent internet shutdowns by some African governments have also discouraged online trade.The Internet Society group says in a report this month Africa’s internet exchange points, or IXP’s, have increased from 19 to 46 in under eight years. Six countries have more than one IXP. An IXP is where multiple networks and service providers exchange internet traffic. The increase is significant because a decade ago, most African countries routed their online traffic outside the continent.Dawit Bekele is the Africa regional vice president for the Internet Society, a global nonprofit organization that promotes the development and use of the internet. He said Africa having its own IXP’s improves internet performance for users on the continent.“By developing internet exchange points within Africa, we have limited this kind of unnecessary travels of internet traffic outside of Africa to come back to Africa, which has a considerable advantage to improving the user experience, be it the speed, connectivity or even the cost of connectivity,” he said.The Washington-based group says its goal is to eventually have 80 percent of internet traffic in Africa be exchanged locally.Michael Niyitegeka, an information technology expert, said public demand has forced African governments to improve internet access.“We can’t run away from the youth population. There are quite a number of young people and therefore their affinity or drive for technology and use of the Internet is way higher than our parents and they are more comfortable using technology than anything else. Finally, the other aspect I think is quite critical is the access to mobile technology devices is a big driver. We see quite a number of relatively cheap smart or internet-enabled phones in our markets and that has a massive effect on how many people can access the internet,” said Niyitegeka.In a 2020 study, the International Foundation Corporation said internet use could add $180 billion to Africa’s economies.However, some governments have taken steps to control digital communication by shutting down social media platforms and imposing a high tax on internet use.Omoniyi Kolande is the CEO of SeerBit, a Nigerian company that offers payment processing services to businesses. He said that government control of the internet will drive businesses backward. “It’s a way we are driven backward instead of moving forward. We are supposed to encourage access, we are supposed to encourage free access point for interaction for solutions, because if businesses had to put their product on platforms, as long as those platforms are put down or disconnected there is loss of revenue at that point and for payment gateway. We are already losing revenue as those businesses do not exist to achieve the purpose of what they should achieve,” he said.The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa notes that only 20 percent of the continent’s population has access to the Internet.The Internet Society Group is urging African governments to expand internet infrastructure to rural areas, where most of the population lives, so that they can benefit from it.
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New York City’s ‘Little Island’ Park is a Tourist Magnet
A new and unique park opened in New York City in late May and since then it has become a city gem and tourist magnet. For VOA, Evgeny Maslov reports from “Little Island” in New York City. Anna Rice narrates.
Camera: Vladimir Badikov, Vladimir Tolkachev
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Deadly Rioting Continues in South Africa
Rioting and looting in South Africa continued Tuesday, raising the death toll to at least 30 as protesters clash with police.The violence erupted last week when former president Jacob Zuma began serving a 15-month jail sentence for contempt of court.In the country’s worst unrest in years, looters vandalized shopping malls, other retail outlets and businesses in the province of Gauteng, which includes the country’s largest city of Johannesburg. Security forces seemed unable to prevent the looting and attacks, which also occurred in Zuma’s home province, KwaZulu-Natal and in Soweto.Zuma was convicted of resisting a court order to testify in a state-backed investigation into allegations of corruption during his nine-year term as president that ended in 2018.Police Minister Bheki Cele said at a news conference that 757 people had been arrested and warned that people would not be allowed “to make a mockery of our democratic state.”Defense Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula told reporters at the news conference she did not believe current conditions warrant imposing a state of emergency.Zuma’s lawyer argued Monday before South Africa’s Constitutional Court that Zuma should have his sentence rescinded. Judges on the court said they would consider the arguments and announced their decision at a later date.Some information for this report came from Reuters and Associated Press.
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