Indonesia has prepared backup medical facilities for a worst-case scenario where daily coronavirus infections reach 40,000 to 50,000, an official said on Tuesday, as the country reported another day of record fatalities from its worst outbreak so far.Indonesia has one of Asia’s most severe COVID-19 epidemics, exacerbated by the highly infectious Delta variant, with hospitals overstretched, oxygen supply problems and a growing number of sick unable to receive medical attention.Southeast Asia’s largest and most populous country has seen record daily infections in 11 of the past 16 days, with 31,189 new cases and 728 fatalities on Tuesday.Just 1.6% of its more than 270 million population have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19.Senior Minister Luhut Pandjaitan said the government has plans to increase oxygen supplies and has identified accommodation infrastructure that can be converted into isolation facilities in the worst-case scenario.”The number can go up to 40,000 or more, that’s why we have prepared scenarios – when it comes to medications, oxygen, and also hospitals,” Luhut said, adding that help had been sought from countries like China and Singapore.Health minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said the government was adding nearly 8,000 new beds in Greater Jakarta, and was closely watching Sumatra and Kalimantan, which were seeing a rise in cases of the Delta variant.As of Monday, 76% of beds in Indonesian hospitals were occupied, health ministry data showed, though some regions on Java island have reported a rate higher than 85%.Indonesia on Saturday tightened curbs on movement, office work, dining and air travel on Java and Bali islands and on Tuesday tightened measures in 20 other provinces.Authorities have voiced concern about reports of heavy traffic in Jakarta and the city’s governor Anies Baswedan said on Twitter his inspection of office buildings on Tuesday found a number of non-essential businesses still operating.”We bury more than 300 people per day, those are our brothers and sisters,” he said in an accompanying video. “This is all about protecting them.”
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Month: July 2021
Collapsed Florida Condo Death Toll Reaches 32
The death toll at the site of the collapsed Florida condominium reached 32 Tuesday as four more bodies were pulled from the rubble, even as 113 people remain unaccounted for.Workers continued to comb through the wreckage of the 12-story building. Half of it collapsed unexpectedly June 24, while the remainder was leveled late Sunday in a controlled implosion with the detonation of 58 kilograms of dynamite as officials expressed concerns that it might topple on its own in the winds of an oncoming tropical storm.
Nearly 2.5 million kilograms of debris have been removed from the Surfside, Florida, site in the Miami metropolitan area. Rescue officials say they are continuing to look for survivors, but none has been found since the earliest hours of the search after the middle-of-the-night collapse.Florida Building Collapse Lawsuits Seek to Get Answers, Assign BlameLitigation comes even as rescuers remain at the site hoping to find survivors; Twenty-eight people have been found dead and more than 117 residents are thought to still be missing
“We know that with every day that goes by, it is harder to see a miracle happening,” said Maggie Castro, a firefighter and paramedic with the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Department who briefs families each day.
Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Chief Alan Cominsky told reporters Monday that search-and-rescue crews are “moving full speed ahead” and are now able to safely access all sections of the rubble pile after the remaining portion of the building was imploded.
But Cominsky said crews have to be cautious with lightning and wind gusts kicking up debris as the outer bands of Tropical Storm Elsa affect the region.
There was a two-hour delay in the search early Tuesday because of lightning.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said that with the implosion of the portion of the building left standing from the initial collapse, searchers “will be able to access every part of that pile,” including master bedrooms where people were believed to be sleeping when the collapse occurred.
Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett said at a Monday evening briefing that since the rest of the building was taken down, the “site is busier and more active now than I’ve seen it since we began.”
He said heavy equipment that was unable to move around certain parts of the site in the earlier days of the search is now able to operate without limits.
The search for people, he said, “will continue 24 hours a day for the indefinite future until everybody is pulled out of that site.
The National Weather Service said intermittent storms with some heavy rains and gusty winds are expected through the day Tuesday with conditions starting to gradually improve Tuesday evening as the storm moves farther north.
This report includes information from the Associated Press.
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Nigerian State Closes Schools After 140 Students Kidnapped
Nigerian authorities in northwest Kaduna state have closed 13 schools after more than 140 students were kidnapped Monday from a Baptist high school. The closures follow a string of armed attacks on schools that authorities say threaten to permanently damage Nigerian children’s education.Kaduna State Schools Quality Assurance Authority officials say a risk assessment shows the 13 schools are the most vulnerable to attacks.The attack on Bethel Baptist High school Monday is the latest in a spate of school kidnappings for ransom and the fourth such mass kidnapping in the state in five months.Kaduna authorities said 26 people, including a woman teacher, have been rescued and that troops are searching for missing kidnap victims.But a local clergyman said an initial verification showed only 20 out of 180 students boarding at the school before the attack had been accounted for.Amnesty International’s Seun Bakare says attacks and school closures signal severe threats to education in Nigeria.Authorities Investigate Kidnapping of Three Teachers in Northern NigeriaNigerian officials try to identify gunmen in Monday’s kidnapping of schoolteachers, a day after abduction attempt of students “We risk the loss of a generation if these attacks on schools and attacks on education continue,” Bakare said. “It is so shameful that on one hand, bandits and Boko Haram are attacking children and their right to education, on the other hand, the government’s only response is to shutdown schools. The government’s response is also an attack on education and this is completely unacceptable”The recent wave of kidnappings continues to worsen the education crisis in Nigeria’s north, a region known for low levels of literacy and enrollment, and accounting for more than 70 percent of Nigeria’s school dropouts.Despite the government’s pledge to secure the schools, critics say it is either unwilling or unable to fix the problem.”We don’t want the government to make a mere pronouncement that they’re on top of the situation, we want the government to take responsibility, we want the government to take actions that will abort such occurrences,” said Emmanuel Hwande, a spokesperson at Nigerian Union of Teachers, NUT.On Sunday, gunmen also attacked a National Tuberculosis and Leprosy center and abducted eight people, including an infant.The U.N. children’s agency, UNICEF, says 2.8 million children in the northeast need education emergency support due to violence in the region.Unless addressed, experts say many more children will be risking a bleak future.
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Belgium Begins Long Road to Returning Looted Congolese Art Works
Belgium’s Africa Museum, once a celebration of the country’s colonial rule, will begin a multi-year process of returning stolen art to Democratic Republic of Congo, the Belgian government said on Tuesday.
From the late 19th century to 1960, thousands of art works including wooden statues, elephant ivory masks, manuscripts and musical instruments were likely taken by Belgian and other European collectors, scientists, explorers and soldiers.
Following a 66-million-euro ($78 million) overhaul of the Africa Museum to take a more critical view of Belgium’s colonial past, the government is ready to meet DRC calls for restitution.
“The approach is very simple: everything that was acquired through illegitimate means, through theft, through violence, through pillaging, must be given back,” Belgian junior minister Thomas Dermine told Reuters. “It doesn’t belong to us.”
Millions of Congolese are estimated to have died from the late 19th century when Congo was first a personal fiefdom of King Leopold II, before becoming a colony of the Belgian state.
Belgium will transfer legal ownership of the artefacts to DRC. But it will not immediately ship art works to the country from the museum in Tervuren, just outside Brussels, unless they are specifically requested by DRC authorities.
That is partly because the museum, which has proved popular since its renovation and attracted hundreds of thousands visitors before the COVID-19 pandemic, wants to keep artefacts on display. One option is to pay a loan fee to DRC.
Belgium says the Congolese authorities are conscious of the bigger audience in Belgium compared to DRC, which is one of the world’s poorest countries, according to the United Nations. It has few cultural centers or storage facilities.
“The museum believes it will be able to cooperate with the Congolese authorities, as is common among international institutions, to keep the objects in Belgium via loan agreements,” said museum director Guido Gryseels.
The museum also has a huge number of artefacts whose provenance is unclear. It hopes to use a team of scientists and experts over the next five years to identify them and to separate those that were acquired legally by the museum.
“In five years with a lot of resources we can do a lot, but it could be work for the next 10 to 20 years to be absolutely sure of all the objects we have, that we know the precise circumstances in which they were acquired,” Gryseels said.
Placide Mumbembele Sanger, a professor of anthropology at the University of Kinshasa who is working at the museum in Tervuren, said the process was a simple one.
“These are objects going back to their natural context so I don’t see why we should ask so many questions,” he said. “It’s as if you go out and someone steals your wallet and the person asks you whether or not you are ready to have it back.”
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Deadly Chemical Fires at Thai Factory Force Thousands to Evacuate
Firefighters battled deadly chemical fires Tuesday at a factory on the outskirts of Bangkok that forced thousands of people to evacuate.The fires initially started early Monday after an explosion killed a rescue worker and wounded dozens of people. After taking more than 24-hours to extinguish the fires, a second explosion sparked more blazes Tuesday afternoon that burned for about an hour.Monday’s explosion could be heard kilometers away as it blew out the windows and doors of nearby homes in the Samut Prakan province. Officials said 70 homes were damaged. The cause of the blasts, which destroyed much of the Taiwanese-owned factorythat makes expandable polystyrene foam, have yet to be determined.The head of Thailand’s pollution control agency, Attapol Charoenchansa, said air quality and water were being tested in the area and were considering reducing the evacuation zone to allow some people to return home.Charoenchansa warned, though, that rainfall that began Tuesday afternoon could wash chemicals into area water sources.The regional advocacy group, ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights, called on the government to publicly disclose more information about the chemicals that were released, as well as information about possible contamination.This report includes information from Associated Press and Reuters.
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Russia Reports Record 737 COVID-19 Deaths
Russia reported a record 737 deaths from coronavirus-linked causes in the past 24 hours on Tuesday, pushing the national death toll to 139,316.
The country confirmed 23,378 new COVID-19 cases, including 5,498 in Moscow, taking the official national tally since the pandemic began to 5,658,672.
The federal statistics agency has kept a separate count and has said Russia recorded around 270,000 deaths related to COVID-19 from April 2020 to April 2021.
Health Minister Mikhail Murashko was quoted by TASS on Tuesday as saying that up to 850,000 people were being vaccinated against COVID-19 in Russia every day and building up immunity was key.
The Kremlin would not support the idea of closing borders between Russia’s regions to stop the virus from spreading, although some regions may take swift and harsh measures to withstand the pandemic, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday.
The recent surge in COVID-19 cases, along with the need to raise interest rates to combat inflation, are seen challenging economic growth in Russia this year.
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Cameroon Accuses CAR Rebels of Stealing Cattle
Cameroon officials are accusing rebels from the Central African Republic of crossing the border and stealing cattle and abducting villagers for ransom. The officials say C.A.R. rebels are fleeing the country to escape post-election violence.Officials in Cameroon accuse C.A.R. rebels of entering the country’s territory and harassing civilians and others displaced by fighting in the neighboring country.Officials say the rebels then take cattle and food from Cameroonian ranchers and farmers. About 30 civilians were abducted in June with demands for family members to pay ransoms of between $1,000 to $10,000 per person to guarantee their safe return.Authorities say people suspected of collaborating with Cameroonian officials to denounce the rebels, who are hiding in villages along the Cameroon border, are also abducted and tortured in retaliation.Kildadi Tagueke Boukar is governor of the Adamawa region of Cameroon that shares a border with the C.A.R. He visited Mbere, an administrative unit in the Adamawa region, on Monday. He says Cameroon’s president, Paul Biya, asked him to make sure that the military is deployed to protect host communities and people displaced by the fighting in the C.A.R. He spoke by the messaging app WhatsApp from Djohong, a commercial town in Mbere.”The Mbere Division shares more than 160 Kilometers of border with Central African Republic [C.A.R.] and along this border rebels inrush [cross over to] our territory, steal cows,” Boukar said. “We have come to reinforce the forces of law and order [military], to encourage the population to be on alert and to inform the hierarchy [government] of the situation which is going on at this border.”Cameroon Separatists Turning to Cattle Rustling, Ranchers Say Ethnic Mbororo ranchers are fleeing from anglophone northwest to escape rebelsBoukar did not say how many government troops have been deployed to stop the C.A.R. rebels. He said the troops seize weapons illegally trafficked into Cameroon by the rebels.Cameroon has not given figures on the number of cattle taken by the rebels. The government says economic activity is at a nosedive in Djohong and Ngaoui, villages with the largest cattle markets in Mbere. The markets sell about a hundred cows a week, down from at least 1,000 every week last year. Cattle ranchers accuse the rebels of either stealing money and their cows or they fear of being tortured. Buyers say they can no longer shop in border markets with the C. A. R. for fear they will be abducted, or their money taken.Oumarou Issama is mayor of Djohong. He says civilians are held in the bush for several weeks until their families pay ransom to the rebels. He says C.A.R. rebels are escaping heavy fighting with government troops and crossing with weapons into Djohong. He says the fighting is increasing the number of displaced persons from the C.A.R. escaping post-election violence. He spoke by the messaging app WhatsApp from Djohong. Issama says civilians at Cameroon’s border village of Yamba, near Djohong suffer most from the fighting in neighboring C.A.R. He says since June 15, 3,000 of the 6,500 people living in Yamba are displaced persons from C.A.R. He says the host community and displaced persons are again witnessing regular fighting over lodging, water, food and farmland.Mbere is home to 21,000 people displaced due to the crisis in the C.A.R. Seven thousand of the displaced persons had returned to their country but came back to Cameroon within the past two months, following renewed fighting between C.A.R. rebels and the country’s regular troops.Renewed violence erupted in the C.A.R. after the December 2020 elections, in which Austin-Archange Touadera was reelected president. Seven of the C.A.R.’s 14 rebel groups refused to recognize Touadera’s victory and have been fighting to seize power. The C.A.R. says much of the fighting is now in border areas, where rebels can cross over to neighboring countries due to porous borders.Cameroon shares a 900-kilometer border with the C.A.R.
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Cambodian Cadets at American Military Academies Lose US Funding
Cambodia’s government is stepping in to pay tuition for six Cambodian cadets whose scholarships at four U.S. military academies were rescinded amid increasingly strained ties between Phnom Penh and Washington.
“Following Cambodia’s curtailment of cooperation in several areas of traditional bilateral military-military engagement, the country lost its eligibility for the U.S. military service academy program,” said Arend Zwartjes, the U.S. Embassy spokesperson in Phnom Penh, in an email to VOA in mid-June.
The students, called cadets at military academies but referred to as midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy, were selected for the scholarship program by the U.S. State Department. Some are not yet enlisted in the Cambodian Royal Armed Forces.
Five of the students petitioned the U.S. Embassy in Cambodia to intervene to help them graduate. In letters sent to U.S. Ambassador W. Patrick Murphy, copies of which were received by VOA’s Khmer Service, the students said they considered the decision to be “shockingly bad news” and that they were “heartbroken.”
Cambodia’s Ministry of Defense announced July 2 it would cover the $1.1 million remaining tuition for the students.
“Seeing the difficulties facing the Cambodian cadets due to the termination of their scholarships by the U.S., and with the spirit of responsibility for their future and for the sake of Cambodian military academy, the Cambodian government will cover the cost of tuition for all the six students until graduation,” according to a press statement issued by the Ministry of National Defense on July 2.
“I’m happy because this is my future, and I wish to be a competent officer after graduation,” said Nou Chanyuthea, a rising junior at the U.S. Air Force Academy.
Other students said they are “very happy” that the Cambodian government will pay for their tuition and fees after waiting for resolution after the academies rescinded their scholarships.
Two students attend the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York; two are at U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado; one studies at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland; and one is at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy at New London, Connecticut, according to the students and a U.S. official.
Some of the students are in their senior year and scheduled to graduate.
The situation is seen as another setback in military relations between Cambodia and the United States after years of deterioration. Relations between the two countries have been on and off for decades “as a result of armed conflict and government changes in Cambodia,” according to the State Department website.
“U.S. relations with the Kingdom of Cambodia have become increasingly strained in recent years in light of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s suppression of the political opposition and his growing embrace of the People’s Republic of China (PRC),” stated a Congressional Research Service report in 2019.
Tuition and fees at the U.S. military academies are structured differently than most U.S. colleges and universities. Students pay no tuition because the schools are funded by the U.S. government. Instead, students received education, services and a small stipend over their four years at the academies.
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Tropical Storm Elsa, Back Over Water, Takes Aim at Florida
The conditions in southern Florida have begun to deteriorate as Tropical Storm Elsa took aim at the Florida Keys early Tuesday, prompting a hurricane watch for portions of the west coast of state, according to the National Hurricane Center. In addition to damaging winds and heavy rains, the Miami-based center said the peninsula was in danger of life-threatening storm surges, flooding and isolated tornadoes. A hurricane watch was issued for the west-central and Big Bend coast of Florida from Egmont Key to the Steinhatchee River. Three to 5 inches of rainfall with localized maximum totals of up to 8 inches of rain are expected through Wednesday across the Keys and into southwest and western portions of the Florida Peninsula. A few tornadoes are possible across south Florida Tuesday morning and across the Florida Peninsula later in the day, the center forecasted. Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday expanded an existing state of emergency to cover a dozen counties that span an area of Florida where Elsa is expected to make a swift passage on Wednesday and President Joe Biden approved an Emergency Declaration for the state ahead of the storm. A ramped-up rescue effort at the collapsed South Florida condo building faced new threats from the weather as the tropical storm approached the state. On Monday, lightning forced crews to pause the search for victims of the June 24 collapse in Surfside and a garage area in the rubble filled with water, officials said. Elsa’s maximum sustained winds strengthened to 60 mph (95 kph) early Tuesday. A slow strengthening is forecast through Tuesday night and Elsa could be near hurricane strength before it makes landfall in Florida. It is expected to weaken after it moves inland. Its core was about 50 miles (80 kilometers) southwest of Key West, Florida, and 270 miles (435 kilometers) south of Tampa. It was continuing to move to the north-northwest at 12 mph (19 kph). Elsa made landfall in Cuba on Monday afternoon near Cienega de Zapata, a natural park with few inhabitants. It headed northwestward across the island, passing Havana just to the east. Rainfall of 5 to 10 inches with isolated maximum amounts of 15 inches are expected Tuesday across portions of Cuba which will result in significant flash flooding and mudslides. There were no early reports of serious damage as Elsa passed over Cuba. “The wind is blowing hard and there is a lot of rain. Some water is getting under the door of my house. In the yard the level is high, but it did not get into the house,” Lázaro Ramón Sosa, a craftsman and photographer who lives in the town of Cienega de Zapata, told The Associated Press by telephone. Sosa said he saw some avocado trees fall nearby. Elsa had spent Sunday and much of Monday sweeping parallel to Cuba’s southern coast before heading on to land, sparing most of the island from significant effects. As a precaution, Cuban officials had evacuated 180,000 people against the possibility of heavy flooding from a storm that already battered several Caribbean islands, killing at least three people. Tropical storm warnings were posted for the Florida Keys from Craig Key westward to the Dry Tortugas and for the west coast of Florida from Flamingo northward to the Ochlockonee River. A Tropical Storm Watch has been issued for the Georgia coast and portions of the South Carolina coast from the Mouth of St. Marys River to South Santee River, South Carolina. Tropical storm conditions should continue over portions of central and western Cuba during the next several hours. Tropical storm conditions are beginning in the warning area in the Florida Keys and are expected along the Florida west coast later Tuesday. Elsa was the first hurricane of the Atlantic season until Saturday morning and caused widespread damage on several eastern Caribbean islands Friday. As a tropical storm, it resulted in the deaths of one person on St. Lucia and of a 15-year-old boy and a 75-year-old woman in separate events in the Dominican Republic. Elsa is the earliest fifth-named storm on record, said Brian McNoldy, a hurricane researcher at the University of Miami.
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Ethiopia Begins Filling Dam Ahead of UN Meeting, Egypt Says
Egypt said Monday that Ethiopia has reported it is starting to fill the reservoir of a controversial dam on the Nile River’s main tributary, a move likely to increase tensions ahead of a U.N. Security Council meeting on the dispute, which also includes Sudan. A statement by Egypt’s Irrigation Ministry said Minister Mohammed Abdel-Aty received an official notice from his Ethiopian counterpart notifying Egypt of the reservoir filling for the second year. The statement said Egypt categorically rejects such a “unilateral move,” calling it a “clear and grave violation” of a 2015 agreement. It said the move is a threat to region’s security and peace. The U.N. Security Council has scheduled a Thursday meeting to discuss the decadelong dispute over the dam. There has been mounting tensions in recent months after the latest round of African Union-brokered negotiations in April failed to make progress. Foreign ministers of Egypt and Sudan are in New York to attend the Security Council meeting. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi warned Ethiopia earlier this year that his government would not tolerate any moves by Addis Ababa that would reduce Egypt’s share of water from the Nile. He said that “all options are open” should Egypt’s share be touched, urging Addis Ababa to cooperate with Cairo and Khartoum to avert any conflict. The dam is 80% complete and is expected to reach full generating capacity in 2023, making it Africa’s largest hydroelectric power plant and the world’s seventh largest, according to reports in Ethiopia’s state media. The dispute now centers on how quickly Ethiopia should fill and replenish the reservoir and how much water it releases downstream in case of a multiyear drought. Egypt and Sudan have repeatedly called for the U.S., the U.N, and European Union to help reach a legally binding deal that would spell out how the dam is operated and filled. Egypt, which relies on the Nile for more than 90% of its water supplies, fears a devastating impact if the dam is operated without taking its needs into account. Ethiopia says the $5 billion dam on the Blue Nile is essential, arguing that the vast majority of its people lack electricity. Sudan wants Ethiopia to coordinate and share data on the dam’s operation to avoid flooding and protect its own power-generating dams on the Blue Nile, the main tributary of the Nile. The Blue Nile meets the White Nile in Khartoum, before winding northward through Egypt to the Mediterranean Sea.
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Japan Considers Plan to Limit Spectators at Olympics Opening Ceremony
The number of spectators at the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics will be limited to a handful of VIP, or Very Important Persons dignitaries, and Olympic officials due to concerns over the rising number of new COVID-19 cases in the capital, according to a Japanese newspaper.A report in Tuesday’s edition of the Asahi Shimbun newspaper says the idea is part of a larger plan that would also include banning visitors from attending events at large venues and at night.Organizers of the Tokyo Olympics announced back on June 21 that it would allow just 10,000 people, or 50% of a venue’s capacity, at all events, despite health experts advising the government that banning all spectators was the “least risky” option for holding the Games.The Asahi Shimbun reported the revised changes to the number of spectators allowed would be negotiated between the government and officials with the International Olympic Committee.Tokyo and several other prefectures were initially placed under a state of emergency in April due to a surge of new COVID-19 infections in the Japanese capital and across the country. The surge prompted staunch public opposition against staging the Olympics, especially among a prominent group of medical professionals that urged Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga to call off the Games. The prefectures transitioned last month from the state of emergency into “quasi-emergency” measures that are set to expire on July 11, just 12 days before the Olympics opening ceremonies. But the government is expected to extend the quasi-emergency after a meeting on Thursday, with a decision about the Olympics to follow. Prime Minister Suga has previously said he would not rule out banning all spectators from attending the Olympics if the situation takes a turn for the worse.The Tokyo Olympics are set to take place after a one-year postponement as the novel coronavirus pandemic began spreading across the globe. Foreign spectators have already been banned from attending the event.
This report includes information from the Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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Tibetan Spiritual Leader Dalai Lama Celebrates 86th Birthday
The Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama celebrated turning 86 on Tuesday, thanking his supporters and expressing his appreciation for India, where he has lived since he fled his homeland in 1959. “I want to express my deep appreciation of all my friends who have really shown me love, respect and trust,” the Dalai Lama said in a video message. He reiterated his mission to serving humanity and urged supporters to be compassionate. “Since I became a refugee and now settled in India, I have taken full advantage of India’s freedom and religious harmony,” he said. He added that he had great respect for India’s secular values such as “honesty, karuna (compassion), and ahimsa (non-violence).” The Dalai Lama made the hillside town of Dharmsala his headquarters after a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959. China doesn’t recognize the Tibetan government-in-exile and accuses the Dalai Lama of seeking to separate Tibet from China. The Dalai Lama denies being a separatist and says he merely advocates for substantial autonomy and protection of Tibet’s native Buddhist culture. On Tuesday, a small celebration attended by mostly government officials was held at the Central Tibetan Administration. On a projected screen, the Dalai Lama’s video message was played and followed by a cultural performance by the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts. Usually, the spiritual leader’s birthday is a fairly elaborate affair in the town, open to members of the public who would flock to the Tsuglakhang Temple where performances were held. Sometimes, the leader would also make an appearance. This year, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the celebrations were muted and behind closed doors. But a banner marking his birthday hung in the town square and Tibetan monks distributed sweets and juice to passers-by outside the closed temple. “Many people really show they love me. And many people actually love my smile,” the Dalai Lama said with a smile at the start of the video. “In spite of my old age, my face is quite handsome,” he said with a laugh.
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Plane with 28 on Board Crashes in Russian Far East Region
Russia’s aviation agency said Tuesday wreckage had been found in the Kamchatka region in the far eastern portion of the country after a plane with 28 people on board went missing. Air traffic controllers lost contact with the Antonov An-26 plane that was on its way from the city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky to Palana. The aviation agency said the wreckage was found about five kilometers from the airport where it was supposed to land. Russian news agencies reported there were no survivors among the 22 passengers and six crew members. This report includes information from the Associated Press, AFP and Reuters.
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Florida Condo Collapse Death Toll Continues to Rise
As rescue workers searched through the rubble of the collapsed condominium building in South Florida, the death toll rose Monday evening bringing the number of people who lost their lives to 28 and the number of people still unaccounted for to 117.Miami-Dade County Fire Rescue Chief Alan Cominsky told reporters Monday that search-and-rescue crews are “moving full speed ahead” and are now able to safely access all sections of the rubble pile after the remaining portion of the building was imploded Sunday night.Cominsky said crews are having to be cautious with lightning and wind gusts kicking up debris as the outer bands of Tropical Storm Elsa affect the region.The National Weather Service said intermittent storms with some heavy rains and gusty winds are expected through the day Tuesday with conditions starting to gradually improve Tuesday evening as the storm moves farther north.FILE – In this June 26, 2021 photo, rescue workers search in the rubble at the Champlain Towers South Condo, in Surfside, Fla.The search-and-rescue crews have been working since the condominium building in Surfside partially collapsed June 24. No one has been found alive since the earliest hours of the search, but Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava continued to describe the operations as a rescue effort as she addressed a Monday briefing.Levine Cava described the immense scope of the work, saying crews have removed 2.1 million kilograms of concrete from the site. She said she was in awe of their work through difficult and dangerous conditions.“For 12 days, fire, smoke, and now wind and torrential rain, they are continuing the mission and the search of the collapse area,” Levine Cava told reporters Monday evening.Search operations were paused Saturday and Sunday amid concerns that the remaining portion of the building was too unstable and could collapse, especially given the approach of a tropical storm. Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett said at the Monday evening briefing that since the rest of the building was taken down, the “site is busier and move active now than I’ve seen it since we began.”He said heavy equipment that was unable to move around certain parts of the site in the earlier days of the search is now able to operate without limits.The search for people, he said, “will continue 24 hours a day for the indefinite future until everybody is pulled out of that site.”
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24 Unaccounted for in Japanese Landslide, Mayor Says
Rescue workers were searching Tuesday morning for 24 people whom authorities haven’t been able to reach in the aftermath of a landslide in the Japanese resort city of Atami, the city’s mayor said. At first, 147 people were unaccounted for. After city officials had reduced that list to 60 residents, they released it to the public, and most of the residents responded. They were either elsewhere when the landslide hit or were able to safely evacuate, Mayor Sakae Saito said. Four people, however, have been found dead, while 25 have been rescued. Roughly 1,500 emergency workers were digging Monday through the rubble in a neighborhood of the central seaside city, searching for survivors. Rescuers conduct a rescue and search operation at a mudslide site at Izusan district in Atami, west of Tokyo, Japan, July 6, 2021. (Kyodo/via Reuters)Saturday’s landslide was triggered by several days of torrential rain, which forecasters said was more rainfall than Atami usually records for the entire month of July. As many as 130 homes and buildings were destroyed. Atami is a resort city, 90 kilometers (60 miles) southwest of Tokyo, known for its hot springs. It sits above a bay on a steep slope. Heavy rains are expected elsewhere in Japan, and officials are urging people in areas at risk of landslides to use caution. The disaster comes just days before the opening ceremonies of the Tokyo Olympics, which has been overshadowed by the rising number of COVID-19 infections across the nation. This report includes information from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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Government-backed Militias in Burkina Faso Accused of Abuses
The attack in Burkina Faso last month that killed 160 civilians was in retaliation for activity by pro-government civilian militias in the area, according to Human Rights Watch.In the daytime, Daouda Diallo is a scientist. By night, he is one of Burkina Faso’s most prominent human rights campaigners. He runs the Collective Against Impunity and Stigmatization of Communities, a campaigning group set up in the wake of the Yirgou massacre, an attack that saw around 200 people killed, mostly from the Fulani ethnic group, in early 2019. In Burkina Faso’s conflict with the Islamic State group and al-Qaida, the number of civilians killed by security forces has often come close to the numbers killed by the terror groups. Diallo has been deeply affected by this. “I’m a very sensitive person — I like to help the widow and the orphan, the vulnerable. … I’ve devoted my time to this, but it’s not an easy job, and I go unpaid. I do it for humanitarian reasons,” Diallo told VOA. FILE – Women and children walk in a makeshift site for displaced people in Kongoussi, Burkina Faso, June 4, 2020.Diallo also points out that one of the government’s most controversial policies is a law that allows preexisting civilian militias, known as koglweogos, to be armed and trained by the government. The new force is called the Volunteers for the Defense of the Homeland, or VDPs. When the law was created in 2020, Human Rights Watch said arming poorly trained civilians could lead to abuses. So far, at least 95 people have been killed in 38 incidents of violence against civilians by VDPs, according to data from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project. A man, whose full name has been withheld to protect his safety, says he watched as VDPs killed two of his neighbors after accusing them of being terrorists. “…Issa was sick and decided to go to the market. The VDPs shot at him there. Issa ran to his house, where they killed him. Bad things happen. That’s why I had to run away. The militias are chasing you; the terrorists are chasing you.” Burkina Faso’s Ministry of Defense did not respond to VOA’s interview request about the incident. One VDP leader, who asked to not be named, said most VDPs simply want to defend their homeland, many having had terrifying encounters with terrorists themselves. “The terrorists came and burned my house. They were looking for me, but fortunately I was not around. They also killed some of my neighbors and burned their houses as well. It’s because of that I really felt I had to join the VDPs,” he said.Local defense force fighters drive on a motorbike during an event to inaugurate a new chapter of the group in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, March 14, 2020.A leader of the ruling MPP party admits it’s possible VDPs commit abuses — but says they are necessary. “Within the framework of the fight against terrorism, we are obliged to face the fact that the VDPs make a very big contribution,” said Lassane Sawadogo, MPP Party Executive Secretary.As widespread protests against insecurity in Burkina Faso have swept the country in recent weeks, President Roch Marc Christian Kabore said he will reform the VDPs as one way of improving security. Diallo says the government should take corrective action quickly. However, the government has yet to say what its actions will be.
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South Sudan’s Health Care Remains Inadequate, Officials Say
This is one in a series of stories marking 10 years of South Sudan’s independence.As South Sudan celebrates 10 years of independence, health care workers and officials say the health care situation in the world’s newest nation remains woefully inadequate. Facilities are few and often inaccessible, they say, and violence continues to affect health care workers and communities. Funding Health officials say these shortfalls are largely due to insufficient government funding that has persisted since the nation’s 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement. Dr. Bol Deng, secretary-general of the South Sudan Doctors’ Union, said the situation was made worse by continued budget cuts, amplified by the drop in the nation’s health care allocation in fiscal year 2019-20 to 525 million South Sudanese pounds from 1.7 billion pounds the year before. “This is too small even to cover the components of quality health services that we need,” Deng told South Sudan in Focus. “What you see now is the part of this health financing covered by NGOs (nongovernmental organizations).” NGOs cover a significant portion of health care in South Sudan. FILE – A child sick from malaria and malnutrition lies on a bed in a hospital in Bor, March 15, 2014.Deng says this continued underfunding has demoralized health workers and caused deteriorating working conditions at hospitals and clinics across the country. “The majority of health workers are leaving work in public hospitals or public health facilities to work with NGOs as humanitarians, or to work in private companies or private hospitals, so this is affecting our public health facilities serving the majority of the people,” Deng told VOA. He added that the government was also not listening to calls by the Doctors’ Union for better pay and working conditions. The government funding shortfalls have put much of the financial burden on local and international NGOs, which also have thin budgets. Violence In addition, health workers say they are hindered by violence between the government and rebel forces, conflict between ethnic communities, and the lawlessness caused by cattle rustling. This instability affects Anita Peter, a health worker in Central Equatoria State’s Yei County. “You want to deliver the services, but you think of your life — what should I do with my life?” she said. “Now I am sacrificing my life. If you are just on the road, you will just give your life to God.” International Committee of the Red Cross spokesperson Lucien Christen told VOA that attacks against medical workers and facilities had caused a “dramatic situation” in South Sudan. Such attacks have been on the rise in the past couple of months, as at least two aid workers were killed in May alone. They are threatened, beaten and tortured frequently. As hundreds of people are killed and injured each year throughout the country, authorities and communities need to work together to build key infrastructure to ensure essential services are available, Christen said. “Only 40% of health care centers in South Sudan remain functional, according to the U.N.,” he added. People who have been wounded and others affected by violence “will continue to need extensive physical and psychosocial support as they adjust to the life-changing impact of living with a disability,” Christen told VOA. “Humanitarian organizations like the International Committee of the Red Cross, together with authorities, have a critical role to play in building the resilience and capability of communities to face these shocks,” he added. Access to care Accessing health care is also a hurdle. Many people walk several hours or even days to reach a medical practitioner, according to Christen. “Across South Sudan, vulnerable persons continue to die from curable diseases or wounds, as access to health care remains very limited. Nine percent of children die before the age of 5,” Christen told South Sudan in Focus. World Bank data from 2019 for children under 5 shows South Sudan registered 96 deaths per every 1,000 live births, putting the nation in the top seven countries with the highest infant mortality rates in the world. FILE – A pregnant woman lies on a bed in the maternity ward of the Juba Teaching Hospital, in the capital Juba, South Sudan, March 11, 2019.Joseph Gama, of Health Link South Sudan, a humanitarian organization, sees how the lack of proper infrastructure in the countryside makes it difficult to reach and transport patients. “This is happening, (because of) the poor road conditions and lack of ambulance services in some remote areas. Especially mothers die due to such delays. They cannot reach facilities within the required time,” he said. Gama says the referral system needs to be improved so patients can quickly see the specialists needed to treat them. “Everywhere in the country, there is difficulty in referrals.” Meanwhile, many in South Sudan must access and obtain medical care themselves. Costs David Ladu, 38, of Yambio had fractured his hand three months ago, and after initial treatment in Yambio Hospital, he was transferred to a facility in the capital, Juba. Ladu said he had to pay 30,000 South Sudanese pounds from his own pocket to get himself and a caretaker to the Juba hospital, 355 kilometers away. That amount of money would be about six months’ salary for a teacher or a nurse. He also laments the massive personal costs for drugs and treatment. “The bill for all of these drugs is more than 200,000 pounds,” he said, in addition to the 120,000 pounds he paid for his operation. “My family gets contributions from relatives, friends and charitable people who come to visit me here. If alone, I could not manage the medical bills.” Health Ministry Undersecretary Dr. Mayen Machut Achiek did not respond to repeated calls and text messages requesting the government’s view of the challenges facing health care workers as well as the government’s plans to improve service delivery in the health sector.
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1,500 Rescue Workers Search for Survivors in Japanese Landslide
Four people have been found dead in the aftermath of a landslide in the Japanese resort city of Atami, officials said. By Monday, roughly 1,500 emergency workers were digging through rubble in a neighborhood of the central seaside city, desperately searching for survivors. Saturday’s landslide was triggered by several days of torrential rain, which forecasters said was more rainfall than Atami usually records for the entire month of July. Roughly 80 people are still missing, though authorities are still trying to confirm their whereabouts and are hoping that some were elsewhere during the disaster. As many as 130 homes and buildings were destroyed. Atami is a resort city, 90 kilometers (60 miles) southwest of Tokyo, known for its hot springs. It sits above a bay on a steep slope. The disaster comes just days before the opening ceremonies of the Tokyo Olympics, which has been overshadowed by the rising number of COVID-19 infections across the nation. This report includes information from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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Beloved Italian Entertainer Raffaella Carrà Dies at 78
Raffaella Carrà, for decades one of Italian television’s most beloved entertainers, a woman affectionately nicknamed the “queen of Italian TV,” died Monday at 78, Italian state TV quoted her family as saying. Rai state TV read a statement from the star’s family, announcing that she died in Rome after a long illness. No further details were released. With her energetic presence and strong, almost husky, singing voice, the trim Carrà was a wildly popular staple in the early heyday decades of Rai, especially when it was the only nationwide TV broadcaster. With often sexy costumes — daring by state TV standards in a country where the Vatican wields considerable influence — Carrà also was credited with helping Italian women become more confident with their bodies and their sexuality, once even baring her belly button during a TV performance. FILE – Raffaella Carra smiles as she poses for photographers during a press conference at Rome’s Foro Italico, Sept. 30, 1999.But she could also be devastatingly classy in her dress and manners. The La Repubblica newspaper wrote that she managed to pull off being provocative but still familiar and reassuring to millions of TV viewers. She also was considered an icon for gay fans due to her joyful performances. Her trademark bouncy blond haircut and bangs — dubbed the helmet look — were imitated by many fans. TV magnate Silvio Berlusconi, the former Italian premier, mourned Carrà’s passing, calling her “one of the symbols of Italian television, perhaps the most beloved personality.” In a post on Facebook, Berlusconi said that with her TV programs, “she knew how to speak to various different generations, having the ability to always remain current with the times and without ever descending into vulgarity.” “She was the lady of Italian television,” Culture Minister Dario Franceschini said. President Sergio Mattarella recalled Carrà as the “face of television par excellence — she transmitted, with her talent and her likeability, a message of elegance, kindness and optimism.” In one of her last interviews, Carrà told an Italian magazine that “Italian women found me greatly likable because I am not a man-eater — you can have sex appeal together with sweetness and irony.” FILE – Italian singer Raffaella Carra, center, performs during the Italian State RAI TV program “The Voice of Italy”, in Milan, Italy, May 28, 2014.She scandalized conservative TV viewers with her 1971 hit song Tuca, Tuca, a playful corruption of the Italian words “touch, touch,” which she sang while moving her hands up and down various men’s bodies. She performed the number many times with different stars, including one classic version with comedian Alberto Sordi. A 1980s TV show she starred in, Fantastico, drew 25 million viewers, nearly a half of what was then Italy’s population. But it was the 1970s TV variety program Canzonissima — roughly, “full of song” — that sealed her reputation as a star. Italians would be glued to their black-and-white TV sets every Saturday night to enjoy the musical variety show, which launched hit songs year after year. FILE – English actress Joan Collins, right, and Italian TV star Raffaella Carra record a new TV show in Milan, Italy, Jan. 23, 1988.Affectionately known as Raffa, Carrà was born Raffaella Maria Roberta Pelloni in Bologna on June 18, 1943. She started her career as a singer, dancer, TV presenter and actress when still a child. Later shows included a noon talk program called Pronto Raffaella (Hello, Raffaella). Some shows were tailor-made for her exuberant performing style, including Carramba! Che Sorpresa, (Carramba! What a Surprise) which debuted in 1995 and whose title played off her name and her years of being a presenter in Spain. Carrà became popular in Spain and Latin America in the mid-1970s, especially because of translations of some of her catchy hits — Fiesta and Caliente, Caliente, among others, that she recorded in Spanish. With a fondness for tight dresses and jumpsuits, the singer brought a breath of fresh air to Spanish television sets with novel choreography to disco beats at a time when the heavily Catholic country was just emerging from four decades of a strict conservative dictatorship. That’s when Carrà made her Spanish debut with a 10-minute performance in a musical program called Ladies and Gentlemen! (Señoras y señores!), enough for the Italian singer to seduce many Spaniards with her spontaneity. Carrà wasn’t married. She had no children, but a former companion, TV director and choreographer Sergio Japino, quoted her as often saying, “I didn’t have children, but I had thousands of them,” according to the Corriere della Sera newspaper. That referred to the 150,000 needy children over the years that she helped generate financial sponsors for through one of her TV programs called Amore (Love).
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French Champagne Industry Group Fumes Over New Russian Law
France’s champagne industry group on Monday blasted a new Russian law that forces foreign producers to add a “sparkling wine” reference to their bottles of Champagne, and called for the halting of exports of the bubbly drink to Russia. The law, signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday, requires all foreign producers of sparkling wine to describe their product as such on the back of the bottle — though not on the front — while makers of Russian “shampanskoye” may continue to use that term alone. The French Champagne industry group called on its members to halt all shipments to Russia for the time being and said the name “Champagne,” which refers to the region in France where the drink comes from, had legal protection in 120 countries. “The Champagne Committee deplores the fact that this legislation does not ensure that Russian consumers have clear and transparent information about the origins and characteristics of wine,” Maxime Toubart and Jean-Marie Barillere, the group’s co-presidents, said in a statement. French Trade Minister Franck Riester said he was tracking the new Russian law closely, and was in contact with the wine industry and France’s European partners. “We will unfailingly support our producers and French excellence,” he said on Twitter. Moet Hennessy, the LVMH-owned French maker of Veuve Clicquot and Dom Perignon Champagnes, said on Sunday it would begin adding the designation “sparkling wine” to the back of bottles destined for Russia to comply with the law. FILE – Bottles of French Veuve Clicquot champagne are offered at a supermarket of Swiss retail group Coop in Zumikon, Switzerland, Dec. 13, 2016.LVMH shares were down around 0.2% on Monday afternoon, underperforming the Paris bourse, which was up 0.34%. Shares in Russian sparkling wine maker Abrau-Durso were up more than 3% after rising as much as 7.77% in early trading. Pavel Titov, the president of Abrau-Durso, told Radio France Internationale on Saturday his firm does not have sparkling wines that would be called “Champagne” in its portfolio and said he hoped the issue would be resolved in favor of global norms and standards. “It is very important to protect the Russian wines on our market. But the legislation must be reasonable and not contradict common sense … I have no doubts that the real Champagne is made in the Champagne region of France,” he said. The European Commission said the legislation in Russia regarding spirits and wine would have a considerable impact on wine exports and would do all it could to express its disagreement and concern. “We will do everything necessary to protect our rights and take the necessary steps if this law enters into force,” European Commission spokeswoman Miriam Garcia Ferrer said. Asked what counter-measures the European Union could take in response to the Russian law, she said it was premature to discuss such a situation.
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UN Official Likens Belarus to ‘Totalitarian’ State
The United Nations’ special rapporteur to Belarus likened the country to a totalitarian regime Sunday. Anais Marin urged authorities to release over 500 people whom right groups consider political prisoners. Marin cited the case of jailed journalist Raman Pratasevich, whose Ryanair flight from Greece to Lithuania in May had been diverted to land in Minsk, where he was immediately arrested.Belarus Joins Long List of Regimes Targeting Exiled CriticsBelarus diverting a passenger plane to arrest a blogger is an extreme but not isolated case of authoritarian regimes grabbing critics living in exileSpeaking to the Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland, Marin said the incident “illustrates the desire of authorities to end all forms of dissidence by purging society of elements it considers undesirable.””It is a form of purge that recalls those practiced by totalitarian states,” she went on. In August, protests broke out over a controversial election in which longtime leader Alexander Lukashenko declared victory. More than 35,000 people have been jailed since Lukashenko’s election, with opposition candidates either in hiding outside the country or in jail, according to the U.N. Many countries’ representatives at the council also denounced Belarus’ human rights abuses, with the United States hinting at more sanctions. “Such contempt for international norms cannot go unanswered,” Benjamin Moeling, the U.S. delegate, said, adding that the U.S. “will consider further actions as necessary.” The U.S. has enacted multiple rounds of sanctions against Belarus, including as recently as two weeks ago. European Union foreign ministers also announced late last month a fresh raft of sanctions against the Belarusian government, this time targeting 86 officials and state-owned entities, closely following Pratasevich’s arrest.EU Announces More Sanctions on Belarus European Union foreign ministers were due to announce Monday a fresh raft of sanctions against the Belarusian government, this time targeting 78 officials and at least seven state-owned entitiesSo far, Western sanctions imposed on Belarus have had little effect in persuading Lukashenko to pull back from his crackdown on dissent. Belarusian authorities have detained and tortured thousands of protesters, according to rights groups. Some information for this report came from Reuters.
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British PM Outlines End to COVID Restrictions
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Britons will no longer be required by law to wear face masks indoors once the government lifts coronavirus restrictions later this month. Johnson confirmed Monday that the government aims to end its latest lockdown on July 19 despite a growing number of coronavirus cases caused by the highly transmissible delta variant. However, he said a final decision on the reopening date would take place next week. Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks during a media briefing on coronavirus in Downing Street, London, July 5, 2021.Johnson said the social distancing requirement would also end, but said businesses could still mandate them along with face masks. “We will move away from legal restrictions and allow people to make their own informed decisions about how to manage the virus,” Johnson said during a news conference in London. The prime minister said that infections and deaths would likely rise once the government restrictions are lifted. “We must reconcile ourselves, sadly, to more deaths from COVID,” he said. The spread of the delta variant, first identified in India, has led to a jump in cases in countries around the world, including in South Korea. Health officials in Seoul reported 711 new cases in the county on Monday, the third consecutive day of over 700 cases. The majority of cases came from the populated Seoul metropolitan area. Indonesia said Monday that it is seeking more oxygen supplies as it battles a surge of COVID-19 cases, fueled by the spread of the delta variant. The government said it is asking oxygen producers to allocate their entire supply for use by COVID-19 patients and said it will import more oxygen if needed. A man wearing a protective mask queues to refill oxygen tanks as Indonesia experiences an oxygen supply shortage amid a surge of coronavirus cases, at a filling station in Jakarta, Indonesia, July 5, 2021.In Luxembourg, officials said Monday that Prime Minister Xavier Bettel is in serious but stable condition after contracting COVID-19 and will remain hospitalized for now. Bettel was admitted to the hospital on Sunday after testing positive for the virus following a two-day EU summit in Brussels. Britain’s royal palace said Monday that Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, is self-isolating after coming into contact last week with someone who later tested positive for the coronavirus. U.S. pollIn the United States, a Washington Post-ABC News poll has found a large difference between Democrats and Republicans as it relates to COVID-19 vaccination. The poll found that while 86% of Democrats have received at least one COVID-19 vaccine shot, only 45% of Republicans have. In addition, the survey found that while only 6% of Democrats said they would probably decline the vaccine, 47% of Republicans said they would probably not be inoculated. The poll also found that 60% of unvaccinated Americans believe the U.S. is exaggerating the dangers of the COVID-19 delta variant, while 18% of the unvaccinated say the government is accurately describing the variant’s risks. However, 64% of vaccinated Americans believe the government is accurately describing the dangers of the delta variant. Iran ‘fifth wave’In Iran, President Hassan Rouhani warned Saturday the country is on the brink of a “fifth wave” of a COVID-19 outbreak. The delta variant of the virus is largely responsible for the rising number of hospitalizations and deaths in Iran, officials say. All non-essential businesses have been ordered closed in 275 cities, including Tehran, the capital. Travel has also been restricted between cities that are experiencing high infection rates. Reports say only about 5% of Iranians have been vaccinated. Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center reported Monday that there are 183.9 million global COVID cases. The United States has the most with 33.7 million, followed by India with 30.6 million and Brazil with 18.8 million. Johns Hopkins said more than 3 billion vaccine doses have been administered. This report includes information from the Associated Press and Reuters.
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3 More Bodies Found in Rubble of Collapsed Florida Condo
Rescue workers on Monday found three more bodies in the rubble of the collapsed condominium building in South Florida, bringing the death toll to 27, even as 118 people are still unaccounted for.Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava continued to describe operations in the beachside community of Surfside, now in their 12th day, as a “rescue” — not a “recovery” — in hopes more people will be found alive although none has been since the earliest hours of the search.“There is hope there are voids to continue the search and rescue operation,” she said.Demolition experts late Sunday imploded the remaining portion of the partially collapsed condominium, fearing that it was unstable and could come down in the face of high winds from an advancing tropical storm.It took a matter of seconds for the remaining structure to fall after the demolition was triggered around 10:30 p.m. local time. A cloud of dust and debris rose and lingered in the sky for a few minutes afterward.Levine Cava said the implosion went exactly as expected and that search crews, who had suspended their work Saturday, had been cleared to resume working at the collapse site.“I feel relief because this building was unstable. The building was hampering our search efforts,” she said. “We were stuck that we couldn’t get to a certain part of the pile. I’ve heard them say that they think there are voids in this area, areas where they’ll be able to search.”Local officials had warned people in the area surrounding the building to stay inside and keep their windows closed. Extra efforts were made to cover the original collapse site to make sure new debris did not interfere with search-and-rescue efforts there.The 12-story condominium building in Surfside, Florida, north of Miami, partially collapsed without warning early on June 24.Officials are watching the approach of Tropical Storm Elsa.Forecasters at the U.S. National Hurricane Center said they expect the center of the storm to pass near or over the west coast of Florida on Tuesday and Wednesday. That track would spare Surfside from a direct hit, but forecasters still expect the region to experience strong winds with gusts of at least 65 kilometers per hour.
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140 Students Abducted in Northwestern Nigeria
Armed kidnappers have taken 140 students from their boarding school in northwestern Nigeria, local officials announced Monday. Attackers opened fire on the Bethel Baptist High School in Kaduna state early Monday, abducting most of the 165 pupils boarding there overnight. Student wares lie on a bed after 140 boarding students of Bethel Baptist School were kidnapped by gunmen in Kaduna, northwestern Nigeria, on July 5, 2021.Teachers at the school told reporters they don’t know where the students were taken. Police in Kaduna state said they have rescued 26 people, including one teacher.Monday’s abduction is one of many recent kidnappings, usually for ransom, that have hit schools in northern Nigeria. Late last month, gunmen attacked a school in the northwest state of Kebbi, abducting at least 80 students and teachers.Nigerian authorities have faced increased criticism over the kidnappings, one of the country’s many security challenges including the Boko Haram insurgency in the northeast, and a growing separatist movement in the southeast. Timothy Obiezu contributed to this report.
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